Paper 3 - criminal 1 - what makes a criminal ? Flashcards
1
Q
explain the background study on genetics done by Brunner
A
- focuses on 5 members of a Dutch family who were diagnosed with borderline mental retardation and had previously shown criminal, violent behaviour.
- The same Urine and blood samples were taken from each member and a mutation was identified in the MAOA gene sometimes called the warrior gene as it is associated with violent behaviour.
- Brunner concluded that this gene mutation results in MAOA enzyme deficiency which would be linked to aggressive behaviour.
2
Q
explain the background study on family life by Farrington
A
- they suggested that criminal behaviour is influenced by factors related to family life such as parental criminality or abuse.
- A sample included 411 males in working class London were first from 8 to 48 years old.
- they were asked questions about living circumstances and leisure time.
- unstructured interviews with parents were done by social workers to discover factors like family income, attitudes to discipline separations from their son and adventurous nature (nature and nurture)
- data was collected by their teachers on their aggressive behaviour.
- 40-50% of children with multiple risk factors became violent youth.
- results showed that the most important childhood (age 8-10) risk factors for later offending were measures of family criminality, loss of mother, poverty and poor parenting.
- He concluded that disruption in families can play a very strong role in the development of criminal behaviour especially when the mother is absent.
3
Q
What is the aim of Raines study on murderers
A
- They wanted to research brain dysfunction in violent offenders who committed murdr and plead not guilts by reason of insanity.
4
Q
what is the design of Raine’s study
A
- a quasi experiment as the Iv was murderer or not murderer.
- The Dv was activity in specified brain regions as assessed by the PET scans.
- Matched pairs design
5
Q
what is the sample of Raine’s study for the murderers and the control group
A
- The sample compromised 41 murderers, 39 men and 2 women
- They had all been charged with murder or manslaughter and had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
- To prove their insanity they were sent to univesity of califorua brain imaging centre for examination.
- illnesses included schitzofrenia, head injury, brain damage, drug abuse, epilepsy, mental disorders.
- A control group of people with no history of mental illness was matched to the murderes by age and sex.
- Pps were instructed to be medication free for 2 weeks prior to the brain scanning and was varidied by a urine test
6
Q
what is the procedure of Raine’s study
A
- pps were required fo 32 mins on a continuous performance task that was based arounf target recognition.
- The continuous performance task was deisgned to work the areas of the brain that Raine and his colleagues wanted to study so they could monitor the level of function in each area.
- Pps were able to practise the continuous performance task 10 mins before the tracer injection
- pps started the task 30 seconds before glucose tracer was injected so that the novelty of the task would not be labelled by the tracer
- 32 minutes after the injection a PET scan was carried out on each pp and 10 slices at 10mm intervals were taken of the cortical and subcortical regions of the brain.
7
Q
what were the results for brain differences on Raine’s study
A
- murderers had reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, left angular gyrus, amygdala, corpus callosum and the left hemisphere of the hippocampus.
- Murderers showed higher activity in the right hemisphere
8
Q
what are the conclusions of Raine’s study on murderers
A
- the study provides evidence that murderers pleading insanity have different brain functioning from normal individuals.
- However, neural processes underlying violence are complex and cannot be reduced to a single brain mechanism. Violent behaviour can be best explained by the disruption of brain mechanisms rather than a single stricture
- The result does not show that violent behaviour is determined by biology alone. Social, psychologicall, cultural and situational factors play important roles in likely hood of violence
- the results do not show that brain dysfunction causes violence - violence might cause brain dysfunction
- amygdala damage = violence committed due to no fear
- prefrontal cortex damage = violence commited due to loss of self control
9
Q
evaluate validity in this topic
A
- the research by Raine used a PET scanner which provide detailed images of areas of the body which are highly accurate, this increases internal validity as they are accurately tracing brain activity.
- Research by Farrington used interviews on parents, may lie about the details of their parenting to avoid punishment and judgement. lacks internal validity.
- Brunner’s research has low population validity because he used 5 dutch men.
10
Q
evaluate the reliability in this topic
A
- In raine’s research the PET has a standardised procedure in taking scans. This would suggest high levels of consistency for the brain scans of all pps.
- Brunner’s study used the same urine tests and blood tests, these are repeatable standardised procedures, giving the study external reliability.
- Farrington’s unstructured interviews done with parents were done by different psychiatric workers which means the interviews were not the same for every pps, this shows low internal reliability.
11
Q
evaluate the sampling bias in this topic
A
- in Raine’s research murderers who pleaded not guiltly are not representitive of all murderers.
- Brunner’s research used Dutch males which is not representative of other cultures and genders.
- Farrington’s research used 411 boys which is a large sample, range of ages. However no girls
12
Q
evaluate the ethnocentrism of criminal psychology topic 1
A
1.Brunner’s research is not ethnocentric as genes are universal - all codons in every organism codes for the same amino acid. However family may have culture of violence
2. Farrington’s research used a western approach to family disruption as he used working class from london. non western may be more likely to live in extended family units so have more family to support.
3. Raine’s sudy was ethnocentric because they were all Californian Americans, data can only be applied to an individualist target population because other cultures may have criminals that have different brain activity due to collectivist cultural factors.
13
Q
how does this topic relate to the nature/nurture debate (individual/siutational)
A
- Raine’s study uses a nature argument that the innate characteristics of the murderers such as brain abnormalities like reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex causes their violent crimes. However experience may have caused these abnormalities (nurture).
2.Farrington’s study uses a nurture argument - the childhood environment such as absent parents causes criminal behaviour in later stages of life. - Brunner’s study uses a nature explanation as the biological, un- changeable mutation in the MAOA gene causes criminal behaviour
14
Q
how does this topic relate to the freewill/determinism debate
A
- Raine’s study - biological determinism states that all behaviours are caused by factors out of out control like low activity in the prefrontal cortex causing violent behaviour.
- Bruner’s study - Biological makeup determines criminal behaviour
- Farrington’s research - 40-50% became violent youth. not all children became criminals which shows freewill as people can show self control over their behaviour for example people who grow up in a criminal family do not always become criminals.
15
Q
how does this topic relate to the reductionism/holism debate
A
- Raine’s study - biological reductionism
- Farrington’s research - holist as he tested many family risk factors and ‘adventurous nature’ which is nature and nurture
- Brunner’s research - criminal behaviour is reduced to a mutation in the MAOA gene.
