strengths and weaknesses of cognitive theories

Strength of cognitive theories

It has led to real life application and the development of PICTS which is a self report survey where criminals can be measured according to their cognitive thinking style and have an understanding of their criminal behaviour so triggers can be established

Weakness of cognitive theories

Both yochelson and samenow and kohlberg failed to use a control group to measure if non- criminals made the same thinking errors. It’s important to use a control group because you can compare the groups and if not it’s unrepresentative.

Strength of CT

Treatments such as CBT have been developed with the idea that criminal thinking can be corrected with treatment. This is useful because the theory doesn’t just provide an explanation to criminal behaviour but also, how to deal with criminals and reduce their behaviour

Weakness of CT

Samples used in the studies are not very representative. There were no women and most men were in a psychiatric hospital. This is an issue as it means that the findings cannot be generalised upon wider society.

Strength of CT

In kohlbergs study, there are studies to show delinquents have an immature moral development as his study suggests. This means the cognitive theory has accuracy.

Weakness of CT

Can be argued to be deterministic. For example kohlberg suggests that moral thinking will lead to immoral behaviour. However a person may think immorally but may not necessarily act immorally and so they do not need to go on to commit crimes