PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR

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PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR

• Dr. M. Clark

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Defining the Subject Matter

• Crime
• Delinquency
• Deviance
• Although often lay people feel they can easily
  identify crime and criminals, deviants and
  deviance, there are in fact unclear boundaries
  bordering legality and illegality, normality and
  deviance (Holdaway 19888).

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Crime

• defined by Criminal Law.
• A Juvenile delinquent is a young person (in
  Malta, under the age of 16) who has engaged in
  criminal behaviour.
• Maltese Law
• Minor - under the age of 18
• Juvenile - under the of 16
• (Juvenile Court Act 1980)

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JUVENILE COURT ACT

• For the setting up of a Juvenile Court and to
  provide for matters relating to children and
  young persons. (25th July, 1980)
• Enacted by ACT XXIV of 1980, as amended by
  Acts XI of 1985 and VIII
• of 1990.
• 1. This Act may be cited as the Juvenile Court
  Act. Short title.
• 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise
  requires - Interpretation.
• "child or young person" means a person who is
  under the age of
• sixteen years
• "guardian" means a tutor or curator and includes
  a guardian in
• fact
• "Minister" means the Minister responsible for
  justice
• "public officer" has the same meaning as is
  assigned to it by
• article 124 of the Constitution.

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If with an adult

• Notwithstanding the provisions of article 3, and
  of subarticles (1) and (2), the Juvenile Court
  shall not be competent to hear charges against,
  or other proceedings relating to, a child or
  young person who is charged jointly with any
  other person not being a child or young person.

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Age of criminal responsibility

• Criminal responsibility starts from the age of
  nine.
• Between the ages nine and fourteen, a person is
  presumed to be incapable of forming a malicious
  intent. However, criminal responsibility can be
  established, if it is proved that the person
  acted with mischievous discretion.
• Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, a
  person is deemed to be able to form criminal
  intent, and, if found guilty, can be sentenced to
  imprisonment. However, the Code provides for a
  reduction in sentence.

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• Criminal proceedings against children under 9
  years of age are not pursued.
• Children are exempt from criminal responsibility
  for any act or omission (Criminal Code, sect.
  35).
• Children under 14 years of age are also exempt
  from criminal responsibility for any act or
  omission done without mischievous intent. The
  court may, however, bind over the parents to
  watch over the conduct of the child. If the
  offence is punishable with a fine, the court may
  order the parents to pay the fine (sect. 35).
  Children under the age of 14 but over the age of
  9 who commit an offence with mischievous intent
  are punished with reprimand or a fine (sect. 36).
  If the offender is 14 but not yet 18 years of age
  the punishment applicable to the offence shall be
  diminished by one or two degrees (sect. 37).

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Deviance

• Non conformity to a given norm, or set of norms,
  which are accepted by a significant number of
  people
• Norms
• Prescriptive
• Proscriptive
• Sources of norms
• Social consensus
• Social conflict
• Folkways and mores

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concepts

• Mens rea
• Mala in se
• Mala prohibita

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Conclusion - Three main points

• Historical changes in the definition of
  delinquency and crime.
• The 'relative' status of a definition extending
  beyond legal definitions found in various laws.
• Delinquency, crime and deviance are a social
  construct.

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Myth or truth?

• Criminals are different from non criminals

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The legal definition

• The criminal is the person who breaks the law.

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The role definition

• The criminal is the individual who sustains a
  pattern of delinquency over a long period of time
  and whose life and identity are organised around
  a pattern of deviant behaviour. (commitment to
  deviant role and lifestyle)

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The societal response definition

• According to this definition in order for an act
  and/or an actor to be defined as deviant or
  criminal, an audience must perceive and judge the
  behaviour in question.

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Tolerance to deviance and crime

• The nature of the offence
• The status of the offender
• Cultural relativity
• Temporal dimension

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Classification

• Crime and the criminals who engage in it make up
  a rich bundle of activities and persons
  (discussion)
• Theoretically meaningful taxonomies of crime
  forms and offender types
• Two different lines of classification activity
• Crime centered attempt to identify distinct
  forms of crime, along with correlates
• Criminal centered distinct patterns or types
  into which real life offenders can be sorted
• Our interest lies with the latter

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Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982

• Behavioural versatility rather than
  specialization in particular crimes is most
  common among repeat offenders Attempt to
  distinguish classes of criminal acts or criminal
  actors
• Typing may entail negative and stigmatising
  labelling
• Denies individual uniqueness
• Focus on commonalities serve good value
  communication decision making prediction
• Classes are identified by a few prototypical
  features shared by most but not all offenders

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CRIME CENTERED CLASSIFICATION

• McKinney (1966) based on criminal career of
  the offender, group support of criminal
  behaviour, correspondence between criminal
  behaviour and legitimate behaviour patterns and
  societal reactions
• Violent personal crime murder, assault and
  forcible rape
• Occasional property crime auto theft, shop
  lifting, check forgery and vandalism
• Occupational crime from workplace
• Political crime
• Public order drunkenness, vagrancy, disorderly
  conduct, prostitution, traffic violations, drug
  addiction
• Conventional crime robbery, burglary and gang
  theft
• Organized crime organised prostitution,
  organized gambling, control of narcotics
• Professional crime confidence games, forgery,
  counterfeiting

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Farr and Gibbons Classification (1992)

• 7 crime categories
• Property harms
• Property predatory crime- burglary, robbery, auto
  theft
• Property fraudulent crime embezzlement,
  forgery, fraud and bribery
• Personal harm
• Interpersonal violence general homicide and
  assault
• Interpersonal violence sexual rape, sexual
  abuse and other crimes of sexual violence
• Harms against the social order or social values
• Transactional offences involving a willing
  exchange of goods or services, such as
  prostitution, gambling and drug sales
• Order disruption escape, resisting arrest,
  disorderly conduct
• Folk mundane crime violations of technical
  rules
• Distinguish between criminal activities carried
  on by formal or complex organizations, by
  offender networks and by individuals acting alone

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Classification of Crime.

