Download Social Structure I

Cognitive Psychology
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Humans’ ability to engage in complex
thoughts influences behavior.
Cognitions (like behaviors) can be
learned.
Focus on:
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Cognitive structure (how people think)
Cognitive content (what people think)
Cognitive Structure
▪ HOW WE THINK (Consistent Patterns)
• Often, what we are not thinking
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Self-control
Ability to empathize
Ability to morally reason
Ability to control anger
Policy Implication of Cog
Structure
• Cognitive Skills
– Build empathy, or self control
– Improve moral reasoning
• HOW? Using principles of behaviorism
– Model, practice, reinforce…
Cognitive Content
▪ Rationalizations or denials that support
criminal behavior
▪ For example, a criminal thinks, “I’m not really
hurting anyone.”
• Extremely common for sex offenders
▪ Criminals are more likely to express such
thoughts
• Sociologists are often skeptical (time-ordering)
• Psychologists: NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
Policy Implications of
Cognitive Content
▪ Cognitive restructuring attempts to change
the content of an individual’s thoughts.
▪ Confront antisocial attitudes when they are
expressed
• “The judge/lawyer screwed me!”
– You are in this position because of your behavior, and
this is your responsibility.
• “I didn’t really hurt anyone”
– Lets read the victim impact statement, or look at what
happens to victims of this type of offense
Theory in Action
▪ Multisystematic therapy (MST)
▪ Creator Scott Henggeler and associates
▪ Comprehensive approach that targets many
areas for change
▪ Very behavioral
• Parenting Skills/Support
• Cognitive Skills/Cognitive Restructuring
• Shifting Reward/Punishment Balance
– Model program for rehabilitaiton
Personality and Crime
▪ Crime and delinquency related to the
presence of some personality trait
▪ Personality trait: a characteristic of an
individual that is stable over time and across
different social circumstances
• Examples?
▪ Personality: the sum of personality traits
that define a person
Personality Traits and Crime
▪ A number of related traits combine to form
dimensions (super factors)
▪ Several different models
▪ Five-factor model
▪ Tellegen’s personality model
▪ Recent studies use the Multidimensional
Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
Personality Traits and Crime
▪ Personality dimensions in the MPQ
▪ Constraint
▪ Traditionalism
▪ Harm avoidance
▪ Control
▪ Negative emotionality
▪ Aggression
▪ Alienation
▪ Stress reaction
Personality Traits
▪ MPQ predicts crime pretty well
– Negative emotionality and constraint (but not
positive emotionality)
– Does so across race, sex, culture (New
Zealand study), and class.
Criminal Personality:
The Psychopath
▪ A distinct “criminal personality”
▪ One of the oldest concepts in criminology
– “MORAL INSANITY”
Antisocial Personality
Disorder (APD) from DSM-IV
1. Disregard for the rights of others. At least
three of the following:
behaves in a way that is grounds for arrest, deceitful
and manipulative, impulsive, aggressive,
irresponsible, lack of remorse
2. Age 18 or older
3. A history of child conduct disorder
4. Antisocial behavior not a product of
schizophrenic episode
“Psychopath” is narrower
concept
• Hervey Cleckley’s (1957) The Mask of
Sanity
• Key features: Manipulative, Superficial charm,
Above-average intelligence, Absence of psychotic
symptoms, Absence of anxiety, Lack of remorse,
Failure to learn from experience, Egocentric, Lack of
emotional depth
• Other Characteristics: Trivial Sex life, Unreliable,
Failure to follow a life plan, Untruthful, Suicide
attempts rarely genuine, Impulsive, Antisocial
behavior
HARE PCL
• The Psychopathy Checklist
– Interview
– Measures different aspects of psychopathy
(each scored on a 0-2 scale)
– Has produced very interesting studies
(difference between psychopath and nonpsychopath inmates)
Policy Implications
of Personality Theory
▪ Personality traits consistently predict
delinquency and crime.
▪ Criticisms:
• Personality traits are often portrayed as impossible
to change (See, Psychopathy)
• What causes personality traits?
Intelligence and Crime
▪ “Feeblemindedness” was once thought to
be a cause of crime.
▪ What exactly is IQ and how does it relate
to criminal behavior?
A Brief History of
Intelligence Testing
▪ Binet started out like his peers: Measuring
people’s skull size
– Not much difference—worried about bias in the tests
– Developed a “hodgepodge” of tests measure identify
learning disabled children
• Not meant to be a measuring device for intelligence in
“normal” students
– Translated to English, used to identify
“morons” and “low grade defectives” as part of
eugenics
IQ and Crime
▪ There is an IQ gap of 8–10 points between
criminals and noncriminals, even when
statistically controlled for race and social
class.
▪ IQ is not a very strong indicator of criminal
behavior.
