Download File

Why do people
commit Crimes?
Theories of Criminology
Criminology
The scientific study of the causes and prevention of
crime and the rehabilitation and punishment of
offenders
Crimionology
 Is the interdisciplinary study of the causes of
crime and of criminal motivation.
 It combines the academic disciplines of
sociology, psychology, biology, economics, and
political science.
What gives rise to
criminality?
 Criminologist explore the mind of the offender
and the social and economic conditions which
give rise to criminality.
 Why do people commit crimes?
 Why are they deviant?
Possible explanations for
“why people commit
crimes?”
 Violence in the media? Gangsta rap
 Biological? It is in the genes
 Psychological?
 Environmental?
 Learned behavior?
 Poverty?
 Drug abuse?
 Physical abuse?
Crime vs Deviant behavior
 A crime is an act committed in violation of a
criminal statute with no legal justification or
defense.
 Deviant behavior is not always a crime.
Deviance
 A violation of social norms defining appropriate
or proper behavior under a particular set of
circumstances.
 Deviance often includes criminal acts.
Characteristics of
Offenders
 Age-most crimes are committed by people
under age 25.
 Race and Ethnicity -most arrestees are white
 Gender- In 2003 men accounted for 76.8% of all
arrests.
Characteristics of Victims
 Age
 Race and Ethnicity
 Gender
 The relationships between the offender and the
victim. About 1/3 of all victims knew their
assailant.
Positive Theory (Positivism)
 Criminals are born not made
 This is an example of nature, not nurture
 Focused on biological and psychological
factors to explain criminal behaviour
Positivist Theorists
 Cesare Lombarso (1835 – 1909)
 Italian physician and psychiatrist
 What did he think/do?
 Studied cadavers of executed criminals in an effort to
determine scientifically whether criminals were physically any
different from non-criminals
 He believed that people were born criminals and facial
features of criminals included things like enormous jaws and
strong canine teeth.
Pictures of
murderers
that Lambarso
believed
carried facial
features
tied to criminal
activity.
Murderer
Sean Penn
See any similarities!?
Does this mean Sean Penn is a Criminal?
 William Sheldon believed that people could be
classified into three body shapes, which
correspond with three different personality types.
1.endomorphic (fat and soft) tend to be sociable
and relaxed. Loves to eat
2.ectomorphic (thin and fragile) are introverted
and restrained
3.mesomorphic (muscular and hard) tend to be
aggressive and adventurous, competitive
 Sheldon, using a correlational study, found that
many convicts were mesomorphic, and they were
least likely to be ectomorphic (Sheldon et al 1949).
Sheldon
Genetic - XYY
Normal Male
Genetic - XYY
XYY Male
Genetic - XYY
Jacobs et al (1965) suggested that men with
the XYY syndrome were more aggressive
than normal 'XY' men. XYY men are overrepresented in the prison population. There
are 15 sufferers per 1,000 in prisons and 1 per
1000 in the general population.
XYY Male
Positivist Theorists cont…
 In the 1960s, positivist criminologists argued that criminal
behaviour lies in abnormal chromosomes
 The XYY theory argued that violent male criminals have an
abnormal XYY chromosome (XY is the normal pattern in males)
 However, researchers soon found out that this was not true and
that criminals had normal chromosomes and that non-criminals
also had abnormal chromosomes.
 The Positivist theory of criminals being born rather than made
died out. There were moral implications with this.
Neurophysiological
PET Scanner
ADHD
ADHD
 Another suggestion is that certain individuals, as
a result of genetic predisposition or brain damage
at birth, suffer from a cluster of symptoms which
render them incapable of moral control and
because of cortical under arousal, they are
constantly seeking stimulation.
Neurochemical
 The brain’s chemistry can be influenced by diet,
for example, food additives, pollution or
hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels
associated with forms of diabetes). Dawn Stanton
attacked her husband with a knife when
hypoglycaemic. But not all diabetics without
insulin act criminally.
Neurochemical
 Individuals who take large amounts of steroids
can become extremely violent (known as "roid
rage"). Steroids, usually taken to increase muscle
growth, also increase testosterone levels. Horace
Williams, a body builder, beat a man to death
after taking two thousand times the
recommended dosage of steroids.
