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Year 3 Criminal Behaviour > Theoretical Perspectives of Criminal Behaviour > Flashcards

Theoretical Perspectives of Criminal Behaviour Flashcards

1
Q

The psychodynamic theory

A
  • Stresses the importance of inner processes and conflicts as determinants of behaviour
  • Outward behaviour arises as a result of tension and conflict between inner forces in response to an external situation
  • Influences by Freud’s theories (Id, Ego and Superego)
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2
Q

What is the Id (psychodynamic theory)

A
  • Primitive part of personality
  • Biologically based, aggressive and sexual drives
  • Pleasure principle ( we seek immediate and total gratification of our desires regardless of other people)
  • Aggression evident when basic needs are frustrated and unmet
  • Basic frustration-aggression hypothesis
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3
Q

What is the Superego (psychodynamic theory)

A
  • Our moral conscience
  • Socially driven aspect of personality
  • Emerges from ego as a result of experience and through identification with authority figures
  • Moral aspect of an individuals personality –> it passes judgements on behaviour
  • 2 subsets: conscience and ego ideal
  • Conscience tells what is right and wrong –> How we should behave
  • Directs the individual into morally and responsible behaviours
  • Internal rewards and punishments (pride and guilt)
  • Ego ideal –> ‘an image of the ideals we should strive for’
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4
Q

What is the Ego (psychodynamic theory)

A
  • Conflict mediator
  • Emerges from id through maturation –> through learning and experiences
  • Helps us to form realistic forms of gratification
  • Operates in accordance with the reality principle and demands of external situation –> reduce tensions but only in the right time, the right place, and in an appropriate manner
  • Master of compromise
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5
Q

How does crime come about from development?(psychodynamic theory)

A
  • Criminal behaviour is the result of abnormal development of the psyche
  • Individual differences in the ability of the Ego to strike a balance with the id, and constraints imposed by the superego
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6
Q

What are the routes to crime?

A

Childhood events associated with problematic development:

  1. Extreme neglect and abuse
    - Neither a strong ego nor a strong superego may be expected to develop
  2. Extreme permissiveness or unconditional warmth and affection
    - A strong ego may develop, but the superego will be weak as parents may have incidentally modelled clear conceptions of right and wrong
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7
Q

Psychodynamic theory routes to crime: The weak ego type

A
  • Less under control of the superego than the id and the immediate environment
  • Behavioural characteristics:
    1. immaturity
    2. Poorly developed social skills
    3. Gullibility
    4. Excessive dependence
  • Criminal behaviour from misreading the external environment
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8
Q

Psychodynamic theory routes to crime: The ‘normal’ antisocial offender

A
  • Unremarkable progression through psychosexual stages
  • Psychological maturity reached –> full-functioning mature adult
  • Mismatch exists between the ego-ideal –> hasn’t developed a good ideal of what is right and wrong
  • Superego is pro-criminal as a result of identification from a criminal parent
  • Ego has incorporated a mastery of criminal skills
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9
Q

Psychodynamic theory routes to crime: The overdeveloped superego (Neurotic)

A
  • An excessively powerful superego as a result of harsh parenting practices
  • Renders a person anxious and guilty much of the time
  • Unconscious desire to be punished?
  • Commit crimes to get caught, or even to punish their parental figures
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10
Q

Psychodynamic theory routes to crime: Weak superego type (underdeveloped)

A
  • Thought to engage in frequent and serious criminal behaviour
  • Lack internal representations of behaviours punished or reinforced by society
  • Behaviour is subject only to the need for immediate gratification (meet demands of id) and demands of the immediate external situation
  • Difficulty understanding consequences or need for gratification outweighs any fears
  • Explains why punishment may not be an effective deterrent?
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11
Q

What are the indicators of the weak superego type (underdeveloped)

A
  • Reckless disregard for rules and procedures
  • Pro-criminal sentiments (no conscience and social conventions)
  • Poor life plan and weak ambition
  • No guilt (conscience)
  • Early appearance and persistence of conduct problems (social convention)
  • Bravado, flirtatiousness and exhibitionism
  • Conflict with authority (early frustrations have not been resolved)
  • Socially aloof or isolated

Similar to the psychopathy mask of sanity

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12
Q

What is differential association theory?

