Forensic Psychology

Question 1

Defining Crime

Answer 1

• Crime is an action that breaks the law and therefore warrants some form of punishment.

Issues with defining crime

1. Cultural. Definitions of what constitutes as a crime vary across cultures. This is due to socially accepted norms of behaviour being different.
   > For example, some countries accept that a man can marry more than one woman, therefore having several wives. However, the UK sees this as a crime, known as bigamy.
2. Historical. The legal system changes its laws over time.
   > For example, homosexuality along with homosexual acts were legal until 1967. This meant homosexuals were prosecuted and put into prisons.
3. Age. There is a certain age of which a child will realise the difference between right and wrong. The age of criminal responsibility varies from counties. In the UK it is 10 but it used to be 8 in 1963.
4. Circumstantial. It is argued that the law is clear and there should be no other factors.
   > Actus Reus is an act that constitutes as a crime
   > Mens Rea is the intention to commit the act. Depends on the situation. Could be a forced crime, self-defense, war crimes or mental instability.

Question 2

Measuring Crime

Answer 2

• In order to deal with crime and form government policies, we need to know how much crime is actually committed. For that, we need to collect data.

1. Official Statistics. The Government produces official crime statistics which is based upon any incident reports by the police.
   > The Crime Survey for England and Wales consists of face to face surveys, asking residents (from a range of age groups) about their experience of a range of crimes in the past year.

Strength: They offer the opportunity to identify trends in crime over time. For example, they show that crime has sharply increased from the1950s until the early 1990s, and has fluctuated since then.

Weakness: It would not be valid to state that crime figures have lowered as this is falsifiable information. This is because not all crimes have been reported. For example, the rates of possession of weapons may not be accurate due to not all cases being discovered.

2. Victim Surveys consists of asking people to identify which crimes have been committed against them. The sample consists of 50,000 households, interviewing those of a variety of ages. The sample is selected from the Royal Mail’s list of addresses. The interviews have a fixed set of questions.

Weakness: the number of crimes that can be reported per person is capped at 5 per year. This may lead to an underestimate of the actual crime. For example, in the case of domestic abuse, an individual may experience more than 5 incidents but they would not be reported.

Weakness: there are issues with sampling. Random sampling aims to identify a representative sample but only 75% of those contacted take part means that the final sample is biased. People who are willing to respond may be those with time on their hands and have an interest in upholding the law

3. Offender Surveys - Offending, Crime and Justice Survey consist of questioning offenders. This increases knowledge about young people and criminal behaviour. The questions sought to produce information about the extent of offending, anti-social behaviour and drug use.

Weakness: offender survey is a self-report method, therefore, it is subject to problems such as lack of accuracy in answers. People may underplay their criminal involvement and their other behaviours

Question 3

Offender Profiling: Top down approach

Answer 3

• Offender Profiling: A method of working out the features of an offender by examining the elements of the crime and the crime scene.
• Top-down approach: an analysis of previous crimes that creates a profile of a likely offender. This is used to narrow the field of possible suspects.

There are six main stages in the top-down process

1. Profiling inputs.
   The data collected includes a description of the crime and crime scene, background information about the victim. All details, even trivial, should be included.
2. Decision process models.
   The profiler starts making decisions about the data and organises it into meaningful patterns. E.g. murder type (mass, spree or serial), time factors and location factors
   > Mass murder:
   > Murder spree: a number of people are killed at one time
   > Serial murder: a number of people are killed over a period of time
3. Crime assessment.
   Based on the data collected, the crime is classified as organised or disorganised.
   > Organised: planned crime, the victim is specifically targeted, the weapon is hidden, body transported from the crime scene, violent fantasies are acted out on the victim. Offenders are intelligent and are socially and sexually competent.
   Disorganised: (opposite to above)
4. The criminal profile includes a hypothesis about their likely background, habits and beliefs. This is used to help catch the offender. It is important to anticipate how this person will respond to investigator effects.
5. Crime assessment.
   A written report is given to the investigating agency. The people matching the profile are evaluated. If new evidence is generated and no suspect is identified then the process goes back to step two.
6. Apprehension.
   If the suspect is apprehended, the entire profile generating process is reviewed the check that each stage the conclusions made were legitimate and consider how the process may be revised for future cases.

