Psychological explanations - Forensic Psychology Flashcards
evidence to support = gender bias
EYSENCK’S THEORY
came from male prisioners + control group were male
cultural bias (H)
EYSENCK’S THEORY
Holanchock
- studied Black + hispanic criminals in America
- found them to be less extroverted than non criminal control
Supporting evidence (F)
EYSENCK’S THEORY
Furnham 1984
- tested subjects using his theory, social skills + anomie test
- results of EYSENCK’S THEORY were most accurate predictors of criminal behaviour
Methodological concerns
EYSENCK’S THEORY
used to self report methods
- unrelaible
- answer depends on mood
- invlaid as particpants can lie – social desirability bias + demand characteristics
Evidence supporting levels (P+H)
LEVELS OF MORAL REASONING
Palmer + Holin 1998
- used a scale of 11 moral dilemma questions
- offender showed less mature moral reasoning than control
better theories out there (G)
LEVELS OF MORAL REASONING
Gibbs 1970
- revised version
- has mature (guided by conscience) + immature ( guided by reward + punishment)
!! post conventional level should be abandoned
Methodology problems
LEVELS OF MORAL REASONING
lacks ecological validity
- giving participants hypothetical dilemmas did not relate to their lives
real life appliactions (C + C)
COGNITIVE DISTORITIONS
Craig + Cartwright 2022
- found sex offnders with low empathy were more likley to use cognitive disortions
** empathy targeted programmes could be used to reframe their thinking
Supporting evidence
- hostile attribution bias (S + Jusyte)
- minimalisation (P + H)
COGNITIVE DISTORITIONS
HAB = Schonenberg + Jusyte 2013
- pictures of ’emotionally ambiguous’ faces to 55 violent offenders and 55 matched control subjects.
- found that the violent offenders were more likely to interpret these ambiguous stimuli as aggressive than the controls were
M = Pollock + Hasmall 1991
- a content analysis of the clinical records of 86 child molesters.
- records often contained attempts to minimise the seriousness of their crimes
**Excuses including denying their actions were sexual (35%) and arguing that the actions were consensual (36%).
Links to Approaches
COGNITIVE DISTORITIONS
Cognitive Approach
- emphasis on dysfunctional though porcesses, faulty information processing + cognitive biases
methodology problems
COGNITIVE DISTORITIONS
- thoughts are subjective and open to interpretation
- using self-report methods is rife with sources of bias
longitudinal study into familial crime (F)
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
Farrington et al (2006)
- south London boys
- found key risk factors: convicted parent, coming from large family, living in poverty, low educational attainment
Links to issues + debates
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
environmental determinism
nurture + nature debate
Supporting evidence (A)
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
Alarid et al 2000
- applied to 1,153 newly-imprisoned criminals and found that it could accurately explain their criminal behaviour
Explanatory power
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
- able to explain why rates of recidivism are so high:
- People who are sent to prison will be surrounded by people who have positive attitudes towards crime and who will have knowledge of the methods involved in crime.
