Criminal Psychology

by Pakes; Francis

• ISBN13: 9781843923640
• ISBN10: 1843923645
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-02-15
• Publisher: Willan

Summary

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the increasingly popular subject of criminal psychology, exploring the application of psychology to the understanding of criminal behavior, solving crimes, the court process, punishment, rehabilitation, and crime prevention. It will be an invaluable resource for anybody taking courses in this field, in particular students taking the criminal psychology/forensic psychology components of the UK's main A level psychology specifications. Each chapter includes real life applications/case studies, key studies, an evaluation, and a range of knowledge and discussion questions.

Author Biography

Francis Pakes is a Reader in Comparative Criminology at the University of Portsmouth. A trained psychologist, his work over the last decade has been on the cutting edge of psychology, mental health and criminal justice. Suzanne Pakes teaches A-level psychology at The Portsmouth Grammar School. She previously taught at Colchester Sixth Form College and at Havant College, and has had experience of teaching psychology for all the major exam board specifications.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations and tables	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Crime: the phenomenon	p. 1
Applying psychology to crime	p. 1
Approaches in criminal psychology	p. 2
Are we living in a crime society?	p. 8
How much crime?	p. 9
What is a crime? Definitions, understandings and labels	p. 19
Crime as a social construction	p. 22
Counting crime versus understanding crime	p. 24
Understanding fear of crime	p. 25
The causes of crime	p. 31
The question of 'why?'	p. 31
Biological and genetic explanations	p. 32
Personality factors	p. 39
Moral reasoning	p. 43
Cognitive distortions	p. 50
The causes of aggression and violence	p. 53
Defining aggression	p. 55
Conclusion	p. 69
Solving crime	p. 71
The nature of police work	p. 71
Reassurance policing	p. 72
Criminal investigation	p. 74
Psychology and investigative interviewing	p. 75
Detection of deception	p. 84
False confessions	p. 88
Offender profiling	p. 90
Conclusion	p. 103
Courtroom psychology	p. 105
The nature of the criminal trial	p. 105
Jury decision making	p. 109
Eyewitness testimony	p. 114
False or recovered memories	p. 120
Extra-legal factors	p. 122
Miscarriages of justice	p. 126
Sentencing and punishment	p. 130
Sentencing	p. 130
Sentencing as a human process	p. 131
Punishment in the UK	p. 136
Does prison work?	p. 140
Restorative justice	p. 145
Working with offenders	p. 146
Community orders	p. 152
Conclusion	p. 159
References	p. 160
Index	p. 175
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