criminal psychology

Learning from the consequences of actions

+ reinforcement: Receiving something pleasant for a behaviour so we repeat the behaviour. Given reward for good marks
- reinforcement: The avoidance of something unpleasant so we do the behaviour again. Alarm in the car to wear the seatbelt

receiving something unpleasant for a behaviour, so we do not do it again. If someone does a criminal act and is fined or imprisoned, they are being positively punished.

removing something pleasant so we do not repeat the behaviour again. A prisoner fought in the jail, he is not allowed to play football with his inmates for a week. The prisoner does not repeat the behaviour.

PR: a reinforcer that satisfies a biological need. E.g. Food/water
SR: a reinforcer of no survival value, but we have learned to associate it with a primary reinforcer.

+ used to explain a wide range of crimes
+ helps explain how punishment will reduce undesirable behaviour
+ supported by Skinner's rat experiment.
- not all acts can be explained using this. Other factors like personality/psych problems
- Ignores biological explanation. Genes/Neurological damage

SLT: behaviour is learned through the observation and imitation of role models.
Modelling: learning a new behaviour through paying attention to, retaining and reproducing the behaviour of a role model.
OL: learning new behaviours through watching and modelling a role model.
RM: a person who we admire or with whom we share similar characteristics.

Attention: people learn from a role model when they recognise and pay attention to ts critical features
Retention: how well the individual remembers the model's action
Reproduction: after observing the model, the watcher must imitate the role model actions
Motivation: motivated to repeat the modeled behaviour if positive incentives or rewards are provided

+ a lot of evidence to support it. For example "Bandura (1960)
+ explain criminal behaviour in detail (ARRM)
- does not always have practical applications. observational learning cannot be used to all types of criminal behaviour like murder. (ignre bio approach)
- reliability cannot be tested, Bandura cannot be repeated (unethical)

Extraversion: Behaviour that is outgoing , sensation-seeking and sociable
Introversion: Behaviour that is reserved, calm and quiet
Psychoticism: a personality trait that is cold, lacks empathy, is antisocial and can be aggressive

Unstable neuroticism: a personality trait associated with being over reactive in stressful situations , over-emotional and anxious
Stable neuroticism: a personality trait associated with being unreactive in stressful situations
EPQ: A questionnaire to measure extraversion, introversion, stable and unstable neuroticism and Psychoticism

High E score - Extraversion- nervous system that has low arousal level - seek external stimulation to raise biological arousal level - Do this by being outgoing, sensation seeking
Low E scores - Introversion- nervous system has high arousal level - Avoid thrill and excitement to dampen arousal level

Family studies, Twin studies: Karl Christiansen found that there was a higher % of identical male and female twins who were both criminals compared to a lower % of non-identical male and female twins. Twins may be raised in similar ways.

Hutchings and Mednick found that 21 percent of adopted children who went on to commit a crime had a biological father who was convicted of a crime. This was compared to 10 percent of children whose biological father was not convicted of a criminal offence but the adoptive father had a criminal record.

Adoption Studies: Hutchings/Mednick found that 21% of adopted children committed a crime had a biological father who was convicted of a crime. compared to 10 % of children whose biological father was not convicted of a criminal offence but the adoptive father had a criminal record.

High N score - Unstable Neurotics, Nervous system responds very quickly in stressful conditions, Over react quickly
Low N score - Stable Neurotics, Unreactive nervous system, Calm under stressful conditions

High P score - psychoticism
Lacks empathy and compassion
Can be antisocial

+ evidence "David Farringtn", relationship between high P and N scores and criminal behaviour shown
+ considers the nature approach, biological approach, account genetics, nervous system, psychological and social factors
- assume that personality traits are fixed and stable
- questionnaire is self reported. The questionnaire is called EPQ

+ supports the operant conditioning theory, a prison is a form of positive reinforcement, we are punished for criminal behaviour we are less likely to repeat it.
+ keeps the public safe while the offender is locked away.

- an ineffective form of punishment for crime. For example "recidivism rates in the UK show that within the first year of release, around 25 percent of people reoffend
- Once released, prisoners often find it difficult to get a job because of their criminal record

+ offenders get second chance to make up for their crime by giving something back to their community in return for the harm they have caused prevents new offenders from going to prison, making new connections
+ are only given in appropriate circumstances,

- soft option which does not prevent reoffending. For example the recidivism rate of over 30% is not seen as an effective form of punishment
- over 10 per cent of offenders fail to complete their community sentence.

+ decrease the rate of recidivism. Statistics show that there is a 14% reduction in recidivism compared to not using restorative justice.
+ According to government research, restorative justice has a high victim satisfaction rate of around 85 per cent

- can cause distress to both offender and victim as it involves personal contact
-time consuming and costly.

