Summary and Review

antisocial personality disorder (ASPD): a deeply ingrained and dysfunctional thought process that focuses on social exploitive, delinquent, and criminal behaviour, most commonly known due to the affected individual’s lack of remorse for these behaviours. ASPD falls into 1 of 4 cluster B personality disorders within the DSM-5, which also includes narcissistic, borderline, and histrionic personality disorders.

attachment theory: a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby.

authenticity: our connection to our true, genuine self; the ability to show up as us, and connect with our feelings in a meaningful way.

biopsychosocial criminology: a multidisciplinary approach that seeks to understand criminal behaviour by examining the interactions between biological, psychological and sociological factors.

causality: when one variable is said to cause a specific effect, the two variables must at least be correlated, the cause must precede the effect, and other possible explanations must be eliminated.

cognitive bias: systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them.

conditioning: a learning process in which the likelihood of a specific behaviour increases or decreases in response to reinforcement or punishment that occurs when the behaviour occurs.

confirmation bias: the tendency to over-value evidence that confirms our beliefs over evidence that counters our beliefs.

correlation: when two or more variables are associated with one another. The direction of the association is known when two variables are correlated.  A positive correlation means that as one variable increases, so does the other, or as one decreases, the other decreases.  A negative correlation means that as one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa.  Correlation does not guarantee causality.

cultural psychology: a branch of psychology that looks at how individual behaviour is constructed by society.

culture: a general term used to describe all aspects of a society related to individual and collective identity and meaning. Culture can be expressed in the material items of a particular society, such as clothing and other consumer goods, as well as in the ideas and beliefs that circulate and shape the way individuals and groups understand themselves and the surrounding world. Culture can more narrowly refer to aspects of creative output such as art, music and literature, and is often divided into high culture and low culture. While high culture is found in art galleries, museums and opera houses, low culture, or popular culture, can be found all around us and is the stuff of TV, popular music and graffiti art. Cultural criminologists view culture as arising from broader economic and social relations, and therefore tends to reflect dominant ideas related to crime and crime control.

deinstitutionalisation: the process of discharging chronic mental health patients into the community in order for them to receive care from community mental health services. The deinstitutionalisation movement began in Canada in the 1960s.

evolutionary psychology: a branch of psychology that looks at unconscious psychological mechanisms that would have been adaptive in the environment in which they evolved.

individual psychology: a branch of psychology that focuses on traits within the individual to explain behaviour, such as personality and temperament.

in-group bias: the tendency to trust peers and colleagues more than those outside your in-group.

personality: the characteristic sets of behaviours, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors. While there is no generally agreed upon definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with the environment one is surrounded by.

psychopathy: a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioural controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behaviour.

psychosis: an impairment causing difficulties in perceiving what is real and what is not.

self-actualisation: fulfillment of one’s full human potential.

subculture: a subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs, and values.

substance abuse disorder: mental disorders that affect a person’s brain and behaviour, leading to a person’s inability to control their use of substances such as legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medications. Symptoms can range from moderate to severe, with addiction being the most severe form of SUDs.

techniques of neutralisation: a technique which allows the person to rationalise or justify a criminal act. There are five techniques of neutralisation: denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties.

temperament: an aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term often is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person.

trauma: the experience of and response to, an overwhelmingly negative event or series of events.

trauma-informed approach: recognises and responds to the signs, symptoms, and risks of trauma to better support the health needs of patients who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress.