Unit 2 Exam Flashcards
Define lombrosos theory
- Lombroso argued that criminals were physically different from non criminals
- concluded that criminals could be identified by their distinctive features like
- enormous jaw, large eye sockets, long arms, high cheek bones and those with hooked noses are likely to be a murderer
- he saw criminals as atavistic, this is going back to a primitive stage of evolution where people are unable to control their impulses and had a reduced sensitivity to pain.
He argued that criminals were like ‘ savages’ or even apes
How do laws vary over time
Laws change over time because as society changes people views also change. A law that changed over time is homosexuality.
- In the 16th century homosexuality was punishable by the death penalty.
- In the 19th century it was no longer punishable by death but was still illegal and people would face jail time.
- Then in 1967 it was decriminalised by the sexual offences act with the age of consent to be 21.
- However society still looked down apon it a it wasn’t deemed to be normal to be homosexual, and many people did not accept it.
- In 2000 the age of consent was lowered to 16 and in 2014 same sex marriage was legal.
- Overtime views have changes a lot, homosexuality is more widely accepted. This is due to secularisation overtime ( the decline in religion) and there is less traditional religious views so more peope have accepted it in our society. There was also May protest done in order to help change people views o homosexuality and slowly it became more and more accepted over time.
How do laws vary by culture
Laws change from culture from culture because each culture has different views on specific laws and general ideas. A law that vary from cultures is polygamy, this is where a man can have more than one wife. Currently in the uk it is illegal to marry if you are already married. You can get punished this is called bigamy, it has up to seven years imprisonment, be fined or both. In the UK it is a country with more Christian traditional views so polygamy is not accepted. However they are 58 countries which allow polygamy, these are Muslim majority countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and india. This is because the Quran allows only gamy so their culture accepts it and allows it and does not see it negatively. However there are cultures which do not accept it such as Christianity.
How laws vary place to place
- Laws vary place to place because throughout the world policing is different and so are there governments
- A law that has changed by place to place is abortion, in certain places abortion is illegal while in others it is legal. This depends on how different areas of the world are governed.
- In the US abortion laws differ among the states, and currently in the Uk abortion is legal and in Texas abortion is illegal.This is because in Texas their views are traditionally republican and are religious, so they believe that abortion is wrong and see it as killing someone.
- Whereas in the uk abortion is legal and seen that is is the woman who is pregnant who is able to decide what she would like to do, in the uk this is seen as equal rights and is not seen as deviant or wrong behaviour.
Define sheldons theory - somatypes theory
- saw criminals as physically different from non criminals- certain body types of somatotypes are linked to criminals
- there are 3 somatotypes
- ectomorphs - thin & fragile - self conscious
- endomorphs - fat & soft- outgoing, friendly
- mesomorphs- muscular,hard bodied, - dominant,aggressive
- sheldon argued that mesomorphs are the somatotypes most likely to engage in crime, they are more risk taking and their phhisique can be an asset to crime
Define Raine (1994)
- used PET scans on violent killers
- method
- made them complete a cognitive task which involved sustained attention
- involved watching a screen for 32 minutes and responding every time a 0 popped up
Findings
- impulsive killers misses many of the 0s
- damage was also found in the pre frontal cortex - this controls impulsive behaviour
Define the social learning theory - 1
- Albert Audra argues that we learn much of our behaviour including agressive behaviour by imitating other people
- Bandura calls these people ‘ models’ because we model our behaviour on how we see them behaving
However we dont copy any new behaviour only those who are of inherit statues to us or role models to us - whether we imitate their behaviour mainly depends on the consequences of that behaviour
If we see a behaviour being rewarded we are more likely to imitate it.
If we see the behaviour being punished we are less likely to imitate it
Social learning theory - experiment and findings
Bandura did an en experiment
- he did a series of experiments with 4-5 year olds
- divided the children into 3 different groups
- all 3 were shown a video of an adult being physically aggressive towards a bobo
- group 1 saw a version were the models were rewarded
- group 2 saw a version were the model was punished
- group 3 the behaviour was not punished or rewarded
- FINDINGS
- group 1 more likely to imitate the behaviour
Then group 3 were likely to imitate the behaviour not as much as group 1 though
And group 2 were the least likely to imitate the behaviour
Conclusion of the social learning theory
- whether they imitated the behaviour depended on the consequences they had observed for the models
- this can be applied to criminal behaviour . If an individual observes a model getting rewarded for criminality, this theory predicts the behaviour is more likely to be imitated
Strengths of the social learning theory
- we learn from the experience of others, not just our own
- children who observed agressive behaviour being rewarded, imitated the behaviour - this shows the importance of role models in learning deviant behaviour
Limitations of the social learning theory
- lack of ecological validity - based on laboratory settings, artificial settings may not be valid in real life situations
- deterministic - not everyone who observes crime commits crime
- not all observed behaviour is easily imitated
- can’t generalise the results - the sample were children and adults were role models- children are impressionable adults aren’t likely to imitate behaviour easily
Key words - social learning theory
- vicarious reinforcement - see behaviour being rewarded and expect eh same reward
- observational learning - copy what you see -
