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Psychological theories of criminal behavior emphasize criminal thinking patterns or personality defects. These theories emphasize individual differences in behavior and the approaches to thinking, feeling, and decision-making that make some people predisposed to committing criminal acts. Criminal Thinking Patterns is a theory that proposed that criminals engage in a different thinking pattern then those who are noncriminal. This theories downfall is that it was not researched in a systematic way and there were not a wide enough study done. Due to this we can not actually say how well it applies to the population of offenders. Glenn Walters created the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles which measures thinking styles presumed to reinforce, support, and maintain a criminal lifestyle. This study was done in a more systematic and scientifically valid approach to investigating the way offenders think. Measure of Offending Thinking Styles-Revised was developed to examine the structure of dysfunctional thinking exhibited by criminal offenders. It supports the three factor model of criminal thinking. The three factors are …show more content…
control, cognitive immaturity, and egocentrism. This idea has added to our current ability to assess offender risk and rehabilitation needs. Another type of theory is personality-based explanations which focus on the antisocial and psychopathic nature of past criminals.Theories of personality try to help us understand the cause of offending.
These theories have overlapping notions, however we do not know which ones are truly important in understanding antisocial behavior. A few examples of these theories are Eysenck's PEN theory, Costa and McCrae's five factor model, and Clonigers seven-factor temperament and character model. PEN theory includes psychoticism, extroversion, and neuroticism theory. The five factor model contains neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The seven factors model comprises of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness, and
self-transcendence. The Meta-analytic review attempted to answer how the concepts above are important in understanding antisocial behavior. It came to the conclusion that general personality theory had identified two domains, of which are agreeableness and conscientiousness, which are important to understanding criminal offending. Meaning that those who are low on either of these domains are more likely to be involved in antisocial behavior. Another theory is that criminal behavior is the cause of a type of psychopathy disorder. Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of antisocial behavior and personal characteristics such as shallow emotion, limited capacities for guilt and empathy, and failure to learn from experience. The closest diagnostic label to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder. They are similar however they differ in the roles of personal characteristics. The drawback to this school of thought is that it describes only a small percentage of offenders. There also needs to be more research in how to measure psychopathy versus antisocial behavior. There is controversy about using the PCL, or versions of this diagnostic tool which strives to measure psychopathy, to make legal decisions. A positive of this theory is that it gives us a valuable way of assessing personal characteristics. Psychological theories of crime try to explain how mental or emotional disturbances, inability to empathize with others, inability to legally satisfy their basic needs, or oppressive circumstances of life can lead to criminal behavior. A use of these theories could be to help prevent crime by isolating, sterilizing, or executing offenders not responsive to treatment. For treatable offenders, psychotherapy or psychoanalysis may be helpful. Other policy implications are to help people satisfy their basic needs legally, to eliminate sources of oppression, and to provide legal ways of coping with oppression.
PO demonstrated an understanding of today’s topic as evidenced by identifying and sharing how her distorted and error thinking has created problems in the past and current life. PO took part in the group discussion and shared openly and appropriately with peers, and appears to be in the action stage of
...ifferent crime patterns and thought processes of criminals. The reasons can only come from these theories and will help the justice systems become more prepared to react towards different crimes. However, with adding some enhancements, projects and experiments these two theories have the potential to change the criminology realm forever.
Criminal behavior can mostly be explained by the Biosocial Branch of Trait Theory. Individual traits by themselves cannot determine criminality. Outside factors such as the environment along with certain personality traits is what causes criminal behavior.
Criminology is the scientific study of crimes and criminal behaviour. Criminological theories and research aim at giving us an understanding of the reasons and factors that influence why people commit crimes. There are two main types of crime: Blue collar crime and white collar crime. Blue-collar crimes is the term used to describe crimes that are committed primarily by people who are from a lower socioeconomic class while white-collar crime is usually committed by people in a higher socioeconomic class. The main difference between the two is “white-collar” crime is usually considered to be a victimless crime in which there is no one directly made to be in a worse situation than what they were in before . An example of the more common street
... middle of paper ... ... Understanding psychological theories helps criminologists to design appropriate correctional strategies to mitigate crime. Works Cited Eysenck, H.J., & Gudjonsson, G.H. d. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a The causes and cures of criminality.
