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Criminal Behaviours

Criminal Behaviours: intelligence, psychopathy and social psychological explanations

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3 Section A

Overview

The link between intelligence and offending, the psychopathic personality described by Cleckley and Hare, differential association theory, and gender socialisation, Heidensohn and normalisation as explanations of the gender gap.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Which two explanations for the IQ-offending correlation avoid treating low intelligence as a direct cause?

Key term

What does differential association theory claim?

Key term

Name four features of the psychopathic personality described by Cleckley and later by Hare.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What relationship is reported between intelligence and offending?

    Model answer

    A modest negative correlation, strongest for verbal ability, with Hirschi and Hindelang (1977) arguing that IQ predicts delinquency about as well as social class does.

  2. 2

    Which two explanations for the IQ-offending correlation avoid treating low intelligence as a direct cause?

    Model answer

    Lower verbal ability leads to school failure and exclusion, which raise offending risk indirectly, and less able offenders may simply be more likely to be caught and convicted.

  3. 3

    Name four features of the psychopathic personality described by Cleckley and later by Hare.

    Model answer

    Superficial charm, grandiosity, lack of remorse or guilt, and shallow emotional response; psychopathy is a research construct rather than a diagnosis of criminality, and many people who score highly have never offended violently.

  4. 4

    What does differential association theory claim?

    Model answer

    Sutherland argued that criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with intimate personal groups, including both the techniques and the rationalisations, and a person offends once they hold an excess of definitions favourable to breaking the law.

  5. 5

    What is one strength and one weakness of differential association theory?

    Model answer

    It explains white-collar offending and the concentration of crime in particular families and neighbourhoods, but the balance of definitions is almost impossible to measure, which makes the theory hard to test.

  6. 6

    How does gender socialisation explain the gender gap in offending?

    Model answer

    Boys are rewarded for risk-taking, toughness and status-seeking while girls are socialised into caution, care and conformity, so the behaviours that shade into offending are encouraged far more in males.

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