Crime Psych 1

Question 1

definition of crime

Answer 1

A social construct based on legal, moral, social, and psychological factors

Based on ‘subjective’ notions around how to maintain justice and fairness

Definitions vary across history and cultures

Some consistency regarding robbery, theft, and incest

Cultural changes lead to changes in the criminal code (e.g., birth control, women’s rights, and abortion)

Question 2

crime in canada stats

Answer 2

76% of criminal incidents were non-violent (2021)

Property crimes account for 58% of all reported criminal incidents

Most people found guilty of a crime will likely be sentenced to probation or will receive a short custodial sentence

Most in custody for longer sentences will be released back into the community

However, violent crimes rose by 5% in 2022, the highest since 2007

Question 3

‘Liberal’ era vs. ‘Get-Tough-On-Crime’ era

Answer 3

Recently, the ‘Liberal era’ (Trudeau) replaced the ‘Get-Tough-On- Crime’ era (Harper)

Drawing attention to systemic issues within the criminal justice system (e.g., biases against Black and Indigenous people or the inhumane use of solitary confinement)

Question 4

Is crime increasing in canada?

Answer 4

Most Canadians believe that crime is increasing

• Rates of police-reported crimes decreased in all categories between 1992 and 2015
• Then, increased steadily between 2015 and 2019
• Then, decreased between 2019 and 2020
• Trends in police-reported crimes resulting from the onset of Covid-19 (between 2019 and 2020)
• Overall rate of crime decreased by 16% (due to lockdown)
• Hate crimes (e.g., based on race or ethnicity) increased by 37%
• Calls about domestic disturbance increased by 12%
• Cases of child pornography increased by 23%

Question 5

a psychological understanding of criminal behaviour

Answer 5

We want to understand criminal behaviour with the ultimate goal of assessing and correcting it (e.g., why are men more likely than women to commit crimes? or why do only a small percentage of people maintain criminal behaviour into adulthood?)

Involves many different theoretical perspectives to assess individual differences in criminal behaviour (e.g., genetic/biological/evolutionary versus learning)

Offenders form an overall very heterogenous group (e.g., not all people who commit crimes are male or are poorly educated)

We must also consider sociological/systemic factors like racial and gender biases (e.g., the fact that 50% of women in custody are Indigenous points to a systemic issue)

Question 6

criminal behaviour

Answer 6

“Criminal behaviour refers to intentional behaviour that violates a criminal code; did not occur accidentally (e.g., manslaughter) or without justification of excuse”

Psychological understandings of criminal behaviour should consider cultural issues (e.g., inequalities like why certain types of crime affect certain groups of people?)

Question 7

the general personality and cognitive social learning perspective/ theory

Answer 7

1. The immediate situation (e.g., alcohol consumption, family stress)
2. Attitudes supportive of crime (e.g., crime is ‘normalized’, initiation into gangs is often normalized)
3. History of criminal behaviour (e.g., initiation into gangs starts early and it becomes part of their
   identity)
4. Balance of costs and rewards (e.g., financial gain and social acceptance outweigh risk of consequences)
5. Social supports for crime (e.g., initiation rituals, other gang members help facilitate crime)
6. Community issues (e.g., Canada’s colonial past causing racism and transgenerational
   trauma, like through addiction)
7. Interpersonal issues (e.g., neglect, abuse, unstable relationships, rivalry within the community like between gangs)
8. Personal issues (e.g., mental health problems like addiction)

Question 8

the central eight risk factors for recidivism

Answer 8

1. Criminal history: early and continuing involvement in a number of antisocial acts in a variety of settings
2. Antisocial personality pattern: adventurous pleasure-seeking, weak self-control, restlessly aggressive
3. Pro-criminal attitudes: attitudes, beliefs, and rationalizations supportive of crime, cognitive-emotional states of anger, resentment, and defiance, criminal vs. reformed identity
4. Pro-criminal associates: close association with others who engage in crime and relative isolation from others who do not, immediate social support for crime
5. Family and/or marital: low levels of nurturance or caring and poor monitoring and supervision in the family of origin for young persons
6. School and/or work: low levels of performance and satisfaction in school or work
7. Leisure and/or recreation: low levels of involvement and satisfaction in prosocial leisure pursuits
8. Substance misuse: misuse of alcohol and/or other drugs

