Topic 6 Criminal - Content Flashcards
What effects can brain injury have?
- Brain injury in the frontal lobes can lead to aggressive behaviour
What can lead to brain injury?
- Illness
- Long term alcohol/drug use -> has a toxic effect on the central nervous system & interferes with absorption of vitamin B1 (thiamine) & impairs balance & decision making which means it increases likelihood of fall damage.
Consequences of brain injuries ->
- dependent on the brain that has been injured
- personality of an individual may change
What is (TMI) traumatic brain injury caused by?
Trauma to the brain -> car accident, falling or injuring the head.
What are the strengths for Brain Injury?
Williams et al. (2010) -> Longitudinal study
- Found 60% of 196 prisoners they investigated had received some form of TBI due to car accidents, falling & sports activities
- Found those with TBI were younger at entry in prisons than those without brain injury & higher rates of repeat offending (continue to commit the same act)
Raine et al. (1997) -> Found differences in brain structure & function of murderers (pleaded not guilty by reasons of insanity)
- Murderers had less activity on prefrontal cortex, more active on the right side (less activity on prefrontal cortex -> can’t control impulsivity)
What are the weaknesses for Brain Injury?
- Reductionist - other factors might contribute to criminal behaviour
- Comorbidity occurred as many criminals have a history of substance abuse/exposed to violence as a kid
- Too simplistic
- Hard to control all potential extraneous variables
- Lacks internal validity - cause & effect between brain injury & criminal behaviour can’t be established
- there are individual differences in brain injury and differences between individuals in behaviour that is affected.
What is the Amygdala & what happens if damaged?
- Controls human behaviour/emotions
Damage: - unemotional or react excessively
What strengths are there for amygdala?
Pardini et al. (2014) -> using brain scanning techniques comparing a control group (men with normal size amygdala) with men with psychopathic personalities
- found psychopathic men with lower volumes of amygdala -> more aggressive/violent
Cannon & Britton: Shame Rage -> emotional state found in animals
- removed cerebral cortex of cats -> showing rage/aggression (emotional behaviour) -> demonstrated by erect hair, growling & baring of teeth
- called behaviour sham rage as it occurred without cognitive influence, e.g. control of cerebral cortex
Raine study: - murderers less activity in prefrontal cortex -> impulsivity
What weaknesses are there for amygdala?
James Fallon: possible having a smaller amygdala may not cause someone to act in a psychopathic way
- looked at brain scans & identifies those brains that belong to psychopathic individuals
- BUT identified one brain scan as psychopathic -> was his own brain -> he had a smaller amygdala but didn’t show any psychopathic behaviour
Sham Rage study:
- Conducted on animals -> lacking generalisability to humans
BUT -> Narabayashi et al. (1963) removed amygdala from aggressive patients -> had a mood-stabilising effect
Robert Hare: his book Snakes in suits -> psychopaths not only found in the criminal population
- Psychopathic traits: need for stimulation & lack of fear engages psychopaths in skydiving - lack of empathy -> suitable in high lvl management positions/jobs
What does The Hypothalamus do?
- Involved in homeostasis which regulates hormones
- Leads to increased aggression in males via testosterone as elevated lvls of testosterone are associted with higher lvls of aggression
- Regulates neurotransmitter which are the chemicals that trigger a response in the brain
- Seretonin - body’s natural happy chemical -> low lvls increases aggression
- Dopamine - plays a key role in the brain reward system -> increased lvls associated with increased aggression
What does The Prefrontal Cortex do?
- Controls Impulsivity -> damage can cause increased impulsivity as person cannot suppress or control thoughts -> leads to AGGRESSION
- Controls problems solving & decision making
- DAMAGE to this area means less able to make effective decisions & think of effective solutions
What’s the XYY syndrome?
