CJ 302 Psychodynamic Theory of Crime Discussion Make sure to cite everything used. Word Min: 300On Sunday, October 1, 2017, we, as a nation, experienced th | Homework Answers

CJ 302 Psychodynamic Theory of Crime Discussion Make sure to cite everything used. Word Min: 300On Sunday, October 1, 2017, we, as a nation, experienced the “deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.” (See http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooter/index.html or other news outlets for more information). This happened in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Route 91 Harvest Festival and has been understood as a massacre by one person.See Attachments Based on the theories ‘discussed’ in Module Two (Classical, Rational Choice, & Biological Theories) and Module Three (Psychological Theories), please tell me (and your colleagues) what you think caused this horrific event. In other words, do you think that the shooters’ biological or genetic makeup is to blame? Why or why not? Please explain. Do you think that the shooters’ psychological makeup is to blame? Why or why not? Also, please explain. If it is neither of these ‘things,’ please explain why you think this event happened? We have many other theories ahead of us to learn that may be applicable… Psychological Theories
CJ 302: Crime and Behavior
Module 3 Lecture
Mens Rea and Actus Reus
? Criminal law requires two things for a crime to be
proven: criminal intent, or mens rea—’a guilty
mind’—and actus reus, the voluntary participation
in overt willful behavior.
? These mental and behavioral elements must each be
proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
? If defense attorneys can establish that their client is, or was at
the time of the offense, mentally ill, criminal responsibility,
culpability based on mens rea, cannot apply.
Psychological Theories of Crime
? Psychological theories of crime:
? Explain abnormal behavior as the result of mind and thought
processes that form during human development, particularly
during the early years.
? Demonstrate the importance of mental health treatment for
behavior disorders rather than relying on the CJ system, which
is inadequate to deal with this population.
Psychological Explanations for Crime
? Look for differences that might explain some people’s
predisposition toward crime.
? Look for either differences between individuals or differences in
the situation and emergent environment.
? The view commonly held by psychologists is that humans
develop through a process of socialization rather than
being biologically predetermined.
? Socialization occurs through a series of mental, moral, and
sexual stages.
? When this development is abnormal or subject to traumatic events,
personality disorders and psychological disturbances may become part of
the individual’s personality characteristics.
Psychodynamic Theory
An individual’s early,
childhood experience
influences his or her
likelihood for committing
future crimes.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
? Crime is an expression of
buried internal conflicts
that result from traumas
and deprivations during
childhood.
? Traumatic events that occur
during childhood affect the
unconscious component of the
human mind.
? The id and superego compete
with one another to control
behavior.
? The ego serves to balance the
desires of the id and superego.
? The conscious personality he
termed the “ego.”
? Concerned with reality and
attempts to rationally mediate
between the conflicting demands
of unconscious desires.
? Reality principle (page 68)
? The unconscious is divided into two
parts.
? The “id” is the source of basic
biological and psychological drives
present from birth, including the
libido, or sexual energy.
? Pleasure principle (page 68)
? Opposing the id is the superego
conscience, internalized from
socialization into the norms of a
society and containing moral and
ethical restraints on behavior.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
? Freud identified two primary ways people handle guilt.
? First, in sublimation the desires and drives of the id are
diverted to actions that meet the approval of the superego
(e.g., aggression may be directed toward athletic events).
? A second reaction is repression, which occurs when the drives
of the id are denied. This results in various abnormal reactions.
? Reaction formation and projection are two manifestations of
repression.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
? Freud said that during childhood, basic drives are
oriented around oral, anal, phallic, latent, and
genital drives that seek to be satisfied.
? These sequential stages of development cause problems
when a person remains “fixated,” or stuck at one stage.
? This occurs because satisfaction has been denied or a person
has experienced a trauma.
?
Freud argued that if the guilt associated with the various
stages was not satisfactorily handled by the ego, then the
personality of the individual would be negatively affected
later in life.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
? Freud further argued that one outcome of the
unconscious guilt complex is crime.
? This can occur in several ways:
? It can result from a fear of authority and an overdeveloped
superego.
?
Lawbreaking can allow persons feeling guilty to draw
punishment on themselves and thereby temporarily relieve their
guilt.
? Guilt can also result in crime
?
Need to punish themselves for their evil thoughts
Mood Disorders
CONDUCT
DISORDER
? Children with conduct
disorder have difficulty
following rules and behaving
in socially acceptable ways.
