week5

WAL_FPSY6135A_05_A_EN.pdf

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ERIC HICKEY: I absolutely love theory, because it is exciting to see how we apply theory to understanding different types of criminality. And how it helps us understand the world, whether it's strain theory, or labeling theory, or any other kind of theory. It's important to look how they actually can apply themselves.

And then we put things in a theoretic framework. When I did my first book called Serial Murderers and Their Victims, what is the context for the book? Well, it's psychodynamic, looking at what drives people to commit crime. Well, of course, a lot of family dynamics and so on. But there has to be something that I frame my book in that helps us put it in context of where it's all going.

We're not talking about being right or wrong. OK. A theory is a theory. It's not a fact. And so you have to be able to defend it, not because it's factual, but because it is the best way to understand something. Could use another theory? You could, but you've read all the different theories and you realize that this one is the most applicable, and the best one to use to explain your certain research project.

When we think about explaining crime, for example, it's important to understand that there is a theoretical framework that contains all of that. To understand it, how it works. And theory kind of makes the world go around. Without a theory, we can't explain anything.

And often students say, well, what is theory? What is good theory, what's bad theory? Because not all theories are good. So let me explain kind of briefly what theory is all about.

We can take theory in terms of a paradigm. How do you explain the world? The world can be good, it can be evil. That's a theoretical paradigm. And you can believe in good or you can believe in evil. But then there are lower level theories, or middle range theories to help explain.

So in the United States, there are criminological theories explain that crime that's very specific to juvenile delinquency, for example, in our communities. But you couldn't use those theories say in Japan, or maybe in South Africa. But you can use them here. Then there's a broader range of theories like functionalism and conflict theory. It can explain the world. So here in the US, we talk about these types of middle range theories.

There are a number of building blocks to theory. And I like to sort of explain it this way. People get-- you wake up in the morning and you might get a feeling about

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

something. Like a feeling, that feeling that becomes then an idea. And for some people then, they think about those ideas, and they create hypotheses.

Most people never get to that level of hypotheses. They wake up in the morning. They've got feelings. They have ideas. And that's where it ends. And that's OK.

But then other people, they get into this scientific thinking about, what if I did this? Would this happen? Would A happen if I did B, and so on. So that they create hypotheses and create research questions.

Those hypotheses, then, link up above that to the next level, which are concepts. And you have a variety of hypotheses that build into these concepts. And then from there-- and you still don't have theory at this point. From then, you take these concepts and you link them together to the next level, which is a theory.

And again, so building a theory is very difficult. Most people never have a theory. So I have a theory about something. No, you don't. Actually, you have an idea. You might even have a hypothesis, but you're not going to have a theory, because it takes a lot of expertise in developing a theory. That is, a good theory.

Good theory has several components to it. It's logically consistent. It incorporates concepts. It uses parsimony. In other words, it's concise. Good theory is testable. Good theory is comprehensive. You know it's concise. It's also comprehensive. These are really critical components to a good theory.

Now, bad theory-- I don't mean bad that you can't use it. It's bad that you can't test it. Freudian theory is bad theory, because it's non-falsifiable. Yet it helps us a great deal in terms of how we think about crime. And psychodynamic theory is really important. But we can't test it, because it's-- where is the ID in your brain? Where's this superego? So we call it bad theory in that regard only in that we can't test it.

In the world, there are very few macro level theories, especially within sociology for example. There's conflict theory. The world is about conflict. Everything evolves through conflict. And we talk about Marxism and so forth. You think about that. And you think, well, there's-- and then Max Weber. These are people who came up with the ideas that if you've got a thesis, an idea, then you get a counter-idea. And they conflict. And that creates then a new idea.

And that's how society evolves. So these conflicts of ideas. Whereas in functionalism, you learn through consensus. People work together. Communities work together. And you explain things, how things work well together. And that was Emile Durkheim worked in that area. These are theoretical paradigms. Explain how the world operates.

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

Whether it's in the United States, whether it's in Japan, you're going to those-- those types of things, because there's so many concepts even within that theory, no one goes out and tests a theoretical paradigm. You test a piece of it, because it's so complex and there's many different concepts that are linked logically together. And those are based upon all-- all these concepts based upon all these hypotheses break down to the basic idea of it.

So no one-- very few people have ever been able to create those types of macro types of theoretical paradigms. So today, most researchers, they come up with more mid-range theories to explain. Whether it's in mathematics, or it's in economics, and so on. They get awards for these types of theories, Nobel prizes, and so on.

So going back to theory then, in criminology, we tend to focus on a variety of lower level theories that are important to help explain different-- whether it's juvenile delinquency or it's adult crime, help us understand it. And sometimes it's a multi-theoretical approach. You might have more than one theory to help explain different parts of criminality.

But it's an effort-- it's a required effort for students, for everybody, to think theoretically, have a theoretical framework when they come up with a research idea. Without that, then they're kind of like without a ship without a rudder. And so we always want to know that context in which they're approaching a subject matter.

Certainly there are a lot of different theories that we have that explain crime and criminality. It's interesting, as we talk about these theories, one of the theories is social control theory. It's the only theory amongst all the theories that asks the question, why don't you commit crime? Because all the other theories are saying, why do you commit crime?

This one says, why don't you? What are the restraints on you that keep you from committing crime? And whereas the others are saying, well, OK. Why are you doing this? And so you try to explain why, rather than why not. And so that's an interesting approach. And I've used that theoretical construct before in explaining certain types of crimes.

But then there's strain theory. There's neutralization theory, for example. And how people neutralize their behavior. How people rationalize. When people justify or rationalize behavior, that's just a lot easier to do it.