Evaluation

1. The case study of Arthur Shawcross.
   Prior convictions: he had been arrested and imprisoned for 25 years for murdering a ten-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl in 1972. He served 15 years and was released in 1987. In 1988 string of murders began. 11 prostitutes were targeted over a two-year period. Victims were strangled, beaten and mutilated.
   McCrary and Grant were brought in to help with the investigation. They used the top-down approach to generate this profile: white male, late 20s early 30s, previous offender of violent crimes, low paid job, keen on hunting and fishing. The murderer had started to leave the bodies and come back to them later on to mutilate them. Police decided to find a body before this happened and survey the area in order to catch him. Shawcross eventually returned to the scene and was arrested. He fit the profile almost perfectly.
   >this case study cannot support the effectiveness of the top-down approach because it was based on one person. this means that it lacks validity because we cannot generalise findings.
2. Flawed method
   The original data on which the organised/disorganised classification based came from interviews from 36 of the most dangerous and sexually motivated murderers. The data was used to identify the key features that would help police read a crime scene. This in itself is dubious because such individuals are manipulative are not likely to be the best source of reliable information. Also, their approach may be quite different to more ‘typical offenders’
3. Is the method useful?
   Police who have used FBI methods believe it is useful. Copson (1995) questioned 184 US police officers, of whom 82% said the technique was operationally useful and over 90% said they would use it again.
   The technique may not result in an actual identification of the offender, but Scherer and Jarvis (2014) defend the use of this approach by looking at other potential contributions beyond the identification of the offender.
4. Deterministic. Might not always be possible to classify offenders into two clear-cut categories. Very deterministic to presume a criminal will fall neatly into one of the categories. Unexpected events may happen during the crime which causes the offender to escalate to different patterns of events.
5. Potential harm caused by using the top-down approach.
   The believability of profiles based on the top-down approach might be explained in terms of the Barnum effect - ambiguous descriptions can be made to fit any situation. This might be acceptable if it were not for the fact that profiling has the potential to cause harm because profiles may mislead investigations if they are wrong.
6. Distinguishing between dis/organised offender
   Turvey (1999) suggests that the division is false as it is more likely to be a continuum rather than two distinct categories. This is further supported by the fact that the descriptions may be generalisations as they use phrases such as ‘tends to be’ and thus have little utility.
   One solution proposed by Douglas et al (2002) was to have a third category called the mixed offender. However, this would lessen the usefulness of the classification.

Question 4

The Bottom Up Approach

Answer 4

• David Canter created the Bottom-Up approach to offender profiling. This method is used in the UK and it based on the use of statistical techniques rather than fixed typologies

Investigative Psychology

1. Interpersonal Coherence
   People are consistent in their behaviour so there will be correlations with elements of the crime and how people behave in everyday life.
2. Forensic Awareness
   This looks at how aware the criminal is with forensic investigations. The cleaner the crime scene the more likely the crime was committed by an experienced criminal
3. Smallest Space Analysis
   This is a statistical technique. Data about crime scenes and offender characteristics are correlated and analysed to produce an underlying theme.

Geographical Profiling: analyses the locations of a connected series of crimes and considers where the crime was committed.

1. Circle Theory
   Canter and Larkin (1993) proposed that most offenders have a spatial mindset - they commit their crimes within an imagined circle
   > Marauder - the offenders’ home is within the geographical area in which crimes are committed.
   > Commuter - the offender travels to another geographical area and commits crimes within a defined space around which a circle can be drawn
2. Criminal Geographic Targeting
   This is a computerised system developed by Rossmo and is based on his formula. The formula produces a three-dimensional map displaying spatial data related to time, distance and movement to and from crime scenes. The map is called jeopardy surface.

Evaluation

1. Scientific Basis
   This approach has the potential to be objective and systematic but in practice, they are inevitably biased. This is shown in computer programming. Someone has to develop the formula that is used and these may be incorrect. For example, the jeopardy surface is based on Rossmo’s formula, which has been criticised.
2. Copson (1995) surveyed 48 UK police forces using investigative profiling and found that over 75% of them said that profiler’s advice has been useful. However, only 3% said that the advice had helped identify the actual offender. This suggests that the method may not be that useful in actually catching offenders.
3. Canter and Larkin (1993) studied 45 sexual assaults and showed support for their model by distinguishing between marauders and commuters. However, 91% of the offenders were marauders. If almost all the offenders were marauders, then the classification doesn’t seem useful.
4. Generalisability
   This approach is questionable as to whether it is applicable to all types of crimes as it relies on patterns of behaviour across perpetrators. It is mainly useful for crimes such as robbery and sexual assault. This approach, therefore, lacks ecological validity.
5. One issue with geographical profiling is that it cannot distinguish between multiple offenders in the same area, and also the method is simply limited to spatial behaviour (not any personality characteristics)
6. A case study of 21-year-old Rachel Nickell. She was stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted. Her 2-year-old son was the only witness. Paul Britton, a leading criminal profiler targeted a man named Colin Stagg. After going to court Colin was found not guilty. In 2008, using new DNA testing emerged that it was Robert Napper who had committed the murder. He was in fact removed from the potential suspect list due to being slightly taller than stated in Britton’s criminal profile. This shows that the technique cannot reliably identify an offender.