Family Studies
Twin studies
 An 'MZ apart' study is when two
monozygotic children have been
brought up apart. If both turn out to
be criminals then this would be
support for the genetic explanation.
The degree of similarity between two
twins is known as the concordance
rate. This rate can then be compared
with dizygotic twins who are brought
up together ('DZ together').
Monozygotic twins
Evaluation
•
MZ twins look alike and may therefore generate more
similar social responses than DZ twins. This means that
in addition to sharing the same genes, they may also
share an almost identical social environment.
•
MZ twins often have a very close: relationship and may
therefore develop similar interests, which might include
criminal behaviour.
adoption studies
A retrospective study by Mednick et al (1987)
looked at court convictions in a small European
country and found 14,000 adoptees amongst
them. The criminal records of their biological and
adoptive parents were then investigated. Many of
the adoptees had criminal biological parents
(particularly strong relationship for sons and
fathers). There was no relationship in the types of
crime committed. Where there was an
improvement in social conditions there was a
reduction in crime (going against the genetic
explanation).
Modern Day Example
 Philippe Rushton
 University of Western Ontario
psychology professor
 Rushton's book Race, Evolution, and
Behavior (1995)tries to show that East
Asians and their descendants average a
larger brain size, greater intelligence,
more sexual restraint, slower rates of
maturation, and greater law abidingness
and social organization than do
Europeans and their descendants, who
average higher scores on these
dimensions than Africans and their
descendants.
Sociological Perspectives:
Theory of Anomie
 Sociological Theorist: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
 Durkheim believed people are community oriented unless they
have no social ties – no ties, no link to society – this makes them
more likely to be deviant
 Anomie= absence of social ties that bind people to society,
state of where norms about good and bad have little salience in
people’s lives. Outcome of advanced Capitalism and ideology
of individualism (latter 20th century U.S.)
Sociological Perspectives:
Theory of Anomie cont.
 People who live in cities feel more anonymous
and isolated (as compared to rural life).
 No longer restrained by the strict norms of society
(in rural life) and given the anonymity in a big city
certain individuals turned to crime.
 Durkheim is also a father of functionalism (i.e.,
everyone has a role/function in society and that
is how society runs/functions.
 Durkheim believes that criminals have a role and are
needed for society to function
 If there were no crime, it would mean that everyone
in society was the same and agreed on everything.
This is no ideal and society would be too comforting
– people need a release.
Anomie cont… Example
 Kitty Genovese
 Young woman stabbed to death on a street in New York City -1964
 As many as 37 neighbours and bystanders all heard her screams for
help.
 No one called the police because they all thought someone else
would take action.
 Sociologists call this Diffusion of Responsibility
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbpcIbB6ZA8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-la143oMx2s
Sociology cont…
Ecological School
 Believed that criminal behaviour was fostered and
encouraged in certain environments.
 They studied a number of poor neighbourhoods and
concluded that communities that suffered from high
rates of poverty and social disintegration were more
likely to condone criminal activity than more affluent
neighbourhoods.
Sociology cont…
Social Conflict Theory
 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argued that the capitalist
society encouraged crime as people competed for
resources and wealth.
 Our society protects those with power and property. As a
result, people who are economically disadvantaged are
more likely to be punished by our justice system. The only way
to solve the crime problem is to eliminate the capitalist
system.
Strain Theory (Sociology)
 Current societies stress the goals of acquiring wealth, success,
and power.
 However, the means to achieve these goals require education
and economic resources.
 These means are frequently denied or unavailable to those
who are economically disadvantaged or have little
opportunity for formal education.
 Example: The Wire, Season 4, Episode 8
 Young African American youth yearning for the chance to work
on the streets to sell drugs because they know this is the only way
they can make money.
Learning Theory – Pavlov’s
Dog – Classical
Conditioning
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXynjpFa
KU
Learning Theory – Operant
Conditioning
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBo
MI
Learning Theories: Social
Psychological Perspective
 Social psychology is the study of the relations
between individuals and people.
 They are interested in how ‘regular’ people can
commit atrocious crimes.