A
  • Understands crime as a construct that is politically defined by those in power
  • Some people behave in accordance with definitions of acceptable behaviour so do not commit crimes
  • Criminals have their own definition of acceptable behaviour and so act outside what the majority define as acceptable
  • Criminal behaviour is learned through association with the ‘wrong’ people
  • The theory does not propose that the learning has to occur through association with criminals, but rather with people who hold definitions favourable towards crime.
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13
Q

How do some people acquire definitions which lead them to a life of crime? (learning perspectives)

A

Outlined in Sutherlands nine propositions to explain criminal behaviour

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14
Q

What are Sutherlands nine propositions to explain criminal behaviour? (1-5)

A
  1. Criminal behaviour is learned
  2. Learning is through association with people
  3. The main part of the learning occurs within close personal groups
  4. The learning includes techniques to execute particular crimes and also specific attitudes, drives, and motives
  5. The direction of the drives and motives is learned through perception of the law as either favourable or unfavourable
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15
Q

What are Sutherlands nine propositions to explain criminal behaviour? (6-9)

A
  1. A person becomes criminal when their definitions favourable to breaking the law outweigh their definitions of non-violation
  2. The learning experiences (differential associations) will vary in frequency, intensity, and importance for each individual
  3. The process of learning criminal behaviour is no different from the learning of any other behaviour
  4. Although criminal behaviour is an expression of needs, and values, crimes cannot be explained in terms of those needs and values
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16
Q

What are the strengths of the differential association theory?

A
  • Attempts to explain why some people break the law with similar learning environments while others do not
    1. Similar learning environments may expose individuals to very different attitudes on crime
    2. Differential associations –> learning experiences will vary in frequency and importance for each individual
  • Juvenile delinquents are more likely than non-delinquents to report having friends who also engage in antisocial activities
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17
Q

What are the weaknesses of the differential association theory (learning theories)?

A
  • Fails to specify the extent to which pro-criminal values must outnumber anti-criminal ones for the individual to become a criminal
  • Why, given similar conditions, does not everyone adopt the same criminal definitions?
  • It does not explain how definitions are acquired in the first place
  • Does not explain the performance and maintenance of criminal behaviour
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18
Q

What is the operant learning theory of criminality? (learning theory)

A
  • Behaviour does not occur at random
  • Environmental cues signal when certain behaviours are likely to be reinforced or punished
  • Determinants of behaviour are to be found outside the person
  • Not inside as suggested by psychodynamic theories
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19
Q

How does operant learning increase crime?

A
  • Criminal behaviour is acquired and maintained by its reinforcing consequences for the offender
  • Criminal behaviour takes place when the behaviour is likely to produce rewarding outcome
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20
Q

What is the differential reinforcement theory?

A
  • Criminal behaviour occurs when a criminal act occurs in an environment in which in the past, the person has been reinforced for behaving in this manner, and that the aversive consequences attached to the same behaviour do not control or prevent the response
  • “The balance of reinforcement and punishment in an individual’s learning history will dictate the presence of absence of criminal behaviour”
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21
Q

What are the positives of the differential reinforcement theory?

A
  • Focus on the individual is important
  • Helps to explain why even with similar environments, there are some people who behave in a criminal manner while others do not
  • Attempts to answer the question of how criminal behaviour is acquired
22
Q

What are the negatives of the differential reinforcement theory?

A
  • Difficulty in explaining private events, such as thoughts and feelings
  • Is there a role of cognition?
23
Q

What is the social learning theory of criminality?

A
  • Behaviour is acquired through reinforcement or punishment
  • Behaviour can also be learned at a cognitive level, through observing the actions of other people
  • Vicarious learning
  • Once learned criminal behaviour may be reinforced or punished by its consequences
  • Criminal behaviour is qualitatively no different from any other kind of behaviour
24
Q

How is the observation process and learning of new behaviours goverened in social learning theory?

A

4 component process:

  1. Attentional - A person observes and attends to the important features of the modelled behaviour
  2. Retention - Person forms a representation of the modelled behaviour in memory
  3. Motor reproduction - Person converts representation in memory to the appropriate behaviour
  4. Motivational - Person considers the modelled behaviour to result in a rewarding outcome, rather than a punishing one
25
Q

Where does observational learning take place according to social learning theory?

A
  • The family
  • Prevalent subculture
  • Cultural symbols such as television
26
Q

Explanations for crime can be found in (social learning theory)

A
  • In behaviour modelled by families
  • Peer groups
  • Television (media influences + aggression)
  • Social icons etc
27
Q

Evidence for social learning theory

Bobo doll (Bandura et al., 1963)

A
  • Demonstrated that young children could acquire aggressive behaviour through observation of adult models
  • Highlighted the possibility that individuals could learn to behave in aggressive ways through observing aggression in the media
  • -> Violent video games
  • -> Movies/TV
28
Q

Evidence for social learning theory

Anderson et al (2010)

A
  • Meta analysis to examine effects of violent video games on aggressive behaviour, empathy, aggressive cognition, and prosocial behaviour
  • “The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal factor for increased aggression and decreased empathy and prosocial behaviour”
29
Q

What are the strengths of the social learning theory?

