Criminal Psychology Flashcards
A form of child abuse in which someone shakes or throws an infant, causing significant brain damage or death
- Previously called shaken baby syndrome
Abusive Head Trauma
An individual engaged in killing or attempting to kill in a public area
Active Shooter
The ability to participate in a variety of court proceedings
Adjudicative Competence
Sexual assault in which the victim knows the assailant
Acquaintance Rape
A procedure that employs statistical group data based on prior offenders to identify an individual offender who committed similar crimes
Actuarial Profiling
An individual who usually demonstrates delinquent or antisocial behavior only during his or her teen years and then stops offending during adulthood
Adolescence Limited (AL) Offender
Behavior characterized by the intent to harm others or destroy objects
Aggression
An adult who victimizes children for both sexual and aggressive purposes
Aggressive (Sadistic) Child Sex Offender
Complete or partial memory loss of an incident, series of incidents, or some aspects of life’s experiences
Amnesia
Part of brain that regulates fear and other emotional responses
Amygdala
Clinical term reserved for serious habitual behavior, especially that involving direct harm to others
Antisocial Behavior
A disorder characterized by a history of continuous behavior in which the rights of others are violated
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle, aircraft, or personal property of another
Arson
The intentional inflicting of bodily injury on another person, or the attempt to inflict such injury
Assault
Inflicting or attempting to inflict, bodily injury on another person, with the intent to inflict serious injury
Assault, Aggravated
A theory that states infants have a strong need to establish close emotional bonds with significant others in their social environments
- According to the theory, the nature of this emotional bond determines the quality of social relationships later in life
Attachment Theory
Traditionally considered a chronic neurobiological condition characterized by developmentally poor attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity
- More contemporary perspectives see the behavioral pattern as a deficiency in interpersonal skills
Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
The approach to parenting that sets a very rigid structure on the family setting and allows little decision making by the child
Authoritarian Style
The approach to parenting that sets firm rules yet encourages the development of autonomy in the child
Authoritative Style
The killing of someone of higher authority than the perpetrator
Authority Homicide
Self arousal and gratification of sexual desire without a partner or partners
Autoeroticism
The cognitive shortcuts that people use to make quick inferences about their world
- It is the information that is most readily available to us mentally and is usually based extensively on the most recent material we gain from the news or entertainment media
Availability Heuristic
A process whereby someone responds in time to a warning signal in order to avoid painful or aversive stimuli
Avoidance Learning
The naturally occurring rate of a phenomenon within a given population
Base Rate
Examines the role genes play in the formation and development of behavior
- Distinguishes genetic from environmental influences
Behavior Genetics
A perspective that focuses on observable, measurable behavior and argues that the social environment and learning are the key determinants of human behavior
Behaviorism
Psychologists who study the biological aspects of behavior to determine which genetic and neurobiological variables play a part, and to what extent
- They generally see human behavior as the result of a complex interaction between the individual’s neuropsychological makeup and the social environment
Biopsychologists
A key characteristic of psychopaths according to the Triarchic Psychopathy Model
Boldness Trait (Fearless Domain)
Professional shoplifters
Boosters
A standard for evaluating the insanity defense that recognizes that the defendant suffers from a condition that substantially (1) affects mental or emotional processes, or (2) impairs behavior controls
Brawner Rule
The unlawful entry of a structure, with or without force, with intent to commit a felony or minor theft
Burglary
Collection of traits in juveniles believed to be precursors of adult psychopathy
- Also, a key characteristic of adult psychopaths
Callous Unemotional (CU) Traits
Survey of sexual victimization at nine U.S. colleges
Campus Climate Survey Validation Study (CCSVS)
The completed or attempted theft in which a motor vehicle is taken by force or threat of force
Carjacking
A section of the ALI/Brawner Rule that excludes abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or antisocial conduct
- It was specifically designed to disallow the insanity defense for psychopaths
Caveat Paragraph
A situation in which an individual enters a public place or barricades himself or herself inside a public building, such as a fast food restaurant, and randomly kills patrons and other individuals
Classic Mass Murder
The process of learning to respond to a formerly neutral stimulus that has been paired with another stimulus that already elicits a response
- Also called Pavlovian conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Theory of human behavior that emphasizes free will as a core concept
Classical Theory
The proportion of reported crimes that have been “solved” through the arrest and turning over of at least one person for prosecution
- Crimes also may be cleared through exceptional means such as the death of the person about to be arrested
Clearance Rate
Profiling based on experience and “gut feelings” rather than on research and statistical data
Clinical Profiling
The belief that punitive and coercive tactics employed by parents will increase the likelihood of later aggressive behavior and family violence
Coercion Theory
The internal processes that enable humans to imagine, to gain knowledge, to reason, and to evaluate
- The attitudes, beliefs, values, and thoughts that a person holds about the environment, relationships, and him or herself
Cognitions
An approach to therapy that focuses on changing beliefs, fantasies, attitudes, and rationalizations that justify and perpetuate antisocial or other problematic behavior
- It is often used in the treatment of sex offenders
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
The acquisition and retention of a mental representation of information, and the use of this representation as the basis of behavior
Cognitive Learning
A revised theory of the frustration aggression hypothesis proposed by Leonard Berkowitz
Cognitive Neoassociation Theory
Internal mental processes that enable humans to imagine, gain knowledge, reason, and evaluate information
Cognitive Processes
A psychological process that allows one to justify committing reprehensible actions; typically involves moral justification, euphemistic language, and advantageous comparison
Cognitive Restructuring
Mental images of how one feels he or she should get in a variety of situations
Cognitive Scripts
Huesmann’s theory that social behavior in general and aggressive behavior in particular are controlled largely by cognitive scripts learned through daily experiences
Cognitive Scripts Model
