Topic 6-Criminal Psychology

Question 1

Strengths and Weaknesses Operant Condittioning

Answer 1

+Can be used to explain a wide range of crimes
-Can be due to biological factors

Question 2

Strengths and Weaknesses Social learning theory

Answer 2

+Bandura found that aggressive behaviour was copied if they got a reward
+Can explain behaviour without reinforcement
-Can’t explain murder or fraud
-

Question 3

Strengths and Weaknesses of Bandura

Answer 3

+Standardised procedures for reliability
+Matched groups to aggression level
-Unfamiliar environment-children understood the task.

Question 4

Strengths and Weaknesses Charlton

Answer 4

+The same schools were used, improves reliability
+Natural experiment- Ecological validity
-Ungeneralisable- only applies to this community
-Williams 1981 found TV increased aggression

Question 5

Strengths and Weaknesses For Biological Explanation

Answer 5

+Evidence-Christansen-Males 35% for monozygotic, 13% for dizygotic. Female-21% and 8%
+Hutchings and Mednick-21% of criminals had a biological father who was a criminal, 10% had adoptive fathers who was a criminal
+Farrington et al found a relationship between High P scores and N scores and criminality
-Assumes personality is fixed, can change with environment
-Unreliable and research was derived from questionnaires and are self-reported.

Question 6

Token Economy Programme

Answer 6

+Hobbs and Holt-Used this in 3 prisons that improved prosocial behaviour compared to one
+Easier to implement
-Tokens doesn’t exist in real life.
-Require commitment and staff

Question 7

Prison

Answer 7

+Public Safety
+Prevents connections with prisoners
+Brunton-Smith and Hopkins (2014) found that vocational training in prison resulted in an increased likelihood of employment after release
-HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (2015) found that most prisons were overcrowded which may reduce the effectiveness of any prison staff working with anyone
-UK statistics found 25% of people reoffend within the first year

Question 8

Community sentencing

Answer 8

+Give back to the community
+Prevents negative reinforcement
-30% recidivism rate

Question 9

Restorative Justice

Answer 9

+85% satisfaction rate
+Reduces recividism by 14%
-Causes stress and time consuming

Question 10

Anger Management Programme

Answer 10

+Ireland (2000) found that prisoners who had completed anger
management programmes reported they felt less anger, so the
treatment may help Krystian feel less angry.
-Rice found psychopaths became dangerous as they learnt to manipulate people
-Howells et al did not find improvements