Violence Flashcards
What are the readings?
Piquero (2000)
Farrington (1996)
What are the key points from Piquero 2000?
Focus on nature of offending careers + frequency
Most offenders do not specialise rather engage with a range of crimes
The more frequently individuals offend, the more likely they are to engage in specialized criminal behavior, but this is not universally true.
Violence is a part of the offending career but is not the pirmary source of criminality
Piquero identifies distinct offending trajectories, with some individuals engaging in crime at a high frequency but with limited specialization, while others may engage in crime less frequently but specialize in certain violent or non-violent offenses.
What are the implications and contributions fron Piquero?
Intervention efforts should be tailored based on whether an offender is likely to specialise in violent crime or whether they are more likely to engage in a broader range of offences
Understanding the patterns of offending can aid in the development of prevention and intervention strategies that are more effective at targeting specific types of offenders.
What are the key points from Farrington (1996)
Focus on male violence
Predictors= antisocial behaviour, personality traits (low self control, high aggression), cog factors
Violence is more prevalent in adolescence, particularly among those between the ages of 12 and 18
Importance of early intervention to prevent youth violence.
What are the policy interventions from Farrington?
Improving family functioning
Enhancing school system
Community engagement
Early prevention programmes
What is strain theory (Farrington)?
Youth violence may result from the frustration or strain caused by an inability to achieve socially accepted goals, particularly in environments where opportunities are limited
What is control theory? (Farrington)
This theory emphasises the importance of social bonds and self-control in preventing violence. Weak or broken bonds with society, such as poor family attachment or school disengagement, can lead to violent behaviour
What is violence?
Behaviour that is intended to cause and/or actually causes psychological or physical injury.
What are the sub definitions of violence?
Expressive versus Instrumental
Proactive versus Reactive Aggression
Most aggressive behaviour has elements of both
What are violent offences defined by criminal law?
Homicide, rape, robbery, and assault.
How is assault divided?
Into serious (aggravated US; wounding UK) and less serious (simple US; common UK
Who looked at violence?
ONS
What are the statistics for violence?
2.1 million instances of violence against the person offences in the year ending March 2022, an increase of 18% from 1.8 million in the year ending March 2021
Violence without injury?
39%
Violence with injury?
27%
Stalking and harassment?
34%
Death or serious injury?
0.04%
When was the peak in violence for the CSEW from the ONS?
Between 1993 and 1999
Who spoke about the frustration aggression hypothesis?
Berkowitz
What is the FAH?
Hostile aggression was activated by unpleasant events such as frustration and insults.
Relationship was mediated by:
Fear of punishment.
Previous experience.
Availability of object of frustration.
Who made the evolutionary theory for aggression?
Daly & Wilson 1988
What is the evolutionary theory?
Violence is seen as a behavior that may have evolved to increase survival and reproductive success. Early humans may have used aggression to defend resources, protect kin, or secure mates.
Who made the SLT for aggression?
Bandura
What is the SLT?
Violence is learned through observation and imitation of others, particularly influential figures like family members, peers, or media. If aggressive behaviour is rewarded or reinforced (e.g., gaining respect, power, or status), individuals are more likely to adopt and repeat violent actions. SLT suggests that exposure to violent models increases the likelihood of engaging in violence
What is social info processing and who theorised?
Crick & Dodge 1994
Make use of schemas and scripts.
What happens when an individual faces with social problem with social information processing?
Evaluates and interprets situational cues,
Searches memory for guides to behaviour,
Evaluates and decided on the best behaviour,
Enacts the response.
What are the statistics with gender and violence?
Males more likely to commit violence than females.
Official offending: about 5.8 to 1 for violence and 9.3 to 1 for robbery.
Self-Report offending: 9% of males and 4% of females.
What are the reasons for violence and gender?
Females treated more leniently by CJS.
Ceiling effect of self-reports.
Males commit more serious offences.
Females not truthful about offending?
Who spoke about violence and ethnicity?
