Individual Diff Explanations Of Criminals Flashcards
(17 cards)
What are the different stages of moral reasoning (Kohlberg)?
Stage 1 - punishment and obedience.
Stage 2 - if it feels good do it.
Stage 3 - good boy nice girl orientation.
Stage 4 - law and order.
Stage 5 - social contract orientation.
Stage 6 - universal ethical principles.
What are the levels of moral reasoning?
Pre-conventional (young children) - accept the rules of authority figures. Judge actions based on consequences and satisfaction of one’s needs.
Conventional - conforming to social rules, concerned about how others interpret your behaviour, obey the law.
Post-conventional - autonomy, own beliefs guide moral behaviour.
How could these stages explain crim behaviour?
Most crims are in stage 2 - basic moral reasoning skills, will break the law if they believe that the benefits outweigh the costs/think they can get away with it.
Can a crime be justified at all levels of moral reasoning?
Yes.
Pre-conventional - breaking the law is justified if punishment can be avoided or if the rewards outweigh the costs.
Conventional - breaking the law is justified if it helps maintain relationships/society.
Post-conventional - breaking the law is justified if it helps maintain human rights/further social justice.
What type of crime is likely to occur at each level?
Pre-conventional - burglary, theft, rape.
Conventional - stealing for a family member, self-defence.
Post-conventional - protesting, breaking into a lab to stop animal testing.
What is a strength/weakness of the cognitive factors explanation of criminal behaviour (evidence)?
Supporting evidence - Chen + Howitt. Male offenders studied. Found that moral reasoning development stage were significantly less mature in offenders than control even though they were older. Those who showed more advanced moral reasoning were less likely to engage in violent crimes.
What is a strength/weakness of the cognitive factors explanation of criminal behaviour (less reductionist)?
It’s less reductionist than the biological approach. It includes multiple cognitive factors (hostile attribution bias and moral reasoning). However, difficult to study in depth. Gives a more complete view of crim behaviour.
What is a weakness of the cognitive explanation of criminal behaviour (unscientific)?
Chen and Howitt used self report. Morality is subjective and difficult to measure scientifically. Unfalsifiable.
Apply cognitive factors to anger management.
If criminal behaviour is caused by cog factors, then a cog treatment should be used. Anger management is a form of CBT, aiming to address the hostile attribution bias that may lead to crim behaviour.
Instead of interpreting behaviour in a hostile way, anger management helps change this attribution to a more rational one through methods like skill acquisition and role play.
What are the 3 dimensions of personality put forward by Eysenck?
Psychoticism (self-control), extraversion (introversion), neuroticism (emotional stability).
Extraversion is having an out-going nature and high level of activity whereas introversion is a nature that shuns crowds and prefers solitary activities.
Neuroticism is a full nature of anxiety/guilt.
Psychoticism is aggression, egocentric, antisocial.
What traits link to criminal behaviours?
PEN traits - psychotic, extrovert, neurotic.
Psychotic - aggressive, impulsive, lack of empathy - crimes like murder/planned offences.
Extrovert - more arousal needed, seek dangerous situations, more impulsive actions.
Neurotic - unstable, overreact to stimuli, more likely to lead to criminal acts that are not planned, comes from an escalated event.
What are the biological basis of each PEN trait?
Eysenck believes that the functioning of the neural system located in the brain stem, produces different levels of arousal of the cerebral cortex. Introverts have high cortical excitation levels whereas extroverts have lower levels, so they need more stimulation for arousal (like thrill seeking behaviours).
Neuroticism - sympathetic nervous system is responsible for flight/fight response. SNS activated at higher levels of threat - may overreact to stimuli.
Psychoticism - linked to higher levels of testosterone - less empathy, aggressive, troublesome.
Diathesis stress model of PEN traits and crim behaviour.
Innate personality traits + socialisation = crim behaviour.
The socialisation element occurs during childhood, where children are taught that bad behaviour is punished. However, people who score highly on extraversion and neuroticism were less easily conditioned - so aren’t scared of punishment after bad behaviour = don’t follow rules.
What did Eysenck and Eysenck find in relation to PEN traits and crim behaviour (if needed)?
Around 2000 prisoners and 2000 controls were given the Eysenck personality questionnaire, which gives scores on PEN traits. Groups were divided into age groups ranging from 16-69 yrs.
Scores on PEN traits fell with age for both prisoners and control. Prisoners had higher scores than controls, as predicted, on all 3 scales. This suggests criminals are more PEN.
What is a strength/weakness of Eysenck’s explanation of crim behaviour (deterministic)?
Deterministic - no control over personality, biological basis. Makes behaviour easy to predict. Takes away responsibility of crimes.
What is a weakness of Eysenck’s explanation of crim behaviour (scientific)?
Not scientific - use of self-report (questionnaires) = lacks credibility as it is subjective. Lacks scientific rigour, can’t draw cause + effect conclusions.
What is a strength/weakness of Eysenck’s explanation of crim behaviour (research)?
Eysenck + Eysenck, however - all male.