? Conduct disorders are
ultimately manifested as a
group of behavioral and
emotional problems in
young adults.
? Children with conduct
disorder are more likely to
exhibit aggressive behaviors
toward others.
OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT
DISORDER
? Manifestations or
characterizations of oppositional
defiant disorder include:
? Defiance
? Uncooperativeness
? Irritability
? A very negative attitude
? A tendency to lose one’s temper
? Exhibiting deliberately annoying
behaviors toward authority
figures
Attachment Theory
? Emphasizes the importance of forming a secure emotional
base for subsequent personality development.
? Infants form attachments to caregivers if they are sensitive
and responsive.
? Children who have frequent breaks in relations with their
mother or caregiver in their early years, or who have factors
that mitigate against secure maternal bonding, develop
anxiety and have difficulty forming relationships with
others.
? In particular, these ‘affectionless children’ lack the ability to
empathize with others
? As a result, they do not see or feel the pain that harm may cause them.
Frustration-Aggression Theory
? Thwarted desires and
deprivations cause
frustration.
? When frustration is
combined with a lack of
non-delinquent channels
for compensatory
gratification, affective ties
to conventional adults fail
to form.
? Frustration emerges
naturally but that most
people are able to find
socially acceptable
outlets.
? For some, however, the
frustration may be
displaced onto others who
have nothing to do with the
cause of the frustration
Personality and Crime
? Personality
Something that
makes us what
we are and also
that which makes
us different from
others.
? Big Five model of
personality
? Five domains account for
individual differences in
personality:
? Neuroticism
? Extraversion
? Openness
? Agreeableness
? Conscientiousness
Trait-Based Personality Theories
? Abnormal behavior is said to stem from deviant or criminal
personality traits rather than unconscious causes.
? In some cases these traits are said to stem from biological
causes, which provide a link between biological and
psychological theories.
? Traits are descriptive schemas that are the product of human
reason and imagination.
? They give a conceptual order to our world and make it more
comprehensible than it would be without them.
Personality Traits of Offenders
Introversion
Extroversion
A sensitive,
inhibited
temperament
An outwardfocused,
cheerful,
expressive
temperament
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
Emotional
instability
A
predisposition
to psychotic
breakdown
Behavioral Theory
Human behavior is developed
through learning experiences;
people change their behavior
according to the reactions this
behavior elicits in other
people.
Behavioral Learning Theory
? Pavlov discovered what has
become known as classical
conditioning.
? Skinner developed a slightly
more active version with his
notion of operant
conditioning.
? In this case, behavior is
controlled through
manipulation of the
consequences of previous
behavior.
? A central idea of operant
conditioning is
‘reinforcement,’ which
involves strengthening a
tendency to act in a certain
way.
? Such strengthening can be in
the form of positive
reinforcement, whereby past
crimes are rewarded.
? Negative reinforcement
occurs where an unpleasant
experience is avoided by
committing crime.
Social Learning and Modeling Theory
? Social learning is initially based on the idea that individuals
are complex beings who do not simply respond
mechanically but observe and analyze situations before
they decide to act.
? Part of the learning process involves role modeling, which
involves identification with others, either real or represented.
? In social learning, we observe others and decide which patterns of
behavior to imitate.
? Once modeled, such patterned responses may be triggered by events
or adverse situations in a person’s life.
Social Learning Theory
Behavior
Modeling
Environmental
Experiences
Mass Media
Cognitive Theory
An individual’s
perception and how it is
manifested affect his or
her potential to commit
crime.
Cognitive Theory: Subdisciplines
Moral
Development
Formation
Processing
Information
Processing
Focus is
understanding
how people
morally
represent and
reason about
the world
Focus is on
the way
people
acquire,
retain, and
retrieve
information
Focus is on
how people
use
information
to understand
their
environment
Cognitive Theories
? Human reasoning shapes the way humans act and
orients them to behavior meaningful to their lives.
? The notion of progressive moral development outlined by
Lawrence Kohlberg:
? The major theme of cognitive theory focuses on how mental
thought processes are used to solve problems—to
interpret, evaluate, and decide on the best actions.
?
These thought processes occur through mental pictures and
conversations with ourselves and the assumption is that
individuals’ future orientation to action and to their
environment will be affected by the knowledge they acquire and
process.
