UndCrimBEh4.TIFF Understanding Criminal Behaviour Understanding Criminal Behaviour Psychosocial approaches to criminality David W. Jones Published by Willan Publishing Culmcott House Mill Street, Uffculme Cullompton, Devon EX15 3AT, UK Tel: +44(0)1884 840337 Fax: +44(0)1884 840251 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by Willan Publishing c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300 Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA Tel: +001(0)503 287 3093 Fax: +001(0)503 280 8832 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.isbs.com © David W. Jones 2008 The rights of David W. Jones to be identified as the author of this book have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. First published 2008 ISBN 978-1-84392-303-9 paperback 978-1-84392-304-6 hardback British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Contents Contents Acknowledgements ix Preface xi Introduction: psychological perspectives on criminal behaviour xiii 1 The relationship of psychology and sociology in the study of crime 1 Introduction 1 Beccaria and the study of crime 3 Nineteenth-century positivism 6 Twentieth-century sociological criminology 10 Twentieth-century psychological approaches to crime 20 Conclusion: psychology and criminology – a psychosocial perspective 34 2 Mental disorder: madness, personality disorder and criminal responsibility 37 Introduction 37 A brief history of criminal responsibility and mental disorder 42 Diminished responsibility and medical definitions 48 The problem of psychopathy and personality disorder 55 Conclusion 70 3 The contribution of criminal career research 72 Introduction 72 The London Longitudinal Study 74 Heterogeneity of offenders: adolescent-limited versus life-course-persistent offenders 86  Understanding Criminal Behaiour Explaining the links between childhood antisocial behaviour and adult offending 91 Conclusion 101 4 Familial and parental influences 104 Introduction 104 Family structure and delinquency 106 Parenting styles and early family experience 112 Child effects 121 Conclusion 126 5 Youth crime 128 Introduction 128 Age and criminal responsibility 130 Why do young people commit crime? 132 Conclusion 152 6 Gender and crime 154 Introduction 154 Men, masculinity and crime 155 Women and crime 170 Conclusion 177 7 Understanding violence: learning from studies of homicide 178 Introduction 178 Scenarios of homicide 180 Confrontational homicide 182 Personality types and confrontational rage murder 188 Conclusion 201 8 Intimate viole nce and sexual crime 203 Introduction 203 Domestic violence and violence in the context of sexual intimacy 204 Sexual crimes: rape 213 Paedophilia and sexual offences against children 228 Conclusion 237 i Contents 9 Conclusions 239 Overview 239 Psychosocial understanding of criminal behaviour: the significance of emotion and personality in conditions of ‘high modernity’ 244 Reducing crime 253 Further work 262 References 263 Author index 295 Subject index 307 ii Acknowledgements I must thank Brian Willan for the encouragement of the project in the first place and then for patience while waiting for the book to be finished. Thanks are due to the University of East London for continuing to support cross-disciplinary academic work, and for a semester-long sabbatical that has allowed this book to be finished. In particular, thanks are due to colleagues involved in psychosocial studies, most especially Candy Yates for the supportive reading of drafts. This book emerges from several years of teaching students. I am grateful for their interest, thoughtful responses and provoking questions. Thanks to Helen, Izzie and Ben for putting up with it all again. Thanks ultimately to my parents and particularly the memory of my mother (1930–2002), who would have been pleased to see Wordsworth in a criminology book, and my children who probably agree with the senti ment: Enough of Science and of Art; Close up those barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives. ‘The Tables Turned’ (William Wordsworth, 1798) ix