criminology

actus reus

guilty act essentially means committing a crime

mens rea

guilt mind essentially means having a motive to commit the crime

deviance

behaviour that goes against social norms of a specific group or society, which causes some kind of critical reaction or disaproval which would cause an informal sanction such as name calling for behaviour such as cheating

define crime

act or omission that breaks the law and is punishable by law this would cause an formal sanction to occur such as custodial sentence for behaviour such as murder

how age can affect the application of the law

the age of criminal responsibility in the uk is 10. this means that any child under the age of 10 cannot be arrested, charged or prosecuted for a criminal offence

an example of age

James bulger

how defence can affect the application of law

where someone has committed murder, but has a partial defence of diminished responsibility or loss of control, an alternative charge of manslaughter is made. the sentence is also reduced from mandatory life to discretionary life.

an example of how defence can change the application of law

Felicia boots admitted to killing her two babies due to postpartum depression and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for 2 years

how a persons past criminal convictions can change the application of law

if someone has past criminal convictions their criminal charger may be harsher compared to someone who has never committed a crime before.

An example of laws changing from place to place in the uk

The legality of the possession of cannabis and formal sanction varies largely from place to place, In the uk cannabis is a class b drug and can lead to on the spot fines and up to 14 years in jail for dealers

why’d laws change firm place to place and culture to culture

cultural idealogies

social norms and values

development

status of women

An example of laws changing from place to place portugual

in portugual cannabis is decriminalised if the supply is deemed too be over 10 days worth case goes to hearing, fine or imprisonment for dealing.

3 key events of homosexuality

1553 buggery act = criminalising sex between men death penalty

2010 equality act

2013 legalised same sex marriages

3 key events of women’s rights

1857 matrimonial rights = allowed women to seek divorce through civil courts

1967 abortion act

1970 equal pay acts

3 key events of smoking

1971 health warnings added to cigarette packs

2006 indoor smoking ban

2007 legal age turned from 16 to 18

Nature definition

biology, genes, hormones, brain structure

Nurture definition

environment, surroundings, upbringing

3 physiological theory’s

lombroso/ Sheldon’s somotatypes/ raine

3 genetic theorys

crowe/christansen/Jacob’s ~XYY

lombrossos claims

that the criminal is a separate species, a species that is between modern and primitive humans, he argued that the physical shape of the head and face determined “born criminal”. He claimed that you can tell what kind of crime someone will commit but the way they look.

Lombrossos components

examined facial features and skulls of 383 dead criminals and 3,839 living criminals and concluded that 40% of the criminal acts could be accounted for due to those with atavistic characteristics.for example features of sex offender thick lips and protruding ears

Advantages of Credibility lombroso

-the 1st person to give criminology a scientific credibility most were religious before this

-his work heralded the beginnings of offender profiling

-the theory had a scientific test, large sample group

Disadvantages of credibility lombroso

theory had no control group of non criminals

Deterministic and a reductionist theory

Application of lombroso

he said people will leave prison much more violent than they went in.

Refuting evidence of lombroso

-only 40% have advsitic features

-scientific racism- some features link to race and ethic groups

• raine found out brain activity linked to criminality not facial features

Supporting evidence of lombroso

Charles goiing found a low order intelligence in convicts, which suggests that there is some genetic base to criminality

Sheldons claims

claimed taht criminal behaviour is linked to a persons physical from. By looking at 4000 men Sheldon claimed that people could be classified into three body types ; ectomorphic, endomorphic and mesomorphic

Components of sheldons

Sheldon asked people to rate 200 photos on a scale of 1 to 7. Half the photos were of college students and half were of juvenile delinquents. The delinquents had a higher average rating as mesomorphic

Advantages of Credibility sheldon

Sheldon used a large sample and had a control group

Disadvantages of credibility sheldons

Sheldon’s theory is a deterministic and a reductionist theory

Analysis of sheldons

Ted Bundy, Dennis Nielsen didn’t fit

Refuting evidence of sheldons

Body types can change

Discriminative based on class

Bias and labelling

Supporting evidence of Sheldon’s

Putwain said A number of studies have confirmed a association between bodily build and criminality

Jacob XYYclaims

Jacob claims the men with XYY are more agressive and inclined to be violent. the abnormality is the presence of an extra y, called them super males

XYY COMPONENTS

he compared men in prison to men in general to see how prevalent the XYY gene was. 15 per 1000 in prision. 1 per 1000 in general

