Component 01: Criminal Psychology - Key Concepts — OCR GCSE Psychology

Component 01 Criminal Psychology introduces foundational concepts regarding the social construction of crime and deviance. Students explore why certain actions are classified as unlawful, how criminal actions are quantified via police data and surveys, and why definitions vary across cultures and historical eras.

This topic provides the theoretical framework needed to assess biological, psychological, and social explanations of criminal conduct. It prepares learners to evaluate contemporary issues such as the validity of crime measurement tools and the effectiveness of sentencing, rehabilitation, and punishment in modern society.

• →Distinction between Crime and Deviance: Crime breaks formal written legislation punishable by the state; deviance breaches cultural or social expectations and norms.
• →Historical and Cultural Relativism: Definitions of criminality change across time (e.g. historic laws) and across jurisdictions (e.g. variation in legal ages and drug laws globally).
• →Measures of Crime: Official police statistics, victim surveys (e.g. Crime Survey for England and Wales), and self-report studies each have distinct strengths and limitations.
• →Typologies of Crime: Categorisation of offences into violent crime, acquisitive/property crime, anti-social behaviour, and white-collar offences.

• Identifies violent offences as those involving force or threatened force against a person, giving an example such as assault.
• Identifies drug-related offences as those involving controlled substances, including possession, supply or trafficking.
• Identifies acquisitive offences as those committed for property or financial gain, such as burglary or theft.
• Identifies sexual offences as non-consensual sexual conduct or related offences such as indecent images.
• Identifies anti-social offences as behaviour breaching community norms that causes harassment, alarm or distress.
• Classifies a described scenario into the correct type by matching its defining feature rather than its label.
• Defines a social construct as an idea created and maintained by society rather than a fixed natural fact.
• Explains that criminal behaviour is a social construct because laws and norms are made by people and can change.
• Defines norms as shared expectations about acceptable behaviour and links deviation from them to labelling as criminal or anti-social.
• Explains that culture shapes definitions, so the same act can be lawful in one society and illegal in another.
• Gives a valid example showing cultural or historical variation in what is treated as criminal or anti-social.
• Concludes that definitions of crime vary across cultures and over time rather than being universal.
• Identifies official statistics as crimes recorded by the police, counting only offences that are reported and recorded.
• Explains that official statistics miss unreported and unrecorded crime, producing a dark figure.
• Describes self-report as asking people directly, through questionnaires or interviews, about offences they have committed.
• States that self-report can reveal hidden or undetected offending that official statistics omit.
• Recognises that self-report depends on honesty and accurate memory and may not represent the whole population.
• Compares the two sources, showing that each measures crime differently and neither gives a complete count.

• 💡Read the scenario and underline the key action before selecting a type, so the defining feature drives your choice.
• 💡Keep one memorable example per type ready, such as burglary for acquisitive and graffiti for anti-social.
• 💡Eliminate options that describe the wrong defining feature, then confirm the remaining option fits the whole scenario.
• 💡Use the phrase social construct and immediately explain it in your own words to secure the definition.
• 💡Anchor your answer with one concrete cross-cultural example rather than a vague claim that cultures differ.
• 💡Link deviation from norms explicitly to labelling as criminal or anti-social to cover both parts of the statement.
• 💡Read the question to see whether it asks about one source or a comparison, and answer that focus.
• 💡Use the terms official statistics, self-report and dark figure precisely.
• 💡Support each source with one strength or limitation rather than listing many vaguely.
• 💡Use precise psychological terminology: distinguish between 'formal sanctions' (custodial sentences, fines) and 'informal sanctions' (ridicule, ostracism).
• 💡When evaluating measures of crime, weigh reliability (consistency of measurement) against validity (accuracy and truthfulness of the measurement).
• 💡In 6-mark or 8-mark extended responses, balance your discussion by offering clear evaluation paragraphs starting with distinct points, evidence, and critical analysis.

• Treats every offence against a person as violent; check whether force or threatened force is actually present before choosing violent.
• Confuses acquisitive with drug-related offences when money is involved; focus on whether the aim is property or financial gain rather than the substance.
• Assumes anti-social behaviour must always be a criminal offence; recognise that it can breach norms without being criminal in itself.
• Chooses a type from the name of the scenario alone; match the specific defining feature described in the question.
• Treats crime as a fixed natural fact; recognise that laws and norms are created by societies and can change.
• Confuses norms with laws; explain that norms are shared expectations while laws are formal rules, and deviation from norms may be labelled anti-social.
• Assumes one culture's definition applies everywhere; use an example showing the same act treated differently across cultures.
• Ignores the role of culture and discusses only individual behaviour; link the definition of crime to cultural context.
• Treats official statistics as a complete record of all crime; note instead that they count only reported and recorded offences.
• Assumes self-report data are always accurate; recognise instead that honesty and memory limit them.
• Confuses self-report with police records; keep self-report as people reporting their own behaviour.
• Ignores the dark figure; include unreported and unrecorded crime as what official statistics miss.
• Assuming that all criminal acts are automatically viewed as socially deviant, ignoring routine offences such as minor speeding or copyright piracy that carry little social disapproval.
• Believing that official police statistics capture all actual crime committed, forgetting the 'dark figure of crime' resulting from under-reporting and discretionary recording.
• Conflating Social Learning Theory with simple direct conditioning, omitting internal cognitive mediational processes and vicarious reinforcement.

1. 1Day 1-2: Master core definitions of crime, deviance, and social norms, producing comparison tables with cultural and historical examples.
2. 2Day 3-4: Compare the three main ways crime is measured (official statistics, victim surveys, self-reports) focusing on reliability versus validity.
3. 3Day 5-6: Practise applying theoretical concepts to novel scenarios and write timed responses for 3-mark and 6-mark questions.
4. 4Day 7: Complete past exam questions under timed conditions and review against OCR mark schemes.

• 📋Short definitional and difference questions (2-3 marks): Requiring concise, technically accurate distinctions between key concepts.
• 📋Scenario-based application questions (3-4 marks): Demanding the application of concepts such as deviance or social learning to an unseen criminal vignette.
• 📋Extended evaluate questions (6-8 marks): Requiring balanced evaluation of crime measurement tools or psychological theories of criminality.