cognitive explanations of offending behaviour

• kolhberg suggested through development we gain greater moral maturity in 3 level, these are called moral reasoning
• cognitive distortions - failures of mind in accurately representing reality.

  thinking is irrational, leading to misunderstanding, what is true about your own or others behaviour.
• cognitive distortion- misunderstanding in reality can lead to behavioural responses that are criminal in nature
• eg of cognitive distortion hostile attribution bias
• hostile attribution bias - inferences on peoples internal mental states are biased, assume negative intentions which leads to violence because they feel threatened
• eg of cognitive distortion 2 - minimilisation
• minimalisation - interpreting one's own behaviour as less serious than it really is
• eg of minimalisation - denying one's actions to cause harm and more likely to repeat the crimes because they have no guilt
• HOLLIN + PALMER SUPPORT KOHLBERG METHOD


  presented offenders and non offenders with moral dilemnas
• PALMER AND HOLLIN FINDINGS 


  convicted offenders showed poorer moral reasoning on 10 of 11 questions

  offenders do have developmental moral deficits
• practical application of kohlberg


  understanding this link between offending behaviour and cognitive processing

  CBT to change offender's irrational thinking

  could help reduce cost of offending on scoiety
• LANGDON REFUTE 


  intelligence may be better predictor of offending behaviour than low moral reasoning