Criminology unit 2

• Speaker: 'hello and welcome to this presentation on individualistic theories of criminality today I'm going to look at the psychological theory of hands I sank and we're then going to evaluate its Effectiveness now before we start I should point out that um according to the weejax syllabus and the textbook I think is a psychological theory but we've also looked earlier on at the theories of Freud and bolby and to all intents and purposes they too are psychological even though they are down as being psychodynamic in the um in the textbook and in the syllabus but bear that in mind I think you can lump isync Freud and bulby altogether as big psychological but psychodynamic only Freud and bolby so without further Ado let's continue so just to recap again we know that individualistic theories of crime um hold that crime is caused by individual differences based on personality types or experiences that people have and so they're arguing that the individual's psychological makeup is the root cause of crime and how they have developed that psychological makeup their childhood mainly uh so we can look at isync in this um in this presentation hands I think and his psychological theory is based on the assumption that criminals and non-criminals differ on the basis of their personality so it's rooted in personality and I think would argue that a criminal behavior is a result of your nervous system that affects your ability to learn and adapt to the environment further ado let's have a look at his theory so I think thinks that your personality obviously based on biological factors and he argues that individuals will inherit our nervous system genetically from our parents and our nervous system affects our ability to learn and adapt to the environment so his key idea is that basically we all humans are pleasure seeking we're hedonistic at heart and people that steal and use violence so criminals people who break the law do it because it's pleasurable to them and Isaac argues that those that don't commit crime have a conscience which opposes this hedonistic tendency and he thought that the conscience was a conditioned fear response so I don't commit a crime because I'm scared of the consequences I'm scared of what happened to me I'm scared of what others might think of me I might be scared of what my parents think of me but those who do commit crime criminals haven't built up that good conscience they haven't been conditioned to do that they've inherited a nervous system personality which is resistant to the conditioning that means they gain that conscience so I think argued that your personality is made up of three distinct factors the first one is how introverted or extroverted you are the second is how neurotic or stable you are and then how psychotic you are so um these are known as P for psychoticism n for neuroticism and E for extraversion pen p e n and let's look at extroversion first so extroverts typically they're outgoing they're sociable people who seek stimulation and because of this I think believes they're more likely to be take risks and they're more likely to be Thrill Seekers and I think says they are this way because they've inherited an under aroused nervous system and so because they're under aroused uh the nervous system is under roused they seek stimulation to get arousal that simulation comes from the environment around them introverts on the other hand lie completely at the other end of the scale they're quiet they're reserved and they're already over aroused the nervous system is overroused so they don't need that sensation and stimulation so if you look here here are some of the personality traits linked to um extroversion and introversion interestingly introverts apparently tend to be cat people whereas extroverts tend to be dog people but there you go you can look at these at your leisure when we get to the neuroticism versus stability scale character personality whatever neuroticism is shown by characteristics such as anxiety and emotional instability a stable personality you're much more calming much more even tempered and I said thought that neurotics um when we all have a fight or flight response so that is linked to our sympathetic nervous system which is activated quickly when we're encountered with something new can something dangerous it releases adrenaline it increases heart rate and that fight or flight response kicks it the parasympathetic nervous'
• Individualistic theories of crime hold that crime is caused by individual differences based on personality types or experiences that people have
• The individual's psychological makeup is the root cause of crime and how they have developed that psychological makeup, mainly in their childhood
• Isync's psychological theory is based on the assumption that criminals and non-criminals differ on the basis of their personality
• Criminal behavior is a result of the nervous system affecting the ability to learn and adapt to the environment
• Isaac argues that criminals commit crimes because it's pleasurable to them, while non-criminals have a conscience opposing this hedonistic tendency
• Isaac believed that individuals inherit their nervous system genetically from their parents, affecting their ability to learn and adapt
• Isaac's theory states that humans are pleasure-seeking and criminals commit crimes because it's pleasurable to them
• Non-criminals have a conscience that opposes the hedonistic tendency, which is a conditioned fear response
• Isaac's theory suggests that criminals lack a developed conscience due to their inherited nervous system personality, resistant to conditioning
• Isaac identified three distinct factors in personality: extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism
• Extroverts are outgoing, sociable, and seek stimulation due to an under-aroused nervous system
• Introverts are quiet, reserved, and do not seek stimulation as their nervous system is overaroused
• Neuroticism is characterized by anxiety and emotional instability, while stability is calming and even-tempered
• Neurotics have a fight or flight response linked to the sympathetic nervous system, activated quickly in dangerous situations
• Fight or flight response


  Linked to sympathetic nervous system, activated quickly when encountered with something new or dangerous, releases adrenaline, increases heart rate
• Parasympathetic nervous system


  Brings back down the fight or flight response, calms the individual
• Individuals with higher neuroticism may have a slower parasympathetic nervous system response
• Example of a teacher giving assemblies

  • First assembly nerves, heart fluttering, raised heartbeat, surge of adrenaline, calmed down by parasympathetic nervous system after a few seconds
• Neurotic individuals may struggle to calm down quickly, remaining in a state of fight or flight
• Extroverts may get nervous but can calm down quickly in stressful situations
• Psychoticism


  Characterized by cold, aggressive, anti-social, and hostile behavior
• Personality traits can be measured using a questionnaire like the EPQ, measuring extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism
• High extroversion and neuroticism may lead to difficulty in learning societal rules and norms, and poor response to punishment, possibly more common in criminal populations
• Criminal personality types may score high on psychoticism, extroversion, and neuroticism
• High psychoticism, extroversion, and neuroticism traits may contribute to criminal personality
• Rushton and Christ John in 1981 compared pen scores with self-reports of delinquency in school children
• Some factors may lead to the criminal personality

  Possibly
• Rushton and Christ John in 1981 compared pen scores with self-reports of delinquency in school children and found that those who reported higher levels of delinquency also scored high on pen
• Studies comparing convicted offenders with non-convicted offenders don't produce clear-cut results
• Farrington et al. in 1982 looked at 16 studies of the relationship between pen measures and criminal convictions and found that in the majority of cases offenders scored high on P and N but not on E
• Hollin in 1989 notes that offenders generally score higher on P and N but not necessarily higher on E
• It may be that the criminal type is not P-E-N but actually PN (psychotic neurotic)
• One possibility for the inconsistent relationship between E and offending is that the E scale measures two distinct things: sociability and impulsiveness
• Impulsiveness may be associated with criminality, while sociability may not necessarily be
• The theory predicts that high pen scores lead to criminality
• Some studies support the prediction that offenders tend to be extrovert, neurotic, and psychotic
• Limitation: Farrington et al. show that prisoners were high on P and N but not E, suggesting that the E scale may measure two separate things: impulsivity and sociability
• Evidence on prisoners shows a correlation between personality type and criminality, but it doesn't prove causation
• Limitation: Convicted offenders on whom the theory is based may not be typical of all offenders, as less impulsive and low neurotic offenders may be more likely to avoid getting caught