CRIME

UNIT -2

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

WHAT IS CRIME?

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 DEFINITION OF CRIME

➢ An act or omission committed against the community at large that is punishable by the state.
➢ An illegal act which may result in prosecution and punishment by the state
➢ Crime is an anti-social behaviour which a society rejects and to which it attaches penalties
➢ The term “Crime “ technically means a form of anti-social behaviour that has violated public
sentiment to such an extent as to be forbidden by statue
➢ According to Richard .T Scheafer, “Crime is a violence of criminal law for which some
governmental authorities, applies, formal penalties”.
➢ According to C. Darrow, “Crime is an act forbidden by the law of the land and for which penalty
is prescribed.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Crimes vary from nation to nation (state to state or jurisdiction to
jurisdiction), because they reflect the values of each society.
What is considered a crime can be influenced by:
▪ Values and morals
▪ Religion
▪ Culture
▪ History
▪ Legal traditions

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Crime in India has been recorded since the British Raj, with comprehensive statistics now
compiled annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under the Ministry of Home
Affairs (India).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_India

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
Different ways of estimating levels of crime

Prison
statistics

General
Victim population
surveys offender
Levels surveys
of
Crime

Police-
Court
recorded
statistics
crime

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Crime Index in World

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp?titl
e=2021-mid&displayColumn=0

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Victimization

• Victimisation is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim either

from a physical or a psychological or a moral or a sexual point of view.
• A victim is a person who suffers direct or threatened physical, emotional or
financial harm as a result of an act by someone else, which is a crime.
• The action of singling someone out for cruel or unjust treatment.
• Research that studies the process, rates, incidence, and prevalence of
victimization falls under the body of Victimology.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

• Peer victimization - experience among children of being a target of the aggressive
behaviour of other children.
• Secondary victimization (also known as post crime victimization or double victimization)
relates to further victimization following on from the original victimization
• Revictimization refers to a pattern wherein the victim of abuse and/or crime has a
statistically higher tendency to be victimized again.
• Self-victimization (or victim playing) is the fabrication of victimhood for a variety of reasons
such to justify abuse of others, to manipulate others, a coping strategy or attention seeking.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Attitude towards crime

• Crime is not merely (or even) the product of the mind of the criminal; it is a
social product.
• According to Ainsworth (2000a), the path from the commission of a crime to
the punishment of an offender is a long, complex and tortuous one.
• Public perceptions of the seriousness of the crime problem become evident in
concern expressed about crime and fear of crime.
• The same crime can be seen quite differently according to the prevailing
circumstances.
• It is merely complex but can involve a multiplicity of perspectives.
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
The factors involved include the following:
• what laws apply;
• what the set of circumstances surrounding the events is;
• what the public thinks about crime;
• what the victim thinks about crime;
• what the ethos of the policing system is;
• what the system for dealing with psychiatric cases is;
• who decides whom to prosecute;
• the rules governing court procedure;
• the skills of the lawyer;
• the characteristics of the judge;
• what the jurors have read in the newspapers about the case;
• any one of a number of other aspects of the crime, the criminal and the criminal justice
system
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
5 point likert scale (Strongly disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree, Strongly disagree)
1. India/ United States has a great deal of crime.
2. Crime is one of the most serious social problems facing society today
3. Courts generally are not harsh enough with criminals
4. The main goals for dealing with criminals should be to treat and rehabilitate them
5. We need more educational and vocational programs to effectively deal with crime and
offenders
6. Showing mercy is more important than seeking revenge
7. We should stop viewing criminals as victims of society who deserve to be rehabilitated and
start paying more attention to the victims of these criminals
8. Society has a right to seek revenge on violent criminals
9. Criminals need to be punished, not coddled
10.A criminal will only “go straight” if the punishment is harsh
11.Criminals do not generally fear being caught and punished
12.I support the death penalty
13.Once a criminal, always a criminal
14.Most people commit crime because they are mentally ill or sick
15.People commit crimes because they are lazy

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Attitude in the process of crime described by Ainsworth

Will the offender be

Will the victim Will the victim
caught by the
notice the crime? report the crime?
police?

Will the police

Will the perpetrator Will the offender be
record the ‘crime’
be found guilty? prosecuted?
as such?

