Topic E Case Studies

A quick summary of all the Case Studies in Topic E in no particular order, main case studies have links attached. 
Name of Experiment/Case Study 	Aim 	Procedure 	Results/Findings 	Conclusions/Evaluation
Mednick (1984)
Biological 	To see if there is a genetic link to criminality 	He studied many adopted children, looked into their arrest records compared to their biological fathers 	He found that even though their biological fathers did not raise them, many were also criminals, same as their fathers 	Genes may cause criminality, these fathers may have passed on their criminals genes causing their children to be criminal
Christiansen (1977) Biological 	To see identical twins would both become criminal 	He looked into the arrest records of many pairs of twins in Denmark. He studied identical and non identical twins 	He found that if one identical twin was criminal, the other had a 52% chance of being criminal as well, whereas for non identical twins it was 22% 	This could be evidence that there is a genetic basis to crime, shows a shared criminal tendency. The decrease to 22% can be explained by that the twins don’t share all of their genes.
Bowlby (1946)Social 	To test if maternal deprivation may be a cause for criminality 	Interviewed 44 boy offenders about their crimes and relationships with their mother 	14 boys felt no guilt about their crimes or victims. He looked into their family life, found that 12 out of 14 boys had been separated from their primary caregiver when before they were 2 years old. Out of the 30 offenders that did feel guilt, only 5 had been separated in the same way. 	This could show that a lack of maternal support can cause confusion, aggression, and violence in a child which could in turn lead to criminality.
'Farrington (2002)'Social 	To see if there was a link between family size and criminality 	 	He found that families with a lot of children were more likely to be linked to criminality 	This was probably due to the lack of attention that each child can be given. They more likely have lower income, offering fewer educational opportunities for their children, which is linked to youth offending
Western (2003)Social 	To see if there was a link between a father’s/mother’s occupation and criminality 	 	If a mother was a blue collar worker their child would more likely turn to crime. 	Showed that a father’s occupation was not an indicator of youth crime, but a mother’s occupation had an effect. This was more likely due to maternal deprivation as a result of their mothers working long hours.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen  (1968) Social 	Conducted an experiment to test whether achievement could be self fulfilling 	He gave school children an IQ test, then told their teachers which children were going to be average and which were going to be bloomers. However this was a lie and the teachers were actually given a random list of names. 	They found that the teachers did not expect too much from the average children and gave all their attention to the ‘bloomers’. After about a year they came back and retested the children’s intelligence. The IQ of the ‘bloomers’ had risen and the IQ of the average children had fallen. 	The teachers’ expectations of the children’s ability had altered how they were treated and this had affected their ability. This is an example of self fulfilling prophecy, the children fulfilled what was expected of them.
Jahoda (1954) Social 	Tested to see if self fulfilling prophecy was a factor in criminality 	Studied the Ashanti people of Africa, who had a custom of labeling boys of character traits based on the day they were born. He looked into their arrest records. 	He found that 22% of boys were born on Wednesday compared to the only 7% born on Monday. 	Boys born on Wednesday were expected to be aggressive and behave badly, boys born on Monday were expected to be calm and peaceful. The boys fulfilled what was expected of them.
Theilgaard (1984) Biological 	To see if there is a criminal gene that may  be linked to criminality 	Studied 30,000 men and tested their chromosomes. Found 2 chromosome abnormalities XXY and XYY. 12 men with XXY and 16 men with XYY were interviewed by a social worker. Conducted IQ test and personality tests. 	She found that men with the XXY chromosome abnormality had lower IQ and were more aggressive than other men. 	This suggests that some genes do cause aggressive behaviour in men which may in turn cause criminality.
Sigall and Ostrove (1975)Jury decision making, not nature-nurture debate.	Whether attractiveness affected jury decision making. Was there a relationship between attractiveness and type of crime committed.	1200 participants were given a photo of woman and a crime. Some had an attractive photo of her, some had an unattractive photo of her. A control group had no photo. They were paired up with a crime, either burglary or fraud. The participants decided a sentence for her. 	For the burglary crime the attractive photo got a much lighter sentence than the unattractive photo, whereas that photo got a heavier sentence than the group with no photo. For the fraud crime the attractive photo got a heavier sentence than the unattractive photo. The group with no photo gave the same sentence as the group with the unattractive photo.	This goes to show that looks do affect jury decision making. It shows that good looking people do get away with some crimes unless they have used their looks to get away with it.
Madon (2004) Social 	To see if a parent's’ expectation of their child’s drinking habits will become a reality 	She questioned 115 children aged between 12 and 13 years old and their parents. She asked their parents to say how much they thought their child would drink over the following year. A year later, they questioned the children and asked them to say how much they would actually drink.	She found that parents were very accurate at guessing how much their children would drink. The parent’s expectations were consistent with alcohol use after 12 months. Children who drank more were the ones who were predicted a greater use of alcohol 	This is a self fulfilling prophecy because what the parent expected came true. This study may show that a parent’s beliefs can have a massive influence on a child’s behaviour. This goes to say that if a criminal is expected to become criminal they are more likely to become criminal.