Chapter 7: Forensic Science and Forensic Psychology Flashcards
Anthropometry
The science of measuring the size, weight, and proportions of the human body in criminal cases.
What was Bertillon’s contribution to the field of forensic science?
Development of mug shots and crime scene photography. Placed scales beside the objects to demonstrate scale.
What was Locard’s contribution to the field of forensic science?
Locard’s exchange principle and gathering trace evidence.
What is Locard’s exchange principle?
States that whenever objects come in contact with one another, there will be an exchange of material between them.
Trace evidence
Evidence such as blood or other bodily fluids (saliva, semen), fingerprints, hair, teeth marks, fibres from clothing or carpets, flakes of skin left under fingernails, or dirt left on clothing or shoes.
In situ
In its original place.
Identification (ident) officers
Police officers who are given specialized forensic training to investigate major crimes.
Scene of crime officers (SOCO)
Usually police officers, but in rare cases may be civilian members who have taken similar training to investigate minor crimes.
What is the ident officer’s job?
To collect the evidence, ensuring that every piece of evidence collected at the scene is logged, and the location from where it was taken is photographed. Rarely question suspects or become involved in other aspects of the investigation.
What are the 4 protocols that all ident officers must follow when collecting biological evidence?
- Use gloves when taking samples and change gloves each time a new sample is taken.
- Collect “substrate substances,” which are control samples of what is believed to be uncontaminated surfaces near the point where the physical evidence has been collected.
- Use can, disposable forceps, discarding used forceps after collecting each piece of evidence.
- Place all evidence in appropriate containers, with each piece of evidence placed in its own contained usually a plastic bag or some other sterile container.
What has been called the gold standard of forensic science?
DNA evidence.
Reasonable doubt
The standard of belief beyond which the prosecution must prove its case to obtain a criminal conviction; in other words, the defendant’s guilt must be proven to the extent that “no reasonable person” could have a “reasonable doubt” about it.
Forensic psychology
The application of psychological research, methods, theories, and practices to a task faced by the legal system.
Who is said to be the founder of forensic psychology?
Hugo Munsterberg.
What was Munsterberg’s greatest contributions to criminal justice?
Study of eyewitness testimony and the psychology of false confessions.
What did Munsterberg observe about false confessions?
Some false confessions are the result of offenders fearing that, even though they are innocent, they believe the evidence is enough to convict them. Others are because the individual is fatigued as a result of prolonged interrogation.
What did Munsterberg use to support his claim that some false confessions are the result of fatigue from prolonged interrogation?
The Salem Witch Trials.
What are some ways that psychology is used in the criminal justice system?
- Assessing the psychology of police recruits.
- Detecting offender deception during questioning.
- Assessing children as potential witnesses.
- Determining the risk of offenders to reoffend.
- Assessing the sanity of an accused.
- Assessing the reactions of victims.
- Studying jury behaviour.
Cognitive ability tests
Tests designed to measure reasoning, perception, memory, verbal, and written language skills, mathematical ability, and problem solving.
Personality tests
Standardized tests used to measure personality characteristics or discover personality disorders that might affect a person’s ability to perform a specific job.
Situational tests
Tests that present applicants with hypothetical job-related scenarios and ask them to identify appropriate responses from a list of alternatives.
What test is considered to be the gold standard for assessing personality?
MMPI or MMPI-2.
What is the problem with the MMPI and the MMPI-2?
They are not designed as recruitment tools, and is unable to detect some psychological disorders. Also, they cannot distinguish between honest and fake responses.
What does the CPI measure?
Personality characteristics such as dominance, sociability, and flexibility.
Offender profiling
The process of using all available information about a crime, a crime scene, and a victim in order to compose a profile of the unknown perpetrator.
Was BSU the first to use offender profiling?
No.
Investigative psychology
Field of study that takes the scientific discipline of psychology– its principles, theories, and empirical findings– and applies it to investigations and the legal process.
Investigative psychology emphasizes the connection between criminal behaviour and…
The everyday lives of criminals.
What is the best way to get an eyewitness to identify the accused?
Showing them pictures one at a time, and telling them that the accused may not be in the set of pictures.
What are the 3 forms of false confessions?
Voluntary, compliant, or coerced.
Why would people voluntarily confess to a crime they did not commit, and why are they least likely to be investigated by a forensic psychologist?
They feel a need a need to be punished for some real or imagined transgression, or they may feel the need to protect a loved one. They are usually detectable by police, and as a result there is no need to involve a forensic psychologist.
What is a compliant confession?
A form of coerced confession that occurs when an innocent person admits to the crime to reduce the stress of interrogation, or if they belief they will get a reduced charge or lighter sentence.
What are coerced internal confessions?
When the suspect comes to believe that he or she actually committed the crime.
What is the common factor in coerced confessions?
The confrontational nature of of police interrogations.
Reid technique
An interrogation technique that depends on the interrogator interpreting the truthfulness of a suspect’s statements using the suspect’s verbal and non-verbal reactions to questioning. Usually involves sleep deprivation or false statements about the evidence police have, or making promises of lenient in return for a confession.
What is the four part Mohan criteria for the admissibility of expert testimony in Canada?
- Evidence must be relevant.
- Evidence must meet necessary criteria- expert, not general knowledge.
- Evidence must not be subject to exclusionary rules- if something has been ruled inadmissible, it cannot be introduced as part of expert testimony.
- Person giving testimony must be recognized as an expert by the judge based on the person’s experience or specialized training/education.
Insanity in the criminal justice system is determined by psychological criteria. True or false?
False, it is determined by legal criteria.
McNaughton rule
A rule stipulating that a person cannot be convicted of a crime if, at the same time of the offence, he or she had a mental defect or disease of the mind that made him or her unaware of the nature of his or her actions, or incapable of knowing that the act was wrong.
NCRMD is highly used and rarely successful. True or false?
False, NCRMD is rarely used and rarely successful.
What scale is used in Canada to determine sanity?
Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scale.
In most cases of NCRMD, prosecution and defence agree. True or false?
True.