Question 5

Biological Explanation of Offending Behaviour: A Historical Approach

Answer 5

• Lombroso proposed the Atavistic Form theory which is an explanation of criminal behaviour.
• This theory is suggesting that certain individuals are born with criminal personality and this innate personality is a throwback to earlier to primate forms

1. Empirical Evidence
   Lombroso based his theory on his own research using post-mortem examinations of criminals and studying the faces of living criminals. He made precise measurements of skulls and other physiological characteristics. This is called Anthropometry.
2. Environmental Influences
   Lombroso later recognised that it was unlikely that only one factor would be the cause of criminality. He proposed that inherited atavistic form interacted with a person’s physical and social environment.

* This led Lombroso to distinguish between three types of criminals 
> Born Criminals: the atavistic type. 
> Insane Criminals: suffering from mental illnesses.
> Criminaloids: a large class of offenders whose mental characteristics predisposed them to criminal behaviour under the right circumstances. 

The Somatotypes theory: criminal types that are based on body shapes.
Kretschmer (1921) suggested that there were four types. This classification was based on his own studies of over 4000 criminals.
> Leptosome: tall and thin, petty thieves
> Athletic: tall and muscular, crimes of violence
> Pyknic: short and fat, commit crimes of deception and sometimes violence.
> Mixed: more than one type, crimes against morality.

Evaluation

1. Gender Bias
   Lombroso did not study women at all but believed women were less evolved than men. They were naturally jealous and insensitive to pain but they were also passive, had a maternal instinct and low in intelligence - all of which neutralised their negative traits and meant they were less likely to be criminals. Those women who were criminals had, according to Lombroso, masculine traits which created a ‘monster’
2. William Sheldon (1949) created a similar set of somatotypes which was based on his own study of 200 young adults. He concluded that there were differences between delinquents and non-delinquents in terms of body type. This supports the notion of innate criminal types identified by their physical features.
3. Contribution to the science of Criminology
   Prior to Lombroso’s work, the ‘classical school’ studied crime but not the criminal and assumed that crime was a choice (free will) which could be deterred if punished. Lombroso believed in a less harsh treatment for criminals and a more humane view that both biology and environment may remove the option of free will. He also felt that an evidence-based approach was required. He based his ideas on empirical observation and detailed measurement. His methods, therefore, raised the possibility of scientific studies of the criminal mind.
4. The key failure in Lombroso’s research was the lack of adequate controls. When he studied prisoners he did not pay the same kind attention to non-prisoners. Had he done so, it is likely that he would have found as many non-prisoners with the same characteristics as he found in prisoners. Goring (1913) compared 3000 convicts with a group of non-convicts and found no differences between the groups other than convicts were slightly smaller.
5. The sample for such research is likely to have contained a large number of people with psychological disorders and chromosomal abnormalities, so he has not distinguished adequately between criminality and pathology. This means the sample could have a chance of bias, therefore, he cannot generalise findings in a credible way.
6. Putwain and Sammons (2002) argued that criminality could be caused by high testosterone levels meaning people could react to mesomorphs in ways that increase their risk of criminal behaviour. Mesomorphs could be drawn into delinquent activities by their peer groups due to stereotypes people hold; the judicial system could treat them more harshly, increasing the likelihood that they are labelled as a criminal. This disproves Lombroso’s theory, stating that there is a small association between bodily build and criminality but it is not the main factor.

