Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice J.B. Helfgott Seattle University - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice J.B. Helfgott Seattle University

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Title: Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice J.B. Helfgott Seattle University


1
Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and
Criminal JusticeJ.B. HelfgottSeattle University
  • CHAPTER 3
  • Typologies of Crime and Criminals

2
Typologies of Crime and Criminals
There are two types of people in this world,
good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad
seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.
-- Woody Allen
3
What is a Typology?
  • A systematic grouping of entities that have
    characteristics or traits in common to classes of
    a particular system.
  • An abstract category or class consisting of
    characteristics organized around a common
    principle relevant to a particular analysis.

4
Typologies in Everyday Life, Science, and Policy
and Practice
  • Typology construction is a fundamental component
    of human cognition and scientific investigation.
  • Examples of typologies we all use in everyday
    life?
  • Examples of scientific typologies?
  • How are typologies used at the institutional
    level in schools, hospitals, and the criminal
    justice system?

5
Criminological Theories and Criminal Typologies
A CRIMINAL TYPOLOGY is criminological theory made
manageable in a way that can be practically
applied to organize, classify, and make sense of
a range of behaviors that violate the law.
  • Examples?

6
Examples of Comprehensive Criminal Typologies
  • Clinard, Quinney, Wildemans (1994)Criminal
    Behavior Systems
  • Dabneys (2004) Crime Types
  • Miethe, McCorkle, Listwans (2006) Crime
    Profiles

7
Mental Disorders and Criminal Behavior
  • Mental illness is just one factor that may play a
    role in some incidents and types of criminal
    behavior.
  • Mental disorder and criminal behavior are
    distinct concepts that sometimes overlap.
  • Some mental disorders have been empirically
    associated with criminal behavior (antisocial
    personality disorder and psychopathy).

8
Defining Mental Disorder
  • When people speak of mental disorder this term
    encompasses an enormous range of human behavioral
    symptoms and conditions ranging from everyday
    problems in living to severe psychopathological
    disturbances.
  • No definition adequately specifies precise
    boundaries for the concept of mental disorder
    (APA, 2000, p. xxx).

9
Conflicting Goals of the Mental Health and
Criminal Justice Systems
  • Conflicting goals of the mental health and
    criminal justice systems make it difficult to
    understand and respond to mentally ill offenders
    and to understand the relationship between mental
    illness and crime.
  • According to Blackburn (1993, p. 246), concerns
    about the psychiatrisation of crime have been
    paralleled by concerns over the criminalisation
    of mental disorder.

10
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental
Disorders (DSM)
  • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
    Disorders, published since 1952 by the American
    Psychiatric Association, is a categorical system
    for classification of mental disorders for the
    purpose of communication, diagnoses, education,
    research, and treatment.
  • Editions of the DSM
  • -1952/DSM -1968/DSM II
  • -1980/DSM III -1987/DSM-III-R
  • -1994/DSM-IV -2000/DSM-IV-TR

11
DSM Multiaxial System
  • The DSM is organized around a multiaxial system
    that involves assessment on several axes
  • Axis I Major clinical syndromes
  • Axis II Personality disorders
  • Axis III Physical disorders
  • Axis IV Psychosocial stressors
  • Axis V Global level of functioning

12
The Macarthur Study of Mental Disorder and
Violence
  • The Macarthur Study of Mental Disorder and
    Violence (Monahan et al, 2001) has been described
    as the best designed study ever done on violence
    risk assessment involving over 1000 psychiatric
    patients examining the relationship between 134
    potential risk factors and subsequent violence.
  • The study concluded that, the propensity for
    violence is the result of the accumulation of
    risk factors, no one of which is either necessary
    or sufficient for a person to behave aggressively
    toward others. People will be violent by virtue
    of the presence or absence of different sets of
    risk factors. There is no single path in a
    persons life that leads to an act of violence
    (p. 142).

13
Criminal Typologies Theory and Purpose
  • Criminal typologies are necessary to understand,
    identify, and respond to crime.
  • The criminal justice system cannot respond to
    crime with a one size fits all approach.
    Sanctions, management strategies, treatment
    approaches, and public safety policies and
    practices are highly dependent on differentiation
    of types of crimes and criminals.
  • The question, What type of person are we dealing
    with? is of central importance at every stage in
    the criminal justice process.

