Criminal Psychology

• 5 types of crime

  • Violent crimes
  • Drug related crimes
  • Acquisitive crimes
  • Sexual offenses
  • Antisocial crimes
• Crime as a social construct


  Something that is created by the society that it's in
• Crime is different around the world where some countries would say that some things are a crime other countries would disagree
• Ways crime is measured

  • Official Police statistics
  • Self-report methods
• Official Police statistics


  Making use of actual reports made by the police or when people have reported crimes to the police
• Self-report methods


  Sending out surveys to people to see whether they have either been involved in crime or they've actually been a victim of crime
• Social learning theory


  • We learn through observation
  • Vicarious reinforcement
  • Direct reinforcement
  • Vicarious punishment
  • Internalization
• Social learning theory does not explain the origins of crime
• Cooper and Mackie study

  1. Questionnaire about previous video game experience

  2. Randomly allocated to play or observe video game

  3. Aggressive, low aggression or control condition

  4. Opportunity to play with toys

  5. Interpersonal aggression test
• Findings of Cooper and Mackie study

  • Girls were more affected by violent video games than boys
  • Boys were hardly affected by which video game they played
• Cooper and Mackie study had low temporal validity as it was quite old
• Eysenck's theory of personality and crime

  • Extroversion
  • Neuroticism
  • Psychoticism
• Extroversion


  Relating to someone who is outgoing and thrill-seeking, e.g. someone who loves going on roller coasters or to parties
• Neuroticism


  Characterised by someone who is anxious and emotional, potentially violent
• Psychoticism


  Characterised by someone who lacks emotion and doesn't care about other people's feelings
• Isen's theory


  • Says that every single criminal has the same three personality traits: extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism
  • These traits have a biological basis, not learned through environment
• Extroversion


  Caused by an underactive or under aroused cerebral cortex, leading to a need for extra stimulation
• Neuroticism


  Caused by an overactive autonomic nervous system and lyic system, leading to violent behaviours
• Psychoticism


  Caused by an overactive dopamine reward system, reinforcing behaviours like theft or sexual acts
• Isen's theory doesn't account for individual differences, as not all criminals have the same personality type</b>
• Isen's theory focuses too much on nature and ignores the role of nurture and upbringing in the formation of criminal behaviour
• Heaven's study


  • Longitudinal, correlational study that used self-report questionnaires to examine the link between personality traits and delinquency in young people
  • Found a positive correlation between psychoticism and delinquency, supporting Isen's theory
• Limitations of Heaven's study include limited sample, culture bias, social desirability, and lack of causation
• Ways to reduce crime

  • Rehabilitation
  • Punishment
• Rehabilitation


  Trying to change criminals into becoming normal members of society and stop their criminal ways
• Types of rehabilitation


  • Use of positive role models
  • Restorative justice
• Use of positive role models


  Using social learning theory to get criminals to observe and learn from positive role models
• Heaven study


  Study that supports Isen Theory
• Eyesneck's Theory

  • Theory about people having a criminal personality
  • Identifies 3 personality traits: psychoticism, extroversion, and self-esteem
• Delinquency


  Petty crimes, small crimes committed by usually younger offenders under the age of 16-18
• Heaven's study


  1. Conducted experiment over 2 years

  2. Used questionnaires (self-report method)

  3. Sample of 2082 students aged 13-15 from 2 Catholic schools in Australia
• Psychoticism


  Positively correlated with delinquency (both at start and end of study)
• Extroversion


  Weakly positively correlated with delinquency at end of study
• Cooper and Macki


  Researchers who investigated whether video games can cause violence
• Self-esteem


  No significant correlation with delinquency
• Study procedure


  1. Participants completed questionnaire about video game experience

  2. Participants randomly assigned to play or observe video game (high aggression, low aggression, or control)

  3. Participants played with toys in one room while observed

  4. Participants completed interpersonal aggression test in another room
• Gender


  Males had higher delinquency scores than females (both at start and end)
• Findings


  • Girls more affected by violent video games than boys
  • Boys not affected by type of video game played
  • Buzzer test not affected by video game condition
• Study had low temporal validity as it was quite old and video games were less violent then
• Psychoticism was the best predictor of delinquency