Introduction to criminological Psychology

Criminology intro...

• A young woman goes to the funeral of her mother. There she meets a man whomshe has never met before. She identifies him as the man of her dreams andimmediately falls in love. Two days later she kills her sister. Why?

Answer......

• She killed her sister in hope that the mysterious stranger at her mother's funeral would also attend the sister's as well.This is the test that people use to see if you have the compacity to be a seriel killer

Theories Of Crime

• Physiological Theories

• Psychoanalytic theories

• Learning Theories

Biological types

• Biochemical factors criminals have a different genetic make up to the rest of us (Lombroso Ideology)

• Biological Factors.

• Result of past experience or conflict.

• Children have been exposed to violence in their environment and have learned maladaptive behaviours.

Defining Crime

• Defining crime may seem straight forward but it is not as easy as all that. There are different ways of looking at crime, using different perspectives.

Defining Crime cont…

• The Consensus View

• The conflict view of crime

• The Interactionist View

• Crime is a violation of the law, which is disapproved of by members of society because it goes against the general consensus.

• Society is made up of conflicting groups who for various economic reasons are dissatisfied, this dissatisfaction promotes crime.

• We understand social behaviour in terms of roles and role behaviours which people adopt in day-day living.

• Thus the act itself is not criminal-it’s the meaning behind the act.

Finding out about crime…

• Like defining crime ,finding out about crime is less straight forward than it first appears on the surface.

• The rate of crime is known as the ?????

• Whilst the statistic describing the percentage of individuals who experience crime is known as ???????

Police recording of crime• Official statistics emphasise the problem of identifying crime

• For what reason???

• Hood & Sparks (1970) suggested that only about 2/3rd of serious crime that is reported were actually recorded on the official register.

• Hough & Mayhew (1985) estimate that only 75% of reported robberies were recorded and in the case of bicycle theft the figure reported was as low as 2%.

• EVALUATIONTherefore the dark figure in crime stats refers to crimes that are committed but not recorded, it has a major limitation in that it can only ever be a guess.

Police recording of crime

• Offender surveys

• Belson(1975) carried out an offender survey in which 1445 boys aged 13-16 were interviewed about crime and crime related acts

• FINDINGS • 70% of the sample had been involved in theft

from a shop.• 17% admitted to having stolen from private

property.• What do these findings imply?

Police recording of crime

Victim Surveys

• Hough & Mayhew (1983)

From their survey estimated those over the age of 16 might expect to be burgled once every 40 years, but robbed or assaulted once in every 500 years. (Note:90% of those surveyed reported no experience of crime)

Physiological theories of crime.

Genetic factors

Lombroso suggested that criminals had a different make up and that certain types could be identified as criminals on the basis of their physical characteristics such as body shape.

Endomorphic body typesEndomorphic Body Type:

•soft body

•underdeveloped muscles •round shaped

•over-developed digestive system Associated personality traits:

•love of food •tolerant

•evenness of emotions •love of comfort

•sociable •good humored

•relaxed •need for affection

Mesomorphic body type•hard, muscular body •overly mature appearance •rectangular shaped •thick skin •upright posture

Associated personality traits: •adventurous •desire for power and dominance •courageous •indifference to what others think or want •assertive, bold •zest for physical activity •competitive •love of risk and chance

Ectomorphic body types•thin •flat chest •delicate build •young appearance •tall •lightly muscled •stoop-shouldered •large brain

Associated personality traits: •self-conscious •preference for privacy •introverted •inhibited •socially anxious •artistic •mentally intense •emotionally restrained

More on body types

• Sheldon(1949)Conducted research on body types and looked specifically at 400 males in a rehabilitation centre and found more mesomorphs than any other body type

• Although this body type analysis became a popular view, recent studies have proven this notion to be quite unsupported.

More on body types

• Although body types have prove to be a factor.

Why might this be the case?????

Feldman (1977) found evidence for stereotyping from police arrests as they were more likely to arrest larger types as they fit the ‘bill’.

Genes & the role they play.

• Lombroso’s idea of physiology and crime began what is now known as criminology (Schafer, 1976)

• There is a problem with casual attribution. A great deal of Lombroso’s information came from studies with criminals but there were no control groups..thus they lacked comparison.

Genes & the role they play.

• Family studies have indicated that criminality may run in the family.

• Osborn & West (1979) found that 40% of sons of fathers who were criminals were criminals themselves, whereas only 13% of the sons of non-criminal fathers were criminals.

Genes & the role they play.

• Twin studies have also been used to look at the possible genetic link.

• Hollin (1989) reviewed a number of studies and found on average the concordance rates for criminality is 48% for MZ twins (100% genes) versus 20% for DZ twins (50% genes).

Genes again…..

• Another explanation for criminal behaviour is that criminals may have an extra chromosome.

• The human genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes.

• Women have two x chromosomes and so described as XX whilst men have One Y and one X (XY).

• It is not unheard of for some to and additional chromosome, a fact that was discovered in the early 1960s.

Genes again….

• Sandberg et al (1961) reported a study of chromosomal abnormality in a prison population, and argued that some 5% of criminals had XXY Syndrome.

• This suggested this may be a factor, particularly in violent crimes.

• Evaluation. Owen challenged Sandbergs findings arguing

there was a problem in categorising people as XXY and there did not appear to be more XXY in prison than in the entire population.

Genetic link…An evaluation.

• Correlation should not imply cause ‘n’ effect.

• There is a problem with separating nature from nurture.

• There is evidence that MZ twins are treated similarly by virtue of there looks, thus there is still an issue of nature vs. nurture.