C99FY Agnew’s General Strain Theory Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : C99FY
• University : Heriot-Watt University My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Psychology 1B

Forensic Psychology

Question 1 What does Agnew’s General Strain Theory add to Merton’s original view of the link between Strain and Crime? Draw on appropriate evidence to support your answer. (100 marks) (750 WORDS)

General strain theory (GST) is known to be a theory of criminology that has been propounded by Robert Agnew. As per the theory, which describes the significant amount of academic attention as it provides significant empirical evidence, and also the primary scope of judging the phenomena described from the criminal behavior (Agnew, 2019).

Agnew from his strain theory as an add on to the Robert King Merton has described the limit of conceptualizing the possible sources of strain accounted from the society, focusing on the youth. As per the theory of Merton, it describes the innovation that can happen within the society if it has been focused on the socially desirable and has attained the approved goals with the meaningful inadequate opportunity that can include goals from the legitimate sourcing of institutionalized means. Further from the society members who can focus on the position of financial strain that has attained the material success, can resort to crime while identifying the socially desirable goals. Agnew can also contextually assume as to how there can be the youth that has been dealing as a result of other factors that can suggest criminal behavior. Further to emphasize, he identifies it to be the negative experiences that can further cause the stress which has been not financially induced.

Agnew from his theory propounded the 4 characteristics of strains which can lead to the crime such as -:1) strains that are likely to be observed as unjust, 2) strains that have been identified to be high in magnitude, 3) strains observed to be part of the low social control, and 4) strains that can further create the pressure or incentive that can be part of the criminal coping.

Agnew's also identifies the three diversions to strain

1) Failure to be part of the outcome from the positively valued goals.

2) To reduce the positive stimuli.

3) To sustain and attain the negative stimuli.

Further, to identify how there can be a high rate of male delinquency in contrast to female delinquency, Agnew has also identified the difference in the gender existing in between the perception of strain and as a quick reaction to strain. Such as the first identified area was the strain adequacy to people belonging from the different genders experience. It is even complied with how the women would be likely to be less experienced with much or more strain in comparison to men (Agnew, 2019). Additionally the women have to be higher belonging from the subjective strain, as women are identified to be having more strain and further to commit less crime, It is important to note how there have been different types of strain wherein each gender have the different experience, segregated as below-:

Agnew has even identified as a response to the differences related to the types of strain, and given as the emotional reactions to the strain like as below-:

From the theory, the women would showcase lower levels of confidence along with holding lower self-esteem and would be likely be lowering the case of committing the crime and thereby deploying the avoidance methods that can likely be causing the relief to strain. Women can also form higher levels of relations and can reduce strain.

Question 2 Outline some of the differences between the FBI’s ‘Crime Scene Analysis’ approach and Canter’s ‘Investigative Psychology’ approach to offender profiling. Say which you think is the better approach, and why. (100 marks) (757 words)

The FBI method of profiling is defined as the system that can use the combination of the detection and the classification to the major personality along with having the behavioral characteristics as a result of the individual analysis depending on the crimes that have been committed by the person committed. The offender profiling has been created by the FBI American agent John E. Douglas, who has by far been able to check from the behavioral science method of law enforcement. The process involves the below methodology-:

To approach the assimilation phase and to form the more approach to the crime based scene, victim, and also involving the witnesses that can be interviewed. It would also involve the photographs based on the crime scene, conducting the autopsy reports, including the victim profiles and involves the police reports along with witness statements.

During the "classification stage", the more involvement is of accumulating the information that has been also collected from the framework taken from the murderer that has been part of the "organized" or "disorganized". Organized murderers can be relative to the advanced social skills, can include the planned crime based scenes and even be including the displayed control from the victim based approach of social skills, and would involve less likeliness of the forensic evidence or clues, along with engaging within the sexual acts involving the victim before the murder. On the contrary, the response is the disorganized offender that can be identified from the impulsive new social skills, like the highly involved his/her murders and based on the opportunistic along with holding the crime based scenes identifying as the frenzied, haphazard behavior involving the low planning or attempts to reduce the detection. There would also be less likeliness of the sexual acts involving the murder as there would be less likeliness of the lack of knowledge due to the normal sexual behavior (Healey, 2016).

As identified during the classification stage profilers, it is important to constitute the reconstruction behavioral sequence based on the crime identified in particular to reconstructing the offender's modus operandi and as the method of committing the crime. The Profilers would deeply evaluate the offender's closeness to the “signature” that can be taken from the identifiable crime scene and can be more likely to be idiosyncratic in comparison to the modus operandi as there can be offender who would not identify the psychological needs to satisfy during committing the crime. From further consideration of the modus operandi, the offender's signature at the crime scene, and also an inspection for the presence of any staging of the crime, the profiler moves on to generate a profile. This profile may contain detailed information regarding the offender's demographic characteristics, family characteristics, military background, education, personality characteristics, and it may also suggest to the investigator the appropriate interview/interrogation techniques to adopt.