Will the perpetrator

receive an
appropriate
sentence?

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Knowledge of crime

• Knowledge about crime

• Criminal Justice System,
• Punishment
• Process of courtroom
• Attitude of victim
• Public’s knowledge about criminal statistics

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Feilzer (2015) reports that since the 1950s, numerous studies in different
parts of the world have shown public knowledge of crime to be poor.
Lord Ashcroft (2011) conducted an online survey of over 2000 people
about various things, including the crime rate in the UK. About
threequarters of the public thought that the crime rate had either risen or
remained unchanged over the period 1997 to 2010. But the figures from
the British Crime Survey (Crime Survey of England and Wales) suggested
that the crime rate had actually fallen by 43 per cent during that period.
Just 2 per cent of the public had said that this was the case.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

FEAR OF CRIME

• The disciplines of criminology, sociology, psychology and politics all share an interest in
the topic of the public’s fear of crime.
• The concept of moral panic has its origin in Stanley cohen’s study of the phenomenon
of youth crime in britain in the 1960s. There was a sense of outrage and distress,
fuelled by the media, which led for calls for action against such youth crime.
• The perceived threat was greater than the evidence of the real-life phenomenon.
• The term has been used to describe situations in which there is a high level of demand
that action is taken against a particular form of crime or criminal.
• Descriptive of the events rather than an explanation of why interest is at such levels.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

What influences fear of crime?

The coverage of crime

Our direct knowledge Personality and social
news in the mass media
about crime in our characteristics which make
and the coverage of
immediate community and us more or less afraid of
fictional crime in popular
beyond crime.
entertainment.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Gender and the fear of crime

➢ Women in general seem to have higher levels of fear of crime than men.
➢ Crime statistics show consistently that it is men who are most at risk of an attack in public
places and by a person who they do not know.
➢ In contrast, women are most at risk from physical violence. by people they know, it is likely
that the perpetrator will be familiar to them.
➢ Sutton, Robinson and Farrall (2011) carried out an intriguing experiment on women’s fear of
crime. Participants were asked to rate their level of fear of burglary, assault, vandalism, sexual
assault and being mugged as well as a number of other questions. Research found that
women did indeed have higher levels of fear of crime than men.
➢ Research also found that Men underplay their fears and women overplay their fears.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

➢ Research also found that Men underplay their fears and women
overplay their fears.
➢ Vulnerability is the explanation of the gender difference.
➢ Jackson (2009), provided evidence for this. Women were more worried,
felt more at risk, felt the consequences of being a victim would be more
serious, and felt less in control of being able to prevent the crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Is fear of crime a fear?

➢ Perceptions of the risk of being a crime victim are cognitive mechanisms

which link causally crime to the fear of crime (e.g. Farrall, Jackson and Gray,
2007).
➢ Clark (2004) asked whether the fear of crime is actually a crime phobia.
➢ It was found that the three phobias that she studied – social phobia, blood-
injury phobia and agoraphobia – tended to coexist.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Chadee and Ng Ying set about testing their hypothesis that general fear was a more important antecedent
of the fear of crime than perceived risk of crime victimization.
They measured the three important variables in the ways:
• The Fear of Crime Scale (Ferraro, 1995) assessed fear of both personal crimes (such as violent assault)
and property crimes (such as burglary).
• General fear was measured using Scherer’s (1988) categories which involved scenarios such as death of
an important person, a house fire, personal illness and loss of income.
• Perceived Risk of Crime Scale (Ferraro, 1995) which involved the participant giving estimates of the
likelihood that they would be a victim of different types of crime in the next year.

