Psychological Explanations of Crime

1. Psychological Explanations of Crime Learning Criminal Behaviour

2. Psychodynamic Theories • Humans are engaged in pleasure seeking behaviors and destructive impulses • Impulses are not regulated due to traumatic childhood experiences • Inner drives, traumatic situations, defenses • 5 levels of personality development (oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital)

3. Psychodynamic theories • Id = present at birth; unconscious, primitive, instinctual drives PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, no consideration of consequences • Ego = developed to mediate primal needs with society’s demands, REALITY, represses primal needs until a suitable time arises to express it • Superego = internalization of group standards, morality, overseeing our choices CONSCIENCE

4. Psychodynamic theories Crime is explained by inner impulses • impulses are not adequately controlled • harsh, weak or deviant superego

5. Learned Behaviour • Assumptions: • people are not born criminal • it is not due to brain injury • neurochemistry or hormonal imbalances are not major factors • mental health problems not a result of biological factors

6. Learned Behavior • Behaviorism is a scientific process, a scientific strategy as much as a theoretical orientation

7. Classical Conditioning Definition: Type of learning in which an organism develops associations among different events. STIMULUS RESPONSE

8. Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov The SalivaryConditioning of Dogs • Dog Food Salivation • Dog Food (Unconditioned Stimulus; UCS) • Salivation (Unconditioned Response; UCR) • Dog Food + Tone Salivation • Tone Salivation • Tone (Conditioned Stimulus; CS) • Salivation (Conditioned Response; CR)

9. Classical Conditioning UCS Punished by Parent UCR Discomfort CS Steal a Cookie UCS Punished by Parent UCR Discomfort CS Thought of Stealing Cookie CR Discomfort

10. So… according to this theory if you have associated a bad feeling to acts of theft, future acts of theft are decreased

11. Behaviorism - Skinner (1904-1990) Operant conditioning Criminal behavior is learned and strengthened because of the reinforcements it brings (we notice the consequence of what happens). People are ultimately determined by the consequences of their environment.

12. Definition of Operant Conditioning Learning in which behaviour is strengthened by reinforcement, or diminished if followed by punishment. Stimuli can be added or subtracted from learner’s environment. Reinforcement is a contingency between response(s) and consequences. • Positive Reinforcement • Negative Reinforcement • Positive Punishment • Negative Punishment Extinction – no reinforcement or punishment (most effective way to eliminate behavior according to Skinner).

13. Reinforcement and Punishment REMEMBER: Any event that increases responding is called reinforcement. Any event that decreases responding is called punishment. Any event that is presented is called positive. Any event that is removed is called negative.

14. Comparison of Positive and Negative Reinforcement PositiveNegative Follows a behavior Follows a behavior Increases behavior Increases behavior Involves the presentation of a desirable stimulus Involves the removal or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus

15. Comparison of Positive and Negative Punishment PositiveNegative Follows a behavior Follows a behavior Decreases behavior Decreases behavior Involves the presentation of a nondesirable stimulus Involves the removal or avoidance of a pleasant stimulus

16. Process in operant conditioning Behaviour Reinforced Punished Positively Negatively Positively Negatively Behaviour occurs Behaviour occurs more frequently less frequently

17. Types of Operant Conditioning (humans) Positive Negative Pleasant Stimulus Produced Aversive Stimulus Removed Reinforcement Student Receives a Put on Buzzer (increases completes good grade seatbelt stops responding) assignment Aversive Stimulus Produced Pleasant Stimulus Removed Punishment Motorist Receives Teenager Privileges (decreases speed a ticket stays out removed responding) too late (grounded)

18. Operant Conditioning Two basic schedules of reinforcement Continuous Behaviour is reinforced each time it occurs. Intermittent Based on either the passage of time or the number of responses. Intermittent conditioning is the hardest to extinguish (e.g. gambling is based on this principle)

19. Operant Conditioning • Antisocial Behaviour and Reinforcement • Prisoners and behavior • Positive Reinforcement • Following the rules to gain access to spousal visits • Negative Reinforcement • Breaking out to escape the aversiveness of being locked up. • Bullying • Positive Reinforcement • Attention from peer onlookers • Tangible reward from victim (e.g., toy) • Negative Reinforcement • A provocative victim withdrawing or ceasing verbal taunts

20. Behaviorism…plus the adoption of cognition = social learning theory • Cognitive learning • formation of concepts, schemas, theories, attitudes, beliefs, and other mental or abstract versions of the world. • Social learning theory • Behaviorism is too simple. • Must examine perceptions, thoughts, expectancies, competencies and values to understand criminality. • we learn from observing environment • reinforcement maintains behavior • place greater emphasis on cognitive variables than behaviorists • social learning theory emphasizes cognition!