Question 9

factors that DO NOT significantly predict criminal behaviour/recidivism on their own

Answer 9

Personal and/or emotional distress

Low self-esteem

Major mental disorder (e.g., Substance Use Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Anxiety, Depression), 73% prevalence of a DSM disorder among people being admitted into Canadian Federal Corrections, 81% prevalence of a DSM disorder among people who are or will be incarcerated at some point in their life, other risk factors likely need to be present in order to facilitate crime

Physical health

Low intelligence

Socioeconomic status of origin

Seriousness of the current offence

Fear of official punishment

Question 10

Cesare Lombroso

Answer 10

“Father of criminology”

Atavism: criminals are ‘evolutionary throwbacks’, as indicated by physical features

‘Atavistic’ characteristics: e.g., asymmetric face, long arms, large jaw, sloping forehead

No meaningful statistical comparisons between people who do and do not commit crimes

Theories discredited

Question 11

Francis Galton

Answer 11

Eugenics: any practice (e.g., forced sterilization, genocide) aimed at improving the human species by discouraging reproduction among those with ‘undesirable traits’ and encouraging reproduction among those with ‘desirable traits’

Aimed at “breeding out” disease, disability, criminality, etc. (e.g., 1930 – 1970s: AB and BC had legislation allowing sterilization based on mental and physical health issues)

Question 12

concordance rate

Answer 12

The percentage at which both twins have engaged in criminal behaviour

Comparing concordance rates between identical and fraternal twins helps separate effects of genetics vs. environment

If concordance is higher among identical twins, then we can safely assume that there is a genetic link (e.g., eye colour (which is entirely genetic) 50% for fraternal vs. 100% for identical)

e.g., criminal history is 12% for fraternal vs. 35% for identical in a study on 6000+ twins in Denmark (1970)
Showed that genetics are linked to crime, but are certainly not the whole picture

Question 13

phenotypic variance

Answer 13

The proportion of variance in a behaviour (e.g., criminal behaviour) in a given sample that can be attributed to genetic variance

Question 14

twin studies

Answer 14

Twin studies are just as valuable for indicating the degree of environmental (not just genetic) influence

Shared environmental factors: aspects of environment shared by family members (e.g., living in poverty)

Nonshared environmental factors: aspects of environment not shared by all family members (e.g., peer group), e.g., Study of 2,232 twins regarding similarity in criminal offending
* MZ twins (81% concordance/r = .81)
* DZ twins (60% concordance/ r = .61)
* 41% of variance due to genetics
* 40% due to shared environmental factors
* 19% due to nonshared environmental factors

Question 15

adoption studies

Answer 15

Twin studies may overestimate genetic contributions (MZ twins likely have more similar environments than DZ twins (e.g., more likely to have the same clothes, toys, friends, treatment by others))

Adoption studies can better control for environment

Parent-offspring adoption studies
* Concordance rates between adoptive parents and adopted children are compared to concordance rates between biological parents and adopted children
* e.g., If concordance is higher with biological parents, we can confirm genetic influence
* Sibling-offspring: concordance between adoptive siblings vs. biological siblings

Question 16

Mednick et al. (1984) Adoption Study

Answer 16

Study on 14,427 non-familial adoptions in Denmark

If no parents had criminal record: 13.5% of sons had criminal record

If adopted parent had criminal record, but not the biological parent: 14.7%

If biological parent had criminal record, but not the adopted parent: 20%

If both sets of parents had criminal record: 24.5%

Question 17

findings from twin & adoption studies

Answer 17

Meta-analysis of 25 studies on 3,423,483 children (mostly across EU and U.S.) found that odds of a person committing a crime doubles if one of their parents commits a crime (due to genes and environment)

Rhee and Waldman (2002)
* Variance in antisocial behaviour:
* Heritability/genetics: 41%
* Shared environment: 15%
* Nonshared environment: 43%

Genetic link is particularly strong for aggression (e.g., violent offending)

Question 18

the gene-crime link

Answer 18

Genetic influence on crime is not direct rather inherited characteristics predispose an individual to criminal behaviour

