(cognitive distortions) Psych explanations of criminal beh

• Hostile attribution bias


  is where a person has a bias that causes them to misinterpret people's actions as in some way hostile or negative
• Minimalization


  This is where a person downplays how bad their criminal behaviour really is
• AO3-Schonenberg and Jusyte (2013)

  • Schonenberg and Jusyte (2013) showed pictures of 'emotionally ambiguous' faces to 55 violent offenders and 55 matched control subjects. The violent offenders were most likely to interpret these ambiguous stimuli as aggressive than the controls were, which supports the explanation that hostile attribution bias may explain criminal behaviour
• AO3-Pollock and Hashmall (1991)

  • Pollock and Hashmall (1991) conducted a content analysis of the clinical records of 86 child molesters. They found the records often contained attempts to minimise the seriousness of their crimes. Excuses include denying their actions were sexual and arguing that the actions were consensual
• AO3 - limited application

  • Limited applications- there are many types of crime that cognitive distortions don't explain well e.g. its easy to see how hostile attribution bias could lead to impulsive violence but it's hard to see how this bias could explain planned violence.