criminal psychology

• Social learning theory

  Theory that explains criminal behavior through role models, identification, observation, reward, and imitation.
• Role models


  Individuals who influence others' behavior through observation and imitation.
• Identification


  Process of associating oneself with a role model and adopting their behavior.
• Observation


  Act of watching and learning from others' behavior.
• Reward

  Positive reinforcement that encourages the repetition of a behavior.
• Imitation


  Copying the behavior of others.
• Vicarious reinforcement

  Indirect reinforcement that occurs when an individual observes others being rewarded for a behavior.
• Direct reinforcement


  Reinforcement that occurs immediately after a behavior, increasing the likelihood of its recurrence.
• Internalisation

  Process of adopting observed behavior as one's own.
• Criticisms of social learning theory

  Critiques include ignoring nature and genes, not explaining why not everyone exposed to criminal role models becomes criminals, and difficulty in reducing crime if the theory is correct.
• Eysenck's personality theory


  Theory that links criminal behavior to high scores on the PEN model: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism.
• PEN model

  Personality model consisting of psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism.
• Psychoticism


  Trait associated with criminal personality, characterized by an excess of dopamine.
• Extraversion


  Trait associated with criminal personality, characterized by under-arousal of the cerebral cortex due to restricted stimuli.
• Neuroticism


  Trait associated with criminal personality, characterized by over-arousal of the autonomic nervous system during emotional situations.
• Criticisms of Eysenck's personality theory

  Critiques include ignoring individual differences, being deterministic, and neglecting the role of nurture.
• Nurture

  Environmental factors that shape an individual's behavior and development.
• Nature

  Innate biological factors that influence an individual's behavior and development.
• Cooper and Mackie study

  Study investigating the impact of aggressive video games on children's aggression levels.
• Missile command

  Aggressive video game used in the Cooper and Mackie study.
• Pacman

  Video game used in the Cooper and Mackie study as a non-aggressive control condition.
• Pen-maze game

  Video game used in the Cooper and Mackie study as a non-aggressive control condition.
• Play room

  Environment in the Cooper and Mackie study where children were exposed to different types of toys.
• Test room


  Environment in the Cooper and Mackie study where children's interpersonal aggression was tested.
• Interpersonal aggression

  Aggressive behavior directed towards others, measured in the Cooper and Mackie study using a red button to punish.
• Heaven's study

  Study examining the relationship between PEN (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism) and delinquency.
• Personality questionnaire

  Assessment tool used in Heaven's study to measure extraversion and introversion.
• Self-esteem questionnaire

  Assessment tool used in Heaven's study to measure self-esteem.
• Delinquency

  Criminal or antisocial behavior, measured in Heaven's study through self-reporting.
• why is crime a social construct

  crimes are acts against law, it's society that determines what a crime is and a deviation from society's norm can be a crime
• how is crime measured

  official statistics:these are statistics produced by the government's home office however all the crime that can be recorded are crimes that are either detected or reported
• how are crimes measured

  self report: these are surveys that allow that allow researchers to find crimes that are not reported or detected and an example of this is victim survey, which are usually questionnaires and are anonymous.
• eysenck's theory

  Extroversion, extroverts are active and sociable

  Neuroticism, neurotics are worriers and are easily agitated

  Psychoticism psychotics are aggressive and not considerate of others