The Contribution of Psychology to Criminology Understanding Criminology

The Contribution of Psychology to Criminology Understanding Criminology 29 th January 2008

Lecture Outline • Psychology: Definitions and Sub-disciplines • Psychological Theories of Offending – The Criminal Gene – Criminal Personality – Learnt Criminality • Other areas – Profiling – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Definitions and Subdisciplines • Psychology: a scientific discipline aiming to uncover the processes by which individuals sense, think, learn, know, communicate and interact • Physiological Psychology – How physical structures in the brain, nervous system and hormones affect behaviour • Developmental Psychology – How physical and psychological development changes through the aging process • Social Psychology – How people influence each other / group action • Cognitive Psychology – How intelligence and understanding “work” e. g. language, perception, memory, knowledge, reasoning

Common themes in modern Psychology • Methodologically positivist – Experimental research is key • Behaviourism -> 1960 s – A rejection of innate characteristics of the mind, and a focus on social and environmental factors in shaping the development of the mind • Cognitive Psychology 1960 s-> – Focus on understanding, and the conditions affecting it • Closest links to sociology – Symbolic interactionism

“Innate” factors / The Born Criminal / Constitutional Factors • Physical or biological factors can be used to identify criminals from non-criminals • Physiology / Phrenology • Lombroso: physical characteristics signalling a lower stage of development associated with criminality • Charles Goring: comparison of recidivist criminals and ‘non-criminals’: the latter were two inches shorter and weighed 3 -7 lbs. less

Common Problems • Methodological – The choice of comparison groups is rarely adequate – Criminal groups: always prisoners – Non-criminals groups: rarely randomly selected • Logic – Any significant differences are taken to be signifiers of constitutional difference – Environmental or social factors ignored • Uncritical use of concept of criminality

Genetic Explanations • Sought to explain the apparent transmission of criminality across generations of families • Richard Dugdale (1877) : ‘degenerate families’ • Goring (1913): attempted to control for environmental factors

Twin Studies • Monozygotic (MZ) Twins: identical twins • Dizygotic (DZ) Twins: non-identical twins • Theory: – If MZ twins show greater similarity in offending than DZ twins, the cause must be genetic – If MZ and DZ twins show equal similarity, the cause must be environmental – Studies have shown some higher levels of similarity in MZ twins, but these are studies are beset with methodological problems e. g. difficulty in separating environmental from genetic influences

Genetic Disorders and Crime • Normally, each person is born with 2 sex chromosomes – Women: XX Men: XY • A small number of men are born with two Y chromosomes: XYY (Klinefelter’s Syndrome) • Extra maleness? • Claims of association with lower intelligence, aggression, and even homosexuality • Studies have shown XYY men are taller, and are overrepresented in mental institutions • Chorover (1979) estimated 96% of XYY males leave normal lives

Personality Theories of Criminality • Personality: relatively consistent temperamental and emotional characteristics or “traits” • Hans Eysenck: identified 2 key strains – Extraversion / Introversion – Neuroticism / Stable – People who were highly extrovert and highly neurotic are seeking high levels of excitement and stimulation, but not easily controlled – 3 rd strain: psychoticism

Eysenck, Personality and Control N E P Condition Stable Introverts Low Easy Stable extroverts Low High Fairly Easy Neurotic High Low Fairly Easy Introverts Neurotic High Difficult Extroverts Neurotic High Most Difficult Extorverts / Highly Psychotic

Learning Theories • Behaviour is determined by environmental consequences • Pavlov: demonstrated a response could be learnt / automated by a repeated stimulus • Key to learning theories is cognition / understanding • Bandura and the ‘Bobo’ doll • The most sociological psychology e. g. Differential Association theory (Sutherland) • Influential in impact of media coverage

Summary of Psychological explanations for criminality • • Interesting areas of research Offer some explanations, but partial explanations Methodological problems Criminal / Non-criminal distinction fairly unproblematically accepted • More successful when focussing on a narrow range of criminal behaviour (eg. Violence) • Less successful in addressing volume criminality, and widespread deviance

Psychological Profiling • High media visibility eg. Silence of the Lambs, Cracker • FBI in USA / David Canter in UK • Analysis of the characteristics of repeated crimes can reveal ‘likely’ characteristics of offenders • Usually used for murder and serious sexual offences, especially serial crimes • Uses information on modus operandi; crime location

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy • If criminality is learnt behaviour, then noncriminality can also be learnt • Key response in prisons and probation to get offenders to stop offending • Used in a wide range of crime types: sex offenders, domestic violence, drink-driving, as well as general crime

Risk Category Treatment Group reconvictions Low 5% Comparison group Group reconvictions Percentage point reduction 8% 3 Medium-low 18% 32% 14 Medium-high 43% 54% 11 High 75% 80% 5 Source: C. Friendship et al (2002) “An evaluation of cognitive behavioural treatment for prisoners” Home Office Research Study 161

Not just explanation of offending… • Psychological impact – of crime on victims (direct and indirect)? – of imprisonment? • Psychology of – Eye-witness testimony – Jury decision making