AC4.1 : Use Of Criminological Theories In Policy Development Flashcards
(17 cards)
Individualistic types of policy development
. Psychoanalysis and treatment for criminal behaviour
. Behaviour modification
. Anger management
What is Psychoanalysis and treatment for criminal behaviour?
Founded by Freud, is a treatment where the patient verbalizes their thoughts through a variety of methods. Aims to access the unconscious, repressed thoughts which are believed to have led to the criminal activity.
Does Psychoanalysis work?
- This therapy is least favored in contemporary approaches to working with offenders. It is also very time consuming and is unlikely to provide quick answers.
- Criticism comes from Blackburn who said that there are very few positives.
What is Behaviour Modification?
Focuses on techniques to extinguish undesirable behaviours and promote desirable ones. Token economy is used in prisons where a token is given for good behaviour and can be exchanged for treats (incentives).
What is anger management?
Aims to avoid violent offences taking place by people unable to control their behaviour.
What are the Biological policies?
. Neurochemicals
. Eugenics
. Death Penalty
What is Neurochemicals?
Gesch’s study, chemical castration. e.g. changing the brains chemistry by diet.
What was Gesch’s study?
Gesch made a study of 231 young adult male prisoners where they agreed to either receive a daily vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acid supplement or a placebo. A number of measures were taken before and during the tests and found that disciplinary incidents per 1,000 person days dropped from 16 to 10.4 which is a 35% decrease in the group that took the supplement, however in the placebo group dropped only 6.7%.
What was the study of Eugenics?
. Inheritance of genes could explain the presence of simple and complex human behavioral characteristics.
. Reinforces the ideas of biological determinism.
What is the death pealty?
Killing someone for a crime committed - works in US.
What are the sociological policy developments?
. Penal Populism
. Prison
. Zero Tolerance
. Restorative Justice
. CCTV
. Multi-Agency Approach
What is penal Populism?
Governments attempts at proposing laws to punish offenders that will be popular with the general public. James Bulger case.
What is prison?
Imprisonment. Concurrent - 2 or more at the same time, consecutively - one after the other, suspended - community with conditions of unpaid work, determinate - fixed length, indeterminate - no fixed length.
What is zero tolerance?
Demands that all crimes are acted on no matter how trivial they are. Favored by right realists - successful in NYC. ‘Broken windows’ theory, developed by Keeling and Wilson suggests a link between disorder and crime.
What is restorative justice?
Voluntary process involving the person who has suffered harm and the person who has caused harm. Trained facilitators work with victims and offenders to talk about what happened, who was affected and how, and what can be done to repair the harm.
What is CCTV?
Closed Circuit Television - used as evidence and to deter criminal activity.
What is Multi-Agency Approach?
Cooperation between agencies working in the Criminal Justice System is clearly very important in order to increase the risk of detecting crimes and prevent it happening in the first place. For example safeguarding.