• The Criminal Code distinguishes between crimes
  and contraventions, the former being of a more
  serious nature.
• Crimes include treason, coup d'etat,
  insurrection, willful homicide, bodily harm,
  theft, receiving stolen property,
  misappropriation, assault and resistance against
  police officers, bribery, abuse of power, rape,
  prostitution, indecent assault, defilement of
  minors, forgery, fraud, perjury and many others.
  Apart from this, however, various other laws
  exist which establish a great number of other
  crimes not listed in the Code, such as drug abuse
  and trafficking, money laundering, electoral
  fraud, and counterfeiting of money.
• Contraventions include disturbance of public
  peace, swearing, unlawful betting, various
  traffic offenses, dumping of garbage, failure to
  pay maintenance, drunkenness, vagrancy, minor
  assault, and threatening.
• The Criminal Code deals with some contraventions
  while others are to be found in the Code of
  Police Laws and various Acts of Parliament.

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CRIMINAL CENTERED CLASSIFICATION

• The development of offender typologies
• When we sort offenders into behavioural types, we
  invent conceptual schemes that allow us to see
  common threads or characteristics that identify
  groups of similar offenders
• Classifications are needed for three main
  purposes
• management decisions in the penal system
• to facilitate treatment decisions
• theoretical understanding

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONS

• Gibbons role-career typology (1992)
• distinguishes criminal roles according to the
• offence behaviour,
• its interactional setting alone, organised
  criminal network, subculture
• The self concept of the offnder
• role related attitudes eg towards conventional
  life, wrk, police, social control agencies, gents
  of socialisation
• Role career development in terms of criminality

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Role career perspective

• Identify two components of offender roles
• behavioural acts
• Role conceptions (self image patterns and role
  related attitudes)
• Pattern of social roles
• Social roles describe how people interact in
  terms of various statuses within a social system
• Status normative expectations
• Person engaged in crime also engaged in various
  statuses
• Master status
• Parallels primary and secondary deviation

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• Professional thieves
• Professional heavy criminals
• Semiprofessional property criminals
• Naïve check forgers
• Automobile thieves joyriders
• Property offenders
• Embezzlers
• White collar criminals
• Professional fringe violators
• Psychopathic assaultist
• Statutory rapists
• Aggressive rapists
• Violent sex offenders
• Incest offenders
• Opiate addicts
• Amateur shop lifters
• Skid row alcoholics
• Clark (1999)

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PSYCHOLOGICAL CLASSIFIACTIONS

• A theoretically derived
• Stage theories inspired by social psychological
  theories on social perspective taking
• Development in terms of increasing involvement
  with people and social institutions
• Progressively more differentiated perceptions of
  the world, the self and others

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• egInterpersonal maturity level (Warren, 1983)
  Palmer (1974)
• 7 stages of integration
• Fixation at a particular level determines
  relative consistency in goals and expectations
  and a working philosophy of life
• Those progressing beyomd the 1-4 level are
  assumed to be less likely to be in conflict with
  society and most criminals fall in 1-2, 1-3, 1-4
  levels

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B. Empirical classifications

• Eg MMPI based classifications

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C. Psychiatric classification

• Eg - paraphilias
• - personality disorders

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Criticism of typologies

• Loose fit between typologies and the real world
• Studies of inmates E.g. Garabedian (1964) social
  types exist but there is less regularity in
  inmate behaviour than is implied by typologies
• McKenna (1962) many real life offenders cannot be
  assigned to the categories of role career schemes
  with much precision
• Jack of all trades
• Peterson, Braker and Polich (1980) there appear
  to be few career specialists in prison
• Chaiken and Chaiken 1982

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The measurement of crime and delinquency

• Official data
• Self report data
• Victimisation surveys

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Correlates of crime

• Gender and crime
• Social class, delinquency and crime
• Age and delinquency

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gender

• The associations between gender and crime are
  profound, persistent and paradoxical.
• For as long as observation of offending has been
  made, it has been noted that men and women differ
  in their offence rates and patterns and in their
  experiences of victimisation.
• As Braithwaite put it, listing it as the first of
  his key points about crime, (it) is committed
  disproportionately by males (1989 44).

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gender

• only the sex of known offenders can be registered
  and thus data on this topic are subject to
  limitations
• Despite these reservations, certain trends and
  patterns in female criminality as compared with
  male have long been observed. In summary these
  are
• that women commit a small share of all crimes
• that their crimes are fewer, less serious, more
  rarely professional and less likely to be
  repeated
• in consequence, women form a small proportion of
  prison populations.

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theories

• The biological theory of crime can be applied to
  two areas.
• The first looks at why women commit fewer crimes
  than men. According to the biological theory it
  is because women are physically predetermined
  not to commit crime, unlike men.
• The other area that this theory applies to is
  why women who commit crimes act in this way. They
  believe that these types of women have biological
  problems that cause them to commit crime. For
  example 80 of female crime happens around the
  time of menstruation.