A
  • Stresses the uniqueness of the individual and conceded that different people may commit the same crimes for different reasons
  • Recognises the role of cognitive factors
30
Q

What are the criticisms of social learning theory?

A
  • Based largely on laboratory studies (artificiality)

- It underplays the role of cognitive processes –> e.g. decision making in criminal behaviour

31
Q

What do cognitive perspective of offending propose that criminal behaviour is caused by?

A
  1. Thinking styles
  2. Decision making processes (rational choice theory)
  3. External attributions of blame (attribution thoery)
32
Q

Cognitive theories of criminal behaviour: Thinking styles

Yochelson and Samenow

A
  • Criminal behaviour is characterised by erroneous thinking patterns
  • Non-criminal behaviour = responsible thinking and action
  • Different types of criminals develop different thinking processes, but to different degrees
  • Due to these errors in thinking, individuals arrive at behavioural strategies that are unacceptable to the majority of people
  • Criminals are characterised by fear, an emotion that underlies much of what a criminal thinks and does
  • Gives rise to a number of compensatory thought patterns or cognitive coping mechanisms
  • This need dominates much of the criminal’s thinking which distinguishes his thinking from that of the general population
33
Q

What do yochleson and samenow’s characteristics of criminal thinking include for their thinking styles theory?

A
  • A fear of humiliation and worthlessness
  • Need for power and control
  • Feelings of fearfulness
  • Perfectionism
  • Lying
  • Poor decision making
  • Lack of trust
  • Failure to assume obligations
  • Super-optimism
  • Fantasies of antisocial behaviour
34
Q

Criticisms of yochleson and samenow’s thinking styles

A
  • Did not compare their criminal group condition with a control
  • Their sample is under representative of offenders generally (gender, age, type of offence)
  • The thinking errors do not constitute a unique ‘criminal personality’ due to them resembling many personality disorders in the DSM
  • Does not offer an explanation for why certain choices are made
35
Q

Cognitive theories of criminal behaviour: Rational Choice Theory

Clark (1987)

A

Assumes that:

  1. Criminals seek to benefit from the crime they commit
  2. Their decision to commit. a crime is based on whether the benefits outweigh the potential costs. (self-benefit) rather than the moral implications of committing the crime
  3. The decision making process is constrained by the time available, the information processes, and the offenders cognitive ability.

Offenders are rational decision makers

36
Q

Evidence for rational choice theory

Bennett and Wright (1984)

A

Interviewed convicted burglars about. their decisions to break into particular properties

Decisions were based on:

  1. Risk
  2. Reward
  3. Ease of entry
37
Q

Evidence for rational choice theory

A

Clark and Harris (1992)

  • Car thieves are selective in their choice of targets
  • Choice of car depends on purpose of the theft

Maher (1996)
- Sex-trade workers rationally choose whom to solicit, whom to engage with and what risks they are willing to take

Wright and Rosi (1983)
- People are targeted who appear vulnerable, without the means to protect themselves

38
Q

Contradictions to rational choice theory

A

Cromwell et al (2003)
- 20% of offenders gave explanations directly implicating their feelings (e.g. stress, thrill, impulsivity) as the primary motivation behind their offending

De Haan et al (2003)
- Release of tension and emotions reported as equally important motivations as the need for money

39
Q

How do criminals reach a decision according to Ross and Fabiano (1985)

A

Offenders differ to non-offenders by being:

  1. Less likely to think without acting
  2. Less able to identify potential problems when people interact
  3. Lacked imagination in that they were less able to generate alternative solutions
  4. Less likely to consider the potential consequences of alternative actions
  5. Were unable to see cause and effect in behaviour in oneself and others, often seeing themselves as a victim.
40
Q

Cognitive theories of criminal behaviour: Attribution theory

A
  • Attribution = process by which an individual attempts to construct casual explanations of own and others behaviour
  • Internal (dispositional) or external factors (social and environmental)
  • People generally attribute their own undesirable behaviour to external factors, and undesirable behaviour of others to internal factors
41
Q

How do we measure the way in which offenders attribute blame for their crimes (attribution theory)

Gudjonsson (1984)

A

Blame Attribution Scale (BAI)

3 core attributional styles:

