AC4.1 Criminological theories informing policy development

• Deviance


  Behaviour that differs from society's norms
• Norms


  Rules of expectations of what is right and wrong
• Moral codes


  Set of ethics that you are expected to follow
• Values


  General set of principles about acceptable or unacceptable behaviour
• There is a difference between crime and deviance like how behaviours can be deviant but not criminal and vice versa as well as both
• Types of deviant behaviour


  • Good but unusual behaviour (e.g. running into a burning building)
  • Unusual behaviour (e.g. shopping in your dressing gown and slippers)
  • Disapproving behaviour (e.g. intentionally causing harm to others)
• Sanctions


  The ways that behaviours are rewarded or punished
• Types of sanctions


  • Positive sanctions (e.g. being praised by a teacher)
  • Informal sanctions (e.g. being challenged for talking in a library)
  • Formal sanctions (e.g. being charged by the police for breaking the law)
• There is an ideology created by criminologists that sanctions=social control, meaning the use of sanctions by society and police are used to control us to make us behave and follow the unwritten and written rules of society
• Social definition of criminal behaviour

  Ways in which people in society determine what behaviour is acceptable
• Legal definition of criminal behaviour


  Any action that is forbidden by law
• Factors that affect people's views on criminal behaviour


  • People in society have different views about what constitutes a crime (e.g. illegal downloading)
  • Law enforcement may conflict in ways they respond to the criminal behaviour (e.g. shoplifting)
  • Behaviours that society sees as criminal but not (e.g. stalking in 2012)
• Actus reus


  Illegal behaviour
• Mens rea


  Criminal intention
• What is a policy?


  A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by a government, party, business, or individual.
• Criminal and deviant acts


  • Burglary
  • Murder
  • Illegal downloads
• Deviant acts


  • Swearing
  • Shouting in a library
  • Spitting on the floor
• Court sanctions


  • Custodial sentences
  • Community sentences
  • Fines
  • Discharge
• Police sanctions


  • Cautions
  • Conditional cautions
  • Penalty notices
• How laws change from culture to culture and why
• Polygamy


  • Where legal: Africa and Asian countries
  • Where illegal: Australia, America and the UK where you can get a custodial sentence of 7 years
  • Why: this law varies because of religion and traditions, Muslim men can have 4 wives and the Mormon practiced polygamy until 1890
• What is a formal policy?


  Official guidelines and ideas to prevent crime, such as prison sentences or community orders
• Adultery


  • Where legal: adultery is legal in most countries like the UK
  • Where illegal: it's a crime in Africa, Philippines and 21 American states
  • Why: this law varies because those that have criminalised it are those with religious beliefs like Christianity or Islam that influence law making with few women's rights
• Homosexuality


  • Where legal: homosexuality is legal in the UK, America and most western countries
  • Where illegal: it's is illegal in 72 countries for men and 45 for women
  • Why: the law varies because of religion like Christianity or Judaism that are traditionally against it, it's also to do with public opinion but is usually influenced by religion
• Cannabis


  • Where legal: Canada, Uruguay and some US states
  • Where illegal: UK, most of Europe and some US states
  • Why: some see it as morally wrong whilst others see it as a victimless issue and banning it will only increase the use of cannabis instead of controlling the usage
• How laws change over time and why
• How laws are applied according to circumstances


  • Moral panic (e.g. fear of knife crime=harsher punishment)
  • Age of criminality (e.g. not criminally responsible UK=10 or lesser sentence depending on age, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables killed James Bulger at the age of 10 and got released at the age of 18)
• Reasons for law changes and differences


  • Changes to government
  • Societies perception/attitudes
  • New research and knowledge
  • Fear
  • Religion/tradition
  • Miscarriage of justice
• Lombroso believed that criminals are individuals who failed to evolve at the same pace as the remainder of the human race, and that criminals could be identified by their physical characteristics which indicates their biological inferiority
• What are the biological theories of criminality?

  • Twin studies
  • Adoption studies
  • Lombroso’s theory
  • Sheldon’s somatotype theory
• Lombroso's idea that people were 'born bad' paved the way for later biological theories that emphasised the importance of heredity and later led to genetic explanations for crime that get passed on from generation
• Strengths of Lombroso's theory


  • First person to give criminology a scientific credibility
  • Goring (1913) did find a low-order intelligence in convicts, suggesting some genetic base to criminality
  • Butcher and Taylor (2007) suggest that less attractive individuals are more likely to be considered guilty
  • Lombroso challenged the idea that criminals are evil or choose to be criminals
  • His work heralded the beginnings of offender profiling
• Weaknesses of Lombroso's theory


  • Lack of control group so no comparison to be made
  • Lack of accuracy due to possible disfiguration
  • Not everyone with atavistic features is a criminal and not all criminals have them
  • Scientific racism - DeLisi (2012) - many of the atavistic features defined are specific to people of African descent
  • Extremely deterministic and assumes that we cannot escape destiny
• Sheldon believed that different features of personality are linked to body type, and using a correlation study, he found that mesomorphs are most likely to commit crimes whilst ectomorphs the least likely
• Somatotypes


  • Ectomorph (thin, lean, low muscle and low body fat, self-conscious, fragile, emotionally restraint)
  • Mesomorph (muscular, strong limbs, broad shoulders, tend to be aggressive and adventurous and seek physical activity and are callous and ruthless in relationships)
  • Endomorph (round, lack of muscle and wide hips, sociable, relaxed and outgoing)
• Strengths of Sheldon's theory


  • A number of studies have confirmed that there is a small association between bodily build and criminality
  • Gluek and Gluek found that 60% of delinquent population to be mesomorphs compared to 13% in a control group
  • A sample of 200 which was compared to non-offender students who were studied under controlled condition
• Weaknesses of Sheldon's theory


  • Labelling may play a part – mesomorphs may be labelled as 'troublemakers' because they fit the tough guy stereotypes – SFP
  • Somatotypes are not fixed and can change overtime
  • Does not explain who ectomorphs and endomorphs can also be viewed as criminals
• Those that commit crime have different brains then those who are law-abiding
• Less activity in the prefrontal cortex can increase risk taking, emotional and aggression outbursts, argumentative behaviour, loss of control, and an inability to modify behaviour, which could all ultimately lead to violent criminal acts
• Less activity in the parietal areas can reduce verbal ability and problems processing social and cognition information, which could lead to educational and occupational failure, which in turn could predispose an individual to crime and violence