indv crime

eyesencks criminal personality

• extraversion, introversion

• neurotism, emotional stability

• psychotisim, self-control

neuroticism - emotional stability

• sympathetic nervous system

• responsible for fight or flight response

• neuro: SNS activated more easily for low levels of stress, may overreact to stimuli

• emotional: SNS activated at higher levels of threat, stay calm in stressful situations

psychoticism - self control

• testosterone levels - linked to aggressive behaviour

• psycho: linked to higher levels of testosterone, less empathy, aggressive

• self: more balanced levels of testosterone

pen traits linked to criminal behaviour

• psycho: impulsive; crimes like murder, planned offences

• extrovert: more arousal needed, seek out dangerous situations; theft robbery

• neurotic: overreact to stimuli; unplanned criminal acts

eyesenck: considers influence of nature and nurture on criminality

• explained crime behaviour is based on combo of innate personality traits and socialisation

• sympathetic nervous system: fight or flight response

• extraversion: outgoing nature

• therefore, interactionist, more complete explanation for criminal behaviour

eyesenck: accuracy of personality measures can be questioned

• eyesenck personality questionnaire is self report measure; p’s q answers correlate to diff personality traits

• open to social desirability bias

• however, included lie scale in questionnaire to help identify ps not answering truthfully, their data could be discarded

• therefore, even though controlled for SDB, not truly accurate measure of personality

eyesenck: supporting evidence

• compared male prisoners (2070) to male controls (2442)

• prisoners scored higher than controls on psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism scales

• however, credibility can be questioned, research to support eyesencks own theory, researcher bias

• therefore, even though supports theory, potential bias

moral reasoning

the study of how people think about right and wrong + how they acquire and apply moral rules

how did kohlberg explain moral reasoning

• post-conventional, conventional, pre-conventional

6 stages of moral reasoning

• punishment and obedience orientation

• instrumental relativist orientation

• good boy nice girl orientation

• law and order orientation

• social contract orientation

• universal ethical principles

kohlberg application to crime

• lower moral development level - more likely to be criminal

• crimes can be justified at all levels but different types of crime

kohlberg: doesn’t explain why moral reasoning doesn’t develop past first level

• known that pre-conventional levels of morality is usually occupied by young children

• could suggests criminals with underdeveloped moral reasoning had childhood experience with affected or stopped reasoning from developing

• therefore, not taking all contributing factors, limits understanding of moral reasoning link to crime behaviour

kohlberg: practical applications

• children educated in schools using moral scenarios to improve moral reasoning

• important stage of MR that most children are in is also common for criminals to have

• therefore, intervening and trying to ensure children progress past pre conventional level can help prevent crime behaviour in future

kohlberg: only explains violent crimes

• hostile attribution bias: indv tend to interpret behaviours of others as threatening or aggressive

• can lead to assault, gbh, general violent crimes

• doesn’t explain crimes such as graffiti and fraud, no violence involved

• therefore, incomplete explanation