Forensics

Name three pieces of material that must be present on a book

Publication year, publisher and place of publication

Suggest how response options in a questionnaire can be modified to better assess the results

Make sure the questionnaire has a range of options so that they have a clear choice however ensure that questions are still quantitative and not qualitative so that they are easier to analyse and group

Outline eysenecks theory of criminal personality

His theory is based off of the idea that character traits fit onto three dimensions: extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. If a person fits into any category they are more prone to commit criminal behaviour. However, interaction with the environment does develop a persons criminality

Discuss one or more ways of dealing with offending

One way of dealing with offending is through token economy. It is a form of therapy where desirable behaviours are rewarded as a form of encouragement to repeat them. These rewards (tokens) are given as secondary reinforces and then can be exchanged fr primary reinforcers such as food. Token economy is ultimately reinforcement which is done through operant conditioning. However if an offender commits an undesirable behaviour then they can be punished by having these tokens removed.

A strength of token economy is that it is easy to implement into prison life. As a result, prison environments should be improving quick. The token economy must be consistent however it does mean that as long as the token economy is clear and consistent, it can provide a simple and cost effective way to improve prison life.

A limitation of toke economy is that there are ethical issues as it is violating their human rights because it is manipulating their behaviour and the offenders don’t always get a choice as to whether they want to take part. Similarly, some prisons remove tokens from offenders as a form of punishment for bad behaviour. This is unethical and counters the goals of rehabilitation. Nietzel suggests this practice lead to the removal of using these systems. As a result, all these ethical issues ultimately lead to the loss of popularity of token systems in prisons