Summary Flashcards
List 3 ways of measuring crime
Official statistics
Victim surveys
Offender surveys
List problems with defining crime
Definitions of crime differ across cultures (e.g. homosexuality)
Definitions of crime change over time
What is the top-down approach?
Refers to the analysis of previous crimes which creates a profile of a likely offender. Profilers use this knowledge to narrow the field of possible suspects. This, unlike the bottom-up approach relies on the intuition and beliefs of the profiler.
Describe organised offenders
Crimes committed by an offender who planned the crime and may engage in violent fantasies with the victim. The perpetrator is high in intelligence and socially competent.
What is the bottom-up approach?
Data-driven approach, where statistical techniques are used to produce predictions about the likely characteristics of an offender.
Describe disorganised offenders
Crime scenes left with many clues such as fingerprints. Little evidence of engagement with the victim, there are signs that the offender has both low intelligence and competence.
Define ‘crime’
Any behaviour that is unlawful and therefore justified to be punished by the state. Such acts are harmful to an individual, group or society as a whole.
What is a biological explanation for criminal behaviour?
Biological explanation is the atavistic form which suggests that certain individuals are born with criminal personality and this innate personality is due to our earlier primate forms.
What is geographical profiling?
Form of bottom-up profiling based on the pattern shown by the location of a series of crimes.
What is antisocial personality disorder
Suggests there are neural differences in the brains of criminals and non-criminals. ASD is associated with a lack of empathy and a reduction of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex. This is part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour.
How are mirror neurons implicated in crime?
Help with understanding behaviour, if the mirror system is functioning incorrectly, then individuals may experience a lack of empathy, making it more likely they will commit a crime.
Who devised atavistic form?
Cesare Lombroso
What are epigenetics?
The study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. It refers to the material in each feel that acts as a switch to either activate or deactivate a gene.
What are methods of dealing with offending behaviour?
Custodial sentencing
Behaviour modification
Anger management
Restorative justice
What are issues with restorative justice?
Reliant on the offender showing remorse which may not always happen
May not be cost-effective - mediators are required during meetings and such individuals have to be highly trained, which is expensive.
May not be suitable for all types of offence - for example, offenders who have committed violence against women. Meetings between offender and victim will inevitably have a power imbalance which may not be fair to the victim.
It is seen as being too lenient on the offender.
What are cognitive distortions?
Biased thinking, to the extent that what is perceived by a person is not consistent with reality.
What is extraversion?
According to Eysenck refers to ‘outgoing’ individuals who enjoy risk and danger as their nervous systems are underaroused.
Describe Kohlberg’s moral dilemma study
1973, Kohlberg used a moral dilemma technique that found criminal offenders were at a lower level of moral reasoning - they were at the preconventional level. The preconventional level is characterised by a need to avoid punishment and get rewards, and childlike reasoning. Typically non criminals tend to progress to the conventional level and beyond.
What is hostile attitude bias?
When a person automatically attributes bad intentions to another person
Define neuroticism
According to Eysenck, refers to people with a negative outlook who are easily upset. Their lack of stability is due to an overactive response to threat. (They have an overactive fight or flight response).