 Stanley Milgram was specifically interested in how
Nazi’s were able to commit horrible acts of
genocide – he focused on how people could do
this just by following orders.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-fQnltrg6w
 Torturing and killing innocent civilians
…In relation to torturing
article…
 Displacement of responsibility and dehumanizing the victim are two
categories of moral disengagement
 Bandura (1999) states, “People behave in ways they would normally oppose
if a legitimate authority accepts responsibility for the consequences of that
behavior. Under these conditions, people view their actions as the dictates
of authorities rather than their own actions.”
 According to reports in the article, the torture and abuse of the civilians was
approved and facilitated by the White House
 According to Bandura, (1999) person can justify torture by loosing empathy
for the victim while convincing himself that the victim lacks human qualities.
 Furthermore, once the victim is dehumanized, he is no longer viewed as a
person with feelings, concerns or hopes but as a subhuman object that is
easily tortured (Bandura, 1999).
Bandura's Social learning theory
 Bandura (1977) suggests that there are three
aspects to motivation:
 1. External reinforcement (as in operant theory)
 2. Vicarious reinforcement – the observation of
other people being rewarded or punished for their
behaviour
 3. Self-reinforcement – gaining internal
satisfaction from an activity, which therefore
motivates the individual to behave in a similar way
in the future.
Bandura 1976
 Observational learning is thought to take place
primarily in three contexts:
 1. In the family
 2. in the prevalent sub culture
 3. Through cultural symbols such as television
and books.
Psychodynamic Psychoanalytical Theory
 Sigmund Freud believed that all humans have
criminal tendencies.
 It is through socialization that these tendencies are
controlled during childhood.
 If a child has an identity problem with his/her
parent, this problem may cause the child to direct
its antisocial tendencies outward and thus
become a criminal.
 Psychological Human Development also comes
into play here
FREUDIAN APPROACH
Id, Ego, Superego
 ID - The id is the only component of personality that is
present from birth.
 This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and
includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors.
 According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic
energy, making it the primary component of personality.
 The EGO is the component of personality that is responsible
for dealing with reality.
 According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and
ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a
manner acceptable in the real world.
 The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
 According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at
around age five – your concience
ID EGO SUPEREGO IN
ACTION
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXynjpFa
KU
Freud
 Freud believed that children
are born with a libido – a
sexual (pleasure) urge. There
are a number of stages of
childhood, during which the
child seeks pleasure from a
different ‘object’.
More Freud!
 To be psychologically
healthy, we must
successfully complete each
stage. Mental abnormality
can occur if a stage is not
completed successfully – the
person becomes ‘fixated’ in
a particular stage. This
particular theory shows how
adult personality is
determined by their
childhood experiences.
Traumatic Experiences
Traumatic experiences in
early childhood leave their
mark on the individual
despite the fact that the
individual was not aware
of these experiences.
Freud and Effect of Family
 Alexander and Healy (1935) suggested that
children need to progress from the pleasure
principal (being id dominated and therefore
needing instant gratification) to the reality
principle (where the ego is dominant).
Criminals are those children who do not make
this transition. According to Freud the child
needs a stable home environment in order to
successfully make this transition. Research has
supported the fact that most criminals come
from unstable homes.
FREUDIAN APPROACH
John Bowlby (1946) studied 44 juvenile
delinquents and compared them with non-criminal
disturbed juveniles. 39% of the delinquents had
experienced complete separation from their
mothers for six-months or more during the first
five years of their lives compared with 5% of the
control group.
However (Fred and Rosemary)
 However, the effects of
emotional or sexual abuse
can well be believed when
we find that 'serial killers'
such as Frederick and
Rosemary West suffered
terribly as children (Wansell
1996).
Child abuse
 Out of 36 sex murderers interviewed in the
USA 42% were found to have been sexually
abused as youngsters (Ressler et al 1988).
 Dietz and Warren (1995) found that 76% of
the 41 serial rapists that they interviewed were
abused when young.
 But only about 10% of abused children go
on to commit crimes.
John Wayne Gacy Jr. –
How did he grow up to be a
murderer?
