forensic psychology-psychological explanations for offending

Question 1

what are 3 psychological factors that could affect criminal personality

Answer 1

-extraversion
-neuroticism
-psychotic

Question 2

how does extraversion lead to crimanality

Answer 2

-extraversion is the overall level of arousal in a persons nervous system
-extraverts have an underactive nervous systems which means they constantly seek arousal
-high extraverts are sensation seekers and thrill may draw the to offending behaviour

Question 3

how does neuroticism lead to criminality

Answer 3

-determined by the reactivity of the sympathetic nervous system people who are neurotic are very reactive to stress, there fight or flight response is easily activated
-they experience a high level of emotion meaning they are more likely to commit a crime in an emotionally charged situation

Question 4

how does psychotic lead to criminality

Answer 4

-higher levels of testosterone mean you are unemotional and prone to aggression
-individuals who score high on psychotic are more agressive and lack conscious-concern for other wont prevent them from commiting the crime

Question 5

supporting evidence for eysenks

Answer 5

eysensk and eysemks found male prisoners scored higher on EPI tests on N, P and E compared to controls
-only males-beta biased
-clear cause and effect conclusions

Question 6

opposing evidence for eysenks

Answer 6

digman said the theory is outdated and lacks temporal valdity
his 5 factor model suggests there are other factors eg-agreeableness and consciosuness that contribute to having a criminal personality

Question 7

explain level of moral reasoning explanation

Answer 7

-kohlburg said childrens moral reasoning becomes more advanced as we mature
-base don boys who were given a series of moral dilemas which they were then asked questions about

Question 8

what are the 3 stages of moral reasoning

Answer 8

pre-conventional
conventional
post-conventional

Question 9

what does the pre-conventional stage suggest

Answer 9

-actions that result in punishment are bad
-actions that bring rewards are good

stage 1-punishment oreintation-rules are obeyed to avoid punishment

stage 2-instrumental orientation-right and wrong are determined by whats best for the individual.

Question 10

what is the conventional stage

Answer 10

-conformityto social roles is desirable though this is no longer driven out of self interest. Maintaining the social system ensures positive relationships and social order

stage 3-good boy/good girl orientation-rules are obeyed through social approval

stage 4-mainatenance of social order-rules are obeyed to maintained social order

Question 11

what is the post-conventional stage

Answer 11

-morality is now defined in terms of abstract moral principles that apply to all systems and societies

stage 5-morality of contracts and individual rights-rules are obeyed if they are imapartial and challenged if they infringe on the rights of others

stage 6-morality of conscious-rules based on a universal set of principles

Question 12

where does this suggest criminals may fall in terms of moral development

Answer 12

-criminals show a lower level of moral reasoning that non-criminals
-criminals are likely to be classified at the pre-conventional stage
-pre-conventional stage is associated with less mature and childlike reasoning
-people at this level may commit crime if they think it will go unpunished or gain them reward

Question 13

supporting evidence for kolenburgs theory

Answer 13

kohlburg used the moral dillema technique and found that violent youths were significantly lower in there moral development then non-violent youths.
this was the case even afte controlling for social background.

Question 14

what is some more supporting evidence for kohlburgs theory

Answer 14

palmer and hollin compared the moral reasoning of female and male non-offender and convicted offenders using 11 moral dillemas eg-keeping promises to a friend and found that offender had less mature moral reasoning

-more ecologically valid as it used more realistic dillemas

Question 15

opposing evidence for kohlburgs moral reasoning

Answer 15

langton suggested intelligence was a better predictor of criminality and that moral reasoning was too simplistic.

Question 16

what are some debates regarding kohlburgs moral reasoning

Answer 16

-gender biased-androcentric
-only used a sample of boys aged 10-16
-cannot be applied to females
-however prison population is mainly male

Question 17

what are cognitive distortions and what are the 2 types

Answer 17

-bias in the way an individuals perceives a situation so there interpretation doesn’t match reality

-minimisation
-hostile attribution bias

Question 18

what is minimisation

Answer 18

downplaying the seriousness of an offense
they are likely to explain the consequences as less significant then they are

Question 19

what is hostile attribution bias

Answer 19

misinterpretation of other peoples behaviour
offender are more likely to interpret ambigious or neutral behaviour as hostile

