Psychological Factors

1. Psychological Factors

2. Intelligence and IQ

3. Controversy –Delinquency, Race, IQ • What does IQ really measure? • Innate factors? • Learned factors? • Academic achievement, reading ability,test-wiseness? • Is IQ culturally biased? • If there are innate differences, are they caused by genetics or the environment?

4. IQ and Crime • Hypothesis: Mental deficiencies  crime • IQ expresses numerical differences in“mental abilities” • Early 1900’s, Simon and Binet, France • Large number of everyday tasks, by difficulty • Age levels assigned to tasks • “Mental age” based on tasks that test-takers can complete • IQ = Mental age/chronological age X 100 • Test taker can complete tasks for 9-year old, is 9 years old = 9/9 X 100 = 100 • Test taker can complete tasks for 9-year old, is 8 years old = 9/8 X 100= 112.5 • IQ test continuously revised and tweaked so that mean remains at 100 • Binet felt that persons could raise their IQ through training http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmg2NEL7390 5 mis.

5. IQ Testing in America • Unlike Binet, Americans felt that IQ was fixed (inborn) • Early purpose to sort people into appropriate roles • IQ’s above 115 appropriate for the professions • Identify the subnormal, institutionalize them to prevent reproduction • Goddard • For adults, a mental age of 13 is the lower limit of normalcy, mental age of 12 is “feeble-minded” • In one study 70 percent of incarcerated inmates were found to be feeble-minded • Feeble-minded persons are potential criminals, should be institutionalized & not reproduce

6. Studies in America • WWI • Military set minimum mental age of 13 • Mental age of 12 & below disqualified applicants • 37% of whites and 89% of blacks were disqualified, meaning that nearly half the population was “feeble-minded” • Goddard’s reaction • He changed his mind • Cannot equate IQ tests with native abilities • Feeble-mindedness can be remedied by education • Later studies • No difference in IQ scores for prisoners & draftees • Cannot conclude that most criminals are feeble-minded

7. Mid-century academicson the meaning of IQ • 1967 - William Shockley • IQ measures a “fundamental social capacity” • Differences between Afro-Americans and Euro-Americans due to genetic differences • Differences in IQ explain differences in poverty and in crime rates • 1969 - Arthur Jensen • IQ measures a factor important in Western industrialized societies • 80 percent of differences due to genetics, rather than the environment • 1976, 1987 - Robert Gordon • Variations in delinquency rates best explained by IQ • 1977 - Hirschi and Hindelang • IQ as important as race & social class in predicting delinquency • IQ has been ignored because of bias against it http://youtu.be/sAszZr3SkEs 10 mis.

8. “Verbal” and“Performance” IQ • IQ tests have two components • Verbal • Performance • For most, the scores are similar • Delinquents have large gaps, withpoor verbal scores but mostly normalperformance scores • Poor verbal ability  Delinquency? • YES – but there’s an intervening variable • Poor verbal ability  school problems  delinquency • Poor verbal ability  poor problem-solving abilities  delinquency • NO – it’s a spurious relationship. The actual cause is... • Scholastic underachievement  delinquency • Social conditions  delinquency http://www.enotes.com/topic/Wechsler_Adult_Intelligence_Scale

9. So...what does IQ really measure?Three competing concepts • Qualities related to the dominant culture (cultural bias) • Abstract reasoning/problem-solving ability, largely inherited (nature) • May be affected by environmental factors (nurture) • Low IQ parents may poorly rear children, holding back their IQ’s • General abilities, largely determined by environment (nurture) • Performance may be affected in low-income areas • Ineffective child-rearing • Poor schooling • Weak family supports

10. Personality

11. What is “personality”? • Individual emotional and behavioral attributesand qualities (other than intellectual ability)that remain relatively constant • Aggressiveness • Impulsivity • Introversion/extroversion • Friendly/hostile • Cooperative/uncooperative

12. Personality studies • 1950 – Sheldon & Eleanor Glueck • Compared 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent boys • Delinquents more extroverted, impulsive, hostile • Delinquents less fearful of failure, less deferential to authority • Predictors of delinquency • Social background • Character traits (Rorschach test) • Personality traits (psychiatric interview) • MMPI demonstrates similar results • 550 statements used for psychiatric diagnoses • Scale 4 used to predict delinquency. Has been criticized because... • Some items are delinquency (“when I was young I stole things”) • Other items are non-delinquency (“I like school”) • Ignores environment

