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Fall 2021: Psychology of Criminal Behaviour > Theories of offending > Flashcards

Theories of offending Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 5 over-arching explanation of behaviour?

A 
Moralism
Positivism
Biological Determinism 
Psychological Determinism 
Social Determinism
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2
Q

Explain moralism and its cure.

A

Behaviour is controlled by a superior being (the person is evil, possessed)
The cure is trepanning (exorcism)

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3
Q

Explain positivism and its cure.

A

Free will, chose what we do

Punishment, remove pleasure from the crim

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4
Q

Explain Biological determinism and its cure.

A

Born bad

No cure

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5
Q

Explain psychological determinism and its cure.

A

Childhood issues, personality, traits support criminality

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6
Q

Explain social determinism and its cure.

A

society made me do it. crime is a result of social factors

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7
Q

Physiological Theories:
What is its main point?
Who is Cesare Lombroso and what was his theory?

A

can we identify a criminal by their appearance.

Cesare Lombroso: challenged that idea saying crime is inherited.

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8
Q

As of Cesare Lombroso, what are the 3 types of criminals?Physiological Theories:

A

Born criminal: born bad, primitive crime
Insane Criminal: the trauma of birth
Criminal of passion: impulse/rage, not premeditated

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9
Q

Cesare Lombroso focused on people born criminals. What is his theory?Physiological Theories:

A

atavistic features: distinct characteristics, failed to evolve, primitive brain.
18 traits make people ticking bombs
principle markers: strong jaw, heavy brow.

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10
Q

What are the issues with Cesare Lombroso?Physiological Theories:

A

Crime is a social construct.
What is being inherited? BEhaviour is complex, so one thing simple like that can’t explain crime.
Also, he had no control group, so what if curly hair are just common.

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11
Q

Physiological Theories:
Sheldon’s theory of somatotype (1949)
Explain the body types.
Explain why one body type is more likely to commit a crime.

A

Criminality is linked to body type.
Ectomorph: thin and fragile. Shy, smart and restrained
Endomorph: Round and soft, relax, people-pleasing
Mesomorph: Muscular and hard, energetic aggressive and impulsive. More likely to commit crime because of more testosterone, people react strangely to mesomorph, also stereotypes in the justice system. The body causes it or result of the body.

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12
Q

Biological theories of offending:

What is its main point? What does modern behavioural genetic have to do with it?

A

Is there a specific gene for the crime?

Say that biology is more advanced than one single gene.

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13
Q

What is the difference between biology theories and physiological theories?

A

Biological focus on the nervous system.

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14
Q

Why does biology theory focuses on the nervous system?

A

Nervous system determines and carries out behaviour to the brain, spinal cord and network of neurons.
Thus, the organization of our nervous system depends on our genetic heritage.

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15
Q

Assumptions in biological theories:
specific behaviour is affected by many ____, which means behaviour is ______ influenced.
Genes must interact with the _______, because they can develop many ways but can only be expressed through ______ triggers.
There is no assumption that crime results from a _______ gene.

A 
genes
polygenetically 
environment 
environmental 
defective
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16
Q

What are the different areas of research in biological theories?

A

from genetics to brain chemistry
comparing genetic makeups of criminals and non-criminals
how do genes express themselves in terms of neurotransmitters (or hormones).
How do the brain function in criminal vs. non-criminals.

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17
Q

Explain the nature v. nurture debate in the biological theory.

A

did parents pass on their genes or did they just teach skills and values that made their kids more likely of being criminals?

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18
Q

What did the pet scan found in impulsive killer?

A

dysfunction prefrontal cortex.

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19
Q

What can cause problems in brain chemistry?

A

Issue is that brain chemistry can be caused by many things. Diet, pollution, hypoglycemia, steroid.

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20
Q

What is bio-criminology?

A

Uses genetic and neurophysiological variables to explain criminal behaviour.

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21
Q

What is the XYY chromosome theory?

A

1/1000 males have XYY chromosomes and are more violent.

correlation is found.

22
Q

Study with one specific gene MAOA gene on the X chromosome? What are the impacts of high and low MAOA?

A

Low means that it is not breaking down neurotransmitters thus are more likely to be aggressive and commit a crime. Symptoms come up if they were maltreated during childhood

23
Q

Biological theory:
psychophysiology and crime is a theory that uses _____ to explain ______ constructs such as ______, ____, _____, etc.
Give an example of way we do that? How does this affect people with anti-social behaviour?

A

physiology
psychological
heart rate, skin conductance, emotions, motivation, learning, lying.
Polygraph test: people who engage in anti-social behaviour tend to have lower heart rates, EDA and lower autonomic arousal.

