Quiz 2 - Chapter 3 Flashcards
How do people learn antisocial attitudes and behaviours or develop antisocial personalities in response to their environment?
Lack of parental supervision, pro-criminal role models, positive reinforcement from peers
Psychodynamic theories of crime
Crime results from inadequate control over internal aggressive and sexual impulses
Example of psychodynamic theory of crime
Homicide is not “a clearly defined impulse to kill” but the result of a killer being “intensely tormented” by conflicts rooted in childhood trauma, which they repress and then project/release
Learning theories
Crime results from learning responses through direct environmental influence (e.g., punishments, rewards)
Give two examples of famous cases where crime resulted from issues during psychosexual development
Norman Bates from Psycho
Ed Kemper
Freud and antisocial behaviour
Humans are inherently antisocial
Experiences (especially during early childhood) promote or prevent the ego and superego’s ability to control the id’s pleasure-seeking and destructive impulses
Freud’s three components of the theory of personality structure
Id, ego, superego
Id
Seeks immediate gratification regardless of consequences
Pleasure principle (sexual and aggressive)
Present at birth
Ego
Mediates between id’s primal needs and societal expectations (e.g., by delaying gratification)
Balances id and superego
Operates on reality principle
Develops throughout childhood
Sublimation
Example
Channel sexual and aggressive impulses into work
How civilization developed
E.g., da Vinci and repressed homosexuality
Superego
Internalization of societal expectations, as conveyed primarily by parents
Regulates behaviour according to moraliy
Conscience
Tells us right from wrong
Ego-ideal
Represents socially accepted standards we aspire to
What three variants of the superego can result when we fail to identify with prosocial parental figures
Harsh superego
Weak superego
Deviant superego
Harsh superego
Neurotic criminal who subconsciously punishes oneself to resolve guilt
Parents who were too strict and unloving, subconsciously want to be caught
Weak superego
Psychopathic criminal without conscience who can’t regulate id’s impulses
Egocentric, impulsive, don’t feel guilt/shame or empathy
Deviant superego
Deviant identification with criminal parents
View them as good role models
Unravelling Juvenile Delinquency by Glueck & Glueck (1950)
500 justice-involved and 500 non-justice-involved boys in Massachussetts
Attributed differences to parenting factors
Juvenile delinquency study findings on parenting factors
Parents of justice-involved boys had more emotional disturbances, cognitive impairment, alcoholism, and criminality,
Were less educated, less likely to stay together, and less ambitious
Showed greater carelessness in the supervision of their children and often appeared neglectful
Families lacked cohesiveness and warm and respect for integrity of members
Children were less affectionately attached to parents, especially their fathers
Broad views on juvenile delinquency study
Findings were questioned
Overgeneralizations (e.g., can’t use findings to “predict” criminality)
Assumptions about causal ordering
What facts refute the juvenile delinquency study?
50% of maltreated children do not become antisocial or criminal
Criminality can reinforce delinquent personality traits
Social control theory
Social controls prevent criminality
Delinquency results from weakened or broken bonds to society
4 aspects of social control theory
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
Attachment
What kind of ego does this relate to?
Interest in others (e.g., parents, friends, teachers)
People don’t commit crimes because they value their attachment to others
Ego-ideal
*Attachment to criminal peers can lead to criminality
Commitment
What kind of ego does this relate to?
Time and energy invested in conventional behaviour (e.g., education)
People don’t commit crimes because they don’t want to jeopardize such investments
Ego-ideal
Involvement
Time and energy used up on conventional behaviour (applies to teens especially)
People don’t commit crimes because they don’t have the time or energy left
Belief
What kind of ego does this relate to?
Conviction to the view that people should obey common rules
People don’t commit crimes because they respect moral codes and laws and their purposes
Conscience/superego-ideal
General theory of crime
Lack of self-control in the presence of criminal opportunities is the main determinant of crime
Crimes are “short lived, immediately gratifying, easy, simple, and exciting” and therefore appealing to those with low self-control
How does self-control relate to the general theory of crime?
Self-control as determined by parental quality
Low self-control is consistently and universally linked to criminality
Poor parental quality predicts poor self-control but self-control only partially mediates link between parental quality and criminality
Only accounts for 19% of the variance in criminal behaviour
Self-control is malleable and can improve with intervention
Learning
Change in pre-existing behaviour or mental processes that occurs as a result of experience
Learning relation to criminal behaviour
Criminal behaviour is learned through association, rather than prevented or controlled
Classical conditioning
An automatic conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus is learned after the stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned response
Classical conditioning in relation to crime
Sexual arousal and nonconsensual sex
After pornography and sexual arousal are associated
Aversive conditioning in relation to crime
Offender is exposed to an unpleasant stimulus while sexually aroused in response to deviant source
Covert aversive conditioning
Offender pairs imagined aversive consequence with deviant fantasies or behaviour
Example of covert aversive conditioning
Offender listens to a story that contains:
Their preferred deviant stimulus (e.g., nonconsensual sex) with buildup of sexual arousal
An aversive consequence that causes intense disgust, pain, or humiliation (e.g., vomiting, getting caught) (i.e., offender learns to associate the deviant stimulus with the aversive consequence)
Release from the aversive consequence by removing the activity (e.g., while encouraging relaxation) (i.e., offender learns to associate avoidance of deviant activity with feelings of relief)
Overt aversive conditioning
Offender pairs actual aversive consequence with or immediately after the deviant stimulus
Example of overt aversive conditioning
Electric shock or foul odour is paired with scenes depicting nonconsensual sex
What is overt aversive conditioning usually followed by?
