L11 Forensic Psychology 1 Flashcards
Define Forensic Psychology
he application of psychological knowledge (all aspects) and theories to all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems, including the processes and the people
The entire PROCESS from criminal investigation to pre-trial, to the trial and post-trial (prison, treating offenders, risk assessments) and PEOPLE from victims, offenders, police, eyewitnesses, Etc.
Historical Perspectives (4 THEORIES)
Full moons used to ‘cause’ crimes
Theories of crime are as old as crime itself
– Aristotle: “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
– Religious explanations
– Sir Francis Bacon: “Opportunity makes a thief.” It’s a situation they find themselves in
– Philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau emphasised free will, hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure, self-indulgence), and flaws in social contract
Classical School of criminology: FREE WILL, RATIONAL
–Lawbreaking occurs when people, faced with a choice between right and wrong, freely choose wrongly
–Punishment should be proportionate to crime committed. They wanted to reform the harsh punishments that were in place at the time. Stealing a loaf of bread should have a small consequence. It’s more important that we have CERTAIN punishments.
Instead of a tiny chance of getting caught, there is a certain chance of getting caught.
• Positivist School of Criminology
–Emphasises which factors determine criminal behaviour. rather than free will
–Believe punishment should fit the criminal rather than the crime
–Seeks to understand crime through scientific method (they looked for individual differences in why they cause crimes) and analysis of empirical method
- Punishment should fit the criminal rather than the crime
., Positive theorist: • Cesare Lombroso
believed criminals were atavistic human beings
– throw-backs to earlier stages of evolution who were not sufficiently advanced mentally for successful life in the modern world
Positive theorist: • Ernest Hooton
took physical measurements of 14,000 criminals and 3000 civilians
– Burglars: short heads, golden hair, undershot jaws
– Robbers: long wavy hair, high heads, short ears, broad faces
He did research using their scientific methods. However, they were only able to get the unsuccessful criminals who were known to be criminals.
Hooton believed in Eugenic control, and they should motor the breeding of people with these features.
Modern Theories of Crime
• Modern theories of crime are based on Positivism • Four main types of crime theories: 1. Sociological theories 2. Biological theories 3. Psychological theories 4. Social-psychological theories
- Sociological Explanations
• Explain crime as the result of social or cultural forces that are external to any specific individual, that exist prior to any criminal act, and that:
emerge from social class, political, ecological, or physical structures affecting large groups of people
• Individual differences are de-emphasised
Two Types of Sociological Theories
1. Structural Explanations
2. Subcultural Explanations
Structural Explanations
–People have similar interests and motivations, but differ dramatically in opportunities to employ their talents in socially legitimate ways (support, schooling etc)
–Dysfunctional social arrangements and differential opportunity thwart people from legitimate attainment (e.g. refugees would suffer more)
–Discrepancies between aspirations and means create strains that lead to crime
Subcultural Explanations
– Crime originates when various groups of people endorse cultural values that clash with the conventional rules of society e.g. uni students decide to download illegal DVDs
– E.g., gangs enforce unique norms about how to behave
Cons of Sociological Theories
–Crimes are often committed by people who have never been denied opportunities e.g. Wynona Ryder and Lindsay Lohan
–Applies only to certain offences
–Does not explain why some people offend and others do not (people grow up in the same society and suffer but do not commit crimes)
- Biological Theories
• Stress genetic influences, chromosomal abnormalities, biochemical irregularities, or physical (body type) factors as causes of crime
• Most theorists usually also respect social and environmental influences as well
e.g. criminal who lacked frontal lobe
• Two types of biological theories:
- Constitutional theories
2. Genetic theories
Constitutional theories
Sheldon compared 200 delinquent and non-delinquent men and suggested that mesomorph most suited to criminal behaviour
– Sheldon believed that mesomorphs exposed to wrong influences and environment would engage in more aggressive crimes
– Recent data on bullies suggests that physique (in combo with environmental factors) might be related to aggressive behaviour. Learning if you’re scawny, you steel lunch money in primary school and get wacked, you learn crime doesn’t pay. If you are strong, you get away with it and learn crime does pay.
Constitutional theory cons
- Few all-or-none categories oversimplify
- Correlation between physique and behaviour does not mean causation
Genetic theories
– Early studies looked at genealogy, but this method does not tell us what the family transmits
– Adoption studies:
• Men with biological parents who had criminal records were 4x more likely to be criminals than those with noncriminal biological parents and 2x as likely to be criminal as adoptees whose adoptive parents were criminal but whose biological parents were not.