XYY credibility advantages

Studied extensively for 50 years

XYY credibility diasvanatge

Reductionist and deterministic what abt xxx

Application to xyy

Richard speck had xyy He killed 9 nurses

Refuting evidence

Richard was an alcoholic which played more of a role than xyy

Supporting

The American journal of medical genetics compared XYY males with their XYY siblings and found XY siblings had lower IQ

Twin studies claims

Lange and Christiansen claim that criminality is a result of genes and can be proven by looking at mZ and Dz twins

Components twin

He studied 30 twins where one had spent time in prision he found 20 of the 13 mz

1 Adavantage of twin

It is assumed that each member of a twin pair is exposed to exactly the same set of environmental influences

1 Disadvantage of twin

Reductionist

Aapplication of twin

Ronald and Reginald kray were monozygotic twins the twins were gangsters involved in murders

refuting evidence twin

Mz twins look alike and may therefore generate more similia social responses than dz twins this hasn’t been accounted for in the studies. Most twin studies are not carried out over a long enough period of time

Ssupporting evidence twin

bouchard 1979 studied twins seperated at birth. Found that identical twins who had different upbringings

Crowe adoptions claim

Regardless of the changed environment children seemed biologically predisposed to criminality, Crowe claimed criminality is linked to genetics, Crowe argued that you can separate the nature/nurture by studying individuals that have been adopted at a young age

Crowe components

Compared a group of adopted children whose biological mother has a criminal record to a control group of adopted children whose biological mother didn’t have a criminal record. 50% of adoptees have criminal record by the Time they were 18 with a mother who had a criminal record to 5%

Crowe adoption credibility adv

the results from the adoption studies do point to a significance of the genetic link between biological mothers criminality and adopted child’s abnormalities

Crowe adoption credibility disav

Many adopted children are not adopted at birth and their life experiences prior to adoption may significantly affect their later development

Crowes application

Recognise risk factors early, intervene preventatively rather than reactively

Refuting evidence crowe

Age of adoption may mean the children have already been influenced by their biological parents or foster environment

Supporting evidence Crowe

Mednick compared court convictions of 14427 adoptees with those of their biological and adoptive parents, found a sig correlation between the number of criminal convictions of the biological parents and their offspring

Chemical castration define

Refers to the use of chemicals to stop hormone production therefore changing the biological function of a persons body. In Florida offenders may be sentenced to chemical castration

Adv of chemical

have been shown to control the sex drive of an offender and effectively kill of libido

A disadvantage of chemical

it relies on the offender taking the drug for it to be an effective policy for crime control

Stats chemical

evidence suggests that criminal castartyion can reduce offending by 60%

Eugenics define

the practise or advocacy of improving the human species by selecting mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits , used as a means of controlling “undesirable” populations =immigrants, poor people.

Adv eugenics

Any theory that argues biological determinism would suggest this policy

Disadvantage eugenics

there is no evidence that a eugenics programme would actually reduce crime

conclusion eugenics

No it does not work. There is no scientific evidence to prove without a doubt that certain group will give birth to criminal offspring

Bandura claims

bandura claimed that aggressions can be learned from watching others behave in an aggressive manner and not receive reinforcement. Bandura believed that 4 criteria are needed for imitation to occur : attention the role model, retention of the observed behaviour in memory, reproduction of the behaviour, motivation to intimate the observed behaviour.

Bandura components

Bandura bobo doll experiment, 3 groups of children watched a video of an adult being aggressive and found the control group who watched the video of them being aggressive and were rewarded, were the most aggressive

bandura credibility adv

scientific did multiple tests, data to back up, empirical research, control group and objective data

bandura credibility disadvantages

reductionist it doesn’t take into account any biological differences or social deprivation. it is only considering the learned behaviour.

