moral reasoning:

• AO3: moral reasoning:

  evidence for the link between moral reasoning and crime

  • Palmer and Collin 1998 compared moral reasoning between 332 non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using SRM-SF which contains 11 moral dilemmas related questions ie would you keep a promise to a friend
  • They found that the offender group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non offender group
  • This is consistent with Kohlberg's predicitons
• AO3: MORAL REASONING:

  Limitation:

  • level of moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence
  • Thorton and Reid 1982 found that people who committed crimes for a financial gain ie robbery were more likely to show pre-convectional moral reasoning than those who have been convicted for impulsive crimes ie assault
  • Pre-convectional moral reasoning have been identified with those who believe they can evade punishment
  • This shows that Kohlberg's theory may not apply to all crimes