Unit 2

Criminal behaviour (Legal) definition

Crimes in the UK usually the ACTUS REUS (guilty act) and the MENS REA (guilty mind), both needed to secure convviction. this prevents a blameless person from conviction. some offences only need proof of the guilty act such as speeding (strict liability). some crimes have a defence; such as, self defence.

Criminal behaviour (Social) definition

criminal behvaiour is often - but not always - deviant. for example, murder is both deviant and criminal behaviour whereas going above the speed limit may be seen as criminal rather than deviant behaviour. this is because society have a social definition of what constitutes a crime. this is linked to deviance. if a crime is seen as deviant it will not be treated the socially as a proper criminal act. alternatively some legal practises avoid pollution, seen as deviant as it is viewed as socially wrong, so businesses avoid doing it.

summary offences

less serious crimes, e.g. speeding / assault. (magistrates)

indictable offences

more serious offences, e.g. rape or murder. (crown court)

formal sanctions

custodial sentences, community sentences, fines, discharge (absolute/ conditional), police sanctions (cautions/ conditional + penalties)

definition of deviance

deviance is any violation of societys norms or going against expected behaviour; for example excessive tattoos or piercings.

norms and values

values are general principles or guidelines for how we should live our lives. tell us right from wrong, good from bad. e.g. respecting elders. some deviant acts can become the norm over time, e.g. downloading music is illegal but is now an accepted norm in society.

moral codes

often used to describe a basic set of rules, values and principles held by an individual, group, organisation or society. some moral codes are written down such as the Police Code of Ethics or a student code of conduct.

How laws change from culture to culture - polygamy

Polygamy (Male) - the practise of having more than one spouse at a time - Polyandry (Female).

• illegal in 58 countries, including UK (7 years on Bigamy)

• compliant countries mainly muslim, however (Turkey)

• religion (Qur’an) & traditional (Africa) practise can be key factors

How laws change from culture to culture - Adultery

adultery - a Sexual Act between 2 people where one is married.

• no clear definition of a SA, seen as deviant and immoral

• decriminalised in India 2018

• Criminalised in majority of muslim countries + some African christian, Illegal in 21 US states

• Punishments - Saudi: Stoning, Rhode Island: Fine

• religion (Christianity, Muslim, Judaism) - one of the ten commandements

How laws change from culture to culture - Homosexuality

homosexuality - sexual acts between members of the same sex

• legal in the UK, Europe, North + South America

• Illegal in many muslim countries, however (Indonesia)

• Homosexuality banned in countries; males (72) female (45)

How laws change over time - prostitution

• stigma attached to people who were perceived as immoral

• Street Offences Act 1959

• 2022 - focus on how to protect vulnerable people involved

Hows laws change over time - Vagrancy

• illegal under Vagrancy Act 1824

• initial purpose to clear the streets of beggars, rogues

• 2022 - act fell into disuse as society accepted the legitimate reasons for homelessness

• Manchesters ‘Big Sleep Out’ organised by Charity Cornerstones

How laws change over time - Homosexuality

• Sexual Offences Act Decrim in 1967: for 21 and over

• Age of consent lowered 1994 (18), 1994 (16)

• Same sex marriage 2014: Same Sex Couples Act 2013

How laws change over time - Smoking

• 1950s doctors gave cigarettes to calm patient nerves

• Health Act 2006: smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces illegal.

• 2012: illegal on display

• 2015: Vehicles with under 18s and over a certain size (display) illegal

• advanced health knowledge, addictive, stricter

How laws change in different places - Smoking Cannabis

• illegal in england and Wales call for decrim - medical reasons

• Legal in some US states (illionois) however (Lowa) - share a border

• Enforced differently, Durham Constabulary does not prioritise growers while Cheshire and Gwent do.

• Portugal/ Netherlands - legal recreation

• UK - police priority / US - elected reflect population

How laws change in different places - Jaywalking

Jaywalking - crossing roads at non specified crossing point

• offence in: Canada, Singapore, Poland

• UK - personal responsibility

• beliefs differ, individual vs state responsibility.

• Wider roads in the US

How laws are applied differently according to circumstances - Moral panics

• London riots - 2011 (deterrence)

• Mods and Rockers - 1960s (deterrence)

• Chamblis - Middle class: Saints/ Roughnecks

• Pivillian - Situational factors (lead to arrest); class, ethnicity, age, attitude towards officer, time and place of incident.

How laws are applied differently according to circumstances - Age

• Child below a certain age may not be able to understand their crime, so treated more leniently.

• England, Wales & Northern Ireland: 10 years old (no other countries in Europe has a lower age.