The findings of the research supported strongly both General Fear and Perceived Risk of Crime as
predictors of Fear of Crime. However, General Fear was the better predictor of the two.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Items
Worry about crime
Being robbed by a stranger on the streets.
Being harassed or threatened on the streets.
Being robbed in a non violent way.
Somebody breaking into my house while my relatives are inside it.
Perceived likelihood of personal crime
Being robbed by an unknown person on the streets.
Being harassed or threatened on the streets.
Being robbed in a non violent way.
Somebody breaking into my house while my relatives are inside it.
Perceived control over personal crime
Being robbed by an unknown person on the streets.
Being harassed or threatened on the streets.
Being robbed in a non violent way.
Somebody breaking into my house while my relatives are inside it..
Perceived consequences of personal crime
Being robbed by an unknown person on the streets
Being harassed or threatened on the streets
Being robbed in a non violent way
Somebody breaking into my house while my relatives are inside it.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
 THEORIES OF FEAR OF CRIME

Availability heuristic
Cultivation theory Cognitive theory
theory

• The influenceof the • Vivid and recent • Subjective

mass media on the images are more victimisation risk
public’s perceptions of readily available from • Perceived negative
crime memory and may impact
affect the individual’s
fear of crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Cultivation Theory
➢ The cultivation theory is a theory that insist that television is responsible for our perception
of day to day norms and reality.
➢ It means that every television show that you watch has some sort of hold on the way you
perceive real world situation.
➢ Developed by George Gerbner and his Colleague at Annenberg school of communication in
1977.
➢ According to Gerbner Television virtually monopolizes and diminishes the other sources of
information, ideas consequences.
➢ The effect of all this exposure to the same messages produce what he called cultivation, or
teaching of common world view.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 ➢ The overrepresentation of violent crime and the way that this is biased towards
acts perpetrated by strangers.
Media effects on viewer’s worldview according to the cultivation analysis model

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Criticism on Gerbner theory
• Hawkins and Pingree research focused on” demographic conditions like age and viewing habits and
psychological conditions that included cognitive ability and perception of television reality”.
• Hawkins and Pingree (1981) measured TV viewing in terms of different genres of programming and
found different effects for the different types of programs
• The results of their research indicated that “age or cognitive ability determined cultivation”
• Hughes reexamined the researched demographics of sex, age and income by introducing confounding
variables such as hours worked per week, income and church attendance.
• After reanalyzing Gerber’s data using those confounding variables, Hughes (1980) and Hirsch (1980)
discovered the relationship between fear and frequency of television viewing behaviors disappeared.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Availability heuristic theory

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
The availability heuristic has also been applied to how people form judgements as to the
appropriate punishment for crimes.
Stalans (1993) suggests that recommendations for punishment are, in part, dependent on the
image of robbery that the mind conjures up.
Found that participants who could readily recall a real-life robbery which took place locally were
more likely to recommend harsher punishment in an abstract case.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Cognitive theory

Winkel (1998) points out that much of the research indicates that there are two distinct
components of emotional vulnerability:
• The subjective belief about the likelihood or risk of the event. - subjective victimisation risk
• The belief about the seriousness of the consequences of experiencing those events. -
perceived negative impact
➢ Fear of crime might be seen as reflecting the product of risk and seriousness.
➢ The implication of this is that increased fear of crime will follow from events such as being a
victim or seeing a news programme about a particular crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Winkel’s model of the fear of crime

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Globalisation of crime

➢ Globalization is the process whereby the world is becoming more interconnected, where increasingly it
makes sense to talk about a global culture, economy and politics rather than focusing on individual nations.
➢ The way in which we seem to live in an increasingly ‘shrinking world’, where societies are becoming more
interconnected and dependent on each other.
➢ Transnational crime - Greater communication and travel have made the drugs industry extend beyond
national boundaries. Often involving many countries the supply comes from south America (Colombia) and
its demand from western countries.
➢ Increased terrorism has increased our awareness of the international risks we face and increased security
at our national borders, airports, ports and train stations.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

➢ Ian Taylor (1973) Marxist argues that globalization has allowed capitalism to create more crime
by exploiting workers abroad and creating fraud on a larger scale, manufacturing products
abroad has led to a lack of jobs and opportunities for the working class, which leads them to
crime.
➢ Held et al suggests there has been a globalization of crime (a growing interconnectedness of
crime across national borders). Causes include ICT, the influence of the global mass media,
cheap air travel and businesses being able to relocate to other countries where profits will be
greater.
➢ The global crime economy has both a demand and supply side. It could not function without the
supply side which provides drugs, sex workers and other goods which are demanded by the
West. This supply is linked to globalization.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
 Theories of Crime

