Psychology Chapter 9: Criminal Behavior

Chapter 9: Psychological Perspectives on Criminality

• Psychological theories examine criminal behavior through personality or learning theories, explaining behavior in specific situations.
• Most theories assume either an offender deficit (psychological issues with the offender) or discriminating traits (differences in impulsivity and aggression between offenders and non-offenders).
• Critiques of the psychological approach highlight a lack of emphasis on positive offender characteristics, ignoring situational and environmental factors. The "criminal vs. non-criminal" binary is unreliable, as criminal behavior is pervasive.
• Farrington emphasizes understanding differences between offenders and non-offenders, recognizing social and psychological risk factors motivating criminal acts. These acts can stem from desires for excitement or material goods.
• Community psychology examines social problems from different levels of analysis: individual, small group, organizational, and institutional/community. This recognizes the influence of peers (such as drug-abusing friends); organizations (like law enforcement lacking sufficient resources); and societal laws creating problems for individuals.
• Haney (2002) argues for a situational approach to understanding criminal behavior, emphasizing the impact of situational pathologies and environmental stresses on individual psychological states.

Psychoanalytic Theory

• This theory focuses on individual-level variables, exploring how personality is comprised of the Id, Ego, and Superego.
• Id represents biological drives, Ego acts as a reality tester, and Superego is the conscience.
• Conflict resolution in these stages of development influences future behavior. Crime may result from an ego/superego unable to manage primitive, aggressive or antisocial Id instincts.
• Criminality is linked to failure to progress satisfactorily through developmental stages, resulting in an inadequately developed or deficient superego.
• Psychoanalytic theory is not considered a rigorous explanation for criminal behavior due to the untestable, unobservable underlying constructs it relies upon. Not all criminals suffer from guilt or anxiety.

Evolutionary Theory

• This theory explains human behavior in terms of natural selection and reproductive fitness.
• High rates of crime among young men are linked to reproductive fitness variance, where men commit more crime, particularly violent crime (due to reproductive strategies).
• Differences in reproductive strategies (women’s limitations in pregnancy and child-rearing lead to emphasis on safety and stability, while men’s success is more dependent on attracting partners) influence criminal behavior rates and peaks (adolescence and early adulthood). Men may commit violence against each other to support these strategies.
• Critiques of this theory include its inherent normalization of criminal behavior, too deterministic, and the hypothetical nature of explanations relying on knowledge of early human behavior.

Theories of Moral Development

• Criminal behavior can be understood through moral development and responsibility.
• Piaget (1932) found moral development to occur in stages, beginning with egocentrism and progressing to cooperation.
• Kohlberg posited that everyone progresses through stages to develop morality and that the pace of development varies.
• Preconventional moral reasoning involves understanding rules as punishment-based.
• Conventional reasoning is built on societal values, with the self internalizing these norms.
• Postconventional reasoning involves critical examination of societal norms, with individuals establishing their own principles and values.
• Kohlberg's theory is criticized for bias in favour of men, as care-oriented women seldom reach the post-conventional level.

Eysenck's Theory of Crime and Personality

• This theory links personality characteristics to criminal behavior through classical conditioning.
• Deviant behavior is reinforcing, but conditioning can prevent it with punishment (pain or fear).
• Delinquents or criminals may not develop conditioned responses due to lack of exposure to effective conditioning or vulnerabilities to conditioning.
• Personality dimensions include extraversion vs. introversion, neuroticism vs. stability, and psychoticism (cold, lacking empathy, odd).
• Extroverted, neurotic, and psychotic persons are more likely to be delinquent or criminal, as those with extroverted personality characteristics crave excitement, are impulsive and have weak consciences.

Social Learning Theory

• Cognitive functioning and the ability to think and make choices are central to this theory.
• Individuals learn new behaviors through observation and experiencing the behavior of others (modeling), from family, subcultural influences, and symbolic modelling (like TV violence).
• Studies suggest a connection between exposure to violence (TV violence) and aggression. Exposure to violence can desensitize, or make individuals more tolerant of it.
• Important factors discouraging criminal behavior are legal sanctions, social sanctions, and self-sanctions.

Operant Conditioning

• Based on Skinner's work, this theory focuses on how rewards and punishments influence behavior.
• Rewards reinforce behavior, while punishment weakens it.
• Operant conditioning can be used to change antisocial behavior, like in a token economy (rewards for positive behavior).

Antisocial Personality

• Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is characterized by a disregard for the rights of others, coupled with impulsive, irresponsible, and aggressive behavior.
• Signs appear in childhood, like lying, stealing, aggressive behavior.
• Continued into adolescence and adulthood, although extreme signs diminish with age.
• Approximately 15-25% of inmates in North American prisons have APD.
• Hare's Psychopathy Checklist includes 20 traits and behaviors related to psychopathy, establishing reliable assessments of psychopathy, used in research and various systems.
• Psychopaths are often extroverted and do not learn fear responses, and there may be neuroanatomical reasons connected to the prefrontal cortex.
• Psychopaths often fit well in social settings due to social manipulation.
• The construct of psychopathy has been criticized for simplifying human behavior.

Crime and Mental Illness

• Some once theorized crime to be solely due to mental illness, but this is now a contested idea.
• Prevalence of mental disorders is higher among prison inmates than in the general population.
• Many inmates have significant mental health needs.
• Many inmates have co-occurring disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and substance abuse).
• The presence and extent of mental illness in offenders, including the likelihood of recidivism and the frequency of arrests, has increased focus. In some cases, mental illness is a risk factor in predicting violence or recidivism, while in others, it can decrease the likelihood of these outcomes and these individuals may be more likely to be victims. Police training in jurisdictions varies concerning this population.
• Theories of criminal behavior relying on mental illness models do not comprehensively account for the actions of most criminals. Mental illness represents a small proportion of criminal offenders.