psychology and criminal behaviour definitions1
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dipositivas creditos al dueño original. tiene definiciones etc..TRANSCRIPT
Defining the Subject Matter
Crime Delinquency Deviance
‘Although often lay people feel they can easily identify crime and criminals, deviants and deviance, there are in fact unclear boundaries bordering legality and illegality, normality and deviance’ (Holdaway 1988:8).
Variability of Deviance and Crime
Definitions of deviance and crime are historically and culturally variable They are socially defined and
constructed They are not inherent in actions or
the characteristics of individuals
Deviance
Deviance: the recognized violation of cultural norms.
Crime: the violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law.
Deviance: range of acts of nonconformity, from variations in hair styles to murder.
Deviance Non conformity to a given norm, or set of norms, which are
accepted by a significant number of people
Norms: Prescriptive (Sanctioned or authorized by long-standing custom or
usage). Proscriptive (prohibition)
Sources of norms Social consensus Social conflict Folkways and mores (group habits that are common to a society
or culture and the accepted traditional customs and usages of a particular social group).
John Hagan’s 3 Dimensions
1. Evaluation of social harm2. Severity of social response3. Agreement about the norm
Types of Deviance and Crime
Source: Hagan (1994).
Consensus crime: wearing samurai hair style in medieval Japan
Conflict crime: growing a long beard in early 17th century Russia
Social deviation: wearing long hair in John Lie’s high school
Social diversion: dyeing your hair purple in the U.S.A. today
Evaluation of Severity of Social Harm Social Response
Rel
ativ
ely
harm
less
V
ery
harm
ful
Severe M
ild
High agreement Confusion, apathy
Agreementabout the norm
Social Control
Deviant people are subject to social control: how members of a society try to influence each other's behavior. Informal Social Control: mild, raised
eyebrows, gossip, ostracism… Formal Social Control: breaking laws
Crime and delinquence
Crime - defined by Criminal Law. A Juvenile delinquent is a young
person (in Lithuania, under the age of 14) who has engaged in criminal behaviour.
Seriousness of Deviance and Crime
1. Social diversions: mild acts of deviance2. Social deviations: more serious, institutional
sanctions and large portion of pop. agree they are bad
3. Conflict Crimes: state defines as illegal, but the definition is controversial in the wider society
4. Consensus Crimes: widely recognized to be bad in themselves
definitions:
The legal definition: The criminal is the person who breaks the law.
The role definition: The criminal is the individual who sustains a pattern of delinquency over a long period of time and whose life and identity are organised around a pattern of deviant behaviour (commitment to deviant role and lifestyle)
The societal response definition:According to this definition in order for an act and/or an actor to be defined as deviant or criminal, an audience must perceive and judge the behaviour in question
Classification
Crime and the criminals who engage in it make up a rich bundle of activities and persons
Theoretically meaningful taxonomies of crime forms and offender types
Two different lines of classification activity: Crime centered – attempt to identify distinct
forms of crime, along with correlates Criminal centered – distinct patterns or types
into which real life offenders can be sorted Our interest lies with the latter
Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982
Behavioural versatility rather than specialization in particular crimes is most common among repeat offenders
Attempt to distinguish classes of criminal acts or criminal actors
Typing may entail negative and stigmatising labelling
Denies individual uniqueness Focus on commonalities serve good value –
communication; decision making; prediction Classes are identified by a few prototypical features
shared by most but not all offenders
CRIME CENTERED CLASSIFICATION
McKinney (1966) – based on: criminal career of the offender, group support of criminal behaviour, correspondence between criminal behaviour and legitimate behaviour patterns and societal reactions
Violent personal crime – murder, assault and forcible rape Occasional property crime – auto theft, shop lifting, check
forgery and vandalism Occupational – crime from workplace Political crime Public order – drunkenness, vagrancy, disorderly conduct,
prostitution, traffic violations, drug addiction Conventional crime – robbery, burglary and gang theft Organized crime – organised prostitution, organized gambling,
control of narcotics Professional crime – confidence games, forgery, counterfeiting
Farr and Gibbon’s Classification (1992)
7 crime categoriesProperty harms Property predatory crime- burglary, robbery, auto theft Property fraudulent crime – embezzlement, forgery, fraud and
briberyPersonal harm Interpersonal violence general – homicide and assault Interpersonal violence – sexual – rape, sexual abuse and other
crimes of sexual violenceHarms against the social order or social values Transactional –offences involving a willing exchange of goods or
services, such as prostitution, gambling and drug sales Order disruption – escape, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct Folk mundane crime – violations of technical rules
Distinguish between criminal activities carried on by formal or complex organizations, by offender networks and by individuals acting alone
Classification of Crime The Criminal Code distinguishes between crimes
and contraventions, the former being of a more serious nature.
Crimes include willful homicide, bodily harm, theft, receiving stolen property, misappropriation, assault and resistance against police officers, bribery, abuse of power, rape, prostitution, indecent assault, defilement of minors, forgery, fraud, perjury and many others.
Contraventions include disturbance of public peace, swearing, unlawful betting, various traffic offenses, dumping of garbage, failure to pay maintenance, drunkenness, vagrancy, minor assault, and threatening.
CRIMINAL CENTERED CLASSIFICATION: The development of offender typologies When we sort offenders into behavioural
types, we invent conceptual schemes that allow us to see common threads or characteristics that identify groups of similar offenders
Classifications are needed for three main purposes
1. management decisions in the penal system2. to facilitate treatment decisions 3. theoretical understanding
Gibbon’s role-career typology
distinguishes criminal roles according to the 1. offence behaviour, 2. its interactional setting – alone, organised
criminal network, subculture3. The self concept of the offender4. role related attitudes e.g. towards
conventional life, work, police, social control agencies, gents of socialisation
5. Role career – development in terms of criminality
A: theoretically derived
Stage theories inspired by social psychological theories on social perspective taking
Development in terms of increasing involvement with people and social institutions
Progressively more differentiated perceptions of the world, the self and others
Interpersonal maturity level (Warren, 1983) Palmer (1974)
7 stages of integration Fixation at a particular level determines
relative consistency in goals and expectations and a working philosophy of life
Those progressing beyond the 1-4 level are assumed to be less likely to be in conflict with society and most criminals fall in 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 levels
classifications
B. Empirical classifications: Eg MMPI based classifications C. Psychiatric classificationEg - paraphilias - personality disorders
Criticism of typologies
Loose fit between typologies and the real world
Studies of inmates E.g. Garabedian (1964): social types exist but there is less regularity in inmate behaviour than is implied by typologies
McKenna (1962) many real life offenders cannot be assigned to the categories of role career schemes with much precision
What is criminal psychology?
To study the psychological factor of the criminal. Mainly based on study on the motivation of crime, thus to examine the character, environment of the criminal and the process of the criminal behavior.
Using psychological method to explain crime itself and then bring evidence of a crime to light in order to help investigation, justice, and correction.; a psychology in order to hold back crimes.