A2 Psychology at Spalding Grammar School

What do you know about the Kray Twins? Ronnie and Reggie Kray were a pair of identical twins who were famous London gangsters in the 1960s. They ran a number of nightclubs and socialised with actors, lords and politicians, but were also involved in robbery, arson, torture and murder. A dedicated squad of detectives brought them to justice in 1969 and they were both given life sentences. But here's the thing: Ronnie suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was volatile and violent and provoked most of their atrocities; Reggie would have liked to "go straight" or at least turn their business into an ordinary (ie not especially violent) criminal operation, but was dominated by his brother. It was claimed that a jealous Ronnie actually murdered Reggie's wife! So, were these twin brothers born to a life of murder and evil? Or could things have worked out differently for them and their victims? Click on the picture to watch a YouTube video about the Krays, with clips from the 1990 movie.

Your first unit in Forensic Psychology looks at what makes some people turn to crime, while other people never seem to feel the temptation. In the past, this used to be viewed as a purely moral question, and people who did "stray from the path" were regarded as wicked or weak. Psychology is more concerned with finding out the reasons behind criminal or deviant behaviour, rather than judging it or preventing it (though psychologists do hope their research will help prevent it too).

WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM AS?

Several studies or theories from AS Psychology explain why individuals might turn to crime:

• FREUD (1909) introduced the idea of people having unconscious motivations. In particular, he suggested people are basically selfish and destructive but are forced into behaving in a prosocial way by their parents. Freud claimed we never really forgive our parents for "taming" us and the Super-Ego is always battling against the desires of the Id.
• BANDURA (1961) was more interested in SITUATIONAL explanations, particularly the idea that we might learn to behave in certain ways. His "Bashing Bobo" experiment looked at how we learn to be aggressive, but his Social Learning Theory (SLT) might help explain lots of other deviant or criminal behaviours too.
• MAGUIRE (2000) looked at how the brain changes structure depending on what we use it for. If taxi drivers develop unusual hippocampi after spending years memorising routes and distances, maybe criminals' brains will change after years of lying, cheating or doing harm.
• REICHER & HASLAM (2006) looked at the "slide into tyranny" - how ordinary people can end up behaving like criminals if the circumstances are right. They come to a different conclusion: people will "give in" to anti-social pressures only when all their other options have failed.
• GRIFFITHS (1994) studied cognitive styles - the way regular gamblers have of thinking about gambling, weighing the odds and explaining away losses, that is quite different from non-gamblers. This is particularly relevant because fruit machine playing is a deviant behaviour (well, sort of) and Griffiths' "regular gamblers" might be similar to people who do regularly break laws - especially in how much importance they attach to skill instead of luck when it comes to getting away with it.

In general, we can make a few conclusions from our AS studies:

1. BEHAVIOURIST psychologists will try to look at the behaviour of criminals and their environments and work out what sort of backgrounds or circumstances turn someone towards crime;
2. COGNITIVE psychologists will try to study the thought processes of criminals - how they weigh up the odds, cope with guilt or think about getting caught - that makes them different from everybody else;
3. PSYCHODYNAMIC psychologists argue that the real question isn't why some people turn to crime, but why most of us turn away from it;
4. BIOPSYCHOLOGISTS will be more interested in the brain structure of criminals and whether this links with them having certain personalities, temperaments or abilities.

One of the first topics you study is about the way criminals think. This is divided into three studies:

• Criminal Thinking Patterns: Is there some "rhyme and reason" to the criminal mind? In fact, is crime a perfectly rational thing to do? Or do criminals have a distinctly different way of thinking about things from ordinary people?
• Moral development & crime: Do most people get more moral as they get older - in which case, are criminals "stuck" at some early stage of moral development, like overgrown children? Or is crime quite separate from morality?
• Social cognition & crime: Do criminals have a unique way of viewing social situations? Or can ordinary people end up "thinking like criminals" if they're put in the right situation?

You will also learn about biological explanations of criminal behaviour, also divided into three studies:

• Brain dysfunction in criminals: Are criminals literally "not right in the head"? Does some vital part of the brain control moral or law-abiding behaviour and do we turn into criminals if this is missing or damaged?
• Genes & serotonin in criminals: Maybe the key to criminality is in our DNA - in which case, can you "inherit" criminality? Are some people born craving a thrill that only crime can provide?
• Gender & crime: The simple fact is more men get charged with crime than women, but why is this? Have men evolved to be more aggressive, dangerous and inconsiderate? Is that why they never call?