Psychological Explanations Forget Freud Cognitive Explanations Personality and Crime IQ and Crime

Cognitive Explanations HOW we think Kholberg’s stages of moral devleopment Pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional Social Skills Anger management Basic skills

Cognitive II What we think Rationalizations, “Pro-criminal Attitudes,” “Criminal Thinking Errors” Prompts for criminal behavior Negative Reinforcement

Policy Implications “Cognitive Behavioral” therapy is the best technology for rehabilitation Recent study: such programs, when targeting the correct people reduce recidivism anywhere from 10-60% Barkan: doesn’t address “structural factors” But, should we ignore immediate, individual factors?

Personality and Crime General Personality Traits Newest Test: MPQ MMPI: Bias and Tautology Newest Test: MPQ Three Superfactors Constraint Negative Emotionality Positive Emotionality CASPI and friends research Next Step?

Personality II The “Psychopath” Hervy Cleckly Above average intelligence, lying, leeching behavior, lack of remorse, inability to love, impulsive, risk seeking, superficial charm… Robert Hare’s “Pscyopathy Checklist” (PCL) Structured Interview tapping these characteristics Interesting Studies comparing “Psycho” inmates to “non-psycho” inmates Treatment implications

IQ and Crime—A brief History Alfred Binet Series of tasks to identify “learning disabilities” (IQ) 3 Cardinal Rules Scores are practical devices Not for ranking “normal children” Use to help, not label children Goddard and others violate all

IQ and crime As intelligence tests improve, IQ gap shrinks Sociologists: it will eventually disappear BUT—it hasn’t (8-10 point gap, weak effect) Why related? Spurious? (evidence against this) Direct? Indirect School Failure Delinquent Peers Impulsivity

Barkan’s Critique Use of small/non-representative samples Disregard of “structural factors,” and cannot account for “group differences” Psychologists not answering macro questions Causal order remains unclear Focus on street crimes

Normal and Abnormal Do psychologists view offenders as “abnormal?” Not necessarily (general personality, moral development) Zimbardo Milgram Irony is that evidence from psychologists are used to criticize psychology