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.
correlation presented by Bowlby
PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANANTIONS
demonstrates a correlation between maternal deprivation + criminal behaviour
methodological concerns - Bowlby
PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANANTIONS
interview form with subjects
- researcher bias
- own theories + pre conceived ideas may have influenced the questions + interpretations
Freud’s gender bias = false by evidence
PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANANTIONS
- women have weaker superegos than men -> If true, though, this would predict that women commit crimes than men = would be more likely to have an underdeveloped superego.
- Men are (on average) more likely to commit crimes than women
Links to Issues + debates
PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATIONS
FREUD = nomothetic apporach even though it has idiographic approach included (case studies)
FREUD = alpha bias
BOWLBY = deterministic
