Criminal Psychology

• Five types of crime


  Violent, drug-related, acquisitive, sexual, anti-social
• Violent crimes


  Aggressive crimes resulting in physical harm or death to the victim, for example murder
• Drug-related crimes


  Crimes involving trading in or using illegal substances, for example drug abuse
• Acquisitive crimes


  Crimes where capital or belongings are acquired through illegal means, for example theft
• Sexual crimes


  Crimes where a victim is forced to commit or submit to a sexual act against their will, for example rape
• Anti-social crimes


  Criminal acts that cause harassment, alarm or distress to people who do not share a home with the perpetrator, for example graffiti
• Ways of defining crime

  1. Any act that is against the law
  2. A social construct; a deviation from social norms
• Role of culture in crime

  Crime is a social construct, so it is based on social norms (a crime is a deviation from norms). As cultures change, so do norms.
• Social construct


  A concept that exists as a result of the interactions between the people who make up a society
• Culture


  A collective set of norms and values that determine the way of life of a group of people
• Ways to measure crime

  1. Official police statistics - only reported and recorded statistics
  2. Self-report - offender surveys, victim surveys
• Deviation from norms


  When an act or behaviour goes against the accepted standards of a society
• Social learning theory

  Social Learning Theory proposes that we learn all our behaviour from others.

  Keywords: identification, role model, observation, vicarious reinforcement, imitation, direct reinforcement, internalisation
• Social Learning Theory: criticisms

  1. Ignores nature/focuses on nurture
  2. Does not explain the origin of crime
  3. Does not account for criminals without criminal role models
  4. If Social Learning Theory is correct, it should be easier to reduce crime
• Cooper and Mackie: method

  Design: laboratory experiment, independent measures

  IV: type of game played or observed

  DV: aggression levels after playing or observing

  Sample: 84 9-11 year olds from New Jersey, USA

  Procedure: random allocation to one condition from:

  1. Missile Command (aggressive game)
  2. Pac-Man (non-aggressive)
  3. Pen-and-paper maze (control)

  Played or observed for 8 minutes, then choice of toy (aggressive, active, skill, quiet) in playroom recorded by covert observation, or tested on interpersonal aggression (punishing or rewarding a child based on buzzer), counterbalancing done
• Cooper and Mackie: results/conclusions

  Results: girls were more aggressive after playing an aggressive video game, type of game had no effect on interpersonal aggression

  Conclusions: girls were less experienced with violent video games, which is why they were more likely to play with an aggressive toy afterwards. Interpersonal aggression unaffected because games were not interpersonally aggressive. Support for Social Learning Theory.
• Cooper and Mackie: criticisms

  1. Age and culturally biased sample, so difficult to generalise
  2. Artificial setting, so low ecological validity
  3. Narrow measurement of aggression, so lacks construct validity
  4. Uncontrolled extraneous variables, so difficult to establish cause and effect
  5. Only immediate effects tested
• Eysenck's Criminal Personality Theory

  Eysenck's Criminal Personality Theory proposes that criminal behaviour is something people are born with.

  1. Extraversion: outgoing, sociable, confident. Caused by over-restrictive RAS (part of central nervous system), so under-aroused cerebral cortex, requiring more stimulation. Also, stronger dopamine reward system
  2. Neuroticism: anxious, angry, prone to guilt. Caused by over-aroused ANS, affecting the limbic system, so higher violence
  3. Psychoticism: impulsive, aggressive, selfish. Caused by excess of dopaminergic neurons, so less inhibition of impulses
• Eysenck's Criminal Personality Theory: criticisms

  1. Ignores individual differences
  2. With such a range of crimes, it seems unlikely that criminals share a similar personality
  3. Deterministic which takes responsibility away from the individual
  4. Concept of psychoticism is not useful
  5. Not enough emphasis on nurture, as we should focus on how to condition neurotic extraverts
• Heaven et al: method

  Design: longitudinal correlation study

  Co-variables: levels of psychoticism, extraversion, and self-esteem

  Sample: 282 13-15 year olds from two Catholic independent schools in New South Wales, Australia

  Procedure: at times 1 and 2, asked:

  1. Eysenck's questionnaire for psychoticism and extraversion
  2. 10-item questionnaire for self-esteem
  3. self-report delinquency

  80% responded at time 2, all questionnaires were confidential and anonymous
• Heaven et al: results and conclusions

  Results: positive correlation between psychoticism and delinquency at both times, extraversion had a weak correlation with delinquency at time 2, psychoticism was the best predictor of delinquency at both times

  Conclusions: psychoticism is associated with delinquency, other psychological factors could determine whether children engage in delinquent behaviour
• Heaven et al: criticisms

  1. Age and culturally biased sample, so lack of population validity
  2. 20% who dropped out may have biased results
  3. Self-report, so potentially invalid data due to social desirability
  4. Used closed questions, so lack of construct validity
• Types of punishment

  Punishment is a method of decreasing anti-social behaviour.

  Prison, fines, community sentences. All three are deterrents
• Rehabilitation

  Rehabilitation is a method of increasing pro-social behaviour.

  Restorative justice is a way of rehabilitating offenders by giving them the choice to be aware of the consequences of their actions. Often involves meeting the victim, taking responsibility for the crime, and repairing the harm done.

  Positive role models or mentors use Social Learning Theory to help offenders re-learn pro-social behaviour.