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opportunity structures

• W h ere opportunity structures differ, so too
  does the pattern of crime
• For example, burglary is predominantly a male
  crime and one way of explaining the difference is
  that this type of crime tends to be a relatively
  solitary pursuit that takes place late at night.
  A female alone late at night is both more-likely
  to Attract attention and / or Involve some
  degree of personal danger.
• Employment related crime Fewer women than men
  work, therefore, less opportunity exists.
• Women tend to occupy less powerful positions
  within an organisation. They are more-likely to
  be subject to close supervision, have less
  opportunity for acting on their own initiative,
  unsupervised and so forth. Hence, they generally
  have less opportunity for committing
  "white-collar" crimes such as fraud,
  embezzlement, etc.
• Women are more-likely than men to have primary
  responsibility for child-care, which restricts
  opportunities for various types of criminal
  behaviour

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Chivalry theory

• The Chivalry theory looks at why there is a low
  crime rate for women in comparison with men. This
  theory says that because the majority of the ,
  police and the judicial system are men that they
  treat women more leniently because they have
  stereotypical views about how a woman should
  behave and therefore have a tendency to be less
  harsh, with them.
• Police / courts more-willing to adopt a "medical
  model" of female crime, whereby women who commit
  crimes are believed to be acting "abnormally"
  therefore a medical explanation for their
  behaviour appears "more-appropriate" in this
  context - women "couldn't help themselves" and
  they therefore require treatment rather than
  punishment - a form of "reverse sexism", whereby
  women receive lighter punishment for their
  behaviour than men because, by going against male
  norms regarding female behaviour, men have to
  explain this behaviour in terms of "sickness",
  "emotional stresses", etc.
• Underestimation of female involvement in crime
  because
• Stereotyped beliefs about women held by powerful
  (male) control agents.
• Tighter social controls on many female
  activities.
• Limited opportunity structures for women to
  engage in criminal behaviour.

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liberation thesis

• Another theory of women and crime is the
  liberation thesis. Freda Adler in 1975 claimed
  that the increase in female crime was a result of
  the feminist movement and women's liberation. As
  women struggle for equal rights the levels of
  crime will rise because women are entering the
  domains of men in ever increasing number. Whilst
  this includes things such as doctors and business
  people, it also includes criminal activity

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socialisation

• The Socialisation theory looks at the way that
  women are socialised into being passive and well
  behaved. As a result of this they commit less
  crime. This theory also relates to the
  opportunity theory which looks as women's
  lifestyles and responsibilities as an explanation
  for the low crime figures. Women's lifestyles are
  more centered around the home and caring for
  dependants such as children or elderly relatives.
  This therefore reduces women's opportunity to
  commit crime because their lifestyle is more home
  centered.

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• Male gender socialization prompts men to be more
  aggressive and more-likely to solve pproblems
  using violence.
• Female gender socialization prompts women to be
  less aggressive and more-likely to seek
  non-violent solutions to problems.
• Peer pressure Different influences for males (eg
  gang / street-corner behaviour) and females
  (bedroom culture McIntosh)
• Male socialisation stresses active,
  individualistic, behaviour
• Female socialisation stresses passive, sharing /
  caring, behaviour
• Media emphasises male role as breadwinner /
  family provider may increase pressure on men.
• Media emphasises female role as carer decreases
  pressure on women to act as family provider.
• Marsh ("Sociology In Focus Crime", 1986) "In
  the world of organised, professional, crime,
  sex-segregation is the norm. Women are likely to
  be viewed in terms of traditional sex-role
  stereotypes, as unreliable, emotional, illogical
  and so on. Moreover, males tend to see the crimes
  they commit as too dangerous for women, or too
  difficult, or their masculine pride may not be
  willing to accept women as organisers of crime,
  as 'bosses'".

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Police Strategies

• Labelling (Stereotypes and Scapegoats)
• Police have an ideological conception of both
  crime and criminals, which they use as a
  guide-line in their work. The more that the idea
  of an association between young males and crime
  becomes established, the more the process of
  criminalisation begins to resemble a
  self-fulfilling prophecy
• Young males need to be policed because of their
  heavy involvement in crime. The police know they
  are heavily involved in crime because large
  numbers are arrested and convicted. Therefore,
  the more young men are closely policed, the more
  any involvement in crime is picked-up...
• Men more-likely than women to be on the streets
  at night (inviting greater police suspicion /
  investigation).
• Police / judicial stereotypes are a factor. If
  control agents have stereotyped views about
  "typical criminals", they may not place women so
  easily into this type of category. They may,
  therefore, be Less likely to suspect / arrest
  females. Less likely to punish females through
  jail sentences (since women may not be perceived
  as "real criminals").

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Social Control Agencies

• Much female crime involves "sexual delinquency"
  (especially "status offences" - running away from
  home, being in "moral danger and so forth). It
  involves behaviour which, in the adult world is
  not classified as criminal / delinquent. This may
  account for a great deal of young female "crime"
  and also explains why older females do not appear
  to commit as much crime as older males.
• This form of explanation focuses upon the idea
  that females in our society are socialised and
  controlled differently to males. Female
  socialisation stresses passivity as a feminine
  characteristic (which might help to explain
  something about the relative lack of female
  violence) . Abbott and Wallace ("An Introduction
  To Sociology Feminist Perspectives", 1990) note
  female behaviour is more closely watched /
  strictly controlled within the family.
• Female sexuality is more heavily "policed" than
  young male sexual behaviour.
• As females are given more freedom we would expect
  them to become involved in various forms of
  criminal behaviour. Police and judicial
  expectations may be significant, since if the
  police start to see females differently, the
  likely development is greater levels of arrest
  and criminalisation. This appears to be
  happening, insofar as more females are being
  subjected to a process of criminalisation.
• Men have greater freedom within the family than
  women, giving more opportunity to commit crimes.
  Eg
• Young women parents restrict who they associate
  with / control times they can associate with
  friends etc.
• Adult women freedom may be limited by family
  responsibilities.

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Social Visibility

• Female forms of crime may be "less visible" to
  the police etc. This is especially true in
  relation to crimes of violence, where women tend
  to be the victims rather than the perpetrators
  (especially in relation to domestic violence
  where it is estimated that 95 of violence
  within the family is directed by males at females
  - how reliable such a statistic might be I leave
  to you to judge).
• Much male crime (eg crimes of violence, petty
  theft) involves clear victims and is likely to be
  witnessed.
• Police have an ideological conception of both
  crime and criminals, which they use as a
  guide-line in their work. The more the idea of
• an association between males and crime becomes
  established, the more the process of
  criminalisation begins to resemble a
  selffulfilling
• prophecy. Police are more-likely to closely-watch
  behaviour of men.
• Crimes such as child abuse / family violence
  largely invisible to the police rely on victims
  to complain.