Question 6

Biological Explanation of Offending Behaviour: Genetic and Neural

Answer 6

• Genetic explanation is the likelihood of behaving in a particular way that is determined by a person’s genetic makeup
• Candidate gene: Any gene thought likely to cause a disease

1. Searching for Candidate genes
   > Brunner et al (1993) analysed the DNA of 28 male members of a Dutch family who had histories of impulsive and violent criminal behaviours. They found that they shared a particular gene that led to abnormally low levels of MAOA
   > Tiihonen et al (2015) conducted research on 900 offenders and found evidence of low MAOA activity and also low activity from the CDH13. They estimated that 5-10% of all violent crimes in Finland is due to abnormalities in one of these two genes.
2. Diathesis-Stress
   Epigenetics proposes an interplay where genes are switched on and off based on environmental factors. One possibility is maltreatment in childhood

• Neural explanations involve areas of the brain and nervous system and the action of neurotransmitters in controlling behaviour

1. Regions of the brain
   > The Prefrontal Cortex. Raine (2004) cited 71 brain imaging studies showing that murderers, psychopaths and violent individuals have reduced function in the Prefrontal Cortex. This area of the brain is involved in regulating emotion and controlling moral behaviour. Lowered activity in this area is now associated with impulsiveness and loss of control
   > The Limbic system is a set of subcortical structures that are linked to emotion and motivation. Raine et al (1997) studied murderers who were found not guilty by reason of insanity. Compared with matched controls, they found abnormal asymmetries in the limbic system of the murderers.
2. Neurotransmitters
   > Serotonin. Researchers suggest that low levels of serotonin may predispose individuals to impulsive aggression and criminal behaviour because this neurotransmitter inhibits the prefrontal cortex.
   > Noradrenaline. Both very high and low levels of this neurotransmitter have been associated with aggression, violence and criminality. High levels of noradrenaline are associated with the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the fight-or-flight response and thus are linked to aggression.

Evaluation

1. Caspi et al (2002) used data from the longitudinal Dunedin study that has followed 1000 people from when they were babies in the 1970s. They assessed anti-social behaviour at age 26 and found that 12% of those men with low MAOA genes had experienced maltreatment when they were babies but were responsible got 44% violent convictions
   > This study supports diathesis-stress model as they were found with the candidate gene of MAOA but it might have been the maltreatment that triggered criminal behaviour
2. Crowe (1972) found that adopted children who had a biological parent with a criminal record had a 50% greater risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18. However, those whose mother did not have a criminal record only had a 5% risk. This study supports the concept that genes may cause individuals to have a predisposition to certain behaviours
3. Blonigen et al (2005) found support for a genetic basis for Psychopathy by looking at over 600 male and female twins. This study shows that genetic and neural explanations can also explain non-violent such Psychopathy
4. Neural explanations raise concerns about Determinism. It is unclear whether abnormalities in regions of the brain or levels of neurotransmitters are the cause of offending behaviour, the result of it or an intervening variable. Research only highlights a correlation between head injuries and later criminality. It is possible that is just an artificial relationship.
5. Real-world applications
   One benefit of research on neural abnormalities is that it could lead to possible methods of treatment. For example, if low levels of serotonin cause increased aggressiveness in criminals, then people in prison could be given diets that would enhance their serotonin levels and hopefully decrease their aggression.
6. Research on neurotransmitters often relies on studies of non-human animals. In such cases, it is not criminality that is being studied but aggressiveness, as is also the case in many of the human studies. This undermines the potential relevance of such information for understanding offending behaviour. Therefore, there is not 100% correspondence with any area of the brain or neurotransmitter so the data cannot be used to predict who might become an offender or who might not.

Question 7

Psychological Explanations of Offending Behaviour: Eysenck’s Theory

Answer 7

• Eysenck developed a theory of personality based on the idea that character traits tend to cluster in three dimensions.

The three dimensions are

1. Extraversion-introversion: outgoing, having positive emotions but may get bored easily

> Extraversion is determined by the overall level of arousal in a person’s nervous system. Extraverts seek external stimulation to increase their cortical arousal. Introverts are innately over-aroused and thus seek to reduce or avoid stimulation
Linking to criminal behaviour Extraverts seek more arousal and thus engage in dangerous activities

2. Neuroticism-stability: people who tend to experience negative emotions rather than positive ones.

> Neuroticism is determined by the level of stability in the sympathetic nervous system. A Neurotic person is someone is slightly unstable and gets upset quickly. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the stable personality are more unreactive and keep calm under pressure
Linking to criminal behaviour Neurotics are unstable and therefore prone to over-react to situations of threat, which could explain some criminal activity.

3. Psychoticism-normality: these people are egocentric, aggressive, impulsive and they lack empathy.

> Psychoticism has been related to higher levels of testosterone, which means that men are more likely to be found at this end of the spectrum.
Linking to criminal behaviour Psychotics are aggressive and lack empathy.