 Theorists consider moral behaviour to be self-regulated through
mechanisms of self-evaluation where one can approve or
disapprove irresponsible or inhumane behaviour
 It clear that Gacy showed a lack of moral behaviour and hence, in
the act was not able to disapprove his behaviour adequately to
avoid it completely.
 Bandura (1977), states that most violent acts and inhumanities
are perpetrated by people who, in other areas of their life are
quite considerate in their behaviour.
 This describes Gacy’s behaviour perfectly as he was very friendly,
well liked by the neighbours and was largely involved in the
community; no one would assume he was capable of such
casualties. Moreover, Gacy illustrated moral disengagement by
justifying his murderous acts
Cont…
 According to Sigelman and Rider (2009), children who are raised in
abusive environments can grow up to become abusers and to
learn that violence is an integral part of human relationships.
 Hence, it can be argued that Gacy’s immoral, violent and murderous
adulthood is rooted in the violence from his childhood. Furthermore,
abusers are often insecure individuals with low self-esteem
 Furthermore, abusers are often insecure individuals with low selfesteem. Abusers can form negative internal working models of
themselves and others, which are most likely rooted in unhappy
experiences in insecure relationships with parents and negative
experiences in romantic relationships
 although his father hurt him physically and emotionally, Gacy
desperately sought his father’s approval but was never able to
achieve it. This insecurity led him to failed marriages and more
interestingly, to his attraction to hiding himself under clown costumes
and make-up in order for the children in the community to like him.
John Wayne Gacy Jr.
 A&E Biography Part 1
 A&E Biography Part 2
 A&E Biography Part 3
 A&E Biography Part 4
 A&E Biography Part 5
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0HxfsltsQI
What is serial murder?
 Ed Mitchell, in his thesis, University of Cambridge, UK. The aetiology of
serial murder: towards an integrated model. Said:
 "Definitions of serial murder / homicide differ between
authors, but most agree that to qualify as a serial killer
/ murderer an offender must kill at least two victims in
temporally unrelated incidents This temporal criterion is
usually satisfied by a "cooling off" or "refractory" period
between killings, ranging from hours to years. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines serial
murder as the killing of several victims in three or more
separate incidents over weeks or an extended period.
Others argue for a higher number of victims (Dietz
[1986] requires a minimum of 5 victims), but such a
distinction is rarely useful and merely serves to further a
"body-count" mentality. Indeed, the only difference
between an offender who kills 1 victim (but who might
have killed 100 if he had been able) and another who
kills 30 may be the latter's good fortune in evading
detection. Therefore, distinguishing motive from
opportunity may be difficult. "
What does this crime scene tell you about the offender responsible?
Two important ideas
 Behavioural evidence
 Things that tells us how an offender went about
committing a crime
 Criminal consistency
 The idea that a person’s behaviour at a crime scene
is consistent with their behaviour in other contexts
Typological offender
profiling
• Developed by the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Key ideas:
– There are different types of offender
– Behavioural evidence can tell us which type of
offender committed a crime
– Knowing an offender’s type allows us to predict
other things about him
• Generally used in cases of serial violence against
strangers esp. sexual or ‘bizarre’
FBI profiling process
Data assimilation
Data compiled from police
reports, post mortems,
crime scene photos etc.
Crime classification
Profilers decide whether
the crime scene is
organised or disorganised
Profile generation
Offender’s physical,
demographic and
behavioural characteristics
Crime reconstruction
Hypotheses about crime
sequence, offender &
victim behaviour etc.
Organisedscene
Types of crime
Disorganised
General
approach
Planned and
controlled
Unplanned and
chaotic
Weapons
Brought to the scene
Improvised
Evidence
Destroyed or
removed
Left at scene
Victim
Attempts to control
Little attempt at control
Offender
Unknown to victim
Socially & sexually
competent
Normal/high
intelligence
Angry/depressed
Possibly known to victim
Socially & sexually inept
Low intelligence
Anxious/psychotic
Profile these crime scenes
 Use the evidence to construct a profile
 Organised or disorganised
 Behavioural evidence
 Known characteristics of serial offenders
 Your profile should…
 Tell the story of the crime
 Describe the person responsible