Question 20

what is some supporting evidence for minimilisation

Answer 20

barbaree-found among 26 incarcerated rapisits
54% denied that they had commited any offense
40% minimised any harm they had caused to their victim.
-however this result is only for serious crime-may not be applicable to petty crime

Question 21

what is some suppporting evidence for hostile attribution bias

Answer 21

Justye-showed 55 violent offenders images of emotionally ambigous facial expressions
when compared to a control group the violent offender interpreted the image as violent an hostile

Question 22

practical applications of cognitive theories

Answer 22

-use CBT for the rehabilitation of young offender
-Heller found in a group of disadvantaged young men that those who attended CBT for 1hour a week noticed a 44% reduction in offenses

Question 23

what is differential association theory and which 2 factors does it arrise from

Answer 23

individuals learn the attitudes, behaviour and values that lead them to commit crime as they interact with people who have a more favourable attitude towards crime

-learned attitude towards crime
-learning of specific criminal acts

Question 24

what is learned attitude towards crime

Answer 24

when an individuals is socialised into a group they will be exposed to pro-criminal attitudes
they will learn that certain crimes are acceptable and other are not

Question 25

what is learning of specific acts

Answer 25

individuals need to learn specific techniques for committing crime
-may be through observational learning or direct tutoring
this explains wh individuals who are released from prison go onto reoffend as they are likely to have learnt new techniques from prison inmates.

Question 26

what is some supporting evidence for differential association theory

Answer 26

farrington conducted a longitiudinal study of offending which began when they were 8y old they were all from a deprived city in london
41% were convicted of atleast 1 offence by the age of 50
common risk factors including poverty
-they learned the crimes through socialisisation

Question 27

more supporting evidence for differential association theory

Answer 27

osborne and west found that when there is a father with criminal convictions
40% of sons had commited a crime
13% of non-criminal fathers
-however could be due to shared genetics

Question 28

how is the differential association theory useful

Answer 28

-shifts the blame away from the individual and onto social factors
more useful applications as social factors can be changed

-however Social learning can only account for smaller crimes not larger ones eg-murder. however, smaller crimes account for a bigger percentage of crimes so can be used to explain most crimes

-we can rehabilitate offenders through changing there social surrounding

Question 29

what are some psychodynamic explanations of offending behaviour

Answer 29

focuses on the impact of early childhood experience and how they effect behaviour.

Question 30

which part of the tripartitie structure is responsible for offending behaviour

Answer 30

superego-this is the morality principle that focuses on doing the right thing

Question 31

supporting evidence for a weak superego causing criminal behaviour

Answer 31

bickman said if an individual has a deficiant superego then their conscious has not properly developed which may cause criminal behaviour.

Question 32

why might a child develop a weak superego

Answer 32

absence of same sex parent during the phallic stage which means they are not able to identify with the same sex parent
this means the superego doesnt punish the child through guilt.

Question 33

why might a child develop a deviant super ego

Answer 33

if the child internalises the morals of a criminal same sex parent

Question 34

why might a child develop a overly harsh superego

Answer 34

they may have identified with an extremely strict same sex parent
this means the individual experiences excessive guilt and anxiety and may commit crime in order to be punished and remove the feelings of excessive guilt and anxiety.

Question 35

which defence mechanisms could explain offending

Answer 35

displacement

Question 36

how could maternal deprivation explain offending behaviour

Answer 36

lack of mother in critical period
leads to
-affectionless psychopathy
-lack of internal working model-dont know how to behave

Question 37

supporting evidence for ap

Answer 37

bowlbys thives
32% af-86% md
68% nap-17% md

-rutter said it may have been the result of privation rather than deprivation-methodogical flaws

Question 38

what type of bias did freud display

Answer 38

alpha bias
-freud said girls have weaker superego as they dont identify as strongly with same sex parent

-so the implications of this is that women should be more prone to offending behaviour but they are not

Question 39

what is some research challeneging the psychodynamic explanation

Answer 39

hoffman-hardly found any gender differences and when there was little girls tendended to be more moral than little boys
goes against freuds theory

Question 40

opposing evidence for superego

Answer 40

superego cannot be empirically tested so lack falsifiablility

Question 41

why is the superego explanation incomplete

Answer 41

some individuals experiences problems as children but didnt become criminals
-maybe bio explanantions need to be considered

-psychic determinism