Criminal Psychology 

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  • Created by: evievie
  • Created on: 15-02-17 15:23
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  • Criminal Psychology
    • Biological explanations
      • XYY Syndrome
        • Genetic condition that occurs when a man has an extra male chromosome. Occurs 1 in 1000 men. Not inherited. Usually unknown but they my grow taller faster or have lower levels of intelligence. Previously believed to make men overly aggressive and lack empathy (leading to 'supermale syndrome')
      • Amygdala/Sham Rage
        • Amygdala is responsible for controlling human emotion. Evidence is gained by brain scanning techniques. Smaller amygdala have been found in those diagnosed with psychotic personalities and high levels of aggression.
      • Brain Injury
        • Caused by an accident or illness. Consequences are dependent on brain area. Suggested that injuries affect development of temperance, social judgement and control of impulses.
          • Impairment on these areas could contribute to criminality
      • Persoanlity
        • Personality dimensions: Extroversion, Introversion, Neuroticism, Stability, Psychoticism
          • P E N personality could explain criminality. Influenced by our biology (ARAS)
    • Social explanations
      • Labelling
        • Labelling- involves a majority group considering a minority group as inferior
        • Stereotype- believing a whole group share certain characteristics
      • Social Learning theory
        • Vicarious learning-learning b y watching someone being rewarded. External motivation-Criminal act is learnt though SLT is successful, more likely to be repeated. Self-Reinforcement-behaviour is motivating if internal need is satisfied
        • Attention, Retention, Reproduction, Motivation
      • Self-fulfilling prophecy
        • Something becoming true because it was predicted to happen
        • Pygmalion effect
    • Understanding the offender
      • Cognitive Interview
        • 4 main cognitive techniques to produce 50% improvement in information retrieved with no less of accuracy
          • Interview similarity, Focused retrieval, Extensive retrieval, Witness-compatible questioning
      • Psychological formulation
        • A way of making sense of a persons difficulties by looking at their relationships, biological and social circumstances
    • Biological treatments
      • Diet
        • Suggested that deficits in minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids may be linked to violent behaviour. Low blood sugar linked to irritability
    • Cognitive treatments
      • Anger management
        • Attempts to identify what triggers anger  and learning to control the triggers. Eating regimes are suggested and relaxation techniques. Prisons use CALM programme
    • Influencing eye-witness testimony
      • Post-event information
        • Leading questions could distort testimony accounts and so have confabulating effects, as the account would become distorted by cues provided in the question
      • Weapon focus
        • Refers to an eye-witnesses concentration on a weapon to the exclusion of other details of a crime
          • Stress: Yerkes-Dodson law- high levels of stress and arousal experinced may influence what's rmebeered, creartes the optimum level of arousal
          • Attention: as a weapon is unusual, memory is more likely to focus on this at the expense of peripheral memory
    • Characteristics of defendant
      • Race
        • Murdering a white victim will result in a harsher sentence. Criminality is associated with stereotypically black facial features. About 80% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims generally are white.
      • Attractiveness
        • Halo effect can be defined as the tendency to use global evaluations to make judgements about specific traits. We use a global characteristic to determine specific personality traits.

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