Knowt
Criminal Psychology
Key Concepts
Criminal behavior - any act that goes against the law of the land.
Types of crime:
Violent (e.g. injuring another)
Drug related (e.g. using illegal substances)
Acquisitive (e.g. theft)
Sexual (e.g. rape)
Anti-social (e.g. vandalism)
Social construct - society determines what is considered criminal behaviour, so it can change over time and place.
Deviation from norms - crime is when an act or behaviour goes against what is expected in society.
Role of culture - collective set of norms that determines a way of life for a group of people.
As cultures change, so do their norms.
Crime is measured using self-report methods, which may not be reliable. Not all crimes are necessarily reported.
Social Learning Theory
We learn all of our behavior from others.
1. Role models/modelling - people we look up to and respect who model behaviour for us.
2. Identification - we decide we want to be like these people.
3. Observation - we pay attention to their behaviours and retain them in our memory.
4. Imitation - we recall these behaviours and copy them. Self-efficacy (belief in ourselves).
Those who lack belief in themselves may be more likely to imitate the behaviours of others.
5. Reinforcement:
Vicarious - observe someone being rewarded or punished for a behaviour
Direct - get rewarded or punished ourselves for a behaviour
6. Internalization - the behaviour becomes part of us and no longer needs to be reinforced for it to continue.
Criminals will have learned to behave in a certain way regardless of the consequences.
Cooper and Mackie (1986)
Aim: to investigate if playing an aggressive video game would lead to an increase in aggression in children.
Laboratory experiment using an independent measures design. IV = game played.
DV = aggression levels after playing or observing the game.
Target population was a set of schools in New Jersey, USA. Parents gave consent and children filled out a questionnaire prior to the study.
Participants randomly allocated to one of three conditions where some played and some observed others playing:
Missile Command (aggressive game)
Pac-Man (non-aggressive game)
Paper and pen maze games (control condition)
Participants then were either taken to a playroom to choose a toy, or had to complete a test.
Results:
61% reported having a games system at home, which was taken into account. This made no difference to results.
Participants in aggressive game condition spent more time playing with aggressive toy.
Conclusion: Girls were more aggressive after playing the aggressive game due to increased arousal which led to a disinhibition effect (more socially acceptable to play with aggressive toy as they had already been encouraged to play an aggressive game.
Evidence that observing behaviour can lead to imitation.
Eysenck’s Personality Trait Theory/Biological theory
Criminal personality - personality traits associated with people who commit crimes. Something that is inherited through genetic inheritance and innate (born with it).
Supertraits - we all have these to a certain extent:
Extraversion - how outgoing an individual is (Criminals are often extroverts as they need a lot of stimulation from the environment and are often thrill-seekers.)
Neuroticism - how anxious/emotional an individual is (Criminals are often neurotic as they don’t easily learn from mistakes).
Psychoticism - how impulsive/aggressive an individual is (Criminals are often psychotic as they are aggressive and impulsive).
Biological theory:
Central Nervous system - lower arousal of CNS and cerebral cortex because stimuli is restricted by reticular activation system (neural network that controls alertness).
Cerebral cortex becomes hungry for stimulation which is then gained from criminal behaviour.
Dopamine reward system - neural network that is responsible for people experiencing pleasure.
Extroverts respond more positively to reinforcers like sex and money, increasing dopamine release.
Autonomic Nervous System - activated during emotional situations.
Becomes over-aroused in neurotic individuals leading to violent behaviour.
Dopaminergic neurons - too many neurons cause overproduction of dopamine which leads to less inhibition of impulses during synaptic transmission (process where neurotransmitters are released by presynaptic neuron and bind to and activate the receptors of postsynaptic neurons).
High levels of extraversion and neuroticism make people difficult to condition (learning by consequences) and often more resistant
Heaven (1996)
Aim: to investigate if psychoticism, extroversion and self-esteem predict delinquent behavior.
Longitudinal study on adolescents from Catholic schools in Australia.
Self-report questionnaires to measure personality and self-esteem and for delinquency two years later.
Findings:
Positive correlation between psychoticism and delinquency.
Weaker correlation between extraversion and delinquency.
Negative correlation between self-esteem and delinquency.
Conclusion: Psychoticism can predict delinquent behaviour, but not extraversion or self-esteem.
Other factors such as peer pressure, discipline from parents and personality may also influence.
Applications - reducing criminal/anti-social behaviour
Punishments - negative consequences to certain behaviours that aim to reduce the chance of these behaviours happening again. E.g. prisons, fines and community sentences
Deterrents - something that reduces the likelihood of a crime being committed.
E.g. use of media to make punishment public, vicarious reinforcement
Rehabilitation - promoting pro-social behaviour and teaching social skills.
Restorative justice - rehabilitating offenders by giving them the choice to be aware of the consequences of their actions, e.g. being introduced to their victims and seeing the effect their crime has had).