Cognitive factors (e.g., antisocial attitudes),
* …social factors (e.g., neglect, poverty, substance abuse),
* …and seemingly minor factors (e.g., mental distress/disorder),
* …interact with genetic factors in extremely complex ways

Childhood maltreatment (physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect) contributes to development of antisocial and criminal behaviour
* However, 50% of maltreated children do not become antisocial or criminal
* Study on 1116 pairs of 5 yr. old twins (Jaffee et al., 2005) found that childhood maltreatment was associated with:
* 1.6% increase in probability of conduct disorder (antisocial personality in children) diagnosis among children of ‘lowest genetic risk’
* 23.5% increase among children of ‘highest genetic risk’

Question 19

Low-activity monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) (AKA the ‘warrior gene’) and childhood maltreatment

Answer 19

Gene/phenotypic expression depends on the gene’s production of proteins

MAOA: a gene responsible for metabolizing key neurotransmitters: norepinephrine (NE), serotonin (5-Ht), and dopamine (DA), which have been implicated in aggressive and antisocial behaviours

Study on 1037 children from birth – age 26 (Caspi et al., 2002)
* Over 80% of participants with low MAOA activity and who were severely maltreated had conduct disorder
* Only 40% with high MAOA activity and severe maltreatment were conduct disordered

Simply having low MAOA activity (with no childhood maltreatment) was not associated with higher risk of conduct disorder

Gene represents a predisposition that is either triggered or not by environmental influence

Question 20

Bradley Waldroup

Answer 20

In 2009, sentence reduced from homicide to voluntary manslaughter after severely injuring his wife and killing her friend in front of his children

Found to be ‘high-risk’ for violent behaviour; had low- activity MAOA gene and had been abused as a child

Says he “snapped”

“A person doesn’t choose to have this particular gene [or] choose to be abused as a child. So I think that should be taken into consideration when we’re talking about criminal responsibility” –Judge

Question 21

testosterone

Answer 21

Has relatively small positive correlation with aggression

Likely plays indirect role

May interact with high cortisol levels to influence antisocial behaviour

Question 22

serotonin

Answer 22

Behavioural inhibition and mood regulation

Low activity linked to impulsivity, irritability, and aggression

Serotonin activity tends to be somewhat lower among aggressive and antisocial individuals

A study artificially manipulated triptofin (a precursor for serotonin) levels and found a possible causal link

Question 23

neuroimaging and neuropsychology

Answer 23

Examine links between behaviour and brain structure and function (e.g., Phineas Gage)

Antisocial behaviour linked to poor executive functioning (frontal lobe; attention, memory, inhibition, problem- solving)

Functional and structural impairment to prefrontal cortex more common among antisocial individuals
* Prefrontal cortex: emotional regulation, social cognition, self-reflection, autobiographical memory, decision-making, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility

Electrode stimulation of the prefrontal cortex causes people to report being less likely to commit physical and sexual offences and judged them as more immoral in comparison to a control group

Question 23

autonomic responses

Answer 23

(e.g., heart rate, skin conductance) associated with fear, anger, and anxiety, etc. are linked to antisocial behaviours

Small to moderate correlation between low autonomic arousal (low heart rate and skin conductance) and antisocial behaviours (Lober, 2004; Ortiz & Raine, 2004)

Fearlessness theory: lack of fear when stressed (Childhood stressors may habituate someone to life stress=fearlessness)

Stimulation-seeking theory: need for stimulation (Chronic low arousal is unpleasant; may engage in risky behaviour to feel arousal)

Low self-reported fear was related to antisocial behaviour, even after controlling for callous-unemotional traits (Cardinale et al., 2021)

Question 24

other biological considerations

Answer 24

Diet; low blood sugar linked to aggression and antisocial behaviour, (Raine, 1993; Anderson, 2007) found that the introduction of healthy diet to regulate blood sugar reduced antisocial behaviour in incarcerated juveniles by 48% among incarcerated juvenile offenders after 2 years

Diet affects hormone levels and serotonin levels

Schoenthaler et al. (2021) compared effects of placebo to vitamin pill on
* Those who took vitamin had 39% fewer rule violations

Lead, a neurotoxin that affects brain (probably prefrontal lobe) development
* Children with elevated lead levels exhibited more antisocial behaviour, even after controlling for socioeconomic status and parental quality

