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Social cognition and crime
This document discusses social cognition and crime from a psychological perspective. It covers several key concepts: 1. Attribution theory examines how people make internal or external attributions to explain behaviors. Offenders often attribute crimes externally rather than taking responsibility. 2. Locus of control refers to whether people see outcomes as based on their own actions or external forces. Studies find offenders often have an external locus of control. 3. Impulsivity is linked to a failure in self-control and can contribute to criminal acts. However, findings are mixed due to differing definitions and heterogeneity of offenders. 4. Learned helplessness and pessimistic explanatory styles may leave some feeling they cannot control outcomes, increasing criminal risk
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Social cognition and crime
- 1. Social Cognition andCrime Psychology and Crime
- 2. Social Cognition ofCrime Attribution theory Locus of Control Impulsivity Learned Helplessness Cognitive Scripts Communication model
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- 4. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
- 5. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
- 6. Everyone is anaïve psychologist Internal (dispositional) attributions personality characteristics beliefs External (situational) attributions situational pressure/influence Example: Student turns in papers late Internal:
- 7. Everyone is anaïve psychologist Internal (dispositional) attributions personality characteristics beliefs External (situational) attributions situational pressure/influence Example: Student turns in papers late Internal:lazy, partying all the time
- 8. Everyone is anaïve psychologist Internal (dispositional) attributions personality characteristics beliefs External (situational) attributions situational pressure/influence Example: Student turns in papers late Internal:lazy, partying all the time External:
- 9. Everyone is anaïve psychologist Internal (dispositional) attributions personality characteristics beliefs External (situational) attributions situational pressure/influence Example: Student turns in papers late Internal:lazy, partying all the time External:family problems, working, girlfriend
- 10. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
- 11. Fundamental Attribution Error Lee Ross: Internal attributions more likely
- 12. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
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- 15. Actor/Observer Difference OBSERVER-->Internalattribution ACTOR-->External attribution What is salient in the perceptual field? For OBSERVER: The actor For ACTOR: Everything but the actor (i.e., the situation)
- 16. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
- 17. Effects of Attributions Jones, Rock et al. (1968) Subject is teacher; confederate is learner I.V. Pattern of correct answers 1. Does well initially, finishes poorly (15 right) 2. Does poorly initially, finishes well (15 right) 3. Randomly gets correct and incorrect (15 right) D.V. Intelligence ratings of learner
- 18. Effects of Attributions Jones, Rock et al (1968) Subject is teacher; confederate is learner I.V. Pattern of correct answers 1. Does well initially, finishes poorly HIGHEST 2. Does poorly initially, finishes well LOWEST 3. Randomly gets correct and incorrect MIDDLE D.V. Intelligence ratings of learner Result: Primacy effect
- 19. Our initial explanationsabout the world can affect: Our perception of others’ behavior (as we have seen) Also: Our perception of new information Our perception of chance events
- 20. Initial attributions are persistent BEHAVIOR (Jones, Rock et al.) ATTITUDES (Lord, Ross, & Lepper) Students’ attitudes on death penalty determined Favored or Opposed Shown two “new” studies on death penalty Deterred crime or Didn’t New opinions more extreme in initial direction CHANCE EVENTS (Langer & Roth) Flipped coin/successful in first 10 flips or not Early success group: Higher prediction of accuracy in next 100 flips
- 21. Why are thesebiases important? We may be totally wrong (false beliefs) For example: Fundamental Attribution Error These beliefs persist, resist disconfirmation For example: Jones, Rock et al. Our incorrect beliefs may create a new reality For example: Self- fulfilling Prophecy
- 22. Social Cognition/Attribution Theory Everyoneis a naïve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) Actor/Observer Difference (Jones & Nisbett) Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self-fulfilling Prophecy
- 23. Components of Self-fulfilling Prophecy False belief (Expectation) Actions, based on that belief New reality created
- 24. Palmer and Hollin(2000) Palmer and Hollin (2000) found that self-reported delinquency in young offenders was associated not only with lower levels of moral reasoning but also with increased tendencies to inaccurate attributions of hostility, especially in ambiguous situations where it may be difficult to accurately ascertain intentions.
- 25. Dodge (1986) Dodge(1986) has argued that much violence comes from Hostile Attributional Bias. Ambiguous actions, like accidentally standing on a person's foot, are interpreted as threatening and must be countered with action.
- 26. Personal Control Internal Locusof ControlInternal Locus of Control You pretty much control your own destiny External Locus of ControlExternal Locus of Control Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny Methods of StudyMethods of Study • Correlate feelings of control with behaviorCorrelate feelings of control with behavior • Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense ofExperiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of control and noting effectscontrol and noting effects
- 27. Locus of Control A number of studies have shown that offenders tend to external control, that is they explain their behaviour as being controlled by influences beyond their personal control (Beck and Ollendick 1976; Kumchy and Sayer 1980). other studies have failed to show any difference in locus of control between offender and non-offender samples (Drasgow et al. 1974; Groh and Goldenberg 1976); Lefcourt and Ladwig (1965) found offenders to be more internally controlled than non- offenders.
