242 Test 3 Key Terms Flashcards
Criminal profiling:
An investigative technique for
identifying the major personality
and behavioural characteristics of
an individual based upon an
analysis of the crimes he or she has
committed
criminal profiling is now used for a number of purposes,
including the following
- To help set traps to flush out an offender
- To determine whether a threatening note should be taken seriously
- To give advice on how best to interrogate a suspect
- To tell prosecutors how to break down defendants in cross-examination
the RCMP prefers to use the term — , which suggests a broader focus than profiling
criminal investigative analysis
ViCLAS:
The Violent Crime Linkage
Analysis System, which was
developed by the RCMP to collect
and analyze information on serious
crimes from across Canada
Linkage blindness:
An inability
on the part of the police to link
geographically dispersed serial
crimes committed by the same
offender because of a lack of
information sharing among police
agencies
Two profiling methods are often talked about:
the deductive profiling method and the inductive profiling method
Deductive criminal profiling:
Profiling the background
characteristics of an unknown
offender based on evidence left at
the crime scenes by that particular
offender
Inductive criminal profiling:
Profiling the background
characteristics of an unknown
offender based on what we know
about other solved cases
Organized-disorganized model:
A profiling model used by
the FBI that assumes the crime
scenes and backgrounds of serial
offenders can be categorized as
organized or disorganized
organized characteristics reflect a methodical individual, while disorganized characteristics reflect a disturbed individual, who is usually suffering from some form of psychopathology
criticisms of profiling
- Many forms of profiling appear to be based on a theoretical model of personality
that lacks strong empirical support.
- The core psychological assumptions underlying profiling currently lack strong
empirical support.
- Many profiles contain information that is so vague and ambiguous they can
potentially fit many suspects.
- Professional profilers may be no better than untrained individuals at constructing
accurate profiles.
Classic trait model:
A model of
personality that assumes the
primary determinants of behaviour
are stable, internal traits
FBI’s organized-disorganized approach, rely on a classic trait model of personality that was popular in psychology before the 1970s. In this model, the primary determinants of behaviour are stable, internal traits
Two assumptions in particular have been tested by researchers:
(1) that offenders behave in a stable fashion across the crimes they commit and (2) that reliable relationships exist between the way in which offenders commit their crimes and their background characteristics
Geographic profiling:
An investigative technique that uses
crime scene locations to predict the
most likely area where an offender
resides
most often in cases involving very violent crimes, though it has also been used in cases of serial robbery,
arson, and burglary
Geographic profiling systems:
Computer systems that use
mathematical models of offender
spatial behaviour to make
predictions about where unknown
serial offenders are likely to reside
Internalizing problems:
Emotional difficulties such as
anxiety, depression, and obsessions
experienced by a youth
Externalizing problems:
Behavioural difficulties such as
delinquency, fighting, bullying,
lying, or destructive behaviour
experienced by a youth
Attention deficit/hyperactivitydisorder:
A disorder in a youth
characterized by a persistent pattern
of inattention and hyperactivity or
impulsivity
Oppositional defiant disorder:
A disorder in a youth characterized
by a persistent pattern of negativistic,
hostile, and defiant behaviours
Conduct disorder:
A disorder
characterized by a persistent pattern
of behaviour in which a youth
violates the rights of others or ageappropriate
societal norms or rules
Mental health professionals are expected to consider the likelihood that their patients will act in a violent manner and to intervene to prevent such behaviour.
This responsibility is called
duty to warn .
