Psychology in Criminal Behaviour: Theories, Factors, and Interventions

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PSYCHOLOGY IN BEHAVIOUR
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
LO3........................................................................................................................................................4
P3.......................................................................................................................................................6
LO4........................................................................................................................................................8
P4.....................................................................................................................................................10
P5.....................................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment will explain various theories of criminal behaviour. There are various factors
associated with criminal activities such as age, economy, education, poverty, social level of morality
and drug abuse. We will discuss the psychological perspective that is applied by the public services,
individual and team on the public service. The aim of psychological perspective is to identify the
behaviour of the offender that cause criminal activity. There are seven pathways that can be used to
reduce reoffending among criminals. Various intervention and rehabilitation have been established
in order to change the psychology of the offender and induce positive behaviour to live a normal and
healthy life.
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LO3
Psychological theories explain the development of criminal behaviour from childhood to adulthood
that is based on longitudinal studies on people over time (Pennington, 2014). There are various
theories that explained the behaviour of criminal are
Bowlby and maternal deprivation
Bowlby explained that the behaviour of an individual is inborn and will be activated by various
condition such as fear, insecurity and separation (Holmes, 2014). He explained that continues, warm
and intimate relationship with a mother is essential for the healthy emotional or psychological
development of the child. Mother-love in childhood is as necessary as are protein and vitamins are
important for physical health. Bowlby conducted a study on juvenile thieves. 44 burglar were
compared with 44 non-burglar forms a delinquency Centre (Holmes, 2014). He had collected data
via questionnaires and interviews from the 88 juveniles and found that 17 out of 44 burglar has
criminal behaviour due to prolonged separation from the mother (Holmes, 2014). 15 out of 17 were
categorized as affectionless psychopaths that are no guilt any remorse while only 2 out of 44 non-
burglar had experienced such separation (Holmes, 2014).
Social learning theory
Social learning theory was proposed by B.F. Skinner in 1940 (Brauer and Tittle, 2012). It is a theory of
social behaviour and learning process which propose new behaviour that has been developed by
observing and imitating others. Social learning theory explained the maintenance and emergence of
divergent behaviour especially aggression. Ronald Akers and Robert Buress mix the operant
conditioning and social learning principle with Edwin Sutherland,s Differential Association Theory to
develop a complete criminal behaviour theory (Brauer and Tittle, 2012). According to this, criminal
behaviour is acquired through both nonsocial and social situations by the combination of explicit
instruction, vicarious reinforcement, observation and direct reinforcement. The probability of the
nature of reinforcement and exposed to certain behaviour depend on group norms.
Eysenck’s Theory of Criminal Personality
Hanks Eysenck has explained a theory of criminal behaviour in 1964 (Boduszek et al., 2013).
According to this theory, the personality of the individual is biologically based and traits of
personality such as the dimension of neuroticism and extraversion can be measured through the
personality questionnaire (Boduszek et al., 2013). Extraversion can define as the biological need of
the people can be determined by the level of provocation in the individual autonomic and central
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nervous system. Neuroticism can be defined as the stability of personality means people with high
neuroticism are more active and volatile and hence more likely to involve in crime.
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P3
Criminologist has recognized a variety of demographic, personal, economic and social factors that
influence criminal activity (Andrews, and Bonta, 2014). Here are some factors that can induce
criminal activities such as
Age
It has been analyses usually senior are not much involved in crime as compared to teenagers.
Nowadays teenagers have an extremely high rate of crime (Andrews, and Bonta, 2014). The number
of young adult increases, the rate of crime increases. Increases the juvenile number may signal an
increase in criminal activity.
Economy
There is a debate about the effect of the economy on criminal activity. Various criminologist believed
that poor economic condition may have less crime rate because an unemployed parent can
supervise children (Andrews, and Bonta, 2014). On the other hand, some criminologist believed that
poor economic condition is usually lead to criminal behaviour because people usually crime in order
to fulfil their demand.
