Individual Traits and Crime

Individual Traits and Crime Psychology and Crime Personality Psychological Theories

Criminal Mind

Brain Prefrontal cortex-Provides ability to plan, reason, concentrate, and adjust behavior Left cerebral hemisphere-Together with right cerebral hemisphere, controls most conscious and mental activities

A stalker with Huntington’s disease • Huntington’s disease is a hereditary disorder that causes neurons in certain brain areas to degenerate • Besides uncontrolled movements and cognitive problems, Huntington’s disorder can lead to marked personality changes, depression, apathy, mania, aggression, anxiety, hostility, and obsessive behavior

A stalker with Huntington’s disease • A 48-year-old woman with Huntington’s disorder who stalked and threatened her female therapist • After the second incident, doctors treated the woman with an antidepressant and an antipsychotic, and the frequency and intensity of her obsession with her therapist decreased

Structural brain abnormalities detected in pedophiles • MRI scans of 18 male pedophiles and 24 healthy age-matched heterosexual and homosexual controls

Structural brain abnormalities detected in pedophiles • Boris Schiffer found that compared to the controls, pedophiles showed reduced gray matter volume in • the orbitofrontal cortex • the cerebellum

Brain injury rate high for young delinquents • Rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are extremely high among delinquent teens • Brian Perron and Matthew Howard assessed the psychiatric symptoms and antisocial behaviors of 720 juvenile offenders in Missouri Division of Youth Services facilities between March 1 and May 31, 2003. • The researchers asked each participant about any history of a head injury severe enough to cause unconsciousness for more than 20 minutes.

Brain injury rate high for young delinquents • Perron and Howard report that nearly one in five of the offenders reported suffering a TBI at some point, with males more likely to report a TBI than females. • The researchers note that their findings are consistent with those of an earlier study (Craswell et al.) which used similar TBI criteria and found that 27.7 percent of delinquents had a history of TBI

SPECT scans reveal brain deficits in impulsive murderers • Impulsive murderers have reduced blood flow to a region of the brain involved with planning and self-control, according to a new study by Daniel Amen and colleagues.The researchers performed SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans on 11 young adult males convicted of impulsive murders, comparing their brain function to that of non-criminal control subjects under two conditions: in a resting state, and engaged in a task requiring concentration.

SPECT scans reveal brain deficits in impulsive murderers • The researchers report that scans of the impulsive murderers differed significantly from those of control subjects during the concentration task • They had lower perfusion in brain regions implicated in impulse control, self-censorship, planning, and future consequences

Adolescent Killers Exhibit Marked Neurological Deficits • A study of juveniles condemned to death reports compelling evidence that they exhibited serious neurological impairment at the time they committed their crimes. • Dorothy Otnow Lewis and colleagues evaluated 18 males who had received the death penalty in Texas • All had been 17 years old at the time they committed murder • Each subject underwent neurological, neuropsychological, psychiatric, and educational evaluations.

The researchers report that… • Three subjects had been born prematurely (one weighing only 3 pounds), a fourth was delivered by Cesarean section because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, and the mother of a fifth had attempted to abort him • Overall, the researchers report, "six (33%) of the group began life with potentially compromised central nervous system functioning, and a seventh reportedly was the product of a difficult delivery."

The researchers report that… • All but one of the subjects had a history of multiple head injuries, often resulting in loss of consciousness. • Neurological evaluation revealed that five of 17 subjects exhibited one abnormal finding on testing of prefrontal lobe functioning • Three had two abnormal findings • Two had three abnormal findings • Three had four or more abnormal findings • "It should be noted," the researchers say, "that most normal individuals have no signs of frontal lobe impairment on neurological examination."

Brain tumor leads to pedophilia • An egg-sized brain tumor caused a man with no history of pedophilia to begin molesting children • The 40-year-old man, a married teacher, had never exhibited abnormal sexual impulses • When he began visiting child pornography websites, visiting prostitutes, and making sexual advances to young children, his wife left him

Brain tumor leads to pedophilia • Eventually he was convicted of child molestation, and entered a treatment program for pedophiles • He continued to display inappropriate sexual behavior, and was expelled from a rehabilitation program after propositioning the women attending the program

Brain tumor leads to pedophilia • At this point, doctors ordered an MRI scan that showed a large tumor in the right orbitofrontal cortex • The tumor was removed, and the man successfully completed his therapy and returned home

Experts say…. • We're dealing with the neurology of morality here," says Swerdlow • The tumor caused few physical symptoms, he says, "It's one of those areas where you could have a lot of damage and a doctor would never suspect something's wrong."

