Criminal Psychology

• Operant conditioning was proposed by B.F Skinner who stated that behaviour is learned through consequences.

  The consequences can be reinforcements or punishments, both of which can be either positive or negative.
• Positive reinforcement is when we receive something pleasant for a behaviour, so we repeat it.
• Negative reinforcement is the avoidance of something unpleasant, so we do it again.
• Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that satisfy a biological need.
• Positive punishment is when we receive something unpleasant for a behaviour, so we don‘t do it again.
• Negative punishment is when something pleasant is removed so we don’t do it again.
• Secondary reinforcers are reinforcers that have no survival value but we have learned to associate it with a primary reinforcer.
• A strength of operant conditioning is it can explain the acquisition of many aspects of criminal behaviour.

  A weakness of operant conditioning is it is difficult to show that a criminal behaviour was acquired through operant conditioning.
• Modelling is the learning of a new behaviour by imitating a role model.
• Vicarious reinforcement is how an individual learns by watching others being rewarded or punished.
• Social learning theory believes that we learn behaviours through others via reinforcement and through modelling.
• Modelling can only take place where someone identifies with another person in some way. This person is their role model.
• Role models are likely to be of the same sex, roughly the same age and share similar interests as the person and are likely to be in a position of power, success or fame.
• Observational learning is learning by observing others and seeing them being rewarded or punished appropriately.
• A strength of social learning theory is that it can be used to rehabilitate offenders.

  A weakness is that the theory does not look at individual differences.
• Eysenck’s personality theory states that our personality can determine our tendency to become a criminal.
• Introverts are typically reserved and reflective.
• Extraverts are sociable and crave excitement and change. They tend to be carefree, optimistic and impulsive.
• Stability refers to someone who is calm and unworried.
• Neurotics tend to be anxious, worrying and moody. They are overly emotional and find it difficult to calm down once upset.
• Psychoticism refers to lacking in empathy, being cruel, a loner, aggressive and troublesome.
• Extraverts, being chronically under-aroused, are more likely to be risk-seeking and engage in anti-social activity.
• Neurotics are more likely to become criminals as a reaction to an emotional event.
• Psychotics could easily commit a crime because they don’t care about the effect on others and the don’t feel guilt.
• A strength of the personality theory is that there is good evidence for the link between psychoticism and violent crime.

  A weakness is that personality theories are outdated because findings of studies are inconsistent.
• Recidivism is the tendency for a convicted criminal to reoffend.
• Prison as an effect on recidivism.

  Prisons suppress criminal behaviour - the unpleasantness of prison life should serve as a deterrent to later criminal behaviour.

  Prisons increase criminality - the inhumane and psychologically destructive nature of prison makes offenders more likely to recidivate upon release.

  Prisons are effectiveles - offenders enter prison with anti-social attitudes and behaviours that aren’t changed during imprisonment.
• A strength of imprisonment is that it protects society from criminals.

  A weakness is that many prisoners learn criminal skills when they meet other criminals in prison.
• Community sentencing combines punishment with activities carried out in the community. Offenders can expect to complete anything from 40 to 300 hours of community payback, depending on how serious the crime was.
• You may get a community sentencing if: it is the first time you have committed a crime or if you have a mental health condition that affects your behaviour.
• A strength of community sentencing is that offenders are held accountable, while reducing prison overcrowding.

  A weakness is that the criminal is still exposed to the public.
• Restorative justice brings together the victim and the offender. It allows the victim to express their emotions face to face with their attacker, and often can cause the offender to face what they have done more openly.
• A strength of restorative justice is it reduces the victim’s desire for violent revenge against offenders.

  A weakness is that it offers offenders a chance to do their crime again with no severe punishment been given.
• Token economy programmes attempt to make criminals unlearn their criminal behaviour. You therefore need to reward offenders’ appropriate behaviour and punish their inappropriate behaviour. They use tokens as secondary reinforcers to reward desired behaviour.
• A strength of token economy programmes is that they are relatively quick to start and they are cheap.

  A weakness is that it changes behaviour but not the underlying reasons for the behaviour.
• Anger management programme is a cognitive behavioural technique that seeks to change both behaviour and thinking.
• An anger management programme will be based around three key stages:

  Cognitive preparation - involves analysing past aggression and discovering patterns.

  Skills acquisition - offenders are taught cognitive skills aimed at changing thoughts and perceptions of the situation to damp down the emotional response.

  Application practice - allows the offender to test their skills in a range of situations.
• A strength of anger management programmes is that chances of recidivism occuring after is relatively low.

  A weakness is that some people must take part in in the programme as part of their sentence, which provides an ulterior motive.
• Bandura: transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models.

  Aim - to see whether observation of same-sex model would lead to copying the aggressive behaviour.
• Bandura procedure:

  Children aged 3-6 (36 boys 36 girls) were divided into three groups: a control group, who did not see a model, and two groups who were exposed to adult models who behaved in either aggressive or non-aggressive ways. Half of each group saw a same-sex model; the others saw an opposite-sex model. Children were then tested to see how much they would imitate the model.