14
Types of Criminal Typologies
  • TYPES
  • Legalistic
  • Sociological
  • Psychological
  • Biological
  • Multi-trait
  • PURPOSES
  • Sanctions
  • Management
  • Treatment
  • Understanding

15
Scientific Typologies
  • Classifying events or people into types is a
    necessary function of science, theory
    development, and professional practice.
  • Some typologies are rooted in stereotypes, not
    science (e.g. racial profiling).
  • Scientific typologies originated with the
    Linnaen classification of plants.
  • In the social sciences individuals are grouped
    into types based on shared characteristics

16
How are Typologies Constructed?
  • Typologies are constructed in two general ways.
  • IDEAL TYPES are inductively constructed based on
    a subjective clinical impression (armchair
    theorizing).
  • EMPIRICAL TYPES are deductively constructed
    describing patterns that exist in the real world
    through multivariate statistical methods

17
Categorical v Dimensional Models
  • Human types may be more appropriately viewed
    along a continuum or dimension rather than as a
    discrete category or taxon.
  • Categories or types that are not inherently
    taxonomic (no clear boundaries) are often formed
    by empirically grouping those who share features
    on several dimensions using statistical methods
    such as cluster analysis

18
Knight Prentky (1990) Typology of Sexual
Offenders An Example
  • One of the most sophisticated and complex
    typologies of sex offenders developed to date
    used in criminal justice decisionmaking in
    treatment and management of sex offenders.
  • Empirical typology of rapists and child molesters
    based on inductive and deductive research
    strategies now in its 3rd version (MTCR3 and
    MTCCM3).

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Stages of Knight and Prentkys Rapist and Child
Molester Typology Development
  • STAGE 1 - THEORY FORMULATION
    Comparison of available typologies to determine
    whether consensus exists regarding specific types
    of sex offenders.
  • STAGE 2 IMPLEMENTATION
    Definition of types/dimensions, assessment
    of interrater reliability, and determination of
    coverage/degree to which typology is exhaustive.
  • STAGE 3 VALIDATION
    Look to research literature to
    determine whether the constructed types could be
    shown to have distinctive and theoretically
    coherent developmental roots
  • STAGE 4 INTEGRATION
    Responding to the analyses of construct
    validity to determine which dimensions of the
    typologies needed modification

24
Evaluating Typologies
  • A criminal typology is only useful to the extent
    that it describes homogeneous categories of
    offending, is comprehensive/exhaustive with
    respect to the stated purpose, contains
    categories that are mutually exclusive, is
    complex enough to have explanatory value, and
    simple enough to be applied in criminal justice
    policy and practice.
  • In evaluating offender typologies, it is
    important to ask the following questions
  • Is the typology and the categories it includes
    homogeneous?
  • Is the typology and the categories it includes
    heterogeneous?
  • Is the typology and the categories it includes
    exhaustive?
  • Are the categories included in the typology
    mutually exclusive?
  • Is the typology too simple?
  • Is the typology too complex?

25
Evaluating Typologies
  • Homogeneity/Heterogeneity
  • Exhaustiveness/Exclusiveness
  • Simplicity/Complexity

26
The Use of Typologies in the Criminal Justice
System
27
Meloys Sexual Homicide TypologyMeloy, J.R.
(2000). The nature and dynamics of sexual
homicide An integrative review. Aggression and
Violent Behavior, 5, 1-22.
  COMPULSIVE CATATHYMIC
Nature of sexual homicide Organized Disorganized
Axis I diagnosis Sexual sadism Mood disorder
Axis II diagnosis APD/NPD Various traits PDs
Psychopathy Severe (primary) Mild-moderate
Attachment pathology Chronically detached Attachment hunger
ANS Hyporeactive Hyperreactive
Early Trauma Often absent Often present
28
Summary
  • Typology construction is a fundamental component
    of human cognition and scientific investigation.
    One way to think of a typology is that it is
    theory made manageable.
  • Typologies differ with respect to theoretical
    foundation and purpose.
  • Typologies of crime and criminals provide
    information with which to make decisions,
    policies, practices, and laws. Typologies are
    used at all stages of the criminal justice
    process.
  • A criminal typology is only useful to the extent
    that it describes homogeneous categories of
    offending, is comprehensive/exhaustive with
    respect to the stated purpose, its categories are
    mutually exclusive, is complex enough to have
    explanatory value, and simple enough to be
    applied in criminal justice policy and practice.
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