Criminal Psychology Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is anti-social behaviour?
- Causing harassment, alarm or distress to others.
What are some examples of anti-social behaviour?
Drunken behaviour, making hoax calls, being excessively noisy, not controlling animals, criminal damage, taking drugs, imitating other people.
What is Criminal behaviour?
Violating the established law of the country.
What are some examples of Criminal behaviour?
Stealing, murder and fraud are crimes that are against the law l and carry with them a punishment
What does biological psychology look at in criminal behaviour?
Tends to look at causes of aggression as this is likely to lead to antisocial behaviour including crime.
What does biological psychology look at in criminal behaviour?
Tends to look at causes of aggression as this is likely to lead to antisocial behaviour including crime.
What is brain injury caused by?
- accident, injury, illness, strokes, tumours, surgery.
- Brain injury can also result from long-term alcohol or drug use.
What parts of the brain may lead to someone engaging in criminal behaviour if damaged?
- An injury to the amygdala may result in an increase in impulse behaviours or irritability and aggression.
What are the consequences of brain injury?
loss of memory, loss of concentration, decreased awareness of one’s own or others emotional state, poor impulse control, poor social judgement.
What is the prevalence of brain injury in general population?
less than 10%
What have studies from across the world typically shown is the percentage in offender population?
50-80%
What has TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) been linked to?
- Most frequently in young people
- Males more than females
- Deprives socio-economic groups
- Urban areas
- Alcohol and drug use
Who is Williams et al (2010)?
- He found that 60% of 196 prisoners investigated had received some form of traumatic brain injury due to falling, car accidents, and sports activities.
- Adults with traumatic brain injuries were relatively younger at the time of entry into the prison system than those without brain injury, and were more likely to reoffend.
- They suggested these injuries affect social judgement and impulsive behaviour and are also linked with more risk-taking behaviour.
What does temperance mean?
self-restraint (so more likely to drink heavily, take drugs).
What can we conclude from Williams et al (2010) investigation?
That there is an association between brain injury and criminality, which could be a factor in some offences.
What can we conclude from Kreutzer et al (1990)?
Some types of brain injury may actually reduce risk of criminal behaviour e.g strokes, injury to areas of the brain involves involved in motor and sensory control.
What is the amygdala responsible for?
Controlling human emotions
What would happen if damage happen to the amygdala?
Result in a a lack of emotion or in excessive emotion, as they cannot control them.
How can we link damage to the amygdala to crime?
- the amygdala is involved in our perception of emotion in others (anger, fear, and sadness) and for controlling our aggression.
- it receives messages from the cerebral cortex and the thalamus about the outside environment.
- it accesses memories to ascertain the environment is threshing or desirable
- the amygdala triggers the fear response and a state of arousal.
What did Pardini et al (2014) discover?
That individuals diagnosed with psychopathic personalities and also individuals with higher levels of aggression, have smaller amygdalae.
What does Pardini et al (2014) conclude from their discovery?
- that individuals with smaller amygdalae were three times more likely than those with larger amygdalae to exhibit aggression,violence and psychopathic features three years later.
- suggesting that amygdalae size can predict future violence.
What is Cannon and Britton (1925): Sham Rage about?
-‘Sham rage’ is an emotional state found in animals.
- They severed the neural connections to the cortex in cats.
- when provoked, these cats showed signs of rage and aggression (i.e. erect hair, growling, baring teeth).
What was Raine et al 1997 aim?
To investigate differences in the brain structure of murderers and control participants.
What method did Raine et al 1997 use?
- he studied 41 murderers who had pleaded ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’
- had a range of mental illnesses including schizophrenia.
- included matches groups as control (age, gender, ethnicity)
- all participants had tracer injected into their body which attached itself to glucose molecules, which then showed brain activity in different areas of the brain in a PET scan.