XYY Syndrome = Chromosomal activity
- Males = X & Y Chromosomes
- Females = 2X Chromosomes
- XXY Syndrome means a male has an extra (Y) chromosome at birth -> (given by the father) -> 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46 (23 pairs)
- more aggressive & lack empathy
- taller than normal
- reduced intelligence -> study: witkin et al (1976) found lower intelligence compared to XY males
- development issues
EXAM Q——
- Describe XYY syndrome as an explanation of crime and anti-social behavior. (4)
1 in 1000 males are born with an extra Y chromosome so they have 47 chromosomes (1). This leads to the males being slightly taller than their siblings, and having a slightly lower intelligence than their siblings (1). XYY can also lead to the males being more
impulsive, and having behavioural problems (1). Some XYY males are also more physically active, all of these can lead to anti-social behaviour (1).
What’s the study for XYY syndrome?
Theilgaard -> small presence of XYY among criminal population
- Suggests it cannot be the only reason for criminal behaviour among men -> other factors contribute to male criminality
- women engage in criminal behaviour but don’t have Y chromosomes-> XYY fails to take in account for criminal behaviour among women
Twin studies: MZ share all genes while DZ share 50% - if MZ twins are more alike in aggressive behaviour than DZ -> aggression likely to be due to genes than env
Slutske -> higher conduct disorder in twins than singletons
Adoption studies: change in env -> same behaviour - if this happens, behaviour is due to genetics
Hutchings & Mednick -> 85.7% of males with criminal offences had a criminal father 31.1% -> link between criminal behaviour & genetics
What are the 4 main Personality types? (PEN personality)
Extraversion (E): Outgoing, sociable & active behaviour Introversion (I): Reserved & Reflective Neuroticism (N): Emotional Instability associated with anxiety, fear, depression & envy Stability (S): Emotionally calm, unreactive & unworried Psychoticism (P): Lack empathy, aggressive impersonal & cold
What’s the arousal theory, who proposed it & how does this link to personality types?
Eysenck (1990)
- Individuals are motivated to act in a way to maintain a certain level of physiological arousal.
- When arousal lvls drop below our personal optimal lvl -> we engage in stimulating behaviour to increase arousal
———-
Ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) -> system transmits messages to limbic system, triggering hormones & neurotransmitters
- activity in ARAS stimulates cerebral cortex -> higher cortical arousal
- Introverts -> higher cortical arousal -> less outgoing & risk-taking
- Extroverts -> less cortical arousal -> require greater external stimulation
- Neuroticism -> in hippocampus, amygdala & hypothalamus -> fear & aggression is regulated, responsible for fight or flight response. Have greater activation lvls & lower thresholds in limbic system. They’re easily upset of minor stresses
- Stability -> calm under stresses -> low activation levels & higher thresholds
Eysenck believed that a criminal personality displayed the following 3 personality dimensions, what are they?
- High P scores are aggressive, antisocial, cold & egocentric
- High E scores are sociable, active lively & sensation-seeking -> need more simulation from their env
- High N scores are anxious, depressed & react very strongly to aversive stimuli & have high instability
What’s the linkage between anger management & offending & give a study as evidence?
Anger management assumes that an offender’s inability to control anger -> causes offending
Study:
Novaco (1975) -> offenders likely to see situations as threatening -> leads to aggression & irrational thinking
What type of distorted thinking do criminals show in situations?
- blaming their victim or another external source
- justifying their offender
- misinterpreting social cues as potential threats
- feelings of self-dominance & personal entitlement; being angry within the situation brings them feeling of control
What’s Cognitive Behavioural Technique? (CBT) - for anger management
3 phases:
Cognitive Preparation: working with a trained therapist
- offender reflects on situations that have triggered their anger in the past & considers whether they could have acted differently
- so, events in the past that may have been threatening -> can be perceived more rationally
Skill acquisition:
- offender taught behavioural techniques to cope more effectively with anger-provoking situations
- e.g. counting to ten to temper anger to a stressful event -> self talk promotes calmness -> can become automatic response if practice regularly
- self-talk, meditation & deep-breathing - control one’s emotions
Application & practice:
- offender demonstrates skills they’ve been taught
- reconstructing past events when offender lost control
- to see if the behavioural techniques have been internalised
