Explanations of Offending- Cognitive, Psychodynamic (Forensic Psychology) Flashcards
(28 cards)
Cognitive explanations
There are ways of thinking, internal working processes about the world and moral decisions that lead to offending behaviour
Lawrence Kohlberg (cognitive)
- first researcher to apply the concept of moral reasoning to criminal behaviour
- decisions and judgements were then summarised into a stage theory of development. The higher the stage - the more sophisticated the reasoning
Kohlbergs Levels of moral reasoning
Pre Conventional
Conventional
Postconventional
Kohlberg’s pre conventional reasoning
- an action is morally wrong if the person who commits it is punished as a result
- the right behaviour is the one that is in your best interest
Kohlberg’s conventional reasoning
- the right behaviour is the
one that makes other people think positively about you - it is important to obey laws and follow social conventions because they help society to function properly
Kohlberg (1973) findings
-found criminals have a lower level of moral reasoning than others:
* criminals do not progress from the pre-conventional
and seek to avoid punishment and gain rewards and have child-like reasoning
Minimalisation
Interpreting our own behaviour as less serious than it actually is
Hostile attribution bias
Inferences on peoples internal mental states are biased, assuming negative intentions
Hollin and Palmer (1998): Level of moral reasoning supporting Kohlberg
- gave a series of moral dilemmas to a sample of male and female offenders and non-offenders aged 13-22 years old
- the offenders showed lower moral reasoning than the non-offending groups
Negative Evaluations of Kohlberg
Used hypothetical dilema tasks and due social desirability bias generalisability to real life offences is limited
(DAT) Sutherland on learning criminal acts
Criminality is a learnt response where criminals associate with other criminals
(DAT) Procriminal attitudes and effect on criminality
Criminals are socialised by people with deviant norms and values (eg crime is positive)
(DAT) Crime is a learned behaviour
Socialisation is the process that we learn values and norms as we are socialised by those around us
Differential association theory (DAT) outline
Everyone is socialised differently as we all have a unique set of people around
(DAT) Reinforced
Criminal behaviour reinforced by material rewards & expectations / approval of people we associate with
Farringtons research into DAT
longitudinal study into familial transmission of crime used a sample of boys from South London
Found that key risk factors to them turning to crime included having a convicted parent, coming from a large family living in poverty and having low educational attainment
(DAT) Offending techniques
They are passed to the next generation in our peer groups
DAT positive evaluations
Practical application - don’t put first time offenders in with experienced criminals who will reinforce behaviour and pass on techniques
Explains why people seek membership of gangs and how they become more skiled
DAT Negative Evaluation
Over-simplistic in its assertion that criminality will follow if an individual is merely exposed to more criminal than non-criminal attitudes and behaviours
Evidence is correlational, can be explained by genetic inheritance
Psychodynamic explanation for Offending
Role of the parent-child relationship in developing criminal personality & unconscious mental processes
Superego explanation
Morality principle formed in phallic stage by identifying with same sex parent
SE attempts to regulate behaviour by giving feelings of guilt and pride
What does an underdeveloped /overdeveloped/ deviant SE result in?
Under = Weak due to no identification with same sex parent
Over = too strong due to over identification, crime to satisfy need to punish self
Deviant = normal identification but parent is criminal, so behaviours imitated are criminals
Defense mechanisms
Unconscious mental processes to avoid anxiety
Denial
Rejects serious nature of crimes