Personality and Crime • Many criminological theories use personality traits to explain between individual differences in criminal behavior

Criminology • Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck identified a number of personality traits that they believe characterize antisocial youth: self-assertiveness, defiance, impulsiveness, suspicion, hostility, sadism, resentment, mental instability, extroversion, ambivalence, and destructiveness

Psychopath • Images from movies like "Silence of The Lambs" and characters with names like "Hannibal Lector" • Serial killers and people involved in ritual torture are rare, but psychopathic behavior is more common than you might think

Psychopath • Antisocial personality • A teen who had no sense of guilt • Personality of a hard-core juvenile delinquent • He could learn the rules, but he had no sense of conscience • "People know when something is wrong because it feels wrong. I have to remember or be reminded that stealing from someone is wrong. I don’t feel bad if I take something."

Psychopath • Children with this condition are "emotionally blind“ • A psychopath is not necessarily a bad person • But they are prone to have problems with society, rules, expectations and relationships • They may end up living a "predatory" lifestyle, feeling little or no regret, and having little or no remorse - except when they are caught or about to be locked up

superficial charm self-centered & self-important need for stimulation & prone to boredom deceptive behavior & lying little remorse or guilt shallow emotional response poor self-control promiscuous sexual behavior early behavioral problems lack of realistic long term goals impulsive lifestyle irresponsible behavior blaming others for their actions short term relationships juvenile delinquency breaking parole or probation varied criminal activity Warning signs (Robert Hare, the leading expert on the Psychopathic Personality)

Biology and psychopath • Research using brain scanning technology has revealed that the brain of a psychopath functions and processes information differently • This suggests that they may be physically different from normal people • Psychopaths can remain calm looking photos of dead bodies in automobile accidents where as other people were clearly upset

Ted Bundy The most frightening of serial killers: a handsome, educated psychopathic law student who stalked and murdered dozens of young college women who looked very much like a young woman who broke off her relationship with him.Bundy was a very adept and glib con artist who faked a broken arm in a sling to convince young women to help him carry his textbooks to his car. Once there, he battered them with a baseball bat and carried them off for ghoulish rituals

What to do with psychopath • So what happens to kids if they don’t learn right from wrong? • Parents usually end up angry and frustrated • Many parents resort to punishment • But what these children need is intensive guidance, instruction, training, choices, consequences and supervision • Severe and repeated punishment alone is the worst thing parents can do • And child abuse is a sure way to create a social misfit or a monster.

Psychoanalytic Theory • All humans have criminal tendencies • Criminal tendencies are normal • The idea of personality conflict as a cause of crime • Through the process of socialization these tendencies are curbed by the development of inner controls that are learned through childhood experience

Freud hypothesized • That the most common element that contributed to criminal behavior was faulty identification by a child with her or his parents • The improperly socialized child may develop a personality disturbance that causes her or him to direct antisocial impulses inward or outward • The child who directs them outward becomes a criminal, and the child that directs them inward becomes a neurotic.

The Discovery of the Unconscious • The father of psychoanalysis • Structural Model • Id, ego, superego • We are born with our Id • Id is based on our pleasure principle( if it feels good, do it) • The id doesn't care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction

EGO • Within the next three years, the Ego develops • The ego is based on the reality principle • The ego understands that other people have needs and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can hurt us in the long run • The ego's job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.

Superego • By five, the Superego develops • This is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers • Many equate the superego with the conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong

Unconscious • Majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level • He believed that most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious • Oedipus and Electra Complex are pushed down into the unconscious, out of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused • While buried there, however, they continue to impact us dramatically

Electra Complex • According to Freud, during the phallic stage (3-5 years) the daughter becomes attached to her father and more hostile towards her mother • This is due mostly to the idea that the girl is "envious" of her father's penis and wants to possess it so strongly that she dreams of bearing his children, thus the term "penis-envy“ • This leads to resentment towards her mother, who the girl believes caused her castration.

Conscious • Freud also believed that everything we are aware of is stored in our conscious • Our conscious makes up a very small part of who we are • In other words, at any given time, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our personality; most of what we are is buried and inaccessible.

Subconscious • This is the part of us that we can access if prompted, but is not in our active conscious • Its right below the surface, but still buried somewhat unless we search for it • Information such as our telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best childhood friend is stored in the preconscious

Healthy balance • We can think of the id as the 'devil on our shoulder' and the superego as the 'angel on your shoulder.‘ • We don't want either one to get too strong so we talk to both of them, hear their perspective and then make a decision

Delinquent behavior • Is a result of defective superego • Inability to feel guilt, to learn from experience, or to feel affection to others

Delinquent Behavior • Is a result of overdeveloped superego • Represses the id so harshly that pressure builds up in the id and there is an explosion of acting-out behavior

Individual Traits and Crime