schmall crim today8e_ppt_ch6

Criminology TodayAn Integrated Introduction

CHAPTER

Criminology Today: An Integrated Introduction, 8eFrank Schmalleger

Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc.All Rights Reserved

Psychological and Psychiatric Foundations of Criminal Behavior

6



Principles of Psychological and Psychiatric Theories

• Forensic psychology The application of psychology to

questions and issues relating to law and the legal system

• Forensic psychiatry A medical subspecialty applying

psychiatry to the needs of crime prevention and solution, criminal rehabilitation, and issues of criminal law



Figure 6-1 Assumptions of Psychological and Psychiatric Theories of Crime CausationSource: Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.



History of Psychological Theories

• Key ideas characterizing early psychological theories Personality Behaviorism/behavioral conditioning

• Psychoanalytic theory An outgrowth of personality theory



Personality Disturbances

• Psychopathology Any psychological disorder that causes

distress for an individual or for those in the individual's life

• Psychopathy A specific and distinctive type of

psychopathology



The Psychopath

• Psychopathy Personality disorder characterized by

antisocial behavior and lack of sympathy, empathy, embarrassment

continued on next slide



The Psychopath

• Hervey M. Cleckley developed the concept of a psychopathic personality. Psychopath as "moral idiot" Poverty of affect• Inability to accurately imagine how

others think and feel



Figure 6-2 Selected Characteristics of the Psychopathic PersonalitySource: Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.



Types of Psychopaths

• Primary psychopaths Born with psychopathic personalities

• Secondary psychopaths Born with "normal" personality, develop

psychopathic tendencies • Charismatic psychopaths

Charming, attractive, habitual liars• Distempered psychopaths

Easily offended, fly into rages



The Psychopath

• Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) Definitive measure of psychopathy

• Recent research suggests psychopaths do know the difference between right and wrong

• Recent study of adolescent psychopaths found intensive treatment was linked to reduced violent recidivism



Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Antisocial/asocial personality Individuals who are basically

unsocialized and whose behavior patterns bring them into repeated conflicts with society.

• Individuals who exhibit an antisocial personality are said to be suffering from antisocial personality disorder.




Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Incidence of ASPD in general population about 2% but as many as 60% of male prisoners may be suffering from ASPD.

• Causes of ASPD unclear Somatogenic causes Psychogenic causes



Trait Theory

• Eysenck explained crime as result of fundamental personality traits. Introversion/extraversion Neuroticism/emotional stability Psychoticism

• Personality stable throughout life, largely determined by genetics

• Psychoticism closely correlated with criminality



Figure 6-3 The Big Five Personality Dimensions



Cognitive Theories

• Learning theories examine thought processes and try to explain how people: Learn to solve problems Perceive and interpret the social

environment



Moral Development Theory

• Jean Piaget Human thinking goes through stages of

development Sensory-motor stage Preoperational stage Concrete operational stage Formal operational stage

• Child moves from moral absolutism to moral relativism.




Moral Development Theory

• Kohlberg said preference for higher levels of moral thinking universal in humans.

• Research shows offenders have less ability in making moral judgments.



Figure 6-4 Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral Development



Cognitive Information-Processing Theory

• Study of human perceptions, information processing, decision making

• Violent individuals may be using information incorrectly when making decisions.




Cognitive Information-Processing Theory

• Script theory Generalized knowledge about specific

types of situations stored in the mind Career offenders develop scripts to

guide them through criminal activity. Criminal scripts help form criminal

identity.



The Criminal Mind-Set

• Criminals make different assumptions about living and behaving than noncriminals.

• Criminal personality develops early in childhood. Includes ways of thinking characteristic

of many types of criminals but not shared by noncriminals



The Psychoanalytic Perspective: Criminal Behavior as Maladaptation• Psychiatric criminology envisions a

complex set of drives and motives that operate from within the personality to determine behavior.

• Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis

• Criminal behavior is maladaptive, the product of inadequacies in the offender's personality.



Figure 6-5 The Psychoanalytic Structure of PersonalitySource: Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.



The Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Violent criminal behavior dominated by the id, leaving offenders unable to control impulsive and pleasure-seeking drives.

• Repressed needs provide another path to criminality

• Many criminals have a secret need to be punished.



The Psychotic Offender

• Psychosis Mental illness characterized by a lack of

contact with reality




The Psychotic Offender

• Characteristics of psychotic individuals A grossly distorted conception of reality Inappropriate moods and mood swings Marked inefficiency in getting along with

others and caring for oneself• Not all psychotic persons commit

crimes.



Frustration-Aggression Theory

• Freud Aggression is a natural response to

frustration and limitations.• Frustration-aggression theory

Direct aggression toward others is the most likely consequence of frustration.

Aggression can be manifested in socially acceptable ways or engaged in vicariously.



