midterm

Question 1

mala in se:

Answer 1

crimes that we would expect everyone in the world would agree that it’s wrong, across cultures most people would say that but’s wrong doing.

Question 2

mala prohibita

Answer 2

crimes which society has made us think the crime is wrong. Laws change and therefore crimes change as well

Question 3

Moral reasoning theory

Answer 3

how people justify their behavior with respect of social issues. How people think about right and wrong. In their developments, humans need to develop empathy, and this will affect their decisions about wether or not a crime is justified.

Question 4

Social information processing theory

Answer 4

how information in social situations is processed. It explains why some individuals commit criminal behavior looking at the way people think, cognitive distortions and the psychology behind it

Question 5

the 4 types of cognitive distortions

Answer 5

1. Blaming others: it’s a cognitive distortion, example of the nazi soldiers who don’t think they committed a crime because they were told what to do
2. Hostile attribution bias: if your friend is late for a dinner you think they’re the worse person ever but if you are late you blame the action on social factors, it’s never your fault.
3. Minimizing consequences
4. Egocentric bias: emphasis on me than it actually is (example of the pimple in soc)

Question 6

4 main psychological theories relating to victimology

Answer 6

1. victim precipitation theory
2. lifestyle theory
3. deviant place theory
4. routine activity theory

Question 7

Victim precipitation theory

Answer 7

between 25-30% of victims who have been sexually assaulted, have been sexually assaulted in the past. This theory affirms that the victim has some interrelationship with the criminal.

Question 8

Lifestyle theory

Answer 8

people might become victims of crime because of their lifestyle and choices.

Question 9

Deviant place theory

Answer 9

more likely to be a victim of crime in dangerous areas. This theory is less on the individuals and more on where they are located.

Question 10

Routine activity theory

Answer 10

for crime to occur there needs to be three elements: a likely offender, the absence of a capable guardian and a suitable target.

Question 11

Who is Frinklehor

Answer 11

he gave characteristics of children who are more likely to suffer child abuse. A high percentage of children who suffered child abuse has one of these characteristics:

having a stepdad
Lack of bio mom
Low income
Mess than 2 friends
Uneducated mom
Sex-punitive mom
Lack pf physical attention
Not close to mom

Question 12

Risk factors for being a victim of crime

Answer 12

under 25
Global majority (not white)
Low socio-economic groups
Male

Question 13

Eligibility for victim compensation in the USA vs UK:

Answer 13

1. In the USA you have to report a crime in less than 72 hours in order to get financial compensation. In the UK instead, you have up to 2 years to make a claim and it can also be extended.
2. In the UK you are not allowed any financial compensation if you have a criminal record.
   The UK scheme is a tariff scheme: the amount of money that you get depends exactly on the type of crime committed. In order to choose they sue judges.
   Victims can’t be compensated for both physical injuries and mental health issues, so they get rewarded whichever is the highest: usually the mental illness one is the highest.
   In the UK in order to be eligible for money you need a diagnostic criteria.

Question 14

Victim-offender mediation

Answer 14

the aim is to try and improve understanding and reduce crime. It gives the victim a chance to explain what happened to them and it increases empathy in the delinquent. Mediation is when an impartial third-party takes part of the process.

Question 15

Restorative justice

Answer 15

a system of criminal justice which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. It examines the harmful impact of a crime and tries to repair the damage.

Question 16

the 4 developmental theories of offending:

Answer 16

1. Moffitt’s adolescent Limited/Life Course
2. Lahey and Waldman, Developmental Propensity
3. Thornberry and krohn, Interactional theory
4. Sampson and Laub, Age grade theory and informal social control

Question 17

Moffitt’s adolescent Limited/Life Course

Answer 17

Dunedin Longitudinal study. There are two qualitatively different types of offenders: life course persistent (LCP), they are going to offend throughout their whole life, and adolescence limited (AL), offenders are only offenders in adolescence.
For adolescent limited offenders, the main influencing factors are their lack of maturity and their friends. Moffitt thought that group can stop offending because they have less of a neurological problem: people who offend throughout their whole lives are more likely to have mental deficits.
She argues that there are no true adult offenders, she suggests that adults are likely to offend but they don’t get caught. Two psychologists tried to dispute the theory, and they affirmed that only 1/3 of adults caught breaking the law, offended when they were younger.
Her theory is a combination of things that happen to you plus your personality. Moffitt does not make a construct.
Her research eventually lead to restorative justice: those who are labelled as offenders are more likely to keep offending.

Question 18

Lahey and Waldman, Developmental Propensity

Answer 18

Their study is the developmental trends study. They made a construct: they constructed the anti social propensity: they say that what matters is how much anti social propensity you have. They dont look at life events and dont try to explain why people stop committing crimes, for them what matters is how much anti social propensity an individual has.
There are 4 domains: the most important one is low cognitive ability. Then, there are 3 dispositional dimensions (character traits) and they are pro sociality (tendency to think about other people, their concern for others), daring (brave, adventurous, risk taking) and negative emotionality (being upset, especially upset by losses).