Deterministic

bandura application

theory focuses on the importance of childhood experience when studying criminality and can help to explain criminality in families in a study 10% of families account for 2/3 of criminals

bandura refuting evidence

doesn’t explain why people that are not exposed to criminal behaviour are criminal

bandura supporting evidence

Edwin Sutherland found criminal behaviour is learned the learning is through association with other people

whos is learning

bandura

who is physcodnamic

Freud

whos Is physcoloogical

Eysnck

freud claims

behaviour can be explained by early childhood experiences, the unconscious mind controls behaviour, involving criminality. traumatic experiences in early childhood leave their mark on the unconscious mind. he believed the mind were made up of 3 parts conscious, unconscious and preconscious

freud components

proposed that theirs 3 different personalitys: id which operates unconsciously, demanding, selfish urges/ ego operated in the conscious seeks rational control / superego operates precocious works on morality principle

freud credibility adv

cognitive physiology has identified unconscious processes such as memory

freud credibility disadvantages

Freuds theory are taken from an unrepresentative sample he mostly studied himself and his patients

Deterministic

Freuds application

physcolanalysis is a talking therapy used to explore unconscious processes that shape behaviour, helps professionals understand offenders unconscious motivation trauma histories.

Freuds refuting evidence

Clarke studied children from deprived backgrounds using a longitudinal study and found there were many factors that contributed to a child becoming a criminal not just whether or not they were deprived

Freuds supporting evidence

research has supported the fact that most criminals come from unstable homes

Eysenck claims

certain personality types are more likely to commit crime bc they crave excitement and don’t learn fast enough that crime results in bad consequences. the criminal personality type is neurotic and extroverted and score highly on psychotism. seek arousal from risk taking so more likely to commit crime

eysencks components

Eysenck measured personality traits using his personality inventory. Eysenck compared over 2000 male prisoners scores on EPI with over 2000 male controls. he found on average the prisoners recorded higher scores in extraversion, neruotisicism and psychoticsm

eysnecks adv

eysnecks personality theory took a combines approach to explaining personality and crime considering both physiological and biological factors

eysencks disadvantages

deterministic implies that those with. certain personality type will go on to commit a crime

Application eysncks

nick leeson , leeson made fraudulent trades that at 1st made large profits for barings bank until: 10m, but then led directly to the 1995 collpase of barings bank he was sentenced to prision, leeson is an extravert and thrill seeker

Refuting evidence esynecks

Yule compared delinquent and non delinquent Boyd and found no difference in extroversion, psychotism and neuroticscm

Supporting evidence eysncks

hare found that there were significantly more physcoitic individual who have the tendency to be violent than the rest of the individuals

Consequences of unreported crime

Decriminilisation, when crimes are no longer reported by the public as they feel the actions should not be illegal, over time the action can become decriminalised. Legal change, crimes that go unreported for a long time can be perceived as a human right. E.g same sex marriage 2014

Media representations

newspaper portray crime factually and give a lot fo detail about the crimes they report on in order to sell they need to have attention grabbing headlines, social media videos of crime are often shared widely sometimes before official investigations conclude.

Raines claim

damage to the prefrontal cortex of the brain may cause the individuals to have an altered behaviour pattern and can impair impulse control which means we may become more aggressive because we can no longer control our impulsive behaviours.

raine components

raine usera pet scanner to study the living brains of 41 impulse killers ho had pleaded reason of insanity, damage was found i

raine credibility adv

Raines theory was highly objective and scientific

raines disadv

deterministic implies that pfc damage inevitably leads to

raine application

donta page raped and killed a young woman, lack of activation in the pFC as he grew up in a domestic household and threw out of the car at 9 months old he escaped death penalty from what raine said about his PFC

Durkheim claims

‘Crime is a normal, integral part of a healthy society’ crime breaks the moral code and the collective conscience of society. If crime did not exist then society would be dysfunctional crime exists in all societies because it reaffirms moral boundaries and at times crime facilitates needed social change. Crime rates being too low or too high cause a society to become dysfunctional.

Durkheim components

There’s 3 functions: boundary maintenance means when people commit crime, society is able to punish them and therefore maintain and reinforce societal boundaries for the rest of us. Adaption and change, a small amount of crime can be beneficial because it can create positive social change e.g laws on homosexuality. Social cohesion means it pulls the community together as people like to feel connected.

Durkheim advantages

The only theory that looks at crime as an a inevitable and possible necessary part of society

Durkheim disadvantages

Never states how much crime is the right amount

Reductionist as it doesn’t consider biological factors

Durkheim application

James bulger, the age of application changes to 10, people sent money for the funeral, whole nation mourning the death. However, doesn’t explain why they committed the crime

Durkheim refuting evidence

Becker, functionalism doesn’t consider why some people get labelled criminals and not others

Durkheim supporting evidence

Hirschi acknowledges the role of people’s commitments to their community, their beliefs, and to wider society in encouraging them to abide by set norms and laws