Theories of Criminal Behaviour

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Theories of Criminal Behaviour
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Biological Roots of Criminal Behavior
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Major Principles of Biological Theories

•  The brain is the organ of the mind and the locus
  of personality
• The basic determinants of human behavior are
  constitutionally or genetically based
• Observed gender and racial differences in rates
  and types of criminality may be at least
  partially the result of biological differences
  between the sexes and/or between racially
  distinct groups

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Major Principles of Biological Theories 

• The basic determinants of human behavior may be
  passed on from generation to generation
• Much of human conduct is fundamentally rooted in
  instinctive behavioral responses characteristic
  of biological organisms everywhere
• The interplay between heredity, biology, and the
  social environment provides the nexus for any
  realistic consideration of crime causation

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Early Biological Theories

• Lombroso in 1876 argued that the criminal is a
  separate species, a species that is between
  modern and primitive humans.
• He argued that the physical shape of the head
  and face determined the "born criminal".

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Early Biological Theories

• Lombroso studied and measured the bodies of
  executed and deceased offenders as well as
  examining living inmates to locate physical
  differences or abnormalities
• Claimed to have found a variety of bodily
  features predictive of criminal behavior
• Long arms, large teeth, ears lacking lobes, lots
  of body hair
• Also identified characteristics of particular
  types of offenders

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Early Biological Theories

• Constitutional Theories
• William Sheldon
• Used body measurement techniques to connect body
  type with personality and outlined four basic
  body types and associated temperaments and
  personalities

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Body types

• people could be classified into three body
  shapes, which correspond with three different
  personality types.
• endomorphic (fat and soft) tend to be sociable
  and relaxed.
• ectomorphic (thin and fragile) are introverted
  and restrained
• mesomorphic (muscular and hard) tend to be
  aggressive and adventurous.
• Sheldon, using a correlational study, found that
  many convicts were mesomorphic, and they were
  least likely to be ectomorphic

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Endomorph, Mesomorph, Ectomorph,
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Modern Biological Theories

• Biochemical (diet, hypoglycemia, hormones,
  environmental exposure)
• Neurophysiological (brain dysfunction)
• Evolutionary theories

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Modern Biological Theories

• Hormones and criminality
• Testosterone
• Male sex hormone linked to aggression
• Research has shown a relationship between high
  blood testosterone levels and increase male
  aggression
• Low brain levels of serotonin
• Genetics and Crime XYY Supermale
• Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes
• The last pair determines gender
• Males XY pair
• Females XX pair
• A study of Scottish prisoners found that a small
  number had an XYY chromosome.These were
  identified as potentially violent and labeled
  supermale
• Criminal Families
• criminal families appeared to show criminal
  tendencies through several generations

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Modern Biological Theories

• Weather and Crime
• Temperature is the only weather variable
  consistently and reliably related to crime
• Positive correlation between temperature and
  violent crime
• Moderated by factors such as time of day, day of
  week and season. Cohn and Rotton have found
  temperature to be related to crimes such as
  assault, property offenses, domestic violence and
  disorderly conduct
• Chemical and environmental precursors of crime
  (nutrition, eating habits, and environmental
  contaminants related to violent and/or
  disruptive behavior)

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Psychological approach to the study of crime
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Psychological Perspectives on Criminality
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Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud (18561939) One can understand
  human behavior best by examining early childhood
  experiences.
• Criminality is linked to guilt feelings
  (unresolved oedipal and Electra complexes).

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Human behaviour is governed by primitive urges
  (eros and thanatos) of the ID.
• ID requires repression which results in formation
  of Ego and Superego.

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Freudian Explanations of Delinquency

• Human nature is inherently antisocial
• Id infants start life with antisocial drives
• Superego forms from experience
• Ego helps to negotiate demands for instant
  gratification with acceptable behavior

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Freudian Elements of Personality
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Psychoanalytic interpretations

• 3 Main principles of psychodynamic theory when
  applied to delinquent criminal behaviour are
  that delinquent behavior can be traced to faulty
  relationships in the family during the first
  years of life
• These faulty relationships result in inadequate
  ego and superego development
• These inadequacies in turn make it impossible for
  the child to control later delinquent impulses

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Freudian Approach

• John Bowlby (1946) studied 44 juvenile
  delinquents and compared them with non-criminal
  disturbed juveniles.
• 39 of the delinquents had experienced complete
  separation from their mothers for six-months or
  more during the first five years of their lives
  compared with 5 of the control group.
• early maternal deprivation was causally related
  to delinquent behaviour

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Erik Erikson (1902-84)

• Stage theorist.
• During adolescence identity vs. role confusion
  stage may result in identity crisis.
• Out-of-control behaviours (e.g. drug
  experimentation) reflect identity crisis.

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Behavioural Theories
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Social Learning Theory

• Aggression
• Is learned, not innate.
• Requires personal observation of aggression or
  rewards for aggression.
• Involves behaviour modelling of family members,
  community members and mass media
• Three types of learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational (vicarious) learning

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Principles of Learning

• Positive reinforcement increases the target
  behavior by rewarding the individual
• Negative reinforcement increases the target
  behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus
• Punishment reduces the odds of the target
  behavior being repeated

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Behavioural explanations of crime

• All behaviour is learned - deviant behaviour is
  said to be learnt in much the same way as other
  behaviour
• Direct parental control theorists tie
  delinquency to parents failure to effectively
  condition their children away from negative
  behaviors
• Glueck and Glueck inconsistent and harsh
  punishment correlates with delinquent children
• Patterson effective parenting (monitoring,
  punishing, and reinforcing behavior) correlates
  with nondeliquent children

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Principles of Learning
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Albert Bandura

• Violence and aggression are produced by
• An arousal event (provocation).
• Learned aggressive skills.
• Expected success and rewards.
• Pro-violence values.