Education
Usually, people with low education level are involved in stealing things. Schooling increases the
return to genuine work that raises the opportunity of illicit behaviour. Various empirical studies have
shown that adolescent who has to attend K-12 education or involved in paid employment are less
likely to engage in criminal activity (Andrews, and Bonta, 2014). Crime rate can be decreased by
raising the education level among the public.
Poverty
Prevalence of poverty in the community has led to a high rate of criminal activity. Poverty itself not
induce criminal behaviour but there are various factors associated with poverty are employment,
chronic joblessness, perceived lack of opportunity, role models and less access to quality school.
Social level of morality
Different communities and home have various degree of morality. In various communities and
families, divergent behaviour is encouraged or can tolerate while in other minority groups, criminal
behaviour is corrected and reported (Gross, 2015). Social environment may have positive as well as
negative impact on the behaviour of the individual. It can induce criminal activity or can correct it.
Social environment can shape the view and opinion of the individual that can directly affect the
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decision making choice in the future (Gross, 2015). Various studies revealed that people who have
been emotional, sexually or physically abused are usually three times more likely to commit an act of
violence. In a society where crime is encouraged or tolerated, an individual usually commits the
crime to fit in with his peers.
Drug abuse
Various evidence suggests that the increase in crime rate due to the increase in drug abuse among
the youth. Drug and alcohol abuser is more likely to involve in criminal activity. It has been seen that
teenagers are more likely to associate with drug abuse (Gross, 2015). The criminal activity usually
associated are rape, stealing money or things in order to arrange money for drug and violence
activity.
Gangs
The gang is another factor that affects criminal activity. It has been noticed that people who are part
of the gang are usually involved in crime and are more likely to possess gun than non-gang members
(Gross, 2015). Criminal rate tremendously increases when people are commonly involved in the
gang.
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LO4
Psychological perspective is the study of public administration from the basic level in order to draw
the character from psychology (Soothill, Fitzpatrick and Francis, 2013). The aim of psychological
perspective is to analysis the individual as a whole in order to find out the issues that they are facing.
It has been merged with the public services and every member of a team has made a volunteer so
that the great success could be achieved through this program (Soothill, Fitzpatrick and Francis,
2013). Psychological perspective can be applied on an individual through the style of
communication, learning styles such as Kolb Honey and Mumford and social learning theory such as
Kearsley leadership style.
Communication style
Every individual has a unique communication style through which they communicate and interact
with others. There are four types of communication style (Manolis et al., 2013).
Passive: in this, individual act indifferently. This type of communication fails to express their need or
feelings and allow others to express. Passive communication can lead to misunderstanding,
resentment or anger build-up. It usually has a lack of eye contact, inability to say no and poor body
posture (Manolis et al., 2013).
Aggressive: it is emphasized by demanding voice, controlling others by blaming, intense eye contact
and speaking in loud.
Passive aggressive: it usually appears passive on the surface but people feel stuck or powerless,
acting out in subtle. It is most likely to communicate with body language (Manolis et al., 2013).
Assertive: in this people usually express their needs, feelings, ideas and desires and also considering
the feeling of others.
Kolb Honey and Mumford learning style
Peter Honey and Alan Mumford identified four learning style such as activist, theorist, pragmatist
and reflector. Activists are that individual who learns something by doing (Lefcourt, 2014). Open
minded approach to involve fully without any bias. The theorist is those who understand the concept
behind the action while pragmatist people how to put their learning skill into practice. On the other
hand reflector, people learn by thinking and understanding about the event and occurrence
(Lefcourt, 2014).
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Locus of control
This concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954 (Frankli et al., 2014). He explained that the
locus of control is the degree to which individual think that they have the power to control the
outcome of events and opposed external factors that are beyond their limit. A person locus is
hypothesized as an external or internal belief (Frankli et al., 2014). If an individual has control over
internal locus, that individual attributes success to her or his abilities and efforts. An individual who
wants to succeed will more likely to learn and more motivated towards goals. An individual with an
external locus of control, believe his or her success depends on fate and luck. Individual with an
external locus of control experience more stress and anxiety because they think they are not in
control of their lives (Frankli et al., 2014). Various psychological research address that individual with
internal locus seems to be better off means they are getting better-paying jobs as they are more
achievement oriented. It is often an inborn personality component. However, it has also seen that it
is shaped by childhood interaction such as the interaction of children with their parents (Rutan,
Stone and Shay, 2014).