  1. External –> blaming crime on social circumstances, the victims or society as a whole
    e. g. “I would have not committed the crime(s) if I had not been seriously provoked by the victim”
  2. Mental element –> blaming the crime on mental illness of lack of self control
    e. g. “I would certainly have not committed the crime(s) I did, if I had been mentally well
  3. Guilt feeling –> characterised by feelings of regret or remorse for committing the crime
    e. g. “I hate myself for the crime I committed”
42
Q

Biological explanations of criminal behaviour: Phrenology

A
  • Development and shape of the brain
  • Any dominant organ (i.e. brain) would cause. protrusions on the skull that could be felt
  • 3 major regions related to intellectual, moral and animal faculties
  • Argued that regions were overdeveloped in offenders and could be used to explain criminal behaviour
43
Q

What is a ‘born criminal’ (Biological approach)

Lombroso (1911)

A
  • Reappearance of primitive characteristics in criminals
  • Criminals have a biological makeup that differs from non-offenders
  • Enormous jaws, high cheekbones, handle-shaped ears
  • Insensibility to pain, acute eyesight, lots of tattoos, excessing idleness, and a craving for evil were also recognised as precursors to crime
44
Q

Biological explanations of criminal behaviour: Somatotypes theory

Sheldon (1971)

A

Endomorph - ‘roundness’, relaxed and sociable with a love for physical comfort, food and affection
Mesomorph - ‘bone and muscle’, active, assertive, desire physical activity
Ectomorph - ‘stretched out quality’, restrained, very excitable or nervous

45
Q

Criticisms of Somatotypes theory

A
  • Many people cannot be classified into a single body type/component
  • ‘Somatotype Matrix’ –> each of the three primary components was ascribed a number ranging from one (low) to seven (high) –> e.g. 1-7-1 (low endomorph, high mesomorph, low ectomorph)
  • Gleuck and Gleuck (1968, 1970) found that delinquents were more likely to have a mesomorph body type (60%) than a non-mesomorph type (40%)
46
Q

Biological explanations of criminal behaviour: Chromosomal abnormalities

A
  • Men have XY chromosomes and females have XX
  • 1 in every 1000 male births has a 47 XYY chromosomes
  • These births tend to develop more muscle
  • Also tend to develop learning disabilities easier
  • Early studies found that XYY males were over-represented in prison populations (e.g. Jones, 2006)
  • The men were often involved in non-violent crime
  • Early studies flawed; only tested prison populations, poor karyotyping, poor measures of aggression and violence
47
Q

Investigation of XYY chromosomal abnormality

Stocholm et al. (2012)

A
  • Crime rates of men with an extra chromosome
  • N=47 XXY (Klinefelter’s syndrome - KS)
  • N=47 XYY
  • Control group
  • Men with a chromosomal abnormality were more frequently convicted for sexual abuse, burglary, and arson, but a decreased risk of traffic and drug-related offenses
  • But risk of conviction was similar across the three groups when adjusting for socioeconomic parameters
  • SO –> weak link between genetic mutations and criminality
48
Q

Biological explanation studies: Adoption studies

A
  • A number of well-executed adoption studies have been conducted where they compare the childs criminal history to that of the adoptive and biological parents
  • Mednick et al (1984), Baker et al (1989), Bohman et al (1982), Sigvardsson et al (1982), Cadoret et. al (1983, 1985, 1987)
  • The above studies agree that there is some genetic predisposition to crime
  • Most have demonstrated a moderate relationship between heredity and criminal behaviour
48
Q

Biological explanation studies: Adoption studies

A
  • A number of well-executed adoption studies have been conducted where they compare the childs criminal history to that of the adoptive and biological parents
  • Mednick et al (1984), Baker et al (1989), Bohman et al (1982), Sigvardsson et al (1982), Cadoret et. al (1983, 1985, 1987)
  • The above studies agree that there is some genetic predisposition to crime
  • Most have demonstrated a moderate relationship between heredity and criminal behaviour
49
Q

Biological explanations of criminal behaviour: Familial explanations

A
  • Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development
  • Prospective longitudinal study of 411 south london boys from age 8 to 50
  • Analyses from 1996 showed that a convicted father, mother, brother or sister predicted a boy’s own criminal convictions
  • 63% of boys with convicted fathers were themselves convicted compared to 30% of boys with an un-convicted father
  • Convicted mothers were less strongly related to boys convictions (OR=2.8) than were convicted fathers
  • Convicted older brother(OR=4.3) were more strongly related than were convicted younger brothers (OR=3.4) –> slightly weaker for sisters
  • Results suggest a strong concentration of offending in families

Year 3 Criminal Behaviour (4 decks)

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