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Lifestyle Factors

• Men more-likely to out at night, in clubs, pubs,
  etc. where alcohol / illegal drugs are used. May
  lead to loss of control and relatively minor
  forms of crime as well as violence.
• Older women (and men) less likely to be in public
  areas at night. Any crimes will be committed in
  privacy of the home.

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Age and class

• More young people (aged 14 25 the peak ages
  for criminal activity) live in urban areas which
  provides more opportunities for
• crime more shops, offices, businesses, cars,
  houses etc.
• Fewer opportunities for serious work-related
  crimes because young are rarely in positions of
  authority.
• More opportunities for work-related crime for
  older people.
• Middle and upper class youth have fewer
  opportunities for crime because they are
  more-likely to be in full-time education up to
  age
• of 21 / 22 than working class youth.
• Working class youth more-likely to be in
  low-paid, low skill work (or unemployed).
  Criminal behaviour may be used as a source of
• excitement as well as money.
• Women will have fewer opportunities to commit
  crimes if they have a home / children to look
  after.

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OpportunityStructures

• After age 25 we see a steep drop in criminal
  activity as people take-on new roles such as
  wage-earner, parent, spouse etc. The
• possibility of jail time becomes a relatively
  more-serious matter because of the impact it will
  have on the perpetrators life and
• responsibilities.
• Given that the vast majority of crime is
  relatively petty, older people may cease to
  follow a lifestyle (clubbing) that gives them
• opportunities for these crimes.
• As people get older they take-on more personal
  responsibilities (work / career for example) and
  social responsibilities (children or a
• partner for example) which makes them consider
  the effect their behaviour might have on people
  they love / value.
• Lack of responsibilities might also lead to the
  opposite happening more crime being committed
  because the perpetrator doesnt
• have to consider others.
• Young people are rarely in a position to commit
  major work-related crimes (such as computer
  fraud) because their work roles are
• usually fairly low-level and do not involve
  having authority over others. They are more
  likely to be managed at work rather than being
• a manager.
• The lifestyles of the middle-aged and the
  elderly may be more-focused on the home (watching
  TV) than outside the home.

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Socialisation

• Conformity to peer group behaviour and pressure
  may promote deviance. This is particularly likely
  among young people, where peer
• pressure may encourage them to adopt forms of
  deviant behaviour (such as truancy or underage
  drinking).
• The socialisation experiences of middle and
  upper class youth may lay more stress on
  conformity to social rules (formal norms).
• Middle and upper class youth may have less need
  to support a particular lifestyle through crime
  because they may have alterative
• sources of income (parents, for example).
• For some young people, crime / deviance may be a
  source of social status within a peer or family
  group. The ability to commit skilful
• crimes or be the hardest person in a group, for
  example, may confer status that is denied young
  people in society.
• Working class socialisation may suggest some
  forms of crime are not really crimes (receiving
  stolen goods, for example).

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Social ControlAgencies

• Risk-taking and thumbing their nose at
  authority may be characteristics of the young
  which are more-likely to lead them into crime.
• If opportunities for deviance are denied, then
  crime cannot occur. For example, young women are
  given less freedom by their
• families than young men which means they will
  have fewer opportunities to commit crimes.
• Young women may commit fewer crimes than young
  men because they are less-likely to have
  full-time paid work and more-likely to
• have full-time unpaid work within the home.

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PoliceStrategiesLabelling

• Just like everyone else, the police have an
  ideological conception of both crime and
  criminals (that is, they have a ideas about who
• is most likely to commit certain types of crime).
  They use this mental map as a guide for their
  work. The more the idea of an
• association between young males and crime becomes
  established, the more the process of
  criminalisation begins to resemble a
  selffulfilling
• prophecy young males need to be policed because
  of their heavy involvement (and arrest /
  conviction) in crime. The more
• young people are closely policed, the more any
  involvement in crime is picked-up.
• Young people have less status in our society
  which may lead the police to police their
  behaviour more closely / heavily.

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Judicialbehaviour

• Labelling
• Stereotypes
• Medical
• models
• Young people (especially working class) are
  less-likely to be able to afford expensive legal
  representation.
• Young people have fewer social responsibilities
  which means any conviction / imprisonment will
  have less impact on others (such as
• young children).
• Are young, working class, men stereotyped as
  real criminals whereas older middle class women
  may escape such stereotyping?

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SocialVisibility

• Much youth crime is unsophisticated and
  unplanned. It is, therefore, more-likely to be
  witnessed than more-sophisticated crimes.
• If police stereotype young people as potential
  criminals they will police them more closely
  because they are more socially visible
• (an older person committing a tax fraud, on the
  other hand, may be socially invisible.
• Large amounts of petty youth crimes take place
  in public places (clubs, the street, etc.) where
  deviance is more-likely to be
• witnessed.
• Most violent crime that isnt murder or
  domestic violence is likely to committed by young
  people in situations involving drink, drugs,
• clear victims and witnesses.

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Lifestyle Factors

• T he lifestyles of young people (the young are
  the most-frequent users of pubs and clubs for
  example) may expose them to situations
• where criminal behaviour is possible / likely
  (especially violent crimes, joyriding and various
  forms of petty crime minor thefts, for
• example).
• There may actually be no clear-cut causal
  relationship between age and crime (that is,
  young people may not commit more crime
• simply because of their age). Rather, the fact
  young people are more-likely to be involved in
  public drinking, clubbing, etc. may simply
• mean they are more-likely than the elderly to
  find themselves in an environment conducive to
  crime.