To be declared a — , a person must pose a substantial risk for violently reoffending
long-term offender
True positive:
A correct
prediction that occurs when a
person who is predicted to engage
in some type of behaviour
(e.g., a violent act) does so
True negative:
A correct
prediction that occurs when a
person who is predicted not to
engage in some type of behaviour
(e.g., a violent act) does not
False positive:
An incorrect
prediction that occurs when a
person is predicted to engage in
some type of behaviour
(e.g., a violent act) but does not
False negative:
An incorrect
prediction that occurs when a
person is predicted not to engage
in some type of behaviour
(e.g., a violent act) but does
Base rate:
Represents the
percentage of people within a
given population who commit a
criminal or violent act
The shortcuts people use to help to make decisions are called
heuristics
Illusory correlation:
Belief that
a correlation exists between two
events that in reality are either not
correlated or correlated to a much
lesser degree
Unstructured clinical judgment:
Decisions
characterized by a substantial
amount of professional discretion
and lack of guidelines
mechanical prediction involves
predefined rules about what risk factors to consider, how information should be collected, and how information should be combined to make a risk decision
Actuarial prediction:
Decisions
are based on risk factors that are
selected and combined based on
their empirical or statistical
association with a specific outcome
Structured professionaljudgment:
Decisions are guided
by a predetermined list of risk
factors that have been selected
from the research and professional
literature. Judgment of risk level is
based on the evaluator’s
professional judgment
Skeem and Monahan (2011) described violence-risk-assessment approaches as having four components
include
“(a) identifying empirically valid risk factors,
(b) determining a method for measuring (or ‘scoring’) these risk factors,
(c) establishing a procedure
for combining scores on the risk factors, and
(d) producing an estimate of
violence risk”
Static risk factors
are factors that do not fluctuate over time and are not changed by treatment. Age at first arrest is an example of a static risk factor, since no amount of time or treatment will change this risk factor. Static risk factors have also been called historical risk factors
Historical risk factors:
Risk
factors that refer to events that
have been experienced in the past
(e.g., age at first arrest). Also
known as static risk factors
Dispositional risk factors:
Risk
factors that reflect the individual’s
traits, tendencies, or styles
(e.g., negative attitudes)
Clinical risk factors:
Types and
symptoms of mental disorders
(e.g., substance abuse)
Contextual risk factors:
Risk
factors that refer to aspects of the
current environment (e.g., access to
victims or weapons). Sometimes
called situational risk factors
Situational risk factors:
Risk
factors that refer to aspects of the
current environment (e.g., access to
victims or weapons). Sometimes
called contextual risk factors
Protective factors:
Factors that
mitigate or reduce the likelihood of
a negative outcome (e.g.,
delinquency, aggression)
Desistance:
The process of
ceasing to engage in criminal
behaviour
Family-only batterer:
A male
spousal batterer who is typically
not violent outside the home, does
not show much psychopathology,
and does not possess negative
attitudes supportive of violence
Dysphoric/borderline batterer:
A male spousal batterer
who exhibits some violence outside
the family, is depressed, has
borderline personality traits, and
has problems with jealousy
Generally violent/antisocial batterer:
A male spousal batterer
who is violent outside the home,
engages in other criminal acts, has
drug and alcohol problems, has
impulse-control problems, and
possesses violence-supportive
beliefs
Rape trauma syndrome:
A
group of symptoms or behaviours
that are frequent after-effects of
having been raped
Voyeur:
Someone who obtains
sexual gratification by observing
unsuspecting people, usually
strangers, who are naked, in the
process of undressing, or engaging
in sexual activity
Anger rapist:
A rapist, as defined
by Groth, who uses more force
than necessary to obtain
compliance from the victim and
who engages in a variety of sexual
acts to degrade the victim
Power rapist:
A rapist, as defined
by Groth, who seeks to establish
dominance and control over the
victim
Sadistic rapist:
A rapist, as defined by Groth, who obtains
sexual gratification by hurting the
victim
Fixated child molester:
A child
molester, as defined by Groth, who
has a long-standing, exclusive
sexual preference for children
Regressed child molester:
A
child molester, as defined by Groth,
whose primary sexual orientation is
toward adults, but whose sexual
interests revert to children after a
stressful event or because of
feelings of inadequacy
Modus Operandi (standard procedure)
Behaviors committed by the offender during the commission of the crime which are necessary to complete the crime.
what did the criminal do that was necessary to commit the crime
did they use a knife/gun/break a window - more detective work, not psychologist
Signature:
what did the criminal do that was not required to commit the crime - kind of like a TAT test or projective test - tells you something about their personality
maybe he trashed the house on his way out of anger
Cognitive distortions:
Deviant
cognitions, values, or beliefs that
are used to justify or minimize
deviant behaviours
Penile phallometry:
A
measurement device placed around
the penis to measure changes in
sexual arousal
Aversion therapy:
The pairing of
an aversive stimuli with a deviant
fantasy for the purpose of reducing
the attractiveness of these deviant
fantasies
Relapse prevention:
A method
of treatment designed to prevent
the occurrence of an undesired
behaviour (e.g., sexual assault
