Download FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY TURNING TO CRIME THE ROLE OF

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
TURNING TO CRIME
THE ROLE OF COGNITION
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
• Attribution theory explores how individuals
"attribute" causes to events and how this
cognitive perception affects their motivation.
• This theory was first proposed in a book called,
The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations by Fritz
Heider in 1958. According to Heider, people
behave as amateur scientists in social situations –
we develop theories or ideas about why we and
other people act the way we/they do and why
things happen.
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL
attributions
An internal attribution is :• Internal or dispositional attributions assign causality to factors
within the person, such as their own level of intelligence, or other
variables that make the individual responsible for the event.
• When we make an internal attribution we believe that whatever
happened happened because of something WE did.
An external attribution is :• External or situational attributions assign causality to an outside
factor, such as the weather. When we make an external attribution
we believe that whatever happened happened because of
something SOMEONE ELSE did. Or, if no other people are involved,
it happened because of factors external to us.
THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION
ERROR
The Fundamental Attribution error
is the term used for when we
make an incorrect external
attribution – we make an external
attribution when we should have
made an internal one
THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
&
FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
• How is the fundamental attribution error relevant
to forensic psychology?
• It is suggested that criminals blame other people
or other things for their crimes - they make faulty
external attributions - they are more prone to
make the fundamental attribution error than
non-criminals
KEY RESEARCHER - GUDJOHNSSON
• Gudjohnsson believes that criminals make
more attributional errors than non-criminals
and he developed an inventory to measure
attributions of blame for crimes.
• Gudjohnsson developed the Gudjohnsson
Blame Attribution Inventory (GABI) to
measure attribution of blame for crime
THE GBAI
The three basic dimensions of the GBAI ARE :• external attribution – a measurement of how much
criminals think their crimes were due to external factors e.g
provocation, social factors etc
• mental-element attribution – a measurement of how
much criminals think their crimes were due to mental or
psychological factors e.g low mood or a temporary loss of
control. Criminals scoring high on this dimension will see
their crime as being “out of character”
• guilt-feeling attribution – a measurement of the amount of
guilt or remorse the criminal feels after committing the
crime
FEELINGS OF GUILT AFTER
COMMITTING A CRIME
Gudjohnsson has also studied criminals feelings
of guilt after committing their crimes and
shows how this relates to :• the criminals perception of their crime
• the type of crime committed
• the personality of the criminal
• the eagerness with which the criminal
confesses to the police.
• Gudjohnsson isn’t the only psychologist to
develop a scale to assess criminal attributions.
• Another commonly used scale is the Attribution
of Blame Scale (ABS) developed by Loza &
Clements (1991).
• They are not the same but both aim to measure
an offenders :• Perceptions and
• Understanding of his or her crimes rather than
the actual causes
Why is it important to understand
WHY criminals do what they do?
• It is important for establishing responsibility .
Assessing how responsible a criminal is for their
actions has huge implications for prosecution
and sentencing
• It also has implications for the rehabilitation
of offenders
REVISION OF THE GBAI
• Gujohnsson revised his GBAI in 1989 to
overcome 2 problems.
1 - The original GBAI measured attitudes
towards crime in general as well as attitudes
towards specific crimes
2 - The way the questions about external
attributions were worded so that the “right”
answer was obvious
The revised GBAI consists of 42 questions
FEELINGS OF GUILT
Which group of offenders do you think would
report more feelings of guilt about their
crimes – people who committed sex offences
or people who committed other kinds of
offences?
FEELINGS OF GUILT
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Irving (1980)
Did an observational study at Brighton Police Station and found
that sex offenders appeared to express more guilt than for their
offences than other offenders
Gudjohnsson &
Singh (1988)
analysed the attributions and guilt scores of 171 offenders and
found that sex offenders had higher guilt scores than other
offenders. The 2nd most guilty class of offender was those who
committed violent offences.
Gudjohnsson &
Petursson
(1991)
analysed the attributions and guilt scores of 171 offenders and
found that sex offenders had higher guilt scores than other
offenders. The 2nd most guilty class of offender was those who
committed violent offences.
Found the same thing in a study of 80 offenders in Northern
Ireland.
Table shows mean scores from the GBAI for different categories of
offender
Gudjohnsson &
Bownes (1991)