21. Social Cognition • Defining social cognition • Social cognition concerns how people make sense of other people and themselves • Processing, interpreting, and communicating information • Thoughts and Attitudes • Moral Reasoning • Attributional Processes

22. Moral Development Kohlberg’sTheory of Moral Development • Cognitive growth • reasoning versus behaviour • We actively construct moral judgments through experiences of social interaction.

23. Moral Development The Case of Heinz and the Druggist: Mr. Heinz's wife is dying. There is one drug that will save her life but it is very expensive. The druggist will not lower the price so that Mr. Heinz can buy it to save his wife's life. What should he do? More importantly, why?

24. Kohlberg’s Stages

25. Kohlberg’s Stages

26. Kohlberg’s Stages

28. Moral Reasoning in Non/Delinquents(adapted from Jennings, Kilenny & Kohlberg, 1983)

29. Moral Reasoning & recidivism Connecticut Reformatory Study (Jennings et al., 1983) • Follow up (12 – 18 months) of delinquents released from a reformatory Preconventional reasoners – 66% recidivated Conventional reasoners – 40% recidivated Gibbs (1995) • Delinquents randomly assigned to treatment program with or without moral reasoning education • Followed up for 12 months Treatment with moral reasoning – 15% recidivism Treatment without moral reasoning – 41% recidivism

30. Observational LearningBandura • Vicarious conditioning, what we see others doing, how they are reinforced or punished and we imitate their actions • Four steps in modeling process: • Attention • Retention • Reproduction • Motivation

31. Observational Learning • Bobo Doll Experiments (Bandura 1960’s) • Modeling of Aggression • Model-rewarded Condition • Model-punished Condition • No-consequences Condition • No Model • Induces frustration • Opportunity to Play with Toys (incl. Bobo Doll) • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU What happens?

32. Observational Learning The Bobo Doll Study

33. Results on Bobo the Clown study Children in the aggressive condition imitated a good deal of the model’s behaviour, both physical and verbal aggression Children in the non-aggressive and control groups exhibited practically none (70% had zero scores). Observational Learning

34. Observational Learning • Observational/Imitational Learning or Vicarious learning (Bandura) • People learn from observing the behaviour of others, and observing the outcomes of that behaviour. • Modeling: • This is where viewers learn behaviours from watching others and may imitate them. • the more respected the model, the greater the impact on our behaviour • It’s not what they say but what they dothat is important and the consequences of those actions • the behaviour of model is more likely to be imitated if observer sees model get a reward

35. DON ANDREWS – • Risk, Needs, Responsivity, Treatment Model • Developed the Personal, Interpersonal and Community-Reinforcement Model (PIC-R) (Andrews and Bonta) • Belief that to truly understand criminal behaviors, we must look at: • Antecedents: EVENTS that PRECEDE behaviors • AND • Consequences: EVENTS that FOLLOW behaviors • Both elements signal rewards and costs for different behaviors • You must look at the big picture!

36. Media Violence & Aggression • Violence in the media • Friday the 13th film franchise (Body Count = 179) • First-person shooter games (Doom, Halo) • Case Studies: • 14yr old shoots three classmates, inspired by The Basketball Diaries • Seven yr old boy accidentally kills his 3 yr old sister by mimicking professional wrestling move seen on TV • John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan after he watched the movie "Taxi Driver" fifteen times. • A gang in Manchester, England, tortured a 16-year-old girl, set her afire and left her dying, while one of the attackers repeated a line from Child’s Play 3: "I’m Chucky– wanna play?" (The New York Times, July 10, 1994)

37. Media Violence & Aggression • The Catharsis Hypothesis • Viewing violence reduces acting out on aggressive impulses • Aristotle - - katharsis— • Thought drama allows viewers to identify with the aggression on stage, releasing their own impulses, reducing pressure • Freud—good to have an outlet for aggressive drives • “blowing off steam”;“getting it out of your system.” • Notion of “blowing off steam” by performing an aggressive act, watching others engage in aggression, or engaging in a fantasy of aggression. • Is this true?

