Cognitive factors

• 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