Decision making in criminals

Group members:

1. Anum Suhail

2. Mahum Azhaar

3. Pakeeza Arif

4. Shahtaj Shakir

5. Soofia Hussain

6. Syeda Amna Burhan

7. Wajeeha Ghani

DECISION MAKINGAccording to James Stoner,"Decision making is the process of identifying and selecting a course of action to solve a specific problem."

According to Trewartha and Newport

"Decision making involves the selection of a course of

action from among two or more possible alternatives in

order to arrive at a solution for a given problem."

STEPS IN DECISION MAKING

A SUB-GROUP OF SOCIOLOGY

Criminology is the scientific study of crime, including its causes, responses

by law enforcement and methods of prevention.

Sub-groups of criminology:

Penology: The study of prisons and prison systems

Bio criminology: The study of the biological basis of criminal behavior

Feminist criminology: The study of women and crime

Criminalistics: The study of crime detection

OUR AIM/WHAT WE WANT TO DO

Criminology

Cognitive Psychology

Decisionmaking incriminals

Why we chose criminology and decision making?

Firstly we as psychology students were eager to know that why people are

engaged in criminal behaviors

Secondly we wanted to know about their mental thinking and their

decision making abilities i.e. on what basis do such people commit so

brutal acts.

How these individuals decide which steps should be taken for a particular

act?

Decision Making and Criminality:

overview of Eric Johnson and John Payne’s chapter on THE DECISION TO

COMMIT A CRIME provides us a concepts and findings from behavioral

decision theory and of their applicability to an understanding of criminal

decision making.

Instead they suggest that given the human cognitive system is limited in

information processing capabilities, choice behavior is more realistically

distinguished in terms of its bounded rationality.

Two main themes:

First Concerns about the construction by the decision maker of internal representations of crucial aspects of the decision problem which leads them to analyze the implications of the prospect theory both for the framing of choices by the possible criminal.

Second theme is concerned with the decision processes that operate upon the representations.

STRATEGIES USED:

As remarked by Carroll, decisions made

by police, prosecutors, judges, juries

and parole boards all follow 3 things

1) the offenders’ choice of which

crime to commit,

2) 2) the choice of target and the

choice of the method

3) moment of committing the crime.

SATISFISING/COGNITIVE HEURISTICS:

• we consider options one by one, then we select an option as soon as we find one

that is satisfactory and or just good enough to meet our minimum level of acceptability.

Deterrence theory:

Core principle of classical school and rational

choice of theories.

How Crimes can be controlled:

By using punishments which are combination of

proper degrees of certainty, severity and clarity.

Normative Theories of Rational Choice:

Expected Utility

OPERATING PRINCIPLE:

Expected utility theory is an account of how to choose rationally when you

are not sure which outcome will result from your acts.

BASIC SLOGAN:

Choose the act with the highest expected utility

Bounded Reality:

the cognitive limitation of their minds and rationality of individuals is limited

by the information they have and the finite time they have to make a

decision

. According to Cognitive Psychology researches:

it has been concluded that active processing of information is a serial

process which occurs in memory of limited capacity, duration and ability to

put information in more permanent storage

Why They use Heuristics:

because of which people are pushed to used heuristics to keep the

information processing demand of complex problem solving tasks within

their bounded limits.

Hypothetical Reasoning, Social Cognition, :

Hypothetical reasoning:

A practical reasoning pattern that often occurs within everyday life.

Social Cognition

Various criminologist terms criminals as rational agents that perform careful

consideration of alternatives before they decide to commit a crime. Peers

influence can also be very important because in certain situations

adolescents are put up due to peer pressure

Rational Choice Theory:

In criminology, it describes crime as the result of intentional process in which

pros and cons are considered

They stress more on the expected reward for committing a crime and its

related costs and benefits revolving around the criminal activity.

Social Bonding theory:

Basic concept:

The individual tend to attempt crime or inadequate acts when their bonds with the society or community are weakened or threatening after break up.

Basically Social bond theory later on developed into social control theory

4 components of social bonding:

1) Attachment to families

2) Commitment to social norms and institutions

3) Involvement in activities

4) The belief that these things are important.

Social control theory:

VIEWPOINT:

When a person is experiencing lack of social connections or a lack of

social networks that would normally prohibit into criminal activity, the

likelihood that the individual will engage in criminal activity increases.

Biological and Biosocial theories:

Contemporary biological theories concentrate more on differences in genetic

and other biological factors that are in interaction with the environment which

less probably to refer bio defects or abnormalities

FACTS AND FIGURES:

Males have greater chances to commit crime and violence than the females

According to research analysis, males are strong in attempting crimes

PROSPECT THEORY(an analysis of decision under risk)

A theory that people value gains and losses differently and, as such, will base

decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived losses.

