Criminal psychology

• Poupe 2


  The ratio of the number of women to the number of men
• What was Bandura, Ross and they find?
• Token economy programs


  When offenders in prison collect tokens for pro-social behaviour, a certain number of tokens leads to a reward such as TV time
• Strengths of Bandara's study


  • The researchers were able to contact the children were selected with active of series of genes before the study, this makes it easier to compare the groups
  • The experiments were easy to see, one by one was board to see that's the women we were meant to be copying, the showing demand change
• Weaknesses of Bandara's study

  • There are ethical issues with making a child were aggressive than they were previously. That could have affects way
• Anger management program


  Designed to help people deal with aggressive situations by identifying things that cause the person to be angry and then helping them to resolve the conflict in a more peaceful way
• Strengths of Charlton et al's study

  • The study used the serve primary schools to observe the children, the conditions controlled and therefore easier to replicate
  • The study was conducted in a natural environment, there schoolplayground therefore the study has high ecological validity
• Weaknesses of Charlton et al's study

  • The study may be limited in application to the island as it has a small sample size
  • The TV shows as the island were generally not than aggressive, this may explain the findings
• Restorative justice


  Allows people the opportunity to make amends for their situation, it can help reduce reoffending
• Operant conditioning


  Learning through being given a consequence for your actions
• Prisons don't help people to be rehabilitated and stop committing crimes
• Community sentencing has a recidivism rate of 30% which is not high
• Positive reinforcement


  Learning through being given a reward for your actions
• Negative reinforcement


  Learning through avoiding a punishment by carrying out the correct behaviour
• Positive Punishment


  Learning through getting a negative consequence a punishment for your actions
• Negative punishment


  Learning through getting something takes away from you because your actions were not desired
• Primary reinforcer


  A drive to satisfy a basic biological need like food and water
• Secondary reinforcer


  A drive to get something you want, like stealing a mobile phone
• Strengths of operant conditioning to explain criminal behaviour

  • It can be used to help rehabilitate criminals through punishing offenders by putting them in prison and rewarding them with free time for good behaviour
  • It can explain why a wide range of crimes are committed, such as theft for reward of items. This makes it more externally valid
• Weaknesses of operant conditioning to explain criminal behaviour

  • It cannot explain all criminal acts, for example we could also learn through operant conditioning to explain through social learning theory
• Social Learning Theory (SLT)

  Learning through observing others being given a consequence for their actions
• Mediational processes


  Thoughts (cognitions) that occur to help us make a decision on whether to copy a behaviour or not. They include: attention, retention, motivation, reproduction and identification.
• Attention (SLT)


  Being aware of another person's action and its consequence
• Motivation (SLT)


  This is the willingness to copy the behaviour
• Reproduction


  Choosing who to care and copy these people are your role models
• Retention


  Remembering the way of the theory
• Strengths of social learning theory to explain criminal behaviour

  • It can explain why some people become criminal then fast because they only some observe the criminal behaviour
• Weaknesses of social learning theory to explain criminal behaviour

  • It cannot explain why some people commit crimes such as murder without having watched anyone else commit this type of crime
• Christiansen (1973) found that 35% of identical twins both had criminal records compared to just 13% of non-identical twins. This suggests there could be a gene for criminality
• Hutchings and Mednick found that 22% of adopted children who went on to commit a crime had a biological father who was also a criminal
• Extraversion


  Someone who is outgoing and sociable, they are thrill-seekers and they are more likely to be criminals
• Neuroticism


  Someone who is aroused and quick to react to situations, They are more likely to be criminals
• Psychoticism


  Someone who is aggressive, selfish and has a lack of empathy, they are more likely to be criminal
• Socialisation


  This is the process which highlights the impact the environment can have on our biological personality (remember in this theory your personality is shaped by your genes)
• Strengths of the genetic theory of criminality

  • There is supporting evidence from twin studies and adoption studies which show that there is a genetic link
• Weaknesses of the genetic theory of criminality

  • The theory suggests personality is fixed and that it cannot be changed. However, it might be our environment that lead us to crime e.g. being poor meaning you have to steal.
• Prison


  This is when you are detained or imprisoned for a period of time for your crime
• Community sentencing


  This is when you do voluntary/unpaid work which gives back to the local area which you have affected
• Restorative justice


  This is when the criminal and the victim meet to discuss the crime in a neutral environment. The criminal should learn to take responsibility for their actions and see the consequences of them.
• Recidivism


  The rate of reoffending