The Causes and Cures of Criminality

PERSPECTIVES ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

CECIL R. REYNOLDS, Texas A&M University, College Station ROBERT T. BROWN, University oj North Carolina, Wilmington

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THE CAUSES AND CURES OF CRIMINALITY Hans J. Eysenck and Gisli H. Gudjonsson

HANDBOOK OF MULTIVARIATE EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Second Ewtion

Edited by John R. Nesselroade and Raymond B. Cattell

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Edited by Cecil R. Reynolds and Victor L. Willson

THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES A Developmental Perspective

Edited by Lawrence C. Hartlage and Cathy F. Telzrow

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The Causes and Cures of Criminality

Hans J. Eysenck and Gisli H. Gudjonsson Institute of Psychiatry University of London

London, England

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging in PubJication Data

Eysenck, H. J. (Hans Jurgen), 1916-The causes and cures of criminaJity.

(Perspectives on individual differences) Bibliography: p. lncludes index. 1. Criminal psychology. 2. Crime prevention. 3. Rehabilitation of criminals. 1.

Gudjonsson, Gisli H. Il. Title. III. Series. HV6080.E89 1988 364.3/01/9 88-28898 ISBN 978-1-4419-3210-5 ISBN 978-1-4757-6726-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-6726-1

First Printing- February 1989 Second Printing- March 1991

© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1989

Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover lst edition 1989

Ali rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the PubJisher

Sedulo curavi humanas actiones non ridere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere.

SPINOZA

(I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, nor to scorn human actions, but to understand them.)

Foreword

The title that the authors have chosen for this book, The Causes and Cures of Criminality, suggests that it may be just another book specu­lating on the sociological evils that need to be put right for "everything in the garden to be lovely." If this is the expectation, the reader could not be more mistaken.

The recurrent theme, in fact, is a strong accent on psychological experiments. Both authors have tackled the theoretical and practical side of crime through an exhaustive literature review of past experi­mental work. Hans J. Eysenck has concentrated on the constitutional and biological theory of criminality, whereas Gisli Gudjonsson has con­cerned himself more with a review of ongoing research into therapy and possible prevention of antisocial behavior.

Part I goes into considerable detail on the causes of criminality, stressing much of the strangely neglected area of individual differences in personality. Research studies point to a very heavy involvement of heredity in the causation of criminality, but the authors are careful to acknowledge that much can be done environmentally to discourage a life of crime once those persons who are at risk have been identified.

Probably one of the most common pronouncements currently made in criminology is that "nothing works," Le., nothing will deter antisocial behavior, whatever you do. Hence it is cheering to meet the following comment in this book: "The notion that 'nothing works' is erroneous and misleading. What is important is identifying factors that can differen­tiate between successful and unsuccessful intervention outcome."

In Part II, sentencing effectiveness and prevention and treatment of illegal behavior are discussed by Gudjonsson, who, as Senior Lec­turer in Forensic Psychology, has had much court experience. Here, too, it is refreshing to detect an optimistic confidence in "cure," pro­vided psychological theories and individual differences are taken into account--particularly because sentencers, at all levels, are often told by

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viii FOREWORD

criminologists (especially those who rely heavily on sociological argu­ments) that it really does not matter what they do, crime will increase anyhow.

My own personal view, as a magistrate, is that our society inter­venes far too late in the process of antisocial behavior as this develops in children. It is much easier, and more viable, to make strict rules in the home and at school and enforce these, than to try weird and won­derful rehabilitation programs on adults whose lives have been ruined by society's permissive unwillingness to get involved until it is too late for the life habit of crime to be reversed. This is, perhaps, why the judiciary feels that it is too late by the time offenders come to court after years of "wrongdoing," Le., antisocial habits have been so leni­ently dealt with as to suggest reinforcement rather than deterrence.

The Causes and Cures of Criminality explains the psychological and biological mechanisms behind the formation of criminality in certain people who are at risk to develop this sort of inevitably self-defeating behavior. Furthermore, it sets out possible early interventions to dis­courage this tendency before antisocial behavior becomes an accepted life-style. It is hoped that readers of this book will be convinced of the need to take the psychological component into account, in both the causes and the cures of criminality.