Also known as "loss-aversion theory

• Rational Misbehavior? Evaluating an Integrated Dual-

Process Model of Criminal Decision Making

Main objective of this research:

HYPOTHESIS:

Test the hypothesis that dispositional self-control and morality relate to

criminal decision making via different mental processing modes, a ‘hot’

affective mode and a ‘cool’ cognitive one.

Methods:

Sample:

Undergraduate students using scenarios describing two different

types of crime, illegal downloading and insurance fraud.

Both self-control and morality are operationalized through the

HEXACO model of personality.

Results

STUDY 1:

Negative state affect, i.e., feelings of fear and worry evoked by a criminal

prospect, and perceived risk of sanction were found to mediate the

relations between both dispositions and criminal choice.

STUDY 2:

Processing mode was manipulated by having participants rely on either

their thinking or on their feelings prior to deciding on whether or not to

make a criminal choice.

Conclusion

PROXIMIAL STATE:

These results extend research that links stable individual dispositions to

proximal states that operate in the moment of decision making.

DISPSITIONAL PRESPECTIVES:

The results also add to dispositional perspectives of crime by using a

structure of personality that incorporates both self-control and morality.

•Specifying the Direct and Indirect Effects of Low Self-Control and

Situational Factors in Offenders' Decision Making: Toward a More Complete Model of Rational Offending

INTRODUCTION:

This paper builds on work by Nagin and Paternoster.

They contend that two recent developments in criminological theory, self-control and

rational choice, have been explored separately rather than in conjunction with one

another.

FINDINGS:

Nagin and Paternoster found direct effects for variables from each of these theories

and called for more research into simultaneous examination of the two.

They advance three hypotheses concerning the integration of low self-

control into a rational choice framework:

HYPOTHESIS:

1. That low self-control will have both direct and indirect effects via situational

characteristics on intentions to shoplift and drive drunk;

2. That situational characteristics will have direct effects on intentions to

deviate, as well as effects on other situational factors; and

3. That a model uniting the effects of low self-control and situational

characteristics will provide a good fit to the data.

3)Criminal Decision Making: The Development of

Adolescent Judgment, criminal Responsibility, and

Culpability.

EVIDENCE THROUGH THEORIES OF

JUDGEMENT:

Theories hypothesize that throughout adolescence, judgment is impaired

because the development of several psychosocial factors that are

presumed to influence decision making lags behind the development of

the cognitive capacities that are required to make mature decisions.

TECHNIQUE USED:

Use of innovative video technique to examine the role of several

psychosocial factors—temporal perspective, peer influence, and risk

perception—in adolescent criminal decision making.

SAMPLE:

56 adolescents aged 13–18 yrs

RESULTS:

Results revealed that detained youth were more likely to think of future-

oriented consequences of engaging in the depicted delinquent act and

less likely to anticipate pressure from their friends than no detained youth.

Examination of the developmental functions of the psychosocial factors

indicates age-based differences on standardized measures of temporal

perspective and resistance to peer influence and on measures of the role

of risk perception in criminal decision making

Case#1

Susan Denise Atkins

Susan Denise Atkins was a member of the "Manson family", led by

Charles Manson.

Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four

locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969.

ACCORDING TO HER,

“The only complete man I have ever met“.

Under the direction of Charlie Manson, she stabbed actress Sharon

Tate to death and had participated in the murder of music teacher

Gary Hinman.

SUSAN BACKGROUND:

In early 1967, while staying with friends in San Francisco, Susan Atkins met

Charles Manson, and by summer she was on a road trip with Manson and

his group.

By July 1969, Atkins was a trusted member of Manson's inner circle, and he

took her and two others with him to shake down a man named Gary

Hinman for money.

Atkins died in prison in 2009

WHAT INFLUENCED SUSAN

REINFORCEMENT FACTOR:

Manson

IMPLICATION OF THEORY:

1) Rational theory- : Murders were less costly as compared to loosing Mason’s

family

2) Role fulfillment-: A tendency to conform to others' decision-making expectations

CONCLUSION:

She along with Mason and other members try to fulfill their expectations

regarding her and try to be liked by them and maintain her position in the

group.

Case#2Lost Boys: Hopelessness, Peer Pressure

Lead to Youth Violence

LOVE OF FAMILYBecome part of a home invasion

robbery

16-Year old Tommy was surrounded by family, but it was love for that family he said that prompted him to

allegedly be part of a home invasion robbery.

INFLUENCING FACTOR

Hanging around with wrong crowd (peer influence)

Reference from theories :

Strain theory

Stress or strain leads towards criminal acts

Engaging in criminal acts to escape from strain

Crime control policies:

It refers to methods taken to reduce crime in a society. Penology often focuses on the use

of criminal penalties as a means of deterring people from committing crimes and

temporarily or permanently incapacitating those who have already committed crimes

from re-offending.

Adoption of the expected utility model:

The idea that a criminal act is the result of a rational cost/benefit

calculation suggests that everyone, not just “criminal types," may choose to

commit a crime under the right circumstances.

• CRIME PREVETION

PROGRAM/AWARENESS