Assignment: Cognitive Aspects of Criminal Behavior

Cognitive Factors of Criminal Behavior: The Keen Family

Your Name

Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Walden University

CRJS-4102: The Criminal Mind

Thomas Kelley

January 24, 2021

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Cognitive Factors of Criminal Behavior: The Keen Family

Cognitive or brain development is the study of neurological and psychological development

throughout childhood and it is widely accepted that cognitive growth improves with age. How

the assessment of brain development is measured, depends on the degree of conception,

perception, information processing, and language a child learns (Biology Dictionary, 2019). How

a human’s comprehension and perception of the world grows from infancy to adolescence is

important for their brain’s development. A child learns from their environment whether it be

home or community and criminal behavior can be linked to a criminal mind’s cognitive

development.

Group and Authority Figures

The Keen family parents have not set the best example for their children to follow. The

mother, Susan is on probation for stealing prescription medications from a hospital she worked at

and blames it on her need for them after a car accident. The father, Joseph is in prison for

strangling Susan and thinks his actions are not only okay behavior but jokingly says, “if he were

not so drunk, he would have finished the job” (Laureate Education, 2019). The class of friends

their 17-year-old son, Shawn has, and their 22-year-old daughter Tracey’s choice of men are not

the best influence either.

Cognitive development starts from infancy and what a child sees and hears throughout

childhood is crucial for the development of their brain with regards to criminal behavior. These,

now, young adults, have been taught violence and illegal behaviors like their mother justifying

the means for her theft because of her addiction. They know no other way to behave!

Moral Development/Disengagement

Kohlberg developed a theory of moral development, he indicated that young children

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comprehend right and wrong behavior through external circumstances like reward and

punishment from their authority figures (McLeod, 2013). The first stage of this theory is the

preconventional level of his moral development theory and it is the earliest form of moral

reasoning for children. A similar view is the social cognitive learning theory proposed by Albert

Bandura. He demonstrated how humans learn behaviors and attitudes including the way they

respond to others by observing, modeling, and mimic these behaviors. He believed that it takes

time for a person’s internal moral standards to develop (Lyon & Welsh, 2017).

The Keen children’s behavior and actions reveal a moral disengagement when it comes to

criminal acts. They have a father who does not think he should have to be punished for his

violent behavior and a mother who rewards her teen son with alcohol. She even encourages her

daughter to steal pain pills to supply her drug habit, regardless of the consequences her daughter

pays for those actions. They were never taught that violence is wrong or that doing drugs or

stealing is wrong which has caused a negative psychological view of their moral standards. They

are now able to turn off this moral self-regulatory mechanism called moral disengagement (Lyon

& Welsh, 2017).

Thinking Patterns

Criminal thinking relates to cognitive processes and content that promote the initiation and

continuation of criminal activity (Lyon & Welsh, 2017). Yochelson and Samenow were

researchers who found after years of study that criminal behavior is a result of a criminal

personality. Just like anything a person does it is the outcome of their thought processes. Our

emotions can alter the way we behave, and a criminal lifestyle can help to mold the way

criminals think. There is a chance that Shawn’s violent outburst can be linked to his emotions

feeding his thought process. While Susan’s lack of concern or discipline for Shawn’s disobedient

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ways has only helped him to build a criminal way of thinking, this way of thinking then becomes

criminal actions.

Information Processing

How we interact and behave in situations throughout life is due to how we process social

cues. These are the words, gestures, and actions of others and how we interpret them. Human

behavior is a developed reaction to how someone has learned to perceive the world around them.

The “data” we cognitively take in, consists of stimuli or social cues, and how we perceive and

organize them is known as encoding (Lyon & Welsh, 2017).

The Keen family seems to perceive the world around them in a way that is considered an

unhealthy view of what is acceptable behavior within society. For instance, the father, son, and

daughter are all capable of reacting violently over small issues. Also, the women in this family

continue to allow men to physically harm them as if it is acceptable behavior. The development

of how they think has not been properly processed. Psychologist Jean Piaget said, “What we see

changes what we know. What we know changes what we see” (Cherry, 2020). The Keen Family

is a perfect example of this statement.

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References

Biology Dictionary (Editors). (2019, October 04). Cognitive development. Retrieved 2021,

January 22 from https://biologydictionary.net/cognitive-development/

Cherry, K. (2020, April 15). Jean Piaget biography (1896-1980). Retrieved from

https://www.verywellmind.com/jean-piaget-biography-1896-1980-2795549

Laureate Education (Producer). (2019). The Keen family. [Web site]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Retrieved from https://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden /CRJS/

4102/ profiles/index.html

Lyon, D. R., & Welsh, A. (2017). The psychology of criminal and violent behavior. (Ch. 8). (pp.

173-200). Don Mills, Canada: Oxford University Press.

McLeod, S. (2013). Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html#:~:text=Kohlberg%27s%20theory%20

proposes%20that%20there%20are%20three%20levels,moral%20understanding%20is%2

0linked%20to%20cognitive%20development%20.

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