Question 19

Thornberry and krohn, Interactional theory

Answer 19

They have made a construct. Their most important study is Rochester youth developmental study. They say that the causes of a child developing criminal behavior/committing crimes vary. The external theories that interact with the child are very important in order to commit crimes. Interactional theory posits that the basic cause of delinquency is a weakening of social controls caused by an attenuation of the per- son’s bond to conventional society
From birth to 6, the most important issue is any neuropsychiatric defects that the baby might have, and parenting deficiency. They talk a lot about reciprocal causation. The next stage that they look at is from 6-11, where the environment and neighborhood they are in are the most important social factors. Finally, from 11-18 what’s most significant is friends and peers.
They also look at inter generational transmission: the genetics.
Triple P: providing support for how people parent.

Question 20

Sampson and Laub, Age grade theory and informal social control

Answer 20

The study most of their research started off form is the Glueck and Glueck 1950 follow up study of male delinquents and non delinquents.
They look at why young people don’t commit crime. They look at the strength of the bonds with family, peers, the importance of labeling and emphasizing that things change over time.
They say that you should’t screen for risk factors in children because people have potentiality to change so much. This is a theoretical construct as well, because bonds are a construct.

Question 21

The four psychological theories of offending:

Answer 21

1. Bowlby’s attachment theory
2. Eysenck’s personality theory
3. Patterson’s social learning theory
4. Walter’s Lifestyle theory
   5(?). Farmington’s integrated cognitive anti-social potential theory

Question 22

Bowlby’s attachment theory

Answer 22

The theory says that if babies don’t make a healthy attachment mainly with the mom, they may develop into individuals who may display criminal behavior. He broke it down into 4 attachment styles: anxious attachment, secure attachment (low anxiety), avoidant attachment and anxious ambivalent attachment. His research was done in 1951 and he looked at adolescents who were already labeled criminals and he found that 40% of them had been separated from their mom from birth.
More recently, the Newcastle 1000 Family study followed some individuals for a long time, and he found out that with divorced parents there was double the risk of their children having a criminal record by the age of 32.

Question 23

Eysenck’s personality theory

Answer 23

Personality is a concept, a construct. It dictates the differences between individuals based on personality traits. There are 3 characteristics of personality traits: consistency (across different situations), stability and individual differences.
The biggest criticism of this personality theory is that it can change, and it oversimplifies a really complicated concept. Their theory is trying to label people’s personalities focusing on criminal behavior: what is the trait that they theorize is most likely to bring criminal behavior. Apparently it’s impulsivity: the more impulsive a person is, the most likely they are to display offensive behavior.

Question 24

Eysenck’s three factor theory

Answer 24

he believed there were three main traits of personality
introversion vs extroversion
Emotionally stable vs unstable (neurotic)
Impulse control vs psychotic

Question 25

Patterson’s social learning theory

Answer 25

He believed that the influence of parenting and how people learn socially is the main issue with criminal behavior. They put a lot of weight on parental consistency and parental authority. Parenting style is very influential on the child: if the parenting is ineffective, this increases the risk of criminal behavior for young people. Poor parenting goes hand in hand with the lack of other resources.
The bobo doll experiment. The two important studies related to this theory are Patterson, Reid and Sushi’s 1992 study and Robins’ 1979 St Louis study.

Question 26

Walter’s Lifestyle theory

Answer 26

The assumption is that a criminal lifestyle is the result of a series of life choices. Conditions, choice and cognition. A criminal pattern of life is a combination of how you think, people who develop criminal behavior do so because of the interaction between external factors in their lifestyle and their cognition. Ultimately, is a behavioral pattern as a result of thinking.
His theory affirms that in order for a crime to happen there needs to be a likely offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian.
He emphasizes low IQ as offenders cognitive traits. If you are exposed to people who think differently than you. This is going to influence how they behave.

Question 27

Farmington’s integrated cognitive anti-social potential theory (ICAP)

Answer 27

It attempts to explain criminal behavior by pulling together all the other theories we looked at.
(TELL THE NAMES OF THE OTHER THEORIES)

Question 28

Engels’ four Ps

Answer 28

protecting,
predisposing,
precipitating (why did he kill someone that day?),
perpetuating (why is this person still depressed? What are the factors that encourage this individuals to continue committing crime?).

Question 29

Decriminalization vs legalization (especially of drugs)

Answer 29

When using drugs is decriminalized, criminal charges are not applied if someone is caught. There are no legal consequences with people in possession. Legalization, instead, admits no penalties for possession and personal use.

Question 30

what is NGRI

Answer 30

not guilty by reason of insanity defense (pleaded not guilty because insane)

Question 31

what is GBMI

Answer 31

guilty but mentally ill (therefore the person pleaded guilty has a sort of alibi/motive)