• Eysenck explained criminality in terms of the outcome between an innate personality and socialisation. A person is born with certain personality traits, but interaction with the environment is key in the development of criminality.
• The personality test “Eysenck Personality Questionnaire” assesses an individual’s personality. Each of these dimensions is normally distributed. So 68% of any population would fall within one standard deviation from the mean.
  1. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977) argue that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modelling. This contradicts Eysenck’s theory because this theory can explain how individuals can be led to behave in a ‘criminal manner’.
  2. This theory suggests that personality is consistent. However, many psychologists support a situational perspective, suggesting that people may be consistent in similar situations but not in all situations. Mischel and Peake (1982) asked family, friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations and found almost no correlation between traits displayed. This means that the notion of criminal personality is flawed because people simply don’t have one personality.

3. Dunlop et al (2012) found that both extraversion and psychoticism were good predictors of delinquency. Also, delinquency was an assessment of minor offences in the previous 12 months. This supports the link between personality and criminal behaviour.
   > However, in this study participants, were all students meaning findings cannot be generalised to a wider population. This study lacks population validity.
4. Moffitt (1993) proposed that there are two main types of antisocial offenders in society. First is the adolescence-limited offender, who exhibit antisocial behaviour only during adolescence. The second is the life-course-persistent offender, who begin to behave antisocially early in childhood and continue this behaviour into adulthood
   > This theory is used with respect to antisocial behaviour instead of crime due to the differing definitions of ‘crime’ among cultures.
5. Beta Bias. This theory ignores the differences between the genders. Hormones and biological structures could have a significant effect on behaviour.
6. Self-report measures. Eysenck used questionnaires to prove his theory. This could bring social desirability bias therfore findings cannot be deemed as credible. Also, this method is not scientific.
7. This theory is Deterministic. Eysenck is suggesting that if an individual falls into one of the personality traits that they will behave in a set way. This means individuals don’t have the free will. Their personality predisposes them to behave in a set way.

Question 8

Psychological Explanations of Offending Behaviour: Cognitive

Answer 8

• Cognitive Distortion is a form of irrational thinking. This results in a person’s perception of events being wrong but they think it is accurate.

1. Hostile Distribution Bias
   This is when someone has an inclination towards always thinking the worst. Linking to criminality, hostile distribution bias is most likely to be linked to increased levels of aggression.
2. Minimalisation
   This is when cognitive distortions of a situation are under-exaggerated.
   > In the case of criminal behaviour, minimalisation can explain how an offender may reduce any negative interpretation of their behaviour before and after a crime has been committed. This helps the offender accept the consequences of their actions and means that negative emotions can be reduced.
3. Casual Attribution
   Blaming other people for your behaviour. Not taking responsibility and having an external locus of control.
4. Egocentric Bias.
   Emphasis on your own needs than the needs of other people (Gibbs 1993)

• Level of Moral Reasoning proposed by Kohlberg.

> Criminals are likely to be at the pre-conventional level. They believe that breaking the law is justified if the rewards outweigh the costs or if punishment can be avoided.

> Adults at the conventional level who break the law would feel that their behaviour was justified because it helps maintain relationships or society.

Evaluation

1. Supports the idea of free will
2. Krebs and Denton (2005) found when analysing real-life moral decisions that moral principles were used to justify behaviour after it had been performed. This study clearly shows participants’ thinking leading to behaviour, unlike Kohlberg’s theory which only concerned itself with the moral thinking.
3. Androcentric. Kohlberg based his levels of moral reasoning on interviews he conducted on men and boys. This is a androcentric because this theory completely neglects women and devalues them to the point where they compare them to men. This is a weakness because there are many cognitive and biological factors that separates men and women.
4. Schonenberg and Aiste (2014) showed emotionally ambiguous faces to 55 violent offenders in prisons and compared their responses to matched control ‘normal’ participants. The faces showed a varying level of intensity of the target emotion. The offenders were more likely to interpret any picture that had some expression of anger as an expression of aggression. The researchers concluded that such misinterpretation of non-verbal cues may at least partly explain aggressive-impulsive behaviour in susceptible individuals.
5. Kennedy and Grubin (1992) found that sex offenders’ accounts of their crimes often downplayed their behaviour. For example, the offenders suggested that the victim’s behaviour contributed in some way to the crime. Some also simply denied that a crime had been committed. This supports the idea of minimalisation
6. Heller et al (2013) worked with a group of young men who were mainly from disadvantaged groups in Chicago. They used cognitive behavioural techniques to reduce judgement and decision-making errors. Those participants who attended 13 one hour sessions had a 44% reduction in arrests compared to a control group. This shows that understanding cognitive distortions can help in treatment to reduce the rate of criminal behaviour
7. These theories neglects the influence of genetics and neural explanations.

