Psychological Explanations of Violent Offending

1
Psychological Explanations of Violent Offending

• Devlin Power and Liz Halsey
• HM Prison Service

2
Introduction

• Aims
• Definition of violence
• Case studies
• Discussion
• Summary conclusion

3
Aims

• To examine the potential explanations for violent
  offending
• To consider the merits of these explanations in
  light of psychological research

4
HCR - 20

• Webster, Douglas, Eaves and Hart (1997) HCR-20
  Assessing Risk for Violence. Mental Health and
  Policy institute, Simon Fraser University.
• Actual, attempted or threatened harm to a person
  or persons.
• All sexual assaults should be considered violent
  behaviour.

5
Webster et al. cont.

• Threats of harm must be clear and unambiguous
  (e.g. I am going to kill you!), rather than
  vague statements of hostility. Violence is
  behaviour which is likely to cause harm to
  another person or persons. Behaviour which would
  be fear-inducing to the average person may be
  counted as violence (e.g. stalking). The
  resultant damage to the victim is not the
  defining feature of a violent act. Rather it is
  the act itself. For example, a person who shoots
  a gun into a crowd of people but harms no-one has
  committed a violent act.

6
Blackburn, R. The Psychology of Criminal Conduct

• Violence denotes the forceful infliction of
  physical injury.
• Criminal violence is the illegitimate use of
  force, and includes criminal homicide, assault,
  robbery, rape, and other sexual assaults.

7
Case Study 1

• Mr Campbell
• Thinking about the topics youve covered in the
  previous lectures of this module, and any
  relevant professional experience, identify the
  potential causes of the violent behaviour
  committed by Mr Campbell
• In your groups, list the causes and the relevant
  theory (e.g. biological)

8
Robbery

• Blackburn, Robbery therefore represents
  instrumental aggression, p211.
• Felson, R.B, Baumer, E. P and Messener, S.F.
  (2000) acquaintance robbery Journal of research
  in crime and delinquency, 37, (3), pp 284-305.
  Some acquaintance robberies are expressions of
  grievances, whereas others involve inside
  information about what the victim is carrying.

9
Drug Use

• Correlation between rates of heroin use and
  robbery rates (e.g. Chilvers and Weatherburn,
  2003).
• Crack cocaine use and robbery (e.g. Baumer et
  al.,1998).

10
Society

• Social deprivation (e.g. Kawachi et al., 1999
  and Fajnzylber et al., 2002).
• Unemployment (e.g. Paternoster, 2001).

11
Personality

• Psychopathy, as assessed by the PCL-R, should be
  considered in any assessment of violence. It is
  empirically related to future violence, is
  theoretically important in the explanation of
  violence (Hart, 1998, pp 368-369).

12
Biology and Violence

• Hormones
• Brain damage
• Brain Scan research

13
Case Study 2

• Mr Potter
• Reflecting on your previous lectures in this
  module, identify potential explanations for the
  violent behaviour committed by Mr Potter
• In your groups, list potential explanations and
  the relevant theory that would support these
  explanations

14
Compare Contrast the two case studies

• Instrumental vs Expressive violence
• Clear explanations or speculation?

15
Summary Conclusion

• Psychological explanations of Violence
• Definitions of violence
• Personality
• Biology
• Society
• References