area 1 forensic psychlogy Flashcards
what did Lombroso believe made a criminal?
facial features such as large ears, strong jaw and having an atavistic form
how did Lombroso study facial features?
by looking at heads and faces of 400 dead and 4000 alive prisoners
what did Sheldon believe made a criminal?
body type/ somotype
mesomorphs more likely to be criminal due to their imposing physique / assertiveness and risk taking
how did Sheldon study body types?
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.
what did brunner believe made a criminal?
a certain mutation of the MAOA gene aka brunner syndrome where little MAOA is made so there is a high excess oif serotonin
how did brunner study ‘brunner syndrome’?
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
what did choy believe made a criminal?
Low resting heart rate could be an early biological marker for gender gap in later criminal behaviour.
how did choy study heart rate?
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.
what did Farrington believe made a criminal?
Suggests that criminal behaviour is influenced by factors related to family life such as parental criminality and parental absence, poverty
how did Farrington study family factors when looking at criminality?
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.
what did Sutherland believe made a criminal?
Attitudes, motives and techniques for criminal behaviour are learned primarily through interaction ‘differential association theory’
how was Sutherland’s ideas studied regarding criminality?
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.
what did Kohlberg suggest made a criminal?
moral reasoning as criminal are less mature
how was moral reasoning studied regarding criminality?
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
background of raine?
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
aim of raine?
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
research mwthod of raine?
Quasi experiment
iv of raine?
IV- murderer or not
dv of raine?
DV- activity in brain regions measured by PET scan
experimental design of raine?
Matched pairs design- age and sex. E.g. 6 male Murders who had schizophrenia paired with 6 male controls with schizophrenia
sample of raine?
41 murderes all charged with murder/ manslaughter
how was the participants NGRI proved in raine?
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
procedure of raine?
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.
results of raine?
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.
