Moral Reasoning in Burglary - Assignment Example

Running Head: THE ROLE OF MORAL REASONING IN BURGLARY OFFENCES The role of moral reasoning in burglary offences Student Name Institution Date Introduction Moral reasoning is a social cognition that is largely associated with the criminal behavior particularly among the young people. For instance, delinquency is believed to be associated with the delay in both development and maturation of the moral reasoning. Therefore, when the criminal opportunities occur, such an individual lacks the developed cognitive ability to effectively control as well as resist the temptations that lead to offences. The strength of relationship significantly varies in accordance to other factors, such as young offenders who committed the offences without any financial gain like assault, sex offences and murder implied to have the maturity of moral judgment compared to the other young offenders who involved in the acquisition crimes such as robbery, fraud, and burglary and theft cases (Kohlberg, 1978). More recent criminal sample studies indicate that individuals who are involved in the commitment of financially-motivated types of crimes seems to have less of mature reasoning in comparison with the ones who commit violent crimes, providing a clear implication that moral reasoning is very much linked to crimes. Background to Kohlberg’s theory Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning was grouped into three major levels. The first level is referred to as pre-conventional morality that is characterist with punishment avoidance as well as obedience to the law and individualism features. Conventional is the second stage of moral development that is followed by an encouraging interpersonal relationships asthe third stage. Post-conventional morality is the fourth stage, then social contract and finally, Universal ethical principle (Kohlberg, 1978). Moral reasoning provides a detailed background description of the Kohlberg’s theory. Although, some hypothetical as well as real life dilemmas on moral are continuously being tested and evaluated against the theory of Kohlberg. Evidences for the role of moral reasoning in relation to burglary According to Howitt (2006) based on the psychological study of criminal conduct, it is essential for individuals who are interested in the forensic psychology to have the psychological understanding of the criminal conduct. Among the issues considered is the introduction to a criminal justice system, theory of the criminal behaviour as well as treatment of the offending behaviors. Historically, the most popular research on the personality as well as crime was inspired by the theory of Hans Eysenck and the personality questionnaires. He perceived offending as being the natural and rational basing his assumption on the hedonistic, avoided pain and sought pleasure of human beings. Eysenck assumed that the delinquent acts for instance, theft, vandalism and violence were essentially helpful to the particular offenders. To effectively explain the reasons as to why the entire people were not criminals, Eysenck made a suggestion that hedonistic tendency in committing crimes was largely opposed by a conscience that he considered as the conditioned kind of fear response (Howitt, 2006). Based on the Eysenck theory, individuals who are involved in the commitment of burglary offenses have not yet developed strong consciences, simply due to their inherently very poor conditionality that is linked to the Eysenck’s three major dimensions of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Personality as well as Psychoticism. Eysenck’ theory states that people who find themselves on high Extraversion conditions, have less reasoning abilities due to their increased resting level of the anxiety interferences with their level of conditioning. In addition, since the Neuroticism acts as the drive, reinforcement of the existing behavioral trends, the neurotic extraverts end up as particular criminals. Eysenck as well forecasted that individuals are characterized with high Psychoticism tends to be the offenders since the traits associated with their description of psychoticism such as emotional coldness, high hostility, inhumanity and low empathy were characteristics of criminals. A review of the research related to the Eysenck’s work on personality dimensions to establish the official as well as self-reported offending indicated that very high Neuroticism relates to the official offending, whereas the high Extraversion is associated with the self-reported offending and the high Psychoticism related to all the two, although as tautological result because several items on a P scale are associated with the antisocial behavior or were identified based on the discrimination abilities between prisoners and the non-prisoners. The prospective and longitudinal research on more than four hundred boys from London, revealed that individuals characterized with both high Extraversion and Neuroticism seem to be very youthful self-reported, adult and the adult self-reported type of offenders and not the juvenile offenders. The findings of the study provides a clear significant relationship caused by the measuring impulsiveness such as acting so fast without reasoning or stopping to think, and hence Eysenck’s theory was basically aimed at identifying the association between the impulsiveness as well as offending. People develops through the diverse stages of the moral maturity as they grows older, for instance, from a pre-conventional stage identified as hedonistic and they obey any law due to the fear of undergoing punishment to a conventional stage where the individuals abide by the law simply because it a low, finally to a post-conventional phase able to obey the law. Cognitive theories Majority of the psychologists have focused on the need to explain how the offenders are developed, while some have aimed establishing how search offending events occur. The cognitive theory is the most popular and it suggests that search the offending events occur as a result of the need to respond to the specific opportunities, at such a time when their anticipated benefits such as the stolen property and peer approval seems to outweigh their intended costs for instance, legal punishment as well as parental disapproval (Howitt, 2006). An example was provided by Ronald Clarke, Derek Cornish who outlined the residential burglary theory which involves influential factors such as if the house looks affluent, was near bushes to take a hide, occupied, contained a burglar alarm, if surrounded by some nosy neighbors and whether a dog was kept. The significance of reasoning as well as thinking processes is similarly emphasized within other psychological theories related to offending, for instance, in Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory on moral development. Laurence in his theory, states that people progresses through various stages of the moral development while getting older, this includes shifting from a pre-conventional stage characterizing them as hedonistic with the ability to only respect the law simply because it is a law and progresses to a post-conventional stage where they able and willing to obey the law on condition that if such law coincides with the leading moral principles like justice, respect for an individual’s rights and fairness. In addition, a pre-conventional stage greatly corresponds to instead a concrete thinking and abstract thinking is needed in order to progress to a post-conventional stage. Therefore, moral reasoning development is ideally associated with developing intelligence and the main idea in a moral reasoning hypothesis is that the moral actions entirely depend on the moral reasoning. In the theory of moral reasoning, a consideration was made that offenders