theories of crime (wjec level 3 criminology) questions and answers 2023

theories of crime (wjec level 3 criminology) questions and answers 2023xyy theory (jacobs) - xyy syndrome is where men have an extra y chromosome - xyy men are said to be more aggressive and violent - jacobs argued that this was true as xyy men are overrepresented in prison populations (15 per 1000 in prisons, 1 per 1000 in general population) twin studies (lange & christiansen) - is crime a heritable trait? - testing the concordance rates of criminal activity between mz and dz twins - lange - mz twins had higher concordance rates than dz twins - christiansen - concordance rates were highest in mz male twins and lowest in female dz twins adoption studies (hutchings & mednick) - is crime biological (parents) or nature (adopted parents)? - hutchings and mednick - higher proportions of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with convictions too - mednick - no relationship between criminal activity and adoptive parents and children atavistic features (lombroso) - born criminal - criminals had atavistic features (e.g. high cheekbones and large ears) - found that 40% of criminal acts were accounted for by atavistic characteristics somatotypes (sheldon) - endomorphs - sociable and relaxed (fat and soft) - ectomorphs - introverted and restrained (thin and fragile) - mesomorphs - aggressive and adventurous (muscular and hard) - mesomorphs most likely to commit crime brain abnormality (raine) - damage to the pre-frontal cortex can change an individual's behaviour - raine studied pet scans of impulsive killers - damage to the pre-frontal cortex was found in the criminals neurochemicals (scerbo & raine) - brain's chemistry can be influenced by diet - low levels of serotonin can cause higher aggression - scerbo and raine (found low serotonin levels in anti-social individuals) - steroids make people violent and increase testosterone social learning theory (bandura) - people learn by watching others' behaviour - bandura's bobo doll experiment - 3 groups (one given an aggressive role model, one given a non-aggressive role model, one control group) - observational learning can take place in the family, in subcultures and media - james bulger case and the child's play 3 theory psychodynamic theory (freud) - behaviour is learnt from when we were a child - our psyche is divided into 3 parts - the id, the ego and the superego - the superego causes us to commit crime - 3 types of superego (weak, strong and deviant) - non-criminals have a balance of all 3 psyche components - bowlby's maternal deprivation theory (stems from oedipus complex) - delinquents are more likely to have a separated relationship with their mothers psychological theory (eysenck) - certain personality types are more predisposed to being criminal - 3 dimensions of personality - extraversion (e), neuroticism (n) and psychotisicm (p) - people who score highly in the epi on these categories are more likely to commit crime marxism (althusser, chambliss, pearce & hall) - see crime inevitable in capitalist society - argue that white collar crimes are ignored - believe that different social classes are policed differently - governments fabricate stats to get public support functionalism (durkheim & merton) - crime is inevitable as not every member is socialised into the same values - crime is functional and is only dysfunctional when rates are too high or low - collectrive sentiments are too weak, anomie will happen - crime strengths social cohesion - deviance is a safety valve for crime - merton's strain theory interactionism (becker & lemert) - becker (official stats are socially constructed) - lemert (primary and secondary deviance) - acts that aren't labelled as deviant (primary) - the deviant's crime becomes their master status (secondary)(e.g. terrorist or rapist) - media demonises these people right realism (murray) - murray - the failed socialisation of the underclass causes crime - zero tolerance policing (e.g. Times Square) left realism (lea & young) - crime lies in inequalities in society - people are motivated by consumerism - broken windows theory - disagree with military policing xyy theory evaluation S: Jacobs found a correlation between XYY sufferers and criminality. S: Adler - argued that violence was partly caused by genetics. W: Genetic abnormalities are very common and widespread so can't explain aggression. W: Focuses too much on genetics. W: Theilgaard - found that aggression wasn't associated with XYY men. twin studies evaluation S: Twin studies are natural experiments. S: Christiansen - supports this view. S: Results have helped prevent crime in vulnerable people. W: Early twin studies lack validity as they decided if the twins were MZ or DZ from appearance not DNA. W: Small samples mean the results aren't representative. W: If twins are brought up in the same environment, this would support the nurture explanation. adoption studies evaluation S: It is easier to separate genetic and environmental factors. S: Studies have found that there is a correlation. W: Age of adoption can affect if the biological parent had more of an influence or not. W: Information about biological parents isn't always available. W: Adoption processes aren't always random.