Question 25

theory of evolution

Answer 25

Charles Darwin

Species and their genes have evolved/transformed in response to environmental pressures through natural selection

Psychological mechanisms have been designed and maintained because they offer an advantage for survival and reproduction (selection pressures)

Selection pressures: finding a mate, hunting, gathering, protecting children, avoiding predators, finding shelter

Takes a few thousand generations to show up in a species’ genome

Our current psychological mechanisms reflect the selection pressures of prehistoric hunter-gatherers

Question 26

life history theory

Answer 26

Survival and reproduction depended on ability to establish trade-offs between:
* Hunting/gathering, finding/attracting a mate, protecting/nourishing children (e.g., women favour protecting/nurturing children in order to pass on genes; cannot mate with as many partners; less aggressive and violent)

Question 27

adaptive phenotypic plasticity

Answer 27

Psychological mechanisms are highly flexible (e.g., in an unpredictable and chaotic environment, people focus will engage in riskier survival and mating activity like fighting competing male suitors rather than protecting/nurturing existing offspring)

Children who grow up in unpredictable homes are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviours, earlier sex, short-term sex strategies (e.g., Simpson et al., 2012)

e.g., in stable environment (supportive childhood; growing up with abundance of resources), people prioritize long-term strategies like parental investment

Question 28

evolutionary theory and ‘cheater strategies’

Answer 28

Psychopaths possess ‘cheater strategies’

Superficial charm, manipulation, deceit, lack of remorse or conscience, parasitic lifestyle, impulsivity, grandiosity

Frequency dependent selection: enhances reproductive success if found in only a small minority of people alongside which most people are cooperative and unassuming

Question 29

evolutionary theory and homicide

Answer 29

Most often the result of arguments, insults, or rivalries between male acquaintances who are unmarried and unemployed

Violence/aggression is an adaptive response to status or reputational threats in order to prevent future exploitation of resources and/or lack of mates

e.g., Social selection; Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Empire (c. 1162 – 1227); likely has an estimated 16M direct male descendants (as opposed to 20 descendants)

Question 30

evolutionary theory and female-perpetrated crime

Answer 30

Lack is due to lower fear threshold in face of danger

The reason for this could be an evolutionary need for maternal survival and reproductive success (e.g., life history theory)

Resource scarcity/poverty drives attempts to provide for oneself directly (e.g., property offending) and indirectly through competition for mates (e.g., violent offending)

Question 31

psychodynamic theories of crime

Answer 31

Crime as result of inadequate control over internal aggressive and sexual impulses (born with these impulses)

e.g., homicide is not “a clearly defined impulse to kill” but the result of a killer being “intensely tormented” by conflicts rooted in childhood trauma, which they repress and then project/release

Question 32

learning theories of crime

Answer 32

Crime as result of learning certain responses through direct environmental influence (e.g., punishments, rewards)

More useful than genetic and evolutionary theories for developing interventions

Question 33

Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality structure

Answer 33

Humans are inherently antisocial
*Experiences (esp. during early childhood) promote or prevent the ego and superego’s ability to control the id’s pleasure-seeking and destructive impulses

1. Id: seeks immediate gratification regardless of consequences( Pleasure principle (sexual + aggressive), Present at birth)
2. Ego: mediates between id’s primal needs and
   societal expectations (e.g., by delaying gratification) (Reality principle, Develops throughout childhood)

Superego: internalization of societal expectations, as conveyed primarily by parents; regulates behaviour according to morality (Conscience tells us right from wrong, Ego-ideal represents socially accepted
standards we aspire to)

Failure to identify with prosocial parental figures:
* Harsh superego: ‘neurotic criminal’ who subconsciously punishes oneself to resolve guilty
* Weak superego: ‘psychopathic criminal’ without conscience who can’t regulate id’s impulses
* Deviant superego: ‘deviant identification’ with criminal parent(s)

Question 34

Unravelling Juvenile Delinquency by Glueck & Glueck (1950)

Answer 34

Looked at psychodynamic theory

500 ‘delinquent’/justice-involved and 500 ‘non-delinquent’ boys (without criminal records)
in Massachusetts