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Bandura

• Observational learning is thought to take place
  primarily in three contexts
• 1. In the family
• 2. In the prevalent sub culture
• 3. Through cultural symbols such as television
  and books.
• Observational learning This is where viewers
  learn behaviours from watching others and may
  imitate them many behaviours are learned from
  the media
• - ModelsA model is a person who is observed
  and/or imitated.

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Bobo doll experiments

• show preschoolers a short film of a person
  beating up a bobo doll.
• They were shown the short film twice, but there
  were three different endings watched by three
  different groups of children.
• First photo shown is the demonstrated short film
  with a person beating up a bobo doll.
• The second photo shown is what the preschoolers
  did after they watched the short film.

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Media and Crime

• Does media (TV and movies) influence aggression,
  violence, and criminal behavior?
• Conducive to role modeling
• Perpetrators not punished
• Targets of violence show little pain
• Few long-term negative consequences

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Media and Violence

• Media provides aggressive scripts.
• Violence is copied.
• TV violence increases arousal level.
• TV violence promotes attitude change, suspicious
  feelings.
• TV violence promotes justification for violence.
• Media violence may disinhibit aggressive
  behaviour.

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Policy Implications of Behaviorism

• Criminals can learn pro-social behaviors to
  replace criminal actions

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Cognitive Theory
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Cognitive Psychology

• Humans ability to engage in complex thoughts
  influences behavior
• Cognitions (like behaviors) can be learned
• Focus on
• Cognitive structure (how people think)
• Cognitive content (what people think)

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Cognitive Structure

• Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning humans
  advance through predictable stages of moral
  reasoning
• delinquency is not synonymous with immoral
  behaviour
• the reasoning of higher moral stages is less
  likely to fit in with a criminal lifestyle
• justification for violating the law can be found
  at all stages

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Kohlbergs Stages of Moral Development (1 of 2)

• Stage 1
• Right is blindly obeying those with power and
  authority.
• Emphasis is on avoiding punishment.
• Interests of others are not considered.
• Stage 2
• Right is furthering ones own interests.
• Interests of others are important only as a way
  to satisfy self-interests.
• Stage 3
• Moral reasoning is motivated by loyalties to
  others and a desire to live up to others
  standards.

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Kohlbergs Stages of Moral Development (2 of 2)

• Stage 4
• Right is following the rules of society and
  maintaining important social institutions (e.g.,
  family, community).
• Stage 5
• Moral decisions are made by weighing individual
  rights against legal principles and the common
  good.
• Stage 6
• Moral decisions are based on universal principles
  (e.g., human dignity, desire for justice).
• Principles are considered across different
  contexts and are independent of the law.

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Moral Development

• Research shows that
• Criminals tend to be in stages 1 and 2.
• Non-criminals are in higher stages.
• People in lower stages fear punishment.
• People in middle stages fear reaction of family
  and friends.
• People in highest stages believe in duty to
  others, universal rights.

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Cognitive Content

• Rationalizations or denials that support criminal
  behavior
• For example, a criminal thinks, Im not really
  hurting anyone.
• Criminals are more likely to express such
  thoughts, but the relationship (causation or
  correlation) to crime is unclear.
• Extremely common for sex offenders

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Policy Implications of Cognitive Psychology

• Cognitive theory translates easily into practice.
  
• Cognitive skills programs teach offenders
  cognitive skills like moral reasoning, anger
  management, or self-control.
• Cognitive restructuring attempts to change the
  content of an individuals thoughts.
• Combination cognitive-behavioral programs have
  had significant success.

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Personality traits theory
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Eysencks Theory of Personality

• Argued against sociological theories.
• Criminal behavior resulted from an interaction of
  environment and biology.
• Based on biology.
• Personality Temperament (inborn/genetic)

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Neurotic
Choleric
Melancholic
Central NS
Intoverted
Extraverted
Ambiverts
Peripheral NS
Phlegmatic
Sanguine
Stable
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Eysencks Personality Theory
Suggests that high levels of introvertism and
extrovertism can be related to crime. Also
introduced a P scale (psychoticism) to predict
criminal behaviour.
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definitions

• stable extraverts (sanguine qualities such as -
  outgoing, talkative, responsive, easygoing,
  lively, carefree, leadership)
• unstable extraverts (choleric qualities such as -
  touchy, restless, excitable, changeable,
  impulsive, irresponsible)
• stable introverts (phlegmatic qualities such as -
  calm, even-tempered, reliable, controlled,
  peaceful, thoughtful, careful, passive)
• unstable introverts (melancholic qualities such
  as - quiet, reserved, pessimistic, sober, rigid,
  anxious, moody).

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Extraversion - Introversion

• Reflects need for stimulation.
• Extraverts like excitement, become bored more
  easily, welcome the unconventional
• Criminals are more likely to be extraverts
• Impulsive
• Thrill-seeking
• Willing to take chances
• May be less able to internalize societys rules
  i.e., less conditionable.

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Neurotic -Stable and Crime

• Criminals are more likely to be neurotic
• Emotionality acts as a drive to habitual ways of
  responding.
• When under stress do what you know best.
• Impacts criminality only if the individual has
  developed anti-social habits.
• More important factor as one ages (habits become
  more engrained)

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Psychoticism

• Is not the same as psychosis
• No established physiological mechanism but
  testosterone, monoamine oxidase and serotonin may
  be involved.
• Similar to Primary Psychopathy
• Cold cruelty, social insensitivity, dislike of
  others, attraction to the unusual.

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Conclusion

• The common emphasis of all psychological theories
  is on the individual.
• Each theory must be evaluated on its ability to
  account for criminality.
• Not all theories are well supported by evidence.
• Many psychological theories translate well into
  treatment programs.