possess powers of the moral reasoning which makes them to be stuck within the pre-conventional stage. As a result, interventions provide evidence that the offenders indeed are characterized with lower levels of the moral reasoning compared to the non-offenders. For instance, the institutional health management programs have been established to improve then moral reasoning abilities. The research to establish the relationship between social cognition and the crime provides some evidences which indicates that most criminals usually think of others as well as their actions in various ways compared to the non-criminals. This implies that such people find themselves engaged in the burglary criminal activities, reveals more and stronger thinking patterns. Therefore, such kind of investigation is referred to as the social cognition since the emphasis is not only based on an individual level of thinking patterns, but instead on how it occurs as far as interaction with others is concerned (Kohlberg, 1978). Other theories in the social learning, emphasize the significance of modeling instructions, strategies for the interpersonal problem-solving and the though processes. People are perceived as the information-processor related to the computer-based information systems because the behavior of human beings entirely depends on the cognitive process and the rewarding history as well as the previously received punishment. Rosslyn Ross in collaboration with Robert, they explicitly associated offending to the cognitive deficits, presenting their argument that most offenders seem to be very impulsive, concrete instead of being abstract in their level of thinking, they are self-centered and possess poor interpersonal problem-solving abilities due to the lack understanding on how some other people think as well as feel. Most of the cognitive-behavioral skills in various training programs specifically for the offenders are widely based on such ideas (Howitt, 2006). The current research on rational as well as choice ideas provides an understanding model that criminal behaviors such as burglary, suggests that criminals are the rational decisional-makers without any differences in their level of thinking compared to the non-criminals, although such people are normally faced by particular environmental situations as well as triggers that contribute to the rational choice on the type of criminal behaviors to involve in. The formal reasoning stage which is basically seen among the children from the beginning age of 7 years and still reflected in majority of the adults, it may be good or bad system. This implies that an individual may reason to respect the laws simply because he or she thinks it to be a thing in doing so or may tend to reason that stealing is bad and that is why he or she needs not to get involved in theft cases because it is perceived to be wrong. In the latest stage referred to as post-formal phase, is reflected in a very small percentage among the adults and in youths it does not develop until they reach adolescence. The consideration of what is actually right or wrong system, implies that an individual who reasons in such a manner cannot necessary follow what he or she is assigned to do either by other people or the society, but such a person takes much time in thinking as an individual or in groups on what seem to be right and wrong as well as incorporating several of their experiences and own beliefs. Experienced thinkers like Thoreau and several others reasons in such manner. Studies also reveal that civil disobedience emerged as a result of this kind of thinking. Most of the people do not all reason at the same time and level, for instance, individuals who reason at their post-formal stage on very serious issues, may not be in a rush to act since they fear to be punished. In addition, an individual may decide to comply with what the society dictates to be right or formal, although, questions specific new law. Such reasoning forms are very significant since the manner in which an individual predominantly reasons, especially on vital matters, reflects a person’s mental processes as well as capabilities. Similarly, other people do not show some reasoning capabilities in concern to a pre-conventional level, and hence leading to crimes such as theft, burglary, robbery crimes within the society. Such acts are only considered to be wrong if the victims or criminals are punished for involving in the acts. Social cognition and the crime offer some evidences which indicates that most criminals usually think of others as well as their actions in various ways compared to the non-criminals (Howitt, 2006). As a way of testing the reasoning level in a person, a reasonably significant question has to be proposed as well as posed to that particular person, purposely for him or her to reason out. The answer is not very relevant in such a case, but the reasoning behind the answer provided by an individual. Studies also indicate that criminality results from the numerous errors as well as biases in the thinking patterns which in most cases contributes to the poor decision-making. For instance, research that was carried out to examine criminal personality aims at establishing the greater understanding of various thought processes which are maladaptive as well as shed light into the best ways of dealing with the burglary criminals effectively. People who are characterized with very low self-control ability are impulsive, takes risks, possess a low cognitive, they are self-centered and with low empathy. Such individual find it very difficult in differing gratification as well as their decisions in offending is insufficiently controlled by the future and painful consequences related to offending. A comprehensive study on the offending behavior shows that moral reasoning, rehabilitation of the offenders and criminal conduct, establishes the relationship between the moral reasoning, the criminal behaviors as well as the offender rehabilitation. Palmer in his research to explain the doubtful relationship between offending and the moral reasoning placed such a relationship on an extensive offending model of behavior that considers the interactions of the moral reasoning, various psychological as well as social variables (Kohlberg, 1978). Conclusion The commitment of burglary offenses implies that individuals who involve themselves in such acts have not yet developed strong consciences, simply due to their inherently very poor conditionality that is linked to the Eysenck’s three major dimensions of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Personality as well as Psychoticism. Therefore, moral reasoning development is ideally associated with developing intelligence and the main idea in a moral reasoning theory is that the moral actions entirely depend on the moral reasoning. Criminal acts are as a result of the numerous errors and biases in the thinking patterns which in most cases contributes to the poor decision-making. A pre-conventional stage greatly corresponds to instead a concrete thinking and abstract thinking is needed in order to progress to a post-conventional stage. Male offenders have the lowest level of moral reasoning that functions basically at pre-conventional stage, while a large number of non-offenders functions at conventional stage of morality. Offenders possess very low powers of the moral reasoning, and hence make them to be stuck within the pre-conventional stage. Such offenders indeed are distinguished with lower levels of the moral reasoning compared to the non-offenders. References Howitt, D. (2006). Introduction to forensic and criminal psychology. Loughborough: Pearson Longman. Kohlberg, L. (1978). Revisions in the theory and practice of moral development. Directions for Child Development, 2, 83-88. Read More