Attributed differences to parenting factors

Parents of justice-involved boys had more emotional disturbances, cognitive impairment, alcoholism, and criminality were less educated, less likely to stay together, and less ambitious showed greater carelessness in the supervision of their children and often
appeared neglectful

Families lacked cohesiveness and warmth and respect for integrity of members

Children were less affectionately attached to parents, esp. fathers

Findings questioned; overgeneralizations (e.g., can’t use findings to ‘predict’ criminality) and assumptions about causal ordering (e.g., 50% of maltreated children do not become antisocial or criminal, e.g., criminality can reinforce delinquent personality traits)

Question 35

social control theory

Answer 35

(Hirschi,1969): social controls prevent criminality; delinquency results from weakened or broken bonds to society

(1) Attachment: interest in others (e.g., parents, friends, teachers)
* People don’t commit crimes because they value their attachments to others (e.g., ego-ideal), attachment to criminal peers can lead to criminality

(2) Commitment: time and energy invested in conventional behaviour (e.g., education)
* People don’t commit crimes because they don’t want to jeopardize such investments (e.g., ego-ideal)

(3) Involvement: time and energy used up on conventional behaviour
* People don’t commit crimes because they don’t have the time or energy left

(4) Belief: conviction to the view that people should obey common rules
* People don’t commit crimes because they respect moral codes and laws and their purposes (e.g., conscience/superego-ideal), criminality can precede weak or broken bonds

Question 36

general theory of crime

Answer 36

(Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990): self-control (internalized early in life and stable across lifespan) in the presence of criminal opportunities is the main determinant of all crime

Crimes are “short lived, immediately gratifying, easy, simple, and exciting” and therefore appealing to those with low self-control

Self-control as determined by parental quality (Deviant behaviours are monitored, recognized, and appropriately
punished=more self-control)

Low self-control is consistently and universally linked to criminality

Poor parental quality predicts poor self-control but self-control only partially mediates link between parental quality and criminality

Self-control is malleable and can improve with intervention

Question 37

learning

Answer 37

A change in pre-existing behaviour or mental processes that occurs as a result of experience

Criminal behaviour is learned through association, rather than prevented or ‘controlled’

Question 38

classical conditioning

Answer 38

An automatic conditioned response (e.g., sexual arousal) to a conditioned stimulus (e.g., nonconsensual sex) is learned after the stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., pornography) that produces an unconditioned response (e.g., sexual arousal)

Question 39

aversive conditioning

Answer 39

Offender is exposed to an unpleasant stimulus while sexually aroused in response to deviant source

Question 40

Covert aversive conditioning

Answer 40

Offender pairs imagined aversive consequence with deviant fantasies or behaviour (e.g., offender listens to a story that contains:

(1) their preferred deviant stimulus (e.g., nonconsensual sex) with buildup of sexual arousal

(2) an aversive consequence that causes intense disgust, pain, or humiliation (e.g., vomiting, getting caught), offender learns to associate the deviant stimulus with the aversive consequence

(3) release from the aversive consequence by removing the activity (e.g., while encouraging relaxation), offender learns to associate avoidance of deviant activity with feelings of relief

Question 41

Overt aversive conditioning

Answer 41

Offender pairs actual aversive consequence with or immediately after the deviant stimulus (e.g., electric shock or foul odour is paired with scenes depicting nonconsensual sex)

Usually followed by arousal reconditioning to strengthen appropriate arousal (e.g., consensual sex)

Question 42

operant conditioning

Answer 42

Voluntary behaviour as determined largely by environmental consequences

The decision to commit crime occurs because reinforcing stimuli outweighs aversive stimuli (Jeffrey, 1965)
* e.g., lack of punishment from parents or legal justice system for stealing or the reward for stealing outweighs fear of punishment or occurs in the absence of disapproval

Plays a crucial role in criminal justice intervention

(1) Positive reinforcement: introduction of pleasant stimulus increases frequency of behaviour (e.g., personal gain from theft)

(2) Negative reinforcement: removal of aversive stimulus increases frequency of behaviour (e.g., drug use takes away pain)

(3) Positive punishment: introduction of unpleasant stimulus decreases frequency of behaviour (e.g., prison environment, fines)

