Explanations of Offending- Biological, Biopsychosocial (Forensic Psychology)

Question 1

Atavistic form

Answer 1

Biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to earlier species inferior to non-criminals

They will inevitably not fit in with the rules of modern society

Question 2

Lombroso’s characteristics of criminals

Answer 2

• narrow, sloping brow
• a strong, prominent jaw
• high cheekbones
• facial asymmetry
• dark skin

Question 3

Lombroso’s research

Answer 3

Lombroso examined cranial and facial features of living and dead criminals:
• 383 dead and 3839 living criminals (skulls)
• concluded that 40% of all criminal acts should be accounted for by people with atavistic characteristics

Question 4

Positive Evaluation of Lombroso

Answer 4

Father of modern criminology

Beggining of OP - criminals had set characteristics aiding the policing in narrowing down suspects

Question 5

Negative Evaluation of Lombroso

Answer 5

Findings are correlational facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors such as poverty or poor diet. Criminality such as theft could be due to environmental factors

Lombroso did not compare his sample to a non-criminal control group. Goring did with 3000 criminals and a non-criminal group and found no evidence of atavistic form in criminal group

Biologically deterministic and scienfically racist

Question 6

Genetic Explanation

Answer 6

A persons inherited DNA from their parents may predispose them to criminal behaviour

Question 7

MAOA gene

Answer 7

Warrior gene breaks down dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin

Low activity results in less MAOA to break down neurotransmitters

The more dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin in the body increases agression

Question 8

Brunner et al. 1993, large family in the Netherlands

Answer 8

• anti-social and criminal behaviour: rape, arson common in family
• lower IQ: family average IQ of 85
• causes a deficiency in MAOA- enzyme responsible for the metabolism of serotonin

Question 9

Candidate gene: Tiihonen et al. 2014

Answer 9

• genetic analysis of 900 Finnish offenders
• individuals with abnormalities of MAOA genes were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour
  —>consider cause and effect:

Question 10

Diathesis Stress Model

Answer 10

-link between genetic predisposition and biological and psychological trigger

Question 11

Neural Explanation

Answer 11

People with less developed PFC have less self control over levels of rage and aggression

Question 12

Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 12

• individuals who experience antisocial personality disorder show reduced activity in the PFC, the part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour
• Raine (2000) found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the PFC of people with APD compared to control groups

Question 13

Raine

Answer 13

• 41 NGR (not guilty for reasons of insanity) and 41 controls
• significant reduction in the activity of the PFC compared to the control group
• later found an 11% reduction in the size of the PFC in people with ADP

Question 14

Raine negative evaluations

Answer 14

Only show an association between the reduced activity in the PFC and criminal behaviour

Deterministic to say cause of criminal behaviour is due to uncontrallable biological factors - also at odd with the justice system

Socially sensitive to label people who haven’t even committed a crime

Question 15

Evaluation against genetic and neural explanations

Answer 15

• criminality is complex and genetic and neural explanations are simplistic
• Katz et al. (2007) crime does run in families but so does emotional instability, social deprivation and poverty
• no study has found 100% concordance rate between MZ twins and often they have been low

Question 16

Evaluation of biological determinism

Answer 16

• presents ethical problems for our legal system since it negates free will
• presents problems for society and implications for sentencing
  -‘the Mobley defence’

Question 17

The Criminal Personality

Answer 17

• Criminals will score highly in psychoticism - anti socials who are empathetic
  
  • neurotic-extravert personality type
  • more likely to commit crimes based on emotion and will seek dangerous activities
  • neuroticism= good indicator of criminal behaviour in older people
  • extraversion= younger people

The Criminal Personality = Extraversion + Neuroticism + Psychotism

Question 18

Conditioning

Answer 18

We learn what is good and bad behaviour

We associate socially acceptable behaviours with rewards and criminal behaviour with punishments

Question 19

Evidence for Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality

Answer 19

-Eysenck and Eysenck (1977)
* compared 2070 male prisoners scores on EPI with 2422 male controls
* they were sub-divided into age groups 16-69 years
* across all age groups prisoners recorded higher scores than controls for P, E and N

Question 20

Evaluation of criminal personality: cultural bias

Answer 20

Bartol and Holanchock (1979)
* studied Hispanic and African-American prisoners in a high-security prison
* 6 groups - based on criminal history
* compared against a non-criminal control group
* all found to be less extravert than a non-criminal control group

Question 21

Evaluation of criminal personality: biological biases

Answer 21

Biologically deterministic

Can lead to people blaming their biology for their behaviour