➢ It is important to appreciate that crime can be understood from a variety of

perspectives,
➢ And forensic and criminal psychologists can benefit from insights from other
disciplines. Theories are dealing with more specific aspects of crime.
➢ Theories of crime may be divided into:
1. Societal or macro-level theories;
2. Community or locality level theories;
3. Group and socialization influence theories; and
4. Individual level theories.
➢ Most psychological theories of crime would be classified in the last two categories.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Psychological Theories
of crime
• Neuropsychology Among the Psychological theories of
Crime described and evaluated here are:
• Intelligence • Physiological;
• Genetic;
• Psychoanalysis • Intellectual deficits;
• Psychoanalytic;
• Addiction to crime • Addiction;
• Biosocial;
• Eysenck’s biosocial theory • Social learning; and
• Social learning theory • Social constructionist approaches

• Social construction of crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
 Neuropsychology of offending

➢ Neuropsychology concerns the brain’s structure and activity in relation to

psychological processes.
➢ Edgar Miller (2008) Research suggested that frontal damage and possibly
temporal lobe damage is related to offending, particularly violent
offending, and that head injury can act to precipitate offence related
behaviour.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Stalenheim’s (1997) study of the extent of psychopathy in a Swedish forensic psychiatric population.
He found
. that the enzyme platelet monoamine oxidase was to be found at lower levels in
psychopaths but the levels of the enzyme were not correlated with the amount of criminal behaviour
exhibited.

Schiffer et al. (2007) provide an example of an attempt to locate the origins of paedophilia in
abnormalities of the brain structures of such offenders. In comparison with control groups consisting
of homosexual and heterosexual men, the paedophiles tended to have less grey matter volume in
parts of the brain.

Hughes, Williams, Chitsabesan, Walesby, Mounce and Clasby (2015) reviewed studies comparing
the rates of traumatic brain injury in young people in custody compared with young people in the
general population.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Williams, McAuliffe, Cohen, Parsonage and Ramsbottham (2015) traumatic brain damage is three
times more common in those who commit a violent crime compared with controls, the rate of
traumatic brain injury is between three to eight times higher in populations of offenders compared
with controls, and persistent reoffending into adulthood is more common among young offenders
who have a history of loss of consciousness (in indicator of traumatic brain injury).

Williams et al. (2015) argue that traumatic brain injury affects important brain regions which are
involved in acceptable social behaviour. This social brain network includes the amygdala, inferior
parietal cortex, temporal pole and the medial prefrontal cortex amongst other brain structures (Ryan
et al., 2014).

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

The social brain network seems to be the most vulnerable to traumatic brain injury. This is a
system involving self-regulation, planning, inhibition, and identifying emotion from another
person’s face and tone of voice, according to Tonks et al. (2008).
Williams et al. (2015) point out that one needs to be cautious about the link between these
brain pathologies and crime. For example, pre-traumatic brain differences already present in the
brain may be responsible for the brain being on a divergent criminal track.
Methodological difficulties abound in this sort of research:
• Violent people are likely to get into fights.
• black, poor and of low intelligence and may well suffer from other disadvantages.
• Offenders groups tend to be working-class

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Knowledge of a neuropsychological cause of 1. Biological approaches at the moment do

criminality would contribute to better- not deal with the immediate task of
targeted treatments. helping treat criminals or assessing future
behaviors.
2. The evidence to date suggests that
biological factors have some influence on 2. Causes of criminality may be other than
criminality brain injury.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Intelligence and crime

➢ This theory explains how intelligence determines how a person weighs the gains and losses
associated with crime.
➢ In the earliest studies done by Goddard in 1912, people that were deemed “ feebleminded"
meant that they were more likely to commit a crime or have deviant behaviour.
➢ Early criminological discussions of offenders would describe them as typically being
feebleminded.
➢ Cambridge Study in delinquent development researchers believed that people who had lower IQ
were typically less likely to feel threaten or see any consequence to deviant behaviour such as
committing crimes.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

➢ Low intelligence being indicative of poor learning skills might mean that the individual takes senseless
risks, lacks the resources to avoid detection, is unlikely to have good earning power in the workplace
and so forth.
➢ Herrnstein and Murray (1994) argued that cognitively limited individuals are almost invariably likely to
experience and to be involved in social ills.

