These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. Lecture 6 September 16 2014 Chapter 3 Pt. 2 Psychological Theories of Crime I. Psychological theories of crime emphasize differences in the way people think or feel about their behavior. Some people may be more prone to criminal conduct by increasing their anger, weakening their attachments to others, or fueling their desire to take risks and seek thrills II. Criminal Thinking Patterns a. Yochelson and Samenow (e.g., 1976) have proposed that criminals engage in a fundamentally different way of thinking than noncriminals; criminals’ thinking is erroneous and irresponsible. b. More recent approaches to investigating the role of offender thinking have been undertaken (e.g., Walters, 2002). This general approach, involving the appraisal of thinking styles and cognitive “errors” among offenders, has added significantly to the current ability to assess offender risk and rehabilitation needs. III. Personality-Based Expectations a. There are multiple personality-based theories. A recent meta-analytic review suggested that general personality theory has identified two domains (agreeableness and conscientiousness) that are important to understanding criminal offending (e.g., those who are low on Agreeableness or low on Conscientiousness were more likely to be involved in antisocial behavior.) Psychopathy I. This term refers to those who engage in frequent, repetitive criminal activity for which they feel little or no remorse. They appear chronically deceitful and manipulative. II. This closet diagnostic label to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder III. About 80% of psychopaths are men IV. Psychopathy, as measured by the Hare PCL-R, has been well established as a risk factor for offending and for violent offending V. Many theories regarding what causes psychopathy a. Psychopaths may suffer a cortical immaturity that makes it difficult to inhibit behavior b. Psychopaths may have a deficiency in the left hemisphere that impairs executive function, the ability to plan and regulate behavior carefully PSYC 3530 8TH EditionVI. Quay (1965) suggested a stimulation-seeking theory which claims that the thrill-seeking and disruptive behavior of the psychopath serve to increase sensory input and arousal to a more tolerable level. VII. Eysenk (1964) proposed that psychopaths have a slower rate of classical conditioning. VIII. Others have proposed that psychopathy is caused by being raised in a dysfunctional family. IX. Limitations of Psychopathy in Explaining Offending a. Only describes a small percentage of offenders b. Various concerns about the use of psychopathy assessment instruments (e.g., PCL is a self-report measure thus, the administrator is subject to relying on inaccurate information) Social-Psychological Theories of Crime I. Social-Psychological Theories of Crime a. Bridge the gap between the environmentalism of sociology and the individualism of psychological or biological theories. These theories propose that crime is learned, but they differ about what is learned and how it is learned. II. Two types: a. Control theory assumes that people will behave antisocially unless they learn, through a combination of inner controls and external constraints on behavior, not to offend. b. Learning theory stresses how individuals acquire criminal behaviors through learning. c. Control Theories i. These theories assume that people will behave antisocially unless they are trained not to by others. Ex 1. Containment Theory: Reckless (1967) proposed that if is largely external containment (i.e., social pressure and institutionalized rules) that controls crime. But if external controls weaken, control of crime must depend on internal restraints (e.g., an individual’s conscience). Control Theories I. Containment accounts for the law-abiding individual in a high-crime area, but not to crimes within groups that are organized around their commitment to deviant behavior. II. Eysenck’s (1964) containment theory proposed that heredity predisposes an individual to commit crime. Socialization practices (through operant learning and classical conditioning) then translate these innate tendencies into criminal acts.Learning Theories I. Learning theory focuses on how criminal behavior is learned. Ex: a. Differential association approach: i. Sutherland (1947) proposed that the potential criminal develops definitions of behavior that make deviant conduct seem acceptable b. Differential association reinforcement theory was proposed in which criminal behavior is acquired through operant conditioning and modeling (a modification of Sutherland’s theory). A person behaves criminally when reinforcement for such behavior is more frequent than punishment. i. Differential association has some limitations (e.g., does not explain impulsive behavior). c. Social Learning Theory i. Acknowledges the importance of differential reinforcement for developing new behaviors, but it assigns more importance to cognitive factors and to observational or vicarious learning. d. Social learning theory (Bandura, 1986) i. Observational learning depends on: 1. Attention to the important features of modeling behavior 2. Retention of these features in memory to guide later performance 3. Reproduction of the observed behaviors 4. Reinforcement of performed behaviors, which determines whether they will be performed again. e. Social learning theory applied to criminal behavior emphasizes modeling aggression in three social contexts: i. Familial influences (e.g. child abuse) ii. Subcultural influences iii. Symbolic models (e.g. televised violence) f. Social Labeling Theory. According to this theory, deviance is created by the labels that society assigns to certain acts. i. It distinguishes between primary deviance, or the criminal’s actual behavior, and secondary deviance, or society’s reaction to the offensive conduct. ii. The stigma of being labeled as a “criminal” can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. iii. Once illustration of social labeling theory is racial profiling. This discriminatory practice raises the risk of harmful and inappropriate labeling. The outcry over racial profiling has resulted has resulted in a call for federal legislation that would prohibit the practice.iv.