Moral reasoning

• Moral reasoning is the way people think about right and wrong. This should then influence the decisions they make about committing crimes.
• Lawrence Kohlberg ( 1969 ) Interviewed boys and men about the reasons for their moral decisions and made a stage theory of moral development
• Kohlberg ( 1969 ) - each stage represents a more advanced form of moral understanding, resulting in a more logically consistent and more morally mature understanding.
• There are three levels of moral reason and each level is divided into two stages
• Kohlberg Stages:

  Pre conventional level

  Conventional level

  Post conventional level
• Kohlberg pre conventional level - children accept the rules of authority figures and judge actions by their consequences. Actions resulting in punishments are bad, those bringing rewards are good.
• Kohlberg pre conventional level stages:

  Stage one: focuses on rules enforced by punishment

  Stage two: one’s own needs define what’s right
• Kohlberg conventional level: Individuals continue to believe that conformity to social rules is desirable, but this is not out of self interest. Maintaining the current social system ensures positive human relationships
• Kohlberg conventional level stages:

  Stage 3: Want to be seen as a good person by others

  Stage 4: want to help other people
• Kohlberg post conventional level - individual moves beyond unquestioning compliance to the norms of the social system. The individual now defines morality in terms of abstract moral principles that apply to all societies and situations.
• Kohlberg post conventional level stages:

  Stage 5: social contract: individual rights and morals may be more important than the law

  Stage 6: universal ethical principle, going against the law anywhere as the moral right is higher
• Kohlberg found in a longitudinal study that only 10 % of adults reach the post conventional level. The most common level is the conventional level. Offenders in the conventional level who break the law would justify their behaviour because it helps maintain relationships or society. Offenders are most likely to be at the pre conventional level. They believe breaking the law is justified if the rewards outweigh the costs
• MR AO3. There is research support for moral reasoning. Colby et al reported that the sequence of stages appears to be universal, although post conventional was less common in rural communities. Another study used an offending motivation questionnaire to assess 128 male juvenile offenders. It was found that 38 % did not consider the consequences and 36 % were confident they would not be caught. This suggests they were at the pre conventional level of moral reasoning.
• MR AO3. A major issue of Kohlberg‘s theory is that it concerns moral thinking rather than behaviour. Krebs et al ( 2005 ) suggest that moral principles are only one factor in moral behaviour and may be overridden by more practical factors like making personal financial gains. They found that moral principles were used to justify behaviour after it has been performed.