Study by Hakan Stattin & Ingrid Klackenberg-

Larsson
• 122 Swedish Males
• Ages 3-30
• IQ tested at age 3, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17
• 4 or more offences average IQ to be 91
• Less than 4 offences average IQ 97
• Non-offenders average IQ to be 102

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

A number of meta-analyses of studies of the relationship between IQ and criminality exist and are
reviewed by Cullen et al. (1997). Research reveals the importance of environmental influences more
than hereditary ones. Criminogenic needs such as attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors like
associating with other delinquents.

Beaver and Wright (2011) carried out a study of the relationship between IQ and criminality over 200
countries using the Picture Vocabulary Test and crime rates were obtained from the FBI Uniform Crime
Reports for each county. There were substantial correlations of about –0.4 to –0.5 between IQ and crime
rates for property crime, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and robbery.

Rushton and Templar (2009) compared the comparative murder, rape and serious assault rates for over
100 countries in relation to the average IQ of the country. Countries with lower IQ averages tended to
have higher rates of violent crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Argument about the relationship between low IQ and criminal behaviour.
Oleson and Chappell (2013) used a self report survey of various types of violent criminal
offending with 500 adults with IQs at the level of genius and another large sample of individuals
whose IQs could be described as more average.
Intriguingly, the genius level IQ sample reported rates of violent offending which were higher and
are self-reported more homicide, bomb making and aggregate violence in terms of prevalence
rates. In terms of incidence rates, the genius-level IQ sample reported more of all types of crime
other than robbery.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Any assessment of offenders needs to 1. The biological (genetic) approach to social

include ability and intelligence testing as policy generally receives little support from
this suggests appropriate courses of action. psychologists.

2. Knowledge that crime is associated to 2. It is of little practical value when working

some extent with low ability, low
with offenders.
educational achievement and low
measured intelligence.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Psychoanalysis and crime

➢ Psychoanalytic theory examines personality and the psyche unconscious for motive
in crime.
➢ Criminal behaviour is attributed to maladjustment and dysfunctional personality.
• Disturbances in ego
• Unconscious motives
• Consequence of the Oedipal conflict
• Oppressive feeling of Guilt - ‘criminality from a sense of guilt’. Guilt plays a
paradoxical role in crime by preceding the crime not following it.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Bowlby’s Attachment theory
➢ John Bowlby - ‘neo psychoanalysts’ believes ideas about early separation of a child from its Mother
causes Criminal behaviour
➢ According to Bowlby and his theory, the way a child’s Social development depends on his or her
attachment between their primary caregiver.
➢ Bowlby’s belief that there is a human predisposition to form attachment to others. The primary care-
givers – usually the parents – are a sort of bedrock for future relationships.
➢ Bowlby (1944) showed the role of maternal separation in the etiology of delinquency. He studied 44
delinquents, 16 of whom he classified as affectionless characters or affectionless thieves. These
children were above average intelligence and seemed, in general, not to be socio-economically
deprived.
➢ The affectionless thieves was that they had suffered broken mother–child relationships, major
disruptions, by the age of three years

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Bowlby, have been highly influential in the 1. Direct use of Freudian concepts fail to gain
impact of early life experiences, especially the support of researchers.
parenting, on later delinquency and
2. Extremely-time consuming and Ineffective
criminality

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Addiction to crime

➢ Addiction is a product of the interaction of personal and environmental factors.

➢ Reasons for considering some crime as an addiction include the following:
• Addiction, substance abuse and alcohol abuse all co-occur frequently in criminal
populations.
• There is evidence that the risk factors or antecedents or predictors of addictive behaviour
are much the same as those for criminality
• Persistence and escalation : For a minority, antisocial behaviour appears more like a lifelong
career.
• The process of change: successful treatments are much the same for a variety of crimes and
a variety of addictions.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

The disease model of addiction is a familiar concept in terms of alcohol and drugs.
➢ Addiction is a disease of the brain
▪ Susceptibility camp- addiction is a genetic or biological condition and a person is born
susceptible to addiction
▪ Exposure camp-a diseased brain is the result of exposure to toxic chemicals such as illicit
substances
➢ Abstinence is the only acceptable treatment
➢ Problem drinkers, as in the Alcoholics Anonymous formulation, cannot be ‘cured’ but must
always abstain. Use is followed by increased tolerance and more use. Withdrawal leads, in
this account, to profound distress and craving. This is a disease that is out of control (e.g.
McGregor and Howells, 1997).