• 10-17 year olds youth magistrates

• youth magistrates - less formal, cannot send to prison but can secure center

How laws are applied differently according to circumstances - Homicide

• Diminished responsibility (medical condition, abnormality of mental functioning) + Loss of Control (fear or anger)

• leads to reduced sentence of voluntary manslaughter

• Homicide Act 1957, amended by Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Physiological theories - Lombroso

(born criminals)

• 1876 - argued that criminals were physically different from modern man to primitive human

• conducted research in prisons measuring 1000s of skeletal issues and facial features, which identify ‘born criminals’ (heritable)

• atavistic (primitive) features: lower IQ, pre-social, unable to control impulses, reduced sensitivity - “tendency to commit crimes”

• physical features: low sloping foreheads, large jaws, receding chin, twisted nose, large ears.

Physiological theories - Sheldon

(body types) - endo, ecto, meso

• Endomorph- soft & fat, lacking muscle tone. relaxed and socially outgoing

• Ectomorph- thin & fragile. introverted and emotionally restrained

• Mesomorph- muscular, hard bodied, little fat & strong. Adventurous and aggressive.

• Correlation study of 4000 inmates - many Meso commit crime, least committing Ecto

• Mesomorphs- attracted to risk naturally, physical advantage (Asset), high pain threshold, callous & ruthless

Genetic theories - Twin studies

heritable trait which makes a criminal

• concordance rate is higher in MZ twins - 1929(Johannes Lang) 10/13 served prison time

• Concordance rate for DZ twins lower - 1929(Johannes Lang) 2/17 served prison time

• Christiansen 1977 - crim concordance rates: MZ (35%), DZ (13%)

keywords: monozygotic (identical twins, 1 egg), Dizygotic (non-identical twins, 2 eggs)

Genetic theories - Adoption studies

nature vs nurture

• if in criminal behaviour and similar to biological parents, but living with adoptive parents then genetic basis of crim can be true.

• Mednick 1987 - court convictions of 14K adoptees, many adoptees had biological parents (also crim) stronger relations between father and sons.

Genetic theories - Jacob’s XXY study (1965)

criminality in relation to chromosomal abnormality

• genetic condition where males (xy) can get an extra (y) chromosome - 1/1000 male births.

• suggested men with XYY syndrome more aggressive. over represented in the prison with 15/1000 in male population

• study based on imprisoned crim/ secure hospitals - violent and aggressive.

• Price & Whatmore - alleged XXY tend to be immature and unstable, committing motiveless crimes

Strengths of Lombroso

godfather of criminology

• gave criminology scientific credibility/ science not religion based

• research showed importance of looking at clinical and historical records to find common themes, rather than just a simple choice by the offender

• focussed on how crime could be prevented, rather than just punishing

Weaknesses of Lombroso

• no use of control group, no comparison (only researched prisoners, general population?)

• theory is descriptive rather than explanatory

• ethics? - can people be locked away before committing crime? - disfigurements can come from accidents?

• theory is deterministic (no negotiations/fact) - dosent consider social or economical factors, not every abnormality is criminal and not all criminals have an abnormality.

Strengths of Sheldon

• ‘element of truth’, Glueck & Glueck (1956) sample size of delinquents 60% were meso and while non-delinquent only 31%

• proportionality - the more mesomorphic a body the more serious the crime they may commit.

• Sheldon used a control condition of non-offenders (students) to compare results against

Weaknesses of Sheldon

• Glueck & Glueck found that crim comes from other factors also (not only biology) - psychological and enviornmental

• Stereotypes for mesomorphs being criminal (drawn into peer groups activities/ dared) maybe courts think this also, punishing more harshly, officially labelled.

• criminals may need meso build to succeed, therefore crime causes somatotype not vice versa. also, many offenders are working class males which have demanding manual jobs. peoples body shape can change not fixed.

• labelling can extend from school and work giving them more focus and attention, more likely caught.

• for crimes that do not require meso build e.g. white collar, lacks validity not telling full story.

Strengths for Genetic theory

• studies on MZ twins are logical for proving the existence of a ‘criminal gene’, scientists can better measure the impact of genetics on behaviour, also helped prevention of vulnerable disorders

• ishikawa & raine (twin studies) found higher concordance rates for MZ than DZ twins

Limitations for Twin studies

• if genes caused crim then there would be a 100% concordance rate, but only shows around half or less making it unreliable

• impossible to isolate the genetic and environmental factors as twins likely to share the same homes, school and life opportunities

• Lange (1929) based twin studies on appearance rather than DNA, makes earlier results lack reliability

Strengths for Adoption studies

• overcomes the issues in twin studies separating biological and environmental factors

• logic based, to see importance of nature vs nurture. adoptee more likely criminal if bio parents had crim records

Weaknesses for Adoption studies

• adopted children most likely placed in the same environments, class, ethnicity + locality. less emphasis on genetics.