(4) Negative punishment: removal of pleasant stimulus decreases frequency of behaviour (e.g., loss of freedom in prison)

Question 43

operant conditioning depends on…

Answer 43

Effectiveness depends on:

(1) immediacy; delayed reinforcement or punishment
targets the wrong behaviour
(e.g., prison time is associated with ‘getting caught’ rather than the crime itself)

(2) Consistency: the more frequently the consequence occurs, the more effective it is, however, for reinforcement, intermittent schedules work best because they prevent habituation (e.g., gambling, recognition for good behaviour in prison)

(3) Intensity: the stronger the consequence (e.g., lengthy prison sentence), the more effective it should be

Punishment (e.g., prison sentence) is largely ineffective for preventing crime

Possibly because it is often delayed (e.g., long trials in court), inconsistently handed down (e.g., person is only sometimes caught), and lacks intensity (e.g., relatively humane)

Question 44

Eysenck’s biosocial theory of crime

Answer 44

Crime may be explained by individual differences in nervous system functioning

People differ in their ability to learn conditioned emotional responses (e.g., to parental discipline)

People who engage in crime may be less able to be classically conditioned into having a conscience (e.g.,scolding (unconditioned stimulus) a child for stealing a cookie (conditioned stimulus) elicits feelings of discomfort (unconditioned response) in the child; child learns to feel
uncomfortable (conditioned response) stealing

Antisocial people (e.g., particularly psychopaths) show less skin conductance (conditioned response) in response to a tone/noise (conditioned stimulus) after it is repeatedly paired with an electric shock (unconditioned stimulus)
*Critique: people are more complex than their conditioned responses

Question 45

Sutherland’s differential association theory

Answer 45

Crime as learned through interaction and communication (e.g., exposure to norms in groups to which a person belongs)

(1) Criminal behaviour is learned…

(2) …in interaction through communication with others…

(3) …particularly within intimate personal groups

(4) The learning includes
A. techniques for committing crime
B. the direction of motives, drives, rationalization, and attitudes… (e.g., learning that crime is ‘normal’, fun and/or rewarding)

(5) Direction of “ “ is learned from unfavourable vs. favourable definitions of legal codes (e.g., the rewards of crime outweigh ideas about consequences or the value of being prosocial)

(6) Excess of definitions are favourable to violating legal codes

(7) Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity
* Affected by a. how often a person interacts with a group, b. the length of exposure to definitions, c. how early in life the exposure begins, and d. the prestige or status of the group

(8) The process of learning involves the same mechanisms as any other learning

(9) Criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, but particularly how a person weighs them; e.g., they learn that criminal behaviour is more valuable than following the legal code

Research does demonstrate that antisocial attitudes and antisocial associates are two of the most powerful predictors of crime

Theory is criticized for lack of explanations regarding ‘definitions’ for favourable vs. unfavourable violations of the law (e.g., how exactly might a person learn not to respect particular laws, or to value breaking them?)

Determining frequency, duration, priority, and intensity of definitions is subjective and hard to quantify (e.g., what makes a group prestigious/meaningful?)

Question 46

Alker’s social learning theory

Answer 46

Combines DAT ideas with operant conditioning, as well as observational learning and vicarious conditioning

Criminal behaviour is also learned through observing others and vicariously experiencing their consequences (e.g., happiness through observing parents’ happiness after stealing reinforces stealing)

Most important sources of conditioning: parents, peers, and the media (e.g., violent video games

Crime is learned primarily through group interactions, because it’s been rewarded (operant conditioning) relative to alternative behaviours and through observing how significant groups define behaviour as either ‘bad’ or ‘good’

Question 47

Personal, interpersonal, and community reinforcement model (PIC-R)

Answer 47

The most integrated theory of crime

Personality (e.g., antisocial attitudes) and social psychological framework influenced by behavioural and cognitive social learning perspectives

Emphasizes many potential paths to crime

Antecedent factors (e.g., learned antisocial
attitudes, encouragement from peers) and consequent factors (e.g., increased status among peers, experience of arousal for getting away with crime)

Emphasizes how antecedent and consequent factors create personal impressions of antisocial vs. prosocial cognitions

Considers how sociocultural factors (e.g., socioeconomic status) influence impressions of costs vs. rewards for antisocial behaviour