Sybil B. G. Eysenck Institute of Psychiatry University of London London, England

Preface

This is not a textbook of criminology. It is a book about psychological problems and issues related to crime, and because crimes are committed by people, we believe that psychology is a fundamental discipline which underlies any advances we may make in the prevention of crime, and the treatment of criminals. Among the questions to be discussed, there­fore, are such important issues as the existence and nature of the crime­prone personality, the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on criminality, the way in which different types of punishment determine the future conduct of criminals, and the like. These are all important issues, and we have tried to adduce as much factual evidence as is available at the moment, and to come to some provisional conclu­sions on these points.

Our main concern has been with the individual, his intelligence, his personality, and other similar factors which largely decide whether he will drift into crime, remain a criminal, or pursue a socially less undesir­able career. There has been a distinct change in the academic climate, where after a period of unqualified belief in the insight and predictive possibility of clinical jUdgements of psychiatrists and psychologists the actual failure of mental health experts in the field had led to a very negative approach. Thus in 1974, a task force of the American Psycho­logical Association concluded that "the state of the art regarding predic­tions of violence is very unsatisfactory. The ability of psychiatrists or any other professionals to reliably predict future violence is unproved" (p. 30). Several years later, in 1978, a task force of the American Psy­chological Association concluded in an even more categorical fashion that "the validity of psychological predictions of dangerous behavior. . . is extremely poor, so poor that one could oppose their use on the strictly empirical ground that psychologists are not professionally competent to make such judgements" (p. 10). In addition, the failure of standardized psychometric tests, such as the MMPI, in predictive studies had led to

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the conclusion that it was neither possible nor wise to predict dangerous or violent behavior (Monahan, 1981).

In recent years, following the demonstration by Paul Meehl (1954) that statistical prediction is more relevant than clinical prediction, this situation has changed very greatly. As Duckitt (1988) has shown, such actuarial predictions in the case of criminal conduct and violence, based on actual conduct-related items, have been extremely successful. Con­sider just as an example the work of Fischer (1983, 1984), working in the State of Iowa prison system. His formula uses six base predictor scores derived from the offender's current offenses, subsequent abuse involvement, history of violence, escapes, and prior offenses, which are combined additively and interactively to classify offenders into five em­pirically derived risk categories. One study looked at the percentage of individuals committing new violent offenses three years after being re­leased: 64% of those scored "very poor risks" were arrested for new violent offenses, and 43% of those scored "poor risks." However, only 13% of those scored "fair risks, " 7% scored "good risks," and 2% scored "excellent risks" received new violent charges. This gives an overall ac­curacy rate for very poor risk as opposed to fair, good, and excellent of 81 %. When a more inclusive criterion is used, the predictive accuracy accounted for 87.5% of the total new violence in the entire sample.

In the face of such figures, it should hardly be necessary to argue the case for a wider use of psychological expertise in the prison system. There have been similar changes in the general climate with respect to the importance of genetic factors, which are now widely admitted to be important and which contribute well over half of the total variance as far as criminal behavior is concerned. There has been a recognition that personality factors are of very great importance, and even the doctrine of "stigmata," although in a very revised form, has made a successful return. These are some of the themes which are treated in this book, and we hope to persuade the reader that a new wind is blowing through these fields, driving away many miasmas of ideological preconceptions and theoretical biases.

Throughout we have laid stress on one partiCUlar point, namely the importance of factual, empirical, and, if possible, experimental evidence. As David Hume wrote, so many years ago: "If we take in our hand any volume, let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames; for it can contain nothing but sophistry and delusion." We have tried to avoid sophistry and delusion by concentrating on empirical fact. Clearly the evidence is not all in on any of the topics discussed, but there is now sufficient evidence to give us a clear indication of what are viable, and

PREFACE xi

what are defunct directions of research. Gradually criminology is becom­ing a science, rather than being a football kicked about by ideological partisans of one persuasion or another. Our aim has been to accelerate this process, and we hope to persuade the reader of the value of the material collected together.

