03/01/2023
By Karen Mullins

The School of Criminology and Justice Studies invites you to a doctoral dissertation proposal defense by Vera Yakovchenko on "Moral Foundations of Criminal Thinking."

Candidate: Vera Yakovchenko
Defense Date: Wednesday, March 15
Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
Location: HSS 451 (fish bowl)

Committee:

  • Kelly Socia, Chair
  • Andrew Harris
  • Kimberly Kras
  • Jason Rydberg

Abstract:
Moral foundations — Care, Equality, Proportionality, Loyalty, Sanctity, and Authority — are believed to be universal, survival-focused, and necessary for social order. Given moral foundations have the purpose of simplifying behavioral decisions to maintain society, variations in how moral foundations are endorsed would be reflected in all thinking and behavior. Criminal thinking is the set of attitudes and beliefs used to justify and rationalize criminal behavior and is associated with increased risk in crime initiation and persistence. Although concepts of morality undergird how crime is defined and how criminal behavior is controlled, little is known about how criminal thinking differs relative to perceptions of moral foundations.
Currently, criminal thinking assessments are used to predict recidivism and treatment outcomes with justice-involved populations. However, these assessments have only modest association with criminal behavior and are underexplored with respect to differences by individual characteristics. Improved understanding of the moral foundations of criminal thinking may be used to guide the adapting and tailoring of criminal thinking instruments for more accurate crime prediction, intervention and policy development, and eventual crime reduction.

As such, this dissertation asks a central question: Are the ways in which individuals perceive moral values and norms, and empathize and understand one another bound to influence criminal thinking and behavior? I explore this by examining: 1) how criminal thinking expresses in a nationally representative sample of 1000 US adults with and without a criminal history; 2) which criminal thinking scales (Entitlement, Justification, Power Orientation, Cold Heartedness, Criminal Rationalization, and Personal Irresponsibility) and items differentiate between those with and without a criminal history, and 3) how moral foundations map to criminal thinking.