Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Criminal - Coggle Diagram
Criminal
Bio explanations
Brain injury
Pre-frontal cortex - damage could reduce ability to inhibit certain behaviours - less capable of logical reasoning and impulsive behaviour
Williams (2012) - 60% of young adult, male prisoners have some form of TBI compared to only around 8.5% of normal population (NHS)
XYY syndrome
Associated with increased levels of aggression. Also can be identified by longer limbs and being tall
Theilgaard - found that there was a higher incidence of XYY in violent offenders than in the regular population
Personality
Eyesenck personality theory - personality measured by E, N, and P
E - more extroverted people require more stimulation due to less sensitive ARAS
N - limbic system is more overwhelmed by stressful situations
P - lacks empathy, often cruel and prone to aggression. Associated with high testosterone
Farrington - carried out a review of studies and found a correlation between criminality and high P scores but not with E and N
Amygdala
Amygdala processes information from surrounds and decides response / whether or not to perceive it as threatening
-
Damage to amygdala or a naturally overactive amygdala can lead to increased aggression - perceiving more info as threatening
-
-
Cog explanations
Labelling
- People perceive a person in a certain way due to their behaviours etc. The way that people treat person may change in line with the label they have been given
- Person starts to see themselves more in line with their label - their self concept changes
- Person changes their behaviour to match label given
- This leads to label being reinforced and more strongly internalised
Jahoda (1954) - children in Ashanti tribe told that those born on a Wednesday will be more aggressive than children born on a Monday.
Monday - 6.9% of juvenile crime
Wednesday - 22% of juvenile crime
Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) - gave teachers false IQ tests for students labelling them as either bloomers or non-bloomers.
2 years later it was found that those labelled as bloomers did better in exams than non-bloomers
Madon (2004) - parents asked to estimate child's alcohol consumption.
Those whose parents overestimated had a higher alcohol consumption later on
-
-
Methods
Cognitive interview
1. Reinstate the context - e.g asking them how they were feeling that day or their general activities
- Participant allowed to freely recall all information they can without structured questioning
- Asked to recall in non-chronological order
- Asked to recall information from another perspective - could be from another witness or the perpetrator
Gieselman - compared the cognitive interview with a standard interview. He asked participants to watch a video of a violent crime and then 48 hours later were interviewed either using the standard interview or the cognitive interview.
He found that they did manage to recall more correct items but also recalled more incorrect items - suggesting that it does not necessarily improve accuracy
-
Fisher - found that detectives gained up to 47% more useful info from real eye witnesses when using cognitive interview compared to the standard interview
-
-
-
Eyewitness testimonies
Weapon focus
-
Pickel - found that objects with high unusualness worsened the recall after watching a video of an interaction in a hairdresser salon (raw chicken and handgun)
Scissors did not produce poor recall - suggests threat alone is not enough
Arousal
We have a state of optimal arousal, but after this point is reached, the increased stress causes memory to worsen
Valentine and Mesout - only 17% of Ps above median arousal could identify actor compared to 75% below
-
-
Yuille and Cutshall - used 21 real eye-witnesses to a robbery. Found that there was no effect on recall.
Post event information
-
Reconstructive memory - may be changed by the opinions or influence of others as memories are 'put back together'
-
Jury decisions
Defendant characteristics:
- Accent
- Race
- Age
- Gender
- Attractiveness
Bradbury and Williams - black defendants more likely to be convicted if jury is majority white and less likely if majority is black
Dixon and Mahoney - defendants with Birmingham accent more likely to be convicted than those with standard British
Abwender and Hough - female ppts less likely to convict an attractive female defendant than an unattractive defendant, while males displayed the opposite tendency
-
-
Treatments
Anger management
- Preparation - offender identifies situations that provoke anger so they can predict when they will have an outburst. They learn to understand consequences of their anger. Thought processes are challenged
- Skill acquisition - coping mechanisms to deal with anger provoking situations are learned such as relaxation or conflict resolution. Emphasis is on how to deal with anger, not avoid it
- Application practice - role play scenarios to practice controlling anger conducted in controlled environments
-
Only helps offenders who struggle with anger control and commit violent crimes - does not help other offenders who committed crimes such as fraud which were not caused by anger. Therefore not applicable to all offenders
Ireland (2004) - ran a group anger management programme with 50 prisoners (and had 37 control). Found that experimental group showed a 92% reduction in management of their anger
Relies on self report data which my lack validity with prisoners either due to demand characteristics or because it may help them get a reduced prison sentence
-
Diet
Deficiencies in fatty acids or certain minerals can lead to poor cognitive function and reduced ability to make rational decisions
Hypoglycaemia can cause irritability and mood problems which can lead to violent outbursts and bad judgement.
This can be caused by lots of junk food as it causes an increased insulin production
Benton - found that children playing video games became more aggressive and blood glucose levels dropped
- A nutritionist will analyse the offenders diet and find what they are lacking in
- They will then create a plan to adjust any deficiencies etc.
- Diet / supplement plan is then implemented
Gesch - implemented supplements into offenders diet to include correct levels of essential minerals and fatty acids. Used a double-blind trial with a placebo.
He found a 35% reduction in disciplinary incidents and a 37% if violent incidents.
C/A - conducted in a controlled prison environment - lack of evidence for how successful this is in real life
Cost - although expensive to initially have nutritional analysis done, after that it is cheap and does not require much time/effort (better than AM?)
Only used to reduce violent or impulsive crime - lack of evidence how this would reduce career crime or pre-meditated crime such as fraud