Psychological Theories of Crime

There are five psychological theories of crime: biological, behavioural, social learning, social ecological and situational explanations.

Attention has been directed to human cognition (mental content, process and abilities) and affect (moods and emotions), and to the biological foundations of and the environmental influences of behaviour.

Biological

• Individual genetic variations may be linked to criminality; transferring these genetic variations to biological offspring
• This heritability of criminality may exist in a genetic foundation for crime-related behavioural tendencies such as aggression, addiction, selfishness, impulsivity and sexual deviance.
• Biological changes such as those during adolescence provide an increase in physical strength and sexual urges. This may help to understand the increase in the crime rate for males peaking in early adulthood and steadily declining afterwards.
• Children of criminal parents are more likely than children of non-criminals to becomes criminals.
• This intergenerational transmission of crime may be a product of learning.
• The ingestion of alcohol and other drugs, act on the CNS producing poor social judgment and aggression as well as other environmental contributions such as brain injuries/damage and toxins increasing the likelihood of deviant behaviour occurring.
• From an evolutionary perspective the biological make-up serves the fundamental purpose of survival and reproduction.
• r/K theory: r-selected strategy; opportunistic, impulsive, aggressive and dominant. K-selected strategy; cautious, self-controlled and socially co-operative.

Behavioural

• Behavioural focuses on the way that individuals learn, using classical and operant conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus which produces a conditioned response. The previously neutral stimulus is then a conditioned stimulus.
• Operant conditioning uses two types of consequences: reinforcement; the behaviour is more likely to occur and punishment; the behaviour is less likely to occur. Both types of consequences can be positive or negative.
• It is possible in classical conditioning for a learned association to occur with a single trial learning although classical conditioning typically corporates multiple pairings.
• A concern for the justice system would be that operant conditioning sees that unless punishment occurs immediately after (typically) the behaviour, the individual will not associate the punishment with the behaviour.

Personality

1. The three types of mental processes comprising Freud's topographic model are conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

2. Ambivalence; conflicting feelings or motives. Conflict; tension between opposing motives.

3. Freud's developmental model and the five psychosexual stages involved are: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.

Notes on Emotion

1. The James-Lange theory states that emotions originate in the peripheral nervous system, which then gets interpreted by the central nervous system. The Cannon-Bard theory however says that emotion-inducing stimuli simultaneously elicit both an emotional experience and bodily responses.
2. Emotional disclosure has been found to increase the overall health who frequently discuss (talk about) or write about stressful or unpleasant events.
3. Facial expressions have the ability to influence a person's emotional state.
4. There are six facial expressions that are recognised by people of most cultures. These are:
   (a). Surprise
   (b). Fear
   (c). Anger
   (d). Disgust
   (e). Happiness
   (f). Sadness
5. Display rules are controlled expression of emotions by individuals that are considered appropriate for that culture.
6. There is a difference in how men and women experience and express emotion. Where women are more likely to feel emotions more intensely and to be able to read the emotions of others, males do not show this strength of empathy. Although the exact reasons are unknown, from an evolutionary perspective gender roles may have played a part in this emotional expression.
7. Positive affect (pleasant emotions) drives pleasure-seeking, approach-oriented behaviour, whereas negative affects (unpleasant emotions) leads to avoidance-oriented behaviour.
8. A hierarchical system for classifying emotions are: Positive and negative emotions; basic categories such as love, joy, anger, sadness and fear; subordinate categories such as fondness, pride, jealousy, agony and worry.
9. There are two types of ways that individuals regulate their emotions. Reframe; putting it into perspective and suppression; ignoring and hiding the feeling.
10. According to the Schachter-Singer theory of emotion, physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation interact by making inferences about the way that an individuals body is behaving and the situation that that individual is in.

Notes on Motivation

1. According to Freud, aggression and sex are the two drives that motivate human behaviour.
2. Psychodynamic theorists now emphasise another two motives; the need for relatedness to others and the need for self-esteem. They have also moved away from using the concept of 'drives' to 'wishes and fears'.
3. Implicit motives can be measured using the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), where explicit motives are more reliably measured through self-reports.
4. According to the behavioural perspective a primary drive is an innate or biological drive where a secondary drive is learned.
5. The conditions necessary for maximum job performance according to goal-setting theory are:
   (a). Experience a discrepancy between what she has and wants;
   (b). Define specific goals rather than general ones;
   (c). Receive continuing feedback that allows her to gauge her progress towards the goal;
   (d). Believe she has the ability to attain the goal;
   (e). Set a high enough goal to remain motivated; and
   (f). Have a high degree of commitment to the goal.
6. Three innate needs suggested by self-determination theory are competence, autonomy and relatedness to others. Self-determination theory view's rewards as a possible hinderance on the intrinsic value of that activity. When these innate needs are met without offering an external reward, the intrinsic value increases.
7. Maslow's five categories of needs starting from the lowest needs are physiological, safety, love or belongingness, esteem and self-actualisation.
8. The three levels of needs that form the basis of ERG theory are; existence, relatedness and growth.
9. The theory of inclusive fitness accounts for the motivation to care for close relatives as a need to protect the reproduction of genetically related individuals.
10. Motivation can be shaped by culture as emphasis on things such as material objects and wealth may be praised in some societies but looked down on by others.
11. The two phases of metabolism are absorptive; ingesting food and fasting; not eating.

Perspectives of Motivation

Psychodynamic: Looks at the differences between conscious or explicit and unconscious or implicit motives.

Behavioural: Humans repeat behaviours that lead to reinforcement and avoid behaviours linked to punishment.

Cognitive: Human behaviour is based on values and the belief that it is achievable.

Humanistic: Works of the self-actualisation theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.