area 1 forensic psychlogy

Question 1

what did Lombroso believe made a criminal?

Answer 1

facial features such as large ears, strong jaw and having an atavistic form

Question 2

how did Lombroso study facial features?

Answer 2

by looking at heads and faces of 400 dead and 4000 alive prisoners

Question 3

what did Sheldon believe made a criminal?

Answer 3

body type/ somotype
mesomorphs more likely to be criminal due to their imposing physique / assertiveness and risk taking

Question 4

how did Sheldon study body types?

Answer 4

studied photos of 4000 men and compared them to a sample of photographs of college students and delinquents
rating them on a scale of 1 – 7 for their resemblance to mesomorphy.

Question 5

what did brunner believe made a criminal?

Answer 5

a certain mutation of the MAOA gene aka brunner syndrome where little MAOA is made so there is a high excess oif serotonin

Question 6

how did brunner study ‘brunner syndrome’?

Answer 6

14 males in family who all suffered from aggressive behaviour. All had mutation in X chromosome passed down the maternal line so they couldn’t produce MAOA. They had engaged in crimes such as rape

Question 7

what did choy believe made a criminal?

Answer 7

Low resting heart rate could be an early biological marker for gender gap in later criminal behaviour.

Question 8

how did choy study heart rate?

Answer 8

Studied 894 ppts and measure their heart rate at 11 years old and 23 years old, also looked at their conviction record/ self report of crimes.

Question 9

what did Farrington believe made a criminal?

Answer 9

Suggests that criminal behaviour is influenced by factors related to family life such as parental criminality and parental absence, poverty

Question 10

how did Farrington study family factors when looking at criminality?

Answer 10

411 males from working class area of inner London were interviewed periodically from 8 to 48 years and asked about living circumstances, intelligence, criminal history ect. Parents also interviewed about family attitudes, discipline ect.

Question 11

what did Sutherland believe made a criminal?

Answer 11

Attitudes, motives and techniques for criminal behaviour are learned primarily through interaction ‘differential association theory’

Question 12

how was Sutherland’s ideas studied regarding criminality?

Answer 12

Aker (1979) found that 68% of variance in cannabis use of 2500 American adolescents could be explained in terms of differential association and reinforcement from peers.

Question 13

what did Kohlberg suggest made a criminal?

Answer 13

moral reasoning as criminal are less mature

Question 14

how was moral reasoning studied regarding criminality?

Answer 14

Palmer & Hollin compared the moral reasoning of male delinquents and female non delinquents using 126 young offenders and 332 non delinquents from the Midlands and gave them the Socio reflection Measure short form - containing 11 questions on moral dilemmas

Question 15

background of raine?

Answer 15

Previous research shown violent offenders have poorer brain functioning than a ‘normal’ person. PET scans enabled researchers to localize which areas of brain may be dysfunctional

Question 16

aim of raine?

Answer 16

research brain dysfunction in violent offenders especially those who commit murder and plea not guilty by reasons of insanity (NGRI). However have no dysfunction in midbrain and cerebellum

Question 17

research mwthod of raine?

Answer 17

Quasi experiment

Question 18

iv of raine?

Answer 18

IV- murderer or not

Question 19

dv of raine?

Answer 19

DV- activity in brain regions measured by PET scan

Question 20

experimental design of raine?

Answer 20

Matched pairs design- age and sex. E.g. 6 male Murders who had schizophrenia paired with 6 male controls with schizophrenia

Question 21

sample of raine?

Answer 21

41 murderes all charged with murder/ manslaughter

Question 22

how was the participants NGRI proved in raine?

Answer 22

participants all had brain imaging done at the uni of California. All had some sort of mental impairment for example schizophrenia. All medication free for 2 weeks

Question 23

procedure of raine?

Answer 23

Consent was given by the ppts
They worked for 32 minutes on a CPT e.g. target recognition- this worked areas of the brain Raine wanted to study.
The ppts practiced for 10 minutes before the tracer was injected and they started the task 30 seconds before tracer was injected. 32 minutes after the injection the PET scan was administered and 10 pictures at 10mm intervals of the brain regions were produced.

Question 24

results of raine?

Answer 24

Murderers had low activity in the pre frontal cortex responsible for self control, left angular gyrus resulting in lack of consequence and corpus collosum
Murderers had low activity in the amygdala meaning they are cold and calculating, thalamus and hippocampus in the right hemisphere
There was no difference in midbrain, putamen which are associated with mental illness.
No difference in performance on the CPT.

Question 25

applications of area 1 in forensics?

Answer 25

nutritional supplements
drug treatements
plastic surgery
health promotion

Question 26

what are some nutritional supplements to prevent crime?

Answer 26

omega 3 deficiencies result in limited regulation of limbic system, leading to problems in self control and aggression
Gesch- anti social behaviour in prison decreased by giving them supplement 4 times a day. 26% improvement in interdisciplinary record

Question 27

what is an example of a psychopharmacology application to prevent crime?

Answer 27

antipsychotic drugs- work by altering effect of chemicals in brain eg D2 receptors in schizophrenia. Fazer- 45% decrease in violent crime when antipsychotics were prescribed