Understanding Criminal Behaviour: Psychosocial Approaches to Criminality

337 Pages·2008·1.55 MB·English

by  David W. Jones

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Understanding Criminal Behaviour

Understanding Criminal
Behaviour
Psychosocial approaches to criminality
David W. Jones
Published by
Willan Publishing
Culmcott House
Mill Street, Uffculme
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 3AT, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by
Willan Publishing
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
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Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.isbs.com
© David W. Jones 2008
The rights of David W. Jones to be identified as the author of this book have been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence
permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron
House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
First published 2008
ISBN 978-1-84392-303-9 paperback
978-1-84392-304-6 hardback
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon
Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
Introduction: psychological perspectives on criminal behaviour xiii
1 The relationship of psychology and sociology
in the study of crime 1
Introduction 1
Beccaria and the study of crime 3
Nineteenth-century positivism 6
Twentieth-century sociological criminology 10
Twentieth-century psychological approaches to crime 20
Conclusion: psychology and criminology –
a psychosocial perspective 34
2 Mental disorder: madness, personality disorder
and criminal responsibility 37
Introduction 37

A brief history of criminal responsibility and mental
disorder 42
Diminished responsibility and medical definitions 48
The problem of psychopathy and personality disorder 55
Conclusion 70
3 The contribution of criminal career research 72
Introduction 72
The London Longitudinal Study 74
Heterogeneity of offenders: adolescent-limited versus
life-course-persistent offenders 86

Understanding Criminal Behaiour
Explaining the links between childhood antisocial
behaviour and adult offending 91
Conclusion 101
4 Familial and parental influences 104
Introduction 104
Family structure and delinquency 106
Parenting styles and early family experience 112
Child effects 121
Conclusion 126
5 Youth crime 128
Introduction 128
Age and criminal responsibility 130
Why do young people commit crime? 132
Conclusion 152
6 Gender and crime 154
Introduction 154
Men, masculinity and crime 155
Women and crime 170
Conclusion 177
7 Understanding violence: learning from studies of
homicide 178
Introduction 178
Scenarios of homicide 180
Confrontational homicide 182
Personality types and confrontational rage murder 188
Conclusion 201
8 Intimate viole nce and sexual crime 203
Introduction 203
Domestic violence and violence in the context of
sexual intimacy 204
Sexual crimes: rape 213
Paedophilia and sexual offences against children 228
Conclusion 237
i
Contents
9 Conclusions 239
Overview 239
Psychosocial understanding of criminal behaviour:
the significance of emotion and personality in
conditions of ‘high modernity’ 244
Reducing crime 253
Further work 262
References 263
Author index 295
Subject index 307

ii

Acknowledgements
I must thank Brian Willan for the encouragement of the project in
the first place and then for patience while waiting for the book to
be finished. Thanks are due to the University of East London for
continuing to support cross-disciplinary academic work, and for a
semester-long sabbatical that has allowed this book to be finished.
In particular, thanks are due to colleagues involved in psychosocial
studies, most especially Candy Yates for the supportive reading of
drafts.
This book emerges from several years of teaching students. I
am grateful for their interest, thoughtful responses and provoking
questions.
Thanks to Helen, Izzie and Ben for putting up with it all again.
Thanks ultimately to my parents and particularly the memory
of my mother (1930–2002), who would have been pleased to see
Wordsworth in a criminology book, and my children who probably
agree with the senti ment:
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
‘The Tables Turned’ (William Wordsworth, 1798)
ix