38. Media Violence & Aggression • Correlational Evidence • Meta-analytic Reviews • Average effect sizes ranging from r = .11 to r = .31. • All reviews have found a positive relationship • Greater exposure linked to increases in aggression. • The relationship equivalent to the relationship between smoking and lung cancer • Small to moderate relationship

39. Media Violence & Aggression • Correlational Evidence • Effects of media violence are especially strong in those who: • Are dispositionally aggressive, hostile or irritable • Lack empathy • Younger viewers • Can identify strongly with the aggressive character • Violent scenes are realistic • Violence is portrayed as being justified • Viewers parents do not intervene

40. Media Violence & Aggression • Longitudinal Studies: • Johnson (2002) tracked 700 families for 17 years. • Significant relationship between time spent watching television during adolescence and criminal behavior and interpersonal violence • Independent of parental education, family income, or neighborhood violence

41. Media Violence & Aggression • How does exposure influence aggression? • Influence values and attitudes toward aggression • Legitimize aggression • Make aggression seem necessary to solve problems • Habituation or Desensitization • Physiological and psychological responses reduced • Desensitizes viewers to pain and discomfort of victims • In the short term, media violence increases aggressive thoughts, physiological arousal, and mimicking • In the long term, media violence leads to stable aggression-supporting beliefs, and an aggressive bias when interpreting stimuli/events/interpersonal interactions (Anderson et al., 2004) • - e.g. they must want to hurt me, it is reasonable to use aggression in this situation…

42. Social Information Processing • Human behaviour andSocial Context • Competent performance in social contexts is a function of the skilful processing of social cues • Encoding and interpreting of cues; • Script retrieval and evaluation; and • Response enactment. • A cue is • A stimulus that provides information about what to do in a particular social situation. • WHAT SHOULD I DO?

43. Social Information Processing • Attribution Theory • How individuals use information to arrive at causal explanations for events. • Hostile Attributional Bias(Kenneth Dodge) • The tendency to perceive hostile intent in others even when it is totally lacking. • Some individuals • Define social problems in hostile ways, • Adopt hostile goals, • Seek few additional facts and generate fewer alternatives • Anticipate few consequences for aggression.

44. Social Information Processing • Cognitive Scripts Model (L. Rowell Huesmann) • What are scripts? • Cognitive scripts are mental images or blueprints of how one feels he or she should act in a variety of situations. • Role of Cues and Scripts in Aggression • Observation of aggression • We encode • Aggressiveness of the act and • Any relevant pieces of information in the surrounding environment.

45. Social Information Processing • Cognitive Scripts Model (L. Rowell Huesmann) • Can violent media “cue” aggressiveness? • Violent media provides us with scripts that outline - - acceptable motives, targets, etc. • An aggressive idea suggested by a violent movie can “prime” other semantically-related thoughts. • Priming is an increase in the speed or accuracy of a decision that occurs as a consequence of a prior exposure to some of the information in the decision context, without any intention or task related motivation

46. Following Authority FiguresMoral Disengagement • Why do people do immoral acts against their own moral judgment when ordered to do so by higher authority or under high social pressures? • Through social learning, people internalize moral principles. • But, people act against these moral principles to commit crime • They do this by “disengaging” from these morals • e.g., justifying their behaviour, dehumanizing victims • Considering the situation AND the personal attributes of the person in understanding why people do what they do.

47. Deindividuation • Deindividuation (Zimbardo) • process of losing ones identity and becoming part of a group, as a situational variable • person loses self-awareness • lowers restraints regarding antisocial behaviour • can be achieved through crowds, masks, uniform, darkness because people more abusive/aggressive when their identity is hidden

48. Situational Determinants • Groups and Aggressive Behaviour • Deindividuation • Social psychology of individual in the crowd • Diminished sense of self and individuality • Zimbardo Prison Study • Prisoners and Guards • Uniforms, Prisoner numbers, Batons

49. Stanford Prison Experiment • The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. Twenty-four undergraduates were selected out of 70 to play the roles of both guards and prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. • Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early. After sensing that everyone had been too absorbed in their roles, including himself, Zimbardo terminated the experiment after six days. It was supposed to last 2 weeks.

50. Authority As An Instigator of Criminal Behaviour • “Crimes of Obedience” (Kelman & Hamilton) – behaving in certain way b/c someone with power told them they must • An act performed in response to orders from authority that is illegal/immoral by larger community (i.e. – Watergate) • Stanley Milgram - electric shock experiment