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. Clinical aspects of the violent individual. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association,

American Psychological Association. Report of the task force on the role of psychology in the criminal justice system. American Psychologist, 1978, 33, 1099-1113.

Duckitt, J.H. The prediction of violence. South African Journal of Psychology, 1988, 18, 10-18.

Fischer, D.R. The impact of objective parole criteria on parole release rates and public protection. Des Moines, Iowa: Iowa Office for Planning and Programing, 1983.

Fischer, D.R. Prediction and incapacitation: Issues and answers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, 1984. Quoted by Duckitt, 1988.

Meehl, P. Clinical versus statistical prediction: A theoretical analysis and review of the evidence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1954.

Monahan, J. Predicting violent behavior: An assessment of clinical techniques. Beverly Hills, California: Sage, 1981.

Contents

1. Introduction .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART ONE: PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

2. The Constitutional Theory o/Criminality .................. 17 Introduction: Stigmata ................................. 17 Physique: The Kretschmer-Sheldon System ............... 22 Physique and Personality ............................... 26 Early Studies of Criminality and Physique .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 33 Criminality and the Sheldon System ..................... 34 Conclusion ............................................ 41

3. Crime and Personality ................................... 43 The Descriptive Variables: Personality Research .......... 43 Intelligence and Criminality .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 49 Temperament and Criminality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4. Criminality, Heredity, and Environment .................. 91 Modern Behavioral Genetics ............................ 91 Twin Studies of Criminality ............................. 96 Adoption Studies of Criminality ......................... 103 Interpretation of Findings .............................. 105 Summary and Conclusions .............................. 108

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xiv CONTENTS

5. A Biological Theory of Criminality ........................ 109 Arousal and Conditioning ............................... 109 A General Arousal Theory of Criminality ................. 118 Arousal, Masculinity, and Androgens .................... 125 Sociobiology of Human Reproduction and Criminality ...... 134 Summary and Conclusions .............................. 139

PART TWO: SENTENCING, PUNISHMENT, AND REHABILITATION

6. The Function and Effectiveness of Sentencing .............. 143 Introduction ........................................... 143 The Function of Sentencing ............................. 144 The Court Hierarchy ................................... 145 Types of Sentencing Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 146 Remission and Parole .................................. 152 Mentally Disordered Offenders .......................... 152 Juvenile Delinquency ................................... 153 The Measurement of Criminal Behavior .................. 155 Police Cautioning ...................................... 160 Type of Sentences Given . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 161 Reconviction .......................................... 163 Community Service Orders ............................. 167 Truancy and the Courts ................................ 167 Prison Sentences ....................................... 169 The Death Penalty ..................................... 177 Conclusions ........................................... 178

7. The Prevention and Treatment of Illegal Behavior .......... 183 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 183 Ways of Studying Intervention Effects ................... 183 Requirements for Evaluative Research ................... 186 The Concept of Prevention .............................. 189 The Effectiveness of Predelinquent Measures ............. 191 Preadjudication Intervention ............................ 194 Postadjudication Intervention ........................... 195 Overall Effectiveness of Treatment/Rehabilitation ......... 200 Social Learning Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 207 Punishment-Does It Work? ............................ 209 Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques ........................ 213

CONTENTS xv

Individual Differences in Treatment Effectiveness ......... 216 Mental Illness and Crime ............................... 217 Conclusions ........................................... 219

8. Sexual Deviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 221 Introduction: Recent Trends ............................ 221 Definitions and Conceptualizations ....................... 222 Types of Sexual Deviations ............................. 225 Intervention Techniques and Their Evaluation ............ 234 Conclusions ........................................... 243

9. Summary and Conclusions 247

REFERENCES .••••••.••.••••••••.•.•••.••.••.••..•.•••..•• 257

INDEX ••••••••••.•.•.••••...•••••••••....•.•.••...•...•.• 303