1. Legal Psychology Gerhard Ohrband ULIM University, Moldova 1 st lecture Introduction into Legal Psychology – Theories of Crime

2. Today’s plan: Presentation Course structure Literature Course rules Exams and grading Introduction into Legal Psychology Theories of crime

3. Course structure Lectures: 1. Introduction into Legal Psychology – Theories of crime 2. Correctional treatment 3. Victimology 4. Police psychology 5. Testimony assessment 6. Criminal responsibility 7. Judicial judgments 8. Psychological assessment of families

4. Course structure Seminars: 9. Eyewitness testimony 10. Jury decision-making 11. Child abuse 12. Prostitution 13. Rape 14. Tax evasion 15. Stereotypes and prejudices in the law system

5. Course literature Ronald Blackburn (1993/2004). The Psychology of Criminal Conduct – theory, research and practice. Piter (Russian translation). Renate Volbert & Max Steller (2008). Handbuch der Rechtspsychologie. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

6. Legal Psychology Psychology: human emotions, cognitions and behaviour Legal Psychology: behaviour in the context of law and crime

7. 1.Theories of crime 2.Violent crime 3.Sex offenses 4.Youth delinquency 5.Criminal careers 6.Psychopathy 7.Resilience in the development of antisocial behavior 8.Crime prevention Research: Do video-games influence aggression? What do criminals feel? Content

8. 1. Theories of crime Personality Learning theory Social information processing Sociostructural theories Labeling theories Situation-based explanation: the rational choice perspective Developmental and neuropsychological theories

9. Eysenck Basis: his general personality model (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism) High values in all dimension > disposition for criminal behavior Actual situation Broader societal context While context variables influence differences in crime rates between countries, the personality variables represent the individual risk to become a criminal unter certain conditions.

10. Modification from Lösel & Schmucker (2004) PERSONALITY Distal causes Proximal causes Proximal Distal consequences consequences Genetic Biological Psychometrical Experimental Social behavior determinants mediation properties reactions DNA Arousal Limbic system Extraversion Neuroticism Psychoticism Low conditionability Crime

11. Correlations between personality and criminal behavior Psychoticism: r =.40 -.50 (risk of a circular explanation) Neuroticism: r =.28 (Fischer and Kretschmer, 1996) Extraversion: r =.04 (metanalyses); stronger correlations for adolescents and for self-reported, lighter crimes. Correlations for N higher in adulthood and for serious crimes. Problem: many findings are based on studying prison inmates (possible prisonization effects). Self-regulation: consistent correlations for impulsivity, substance abuse, high risk-taking dispostions etc.

12. Social-cognitive theory of aggression (Bandura, 1976) LearningActivationStabilization, destabilization Model learning Operant conditioning Structural determinants Model influence Aversive treatment Motivating incentives Orders Bizarre thought patterns External reinforcement Punishment Representative reinforcement Self-regulation

13. Crick and Dodge (1994): information processing model Aggressive persons show distortion in the following phases 1.Encoding of information (e.g., selective perception of aggressive cues) 2.Interpretation of the situation (e.g., attribution of hostile intention in others) 3.Goal setting (e.g., egocentrical and uncooperative goals) 4.Generation of alternative reactions (e.g., more aggressive schemas in memory) 5.Appraisal and selection of behavior (e.g., expected success of aggression) 6.Action initiation (e.g., social skills deficits)

14. A bio-psycho-social model of criminal behaviour Biological factors Psychological factors Social Factors Increased vulnerability Criminal behaviour Stabilization of criminal behaviour Stressful life-events reinforcement

15. General principles for criminological theories (Lösel and Bender, 2005) 1.Differentiation between forms of crime 2.Multiple and not single factors 3.Delinquency is not static 4.Factors that cause or trigger problem behavior can be different from those which stabilize and reinforce it 5.Equifinality and Multifinality 6.Biological, psychological and social factors interact 7.Offenders are not only passive objects of social influences

16. 6. Psychopathy – Antisocial personality disorder DSM-IV, Axis II personality disorders 3 clusters: Cluster A (‘eccentric’): schizotypal and paranoid personality disorders Cluster B (‘dramatic’): narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders Cluster C (‘anxious’): avoidant and dependent personality disorders (Van Velzen and Emmelkamp, 1996)

17. Antisocial personality disorder Symptoms: failure to conform to standards of decency repeated lying and stealing failure to sustain long-lasting and loving relationships low tolerance of boredom complete lack of guilt

18. Antisocial personality disorder History of the term: Prichard (1835): ‘moral insanity’ Koch (1889): ‘psychopathic inferiority’ DSM-I: ‘sociopathic personality disturbance’ DSM-IV, today: ‘antisocial personality disorder’ antisocial personality disorder/sociopathy vs. psychopathy: the latter plus other, more emotive factors such as lack of empathy for others, remorselessness and manipulativeness.

19. Cleckley’s primary characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (1976) 1.Superficial charm and good ‘intelligence’ 2.Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking 3.Absence of ‘nervousness’ 4.Unreliability 5.Untruthfulness and insincerity 6.Lack of remorse or shame 7.Inadequately motivated antisocial behaviour 8.Poor judgement and failure to learn by experience 9.Pathological egocentricity and incapacity for love 10.General poverty in major affective reactions 11.Specific loss of insight 12.Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations 13.Fantastic and uninviting behaviour 14.Suicide rarely carried out 15.Sex life impersonal, trivial and poorly integrated 16.Failure to follow any life plan

20. Research: Aggressive Videogames and Violent Behaviour – Fundamental Positions Is there a correlation between aggressive videogames and violent behaviour? Yes Watching aggressive videogames causes violent behaviour Violent individuals prefer aggressive videogames No

21. General affective aggresion model

22. Long-term effects of video game violence

23. Effects of videogames on violent behaviour (Anderson and Dill, 2000)

24. Video game and trait irritability

25. Research: Criminals’ emotional experiences (Canter and Ioannou, 2004) Most social science explanations of crime emphasise societal context, antecedent events, or personality characteristics of offenders. By contrast the legal processes focus on the purposes of the offender and his/her intentions, seeking to determine the agency of the offender in the criminal act rather than causes external to the individual. One bridge between the external influence and the internal agency, that has tended to be neglected, is the actual experience of the offence by the offender.

26. Russel’s circumplex of emotions

29. The emotions making up the four regions of SSA

30. The emotions that are significantly different across the seven categories of crime type

31. Overall emotional direction of offences in each of seven categories

32. Literature: Anderson, C.A. and Dill, K.E. (2000). Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78 (4). 772-790. Canter, D.V. and Ioannnou, M. (2004). Criminal’s emotional experiences during crimes. International Journal of Forensic Psychology, 1 (2), 71-81. Cleckley, H. (1976). The mask of sanity. St. Louis, MI: C.V. Mosby. Van Velzen, C.J.M. and Emmelkamp, P.M.G. (1996). The assessment of personality disorders: Implications for cognitive and behaviour therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34(8), 655-668.

33. Journals Acta-Psychiatrica-Scandinavica American Journal of Psychiatry Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law Clinical Psychology Review International Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Clinical Psychiatry Journal and Interpersonal Violence Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Personality and Individual Differences Psychopathy, Crime & Law

34. Internet resources http://psy.ucsd.edu/~hflowe/index2.htm

35. Contact information Gerhard Ohrband ohrband@ulim.md 022 – 20 59 21; 068 – 077 988