Midterm 1 revision Flashcards
What is the difference between an LCP and an AL offender? Identify and describe the associated outcomes.
An LCP offender is a life course persistent offender, they commit more serious crimes throughout their life. Starting in early childhood and progressively getting worse
Adolescent-limited offenders commit crimes throughout their teen years and the crimes are seen as more normative for the age group. Like theft, substance use (drugs/alcohol). These offenders typically desist around 17yrs old.
Describe the process of operant conditioning and give an example of how criminal behaviour is acquired.
Operant conditioning is where reinforcement or punishment increases or decreases the likelihood of someone repeating a behaviour. There’s positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Positive is when you give something, whether it is a reward or a punishment. Negative is when you take something away whether it was something negative or positive.
Non-social reinforcement is when a response following a crime reinforces it - for example with theft attaining the specific material would reinforce the behaviour
Differential reinforcement - the people we surround ourselves with can either reinforce or punish criminal behaviour - Henry Hill is a good example.
Summarize Bandura’s Bobo-Doll experiment. Why is this experiment important to understanding aggressive or violent behavior?
To study modelling - children from a Stanford university nursery were taking one at a time into a room where they would colour, in another room that they could see into they would watch an adult enter a room and play. The adult would either be violent (verbally and physically) towards Bobo the Doll or completely ignore him. The children that observed the aggressive behaviour also exhibited aggressive behaviour towards the doll, significantly more than the children who didn’t
How does social learning theory work with reinforcement in explaining criminal behaviour?
Discuss how the frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, and the limbic system contribute to criminal behaviour.
Patterns Developmental Theory
Patterson’s Coercion Theory
*Parent-child interactions
*Eary socialization
*Family environments
Parent and child always at odds/trying to compete or one up each other. The timing of events is very crucial. Parenting is very important, whether the parent is good at supervising, monitoring, and have consistent discipline. Antisocial behaviour can become functional with poor parenting leading to worse behaviour at they age. 2 pathways - Early onset and late onset.
Moffits Developmental Theory
Focuses on two pathways life-course persistent offenders and adolescent-limited offenders.
LCP - minority; starts early (>10); gets progressively more severe; starts with difficult temperament as infants
AL - Majority; starts in adolescents (10<); seen as normative offences (theft; vandalism; substance abuse); desist because of a shift in reinforcement contigencies as well as taking on an adult role (responsibilities; parenthood; work; university)
Sampson and Laubs Developmental Theory
*People can change
*Individuals desist from defiant behaviour when facing informal social controls (parenthood; marriage; job) which are age-graded (depending on what age they happen will say how much they will effect individual)
-New situations “knife off” offenders from scenarios that are conducive to crime
-New sources of support and supervision are introduced
-Structure or routine are changed or introduced
-The opportunity to redefine oneself becomes available
Identify and explain one characteristic of the viewer, and one characteristic of the violent content thought to influence the magnitude of violent media effects on children’s aggressive behaviour.
What are coercive family interactions? According to Patterson, how do they contribute to persistent criminal behaviour across the lifespan?
Coercive family interactions are when one individual (parent/child)
Identify and describe the two major symptoms of frontal lobe dysfunction. Provide an example of each. Identify and describe the ways in which these major symptoms may contribute to violence.