Question 9

Psychological Explanations of Offending Behaviour: Differential Association

Answer 9

• This theory focuses on how interactions with others lead to the formation of attitudes about crime, as well as acquiring specific knowledge about how to commit crimes (Social Learning). This was proposed by Sutherland (1939)

> A potential criminal is someone who has learned pro-criminal attitudes from those around them. Children will learn which particular types of crimes are acceptable and desirable within their community.
For example, they may learn that burglary is acceptable but violent crimes are not.
A child may also learn about specific methods for committing crimes. Some techniques are very complicated whereas others are very simple.

> Attitudes and behaviours are learned from intimate personal groups.
They are also learned from the wider neighbourhood. The degree to which the local community supports or opposes criminal involvement determines the differences in crime rates from one area to another.

> Sutherland suggested that the frequency, length and personal meaning of social associations will determine the degree of influence.
Sutherland did not specify the method of learning but it is likely to be both direct and indirect conditioning.
A child may be directly reinforced for abnormal behaviours through praise or may be punished for such behaviours by family and peers.
Role models would provide opportunities to show behaviours and if the role models are successful themselves in criminal activities, this would provide vicarious reinforcement

• Sutherland proposed nine key principles
  1. Criminal behaviour is learned rather than inherited
  2. It is learned through association with others
  3. This association is with intimate personal groups.
  4. What is learned are techniques and attitudes
  5. This learning is directional - either for or against crime
  6. If the number of favourable attitudes outweighs unfavourable ones, then a person becomes an offender.
  7. The learning experiences vary in frequency and intensity for each individual
  8. Criminal behaviour is learned through the same processes as any other behaviour
  9. General need is not a sufficient explanation for crime because not everyone with those needs turns to crime.

Evaluation

1. This theory is Deterministic. Sutherland states that we can learn criminal behaviour due to external causes and we have no control over that matter so it would lead individuals to commit the crime. This is a weakness because Sutherland is arguing humans have no choice in their behaviour if others have influenced their mindset.
2. Argues the Nurture side. Sutherland states that it is pure social interaction with intimate social groups that causes you to turn to crime. Sutherland ignores the biological causes of crime such as the role of neurotransmitters, hormones or impairments of regions of the brain. Also, this theory neglects the influence the media has on today’s generation and how the media affects behaviour - especially violent behaviour
3. Reductionist. This theory purely focuses on the situational attributes, not the individual characteristics. This is a weakness because you could have two individuals in exactly the same situation but there’s a level of willpower to wanting to commit the crime which this theory neglects.
4. Methodological issues. The data that was collected was correlational. This means that the data does not tell us what is the cause and effect. In terms of peer influences, it could be that offenders seek out other offenders and this ould explain why offenders are likely to have peers who are offenders.
   > Some critics argue that the theory is not testable because of the difficulty of disconnecting learned and inherited influences.
5. Osborne and West (1979) found that where there is a father with a criminal conviction 40% of the sons had committed a crime by the age of 18 compared to 13% of sons of non-criminal fathers.
   > This shows that there may be a biological influence in criminality. This study disproves Sutherland’s theory as he does not take into account biological factors.
6. Akers et al (1979) surveyed 2500 male and female adolescents in the US to investigate drinking and drug behaviour. They found that the most important influence was from peers and that differential association, differential reinforcement and imitation combined accounted for 68% of marijuana use and 55% of alcohol use.
   > This supports the theory
   > Survey - self-report method - weakness
7. A criticism is that differential association cannot explain why most offences are committed by young people. Newburn (2002) found that 40% of offences are committed by people under the age of 21.

Question 10

Psychological Explanations of Offending Behaviour: Psychodynamic

Answer 10

• Psychodynamic Explanations refers to any theory that emphasises change and development in the individual, particularly those theories where the drive is a central concept in development.
• Maternal Deprivation Theory proposed that prolonged separations between a mother and child would have long-term emotional consequences.
  > The consequences will only occur if this happens before the age of 2 and a half (critical period) and if there is no substitute mother-person available.