Stages of Moral Development
Level I:
Preconventional
Stage 1:
Obedience
and
Punishment
Stage 2:
Individualism,
Instrument
-alism, and
Exchange
Level II:
Conventional
Stage 3:
Membership
in Society
Stage 4:
Importance
of Laws,
Rules and
Customs
Level III:
Postconventional
Stage 5:
Social
Contract
Stage 6:
Principled
Conscience
Modern Cognitive Theories
? The way we think shapes our feelings and our actions.
? Extreme forms of violence—from verbal abuse, domestic
violence, rape, and hate crime to terrorist bombing and
genocide—are exaggerations of patterns of everyday thought.
? These dysfunctional patterns of thinking Beck calls hostile
framing.
?
Fundamental ways in which humans both see themselves as morally
right and classify others with whom they are frustrated and in conflict,
as less than us, as dangerous, malicious and evil.
? Once negatively framed, the other’s past and present words and
actions are seen as challenging, hurtful, and demeaning and
produce anger and hostility as we perceive ourselves the victim of
the other’s attack.
Social Cognitive Theories
? The capacity to exercise
some measure of control
over one’s thought
processes, motivation, affect,
and action operates
through mechanisms of
personal agency.
? Self-efficacy or personal
efficacy:
? The belief in one’s ability to
achieve goals that one has set
for oneself.
? The core belief that one has the
power to influence one’s own
functioning and life
circumstances.
? A strong sense of efficacy
oriented toward positive selfdevelopment can affect
transgressive behavior.
? It does so by:
? Promoting pro-socialness
? Curtailing the propensity to
disengage moral self-sanctions
from socially alienating and
harmful conduct
? Countering ruminative and
vengeful affectivity
ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?
PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT
DANASTAS@SDSU.EDU…
Classical, Rational-Choice, &
Biological Theories
CJ 302: Crime & Behavior
Module Two Lecture
The Pre-Classical Era
? By the sixteenth century,
political power was
consolidated in states whose
monarchical rulers aspired to
complete domination.
? Many rulers claimed to have
special relations with the
Deity
? People were born into
statuses of wealth and power
? The law was the will of the
powerful applied to the
subordinate members of
society.
? The administration of justice
was based on exacting…
? Pain
? Humiliation
? Disgrace
? …to those accused of offenses.
? This occurred in spite of a
growth in scientific
knowledge.
Classical Era
? Prior to the Enlightenment,
during a period of absolute
monarchies, justice was:
? Arbitrary
? Barbarous
? Harsh
? A distinction was made
between the deserving and
undeserving poor.
? Though both were to be
punished for wrongdoing, the
deserving poor, who were
“poor through no fault of
their own” were sent to
workhouses.
? The first “house of
correction,” London’s
Bridewell, was established in
1556 and was designed to
train the poor to work
through discipline.
? “Bridewells,” eventually
numbering some two
hundred in England, would
subsequently form the basis
of what would become a
cornerstone of the
American system of
corrections.
The Poor in the Classical Era
RESPECTABLE POOR
UNRESPECTABLE POOR
? Included:
? Included:
? Those suffering from
sickness and contagious
diseases
? Wounded soldiers
? Curable cripples
? The blind
? Fatherless and pauper
children
? The aged poor.
? Seen as the responsibility of the
more fortunate
? Vagabonds
? Tramps
? Rogues
? Dissolute women,
? Described as worthless
? Were to be punished with
imprisonment and
whipping before being
trained for honest work.
Classical Era
? A major transformation took place by the seventeenth
century, and utilitarian philosophers recognized the gross
injustices of the legal and political system.
? Saw much of the problem as resulting from the extent of
church and state power.
? Resolution was legal and judicial reform, which was consistent
with emerging ideas about human rights and individual freedom.
Classical Principles
? The primary focus of utilitarian philosophers was to
transform arbitrary criminal justice into a fair,
equal, and humanitarian system.
? Sought to do this by aligning the law and its enforcement
and administration with both logical and rational
principles.
? Principles were harmonious with the emerging concept of
humans as individuals and were most eloquently expressed by
the philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, along
with several other contributors.
Classical Theory
? Prevalent prior to “modern” criminology’s search for the
causes of crime, which did not begin until the nineteenth
century.
? Did not strive to explain why people commit crime;
rather, it was a strategy for administering justice
according to rational principles.
