Crime & Antisocial Behaviour

Social Construct of Crime

• A crime is a behaviour that violates legal boundaries.
• These legal boundaries, historically, have been determined by social norms, moral values and religious beliefs.
• Social norms change over time and dependent are on the culture, so any behaviour that is defined as criminal may change over time and across different cultures too.
• This makes crime socially constructed and culturally variable.
• Legal crimes often reflect the social norms and moral values of the society in which they are created.
• This means that different countries and cultures will have their own rules on crime, and some cultures will see some acts as criminal whereas others might encourage them.

ASBOs

• Antisocial behaviour is defined by the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) as 'behaviour likely to cause alarm, harassment or distress to members of the public'.
• Examples of antisocial behaviour are abusive language, excessive noise, littering, vandalism or drunken behaviour.
• In 1998 antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) were introduced to the UK to widen police and court powers to improve the quality of life in communities where such behaviour was causing problems.
• They were primarily introduced to protect specific victims, neighbours and even whole communities from people who are considered to be a threat or intimidating.
• An ASBO is a court order which forbids an 'offender' who has behaved antisocially from specific threatening or intimidating actions.
• An ASBO can also forbid holders from going to certain places or spending time with a particular person or group of people.
• It can last for a minimum of 2 years and each ASBO is made to specifically fit the crime and offender.
• ASBOs are not criminal orders, but civil orders, this means that it won't show up on any criminal record.
• However, if someone with and ASBO breaks their agreement, it is considered a criminal offence which can earn them a fine, prison sentence and will go on their record.
• ASBOs have been criticised for being heavy-handed, arbitrarily used and considered a 'badge of honour' by the offender.

Causes of Crime

• Causes of crime are usually split into two aspects of behaviour; nature and nurture.
• Some biological causes given as explanations of criminal behaviour are genes, hormones and brain structure.
• These biological aspects of crime suggest that crimes come from someone's nature.
• Others say that crime is caused by the environment or nature.
• For example, an accident or head injury can affect someone's biology and their behaviour, so crime might not be 'born' but can be 'made' and is still biologically caused.
• The theories for the nurture approach include labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy, both of which are about stereotyping.
• Most theories about nurture and crime include the, usually bad, influence of families, as this is where the criminal behaviour is likely to have been copied, encouraged or expected.

Applications of Criminological Psychology

• The criminological approach looks at problems with eyewitness testimony.
• It also looks at two of the ways of treating offenders; token economy programmes and anger management.
• Forensic psychologists cover many areas, from helping police to find criminals to treating offenders in institutions.
• They are interested with rehabilitation, which is about preparing someone to become a productive member of a community.
• Forensic psychologists also carry out research, so they are working within criminological psychology.