Criminal psychology

• Different types of crime


  • Acquisitive
  • Anti-social
  • Sexual
  • Violent and drug-related
• Acquisitive crime


  Taking money or belongings without the consent/knowledge of the owners
• Anti-social crime


  Causing harassment or distress to people who are not part of your family
• Acquisitive crimes


  • Theft
  • Fraud
• Sexual crimes


  • Making someone else submit to a sexual act against their consent
  • Use of child pornography
• Violent crimes


  • Physical assault
  • Murder
• Crime is seen as a social construct
• Criminal and anti-social behaviour are determined by what is acceptable at any point in time by the people who make up the culture
• Communities have the power to change laws - for example, through protests, campaigns or by voting different people into power
• Official statistics


  Statistics produced by the Government's Home Office which are based on crimes recorded by the police force
• Self-report


  Surveys that allow researchers to find out about crimes that are not reported or detected
• Victim survey


  Questionnaires (usually anonymous) given to the general public to find out what crimes have been committed against them
• Offender survey


  Questionnaires (anonymous) given to the general public or to a more specific group of known offenders to find out about crimes that may or may not be on record
• Social Learning Theory


  Criminal and anti-social behaviours are learned behaviours
• Role models


  People whom we look up to and admire, such as parents, peers and media figures
• Vicarious reinforcement


  A behaviour is imitated because it is seen to be rewarded
• Direct reinforcement


  A behaviour is repeated because it has been rewarded
• Internalisation


  When a behaviour is well learned and will happen whether it is rewarded or punished
• The Social Learning Theory focuses too much on nurture and ignores the role of nature
• Attempts to control criminal behaviour - such as age restrictions on films and video games - have not been that successful in stopping the rise of crime
• Cooper & Mackie (1986) study


  • Aimed to see whether video games had more effect on violent behaviour than TV did
  • Compared the effects on people who played the game and those who just watched others playing
  • Wanted to see if there were any gender differences in the effects on violent behaviour
• Cooper & Mackie (1986) study procedure

  1. Independent variable: type of game played (violent video game, non-violent video game, paper-and-pen maze game)

  2. Dependent variable: aggression levels displayed by the children after playing the game (measured by observing toy choice and a test activity)

  3. Children completed a questionnaire on their experience of playing the game
• The Cooper & Mackie (1986) study found that participants in the aggressive game condition spent more time playing with the aggressive toy, and this was truer of girls than boys
• The type of game played had no effect on interpersonal aggression, but children showed higher levels of aggression when they had actually played a game rather than watched it being played
• The Cooper & Mackie (1986) study lacked ecological validity and used an independent measures design which may have affected the results
• The findings of the Cooper & Mackie (1986) study are out of date as computer games are very different nowadays
• Eysenck's criminal personality theory

  Criminal behaviour is more a product of nature than nurture, and some people are born with a personality that makes them more prone to committing crimes
• Eysenck's key personality traits

  • Extraversion (extroverts are active and sociable, introverts are passive and shy)
  • Neuroticism (neurotics are worriers and easily agitated, stable people are more in control of their emotions)
• Neurotic extrovert


  Personality type most likely to commit serious offences, due to characteristics like thrill seeking, risk taking, aggression, and optimism about getting away with crimes
• Eysenck also identified a third trait in criminals known as psychoticism
• Personality traits


  • Extraversion - being outgoing and confident
  • Neuroticism - being anxious and easily stressed
  • Psychoticism - being aggressive and not considerate of others
• Dopamine


  A neurotransmitter associated with mood, perception and movement
• Psychoticism


  Personality trait linked to an overactive dopamine system in the brain
• Extraversion


  Personality trait linked to the dopamine reward system and the reticular activating system in the brain
• Neuroticism


  Linked to the autonomic nervous system and the limbic system in the brain
• Neurotic extroverts are the most difficult personality type to condition as they don't easily learn the association between committing a crime and the negative outcomes</b>
• Eysenck's theory underplays individual differences and is too deterministic
• The neurotic extrovert personality links better with some crimes than others
• Restorative justice


  Involves the victim meeting with the offender so the offender can see the consequences of their actions and make amends
• Use of positive role models

  Based on social learning theory - criminals can learn pro-social behaviour from good role models