Criminal Psychology
Key Concepts
Criminal behavior - any act that goes against the law of the land.
Types of crime:
Violent (e.g. injuring another)
Drug related (e.g. using illegal substances)
Acquisitive (e.g. theft)
Sexual (e.g. rape)
Anti-social (e.g. vandalism)
Social construct - society determines what is considered criminal behaviour, so it can change over time and place.
Deviation from norms - crime is when an act or behaviour goes against what is expected in society.
Role of culture - collective set of norms that determines a way of life for a group of people.
As cultures change, so do their norms.
Crime is measured using self-report methods, which may not be reliable. Not all crimes are necessarily reported.
Social Learning Theory
We learn all of our behavior from others.
1. Role models/modelling - people we look up to and respect who model behaviour for us.
2. Identification - we decide we want to be like these people.
3. Observation - we pay attention to their behaviours and retain them in our memory.
4. Imitation - we recall these behaviours and copy them. Self-efficacy (belief in ourselves).
Those who lack belief in themselves may be more likely to imitate the behaviours of others.
5. Reinforcement:
Vicarious - observe someone being rewarded or punished for a behaviour
Direct - get rewarded or punished ourselves for a behaviour
6. Internalization - the behaviour becomes part of us and no longer needs to be reinforced for it to continue.
Criminals will have learned to behave in a certain way regardless of the consequences.
Cooper and Mackie (1986)
Aim: to investigate if playing an aggressive video game would lead to an increase in aggression in children.
Laboratory experiment using an independent measures design. IV = game played.
DV = aggression levels after playing or observing the game.
Target population was a set of schools in New Jersey, USA. Parents gave consent and children filled out a questionnaire prior to the study.
Participants randomly allocated to one of three conditions where some played and some observed others playing:
Missile Command (aggressive game)
Pac-Man (non-aggressive game)
Paper and pen maze games (control condition)
Participants then were either taken to a playroom to choose a toy, or had to complete a test.
Results:
61% reported having a games system at home, which was taken into account. This made no difference to results.
Participants in aggressive game condition spent more time playing with aggressive toy.
Conclusion: Girls were more aggressive after playing the aggressive game due to increased arousal which led to a disinhibition effect (more socially acceptable to play with aggressive toy as they had already been encouraged to play an aggressive game.
Evidence that observing behaviour can lead to imitation.
Eysenck’s Personality Trait Theory/Biological theory
Criminal personality - personality traits associated with people who commit crimes. Something that is inherited through genetic inheritance and innate (born with it).
Supertraits - we all have these to a certain extent:
Extraversion - how outgoing an individual is (Criminals are often extroverts as they need a lot of stimulation from the environment and are often thrill-seekers.)
Neuroticism - how anxious/emotional an individual is (Criminals are often neurotic as they don’t easily learn from mistakes).
Psychoticism - how impulsive/aggressive an individual is (Criminals are often psychotic as they are aggressive and impulsive).
Biological theory:
Central Nervous system - lower arousal of CNS and cerebral cortex because stimuli is restricted by reticular activation system (neural network that controls alertness).
Cerebral cortex becomes hungry for stimulation which is then gained from criminal behaviour.
Dopamine reward system - neural network that is responsible for people experiencing pleasure.
Extroverts respond more positively to reinforcers like sex and money, increasing dopamine release.
Autonomic Nervous System - activated during emotional situations.
Becomes over-aroused in neurotic individuals leading to violent behaviour.
Dopaminergic neurons - too many neurons cause overproduction of dopamine which leads to less inhibition of impulses during synaptic transmission (process where neurotransmitters are released by presynaptic neuron and bind to and activate the receptors of postsynaptic neurons).
High levels of extraversion and neuroticism make people difficult to condition (learning by consequences) and often more resistant
Heaven (1996)
Aim: to investigate if psychoticism, extroversion and self-esteem predict delinquent behavior.
Longitudinal study on adolescents from Catholic schools in Australia.
Self-report questionnaires to measure personality and self-esteem and for delinquency two years later.
Findings:
Positive correlation between psychoticism and delinquency.
Weaker correlation between extraversion and delinquency.
Negative correlation between self-esteem and delinquency.
Conclusion: Psychoticism can predict delinquent behaviour, but not extraversion or self-esteem.
Other factors such as peer pressure, discipline from parents and personality may also influence.
Applications - reducing criminal/anti-social behaviour
Punishments - negative consequences to certain behaviours that aim to reduce the chance of these behaviours happening again. E.g. prisons, fines and community sentences
Deterrents - something that reduces the likelihood of a crime being committed.
E.g. use of media to make punishment public, vicarious reinforcement
Rehabilitation - promoting pro-social behaviour and teaching social skills.
Restorative justice - rehabilitating offenders by giving them the choice to be aware of the consequences of their actions, e.g. being introduced to their victims and seeing the effect their crime has had).