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Kilpatrick (1997) argued that the characteristics of addiction could be found in persistent joyriders in
Ireland.
He found out six common characteristics from the joyriders:
1. Tolerance: the need for more to produce the same effect. Faster and more secure cars were
particular targets.
2. Salience: the increasing importance of the addiction in the lifestyle. Car thefts tended to be episodic
3. Conflict: increasing awareness of negative consequences. Half of them were trying to stop.
4. Withdrawal: absconding is a very common feature of joyriders
5. Craving: distress associated with desire to re-engage. Joy riders reported they had daydreams
around the theme of joyriding.
6. Relapse: reinstatement after decision to stop or reduce. There was some evidence of difficulty in
those who were trying to stop but again this was not universal.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Addiction to crime could explain the 1. The theory merely describes features of
continued involvement in criminality of some deviant behaviour without explaining
those who are otherwise regularly why the individual is deviant
punished for it.

2. Addiction to crime can be applied widely to

the offending patterns of criminals.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Eysenck’s biosocial theory of crime

Hans Eysenck's theory of criminal personality suggests that personality is biologically based.
He believed that genetic factors contributed enormously to human behaviour but that they
have their effects under the influence of environmental or social factors.
Three Dimensions of Personality
1.Extraversion (Introversion versus Extroversion)
2. Neuroticism (Emotionally Stable versus Unstable)
3. Psychoticism (Impulse Control versus Psychotic)

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Functioning of the
nervous system
Biological
Behaviour in
situations
Stable where
psychological
traits
Psychological criminal
behaviour is a
possible
outcome

Responses to
socialisation
(reinforcement &
Social
Punishment)

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Genetics
➢ XYY chromosome hypothesis
➢ XYY male is extra-masculine. Masculinity is associated with aggression.
➢ Research found that they were rare in the general population of men but more
common in men involved in crime.
➢ Epps (1995) describes a case of an adolescent boy with a very rare XXYY pattern. He
was sexually abusive of children.
Eysenck argued that there are physical differences between criminals and non-
criminals.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

• Crime arises from our personality traits
• These traits are biological in origin
• Originally he suggested 2 traits; neuroticism
and extroversion.
• Neuroticism refers to the stability of the
personality
• Extroversion refers to the amount of
stimulation a person requires from their
environment

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Criminal Tendencies
Eysenck theorized that those who are high in both extroversion and
neuroticism would be more likely to be criminals
✓ They seek stimulation (extroversion)
✓ They don't learn from their punishments (neuroticism)
Eysenck later suggested this third trait
✓ Individuals high in psychoticism are uncaring, aggressive and solitary
According to Eysenck, individuals high in this trait are more likely to engage in
criminal behaviour

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Eysenck’s theory was remarkable in its 1. Eysenck’s theory has tended to be seen by
scope many psychologists as based on flawed
data.
2. The theory brings together several different
levels of theorizing 2. Sociological approaches, have little place in
the scheme of things

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Social learning theory

➢ Unless violence and crime are entirely genetically transmitted then inevitably they must be
learnt socially in some way.
➢ Social learning theory is a theory that attempts to explain socialization and its effect on the
development of the self or the influence of society in socializing individuals.
➢ Social learning theory postulates that there are three mechanisms by which individuals learn
to engage in crime: differential reinforcement, beliefs, and modelling.
➢ Modelling – Millar and dollard (1941)
➢ They believed that people learn “imitative behavior” through modeling, motivation, and
positive reinforcement. Their experiments demonstrated that learners often follow a model
and transfer learning to new experiences (Bandura, 1971).

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
➢ Bandura (1977), along with others, including, Miller and Dollard (1941), recognised that
rewards and punishments are involved in the reproduction of modelled behaviour.

