How do criminal theories influence policy development?

Question 1

What are the three types of criminal theories and what are they comprised of?

Answer 1

Biological - death penalty, eugenics, and neurochemicals.

Individualistic - behaviour modification and psychoanalysis.

Sociological - CCTV, restorative justice, multi-agency approach, custodial/non-custodial sentences and zero-tolerance.

Question 2

How does the death penalty influence policy development?

Answer 2

Death penalty will reduce crime.
Biologists say that the death penalty should be used on people who are ‘born criminal’.
Lombroso believed that we should remove all criminals from society, and the death penalty is a way of doing this.
Using the death penalty will improve social order.

Question 3

What are the criticisms of the death penalty?

Answer 3

It’s apparent that we cannot determine whether someone is criminal because of their genetic makeup, or because of the environment that they were brought up in.

Lot’s of innocent people were put to death.

Statistics in the USA show that the murder rate is lower in states that do not have the death penalty than those that do. This suggests that the death penalty is not a deterrent at all.

Question 4

How does eugenics influence policy development?

Answer 4

Eugenics argue for the improvement of human genetic qualities.

Positive eugenics aims to increase the production of desired and good qualities, whereas negative eugenics aims to stop the reproduction of bad qualities, improving humanity and society.

The idea is that traits are passed down through generations. Therefore, if someone is criminal, they’re likely to pass down them traits their children. This creates a desire for higher reproduction rates for those with good traits, and lower or sterilisation for people with bad/criminal traits.

Question 5

What are the criticisms of eugenics?

Answer 5

Its unethical - Just because someone has committed a petty crime in their past, it does not mean that they shouldn’t be given the right to have children.

Cannot be sure that criminality will be passed down through generations.

Does not address the causes of crime.

Question 6

Supporting research for eugenics:

Answer 6

Research from Osburn and West in the 1970s found that 40% of boys whose fathers had criminal records had criminal records themselves, compared to jusr over 12% of boys whose fathers did not have a criminal record.

Question 7

What does neurochemicals suggest about criminality?

Answer 7

The brains chemistry can be influenced by diet, so a healthy diet can lead to a reduction in crime.

Question 8

How does psychoanalysis influence crime development?

Answer 8

Psychoanalysis is a treatment that involves the patient verbalising their thoughts through different methods. The method aims to access unconscious, repressed thoughts, which are believed to have led to the criminal activity.
Psychological problems, like trauma, are thought to be embedded in the unconscious mind, so treatment tries to bring repressed memories to the surface so they they can be dealt with.

Question 9

Criticisms of psychoanalysis: (4 reasons)

Answer 9

Very time consuming and not likely to provide quick answers.

Blackburn (1993) points out that there are very few positive evaluations of classic psychoanalysis as a treatment method with offenders.

The nature of psychoanalysis creates a power imbalance between therapist and client that could raise ethical issues.

A patient could discover very painful memories that were deliberately repressed.

Question 10

How does behaviour modification inform policy development / reduce crime?

Answer 10

Behaviour modification focuses on techniques that extinguish undesirable behaviours and promote desirable ones.

Behaviours that are reinforced are strengthened and behaviours that are punished are weakened.

Behaviour modification punishes illegal behaviour in order to weaken the criminal thought process.

An example of behaviour modification is token economy.

Question 11

What are the criticisms of behaviour modification?

Answer 11

Evidence from research has found that token economy is effective i the short-term, but not in the long-term - results are not generalisable to the long-term.

Fo and Donnell (1975) devised a ‘buddy system’ where they grouped young offenders with an adult volunteer. The adult was there to provide consistent reinforcement of socially acceptable behaviour. This improved the behaviour of serious offenders, but had a mixed effect on less serious offences.

Question 12

What is restorative justice?

Answer 12

Restorative justice looks at the impact of crime on the victim, community and offender.

It encourages the offender to take responsibility of their actions so personal issues are addressed.

RJ can include the offender meeting the victim of their crime face-to-face in a controlled setting.