Loeber et al
What did Loeber et al say?
There is overwhelming evidence that the association between African American ethnicity and violence could be accounted for by the presence of several other non-ethnic factors that were associated with ethnicity
What are the factors associated with violence?
Biological
Family factors
Social factors
Situational factors
Who looked at the risk factors associated with youth violence?
Denno 1990
What are the risk factors for youth violence?
Hyperactivity-impulsiveness, deceitful interpersonal style, and low intelligence/low school attainment
Who looked at biological factors?
Caspi et al (2002)
Barnes et al (2022)
What did Caspi et al (2002) say?
Genetic suspectibility, MAO-A gene
What did Barnes et al find?
Low heart rate predicted convictions for violence up to 61
What did Jolliffe & Farrington 2004 find?
Low empathy + impulsiveness are associated with violence
What did Farrington 1998 find?
Low school success/low intelligence
Child maltreatment
What are the family factors associated with violence?
Poor parental supervision
Parental conflict
Parents convicted (particularly for violence)
Less parental affection
What are the social factors associated with violence?
Delinquent friends
Low socioeconomic status
Deprived neighbourhoods
Experience of victimisation
Gang involvement
Societies tolerance for violence (comparative studies)
What are the situational factors?
Being drunk, bored, angry
Routine activity theory
What is RAT?
People who have highest potential for violence are also more often in situations that are conductive to violence.
Who looked at risk factors in context?
Lyman et al (2000)
Zimmerman et al (2015)
What did Lyman et al (2000) look at?
Examining impulsivity in different neighbourhood contexts
What did Lyman et al (2000) find?
The effect of impulsivity on juvenile offending was greater in poorer neighbourhoods
Non-impulsive boys in poor neighbourhoods were at no greater risk than non-impulsive boys in better off neighbourhoods.
What did Zimmerman et al (2015) find?
They found that low self-control was related to violence only in neighbourhoods that had low morality
Committing each of the seven acts in the projected offending scale would be morally acceptable to them.
Who looked at macro-political influences on violence?
Farrell et al (2019)
What did Farrell et al (2019) look at?
Examined how truancy and later offending/violence was influenced by Thatcher government policy + how certain housing policies were associated with homelessness and offending/violence.
Who looked at factors unique to violence?
Piquero (2000)
What did Piquero (2000) look at?
RQ1: After controlling for the number of offences people commit are their unique risk factors for violence?
RQ2: Do offenders specialise in violence (once they have committed violence is violence more likely)?
What did Piquero (2000) find?
Answer to RQ1 – only males
Answer to RQ2 – only scores on intelligence tests
Versatility in offending?
Generally, offenders are versatile in their offending rather than specialised.
Violent offenders typically have committed more nonviolent offences that violent offences.
Violence + frequency?
Violent offenders tend to be frequent offenders.
If offenders specialise in violence, each violent offender should commit more violent offences (on average) than expected.
Violent offenders and nonviolent frequent offenders were virtually identical in childhood, adolescent and adult features.
Not clear that violent offenders are different from frequent or persistent offenders.
Who looked at males convicted of violence?
Farrington (1991)
What did Farrington (1991) find?
Males who were convicted of violence at ages 10–32 tended to be frequent offenders, averaging seven convictions each
What did they find from Farrington’s analysis?
Important childhood risk factors
Who looked at the distinction with individual fights?
Farrington 2019
What is the distinction with individual fights?
Where a male was usually provoked, got angry, and started the fight and group fights
Where a male often went to the help of a friend, and which were more likely to involve weapons, injuries and police intervention.
Who did the Pittsburgh Youth Study?
Farrington et al
What did the PYS find?
Harsh physical punishment predicted violence for Caucasians but not for African Americans
Who explained the reason for the PYS?
Deater-Deckard et al 1996
What did Deater-Deckard et al say?
Physical discipline is associated with neglect and coldness in Caucasian families but with concern and warmth in African American families.
