CRIMINAL

• Criminal

  An act or omission which is punishable by law
• Deviant

  An act or behaviour that does not conform to social norms or expectations
• Theories of crime

  • Operant Conditioning
  • Social Learning Theory
• Operant Conditioning

  1. Learning through consequences

  2. Positive reinforcement = being rewarded

  3. Negative reinforcement = repeating behaviour to avoid consequences

  4. Positive punishment = receiving a punishment

  5. Negative punishment = having something get taken away
• Operant Conditioning

  • Can be used to explain a lot of different crimes such as theft
  • Explains why people might commit crimes for social approval
  • Has contributed to the development of the criminal justice system and what punishments should be given
  • Has a lot of research to back it up, such as Skinner's rats
• Operant Conditioning

  • Not all crimes are committed because of our environment; what about if someone is born criminal?
• Social Learning Theory

  1. Observe the behaviour of the people around us

  2. Motivated to imitate and copy them

  3. Attention: You must be able to pay attention to the behaviour

  4. Retention: You must be able to remember the information and behaviour you have watched

  5. Reproduction: you need an opportunity to copy the behaviour you have observed

  6. Motivation: you are more likely to reproduce the behaviour if you want to do it. This could be because of a reward

  7. Successful processing can lead to identification in which you adopt the beliefs of the role models

  8. Vicarious reinforcement: motivated to copy behaviour because you gain some sort of pleasure
• Social Learning Theory

  • There is lots of research to support it
  • Can help us to explain why some people become criminal and why others do not
  • It is not as reductionist as other theories
• Social Learning Theory

  • The theory does not look at genes are criminality
  • The evidence to support only looks at short term aggression
  • The theory cannot be tested in real-life situations
  • Not all criminal behaviour can be explained by Social Learning Theory
• Bandura study

  • Researchers were able to control the environment and use standardised procedures to ensure all children experienced exactly the same conditions of the experiment
  • Children were matching in groups according to their normal levels of aggression
  • Children were deliberately exposed to aggression and the long-term effects on the child were unpredictable presenting ethical issues
• Charlton et al study

  • The same primary schools were used in both the before and after television observations
  • It was a natural experiment. This means that the behaviour of the children would have been natural and unaffected by the presence of a strange observer
  • Results may be limited to this particular community. Research carried out in different location have not been able to replicate these findings
• Types of punishment used to deal with offenders

  • Rehabilitative
  • Prison
  • Detention/custody
  • Community Sentencing
  • Restorative Justice
• Recidivism


  The rate criminals reoffend
• Prison

  • Removes criminals from society
  • Keeps the public safe
  • Ineffective because prisoners are exposed to criminal role models who may reward other inmates for breaking prison rules
  • Raises ethical issues because civil liberties are removed
• Community Sentencing

  • Offenders are given second chances to make up for their crime
  • May be more suitable punishments rather than imprisonment
  • Some view it as a soft option
  • Has a low success rate
• Restorative Justice

  • Has a high satisfaction rate of around 85%
  • There is a 14% reduction in recidivism, compared to not using restorative justice
  • The process can cause distress to both offender and victim
  • The process can be time consuming and costly
• Biological Explanations of Crime

  • Identical twins are both more likely to be criminals compared to non-identical twins
  • Evidence from adoption studies – Hutchins and Mednick (1975) found 21% of adopted children who went to commit a crime had a biological father who was convicted of a crime compared to 10% of children who's biological father was not convicted but adoptive father was
• Biological Explanations

  • Upbringing might account for criminal families
  • Socially sensitive – it can lead to labeling and discrimination
• Personality


  A set of characteristics
• Criminal Personality

  Caused by internal, biological factors
• Personality Traits

  • Psychoticism – lack of empathy
  • Extroversion/introversion – two extreme ends
  • Neuroticism – nervous disposition of someone
• Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)

  Each question measures the specific traits and gives a PEN score
• Who is more likely to be a criminal?

  • Psychotic – High P score = person is cold, lacks compassion and anti-social
  • Extrovert/Introvert – High E score = nervous system that has a low arousal level, Low = high arousal – avoid thrill and excitement
  • Neurotic – High N score = unstable – nervous system responds quickly to stressful situation and over react quickly, Low N = unreactive nervous system and calm under stress
• Socialisation

  1. PEN personality interacts with how we are raised

  2. As we grow up, we are punished for antisocial behaviour. We learn to associate misbehaving with the anxiety of being punished

  3. High PEN score have a biological nervous system that is more difficult to socialise because they do not associate antisocial behaviour with the anxiety of being punished. They are quick to react, sensation-seeking and lack empathy. So antisocial behaviour is exciting and they are not concerned for others

  4. Punishment is not effective in controlling their behaviour
• Personality Theory

  • There is evidence that people with these traits are associated with criminal behaviour
  • It combines biological (genetics), physiological (traits) and social factors (upbringing)
  • It assumes that personality traits are fixed and stable
  • Much of the evidence used to support personality theory is based on self report questionnaires
• Treatments

  • Token Economy
  • Anger Management
• Token Economy

  1. A form of behaviour modification based on the principles of operant conditioning

  2. Behaviours are strengthened when they are reinforced

  3. Prisoners are given tokens (secondary reinforcers) for prosocial behaviour as a reward/reinforcement
• Token Economy

  • There is evidence of a short-term increase in prosocial behaviour in prison
  • It is fairly economical and can be administered by prison staff
  • It is unlikely to prevent reoffending. It is designed to control and manage prisoners not reduce recidivism
  • The rewards must be rewarding enough to motivate prisoners
  • Prison staff could abuse the programme
• Anger Management

  1. Cognitive preparation: Offender reflects on their anger

  2. Skills Acquisition: Offender learns new skills to help control their anger

  3. Application practice: Practice new skills in anger-triggering situations
• Anger Management

  • Offenders can use skills outside of the prison setting
  • High-risk offenders were less likely to re offend
  • Economical and can be administered by prison staff
  • Not all violent crimes are committed due to anger
  • Offenders can abuse the programme
  • The programme teaches offenders to control and manage their anger, a skill that may be used to commit crimes more effectively than before
  • There are mixed findings on the effectiveness of anger management in reducing recidivism
  • Offenders must be motivated, have understanding of themselves and practice skills