? Based on assumptions about how people living in
seventeenth-century Europe, during the Enlightenment,
began to reject the traditional idea that people were born
into social types with vastly different rights and privileges.
Original Classical Concepts &
Principles
Innocent until
proven guilty
Equality before
the law
Procedural due
process
Utilizing rules of
evidence and
testimony
Curbs on judges’
discretionary
power
The right to be
judged by a jury
of one’s peers
Individual
deterrence
Equal
punishment for
equal crimes
Cesare Beccaria
? Challenged the prevailing idea that humans are
predestined to fill particular social statuses.
? Instead they are born as free, equal, and rational
individuals having both natural rights, including the
right to privately own property, as well as natural
qualities, such as the freedom to reason and the ability to
choose actions that are in their own best interests.
? Believed that government was not the automatic right of the
rich.
Cesare Beccaria & the Protection of
Individuals
? These assumptions led to the principle of “individual
sovereignty.”
? Individual rights have priority over the interests of society or
the state.
? Instead, he insisted that lawmaking and resolving legal
ambiguities should be the exclusive domain of elected
legislators who represented the people.
? Believed that the wisest laws “naturally promote the universal
distribution of advantages while they resist the force that tends
to concentrate them in the hands of the few.”
Cesare Beccaria & Crimes
? Saw crimes as wrongdoings
against fellow humans and thus
against society itself.
? Believed that crimes offended
society because they broke the
social contract, resulting in an
infringement on others’
freedom.
? Argued that the law, the courts,
and especially judges have a
responsibility to protect the
innocent from conviction and to
convict the guilty, but to do so
without regard to their status,
wealth, or power.
? Led to the principle of the
presumption of innocence,
designed to protect individual
rights against excessive state
power or corrupt officials.
? Several procedural elements
were necessary for a system of
justice to ensure this
protection…
? See text for these elements!
Cesare Beccaria & the Adversarial Trial
? Believed that individuals would be best protected through an
adversarial trial in which the accused had the right to be
represented and was ensured equality of inquiry and
equality before the law.
? Trial should be judged not by the government but by a jury of
the accused’s peers
? With half of the jury made up of the victim’s peers
? Procedures should provide the accused the right to appeal to an
independent body.
Cesare Beccaria & Laws
? Did not believe that the best way to reduce crime was to
increase laws or increase the severity of punishment, since
doing so would merely create new crimes and embolden men
to commit the very wrongs it is supposed to prevent.
? Laws and punishments should be only as restrictive as
necessary to just deter those who would break them by
calculating that it would not be in their interests to do so.
Cesare Beccaria & Deterrence
? Believed that punishments should be proportionate to the
harm caused; thus, the severity of the harm determines the
level of punishment.
? According to Beccaria, general deterrence, which means
using the punishment of one individual to discourage others
from committing crime, should be replaced by individual or
specific deterrence, which encourages each individual to
calculate the costs of committing the crime.
? Principle of “just deserts” means that convicted offenders
deserve punishment that is proportionate to the seriousness of
the harm they caused.
Cesare Beccaria & Deterrence
Certainty
Severity
Celerity
Refers to a
high chance
of
apprehension
and
punishment
Means that
the level of
punishment
must be
appropriate
Punishment
must occur
swiftly after
apprehension
Jeremy Bentham
? Jeremy Bentham offered the notion of the “hedonistic, or
felicity, calculus” as an explanation for people’s actions.
? This calculus states that people act to increase positive results
through their pursuit of pleasure and to reduce negative
outcomes through the avoidance of pain.
? Bentham’s conception of pain and pleasure involved not just physical
sensations but also political, moral, and religious dimensions, each of
which varied in intensity, duration, certainty, and proximity.
Jeremy Bentham & Law
? Saw law’s purpose as increasing the total happiness of the
community by excluding “mischief ” and promoting
pleasure and security.
? Believed that for individuals to be able to rationally calculate,
laws should ban harmful behavior, provided there is a victim
involved.
? Crimes without victims, consensual crimes, and acts of self-defense
should not be subject to criminal law, because they produce more good
than evil.
Jeremy Bentham & Utility
? Laws should set specific punishments for specific crimes
in order to motivate people to act one way rather than
another.
? Since punishments are themselves evil mischief, the utility
principle justifies their use only to exclude a greater evil,
and then only in sufficient measure to outweigh the profit
of crime and to bring the offender into conformity with
the law.
? The idea that the greatest good should be sought for…
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