Ch 9. Psychological Theories of Crime

Question 1

Examines criminality through theories of personality or learning that account for a person’s behaviour in a specific situation

Answer 1

Psychological Theories of Crime

Question 2

What two assumptions does most psychological theories have?

Answer 2

1. Assumption of offender deficit (psychologically wrong w the offender)
2. Assumption of discriminating traits (offenders and non-offenders have different traits)

Question 3

Community Psychology 4 levels of analysis

Answer 3

1. Individual Level
2. Small Group Level
3. Organizational Level
4. Institutional/Community Level

Social problems are defined as individual deficits, created by group functioning deficits, problems in organization, or created by institutions.

Question 4

Associated with Freud (though he did not apply his theory to criminality).

Crime happens because of Neurosis. Individuals who commit crimes feels guilt/anxiety and uses punishment to elevate this feeling (warren + hiderland)

Answer 4

Psychoanalytic Theory

Question 5

What are the five stages of psychoanalytic theory where people seek pleasure/pain?

Answer 5

1. Oral
2. Anal
3. Phallic
4. Latency
5. Genital

Question 6

What are the three forces of personality in the psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 6

1. ID: Biological/Instinctual needs
2. EGO: regulates the id and superego
3. SUPEREGO: conscience/moral principles internalized from society

Question 7

(psychoanalytic theory)
Crime results when the ego and superego are unable to control…

Answer 7

…the primitive, aggressive, antisocial instincts of the id.

Question 8

(psychoanalytic theory) Criminality is caused by a person’s failure to progress the…

Answer 8

… ego and superego satisfactory through the early stages of development, making the individual is susceptible to antisocial behavior

Question 9

Seeks to understand human behaviour from a Darwinian perspective of natural selection.

Answer 9

Evolutionary Theory

Question 10

1. It normalizes and excuses criminal behaviour.
2. It is too deterministic.
3. The explanations are hypothetical, given our lack of knowledge of early human behaviour.

Answer 10

Critiques of evolutionary theory

Question 11

Criminal behaviour understood by focusing on how we develop (or fail to develop) a sense of morality and responsibility. Jean Piaget (1932) is a big contributor to this theory.

Answer 11

Theories of Moral Development

Question 12

1. Preconventional: driven by rewards/punishment
2. Conventional: accepts/upholds rules of society - conformity
3. Postconventional: critically examines customs/rules of society. Few attain this.

Answer 12

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Question 13

Rewards and Punishments can increase the probability of a given response. Reward reinforces a behaviour while punishment weakens a behaviour. B.F. Skinner

Answer 13

Operant Conditioning

Question 14

Diagnostic Label: a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood (3%M 1%F)

Answer 14

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Question 15

Antisocial Personality Disorder is not…

Answer 15

…mental illness.

Question 16

The prevalence of mental disorder among those in correctional facilities is greater…

Answer 16

…than in the general population. Having said that, most people with mental illnesses do not commit a crime, and the assumption that all crime is a symptom of mental illness is wrong.

Question 17

In recent years, there has been an increased involvement of those with mental illness in the…

Answer 17

…CJS. Police are increasingly encountering mentally ill individuals.

Question 18

what are the two most common mental illness related to crime?

Answer 18

Schizophrenia
Substance Abuse

Question 19

In 1999 the Supreme Court of Canada laid the foundation for…

Answer 19

….NCRMD (not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder)

Question 20

Unable to present a defence during the proceedings due to mental disorder. Based on the inability to understand the nature or object of proceedings, understand the possible consequences of the proceedings, or communicate with counsel.

Answer 20

unfit to stand trial

(they are unable to receive an absolute discharge.)

Question 21

• Makes a strong case for a situational approach to understanding criminal behaviour
• argues for less focus on defective properties of the individual
• places more emphasis on situational pathologies or environmental stressors that may alter an offender’s psychological state

Answer 21

Psychological Theories of Crime

Question 22

research focused on the moral lives of children.

1. Young children are egocentric
2. 11-12 stage of cooperation

he concluded that schools should teach moral reasoning by allowing students to work out the rules through problem-solving in the classroom.

Answer 22

Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

Question 23

What does the Evolutionary Theory refer to, to account for high rate of criminal offending among young men?

Answer 23

Reproductive Fitness Variance (range of possible offspring one can produce). Men are less risk-averse than women, esp during late adolescent and early adulthood years when competition for mates is most intense.

Question 24

Personality theories are based on ideas of classical conditioning which says that deviant behaviour is inherently…

Answer 24

…reinforcing, so children will only refrain if punished. (punishment = deterrence)

Question 25

Eysenck’s theory of crime and personality says that which three traits in an individual make them more likely to be delinquent/criminal?

Answer 25

Extroversion (excitement/impulsiveness/weak conscience)
Neuroticism: difficult to condition positively
Psychoncism: violence

Question 26

The central concept to this theory is cognitive functioning: the ability to think & make choices and how people learn new behaviours through modeling

Answer 26

Social Learning Theory

Question 27

From Social Learning Theory, Bandura said that aggression is learned from what three sources?

Answer 27

Family
Subcultural Influences
Symbolic Modelling