Cognitive Explanations of offending

• 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