13. Antisocial PersonalityDisorder (APD) • DSM-IV (unchanged in DSM-5) • “Pervasive pattern of disregard and violationof the rights of others that begins in childhoodand continues to adulthood”. • At least three: • repeated lawbreaking • repeated lying and deceit • impulsivity • repeated physical fights • repeated failure to work • lack of remorse • Characteristics must be inflexible, maladaptive, persistent, cause significant functional impairment or personal distress • Adult antisocial behavior (criminal behavior in absence of APD)

14. Psychopathy andsociopathy • APA doesn’t recognize terms, lumps both under APD • Psychopathy – Dr. Robert Hare • Take the Quiz • “Remorseless predators who use charm, intimidation and impulsive and cold-blooded violence to attain their ends.” • Impulsive, aggressive risk-takers who reject social norms • Heredity plays dominant role, environmental also important  • Dr. Hare’s PCL-R scale widely used to evaluate candidates for parole • BUT – study by Mc Cord: Recidivism rates of delinquents diagnosed as psychopaths only slightly worse than for non-psychopaths • Sociopathy • Similar but caused by social factors – parental neglect, peers, poverty • Some gang researchers see “core” gang members as sociopaths who use the mob to act out their own aggression • Police Issues • “A New Crystal Ball” • NPR audio (13 mis.) http://youtu.be/VkRUyGkmEj0 4 mis.

15. Schizophrenia • DSM-IV (essentially same in DSM-5) • Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior. • Believed to be caused by genetic predisposition and environmental stresses during adolescence & early adulthood • May affect one-third of the 600,000 homeless in the U.S. • Most schizophrenics are withdrawn, not violent. • More risk of violence if delusions are paranoid, with substance abuse, or with failure to take medication • Evidence that premature births can pose risk for mental illness • Study of young adults born at less than eight months’ gestation: risk of hospitalization for schizophrenia 2X-plus; major depression 3X, for bipolar disorder more than 7X http://video.nytimes.com/video/ 2011/08/06/science/100000000978793/living-with-voices.html 3 mis. http://www.cnn.com/video/ - /video/crime/2011/08/04/nr.kelly. thomas.dad.speaks.cnn? 4 mis. Police Issues: “Homeless, Mentally Ill, Dead”

16. Pedophilia • DSM-IV (essentially same in DSM-5) • Sexual activity with a prepubescent child(generally age 13 years or younger) by aperson at least 16 years old and 5 yearsolder than the child • Origins • Having been abused as a child • Feelings of inadequacy with same age peers • Common justifications given by pedophiles • Having educational value for the child • Child experiences sexual pleasure • Child was sexually provocative • Police Issues: “The Church, Absolved” http://www.cbsnews.com/video/ watch/?id=694698n 3 mis. Pedophile\The Pedophile 5 mis.MPG

17. Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer • On 2/25/05 Wichita Police arrested Dennis Rader, 59, aPark City code enforcement officer, for ten killingsbetween 1974 and 1991. Rader left semen at each scene.He taunted police notes signed “BTK” (bind, torture, kill). • Despite collecting DNA from 5,000 persons there was no progress until, after 25 years, the killer resumed sending letters and leaving victim’s things in public places. Surveillance tapes showed a Park City animal control van. A computer disk he left was traced to a computer in his church. Crime DNA was matched against his daughter. • “We always said he was invisible because he was most likely so ordinary,” said a retired detective. “As it turned out, he was exactly ordinary.” • On June 27, 2005 Rader pled guilty to the ten slayings. Rader said the “projects” were done for sexual gratification. He received ten consecutive life sentences. http://youtu.be/xYIWGqcPV0k 15 mis.

