Critically review studies that have been published in the last 15 years, where impulsivity has been considered a factor in the explanation of criminal behaviour.

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Critically review studies that have been published in the last 15 years, where impulsivity has been considered a factor in the explanation of criminal behaviour.

Introduction

Criminological theories have often stressed the importance of impulsivity in the causation of delinquency and criminal behaviour. Whether this construct is termed impulsivity, self-control, or low constraint/ negative emotionality, the theoretical importance of impulsivity is clear.

Before studies that are directly linked to impulsivity and criminal behaviour are critically reviewed it is necessary to get a feel for what criminal behaviour and impulsivity are. The introduction to this review will give a brief breakdown of impulsivity and criminal behaviour, further on studies will be used to compare and contrast differing views on the relationship between impulsivity and criminal behaviour.

Impulsivity

There are quite a few variations on the definition of impulsivity, some of these variations are quite significant but most seem to go along the same lines. The definition that follows is a good pure explanation as to what impulsivity is:  “Impulsivity (or impulsiveness) is a type of  [Sic] characterized by the inclination of an individual to act on  rather than ” (Corsini,1999) .  This definition is simple and describes it as being a personal behaviour that occurs in everyone, though it does not explain what the impulse that people act on is exactly. Another definition by Feldman (1996) describes impulsivity as “the tendency to act with less forethought than other individuals of equal ability and knowledge”.  This is a variation of the first definition and is a little more complex. Feldman is obviously trying to define impulsivity in a negative way, indicating that decisions made on impulse are rash; however this is not necessarily always true. In some situations people can act on impulse with the yield of positive results or at least results that are not of major detriment .E.g. Whilst walking through a clothes shop, a young woman decides on the spur of the moment to use her credit card to buy an expensive sweater which is over her budget; she may regret her decision later, but few serious consequences will result. Were she to use all her financial resources to buy an expensive sports car, the consequences would be considerably more serious. However these two situations could be interpreted as examples of dysfunctional and functional impulsivity (defined later).

Though both definitions define the act of impulsivity, they don’t go far enough in actually describing where it comes from. Recent studies dispute the idea that impulsivity is a single construct (Evenden, 1999).  Lynam & Whiteside (2001) put forward the idea that impulsivity is in fact a result of a 4 factor model, where;

  •  “, the feeling of negative  for resisting the urge, is linked to
  • Lack of , the inability to anticipate consequences, is linked to
  • Lack of , the inability to stick to one's task, is also linked to
  • Sensation-seeking, the experience positive feelings towards risky actions, is linked to
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Dysfunctional and Functional impulsivity

Eysneck (1994) suggests that the use of the word impulsivity should be confined to dysfunctional impulsivity and functional impulsivity should be thought of as spontaneity.  Dysfunctional impulsivity is associated disorderliness; procrastination, low self esteem and a disregard for hard facts (Dickman, 1990), whereas functional impulsivity is associated with adventure and enthusiasm (Dickman, 1990). Basically functional impulsive results in behaviours that are beneficial to the individual and dysfunctional impulses result in behaviour that is not beneficial to the individual. Further evidence suggests that functional and dysfunctional impulsive people perform differently on cognitive tasks. Whereas functional ...

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