Forensic psychology – Abstract
Chapter 1
1.2
Psychological theories
Moral reasoning: how individuals’ reason about and justify their behaviour with respect to moral
issues
- Best known approach = cognitive-developmental approach initially proposed by Piaget (1932)
& subsequently developed by Kohlberg (1969)
- Kohlberg’s theory > 6 stages or moral reasoning > with reasoning becoming more abstract &
complex
➢ ^revised by Gibbs (2003, 2010, 2014) into a theory of sociomoral reasoning > in which roles
of social perspective-taking & empathy are given a greater emphasis
➢ Four stages of Kohlberg’s theory
➢ First 2 stages > immature morals reasoning (reasoning = egocentric & superficial)
➢ Stages 3 and 4 > mature reasoning > understanding of interpersonal relationships & needs
of others (stage 4 > societal needs)
➢ Stages 3 &4 > needed in order to allow for emotions such as empathy to play a part in
motivating decisions about reasoning & behaviour
- Offending usually justified at the more immature stages (although it can be justified at all
stages)
Moral development offenders (Gibbs)
1. Developmental delay in moral judgements
2. Self-serving cognitive distortions
➢ main one = egocentric bias > immature moral reasoning & thinking styles
➢ secondary cognitions: blaming others or external factors rather than oneself, a hostile
attributional bias (events and interactions interpreted as hostile), minimising
consequences/mislabelling one’s own antisocial behaviour in order to reduce feeling of
guilt/regret
3. Social skills deficiencies
➢ Offenders having a poorer (delayed) moral reasoning (strong evidence!)
,Social information-processing theory
- Applied to explain aggression & delinquent behaviour in order to examine individual
differences in why one individual will respond to a certain situation aggressively whereas
another will not!
- Influential model: model of social information-processing (Crick & Dodge 1994):
➢ A 6 steps model > describes how individuals perceive their social world & process info
about it & the influence of previous experience on these processes
1. Encoding of social cues
2. Interpretation & mental representation of the situation
3. Clarification of goals/outcomes for the situation (influenced by pre-existing goal
orientations)
4. Access or construction of responses for the situation
5. Choice of response (responses are evaluated)
6. Performance of chosen response
- Steps occur in sequence for a given situation BUT individuals can also simultaneously
perform different steps > allowing for feedback between processes
➢ Therefore > model is circular rather than linear!
- At all steps > processing is influenced by social knowledge structures based on individual’s
past experiences (social schema & script)
SIPT & criminal behaviour
- A & D individuals > distinct patterns in social info processing across the 6 steps
- First 2 steps > inaccurate representation of a situation (perceive fewer social cues & take
more notice of aggressive cues, pay more attention to cues at the end of interactions)
- A people > rely more on internal schema when interpreting situations > schema content is
aggressive!!
- Third step > A individuals: dominance & revenge-based goals!
- Fourth step> A individuals generate fewer responses than non-aggressive individuals >
suggesting that they have a limited repertoire from which to draw
➢ Content of these responses more aggressive as compared to the prosocial responses
generated by non-A individuals
- Fifth step> A individuals tend to evaluate responses by different criteria, raring aggressive
responses more positively than prosocial responses & having more positive outcome
expectancies and perceptions of self-efficacy for aggression!
➢ Aggression is viewed as more effective to achieve their goals
- In step6 > social skills are important > A individuals tend to have poorer social skills
^^^ SIP is influential in the development of juvenile delinquency & adult offending
➢ The more steps exhibiting problems >> the greater the level of aggressive & antisocial
behaviour
1.3
Theories, evidence & crime
Interpersonal violence
High levels of offending in the media > in reality this is NOT the case
Crimes under the label violence > murder, manslaughter & robbery (domestic violence recognition)
Meta-analyses & longitudinal studies > offenders have an early onset of offending behaviour & they
show a continuity of aggression & violence throughout their life
,Social factors & violence
SF to predict violence & many of those are similar to those associated with general offending
- Family structure
- Parenting style
- Also link between violence & severe abuse in childhood & witnessing family violence
(mediated through the impact of abuse on children’s psychological functioning > p-solving &
coping abilities)
Cognitive behavioural theory & violence
These approaches > focus on the role of cognitive appraisal & other internal processes in violence
- One way to do this is > through SIP 6 step model bij Crick & Dodge
- Empathy is another important factor > significant association between low empathy &
violent offending
- Emotional arousal < impact on cognitive processes > anger playing a significant role in
understanding violence
➢ Reciprocal relationships between angry & emotional arousal > cognitive processes are
important here!!