And there are people who then, when they do commit crimes, they deny that there's any injury. They deny that there's any crime, there's any victim. They minimize it. They condemn people who condemn them. Or they say I did it for the greater loyalty. I did it for my country.

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

Someone who sells secrets or something, it's amazing how they can justify their behavior. That's another way to think about criminality. So it's important to look at the populations that we're studying in order to look at which kind of theoretical framework we want to use to explain that population. Are they rapists we're looking at? Are they domestic violence offenders? Are they scam artists? And then you can think, well, what kind of theory would best explain that type of crime?

If you take, for example, social structure, we all live within the structure of society. Social structure means that we have different institutions. We have religion, we have family, we have politics, education, we have the social structures in which we live. How does a social structure, then, influence us?

So a piece of that is the family. And how does a family influence us to commit or not commit crimes? So that we know the family has a huge impact upon criminality. But just because you're raised in a dysfunctional family, and most of us are to some extent, but the fact that we are raised in a dysfunctional family does not mean that we'll become criminals.

But does it increase the likelihood? It can, certainly. I've never interviewed a serial killer who has come from a solid home. A relatively solid home. They all come from pretty dysfunctional families, especially when there's no father available. And we know that fatherless homes, there's a greater likelihood of criminality, because mom can't be dad. And dad has a great influence.

And children grow up with feelings of rejection or abandonment. I mean, I met my father when I was 21 years old. Never met him. I met him accidentally in an airport. And I saw this guy across the way. I walked over to him. I said-- I thought, he looks familiar. I don't know why. It's like me, older, but me.

I walked over, I say, excuse me, is your name Granville? And he goes yes, how'd do you know? I said, you're my father. And that's how we met. And that's how it ended, because he was not interested in being my father.

So here I was, abandoned as a child and rejected as an adult by the man who was my father. And it was like, what's-- why? And of course-- but there's reason to explain that. He was a war veteran. PTSD. He was damaged goods. And he just-- and he was irresponsible. He was an alcoholic.

And so it just wasn't going to happen. That had a big impact on my life. It influenced the decisions I made. I was insecure a lot growing up as a kid, pretty anxious. So we know that the family structure, or lack thereof, can really affect people's decisions.

Aileen Wuornos, for example, who was a female serial killer, once she said in an interview, she said, I was never influenced by my childhood. She killed seven

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

men. Well, she was killing men who had abused her. The kinds of men that had been abusing her.

And certainly, she was influenced by her childhood. Her mom was a prostitute. She was there when her mother was doing all kinds of crimes. Oh, she was definitely influenced by her mom. And by the life that she led as a child. It certainly influenced her. But she was in denial about that. And so the family structure is one part. And of course, government and education, all these other structures that influence us for good or not.

There are many, many theories that explain criminality from different perspectives. And students can go in their textbooks, they can go online, and they can look at the summaries of these theories to kind of get a sense of how they are similar and how they're different. And how they can help them think differently about crime and criminality.

And I think that's a good place to start for a student is to think about explaining crime. And why people do or why don't they commit crimes. I mean, if you think about it, as a student, I would be asking my question, well, why don't I commit crimes? Why am I not doing that?

Well, there are good reasons. And they'll think about that. They'll think, well, I don't want to go to prison. It's going to hurt too much. It's the pain, or it's my conscience, or it's my religion. Or it's family, it's my mom or my dad. So they should be thinking about, what is it that keeps them from committing crimes?

And if they had the opportunity to commit crimes, would they? It's kind of like walking into a store and sampling the grapes. There's no sign that says free grapes. And yet people still sample the grapes. Well, somebody has to pay for those grapes.

So they raise the price of the grapes to accommodate people who want to sample the grapes. But if you take too many grapes, you can get arrested. So where is that fine line? And no one's seeing themselves as being a criminal if they do that. So I think it's a good exercise for people to think about why they behave the way they do, or don't.

A student who's going to be doing a thesis or a dissertation has to think theoretically as well as, OK, here is a problem, but how do I put that into a theoretical context? And that's-- you do that by reading the literature, and reading about theories, and sitting back and thinking, well, is this type of crime being influenced by being labeled? Or is it something that is involved with the social structure of our society? Is it something that is done through the strains of society?

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior

What is it that's causing these types of crimes. Or may influence these types of crimes? You really can't have a good dissertation with a theoretical framework. Very, very important.

Forensic Insights: Theories of Criminal Behavior Additional Content Attribution MUSIC: MOJO-066_3RFML1065_11-Focused_Intensity_Full "Biographies." Used by permission, RoyaltyFreeMusicLibrary.com FOOTAGE: GettyLicense_114915249.mov (Corinthians Bible) uberstock/Creatas Video/Getty Images GettyLicense_517959097.jpg [Yuri_Arcurs]/[DigitalVision]/Getty Images GettyLicense_471613124_h2 (Church congregation) [tavi_repede]/[Creatas Video+ / Getty Images Plus]/Getty Images GettyLicense_83590531 (Happy family) [yyyyyy]/[yyyyyy]/Getty Images GettyLicense_476972415 (body on floor w/ handgun in foreground) [aijohn784]/[iStock / Getty Images Plus]/Getty Images AKJ417 Bob Pardue - SC / Alamy WAL_FPSY6102-8102_NationalArchives_6640987 McCoy, S.T. National Archives. (2002, January 11). Two US Army (USA) Military Police (MP) escort a detainee, dressed in his new orange jumpsuit to a cell at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay Navy Base, Cuba. Retrieved from https://research.archives.gov/id/6640987 GettyLicense_118657765 [Dan Bannister]/[Stock / Getty Images Plus]/Getty Images GettyLicense_478656428 [Petar Chernaev]/[E+]/Getty Images GettyLicense_172787352 [hartcreations]/[E+]/Getty Images