Forensics -T2C

Forensics -T2C

1. Upbringing

   • Farrington: Disrupted families
     • Risk and Protective factors
       • Predicting offending and antisocial behaviour
     • 411 boys between 8 and 9 years born 1953-4 from East London
       • Of 404 searched at 48 years, 161 had convictions
       • Number of offences peaked at 17
       • 7% were classed as 'chronic offenders' as they accounted for half of all officially recorded crimes. On average, their conviction careers lasted from age 14 to 35
       • Most chronic offenders shared the same common childhood characteristics. They were described by Farrington as 'persisters'
         • They are more likely to have: a convicted parent, high daring, a delinquent sibling, a young mother, low popularity, disrupted family, and a large family size
         • These same characteristics were observed in 'desisters'. (Those who commit crime up until age 20
     • Longitudinal survey; last interviews at 48 years
     • Most Important Risk Factors
       • Criminality in the family
       • Poverty
       • Impulsiveness
       • Poor child-rearing
       • Poor school performance
   • Sutherland: Social groups
     • Theory of differential association; 9 principles
     • Criminal behaviour is learned
     • Delinquency is because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law
       • Repeated contact with criminal activity
       • Lack of contact with activity of non-criminal activity
     • Deviance occurs when people define a certain situation as an appropriate occasion for violating social norms or criminal laws
     • Definitions of the situation are acquired through an individual's history of past experienes
   • Wikstrom: Poverty
     • Cross-sectional
     • Nearly 2000 Year 10 students
       • 44.8% of males and 30.6% of females committed at least one of the studies crimes in the year 2000
       • Offenders are more likely to be victimised than non-offenders & violent ones are more likely to be assaulted
       • Offenders are more often drunk and more often use drugs more than other youths
     • Interviews and data collection
     • Explanatory factors
       • Family social position
       • Individual characteristics
       • Social situation
       • Lifestyles and routine activities
       • Community contexts
     • Offenders
       • Propensity-Induced
         • Personality trait or individual characteristic
         • Small group responsible for the more serious offences.
         • Wide range of risk factors, e.g weak family bonds, low self-control, antisocial values and low levels of shame interacting with a high-risk lifestyle
       • Lifestyle-Dependent
         • Average in terms of individual social adjustment
         • Offending is highly dependent on lifestyle
           • Low-risk lifestyle = rarely offend
           • High-risk lifestyle = frequently offend
           • High-risk lifestyles are defined by spending a large amount of time on peer-centred activities in public settings, especially with drugs or alcohol
       • Situationally-Limited
         • Well-adjusted youths
         • May offend if their lifestyle exposes them to high levels of situational risk
         • Substance abuse
         • Little to suggest that this group develops serious problems of criminality

2. Biology

   • Raine
   • Brunner
   • Daly & Wilson

3. Cognition

   • Kohlberg: Moral development
     • Piaget as background
     • 58 boys from Chicago; 7, 10, 13 and 16 years old
     • Heinz dilemma
     • 6 stages
       • Level 1; pre-morality
         • Stage 1 - Punishment and Obedience Orientation
           • Doing what is right out of fear of punishment
         • Stage 2 - Hedonistic Orientation
           • Doing what is right out of personal reward
       • Level 2; Conventional Morality
         • Stage 3 - Interpersonal Concordance Orientation
           • Doing what is right according to majority to be good
         • Stage 4 - Law and Order Orientation
           • Doing what is right because it is your duty and helps society
       • Level 3 - Post-conventional Morality
         • Stage 5 - Social Contract or Legalistic Orientation
           • Doing what is morally right even if it against the law because the law is too restrictive
         • Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principles Orientation
           • Doing what is right because of our inner conscience which has absorbed the principles of justice, equality and sacredness of human life
       • Younger boys tended to perform at stages 1 and 2, with older boys at stages 3 and 4
   • Yochleson & Samenow: Thinking patterns
     • 255 men found guilty by reason of insanity
       • Interviews
       • No control group
     • 52 thinking patterns
       • Restless, dissatisfied and irritable
       • Requests by those of authority (parents, teachers, etc) regarded as impositions
       • Set themselves apart
       • Want excitement
       • Habitually angry
       • Lack empathy
       • Pre-judge situations
   • Gudjohnsson: Attribution
     • Relationship between the type of offence and the attributions offenders make
     • 80 criminals serving sentences in N.Ireland
       • 20 violent criminals; homicide and GBH
         • Guilt = 8.1; Mental = 5.3; External = 5.8
           • When compared to English criminals, violent Irish prisoners showed lower mental and guilt, but higher external
             • Difference due to the 'Troubles' in N. Ireland and violence prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s
       • 40 sex offenders; paedophiles and rapists
         • Guilt = 12.7; Mental = 5.7; External = 2.4
       • 20 property offenders; theft and burglary
         • Guilt = 5.5; Mental = 4.0; External = 3.0