• many adoptees not adopted immediately, spend more time learning from bio parents, importance on early years (0-5),

Strengths for XXY Syndrome

• Jacob found an association between XXY syndrome and offenders imprisoned.

• Price and Whatmore found links between the syndrome and property crime

• Adler (2007) suggests possibility of aggressive and violent behaviour is partly determined by genetics.

Weaknesses of XXY syndrome

• having the syndrome dosent prove cause of violence. but labelled criminal increases chances of prison, therefore highlights over-representation of XXY males in prison (cause of crime)

• XXY males, lower intelligence, over-representation because of being caught (figures in prison shouldnt be relied upon)

• Theilgaard (1984) researched traits of XXY men to XY men. aggression was not associated.

biological theories of crime

XXY syndrome

Adoption/ Twin studies

Lombroso

Sheldon

Genetic theories

Adoption/ Twin studies

XXY Syndrome

Physiological theories

Lombroso

Sheldon

Individualistic theories of crime

Psychodynamic

Learning

Psychological

Psychodynamic

Psychoanalysis - Freud

Maternal Deprivation - Bowlby

Learning theory

Operant learning - Skinner

Social learning - Bandura

Psychological Theory

Eyesenck personality

Psychoanalysis - Frued

ego, ID, superego

• Early (traumatic) childhood experiences determine personality (mainly unconscience mind)

• ID - selfish, animalistic urges, basic desires (food, sex, sleep)

• Superego - moral conscience developed through early stages, the ‘nagging parent’

• Ego - seek of ‘rational control’, goal to strike a balance between both Superego and ID.

• children need to progress from being ID dominant to ego (where crim can occur)

Maternal deprivation - Bowlby

link between maternal deprivation and anti-social behaviour

• child needs a close and continuous relationship with primary carer (mum) from birth to 5.

• if unattached for even a short period can lead to ‘affectionless psychopathy’ then crim behaviour

• 44 juvenile thieves - suffered MD (39%) before age of 5

• control group of non-delinquents only (5%)

Operant learning theory - Skinner

positive/ negative reinforcement

• OL theory - known as Behaviourism

• if crime is more rewarding than punishment - will engage

• rewards: financial, emotional, respect of peers

• positive enforcement - continue, vice versa

Social learning theory - Bandura

crime is a set of learnt behaviours

• learnt through: observation and vicarious reinforcement

• behaviour modelled on people of higher social status, e.g. parents, teachers, older siblings, popular people.

• if models are rewarded for their actions more likely to imitate

• ‘Bobo doll’ experiment - 3 groups watched adults beat up doll - G1 (rewarded), G2 (punished), G3 (control- nothing)

• G1 imitated the most, G2 least.

Personality theory - Eyesenck

causes of crim are conditioning (reward seeking) and genetic inheritance (nervous system) e.g. high E & N score

E xtroversion, N euroticism, P sychoticisim

• 7000 soldiers

• high E - outgoing, sociable, excitement seeking, often aggressive & short-tempered.

• high N - anxious, moody, often depressed, prone to overreacting.

• most criminals have a high E and N score.

• later: added P, high P - cruel, insensitive, aggressive & lacking empathy, nervous system cannot be conditioned

Strengths of psychodynamic theories (Freud + Bowlby)

• importance of childhood experiences and parent-child relationships as an influence on offending

• identifications led to influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance on a practical level

Weaknesses of Psychodynamic theories (Freud + Bowlby)

• No longer widely accepted, unconscious mind? impossible to prove, unscientific and subjective

• explains behaviour after not before. issues of causation

• unsuccessful treatments (howitt 2009). waste of money. ethical - talking about past truama.

Strengths of Social learning theories (Skinner + Bandura)

• Bandura’s learning theory supported by Skinners, more reliable (replicated with similar results)

• we are social beings - Bobo shows modelling is a key factor in child behaviour, importance of role models (higher status)
  

Weaknesses of Social learning theories (Bandura + Skinner)

• lack of ecological validity (very controlled environment) only a snapshot does not show long term-effects

• unethical - distressing the children. those witnessing the crime rewarded can be influenced into a life of crime as experiment has proven ‘reliable’

• other factors: cognitive control, free will. not all criminal behaviour is easily imitated

Strengths of Psychological theories (Eyesenck)

• substantial comparisons between offender and general population. big sample - reliable

• identifies personality traits linked to criminal behaviour. supported by other studies - helpful to the police

• identify in childhood - rehab and correctional teaching