Cognitive:

• Moral development: 


  Kohlberg 1968:

  • proposed peoples decisions and judgements of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral reasoning
  • Based the theory on peoples responses to a series of moral dilemmas ie: Heiz dilemma
  • Studies have suggested that offenders tend to show a lower level of moral reasoning than non-offenders
  • Kohlberg et al 1973 used his moral dilemmas and found that a group of violent youths were at a significant lower level of morality than a group of non- violent youths
• Link with criminality:

  Offenders are likely to be classified as pre-conventional level whereas non-offenders have progressed onto convectional and beyond

  • pre-convectional is characterised by gaining rewards and avoiding punishment, a childlike reasoning
  • This adolescents and adults are more likely to commit crimes if they are able to get away with and gain a reward at the same time ie: money or respect etc
  • Supported by studies which suggest that offenders are egocentric than non-offenders (Chandler 1973)
• Cognitive distortions:

  errors or biases in peoples informational processing systems characterised by faulty thinking

  • research has shown that offenders misinterpret other peoples actions and justify their own actions
• Cognitive distortions:

  TWO TYPES:

  1. Hostile attribution:

  Assuming other people are being confrontational when they are not`

  Offenders misread others non-aggressive cues as aggressive leading to a disproportionate often violent response

  Justye et al 2014 presented 55 violent offenders images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions

  When compared to a non-offender matched control group the experiment group (violent offenders) were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile
• Hostile attribution (cognitive distortion)


  Roots of this behaviour may be apparent in childhood:

  • Dodge and Frame 1982 showed children a video of an ambiguous provocation
  • Children who has been identified as 'aggressive and not accepted' prior to the study interpreted the study as more hostile than those children who were classed as non-aggressive and accepted
• cognitive distortion:

  TWO TYPES:

  2. Minimisation:

  attempt to downplay the seriousness of their actions

  IE: a burglars may down play their actions by saying they were doing it for their family

  • studies have shown that those who commit sexual offences are more prone to minimisation
  • Barnabee 1991 found amongst 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied committing the offence and 40% minimised the harm they caused the victim