week two Flashcards
criminal behaviour types
- violent
- non-violent
- sexual
violent criminal behaviour
- typically involves violence (assault) towards a person
- ie. homicide, robbery
non-violent criminal behaviour
- often does not involve forensic psychologists
- ie. petty theft
sexual criminal behaviour
- ie. harassment, rape, indecent acts (public masturbation, indecent exposure)
why do we want to understand criminal behaviour?
- to predict recidivism
- design appropriate interventions
- reduce potential for recidivism
- increase prosocial behaviours
how we understand behaviour
risk factors and protective factors
risk factors (definition)
- factors related to an individual and their environment increase their risk of engaging in criminal behaviour (CORRELATION, not causation)
- static and dynamic
static risk factors
- factors that cannot change in someone’s life
- ie. age, criminal history, ethnicity
dynamic risk factors
- can be impacted by intervention
- stable: can be changed by intervention but tend to be more stable (ie. an addiction to a substance; fairly consistent/present in a person’s life)
- acute: more specific to what is happening currently (ie. intoxication, specific to that point in time)
significant risk factors
- criminal history
- antisocial attitudes
- antisocial associates
- antisocial personality pattern
- marital and family factors
- employment and school
- leisure activities
- substance abuse
antisocial attitudes
ie. someone who does not think the laws apply to them
antisocial associates
choice of friends, influences, as those associated with offenders have a higher tendency to offend
antisocial personality patterns
disregard for the norms and rules, irritability/aggression, impulsivity, lack of remorse
protective factors (definition)
- factors related to an individual and their environment that decrease the risk of engaging in criminal behaviour
- can protect from the onset of offending or be associated with desistance from reoffending
types of protective factors
- social (availability of support, can be friends, family, work)
- interpersonal (how well your relationships function, if they’re healthy/supportive)
- environmental (are they in a safe or high-crime environment)
- psychological (prosocial attitudes? like work ethic, values, level of self-discipline)
- behavioural (behaviour we see as a result of other aspects)
thornton’s theories
- asks: what are the person’s interests (what do they want, what are they looking for?) and how will the person meet their interests?
- the person then engages in reasoning regarding potential behaviours based on expected outcomes, social pressures, and self-efficacy
- views risk and protected factors as families of related concepts
- perceives things on a continuum where risk factors are on one end and protective factors are on another
- protective factos are conceptualized as “arenas”
protective factor arenas
- dynamic internal (ie. empathy, coping strategies)
- social (ie. work, leisure, relationships)
- professionally provided (ie. supevision, treatment)
- openness to professionally provided
durrant’s theory: evolution
- people differ in their pace of decision-making and responding based on their life history
- fast-life history vs. slow-life history
fast-life history
- develops when exposed to dangerous and unpredictable environment
- life based on safety and survival
- no time to stop and reflect
- associated with impulsivity, risk-taking, dynamic risk factors
slow-life history
- develops when exposed to a safe and predictable environment
- they can engage in long-term thinking because not in “survival” mode
- logical responding, rather than instinctual
- protective factors
- less criminal offending
durrant’s theory: plasticity
- people differ in their sensitivity to environmental conditions, including risk and protective factors
- the extend depends on: the presence of the factor in their environment AND how easily the person is influenced by the factor
- explains why someone people who have had a tough life are super prosocial of vice versa
predictive agency model
- conceptualizes criminal behaviour as goal-directed behaviour
- key concepts:
- subjectivity (first-person perspective)
- emotional systems
- nested systems
- irreducible
- predictive engine
subjectivity (first-person perspective)
looking at behaviour from that person’s perspective (who they are, who others are, the world)
emotional systems
identifying potential resources that can be used
nested systems
we need to look at everything as interrelated, as how they are impacting one another
irreducible
cannot refer to only one thing
predictive engine
internal and external components to provide people with unique sets of capacities for motivating actions, benefits/threats, setting priorities
risk and protective factors interaction
- cannot make cause and effect statements
- interact to: predict risk of recidivism and identify treatment targets
protective factors influence recidivism through:
- risk reducing effect
- buffering effect
- main effect
- motivator effect
risk reducing effect
- introducing a protective factor directly impact the dynamic risk factors
- ie. if someone has issues with reality testing (delusions; would be a risk factor), medication would be a proper protective factor
buffering effect
- weakens the relationship between a risk factor and the offending behaviour
- we are addressing the factors TOWARDS the criminal behaviour
- ie. providing someone intervention to develop better skills with self-control and impulsivity which will likely reduce substance abuse and criminal behaviour
main effect
- when the protective factor actually offers protection
- ie. check
motivator effect
- where the protective factors positively influence one another
- ie. an intervention that would target the leisure activities would increase the opportunity to build a social network
risk-need-responsivity model
- used in prisons
- risk: resources directed towards people identified as a higher risk for recidivism
- need: prioritize dynamic risk factors
- responsivity: adapt interventions to the individual’s characteristics and protective factors
- critique: fails to account what really motivates a person (human agency)
offending: lifespan
- typically, we see a decrease in offending over a lifespan
- offending peaks in your 20s
impulsivity
- acting quickly for a reward, without sufficiently considering the potential consequences
- lack of deliberation
- many theories identify this as a significant contributor to offending
- research shows that it appears to decrease into early adulthood, as conscientiousness increases
self-identity and offending
- identity motivates and provides direction for behaviours
- people engage in behaviours that are consistent with who they think they are
- identity is fairly variable
- positive association between a deviant self-identity and recidivism (ie. people who identify as addicts had a higher rate of reoffending)
self-identity and desistance
- identity theory of desistance (ITD)
- offenders connect current failure to likely future failures
- anticipates that feared outcome will result if they continue to engage in criminal behaviour, leading to a new prosocial identity
- rational construction of a plan to quit crime and develop a more prosocial lifestyle = mroe sensitive to protective factors
applying predictive factors
- assessment
- treatment
- consultation
- research
