Chapter 19

Question 1

Actus Reus

Answer 1

Latin term for “guilty act” used to describe the specific act of a criminal event.

Question 2

What are a few techniques that an interrogator might use to get a confession

Answer 2

Rationalization, projection, minimization

Question 3

Projective Test

Answer 3

Psychological tests that try to evaluate a subject’s personality and thought processes by exploring how the test subject thinks about themselves and their world and performed by evaluating that subject’s responses to ambiguous images or new situations.

Question 4

Psychological Autopsy

Answer 4

A post-mortem investigative procedure requiring the assessment of suicide risk factors at the time of death.

Question 5

Rationalization

Answer 5

A mental process in which the criminal justifies their actions by providing explanations that they feel are reasonable and reflect favorably upon themselves.

Question 6

Psychology

Answer 6

The field that is focused upon understanding human behavior by examining a person’s individual thought and mental processes.

Question 7

Projection

Answer 7

A means whereby the criminal places blame for the crime on someone else, projecting the blame, often onto the victim.

Question 8

Linkage Analysis

Answer 8

The process of trying to understand the behavior of an offender by seeing if similar features can be found in different crimes in an attempt to link different crimes together.

Question 9

Linkage Analysis

Answer 9

The process of trying to understand the behavior of an offender by seeing if similar features can be found in different crimes in an attempt to link different crimes together.

Question 10

Malingering

Answer 10

The faking or exaggeration of symptoms. Mens Rea: Latin term for “guilty mind” used to describe the criminal intent of an event.

Question 11

Neurobiological Psychology:

Answer 11

A subdiscipline of psychology that examines the molecular and cellular components of the brain and nervous system to discover how memory, emotion, perception, reasoning and other traits are stored and processed at the microscopic level.

Question 12

Neurobiological Psychology

Answer 12

A subdiscipline of psychology that examines the molecular and cellular components of the brain and nervous system to discover how memory, emotion, perception, reasoning and other traits are stored and processed at the microscopic level.

Question 13

Personality Inventory

Answer 13

A standardized psychological test that is used to determine a subject’s personality type and provide an overall personality profile of the person.

Question 14

Specific Disorder Test

Answer 14

A psychological test developed to evaluate a patient for certain mental disorders.

Question 15

Intelligence and Cognitive Function Test

Answer 15

A psychological test that measures a person’s intellectual
and thought capacity in a variety of subareas such as verbal, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

Question 16

Insane Suicide

Answer 16

A strictly legal term, defined by the US Supreme Court, to apply to a decedent when their “reasoning faculties are so far impaired that he is not able to understand the moral character, the general nature, consequences, and effect of the act he is about to commit, or when he is
impelled thereto by an insane impulse, which he has not the power to resist.”

Question 17

Brain Function and Impairment Test

Answer 17

A psychological test that tries to determine the type and extent of brain function injury and impairment that may be present in a subject.

Question 18

Competence to Stand Trial

Answer 18

In order to stand trial, a defendant must have both “sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding” and a “rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.”

Question 19

Clinical Psychology

Answer 19

A subdiscipline of psychology that focuses upon the diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioral disorders in people.

Question 20

Criminal Profiling

Answer 20

A largely investigative tool where accepted concepts from behavioral science are used to provide information about the criminal’s behavioral patterns and personal characteristics based on known information about a serial crime.

Question 21

Diminished Capacity

Answer 21

A legal defense where the offender had a reduced ability to understand the crimes that they committed – they could not form the needed mens rea or did not act knowing the
consequences of their actions – but did not fully meet the requirements of legal insanity.

Question 22

Equivocal Deaths

Answer 22

Deaths where the reasons and intentions of the victim and/or the circumstances surrounding the death are not clear.

Question 23

Forensic Psychology

Answer 23

A subdiscipline of psychology that deals with the application of psychological theories and practices to inform legal questions.

Question 24

Adversarial Approach to Law

Answer 24

When opposing sides of a legal issue present contrasting views, supported by logical arguments, as a means for getting at the key information of a case.

Question 25

Brain Fingerprinting

Answer 25

A technique that uses very rapid multiple measurements of the brain’s electrical signals (“brain waves”) in response to various stimuli, such as words, pictures or sounds, to
determine if a particular memory exists within a person’s mind.

Question 26

Legal Competence

Answer 26

Possessing the necessary abilities or legal qualifications required to participate in a legal process.

Question 27

Modus Operandi (MO)

Answer 27

The term refers to the method, habits and tendencies of the offender in committing the crime – how the crime was committed.

Question 28

Legal Insanity

Answer 28

An entirely legal construct that is usually a viable defense only if the person either did not know what they were doing or couldn’t tell right from wrong at the time of the crime.

Question 29

Sociology

Answer 29

The field that examines how individuals and groups function and behave within the context of larger societies and how individuals form social networks that collectively operate together as complex organizations.