Arousal reconditioning to strengthen appropriate arousal (e.g., consensual sex)
Operant conditioning
Voluntary behaviour as determined largely be environmental consequences
How is operant conditioning crucial for criminal justice intervention (4 items)?
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
Positive reinforcement
Introduction of pleasant stimulus increases frequency of behaviour
Negative reinforcement
Removal of aversive stimulus increases frequency of behaviour
Positive punishment
Introduction of unpleasant stimulus decreases frequency of behaviour
Negative punishment
Removal of pleasant stimulus decreases frequency of behaviour
Generally, is reinforcement or punishment better for criminal justice intercention?
Reinforcement
Name 3 factors that effectiveness of operant conditioning depends on
Immediacy
Consistency
Intensity
Immediacy
How soon the consequence occurs
Delayed reinforcement or punishment often targets the wrong behaviour
Immediacy example
Committing crime and onset of jail sentence is usually quite delayed
Consistency
How frequently the consequence occurs
However, intermittent schedules work best for reinforcement
Consistency example
When someone commits a crime and gets caught, they usually have committed it many times before
Intensity
How strong the consequence is
Does punishment tend to be effective or ineffective? Why?
Ineffective, likely because it is often delayed (e.g., long trials in court), inconsistent (e.g., person is only sometimes caught), and lacks intensity (e.g., relatively humane)
According to Jeffrey, why does the decision to commit crimes occur?
Examples?
Because reinforcing stimuli outweigh aversive stimuli
Lack of punishment from parents or legal justice system for stealing
Reward for stealing outweighs fear of punishment or occurs in the absence of disapproval
Eysenck’s biological theory of crime
Crime may be explained by individual differences in nervous system functioning
People differ in their ability to learn conditioned emotional responses
Give example of application of Eysenck’s biological theory of crime
People differ in their responses to parental discipline
Scolding (UCS) a child for
Stealing a cookie (CS) elicits
Discomfort (UCR) such that
The child learns to feel discomfort (CR) about stealing
Second part of Eysenck’s biological theory of crime
Antisocial people show less skin conductance (CR) in response to a tone/noise (CS) after it is repeatedly paired with an electric shock (UCS)
What kind of theory is Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory?
Social learning theory
Give the 9 broad parts to Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
Criminal behaviour is learned
Through interacting with others
Particularly within intimate personal groups
The learning includes: techniques for committing crimes, direction of motives, drives, rationalization, and attitudes (e.g., learning crime is “normal”, fun, and/or rewarding
Direction of “” is learned from defining unfavourable vs favourable legal codes
Excess of definitions are favourable to violating legal codes (e.g., rewards of crime outweigh ideas about values of legal codes)
Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity
The learning involves the same mechanisms as any other learning
Criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, but particularly how a person has learned to weigh them in response to social context (e.g., offenders learn that criminal behaviour is more valuable than following the legal code, even though it isn’t objectively speaking)
In Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory, how are differential associations affected?
How often a person with a group
Length of exposure to definitions
How early in life exposure begins
Prestige/status of group
According to research on the differential association theory, what are two of the most powerful predictors for crime?
Antisocial attitudes and antisocial associates
Why is the differential association theory criticized?
Examples?
For lack of explanations regarding “definitions” for favourable vs. unfavourable violations of the law
Determining frequency, duration, priority, and intensity of definitions is subjective and hard to quantify
Examples of criticisms of differential association theory
What makes breaking a certain law “worth it”?
E.g., to feed their family, to gain membership into a gang for sense of belonging
E.g. what makes a group prestigious/meaningful?
Akers’ social learning theory
Combines DAT ideas with operant conditioning, as well as observational learning and vicarious conditioning
Criminal behaviour is also learned through observing others and vicariously experiencing their consequences
Example of Akers’ social learning theory
Happiness through observing parents’ happiness after stealing
According to Akers’ social learning theory, what are the most important sources of conditioning?
Parents, peers, and the media (e.g., violent video games)
According to Akers’ social learning theory, how is crime primarily learned?
Through group interactions, because it’s been rewarded (operant conditioning) relative to alternative behaviours
And through observing how significant groups define behaviour as “bad” or “good”
What does PIC-R model stand for?
Personal, interpersonal, and community reinforcement model
What kind of framework is the PIC-R model? What kind of perspectives is it influenced by?
Personality and social psychological framework
Influenced by behavioural and cognitive social learning perspectives
What kind of classes of factors are involved in the PIC-R model?
Antecedent factors
Consequence factors
Sociocultural factors
Examples of antecedent factors in the PIC-R model
Learned antisocial attitudes (e.g., through classical and operant conditioning)
Encouragement/support from antisocial associates
A mental health problem like substance misuse and/or antisocial personality disorder
Examples of consequent factors in the PIC-R model
Increased status among peers
Experience of arousal for getting away with crime
A person with ASPD may be motivated by the arousal they experience when getting away with a crime
In the PIC-R model, how do antecedent and consequent factors interact?
They create personal impressions of antisocial vs. prosocial cognitions
Explain how the PIC-R model considers sociocultural factors
E.g., SES
How they influence impressions of costs vs. rewards for antisocial behaviour
Example of how PIC-R model considers sociocultural factors
Someone who grew up in low SES household more likely to learn that stealing is rewarding