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THE CRIMINAL CAREER

• THE CONCEPT OF CAREER
• A criminal career has a beginning (onset) and an
  end (desistance) and a career length in between
  (duration). Only a certain proportion of the
  population (prevalence) has a criminal career and
  commits offences. During their career offenders
  commit offences at a certain rate (frequency)
  while they are at risk of offending in the
  community
• The persons awareness of a past sequence of
  events associated with a particular identity,
  deemed significant by him and others and which is
  seen to extend into the future
• Emphasises the subjective point of view of the
  actor in relation to the path ones life is
  taking
• Subjective the way the individual feels about
  himself
• Objective turning pints in the persons life
  that are significant to the development of
  criminality
• A career develops through the life course
  pathways through the age differentiated lifespan
• Offending may be seen as part of a larger
  syndrome of antisocial behaviour continuity
  over time

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CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

• Offenders are predominantly versatile rather than
  specialized
• Also versatile in their antisocial behaviour
  generally
• The criminal career describes a sequence of
  offences committed during some part of an
  individuals lifetime, with no necessary
  suggestion that offenders use their criminal
  activity as an important means of earning a living

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• Investigates
• Why people start offending (onset)
• Why offending becomes more serious or more
  frequent (escalation)
• Why they continue offending (persistence,
  maintenance, commitment)
• Why people stop offending (desistance)
• Contingencies differ at different stages of the
  career
• Contingencies make movement in the career more or
  less possible
• Generally the worst offenders according to self
  reports also tend to be the worst offenders
  according to official records

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• CAREER CONTINGENCIES
• Influenced by contingencies in the same way as
  conventional careers
• Contingencies and the interpretation of them by
  the actor, enhance or hinder progress towards
  continued deviance, with turning points serving
  to steer the individual into further deviance or
  redirect him into conventional life
• Facilitate the progress of the criminal career
  rather than determine it.

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PREVALENCE AT DIFFERENT AGES

• The high cumulative prevalence of arrests and
  convictions for males e.g.
• Wolfgang et al (1987) 475 of males were arrested
  for a non traffic offence up to age 30
  (Philadelphia)
• Farrington and West (1990) 37 of males were
  convicted of a criminal offence by age 32
  (London)
• Cumulative prevalence of self reported offences
  is even greater e.g. Farrington and West (1989)
  96 of males reported to having committed at
  least one of ten specified offences by 32

57
Age and Crime

• Offending increases to a peak in teenage years
  and then declines
• Cambridge Study (1992) - peak age for the
  prevalence of convictions is 17 peak age of
  increase for the prevalence of offending is 14
  (maximum acceleration), peak age of decrease was
  23 (maximum deceleration).
• Modal age of onset for offending is 14 and modal
  age of desistance is 23
• Best predictor of future offending frequency is
  past offending frequency

58
THE PHASES OF THE DEVIANT CAREER

• ONSET, ESCALATION, COMMITMENT (maintenance) AND
  DESISTANCE

59
ONSET

• Peak age between 13 and 15
• An early onset of antisocial behaviour predicts a
  long and serious antisocial career (Loeber and le
  Blanc 1990) 2 reasons
• High criminal potential (Gottfredson and Hirshi
  (1986)
• Facilitates later offending reinforcing effects
  of successful early offending stigmatizing
  effect of convictions

60
CONTINGENCIES FOR ONSET

• Onset motivation
• Early Onset
• Peers
• Socialization with older criminal peers who were
  involved in illegal pursuits
• Positive self image and status
• Peer acceptance perceived expectations
• Look when I was 11 I was always playing truant
  from school and I always liked the company of
  friends. Always with bad company. I made
  friends and I ended up being a tough guy to be
  like them not to be anything less. Because I
  was always a little naughty those straight guys
  used to annoy me. For example I tell them, lets
  do something, steal a car, they used to be
  afraid, so I used to tell them that they were
  stupid, they annoyed me, too good, like sheep
• And then I stared to hang around with a bad lot
  and then the trouble started and I started to
  mess around and do things that were against the
  law.

61
Older peers

• The people I hang around with used to like me
  because I was good at stealing. Because I was
  young nobody would suspect me and then I would
  get away with it. They liked to have me stay with
  them and I liked to be with them because I felt
  good.
• Delinquency in small groups (Reisss1988)
• Co offending declines steadily from age 10
  (Reiss and Farrington, (9991)
• Key construct in Sutherlands DA theory close
  relationship between delinquent activities of a
  young person and those of his friends (West and
  Farrington, 1973)
• Delinquent friends are likely to have most
  influence when they have high status within the
  peer group and are popular

62
Search for excitement

• High psychomotor impulsivity (Farrington and
  Hawkins (1990)
• I do not think it is because I needed to
  steal.Well when I used to drive my fathers
  car I used to take really good care of it and
  drive carefully. But with a stolen car one drives
  very fast and does not take care. We used to
  steal cars to stay having fun with them and stay
  driving them fast. So we ended up stealing a
  whole load of cars

63
criminogenic environment

• differential association

64
The family of origin

• Parenting harsh and erratic
• Structure monitoring and supervision
• Lack of parental involvement
• Emotional climate
• criminogenic environment
• Deviance in the family of origin modeling
  substance abuse

65
The School -

• Academic performance and delinquency
• The general path towards occupational prestige is
  education, and when youth are deprived of this
  avenue of success through poor school performance
  there is a greater likelihood of delinquent
  behaviour (Singer and Jou, 1992)
• Poor academic performance has been directly
  linked to delinquent behaviour
• School failure is stronger predictor of
  delinquency than personal variables
• School failure commonly found among chronic
  offenders (Farrington and West, 1988)
• Supported by studies of prison inmates

66
Causes of school failure

• Social class
• Streaming
• Alienation of students from the school experience
  lack of attachment
• Irrelevant curriculum
• Labeling within the school system
• Negative interaction with teachers and school
  officials