Neuropsychological factors & violence
- Evidence that violence is associated with brain damage or dysfunction
Electroencephalogram (EEG) & neuroimaging studies >>> evidence that there is an increased
level of brain abnormality among violent offenders
➢ Damage and malfunctioning of the frontal & temporal lobes > most associated with
violence
➢ Frontal lobe lesions associated with personality changes > characteristics often referred to
as disinhibition (more irritating > more disinhibition > more aggression > include criminal
violence)
➢ Amygdala & ventromedial prefrontal cortex > link with specific psychopathy >> leads to
deficits in stimulus-reinforcement learning & the ability to respond to fearful & sad
expressions of others
Domestic violence
Or IPV > increasingly recognised issue!
- Can occur with male & female perpetuators > most research is focused on male perpetuator
& female victim
- Feminist theories > society is patriarchal > implicit assumption than men control the lives of
women & children ( within families & social institutions)
➢ Men seek to maintain women’s subordination (ondergeschiktheid) through physical
violence, as well as psychological & economic coercion
➢ This^ is evidence based & able to provide full explanation of IPV > questioned!
- Social learning theory > also applied to this > views DV as a behaviour that is learnt through
experience rewards from it & observing & modelling similar behaviour (vicarious learning)
➢ BUT research does not support the idea that DV increases the risk of becoming a
perpetuator
➢ Other approaches > DV as caused by psychopathology among abusers
, Sexual offending
Sexual offences > rapes, unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent assault, indecent exposure & gross
indecency with a child
- Non-sexual offences can also have sexual element > such as sexually motivated murder
Due to under-reporting of these crimes (problem!) > difficult to put a figure on the number of sexual
offences committed
- 6 major theories on sexual offending: child sexual abuse & rape
- Four preconditions (Finkelhor, 1984)(child sexual abuse) > four preconditions that a child
molester must pass through prior to an offence
1. Motivation to sexually abuse (arousal to child, emotional congruence, blockage of sexual
expression
2. Internal inhibitions against offending must be overcome (through distorted beliefs,
disinhibited through alcohol/drugs, experiencing severe stress)
3. External factors must be overcome to allow for the abuse to occur > gaining trust of the
child, child being left alone
4. Child’s resistance must be overcome > through using force or grooming techniques
(verzorging)
- Quadratic model (Hall & Hirschmann 1992)(child abuse) > four components necessary for an
offence to take place
➢ Sexual arousal to the child, attitudes & beliefs that justify child abuse, poor self-regulation,
personality problems
➢ Theory suggest that vulnerability to coming CA is caused by personality problems
➢ Situational factors (opportunity) > leading to deviant arousal, emotional disturbance &
offence-permitting thinking
➢ Subtypes of child molesters > proposed based on the relative level of these factors ^
- Pathways model (Ward & Siegert, 2002)(child abuse) >> four separate but interacting
psychological mechanisms involved in sexual offences
➢ Intimacy/social deficits, distorted sexual scripts, cognitive distortions & emotional
dysregulation
➢ Four components are involved in all sexual offences > BUT one component dominates each
pathway into offending
➢ Offenders with multiple dysfunctional mechanisms > fifth pathway > called pure
paedophiles
- Interaction model of sexual aggression (Malmuth, Heavy & Linz, 1993) >> sexual aggression is
the result of the interaction of 2 paths: hostile masculinity path & the sexual promiscuity path
(vermenging)
➢ HMP > role of aggressive intimate relationships & sexual conquest (verovering) in the
concept of masculinity (valuing power, risk-taking, dominance & competitiveness)
➢ SPS > focuses on the role of sexual behaviours in maintaining self-esteem & peer status &
the appeal of impersonal sex
- Integrated theory of all types of sexual offending (Marshall & Barbaree, 1990) >> takes into
account of biological, developmental, socio-cultural & situational variables >> that lead to
psychological vulnerabilities
➢ Negative childhood experiences > problems in forming social, emotional & sexual
attachments, poor social skills > rejection of prosocial attempts to be sexually intimate >
results in anger & increased likelihood of an aggressive response!
➢ Weakness of this theory > its breadth > it does not provide explanations for why different
types of sexual offending occurs
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