This mini-lesson covers the Edexcel Criminal Psychology topic: what counts as crime, the social learning theory of criminal behaviour, Bandura's Bobo doll study, the Charlton et al St Helena study, and treatments such as the token economy.
Work through each screen, answer the questions as you go and collect ⭐ stars. Every fact here is anchored to a named study or theory on the Edexcel GCSE Psychology (1PS0) Criminal Psychology topic. Press Start when you're ready.
Criminal psychology · defining crime
What is crime?
Crime is behaviour that breaks the law of a society. But defining it isn't simple:
What counts as a crime varies across cultures and over time.
Some acts are seen as crimes in one place or era but not another.
Psychologists ask why people commit crime — is it learned, or due to biology or upbringing?
Quick check
Defining crime
?Which statement about the definition of crime is most accurate?
Criminal psychology · SLT
Social learning theory of criminality
The social learning theory (SLT) says criminal behaviour is learned by watching others:
We observe role models and imitate their behaviour, especially if they are similar to us or high-status.
Behaviour is more likely to be copied if the model is rewarded (vicarious reinforcement).
So crime can be learned from family, peers or the media — not just biology.
Quick check
Social learning theory
?According to social learning theory, criminal behaviour is most likely to be imitated when the role model is:
Criminal psychology · Bandura
Bandura's Bobo doll study (key study)
The Edexcel key study is Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961):
Nursery children watched an adult act aggressively (or not) towards an inflatable Bobo doll.
Children who saw the aggressive model were more likely to imitate that aggression, especially towards the same doll.
Imitation was stronger when the model was the same sex as the child.
This supported the idea that aggressive behaviour can be learned by observation, not just inherited.
Sort it
Sort the criminal-psychology ideas
Tap a term, then tap the group it belongs to.
🔁 General idea
🧪 A named study
🛠️ A treatment
Quick check
Bandura's Bobo doll
?Bandura's Bobo doll study is used to support the idea that aggression can be:
Criminal psychology · Charlton
Charlton et al: the St Helena study
The Charlton et al (2000) study tested SLT in the real world on the island of St Helena, which had just gained television:
Researchers filmed children's playground behaviour before and after TV arrived.
There was no significant increase in aggressive or anti-social behaviour after TV was introduced.
This challenges the simple idea that watching media violence directly causes aggression, and shows real-world tests can complicate lab findings.
Match it
Match the criminal-psychology idea
Tap a description on the left, then its matching term on the right.
Statement
Answer
Quick check
Token economy
?A prison rewards good behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges. This treatment is called a:
Criminal psychology · evaluating SLT
Evaluating social learning theory
SLT explains a lot but not everything:
Strength: Bandura's controlled study supports it.
Weakness: Charlton's real-world study found no clear rise in aggression after TV — so media effects are not simple.
Weakness: it ignores possible biological causes of crime.
Criminal psychology · biology & treatment
Biology and reducing crime
Crime may also have biological roots, and can be reduced:
Genes and brain differences may raise the risk of offending.
Token economy programmes reward good behaviour with tokens.
Anger management helps offenders control aggressive responses.
Recap
The big ideas to know
Defining crime: varies across cultures and over time
Social learning theory: crime is learned by observing and imitating models (vicarious reinforcement)
Bandura (key study): Bobo doll — children imitated observed aggression, especially same-sex models
Charlton: St Helena — no significant rise in aggression after TV, challenging simple media-effects claims