67
Late Onset

• Addiction
• Before I started on heroin I was a quiet person
  and did not used to get into trouble. But then w
  when I started to use heroin I messed up and
  developed a bad habit.. I started to use dope
  and I opened a case.
• Drugs and crime 4 main hypothesis
• Drug use causes crime
• Crime causes drug use
• Drugs and crime enjoy a reciprocal relationship
• Association is illusory and owes its existence to
  a third variable

68
ESCALATION

• Initial delinquency may escalate to more
  sustained criminal activity as time progresses
• Move from petty opportunistic delinquent
  behaviour to more calculated purposeful adult
  criminality
• More serious offences
• Larger sums of money involved
• Tracy et al (1990) the average seriousness of
  offences increases as offenders become older and
  with each successive offence
• Public comes to the attention of police and
  courts

69
Contingencies for Escalation

• Possible Predictors
• Addiction
• Contact with the criminal justice system
• Movement into deviant circles where the
  opportunity for crime increased
• Increase in experience in the field
• Recognition of the rewards associated with the
  criminal lifestyle
• Perception of loss of opportunities

70
COMMITMENT

• refutation of alternative courses of action
• Contingencies influencing commitment commitment
  develops through a variety of process
• Experience of penalties when the criminal
  attempts to reenter conventional living combined
  with rewards stemming from career
• Social penalties stemming from interpersonal
  relationships with members of the community e.g.
• They dont trust you when they see you people
  either check the door locks or other
  things..people in society they start to hate
  you

71
Physical and Material Penalties

• Addicts
• Loss of lifestyle and income e.g. I was used to
  being comfortable. There is no way that I could
  survive on a minimum wage.
• Perception of reduction of chances in the
  conventional world
• The experience of the rewards of the criminal
  lifestyle e.g. If I were to be born again I
  would once again choose the criminal life. Let me
  tell you why. The criminal lifestyle is nice and
  it is easy money and you enjoy easy money.

72
The criminal justice system

• Apprehension and processing through the justice
  system escalation of criminal activity
  (Schur,1971)
• Tannenbaum (193819-20)
• The process of making the criminal, therefore,
  is a process of tagging, defining, identifying,
  segregating, describing, making conscious and
  self conscious it becomes a way of stimulating,
  suggesting, emphasizing and evoking the very
  traits that are complained of. The person
  becomes the thing he is described as being. Nor
  does it seems to matter whether the valuation is
  made by those who would punish or those who would
  reform

73
The police

• Increased contact negative attitudes hostile
  interaction more arrests and prosecution
• Repeated encounter with police change in
  identity
• Intrusive role played by the police

74
The court

• Figure out the workings of the court
• Pending cases
• Lenient sentences development of
  rationalization can get away with it
• Harsh sentences sense of injustice (Matza, 1969)

75
The Prison

• School for crime provide techniques and
  rationalizations
• More professional orientation more efficient
  consideration of costs and benefits e.g. some
  things I didnt even know them. You talk with
  those that are worse than you, those who stole,
  who did a hold up and then you start to learn
  when a person is put in here for stealing a
  stereo and he has to do three years, the other
  prisoners are telling him that he is stupid as
  for stealing a stereo you have a sentence of
  three years and for doing a hold up you get 4-5
  years. Its more worth it its liked their
  telling you what to do cause when you see someone
  who has done a hold up and he gets 4-5 years in
  jail one says its better if I do like him
• Here you become an expert on crime. When I was
  out I was a good thief but here I have become an
  excellent one. Because here if you take crime
  seriously you come in a thief and you go out a
  professional. And a professional not only of
  thieving but everything, murder, hold ups

76

• Effect on identity through the interactions with
  staff and other inmates (total institution
  Goffman,1969)
• Occupational hazard
• Commitment to criminal career
• Criminal contacts
• Deterrence/positive consequences

77
Pains of imprisonment

• Separation from family and friends
• Loss of touch and institutionalization
• Fear
• Specific deprivations
• Sexual
• loss of privacy
• loss of independence
• loss of structure
• loss of rights
• All lead to
• loss of self Self and identity total
  institution social interaction (staff and
  inmates)

78
Societal Reaction

• Being caught and labeled has important
  consequences for ones self image and position in
  the community
• Development of a criminal reputation, breaking of
  bonds with conventional society and lack of stake
  in conformity
• Assigned a lower status by others master status
  central vs. peripheral traits
• p191
• Too much effort to pass as normal association
  with other criminals solves this dilemma
• Criminal reputation reduces chances in
  conventional world example employment (Skolnick,
  1966)
• Negativity bias in impression formation

79
Identity

• Development and solidification of criminal
  identity
• The development of a criminal identity marks the
  shift from initial deviance to amore conscious
  and consistent deviance that is based on the
  assumption and carving out of a deviant role in
  society
• Increased involvement in crime self labeling
• Apprehension, increased supervision, adjudication
  and sentencing
• Entry into a total institution (Goffman 1968)
  prison dimishment of personal and social
  identity of inmate

80
Criminal Lifestyle

• enduring life pattern of law and social norm
  violation
• Engagement in drug and alcohol abuse
• Strong adherence to the culture of masculinity
• Concern with excitement and adventure
• Easy come easy go attitude towards money
• Hatred for routine activity
• Strong concern with independence
• Distinctive leisure styles
• General negative attitudes to work

81
LACK OF COMMITMENT

• Conventional commitments spouse and children
• Prison
• Deterrent not worth it
• Learn occupational skills
• Learn to comply with authority
• Safer lifestyle
• Cessation of addictive behaviour
• Educational opportunities
• Secure employment
• Identity roles

82
DESISTANCE

• Sampson and Laub revisited the classic 1949 study
  Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency, by The Gluecks.
  They managed to locate and interview 52 of the
  men, 35 years after they had last been seen, in
  the 1960s.