18. Predicting dangerousness –psychological approach • Ten-year study by Kozol, Boucher andGarofalo of high-risk offenders being releasedfrom prison • Psychiatric evaluation failed to predicttwo-thirds of subsequent violent offending • Two-thirds of those predicted to becomeviolent did not • Monahan – clinical prediction difficult,requires that individual’s general situation notchange • Compare context of past offending withnew circumstances • Time since, severity and frequency of pastviolence • Yields probability for persons of likedemographic characteristics • Some psychologists use PCL scale, but most rely on their own assessments using their own judgment as to various factors, especially those underlined in red http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=psychfacpub

19. Predicting dangerousness – “Actuarial” (statistical) approach • Studies offender characteristics • Doesn’t predict whether particular individuals will commit violence • Identifies factors associated with an increased likelihood of offending • Best predictor of future delinquency is early childhood behavior • Disruptive classroom behavior, aggressiveness, lying, dishonesty (tautology problem) • May be affected by personality characteristics not measured by testing • Other predictors of future delinquency • Poor parental supervision • Separation from parents • Offending by parents and siblings • Low intelligence and educational attainment • Optimism about the possibility of intervention

20. Impulsivity and crime • High level of activity, impatience for rewards,seek immediate gratification, easily distracted • Wilson & Herrnstein: Impulsivity  Internal inhibitions (“Conscience”)  Crime • Crime is naturally rewarding • We must be restrained by internal inhibitions (conscience), developed in early childhood through family rearing • Key factor: considering long-term rather than just the short-term consequences of one’s actions • Contributing factors • Poor child-rearing produces weak inhibitions • Membership in deviant subcultures • Mass media (modeling), learning one is a “victim” • Economic system/legitimate opportunities to gain rewards • Schools

21. Impulsivity and persistenceof criminal behavior • Walters – “lifestyle criminals” • Irresponsibility, self-indulgence, chronic violation ofsocial rules • Feelings of entitlement, being a “victim” • Power orientation – “dog-eat-dog world” • Superoptimism – feeling of invulnerability • Cognitive indolence – not paying attention to life details • Discontinuity – failing to set goals, carry outcommitments • Moffitt – “life-course persistent offenders” • Early neurophysiological problems: nutrition, mother’sdrug use, etc. • Home situation: child abuse, lack of affection &supervision • Disrupts schooling, reduces ability to earn legitimate rewards • Caspi, Moffitt et al – “crime-proneness” • Associated with combination of impulsivity and “negative emotionality” (excessive anger, anxiety, and irritability) Study based on Moffitt http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120126_genes-crime.htm

22. Might the same biological and psychological factorsunderlie all violent behavior? • In April 2007 a troubled 23-year old student killed thirty-two and wounded seventeen at Virginia Tech with two pistols he legally bought at retail. • In April 2009 a troubled 42-year old upstate New York man used a pair of lawfully purchased pistols to kill thirteen and wound four. • In January 2011 a mentally disturbed 24-year old Arizona man used a pistol he legally bought to kill six and wound thirteen at a Congressional event. • In July 2012 a troubled 25-year old student used an AR-15 type rifle, a pistol and a shotgun that he legally bought to gun down twelve and wound sixty-two at a Colorado movie theater. • In December 2012 a troubled 20-year old man shot his mother dead with her AR-15 type rifle, then invaded a Newtown, Connecticut school and murdered twenty children and six adults. • In September 2013 a mentally troubled 34-year old man burst into a D.C. Naval office building with a shotgun that he legally bought, shot a security guard and took his pistol, and gunned down twelve. • How do these compare to more “conventional”violent crime? • Takeover bank robberies? • Family disputes? • Gang drive-by’s? • Could the same underlying factors be at work?

23. Policy implications • Some theories (e.g., Moffitt) specify causes of behavior (e.g., early psychological problems, poor parenting) & suggest interventions • Clinical, parenting classes, special education • BUT the authors feel that psychological factors are much less powerful than sociological factors as an explanation for crime (note: authors are sociologists) • Agree that impulsivity seems to be best psychological candidate as a cause of crime and delinquency (author’s favorite) • But psychologists may be attaching personality labels simply because of differences in rates of offending • Differences in IQ & school achievement are more likely caused mostly by the environment (poverty, poor parenting, etc.) So deal with those first. • Lecturer’s conclusions • Crime is a social construct • Anyone who for any reason gets a distorted view of their environment may commit a crime • Behavior is the result of a process that may include biological, psychological and social factors • “Levers” such as stiffer punishment and improving education seem easier to pull than tampering with genes or body chemistry or getting inside peoples’ heads