CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR - PSYC 3402 NEWEST 2025/2026
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND RIGHT ANSWERS |ALREADY GRADED
A+||CURRENT UPDATE!! update2026.
The Central Eight (what helps explain why people commit crimes) - ANSWER-1. criminal history
2. criminal personality
3. criminal associates
4. criminal attitudes
5. substance misuse/abuse
6. marital/family deficits
7. education/employment deficits
8. unstructured leisure time
Reproductive success - ANSWER-How good an organism is at having children and keeping
them alive so the offspring procreate and pass the successful adaptation into the next gene
pool - "the number of surviving descents who themselves go on to reproduce"
Neurochemistry - ANSWER-Chemical messengers of the nervous system operating in the brain
- Serotonin (studied the most): behavioural inhibition and mood regulation; lower levels
correlate with aggression
,- Dopamine: the pleasure centre
- Norepinephrine: fight or flight
Hormones - ANSWER-Messenger of the endocrine system
testosterone studied the most: higher levels of testosterone evidence a small (positive)
correlation with aggression
Plausible Theories - ANSWER-Fearless theory: some individuals do not experience elevated heart
rate or sweaty palms when stressed, thus are more likely to take risks like crime
Stimulation-seeking theory: chronic state of low arousal is unpleasant; risk-taking (ex. crime)
alleviates the unpleasant state
Psychodynamic theories - ANSWER-- Sigmund Freud
- psychoanalysis is a method for treating psychopathologies
- criminal behaviour results from dynamic internal forces within an individual
- the nature of these forces, and the conflicts between them, influenced by childhood
experiences
- Three primary forces make up personality: ID, Superego and Ego
ID - ANSWER-- focuses on basic biological urges
- guided by the pleasure principle - obtain immediate pleasure and avoid pain - ignores reality,
such as the consequences of one's behaviour
Selection pressures - ANSWER-environmental pressures found within niches that determine
whether or not a random mutation gives and organism a reproductive edge (finding food, safe
haven, avoiding predators, finding a mate)
- ex. many selective pressures are present throughout an organism's life, such as
predators and other threats in the environment, diseases that are common in a population,
and things that an organism must be able to do to survive and reproduce
, -
Successful adaptations - ANSWER-Characteristics of an organism that enhance reproductive
success in the ancestral environment
The heart of evolutionary psychology - ANSWER-Behaviour, thoughts and emotions exhibited
by our hunter/gather ancestors that increase the odds of survival for oneself and ones offspring
eventually became part of the human gene pool in the form of evened psychological
mechanisms
Evolutionary forensic psychology - ANSWER-Hypothesizes that recurring ancestral selection
pressures that caused conflicts led to the development of evolved psychological mechanisms
that manifest as crime/antisocial behaviour (today) only when certain environmental cues are
present
- key: these "criminal" behaviours were successful adaptations in the ancestral
environment
Explaining male-on-male violence - ANSWER-Evolutionary forensic psychologists posit that a
male's reputation was found largely on his ability to maintain a credible threat of violence
MAOA gene (monoamine oxidase) - ANSWER-The gene is ultimately responsible for
metabolizing brain neurotransmitters (norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine)
- there are low activity and high activity versions that happen naturally in the population
- the low activity version of the x-linked MAOA gene is associated with crime and
aggression
Superego - ANSWER-- works in direct opposite of the ID
- represents internalization of rules and restrictions of society
- made up of the conscience and the ago-idea
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND RIGHT ANSWERS |ALREADY GRADED
A+||CURRENT UPDATE!! update2026.
The Central Eight (what helps explain why people commit crimes) - ANSWER-1. criminal history
2. criminal personality
3. criminal associates
4. criminal attitudes
5. substance misuse/abuse
6. marital/family deficits
7. education/employment deficits
8. unstructured leisure time
Reproductive success - ANSWER-How good an organism is at having children and keeping
them alive so the offspring procreate and pass the successful adaptation into the next gene
pool - "the number of surviving descents who themselves go on to reproduce"
Neurochemistry - ANSWER-Chemical messengers of the nervous system operating in the brain
- Serotonin (studied the most): behavioural inhibition and mood regulation; lower levels
correlate with aggression
,- Dopamine: the pleasure centre
- Norepinephrine: fight or flight
Hormones - ANSWER-Messenger of the endocrine system
testosterone studied the most: higher levels of testosterone evidence a small (positive)
correlation with aggression
Plausible Theories - ANSWER-Fearless theory: some individuals do not experience elevated heart
rate or sweaty palms when stressed, thus are more likely to take risks like crime
Stimulation-seeking theory: chronic state of low arousal is unpleasant; risk-taking (ex. crime)
alleviates the unpleasant state
Psychodynamic theories - ANSWER-- Sigmund Freud
- psychoanalysis is a method for treating psychopathologies
- criminal behaviour results from dynamic internal forces within an individual
- the nature of these forces, and the conflicts between them, influenced by childhood
experiences
- Three primary forces make up personality: ID, Superego and Ego
ID - ANSWER-- focuses on basic biological urges
- guided by the pleasure principle - obtain immediate pleasure and avoid pain - ignores reality,
such as the consequences of one's behaviour
Selection pressures - ANSWER-environmental pressures found within niches that determine
whether or not a random mutation gives and organism a reproductive edge (finding food, safe
haven, avoiding predators, finding a mate)
- ex. many selective pressures are present throughout an organism's life, such as
predators and other threats in the environment, diseases that are common in a population,
and things that an organism must be able to do to survive and reproduce
, -
Successful adaptations - ANSWER-Characteristics of an organism that enhance reproductive
success in the ancestral environment
The heart of evolutionary psychology - ANSWER-Behaviour, thoughts and emotions exhibited
by our hunter/gather ancestors that increase the odds of survival for oneself and ones offspring
eventually became part of the human gene pool in the form of evened psychological
mechanisms
Evolutionary forensic psychology - ANSWER-Hypothesizes that recurring ancestral selection
pressures that caused conflicts led to the development of evolved psychological mechanisms
that manifest as crime/antisocial behaviour (today) only when certain environmental cues are
present
- key: these "criminal" behaviours were successful adaptations in the ancestral
environment
Explaining male-on-male violence - ANSWER-Evolutionary forensic psychologists posit that a
male's reputation was found largely on his ability to maintain a credible threat of violence
MAOA gene (monoamine oxidase) - ANSWER-The gene is ultimately responsible for
metabolizing brain neurotransmitters (norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine)
- there are low activity and high activity versions that happen naturally in the population
- the low activity version of the x-linked MAOA gene is associated with crime and
aggression
Superego - ANSWER-- works in direct opposite of the ID
- represents internalization of rules and restrictions of society
- made up of the conscience and the ago-idea