It allows the victim to tell the offender the damage that they have caused whilst the offender listens and considers their actions.

Question 13

Criticisms of restorative justice:

Answer 13

Requires the cooperation of both parties and this doesn’t always happen.

Can be traumatic for the victim.

Question 14

Positives of restorative justice:

Answer 14

Pilot studies have suggested that RJ can reduce PTSD in victims, and in some cases motivate offenders to turn away from a life of crime.

A report by the Ministry of Justice 2001 found that 85% of people who have taken part in RJ were satisfied with the process.

Research has found that RJ both reduces re-offending ad improves victim satisfaction.

Question 15

What is CCTV?

Answer 15

CCTV is the use of video surveillance to catch an individual who is doing wrong.

It is used to identify a criminal.

Question 16

Strengths of CCTV:

Weaknesses of CCTV:

Answer 16

Makes a small but statistically significant reduction in crime.

CCTV is more effective when reducing crime such as theft of vehicles and vandalism.

Has no effect on violent crimes.

Question 17

What is the multi-agency approach?

What does it aim to do?

Answer 17

The multi-agency approach aims for more cooperation between agencies to occur.
This is important for increasing the detection of crimes and preventing them in the fist place.

Police, social services, media, religion and education all play an important role in improving a persons ‘moral context’.

The approach is based on the notion that that crime cannot effectively be tackled just by the police, or indeed any agency on its own.

Question 18

Criticisms of multi-agency approach:

Answer 18

Right wing socialists believe that it’s too idealistic and we need harsher punishments and stricter control in order to reduce crime.

Question 19

What is zero-tolerance?

Answer 19

Zero-tolerance policing is a strategy that involves persistent order maintenance and aggressive law enforcement, even against minor crimes.

Question 20

What are criticisms of zero-tolerance?

Answer 20

There have been accusations of heavy-handedness by police.

There is the possibility of racial tensions if people feel that they’re being targeted because of their race, which has been the case in the USA.

Marxists would say that only blue-collar crime is focused on, so white-collar crime is ignored. This is argued as being an attempt to ensure that the working class conforms - It’s a form of social control.

It does not address the causes of crime, favours the working class and favours the unequal distribuyion of wealth.

Question 21

How does CCTV work in preventing crime?

Answer 21

CCTV works by changing the environment in which crime occurs, rather than changing attitudes of offenders.

CCTV deters criminality by increasing the threat of being identified as it’s evidence. It’s often put with other measures such as general improvements of a location and security measures.

Question 22

What does the multi-agency approach believe?

Answer 22

The multi-agency approach believes that more communication is needed between agencies with regards to families and individuals at risk in order to allow early intervention, which would reduce crime.
Its only when agencies work together that solutions can be implemented

Question 23

Where and how was the zero-tolerance approach to policing successful?

Answer 23

The zero-tolerance approach was successful in NYC in the 90s. All crimes were charged no matter how trivial they were. This type of policing led to a 73% fall in homicides reported and a 33% reduction in overall crime. This prompted some people to say that 0-tolerance is a magic bullet for urban criminality.

Question 24

What theory is zero-tolerance based on?

Answer 24

The strategy is based on the ‘broken windows’ theory by Wilson and Kelling (1982) - theory suggests that there’s a link between disorder and crime.

Question 25

What research supports neurochemicals?

Answer 25

Gesch et al (2002) did a study where 231 male prisoners were given either daily vitamin minerals and essential fatty acid supplements or a placebo drug.

Question 26

What did Gesch et al (2002) find in support of neurochemicals?

Answer 26

The average number of ‘disciplinary incidents’ dropped from 16 to 10.4 in the group that took the supplement, a 35% reduction. Placebo dropped by 6.7%. Violent acts dropped by 37% in the supplement group and only 10.19% in the placebo group.

The above research demonstrates that it is possible for diet to positively impact aggressive behaviour, which in turn may lead to a reduction in crime