• Adoptees who had both biological and adoptive criminal parents were 14x more likely to be criminal than those with no criminality in background (Cloninger et al., 1982)
Genetic Theories are Unpopular because
- Fear that if we attribute crime even partly to genetic factors, then social and environmental causes will be neglected
- Concern that it will lead to some people being designated genetically “inferior” and this could lead to forced sterilisation, genocide.
- The extent to which any behaviour is inheritable within one group of people cannot explain differences between groups of people (there are many who do not commit crimes)
- It is unclear what exactly is inherited
– 5 possibilities about what is inherited UNDER GENETIC THEORIES OF CRIME
- Constitutional predisposition (share body type of our parents)
- Neuropsychological abnormalities
- Autonomic nervous system differences (underaroused)
- Physiological differences (high in testosterone, high insulin, low serotonin)
- Personality and temperament differences
- Psychological Theories
- Crime results from personality attributes possessed by the potential criminal
- Emphasize individual differences about the way people think or feel about behaviour
Types of psychological theories
- Psychoanalytic Theories
- Personality Traits
- Personality Disorder
Psychoanalytic theories (Freud)
- A weak ego and superego that cannot restrain the anti-social instincts of the id (people more likely to commit sex crimes, crimes of passion, murder, violent crimes, but doesn’t explain other types of crimes)
- A means of obtaining substitute gratification (sublimation) of basic needs that have not been satisfied (mother restricted behaviour, so grow up to commit crimes against women)
- Thanatos, the desire of animate matter to return to the inanimate, (death wish) leads to dangerous or self-destructive behaviours or may result as in unconscious efforts to get caught (but when you talk to criminals, they want to not get caught)
The most commonly blamed factor is inadequate identification by a child with his or her parents
– Theories are no longer favoured in modern criminology because research doesn’t support
Personality Traits THEORY OF CRIME
- Eysenck believed that there are three major, largely unrelated, components of personality
- Extraversion: (underaroused and seek stimulation) active, assertive, creative, carefree, lively, sensation-seeking, venturesome
- Neuroticism: (over-reactive autonomic nervous system, so have strong reactions to things, get angry easily) anxious, depressed, emotional, guilt feelings, irrational, low self-esteem, moody, shy, tense
- Psychoticism: aggressive, antisocial, cold, creative, egocentric, impersonal, impulsive, tough-minded, lacking empathy
- According to Eysenck, criminals show higher levels of all of these traits
Personality Disorder Theories
Antisocial Personality Disorder
“Pattern of disregard for and violation of others’ rights, occurring since age 15” (DSM-V) – Focuses on the behaviours
Psychopathy: Focuses on the CU traits
May engage in frequent criminal activity for which they feel little or no remorse
Psychopaths account for a small percentage of law violators (10-25%), but they commit a disproportionately large percentage of violent crimes
Cons
Focus too much on individual and not enough on external factors in society
Social-Psychological Theories
• Bridges gap between environmentalism of sociology and individualism of psychological or biological theories
• Crime is learned, but theories differ on what and how it is learned
3 types of social-psychological theories
1. Control theories
2. Learning theories
3. Social-labelling
Control theory
– People will behave antisocially unless they learn, through a combination of inner controls and external constraints on behaviour, not to offend. E,g, seeing police on the streets prevents crime.
– It is largely external containment (e.g., social pressure and institutionalised rules) that controls crime, but if these controls weaken, control of crime must depend on internal restraints
Learning Theory
People directly acquire specific criminal behaviours through different forms of learning
−Operant learning: a person behaves criminally when such behaviour is favoured by reinforcement that outweighs punishment
−Social learning theory: behaviour is learned by observation through modelling e.g. Bandura’s study where children mimic parents in beating up a bobo doll
Social-labelling
−Deviance is created by the labels that society assigns to certain acts
−Stigma of being branded a deviant can create a self-fulfilling prophecy (a prediction that comes true because it has been made).
E.g., Ashanti people of Western Africa (Jahoda, 1954) - these people were called different names depending on what day they were born. People born on Mondays were given a certain name and seen to be passive, and people on Wednesdays were aggressive. In police records, Wednesday people were higher offenders.
E.g., Juvenile Delinquent Study (Meichenbaum et al, 1969) - labelling six girls in as late developers made teachers treat them differently and they became excellent students
Little research due to ethical considerations
Which is best theory of crime?
• No theory can explain all types of crime
