Moral reasoning

• Kohlberg proposed that as children get older their decisions and judgements about right and wrong become more sophisticated. A personal level of reasoning affects their behaviour
• Kohlberg used a moral dilemma technique and found offenders tend to be at the pre-conventional level, whereas non-offenders progress higher
• Pre-conventional level is characterised by:

  • a need to avoid punishment and gain rewards
  • less mature, childlike reasoning

  Offenders may commit crime if they can get away with it or gain rewards e.g: money or respect
• Level 2 conventional:

  • good boy/girl orientation
  • maintenance of social order
• Level 3 post-conventional:

  • individual rights
  • morality of conscience
• Research shows that offenders are often self-centred (egocentric) and display poorer social perspective-taking skills. Individuals who reason at a higher level tend to empathise more and exhibit behaviours such as honesty, generosity and non violence
• One strength is the evidence supports moral reasoning. Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning of offenders and non-offenders on a SRM-SF scale. Offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offenders group. This is consistent with Kohlberg's theory and suggests his theory of criminality has validity
• One limitation is that moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence. Thorton and Reid found that people whose crimes were for financial gain were more likely to show pre-conventional level than impulsive crime. Pre-conventional moral reasoning tends to be associated with crimes in which offenders believe they have a good chance of evading punishment. This suggests that Kohlbergs theory may not apply to all forms of crime