– But, it does consistently predict
IQ and Crime
▪ Travis Hirschi and Michael Hindelang
▪ The Bell Curve
▪Direct effect
▪ Most criminologists find evidence of
indirect effects
IQ  School, Peers, etc.  Crime
Conclusion
▪ The common emphasis of all
psychological theories is on the individual.
▪ Modern Theory
• LEARNING
• COGNITION and IQ
• PERSONALITY
▪ Many psychological theories translate well
into treatment programs.
Social Structure I
Durkheim
The “Chicago School”
Social Disorganization
Emile Durkheim (late 1858-1917)
• French Scientist
• Suicide
• Humans nature: selfish and insatiable
– Effective Societies able to “cap” desires
• Socialization & Social Ties
– Special concern with “Industrial Prosperity”
• Coined the Term “Anomie”:
– Institutionalized norms lose ability to control
human behavior and human needs
Durkhiem’s Legacy
Rapidly Changing
Society
“Industrial Prosperity”
Anomie
(Norms are Weakened)
The Anomie/Strain Tradition
(Thursday)
Human Nature as
Insatiable; must
therefore cap or control
Social Ties Important
The Social Disorganization
and “Informal Control”
Tradition (Today)
Meanwhile, back in America
• “Social Pathologists” (1900-1930)
– Cities as “bad” and “corrupting”
– Immigrants as amoral and inferior
• Chicago School (1930s)
– University of Chicago (Sociologists)
– Tie to Durkheim: City/Societal Growth
• Worry over lack of integration (and control)
Park & Burgess (1925)
How does a city growth and develop?
• Concentric Zones in Chicago
Industrial zone
Zone in transition
Residential zones
Shaw and McKay
• Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas 1942.
– Mapped addresses of delinquents (court
records)
– Zone in transition stable and high delinquency
rates over many years
– Implications of these findings:
1. Stable, despite multiple waves of immigrants!!
2. Only certain areas of the city Something about
this area causes delinquency
Social Disorganization
• What were the characteristics of the zone in
transition that may cause high delinquency
rates?
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Population Heterogeneity
Population Turnover
Physical Decay
Poverty/Inequality
• Why might these ecological characteristics lead
to high crime rates?
Explaining high crime in the
zone of transition
1. Social Control
• Little community “cohesion,” therefore, weak
community institutions and lack of control
2. Cultural Transmission of Values
• Once crime rooted in a neighborhood, delinquent
values are passed trough generations of
delinquents
Social Disorganization 1960-1980
• Fell out of favor in sociology in 1950s
– Individual theories gained popularity
• Criticisms of Social Disorganization
– “Official Data”
– Are these neighborhoods really “disorganized?”
– Cannot measure “intervening variables”
– “Chicago Specific” (not all cities grow in rings)
Modern S.D. Theory
• Interest rekindled in the 1980s
– Continues today with “ecological studies”
– reborn as a pure social control theory (left behind
“transmission of values)
• Addressing criticism
– “Concentric rings” not necessary, it is simply
a neighborhood level theory
– Ecological characteristics do affect a
neighborhoods level of informal control
Sampson and Groves (1989)
Using British Crime Survey Data (BCS)
ECOLOGICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
•Population turnover
•Poverty / inequality
•Divorce rates
•Single parents
SOCIAL CONTROL
•Street supervision
•Friendship networks
•Participation in
organizations
Sampson (1997)
• Replicated results in Chicago
– Areas with “concentrated disadvantage,”
(poverty, race, age composition, family
disruption) lack “collective efficacy”
• Willingness to exercise control (tell kids to quiet
down)
• Willingness to trust or help each other
– Lack of collective efficacy increases crime
rates
Review of Social
Disorganization
• Macro (Neighborhood) level theory
– Explains why certain neighborhoods have
high crime rates
Ecological
Social
Crime
Characteristics
Control
Rates
• Theory of “Places,” and not “People”
– Not all people who live there are “crime
prone,” in fact most are law-abiding
Other recent “ecological” ideas
• William J. Wilson (Concentrated Poverty)
– The “Underclass” or “Truly Disadvantaged”
– Cultural Isolation no contact with
“mainstream” individuals/institutions
• Little respect for “life,” hypermaterialism, violence as
“normative”
• Robert Bursik
– Political capital; inadequate access to public
services
S.D. as an explanation for high
rates of African American offending
• “Non-Southern” blacks
– High proportion of the current members of the
“Zone in Transition.”
• Public Policy has made matters worse (high rise
“projects” of the 1950s-60s)
– Why not move like ZIT residents (immigrants)
• Housing Segregation
• Loss of Manufacturing Jobs
Policy Implications?
• Build neighborhood “collective efficacy”
– How do you do this?
• Address ecological characteristics that ruin
collective efficacy
– Family disruption, concentrated poverty, residential
mobility
• Moving to Opportunity Program in Baltimore
• Randomly moved 200 families from high poverty to low
poverty—then track the children
• Community Policing Movement