The Psychology of Criminal Conduct

Overview

In this chapter, we look at different “types” of justice-involved persons. The word “type” is used with some hesitation because the word conveys the idea of clearly defined categories with little or no overlap. However, many who violate the law do not neatly fit into any one category. In fact, very few of them specialize in only one type of crime. Sexual offenders commit nonsexual crimes, and male batterers assault others who are unrelated to them. Nevertheless, many justice-involved persons do show a preference for certain antisocial acts that allow us to make rough categorizations.

The first category reviewed in the chapter is intimate partner violence (IPV) followed by the mentally disordered, and ending with the sexual offender. The themes across the three subtypes is that the Central Eight risk/need factors are common to them all and that RNR-based interventions work; getting tough does not.

Videos

Theories of Sex Offending

In this video, Dr Babchishin explores two of the key theories of sexual offending: Seto’s ‘Motivation-Facilitation’ theory and Lalumiere’s evolutionary theory.

N. Zoe Hilton, Ph.D., is senior research scientist at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a registered psychologist, and a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association. She earned degrees from the University of Southampton, University of Cambridge, and University of Toronto. She has published primarily on interpersonal violence, risk assessment and risk communication. She was the lead of the research team that developed the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) and oversees the ODARA 101 online training program.

In this video, Dr. Hilton explores the assessment and management of domestic violence, with a focus on risk-needs-responsivity approaches, and the implications for intimate partner violence treatment.

Discussion questions:

The ODARA was developed in 2004, and a number of issues not yet explored in the assessment are being currently reviewed by Dr Hilton and her colleagues. What are some of the additional factors that must be considered in its application today?

Sex Offender Lecture

L. Maaike Helmus is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is also the Vice-President (Research) for the non-profit organization SAARNA (the Society for the Advancement of Actuarial Risk Needs Assessment). Her research has focused on offender risk assessment, particularly regarding risk scale development and validation (including subgroups such as sexual offenders, intimate partner violence offenders, and Indigenous offenders), risk communication, and biases in decision-making. She is part of the development team for Static-99R, Static-2002R, BARR-2002R, STABLE-2007, ACUTE-2007, VRAG-R, CPORT, and the Risk of Administrative Segregation Tool (RAST). Dr. Helmus also has a particular interest in meta-analysis and statistical approaches to prediction. She is currently co-editor of the journal Sexual Offending Theory, Research, and Prevention and on the editorial board of Sexual Abuse. A former Banting postdoctoral scholar, she is also the winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal, the Saleem Sham Early Career Award from the American Psychology-Law Society and the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, and the Early Career Research Award from the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse.

In this series of video lectures, Maaike discusses the scope of the problem of sexual offending, the characteristics of sexual offenders, and their rates of recidivism. Finally, she covers some of the special topics of sexual offenses, summarising research into internet and female sexual offenders.

Discussion questions:

How do you think online technologies (e.g., social media) and the way it's changed social interactions may have shifted the nature and pattern of any of these research findings?
How do you think the #MeToo movement may have changed any of these research findings?

Part 1: Sex offender overview and statistics

Part 2: Definitions and etiology

Part 3: Recidivism

Part 4: Special populations

Worth Remembering

There is more in common between male batterers and general justice-involved persons than there are differences. Contrary to some feminist theories, there are aspects to IPV that extend beyond patriarchal values. Male batterers appear very much like other criminals in their behavioral histories, personality, attitudes, and social support for intimate partner violence.
The risk factors for mentally disordered and sexual offenders are similar to the risk factors for general justice-involved persons. Meta-analytic findings indicate that the best predictors of criminal behavior among MDOs and sexual offenders are the same as those identified among the general population of those in conflict with the law (e.g., past criminal history and antisocial personality pattern). Thus, a general theory of criminal conduct can apply to a variety of groups committing criminal acts.
Knowledge of the varieties of criminal behavior can be forwarded by applying a psychology of criminal conduct (PCC) to the analysis. One of the themes in this text is that our knowledge of criminal behavior can be informed by applying PCC. The GPCSL approach to understanding criminal behavior does not rely on psychopathological models of behavior. Understanding of the people discussed in this chapter—the IPV, MDOs, and sexual offenders—is enriched when we apply GPCSL theory.

Chapter 14 Criminal Subtypes: Intimate Partner Violence, the Mentally Disordered, and Sex Offenders