- 28. Locus of Control The varied findings are probably due to two unfounded assumptions: that locus of control is a unitary concept, and that offenders form a homogeneous population. a number of studies have shown that there are several dimensions to locus of control, such as belief in control over one's immediate environment as opposed to belief in control over political events (Mirels 1970).
- 29. Locus of Control locus of control within an offender population may be a function of race (Griffith et al. 1981); type of offence, for example, violent offenders tend to external control (Hollin and Wheeler 1982); or time spent in prison (Kiessel 1966).
- 30. Impulsivity Failure inself-control Unable to delay reward a failure to learn to stop and think; a failure to learn effective thinking'; a failure to generate alternative responses; a reflection of hopelessness.
- 31. Impulsivity Studies designedto find a link between impulsivity and crime give mixed results The difference between studies may be due to differing definitions and measures of impulsivity, and the heterogeneity of the offender population.
- 32. Impulsivity Uncontrolled episodesof anger may result from impulsivity or a tendency to follow impulses instinctively and without thought for the consequences. It has been suggested that this is a common characteristic of most offending behaviour, i.e. the satisfaction of immediate needs.
- 33. Impulsivity Impulsivity is stronglyassociated with psychopathy and anti-social personality (Blackburn, 1993) can be measured using the Minnesota Multi-phasic Inventory (MMPI)
- 34. Cognitive-Social Learning LearnedHelplessness • Seligman (1975) • Learned helplessness • the expectancy that one cannot escape aversive events & the motivational & learning deficits that result from the belief. • Human depression • Explanatory style • pessimistic explanatory style • causes of misfortune internal rather than external • stable & global • positive illusions • Optimism
- 35. cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988). A script is the details of how people should behave in a certain situation and what will happen if they behave that way. These are learnt from the environment in direct experience and from watching others, and from the media. But each script is unique to an individual, yet resistant to change.
- 36. cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988). They become more resistant with use and rehearsal over time. For example, if insulted, a man with an ‘aggressive script' will respond violently. He will justify this behaviour by seeing the insult as aggression, and aggression must be faced by aggression.
- 37. cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988). During high levels of physiological arousal, people resort to largely unthinking behaviour, and thus well- rehearsed scripts' take over. So to teach non-aggressive scripts' will reduce violence in situations of high arousal (Zillmann (1988))
- 38. McGuire (1969) –Matrix of communication The source – effective from another socially powerful offender The message – agreeable information presented first. Immunisation against persuasion – weak arguments against crime easily countered – e.g. “Yes, you could be caught, but the odds in your favour are 20 to 1, and only mugs get caught”.
- 39. McGuire (1969) –Matrix of communication The channel – face to face, in a pleasant context The receiver – recent failure – uses cognitive rehearsal – e.g. “sleep on it” The destination.
- 40. Incentives Primary food,drink, sex Sensory boredom, seeking new experiences important at the beginning of a career and for person crimes Monetary important for late in career, property crimes Social increase in social contacts Status/power built up from a series of successful crimes Self-evaluative professional pride.
- 41. The target propinquity (thetargets being close to where the criminal lives) payoff vulnerability ability to defend access to law enforcement policing, unlikely to be reported
- 42. The risk involved detection punishment estimationof risk over-estimated by law-abiders
- 43. Skills and resources skilled in physical attack, cracking safes
- 44. Opportunity to obtainsame objective by legal means relevant to acquisition stage, those at performance stage combine legitimate and criminal activities
- 45. Criminogenic factors Alcohol/drugs,possession of firearms, factors that increased the likelihood of a criminal act. Override rational thinking Drugs, need to steal to pay for drugs. Alcohol, this inhibits behaviour. More confident but less capable. Higher crime but also higher chances of being caught. Also increases helplessness in potential victims. Cohen et al (1956), bus drivers more optimistic about driving buses through small gap but were less successful.
- 46. Cognitive consequences and distortions. It is central to much of social psychology that people try to maintain cognitive consistency between their attitudes and their actions, and that they experience a subjective sense of discomfort when there is inconsistency. It is easier to resolve this by changing one’s cognitions than one’s behaviour (Berkowitz 1969).
- 47. Moral justification. Thisoperates on the nature of the behaviour itself. “What is culpable can be made honourable through cognitive restructuring... reprehensible conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it in the service of moral ends” (Bandura 1986, p. 376). As an example, Bandura points to military training: people who have been taught to deplore killing as immoral can be transformed rapidly into skilled combatants. In the criminological context moral justification is likely to be associated with political crimes.
- 48. Attribution of blame. Offenders seek to exonerate themselves by attributing the blame for their actions to the victim. The most obvious example is that of rape — a claim that in the past was frequently accepted by the courts. It will be found also in other person crimes and to some extent in property crimes.
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