It also includes the factors of social environment. It recognizes more factors of influence, building on trait theory. Arousal theory provides that individuals have different levels of arousal affected by the nervous system, chemistry in the brain, and heart rhythm. The basic idea of this theory is that certain actions, including the act of committing a crime, causes a “thrill” to some. They seek out the thrill and stimulation provided by these actions. Thus, a feeling that is positive, created by an action, will cause someone to seek out that feeling. Genetic theory is another trait theory. Genetics being the sole influence that might make a person behave in a certain way is the explanation of this theory. A certain genetic configuration causes personality traits, and determines behaviors the individual will be likely to have. Attachment theory uses psychology to suggest that criminal behavior is linked with a lack of a personal relationship or attachment as an infant. This lack of positive attachment to a motherly figure leads to psychological problems, such as antisocial behavior. Nature theory is that criminal activity is based on IQ, whereas a low IQ means more of a possibility of criminal behavior. Social structure theory provides that social and economic events and
Based on the RCT criminals are thought to make a conscious rational decision before committing crime, they are thought to weight the benefits and costs of committing or not committing the crime. By this method criminals often decide that robbing a bank and possibly going to jail is a better alternative to staying at home and doing nothing when they have just ten days to pay their rent or move and live on the streets. The RCT assumes that all people are capable of making good conscious choices, which it can be strongly argued that many people lack the mental capacity to make a rational decision. It was the rising crime rates of the 70's and 80's that turned people away from other theories such as the classical and neo-classical and onto the RCT which was founded in the late 70's to the early 80's. (Hayward, 2007, p. 234) Under the RCT are the RAT and SCT which will both be explained better later on.
In order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the criminal behavior theories, the word theory needs to be defined. “A theory is an explanation. It tells why or how things are related to each other. A theory of crime explains why or how a certain thing or certain things are related to criminal behavior.” (Bohn and Vogel)
A psychopath is someone who is unable to live harmoniously in society due to their profound lack of compassion, empathy, conscience, and remorse (Hare, 1993). Many psychopathic symptoms have been proposed to result from cognitive and emotional processing impairments. The concept of a psychopath is often of a ruthless and dangerous criminal, an image commonly depicted in the media and film. Though psychopaths do make up an estimated 40% of dangerous offenders in Canada, it is the non-violent manipulators and cheaters, like white-collar criminals and unethical business people, who can have the most impact on the general population (Bonta & Motiuk; 1996, Hare, 1993). Therefore, understanding the cognitive bases and development of psychopathy can allow exploration into possible interventions and treatments, as well as identifying measures for use in diagnosing psychopathy in childhood and adolescence. Additionally, the deciphering of abnormal processes can give insight into normal functioning, thus helping to expand current knowledge. This paper reviews conclusions that processing of
In today’s society, one will find that there are many different factors that go into the development of a criminal mind, and it is impossible to single out one particular cause of criminal behavior. Criminal behavior often stems from both biological and environmental factors. In many cases criminals share similar physical traits which the general population do not usually have. For example criminals have smaller brains than properly adjusted individuals. However biological reasons cannot solely be the cause of criminal behavior. Therefore, one must look to other sources as to how a criminal mind is developed. Social and environmental factors also are at fault for developing a person to the point at which they are lead to committing a criminal act. Often, someone who has committed a violent crime shows evidence of a poorly developed childhood, or the unsuitable current conditions in which the subject lives. In addition if one studies victimology which is the role that the victim plays in the crime, it is apparent that there are many different causes for criminal behavior. Through the examination of biological factors, in addition to the social and environmental factors which make up a criminal mind, one can conclude that a criminal often is born with traits common to those of criminals, it is the environment that exist around them that brings out the criminal within them to commit indecent acts of crime.
The world will always be full of crime, thus it is necessary for scientist to grow along with the gruesome and increasing amount of violations. Due to this it sparked scientist to develop crime theories in which emerged to explain why crime is caused by individuals. Some of the few theories that have advanced over the past century and provided many answers to why crimes are committed are biological theories, psychological theories and learning theories. These theories provide an insight to its first use and change in order to provide answers.
Criminals are born not made is the discussion of this essay, it will explore the theories that attempt to explain criminal behaviour. Psychologists have come up with various theories and reasons as to why individuals commit crimes. These theories represent part of the classic psychological debate, nature versus nurture. Are individuals predisposed to becoming a criminal or are they made through their environment.
Criminology is the scientific study of why people commit crime and why they act the way they do. The origins of criminology are usually placed in the eighteenth to the mid- nineteenth century. This was also a point of scientific discoveries and the creation of the new scholarly field of studies. One of these was criminology. Criminology was an act against the wild system of law, punishment, and justice that existed before the French revolution. (Adler, Mueller, Laufer & Grekul, 2012). There are many criminology theories that explain why an individual commit a crime. Anomie/stain theory and labelling theory are two important theories in criminology. There are two different kinds of theories, psychological theories and biological theories. Both of those theories share the assumption that such behaviour is caused by some underlying physical or mental condition that separates the criminal from the non-criminal. They seek to identify the kind of person who becomes a criminal and to find the factors that caused the person to engage in criminal behavior. (Adler et al.,).
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.
Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, particularly those that affect behavior in a certain context. It is a field of work with myriad branches such as neuropsychology, clinical psychology, educational and developmental psychology, health psychology, criminal psychology and many more. The study of psychology as a whole is a grand object of intrigue that I am not entirely familiar with, but very aware of. I have seen many educational psychologists help students in my past. Criminal psychology in particular is the study of the will, thoughts, intents, and reactions of criminals and whoever partakes in criminal activity. In order to become a criminal psychologist one must first earn a bachelor's degree, a master's