Explaining Delinquent Behaviour

> Bowlby worked in a Child Guidance Clinic which meant he worked with children who had been caught stealing has his patients.
He observed that a number of these delinquent thieves had experienced early and frequent separations and they also displayed signs of affectionless psychopathy.
To test this hypothesis, Bowlby compared 44 of the thieves attending his clinic with 44 control patients. He found that none of the control participants experienced early separations, whereas 39% of the thieves had experienced early separations. Also, he found that 86% of the thieves were affectionless psychopaths.

• The Superego

> The superego functions on the moral principle and causes feelings of guilt hen rules are broken.
The superego is likely to be related to offending behaviour because it is concerned with right and wrong.

There are three ways this might happen:

1. An undeveloped superego.
   > The superego developed around the age of four as an outcome of the Oedipus or Electra complex.
   > A child who does not identify with their same-sex parent or whose parent is absent develops a weak superego.
   > The consequence is that the person has little control over anti-social behaviour and is likely to act in a way that gratifies their instinctual id impulses.
2. An overdeveloped superego
   > A child may develop a strong identification with a strict parent. The consequence is excessive feelings of guilt and anxiety because any time the person did an act on id impulses, they would feel bad.
   > The individual would commit a crime with a wish to be caught and then the punishment would reduce their feelings of guilt.
3. Deviant superego
   > Normal identification with the same-sex parent means that the child takes on the same moral attitudes as that parents. In the case of children with a criminal parent, the child would then adopt the same deviant attitudes.

Evaluation

1. The psychodynamic approach is the only explanation for offending behaviour that deals with the role of emotional factors. The psychodynamic approach also includes how anxiety or feelings of the projection may contribute to offending behaviour. This is a strength because it emphasises the importance of early childhood experiences in moulding adult personality.
2. Alpha bias in Freud’s theory.
   Freud proposed that women develop a weaker superego than men because they do not identify as strongly with their same-sex parent as boys do. This is because the resolution of the Electra complex is less satisfactory and partly because Freud believed there was little reason for anyone to identify with a woman because of her lower status. Freud exaggerated the differences between the genders and devalued women.
3. Bowlby drew the conclusion from his research that the findings had implications for prevention of delinquency. Treatment of emotional problems in young delinquents is slow and difficult so he suggested that it is preferable to try to prevent the problem in the first place by preventing early separation.
4. Farrington et al (2009) conducted a 40-year longitudinal study in the UK with 400 boys from South London. The study concluded that the most important risk factors at 8-10 for later offending were: family history of criminality, risk-taking personality, low school attainment, poverty and poor parenting.
   > This shows that all the different explanations can be combined to give a clearer picture of the origins of offending behaviour
5. Bowlby’s 44 Thieves study only discovered an association between separation and emotional problems; separation was not manipulated. There may have been other variables that caused the emotional problems. For example, it might be that discord in the house caused prolonged separations between the mother and child and also caused the affectionless nature of some of the thieves. It could also be argued that affectionless psychopathy could lead to prolonged separations.
6. Methodology issues
   Bowlby conducted and designed the self-reports himself. His presence and interpretation might have influenced the outcome of the research. Bowlby’s diagnosis of AP might have been distorted by researcher confirmation bias.

Question 11

Dealing with Offending Behaviour: Custodial Sentencing and Recidivism

Answer 11

• A custodial sentence is when the court requires the offender to be held in prison or some other closed community, like a psychiatric hospital

Aims of a custodial sentence:

1. To protect the public. Putting criminals in prison is necessary in the case of violent offenders who may not be capable of controlling their behaviour so the public needs to be protected.
2. To punish an offender and prevent recidivism. A punishment should decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. It is believed by many people that the harsh punishment is the reason why they don’t commit a crime.
3. To deter others. The fact that people are given prison sentences should discourage the general population from committing crimes. If the punishment was seen as less serious, people may be willing to take the risk and break the law.
4. Retribution. The victim and their family wish to feel a sense of justice being done. The offender should be seen to pay in some way for the crime they committed.
5. To rehabilitate offenders. Some argue to prevent reoffending is through some form of therapy or education.
   * Psychological effects of custodial sentencing
6. De-individuation: a psychological state in which individuals have lowered levels of self-evaluation and decreased concerns about evaluation by others.
7. Depression, self-harm and suicide.
   Offenders entering may initially feel anxious about the whole new frightening environment, hopeless about their future and lacking in control. this may lead to self-harm and then eventually suicide
8. Lack of privacy.
   Recent data suggests that 25% of UK prisoners are in an overcrowded accommodation. This has an inevitable effect on the psychological state of prisoners
9. Effects on the family.
   Children with a mother or father in prison are deeply affected financially and psychologically. In the reverse, arents in prison may feel guilt and also feel separation anxiety.