In comparison to the FBI approach to offender profiling, the Professor David Canter approach has been unique as it involves more of the investigative psychology and there is a high likeliness of the systematic methodology which can be developed as a result of out of offender profiling contributions. The approach is more identifying the criminals based on the mindsets, behaviors, attitudes and involves the rationality found by psychologists and the FBI (Marono, 2020). The approach has been coined as the Investigative Psychology that was propounded in the 1990s to identify the relations drawn to factual findings based on psychology which can coordinate and control the criminal investigations as a result of the applied psychology that was innovatively involved. The approach was more challenging as it involved the conventional research methodology and would formulate a special approach that can approach the muddiness and patchiness based on the central data. The feature involves the-:

• To follow the full range of crimes that have been taken from the fraud to terrorism, involving the burglary, serial killing, and also the arson, rape, and organized crime.

• Involves the important steps for the methodologies identified for the multi-dimensional scaling and involves the Radex approach accounted for from the Social Network Analysis (Marono, 2020).

• The approach of the geographical offender profiling, involving the detailed analysis that can follow the underlying psychological processes and would involve the valuable investigative decision support tool.

• Lastly, the full range of investigative activities, involving the effective information collection and also identifying the detecting deception along with proceeding to support the decision support systems.

In my view, the approach of the Canter approach to offender profiling is more rational as it involves the forensic psychological ways of identifying the criminal.

Question 3 What is the relevance of Social Learning Theory to society’s concerns over violent content in the media? Drawing on appropriate evidence, say whether there is any reason to believe that such concerns are valid (750 words)

Social learning theory determines how the individuals would be able to derive the information from the learning outcome derived from the direct experience and the behavior modeled by others, that can originate within the media. Media proponents are less likely to be lowering the argument, as the thoughts suggest, that they would be higher instances of the media violence that can likely have the short-term and long-term effects. The theory accounts for both effects and factors like the likeliness f the media violence and how there are consequent actions. As per the media violence concerns, the more likeliness of the aggression is not specific to the media type, and the theory draws a relevance by observing how there has been a significant change audience viewing the content in the television, film, music, video, and computer games. Media violence is known to show a higher "visual portrayals of acts and there can be also physical aggression that can show one human or human-like character that can go against the other. The specific others identify of how there can be violent lyrics that can cause higher aggression. Similarly, the theory also identifies how there is more likeliness of the aggression that can be observed s a result of the psychologists identifying the behavior which can cause more harm than benefit to the other person. Subsequently, the aggressive behavior can also take the various forms such as the physical aggression would involve during the variety of acts that can be described as shoving and pushing and even causing the higher physical assaults, involving the violent acts as the higher instances to the serious injury (e.g., shooting). Within the media, the violence can also be viewed as the less serious forms of aggression such as the verbal aggression (where the children can view the hurtful things to others) and there would also be relational/indirect aggression (such as the likeliness of lies where the person can deceit and modulate the truth to evade from any sort of harmful interpersonal relationships). Subsequently, aggressive and violent behavior is known to be likely the case caused by the multiple factors that can identify with converging over time. There has also been a breach of influences that promote aggressive behavior and found within the children, for example how the media violence, is portraying the content, can also cause the higher instances of aggressive and violent behavior in the subsequent years (Akers, 2016).

The social learning theory explains the media violence that can cause aggression and there are the media effects observed in the large audience, especially how the kids are learning. It is important to note how there can be social learning causing the aggression and the theory suggests, that it Is all because of the media content that shows the individuals committing the crime and horror/violent media, which results in more crime based scenarios (Akers, 2019). The theory also identifies, how it would cause a likeliness effect over the mood management theory known to be self-explanatory, and how there can be a source of entertainment that can cause the power to enhance and to maintain positive states. The theory also propagates, if the contents are modified and the discriminatory element has been included, it would cause the likeliness to diminish or avoid negative ones. The subjective framework would be more part of the crime based scenarios and how violent media can describe, creating the panics and the increased fears or anxieties. The viewers can describe the audience steps to lower the fears as a necessary way to cope up and also likely to create their fears. For example, the study also identified how the modern pre-teens would have aggressive behavior, more prone to violence and crime, is because of the higher unfiltered violent crimes shown in the media. The aggressive thoughts would less likely be the cause of participants to behave in an unbalanced manner and can be opposed to non-violent media entertainment as a result of the action to the subsequent task. This theory also draws relevance to the associations identified in the growing trends of crime based activities and the changing youths’ aggressive behaviors and how there has been more preference identified from the media violence (Akers, 2016). Men would form the lower levels of social control and would be less likely to socialize within the large groups. Women can formulate the close social bonds identified within the small groups and there would be less likeliness as a response from men to strain with a crime.

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