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P4
Various psychological perspective can be applied in the public services on a team or group such as
psychodynamic theories of group tensions, group psychodynamic, and studies of ‘in’ group and ‘out’
group.
Psychodynamic theory of group tension
The psychodynamic theory of group tension based on the interaction of the individual, its leader,
group as well as relation towards a group task (Gabbard, 2014). A people enter a group and at that
time situation provoke mobilizing different needs, threatening the personality border and anxiety
become obvious. The dominant people in the group has a feeling of autonomy and become a
combined group member. Some of the need of the individual met by defining roles, creating a
mutual relationship within the group and setting relationship among group member (Masuda, 2012).
In the case where the group has no team leader, the status consent and role differentiation
stimulate group members in order to take a leading role in various sectors to complete tasks. The
group process identify two universal issue that is aggression and authority. However the group
functioning and its existence depends on how group member can be able to cope up with these
situations (Masuda, 2012). The positive impact of group dynamics is a corrective emotional
experience, hope awaking, group cohesion, developing technical queue of socialization, feeling of
belonging to a group, universality, education altruism and getting informed. Every new group has to
go through the process of developing phase (Roberts, 2013). There are three developing phases of
group process. The first phase is considered as overcoming the dependency conflict. Some group
member are self-oriented and mostly try to meet their need. Phase of cohesion is a second phase
which is dominated by conflict between a leader and a group. Phase of separation is a third phase. In
this group act without the fear of endangering group identity (Roberts, 2013).
In group and out a group
Individual usually defined themselves in a social grouping and are rapid disparage others who are
not suitable for their group people who share their qualities are considered as in group while those
are not able to share their quality are considered as outgroup (Roberts, 2013). Sometimes grouping
can be identified by intrinsic factors such as age, sex, race and ethnicity. Discrimination between
outgroup and in groups is an absence of equivalent preference favour outgroup while a matter of
preference favour ingroup. An individual has shown to be influenced differentially by ingroup
members. Under certain conditions when a group is psychologically salient, individual shift their
thought and belief towards ingroup social norms (Lila et al., 2013). The group identification can help
to promote a sense of belonging and identity. It helps to define ourselves and others.
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P5
Psychological perspective can be applied to the team in order to reduce reoffending among the
prisoner and reduce the crime rate ( Yoshikawa, Aber and Beardslee, 2012). Various resettlement
and rehabilitative culture have been developed in order to change the behaviour of an offender and
reduce future reoffending. Offender management services are based on evidence-based
interventions (Dennis et al., 2012). There are seven pathways that can help to reduce reoffending
are
 Accommodation
 Attitude, thinking and behaviour
 Family and children
 Alcohol and drugs
 Employment, training and education
 Debt, benefit and finance
 Health
These pathways allow opportunities for the offender to take responsibility in order to own
rehabilitation and encourage themselves and their families to improve the health and wellbeing and
cease from future criminality (Farrall, 2013).
Offending behaviour programmes and interventions
These programs are currently run in England and Wales. The aim of offender behaviour programmes
and intervention is to change the behaviour, attitude and thinking that can lead the individual to re-
offend (Roccas and Elster, 2012). Most intervention and program are held in a group by one-to-one
services are available in some cases. This program encourages and motivate pro-social goals and
attitude for the future and is made in order to help the individual to develop new skills to stop
criminal activity (Roccas and Elster, 2012). These include
 Problem-solving
 Self-management
 Perspective taking
 Managing relationships
Behavioural intervention often uses the cognitive behavioural technique (Gabbard, 2014). Various
evidence has shown that these are the most effective technique in order to reduce reoffending.
Several programmes are made available for both in the community as well as in the prison for an
individual on probation such as
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