Crime as Adaptation

• Crime as an adaptation to life's stresses Alloplastic adaptation• Crime reduces stresses by producing

changes in the environment. Autoplastic adaptation• Crime leads to stress reduction as a

result of internal changes in beliefs and value systems.

• Stress as a causative agent in crime commission



Criminogenic Needs

• Criminogenic needs Dynamic risk factors of offenders and

their circumstances associated with rates of recidivism

• May not be actual needs/desires but psychological indicators of maladaptive functioning



Attachment Theory

• Healthy personality development requires child to have a close, continuous relationship with mother.

• Forms of attachment Secure attachment (a healthy form) Anxious-avoidant attachment Anxious-resistant attachment

• Difficulties in childhood appear to produce criminality later in life.



Behavior Theory

• Ivan Pavlov Behavior can be conditioned or shaped.

• Classical conditioning Behavior can be predictably changed by

association with external changes in the surrounding environment.



Behavioral Conditioning

• Behavior theory Stimulus-response theory of human

behavior• Operant behavior

Behavior choices operate on the surrounding environment to produce consequences.

Rewards increase the frequency of behavior.




Behavioral Conditioning

• Operant behavior Punishments decrease frequency of

behavior. • Major determinants of behavior exist in

the environment, not in the individual.• People can be conditioned to respond

with prosocial or antisocial behavior.



Social Cognition and the Role of Modeling

• Gabriel Tarde's three laws of imitation People in close contact tend to imitate

each other's behavior. Imitation moves from the top down. New acts and behaviors either reinforce

or replace old ones.



Social Cognition Theory

• Albert Bandura Everyone is capable of aggression but

must learn how to behave aggressively.• Concepts central to theory

Observation Imitation Modeling




Social Cognition Theory

• Most behavior learned by observing and modeling

• Aggression can be provoked through assaults, verbal threats, thwarting hopes, obstructing goals.

• Disengagement allows people who devalue aggression to engage in it.



Policy and Treatment Implications

• Correctional psychology Concerned with diagnosis and

classification, treatment, rehabilitation of offenders

• Some of the most successful treatments emphasize changing offender personality characteristics, such as impulsivity



Cognitive Behavioral Intervention

• Offenders need to acquire better social skills to become more prosocial.

• Lets offenders modify their cognitive processes to control themselves, interact positively with others

• Target offender's environment, behavioral responses skill development

• Increase reasoning skills, problem-solving skills, expand empathy



Assessing Dangerousness

• Selective incapacitation Based on the notion of career criminality Protect society by incarcerating most

dangerous individuals Use of psychological techniques to

identify future offenders and those likely to reoffend




Assessing Dangerousness

• Strategy depends on accurately identifying potentially dangerous offenders.

• Risk assessment/classification tools continually being developed, improved



Predicting Criminality

• Recent study found strong relationship between childhood behavioral difficulties and later problem behavior.

• Prediction requires more than generalities. Difference between predicting

percentage of people in a population who will be criminals and predicting which individuals will violate the law



Critique of Psychological and Psychiatric Theories of Crime

• Theories criticized for failing to consider social or environmental conditions that produce crime

• Idea of moral reasoning sense puts loss of control within individual. Physical/social barriers to crime may be

more effective.• Individual theories have also been

criticized on various levels.



Criminal Psychological Profiling

• Psychological profiling Assists police investigators Based on idea that behavioral clues left

at crime scene may reflect offender's personality.

• Useful in repetitive crimes, hostage negotiations

• Some psychologists discount value of profiling



The Psychological Autopsy

• Procedure for investigating a person's death by reconstructing what the person thought, felt, did before death

• Particular focus on identifying patterns consistent with personality disorders, mental illness.

• Help determine why a particular mode of death resulted, help identify contributing factors



Insanity and the Law

• Insanity Legal concept, refers to type of defense

allowed in criminal courts• M'Naughten Rule

Individuals cannot be held criminally responsible if they did not know what they were doing or did not know that what they were doing was wrong.




Insanity and the Law

• Irresistible-Impulse Test Defendant is not guilty if by virtue of

his/her mental state s/he was unable to resist committing the action.



Guilty But Mentally Ill

• Individual can be held responsible for a criminal act, even though a degree of mental incompetence is present.

• Requirements for verdict All required statutory elements proven Defendant found mentally ill at time of

the crime Defendant not found legally insane at

time of the crime continued on next slide



Guilty But Mentally Ill

• If GBMI verdict returned, judge may impose any sentence possible under the law for the crime in question.

• GBMI offenders sent to psychiatric hospital for treatment Transferred to prison after "cured"



Problems with the Insanity Defense

• Must be brought before court, proven by defense

• Rarely used, rarely successful• Defendant found NGRI likely to spend a

long time in court-ordered institutional psychiatric treatment.

• Critics question whether idea of mental illness or insanity useful in study of criminology.