Chap1 Explanations of criminal behaviour

what is the aim ofstudy 1? to find if low levels of physiological arousal are a predictor of offending behaviour

what is the method? a correlation study

What was the sample? 101 boys aged 15

what was the procedure? looked for a relationship between a number of physiological measures (skin conductance, EEG and heart rate) taken at the age of 15 the number of offences commited by the age of 24.

what was the results? strong correlation between 2 measures- crime comitters had significantly low heart rates, reduced skin conductance and slow wave EEGtheta activity than non-criminals

What was the aim of study 2? to find if birth complications combined with early maternal rejection are a predictor of offending behaviour

what was the method? a correlation study

what was the sample? 4269 consecutive live male births in copengham, denmark

what was the procedure? researchers collected data on birth complications, maternal rejection and violent crime(when P's 18)

what were the results? boys who had experienced both birth complications & early maternal rejection were most likely to become violent offenders

what is the aim of this study? to test the hypothesis that problem families produce problem children

what was the method of the study? longitudinal study using interviews and data from criminal records

what was the sample of this study? 411 boys from inner-city areas of london

what was the procedure of this study? interviews with the children &their parents& questionnaires completed by their teachers

focused on criminal records to locate proof of convictions of the males and their biological parents and siblings

most commonly the offences were theft,burgulary,stealing vehicles,violence,vandilism,fraud and drug abuse

what were the results of this study? by the age 32, 37% males had commited crime -worst offenders tended to be from large sized multi-problem families

-most common teen crimes were burglary, shop lifting, theft of and from vehicles and vandilism- these offences decreased in their 20's but theft from work increased

what is the conclusion of this study? children from poor families are more like to offend compulsive children can't see consequences of actions and desire immediate gratification children from criminal families develop anti-establishmen attitude and beliefsthat it's justable to offend problem families produce problem children

2 weaknesses of study 1 and 2?

not generalisable to women as they were not used

reductionism, doesn't look at the nurture argument, gives a simple answer for a complex problem

2 Strengths of study 1 and 2?

study1 reliable use od EEG and heart rate monitors

Uselful- apply to everyday life

Applications and usefulness of both studies?

Monitoring children on P.E science and measuring their physiological traits

Biological determinism -naturally determined to behave in a certain manner or act in a certain way example if you're born withlack of empathyyou will definately be a psychopath
Nature versus Nurture- considering the relative influence of nature&nurture in the determination of criminal behaviour
Extroversion- when you have a high need for excitement and for a varied changing enviroment, enjoy company, impulsive, lively, aggresive and unreliable
introversion- when you are reserved, cautious and dislike change and noisy gatherings, are reliable and unaggressive and place great value on ethical standards
Locus of control - refers to the degree to which individuals percieve their behaviour to be under their own internal control as oppsed to being controlled by external agents such as luck or authority figures

what is the aim of this study? tosee whether teenage criminals who displayed affectionless psychopathy(AP) were more likely to have had early seperation than those who had not
what is the sample of this study? 44 teenagers referred to the child guidance clinic involved in criminal activity living with biological parents
what is the method of this study? they were interviewed to assess whether they exhibited signs of affectionles psychopathy by identifying lack of affection, lack of guilt or shame at their actions, lack of empathy for thier victims
what are the results of this study? 14 children identified asAPs 12 has experienced prolonged seperation from thier mums in 1st 2years. 5 of the 30 dilinquent children not classified as APs had expereinced similar seperations. of the 44 p's in non-delinquent control group only 2 had expereinced prolonged seperation.

2 strengths of this study?

Usefulness- apply to real life

High EV - used teenagers that had actually been involved in a real criminal activity

2 Weaknesses of this study?

Not generalisable- only 44 Ps from one clinic

demand characteristics - interview

Any suggestions from this study?

make sure mother and father provide good care

What is the aim of this study?

to find out if afro-caribbeans commit more crime because they believe they are alienated from society rather than any genetic explanations.

what method was used?

self reports-questionnaires

what sample was used?

oppurtunity sample of afro carribeans from london

what are 2 strengths of this study? high EV questionned in context usefulness

what are 2 weaknesses of this study? sample- not generalisable only london stereotyped racial groups

what suggestions can be applied from this study? more afro carribean role models can go into schools and have talks e.g basketball players or singers and you can adveritise models on TV doing good things

what are the limitations of these suggestions?

time and money consuming, might not be a role model for everyone

what is the aim of this study? an attempt to classify criminal behaviour in relation to personality variables

which personality variables are being measured?neuroticism, extroversion, and psychosis

which method was used? correlation study

what sample was used? 156 prisoners, aged 18-38 divided in 5 groups of violent crimes, property crimes, confidence crimes, inadequates, residual

what was the procedure? they were all tested on the Eysenck personality questionnaire an on a variety of physiological measures: skin conductances,EEG & eye blink response

what were the results?

conmen had very low psychosis scores

violent and property offenders had low neurotic scores whereas residual and inadequates had high

residual and violent offenders had high extrovert scores and inadequates and property offenders had a low score -didn't reach statistical difference

some physiological difference found between the property and inadequate offendersand the other 3 groups.

what are 2 strengths of this study?

reliability-use of EEG measurement, accuracy

High EV natural experiment (real prisoners)

what are two weaknesses of this study?

Demand characteristics- use of self reports

methodology- correlation-doesn't show cause and affect

suggestions

counsell prisoners every twice a week to stop them from reoffending