24
Q

Fearlessness theory of biology:

Stimulation Seeking Theory:

A

Don’t experience much fear because of too much stress.

A chronic state of low arousal - try to do something to feel something.

25
Q

Psychodynamic theories:

What is the main point of this theory?

A

Is crime in the unconscious.

26
Q

A Freudian tradition that crime is a result of …

A

abnormal development of the psyche.

27
Q

Weak Superego:

A

The superego functions but can’t hear it.

psychopathic personality - ego centric, impulsive, guitless. Satisfies the id.

28
Q

Deviant Superego:

A

Absence of guilt - social norms are internalized are deviant.
Raised by criminal parents.

29
Q

Strong Superego:

A

Always guilty about everything.
commits crime to be punished or repress it until explods all of the murder or sexual assault.
Neurotic criminal

30
Q

Weak Ego:

A

Less researched

lack of confidence, requires reassurance, immature lack social skills.

31
Q

What is the assumption of Freudian tradition: Humans are inherently _______, driven by pleasure seeking and destructive ______. Crime happens when …

A

anti-social
impulse
those impulses are not adequatly controlled.

32
Q

What is the theory of Bowlby’s affectionless psycopath?

A

Theory of maternal deprivation. First few years of life didn’t receive enough love, hard time forming stable relationships.
Increases delinquency, aggression, depression, and diminishes intelligence.

33
Q

Describe the stereotype of the affectionless psychopath in Bowlby’s theory:

A

Antisocial behaviours, lack of empathy, failure to consider consequences.

34
Q

Why dont we still use Bowlby’s theory of the affectionless psychopath today?

A

Bad recruitments of subject
untestable
doesn’t predict behaviour

35
Q

Learning theories:
Criminal behaviour is …
change in the ______ and the ______ behaviour happen as a result of ______.

A

like any other behaviour and he learnt the same way.
mental processes behaviour
experience

36
Q

Bio-social theory of crime: Eyensenck (1977)
Differences in the nervous system affect how _____ one is.
Morality is learnt through ________. Anti-social tendencies and psychopaths show reduced _______.

A

conditionable
classical conditioning
conditionability

37
Q

What is aversive conversion:

A

USe other behaviours to replace sexual attraction in sexual deviancy with something else

38
Q

Give examples of how our criminal system uses bio-social theory of crime:

A

Good: reward
Bad: fine or sentence.

39
Q

What are the things that would be necessary to make operant conditioning in our justice system more efficient (3)

A

Immediacy: As soon as crime happens
Consistency: everytime crime happens
Intensity: strong the consequence

40
Q

Explain the differential association learning theory from sutherland:

A

2 requesites for someone to develop into a criminal:
- Learn values and attitudes
(learn more anti-social than pro-social)
- Learn specific behaviour for committing crime
(crime someone commits depends on crime they saw happening).

41
Q

What is the learning theory’s stance on the nature vs nurture debate?

A

No born a criminal.

42
Q

Personality theories:

What is its main point?

A

crime is inevitable because it is who you are.

you have relatively stable characteristics of a person that makes their behaviour consistent across situations.

43
Q

What are the 3 things that make up personality?

A

Essence: nature, way we see the world
uniqueness: personality makes us unique
Relatively enduring: stable over time.

44
Q

Explain the trait theory personality:

How do they do the assessment?

A

we all have the same traits, we are just placed on different places on the spectrum.
USe self report questionnaires (psychometric tests).

45
Q

What are the 3 dimentions of Eysenck’s trait theory? What influences where someone falls on the spectrum?
Where do you need to fall on the spectrum to be more likely to be a criminal and why?

A 
psychoticism: 
extraversion
neuroticism
nervous system
High on all 3 - because harder to conditions and less likely to learn appropriate response.
46
Q

Extrovert:

A

sociable, crave change, active, lively

47
Q

Neuroticism:

A

High means unstable, anxious, worrying, overall emotional.

48
Q

Psychoticism:

A

High means cruel, egocentric, impersonal.

High testosterone and low MAOA

49
Q

Explain why some studies have shown that high E is not necessarily involved in crime?

A

Perhaps extroversion is impulsiveness and sociability. Criminality is only linked to impulsiveness.

50
Q

What are the downsides of Eyenseck trait theory?

A

Doesnt tell us why we do crime

some research states that personality isn’t always stable.

51
Q

How does Eyenseck trait theory help us in the prevention of crime?

A

If nervous system gives rise to personality - can study that to establish intervention programs.

Fall 2021: Psychology of Criminal Behaviour (11 decks)

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