83
(No Transcript)
84

• Dramatic drop in criminal activity among the
  original subject pool as the men aged. Between
  the ages of 17 and 24, a robust 84 percent of the
  subjects contacted had committed violent crimes.
  But when the men reached their forties, that
  number dropped sharply, to 14 percent it fell to
  just 3 percent two decades later. Property crimes
  and alcohol- and drug-related crimes showed
  similar significant decreases. The average
  subject committed his first offense at age 12
  but also desisted from crime from age 37 onward

85

• Marriage was particularly powerful in this
  regard. "Many of the men who were high-rate
  offenders in their youth were also subject to
  binge drinking, and tended to commit many of
  their crimes with peers," says Sampson. "Marriage
  tended to break that cycle often the wife would
  intervene in the drinking pattern and help the
  man shift peer affiliations. The wife of one man
  we interviewed said, 'It's not how many beers you
  have, it's who you're drinking them with.'"

86

• Meaningful employment also led many subjects away
  from criminal lifestyles. "My employer was good
  to me," said one man. "He trusted me with the
  money, put his confidence in me, and I learned to
  respect such confidence and was loyal to him."
  Military service which provided structure and
  discipline, a sense of belonging, and the
  incentive of the GI Bill was another
  life-changing force. One of the men, who learned
  in the Army how to control his temper and
  cooperate with peers, commented, "They teach you
  that you can be your own boss as long as you do
  what the other people want you to do."
• The aging process also influenced behavior.
  "Lawbreaking is often risky business, and people
  often become risk-aversive as they get older,"
  Sampson notes. "They also become less physically
  capable of doing the things a criminal lifestyle
  might involve. And they become more afraid of
  incarceration." Of course, desisting from crime
  is not always a voluntary decision, and the
  researchers point out that "high-rate offenders
  are disproportionately likely to exit the risk
  pool involuntarily through death, injury, and
  incarceration."

87
Mulvey and la Rosa (1986)

• Little effort and understanding of the factors
  that go into desistance
• The processes and factors that lead to initiation
  and maintenance of criminal activity are not the
  same as those leading to its cessation
• Study of men aged 23 44
• Subjects asked to rank influences regarded as
  important in their turnaround
• Important influences on deosistance

88

• Ranked as most important
• Girlfriend or wife 35
• Becoming mature 25
• Parents 10
• Social Worker or correction officer 10
• Other 28
• Ranked a second most important
• Parents 30
• Becoming mature 20
• Girlfriend/wife 15
• Startling or disruptive event 15
• Other 20
• Ranked Third most important
• Startling or disturbing event 25
• Older person who guided 20
• Seeing what jail did to people 15
• Parents 10
• Friedn10
• Becoming more mature 10

89
WHY DO THEY DO IT?

• Two main questions in criminology
• The rates question prevalence (Who)
• The Why do they do it? question motivation
  (Why)
• The Classical School
• The Positive School
• Overarching model

90
FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL

• Biosocial theory
• Nature vs. Nurture?
• Cesare Lombroso (1833-1909) - Theory of criminal
  atavism
• TODAY
• Psychologist more interested in how normal
  biological variation creates a predisposition to
  break rules
• Innate (genetic), congenital or constitutional
  levels

91
Genetics Inheritance and delinquency

• The inherited factor or factors that underlies
  delinquency is considered to be aberrant
• No single pathway from genotype to phenotype
• Genotypes influences phenotypes through the
  combination of genes and environment supplied by
  parents through differential reactions from
  others though differential selection of
  environments complex pathways
• Research studies families, twins and adoptees.

92
Family studies

• Criminal parents are more likely to have criminal
  children
• Boys (West, 1992)
• Girls (Cloninger et al 1978)

93
Twin Studies

• Concord0dance rates - twin studies
• Since the 1930s studies of twins have generally
  although not invariably reached the conclusion
  that higher rates of concordance are found among
  identical twins than among fraternal twins or
  siblings (Cortes and Gatti, 1972 Christiansen,
  1977 Reid, 1979Vold and Bernard, 1986)
  Shoemaker, 1996 28
• Flaws
• use of small numbers of twin pairs
• difficulty in determining zygozity
• use of officially identified delinquents
• inadequate control of environmental factors
• MZ twins treated as a unit influence on each
  other
• Walters (1992) Meta- analysis studies prior to
  1975

94
Adoption Studies

• Research in Stockholm significant excess of
  criminality in the adopted sons of biological
  fathers who were criminal (Bohman et al 1982)
• Mednick et al (1984) effect significant for
  biological but not adoptive parents
• Number of crimes more important than type of
  crime committed by biological parents -
  transmission of generalized rather than specific
  predisposition

95
Chromosomes

• 46XY males
• 46XX females
• XYY syndrome decline of interest in this rare
  phenomenon

96
Constitution Research

• Sheldon (1949) - body types
• - Sheldon, 1949 study on 200 young
  institutionalized males in Boston
• - mean somatotype for the delinquent sample was
  3.5-5.6-2.7
• Glueks (1950) comparison of 500 delinquents and
  500 non delinquents
• 60 of the delinquents were mesomorphic, compared
  with 31 of the non delinquents. On the other
  hand 14 of the delinquents were ectomorphic
  whereas 40 of the non delinquents were so cast.
• Cortes and Gatti (1972) more scientific
  measurements , use of personality inventories,
  but use of official records
• Over half of the delinquents possessed a
  mesomorphic body type compared with 19 of the
  non de
• 14 of the delinquents were endomorphic while
  37 of the non delinquents were endomorphic
• Relationship between high achievement motivation
  and mesomorphy