A programme designed to reward prisoners for prosocial behaviour; prisoners collect tokens that can be exchanged for privileges. Based on the principles of operant conditioning, prisoners are given tokens for prosocial behaviour as a form of rewardeinforcement.

ognitive behavioural treatment for violent offenders to help them control their anger. a form of rehabilitation for offenders who have committed violent crimes because of their anger. encouraged to identify triggers to angry outbursts, to find ways of coping with their feelings. Cognitive preparation, Skill acquisition, Application practice

+ comes from the operant conditioning theory therefore it can be considered effective. This is because tokens can be seen as positive reinforcement and secondary reinforcers
+ evidence of a short-term increase in prosocial behaviour within a prison. For example "Tom Hobbs and Michael Holt (1976)

- designed to control and manage prisoner behaviour, not to reduce recidivism. Prisoners are unlikely to prevent reoffending because similar tokens are not found in everyday life
- ineffective in certain circumstances, for example if the prison staff is not commited, failure of staff to give out tokens

+ long term impact
+ reducing recidivism evidence. "Craig Dowden, Kelley Blanchette and Ralph Serin" found that high-risk offenders who received anger management treatment were less likely to re-offend compared to high-risk offenders who did not undergo intensive anger management treatment.

- not be useful and effective for all the criminals. For example violent crimes that are not because of anger.
- offenders can abuse the programme. For example "Marnie Rice" she suggested that psychopaths were more likely to reoffend and become more dangerous after anger management because they had acquired new skills

to investigate the impact of television on the social behaviour of young children.

St Helena Island with no TV, 5644 population
NAtural experiment, Longitudinal study, Sample: random sample taken from school, aged 3 to 8 years. Four months before the introduction of television 1994, behavior video-recorded during morning, lunch and afternoon play over a two-week period.

Repeated in 2000, In total, 256 minutes of video recordings were taken in 1994 and 344 minutes of recordings in 2000. cameras located in the playgrounds
eight selected items for prosocial and antisocial behaviours taken from the PBOS, Inter-observer reliability implemented, in sets of 30-minute time frames before and after the introduction of broadcast television, the behaviour was recorded
eight 30-minute frames to compare for pre- and post-television.

64 items that could be compared.
Only 9 of the 64 comparisons were statistically significant.
2/9 showed a statistically significant decrease in anti-social behaviour
5/9 showed a statistically significant decrease in pro-social behaviour
2/9 showed a statistically significant increase in pro-social behaviour
Boys committing nearly four times more anti-social acts.

over the 5.3 years from the introduction of television in 1994 to the observation in 2000, little change in pro- or anti-social behaviour had occurred but television did not have a big impact on children's aggressive behaviour.

+ high ecological validity, research method used was a natural experiment, "a school's playground in St Helena island was observed"
+ high reliability. scientific methods were used by by the researchers, the study used "inter -observer reliability

- low generalizability, "St Helena" a unique community with its own culture which means the results can not be generalised to more urbanised and modern cultures
- low ecological validity. television programmes watched on the island were not the same as on mainland television, contained less violence."Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which has a high level of violence, was not broadcast on the island.

to see if children will imitate aggressive and non-aggressive role model behaviour, even if they are not rewarded for it.
to see if the children would be more likely to copy same-sex role models than opposite-sex role models
to see if boys would be more aggressive than girls, particularly if exposed to the aggressive male role model condition.

36 girls 36 boys, ages between 37 and 69 months, recruited from Stanford University Nursery School,
8 groups of 6 children and a control group of 24 children Half of the experimental participants watched an aggressive role model. 6G watch f aggressive role model, 6G F aggressive f role model. 6B aggressive M, 6B aggressive F. (non aggressive rle model as well)

control group watched no role model, rated for aggression, matched pairs used, Ps entered experimental room and watched role model, nn aggressive RM did pla with the bobo doll, Aggressive RM played with the doll. after 10 mins RM leaves room, child taken in a diff room, played for 20 mins, behaviour observed in 5 sec interval and rated aggression

Ps exposed to the aggressive role model, whether M or F, displayed more verbal and physical aggression than the control group or children exposed to the non-aggressive role model
Boys imitated more P and V verbal aggression after being exposed to the M aggressive RM than to the F aggressive RM. Boys copy same-sex physical aggression. Girls copy more of same-sex verbal aggression

children learn through observation in the absence of reinforcement, and provided experimental evidence for social learning theory.
children learn aggression from adult role models, particularly if the model was of the same sex as the child.

+ high in reliability, lab exp, played with their "toys, no EV
+ equal numbers of boys and girls as participants, representative sample, 36 G and 36B, high in genersaibility
- low validity, lab exp, controlled condition, 'That was the adult we were supposed to copy.
- unethical. The Ps were "exposed to aggressive role models and they could not predict the long term effects of behavior on the child