Cognitive factors

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    Cards (24)

    • Cognitive distortion is a type of irrational thinking where reality becomes twisted,so people perieve things inaccurately while thinking they are right
    • Distortions lead to offenders denying or justifying their actions
    • 2 examples of cognitive distortion
      • Hostile attribution bias
      • Minimalisation
    • An attribution bias happens when someone always tends to think the worse,assuming someone smiling is linked with a bad thought.
      This can lead to aggressive behaviour.
    • Minimalisation is where the outcomes of a situation are either exaggerated or downplayed.
      Seen when criminals lessen the negative view of their actions before or after committing a crime.
      Helps criminals accept the consequences and reduce negative emotions
      Eg stealing from a rich family
    • Kohlbergs moral reasoning theory,understanding the reasons behind moral decisions in boys and men
    • Kohlberg created a stage theory,each stage signifies a more advanced morally mature understanding.
    • 10% of adults reach the post-conventional level.
    • Most adults sit at the convectional level,those at this level would feel that their behaviour is justified because it maintains relationships.
      An offender might accept breaking the law to protect a member of their family
    • Hollin et al
      Most criminals are likely to sit at the pre-conventional level.
      They believe that breaking the law is justified if the rewards outweigh the costs or if punishment can be avoided.
    • In England and Waled,children under 10 cant be charged with a crime as its believed that they dont have the moral responsibility.
    • At age 10 under 20% of children were at stage 1 and 60% were at stage 2