Lecture 9 Biological, Psychological, Sociological and Environmental Criminology Extra Content Flashcards
Give evidence that criminals are born due to biological influence?
• Genetics • Brain structure • Brain function • Genotypes • Biochemical conditions (hormone imbalance / poor diet) • Intelligence • Mental health (caused by toxins, brain injury, prenatal damage)
Give evidence that criminals are born due to Psychological influences?
• Psychological (personality) development
• Broken Homes / Attachment
• Inherited personality traits
• ‘learned’ behaviours (sociological)
• Mental health (caused by childhood trauma,
abuse, neglect)
What is Lombroso’s theory of criminology? (Biological
Criminology)
Lombroso’s theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone “born criminal” could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic.
What is Eugenics? (Biological Criminology)
Eugenics is the practice or advocacy of improving the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits. It aims to reduce human suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population.
What is Classicist criminology?
Classicist criminology is an approach which looks at the idea of rational action and free will.
- People have free will to choose how to act.
- The basis for deterrence is the idea humans are ‘hedonists’ who seek pleasure and avoid pain and ‘rational calculators’ who weigh the costs and benefits of every action. It ignores the possibility of irrationality and unconscious drives as ‘motivators’.
- Punishment (of sufficient severity) can deter people from crime, as the costs (penalties) outweigh benefits, and severity of punishment should be proportionate to the crime.
- The more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective as a deterrent to criminal behaviour.
Main contributors: Jeremy Bentham and Cesare de Beccaria
What is Positivist criminology?
The primary idea behind positivist criminology is that criminals are born as such and not made into criminals; in other words, it is the nature of the person, not nurture, that results in criminal propensities.
Led primarily by three Italian thinkers: Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, and Raffaele Garofalo.
What is the difference between Classicist and Positivist criminology?
Classicism
object of study: the offence
Nature of the offender: free willed, rational, calculating and normal.
Responses to crime: Punishment and proportionate to the offence.
Positivism
Object of study: the offender.
Nature of the offender: Determined, driven by biological, psychological or other influences, pathological.
Responses to crime: Treatment, indeterminate depending on individual circumstances.
What are some Psychological causes of crime?
- Mental disorders
- mental illness
- behavioural development
- cognitive development
- personality types
- psychopathic tendencies
- intelligence
- self control
What is the Behaviourist Approach? (Psychological
Criminology)
The Behaviorist Approach also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning which states all behaviour are learned through interaction with the environment through a process called conditioning. Thus, behaviour is simply a response to environmental stimuli.
• Freud: Psychoanalysis; Conscious, Preconscious &
Unconscious Thought; Id, Ego & Superego (Thought
processes and decision making).
• Pavlov: Classical Conditioning (Unconditioned, conditioned and neutral responses/stimuli)
• Skinner: Operant Conditioning (Neutral operant, reinforcement, punishers.
Explain Freud: Psychoanalysis; Conscious, Preconscious & Unconscious Thought; Id, Ego & Superego?(Psychological Criminology)
According to Freud psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a whole, and each part makes a relative contribution to an individual’s behaviour.
What is Attachment theory? (Psychological
Criminology)
Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development
Theorists / Commentators • John Bowlby • Mary Ainsworth • Robert Fraley • Janice Kennedy & Charles Kennedy
What are the four quadrants of Attachment theory?(Psychological Criminology)
Avoidant Attachment
Caregiver: Distant, inactive, disengaged, critical, irritable,
eager to punish.
Child: emotionally isolated, rejected, stressed, scared.
Anxious / Ambivalent Attachment
Caregiver: Inconsistent, indifferent, sensitive.
Child: stressed, insecure, angry, emotionally abandoned, impulsive, unsociable, aggressive
Secure Attachment
Care-giver: direct, sensitive, consistent, supportive.
Child: safe, confident, resilient, independent.
Disorganised-disoriented Attachment
Care-giver: exaggerates, unpredictable, inspires fear,
perhaps experiences mental health issues / substance
addictions.
Child: scared, sad, approaches others to find safety, angry, passive.
What did Eysenck suggest about criminal behaviour?(Psychological Criminology)
Criminal behaviour maybe influenced by personality characteristics that are linked to biological differences between people.
What are the three dimensions that can be measured in Eysenck’s theory? (Psychological Criminology)
Extraversion-introversion
Neuroticism-stability
Psychoticism
What is Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques used to study the unconscious mind, which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders.