If a model were rewarded for theft then we would expect that

the observer would be more likely to reproduce that behaviour,
whereas if the model is punished, for example sent to prison,
then we might expect the observer to be less likely to exhibit
that behaviour.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Its dealing with the learning of complex 1. The theory’s weak ability to explain under
forms of behaviour holistically rather than what circumstances criminal behaviour will
as a process of slow conditioning. or will not be learnt means that it has
limited explanatory power
2. Stresses the importance of normal
processes in the acquisition of behaviour

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Strain theories of crime

➢ Strains refer to events or conditions that are disliked by most individuals

➢ Sociological Strain theories state that certain strains or stressors increase the likelihood
of crime.
if normal opportunities to attain goals successfully are in some way blocked, this
generates strain or frustration which acts something like a pressure towards
criminality.
➢ The sociologist Robert K. Merton introduced the concept in the 1960s.
➢ Social-psychological strain theories emerged with relative deprivation theory (Blau and
Blau, 1982; Box, 1981) suggests that structural factors which lead to inequality generate
feelings of deprivation. The consequence may be aggression or some form of crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Agnew’s General Strain Theory assumes that if people are treated badly, then their
consequent upset and distress leads them to respond with deviant behaviours such as
aggression or crime.
Based on psychological theory dealing with stress, Agnew argues that there are two types
of strain – objective and subjective strain.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Failure to • Gap between expectations and actual achievements
achieve • Gaps between their achievements and their
Three major types of positively
expectations
• Gaps between what would be a fair outcome and the
strain valued goals
actual outcome

• Failure to achieve positively

Loss of • Moving to a new city/school
valued goals positive
• Parental divorce
• Death of a relative/close friend
• Loss of positive stimuli
stimuli • Break Up

• Presentation of negative stimuli

Presentation of • Peer pressure
negative • Physical /emotional abuse)
stimuli • Stress, bullying and depression

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

Links Between Strain and Crime
• Anger was found to incite a person to action, and create a desire for revenge
• Crime allows individuals to obtain revenge against those who have wronged them
• Crime may allow individuals to alleviate their negative emotions

Why are some people more likely than other to cope with strains through crime?
• Bad temper
• Low self-control
• Previous delinquent behavior
• Delinquent friends
• If the initial goals are high and they have few alternative goals to fall back on,
then the person may be more prone to committing delinquent acts

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

According to Agnew (1997), certain strains are more related to delinquency
than others including:
• child abuse and neglect;
• failure to obtain goals easily through legitimate means which may be easily
achieved through crime;
• harsh, erratic parental discipline;
• homelessness;
• rejection by parents;
• unemployment or very poor quality employment.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS

1. Produced a substantial number of empirical 1. Strength of all of its principles is not known.
studies testing key aspects of general strain
theory.

2. research linking negative life experiences

3. fairly encompassing theory to explain deviant

behaviour and criminality in particular.

4. Its level of analysis is largely socio-

psychological

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

 The Social Construction Of Crime

➢ A key idea in the sociology of crime and deviance is that crime is socially
constructed which means that whether an act is criminal or not is determined by
social processes.
▪ No act is inherently criminal or deviant in itself, in all situations and at all times.
▪ It only comes to be so when others label it
▪ It is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant but the nature of societies
reaction to that act.
➢ Social groups create deviance by creating rules whose infraction [breaking]
constitute deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling
them as outsiders (Becker, 1963)

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS
 Evaluation of the theory
PROS CONS
1. The theory encourages awareness of the 1. Social constructionism does not explain crime
societal processes that change our ideas of but it does help us to understand why
crime and criminals. conceptualizations of crime are what they are.

2. Agencies in the criminal justice system may 2. Its relevance to the day-to-day activities of
have their own viewpoints and priorities forensic and criminal psychologists may be a little
about the ways in which issues are
remote.
understood.

3. The theory should encourage one to explore

the origins of new ways of thinking about
crime.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS

CONCLUSION
➢ Crime can be understood at a number of different levels of analysis ranging from biological
factors such as genes through to broad sociological and economic theories.
➢ Theories at all levels should be part of our understanding of forensic and criminal psychology
since they all contribute to a full and rounded conceptual base for the advancement of the
discipline.

SINDHULAKSHMI.B, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF PSYCHOLOGY,PSGCAS