Cognitive Explanations of offending

• Level of moral reasoning


  Refers to the way a person thinks about what is right and wrong. The higher the level the more sophisticated reasoning becomes
• Moral development

  • Kohlberg applied moral reasoning to offending behaviour
  • Based his theory on people's responses to a series of moral dilemmas
  • Offenders tend to show a lower level of moral reasoning than non offenders
• What are the 3 levels in Kohlberg's Theory of Moral development

  1. Pre-conventional morality
  2. Conventional morality
  3. Post conventional morality
• Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

  1. Stage 1- Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment
  2. Stage 2- Rules are obeyed for personal gain
  3. Stage 3- Rules are obeyed to approval
  4. Stage 4- Rules are obeyed for social order
  5. Stage 5- Rules are seen as social agreements that can be changed when necessary
  6. Stage 6- Everyone has an individual set of ethical principles
• Link with criminality

  • Offenders are more likely to be classified in the pre-conventional stage whereas non-offenders progress higher
  • Pre-conventional is based on punishment and reward so is seen as less mature
  • Offenders are more egocentric and display poorer moral reasoning
• AO3 Moral reasoning: Research support

  • There is a link between level of moral reasoning and crime
  • Compared moral reasoning in 332 male and female non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders with a questionnaire with moral dilemma questions
  • The offenders group showed less mature moral reasoning
• AO3 Moral Reasoning: Gender Bias

  • Kohlberg's research sample only consisted of males
  • Kohlberg assumed his research would apply to women however when women were tested they were found to be less morally developed
  • Men are more likely to be offenders making Kohlberg's research ungeneralisable
• AO3 Moral Reasoning: Depends on type of offence

  • The level of moral reasoning may differ depending on the type of offence committed
  • People who committed crimes for financial gain were more likely to show pre-conventional morality than those convicted of impulsive crimes such as assault
  • Pre conventional morality is usually crimes where offenders think they can get away with it
• AO3 Moral Reasoning: Does not explain cause of behaviour

  • Kohlberg explains how offenders reason and think
  • It does not explain why they explain this reasoning in the first place
  • It may be due to upbringing or life experiences
  • May need to explore other explanations
• AO3 Moral Reasoning: Hypothetical

  • Kohlberg explores moral reasoning through moral dilemmas
  • Using hypothetical situations does not truly show what someone would do in the real actual situation
  • This lacks ecological validity and people may not answer truthfully to what they would actually do
• Cognitive Distortions


  Faulty, biased and irrational way of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves and other people inaccurately
• Hostile Attribution Bias


  The tendency to judge ambiguous situations or the actions of others as aggressive and threatening when in reality it may not be
• Minimilisation 


  Type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event
• Hostile Attribution Bias

  • Misinterpreting the actions of others lead and misreading non-aggressive cues leads to violent responses
  • Showed 55 violent offenders images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions and compared with non aggressive control group the offenders were more likely to perceive images as angry and hostile
• Hostile Attribution Bias Childhood

  • The root of this behaviour may be apparent in childhood
  • Showed children a video clip of an ambiguous provocation
  • Children who had been identified as 'aggressive' and 'rejected' prior to the study interpreted the situation as more hostile
• Minimilisation

  • An attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence
  • Burglars may describe themselves as 'supporting family' as a way of minimising the seriousness of their offences
  • Offenders who commit sexual offences are prone to minimilisation
  • Among 25 rapists 54% denied they had committed an offence and 40% minimised the harm they caused to the victim
• AO3 Cognitive Distortions: Real World Application

  • There is application to therapy
  • CBT aims to challenge irrational thinking
  • Offenders are encourage to face up to what they have done and establish a less distorted view of their actions
  • Reduced incidence of minimilisation is associated with reduced risk of reoffending
• AO3 Cognitive Distortions: Type of offence

  • The level of cognitive distortion depends on the type of offence
  • Questionnaire responses were gathered from sexual offenders
  • Non contact sex offenders used more cognitive distortions than contact sex offenders
  • Those who had a previous history of offending were also more likely to use distortions as justification
  • Distortions are not the same for all offenders
• AO3 Cognitive Distortions: Does not explain the cause

  • Cognitive theories are good at describing the criminal mind
  • May also help in reducing reoffending in the long term
  • Understanding minimilisation may be a useful start in therapy
  • Cognitive theories do not help in predicting future offender behaviour and the root of where the offender behaviour originates from
  • Distorted thinking does not mean you become an offender
• AO3 Cognitive Distortions: Measuring is difficult

  • Attempting to quantify and measure cognitive distortions is problematic
  • Thoughts are subjective and are open to interpretation using self report methods
  • Cognitive explanations such as minimilisation may point out what characterises offending behaviour but not why