Evaluation

1. Zimbardo et al (1973) set up a mock prison in a basement of Stanford University. They were randomly assigned the roles. 3 guards would work an 8-hour shift and 3 prisoners would share one cell. The prisoners were arrested at their homes, driven to the prison blindfolded and then were photographed, deloused and were given their prison number. Guards started behaving in a cruel and sadistic way and prisoners then started taking their 16 rules seriously. The study was terminated after 6 days instead of the planned 14.
   > This supports the idea of de-individuation because although this study was a field experiment, the male participants completely lost their identity and became one with their social role.
2. Individual differences in recidivism
   A custodial sentence may be more effective with some offenders than others. Also, rates of recidivism vary with age and crimes - younger people are more likely to re-offend and those committing crimes such as theft are more than twice as likely to re-offend than those committing drug or sexual offences.
   > This shows that sentencing should be targeted in different ways with different groups of offenders.
3. The effectiveness of punishment.
   According to behaviourist principles, punishment is most effective when it occurs immediately which does not happen in the case of custodial sentencing. An offender might actually see the sentence as a punishment for being caught rather than for the offending. This makes offenders learn to not get caught.
   > this shows that custodial sentences does not actually prevent recidivism but prevent them getting caught again.
4. Retribution is a potential benefit and it is one which can be achieved without a custodial sentence. It may be achieved through restorative justice where offenders have to make amends to their victim and may also have to face their own conscience. This offers the potential of changed attitudes towards re-offending
5. It is argued that being in prison may increase the likelihood of re-offending. According to Sutherland’s differential association theory, this would happen because offending behaviour is a consequence of increasing association with people who have pro-criminal attitudes. This affects the individual’s attitudes towards crime and provides opportunities for learning about how to be more successful at committing the crime.
6. The benefits of non-custodial sentencing
   ‘The cost of prison care mean alternatives might be preferred for certain cases. These include probation, penalties, electronic monitoring, fines and community service. Klein et al suggests cautions are more effective than deterrents than arrests and that offenders sentenced to community rehabilitation were less likely to re-offend.

Question 12

Dealing with Offending Behaviour: Behaviour Modification in Custody

Answer 12

• Behavioural modification is a therapeutic technique used to increase or decrease the frequencies of behaviour using operant conditioning.
• Token economy: a form of therapy where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcements. Tokens are given as secondary reinforcers when individuals engage in correct desirable behaviours. These tokens can then be exchanged for primary reinforcers - food or privileges.

1. Reinforcement
   > Operant conditioning involves the reinforcement of new behaviours. In a token economy, prisoners are given tokens when they perform desirable behaviours such as obeying the rules. These tokens can be used to obtain desirable goods.
   > The items purchased with the tokens act as reinforcers, increasing the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated.
   > Target behaviour must be clearly specified and there may be a hierarchy where some behaviours get more tokens than others
2. Punishment
   > A further strategy is to remove tokens because of undesirable behaviour, which would be a punishment
3. Shaping
   Longer-term objectives consisting of smaller components can be taught through the process of shaping. This is when tokens are given for behaviours that progressively get more complex

• Hobbs and Holt (1976) observed a token economy in use at Alabama boys industrial school.

Aim: they wanted to reduce inappropriate school behaviour before and after dinner when lining up.

Method:

1. The staff at the centre were given three 4 hours extensive training. This was to identify and define target behaviours, discuss methods of observing and recording data
2. 125 male delinquents were being observed living in four cottages. One cottage served as a control group where the boys did not receive tokens
3. Data was recorded on a daily chart, two supervisors recorded what each boy did in 6 categories. These were: following cottage rules, following instructions from the cottage supervisor, before dinner: following rules of completing assigned chores, after dinner: interacting with peers and line behaviour: walking in a straight line.
4. The boys were told these behavioural categories and how many tokens they were worth.

Findings:

1. The baseline mean percentages for social behaviours before the boys were given token were 66%, 47% and 73% for each category. These increased to 91, 81 and 94%.
2. The control group showed no increase in the same time period.

Evaluation

1.