97
Psycho physiological and Biochemical factors

• Electro cortical correlates
• Extensive literature on EEG correlates of
  behaviour disorder suggests high frequencies of
  abnormalities in aggressive and psychopathic
  samples (Blackburn, 2000)
• High amplitude, slow waves in the EEG associated
  with increased risk for social problems generally
  rather than antisocial behavior specifically.
• Research to date has not produced any clear
  implications for the psychophysiology of
  psychopathy
• Electro dermal and cardiovascular correlates of
  antisocial personality autonomic correlates
• Lower AUTONOMIC AROUSAL
• - Eysenck (1977) - conditionability of
  delinquents
• Biochemical correlates
• hormones secreted by the endocrine glands affect
  the central nervous system and influence
  behaviour through their role in 1.development and
  2. Temporary state
• testosterone levels
• MAO lower MAO is associated with
  disinhibitary temperament variables such as
  impulsivity, sensation seeking and under
  socialisation
• PMT
• Hypoglycemia increased insulin scretion
• Dietary habits

98
Neurological /brain dysfunction

• damage to the brain
• exposure to toxic substances/structural damage
• epilepsy
• Hyperactivity
• AD/HD

99

• Learning disability
• differing pathways

100
Evaluation

• Criticism
• view of young offenders as inherently defective
• divert attention from criminogenic social
  conditions
• crime control in the form of genetic engineering
  and psychosurgery
• methodological individualism, medicalisaion of
  social problems, right wing political ideology
• recent investigators advocate a biosocial
  interactionism
• socialization is not a unidirectional process
• brain activity provides causal (generative )
  mechanisms for behavior to deny this is to
  invite one sided sociological determinism

101
Psychoanalytic interpretations

• Classical Psychoanalytic Theory - The Structure
  of the Personality
• 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

102
Glover 1960

• inadequate superego formation and functioning
• Harsh superego
• Weak
• Deviant

103
Aichorn 1930

• latent vs. manifest delinquency
• Faulty socialisation
• Suitable circumstances such as poor early
  emotional relationships, parental neglect and
  faulty early training are needed to turn latent
  into manifest delinquency

104
Bowlby (1940s)

• Theory of maternal deprivation
• - Study of juveniles referred to a
  child guidance clinic - early maternal
  deprivation was causally related to delinquent
  behaviour
• - Maternal deprivation causes
  intractable delinquents
• - Influence on further theorising

105
Erik Erikson (1960s)

• identity vs. role confusion
• Fragmented sense of ego identity or to a
  'negative identity' as a delinquent

106

• Abrahamson - everyone has criminalistic
  tendencies
• - Means chosen for expression of
  the impulses and in the objects of their
  aggressions
• Combination of severe deprivations and
  overindulgence.
• Lack of healthy identification with parental
  figures

107
Psychopathy

• Psychopathy Checklist
• Hare presented some preliminary findings on
  efforts to provide researchers with an
  operational definition of psychopathy in offender
  populations (Hare 1980).
• Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) (Hare
  1991) - a 20-item construct rating scale that
  uses a semi-structured interview, case-history
  information and specific diagnostic criteria for
  each item to provide a reliable and valid
  estimate of the degree to which an offender or
  forensic psychiatric patient matches the
  traditional (prototypical) conception of the
  psychopath (Fulero Stone).
• Each item is scored on a 3-point scale (0, 1, 2)
  according to the extent to which it applies to
  the individual. The total score can range from 0
  to 40, with between 15 percent and 20 percent of
  offenders receiving a score of at least 30, the
  cutoff for a research diagnosis of psychopathy.
• To put this into context, the mean scores for
  offenders in general and for noncriminals
  typically are around 22 and 5, respectively.

108

• The items fall into two clusters One cluster,
  referred to as Factor 1, reflects core
  interpersonal and affective characteristics the
  other cluster, Factor 2, consists of items that
  reflect a socially deviant and nomadic lifestyle.

109
Psychopathy ChecklistRevised

• -The Psychopathy ChecklistRevised (PCL-R Hare,
  1991, 2003), in particular, has high predictive
  validity with respect to both general and violent
  recidivism (see, e.g., Hemphill, Hare, Wong,
• -The Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version
  (PCLYV Forth, Kosson, Hare, 2003) was
  designed to assess psychopathic traits in youth
  that are considered to be
• Associated with adolescent risk and treatment
  amenability

110
cont

• -MOST PSYCHOPATHS ARE ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITIES
  BUT NOT ALL ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITIES ARE
  PSYCHOPATHS.
• - This is because APD is defined mainly by
  behaviors (Factor 2 antisocial behaviors) and
  doesn't tap the affective/interpersonal
  dimensions (Factor 1 core psychopathic features,
  narcissism) of psychopathy.
• - Further, criminals and APDs tend to "age out"
  of crime psychopaths do not, and are at high
  risk of recidivism.

111
PCL-R 20-item

•     Hare's checklist is based on Cleckley's
  16-item checklist, and the following is a
  discussion of the concepts in the PCL-R
• 1. GLIB and SUPERFICIAL CHARM
• 2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH
• 3. NEED FOR STIMULATION or PRONENESS TO BOREDOM
• 4. PATHOLOGICAL LYING
• 5. CONNING AND MANIPULATIVENESS
• 6. LACK OF REMORSE OR GUILT
• 7. SHALLOW AFFECT
• 8. CALLOUSNESS and LACK OF EMPATHY
• 9. PARASITIC LIFESTYLE
• 10. POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS
• 11. PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
• 12. EARLY BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS
• 13. LACK OF REALISTIC, LONG-TERM GOALS
• 14. IMPULSIVITY
• 15. IRRESPONSIBILITY
• 16. FAILURE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN
  ACTIONS
• 17. MANY SHORT-TERM MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS
• 18. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

112

• Most psychopaths (with the exception of those who
  somehow manage to plow their way through life
  without coming into formal or prolonged contact
  with the criminal justice system) meet the
  criteria for ASPD, but most individuals with ASPD
  are not psychopaths. Further, ASPD is very common
  in c