An offender who rapes in response to an intense sexual arousal initiated by stimuli in the environment, often quite specific stimuli (eg; dark haired women)
- His main motive is to prove his sexual prowess
Compensatory Rapist
The legal requirement that a defendant is able to understand the proceedings and to help the attorney in preparing a defense
Competency to Stand Trial
A term used in genetics to represent the degree to which related pairs of subjects both show a particular behavior or condition
- It is usually expressed in percentages
Concordance
A diagnostic label used to identify children who demonstrate habitual misbehavior
Conduct Disorder
Seeking evidence to confirm one’s own preconceived notions about a person or situation
Confirmation Bias
The theoretical position that humans are born basically good and generally try to do the right and just thing
Conformity Perspective
A tendency for some people to model or copy a behavior or activity portrayed by the news or entertainment media
Contagion Effect
Crime committed by a corporation or by persons acting on its behalf
Corporate Crime
One of several forms of profiling, it refers to examining features at the scene of the crime to discern characteristics of the offender
- Also called offender profiling
Crime Scene Profiling
Illegal acts that are committed under the order of someone in authority
Crimes of Obedience
A term that encompasses both murder and nonnegligent homicide
Criminal Homicide
A primary psychopath who engages in repetitive antisocial or criminal behavior
Criminal Psychopath
In stranger rape, the victim is seen as an inanimate object to incapacitate
- Contrast to hostility and sexual exploitation themes
Criminality Theme
Those dynamic risk factors that are empirically found related to criminal behavior
- A key principle in RNR treatment
Criminogenic Needs
The multidisciplinary study of crime
Criminology
The branch of criminology that focuses on individual aspects of behavior, particularly internal forces and unconscious drives
Criminology, Psychiatric
The branch of criminology that examines the individual behavior and especially the mental processes involved in crime
Criminology, Psychological
The branch of criminology that examines the demographic, group, and societal variables related to crime
Criminology, Sociological
In sexual assault, offending against victims regardless of their age or other characteristics
Crossover Offending
Suggests that an accumulation of risk factors and insufficient protective factors lead to antisocial and criminal activity in children and adolescents
Cumulative Risk Model
Sending or posting harmful or cruel text or images using the internet or other digital communication devices
- Primarily a problem with school aged children and adolescents
Cyberbullying
Any illegal act that involves a computer system
- Also called computer crime
Cybercrime
Sending messages electronically to torment another person
- Compared with cyberstalking, not considered a credible threat when statutes distinguish between the two
Cyberharassment
Threatening behavior or unwanted advances directed at another using the internet or other forms of online communications
Cyberstalking
The belief that violence is likely to be perpetuated across generations among individuals who have experienced and witnessed violence in their families
Cycle of Violence Hypothesis
The scapegoating or demonizing of one cultural group by members of another cultural group
- Refers to the emergence of terrorist groups
Cultural Devaluation
Those who are motivated by fear or irreparable damage to their ways of living, national heritage, or culture
Culturally Motivated Terrorists
The number of crimes that go unreported in official crime data reports
Dark Figure
A cluster of personality traits that are associated with criminal psychopathy
- The cluster includes psychopathy, narcissism, and machivellianism
Dark Triad
A sexual assault that occurs within the context of a dating relationship
Date Rape
Engaging in actions that obscure the identity of the victim, such as excessive facial battery, or treating victims like objects rather than human beings
Dehumanization
A process by which individuals feel they cannot be identified, primarily because they are disguised or are subsumed within a group
Deindividuation
Mental disorder characterized by a system of false beliefs or delusions
Delusional Disorder
The variables that are measured to see how they are changed by manipulations of the independent variables
Dependent Variables
Modern version of classical theory, it proposes that people will avoid committing crime if the possibility of punishment is great enough
Deterrence Theory
Examines the changes and influences (risk factors) across a person’s lifetime that contribute to the formation of antisocial and criminal behavior or, alternately, that protect individuals with many risk factors in their lives
Developmental Approach
In the study of criminal behavior, these are the various tracks individuals follow that lead to antisocial behavior
- Researchers began by identifying two pathways but have now found evidence of more
Developmental Pathways
The official guidebook or manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, used to define and diagnose specific mental disorders
- Now in its fifth revised edition (DSM-5)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
A theory of deviance developed by Akers that combines Skinner’s behaviorism and Sutherland’s differential association theory
- The theory states that people learn deviant behavior through the reinforcements they receive from the social environment
Differential Association Reinforcement (DAR) Theory
Formulated by Sutherland, a theory of crime that states that criminal behavior is primarily due to obtaining values or messages from others, including but not limited to those who engage in crime
- The critical factors include with whom a person associates, how early, for how long, how frequently, and how personally meaningful the associations are
Differential Association Theory
Social signals or gestures transmitted by subcultural or peer groups to indicate whether certain kinds of behavior will be rewarded or punished within a particular social context
Discriminative Stimuli
Refers to impulsivity, poor self regulation, low frustration tolerance, irresponsibility, alienation, and unreasonable risk taking
Disinhibition Trait (Externalizing Proneness)
Demonstrates that the offender committed the crime without careful planning
- In other words, the crime scene indicators suggest the person acted on impulse, in rage, or under extreme excitement
Disorganized Crime Scene
The rapist whose attack is violent and aggressive, displaying minimum or total absence of sexual feeling
- Also called displaced anger or anger retaliation rapist
Displaced Aggression Rapist
The theory that some aggression is directed at the target as a replacement for the individual who is the real source of the provocation
Displaced Aggression Theory
A concept that allows an individual to deny responsibility for an action because he or she was told to perform it by someone higher in authority; also referred to as obedience to authority or strong respect for authority
Displacement of Responsibility
In personality theory, a term that signifies internal or personality determinants of human behavior
- Dispositional theorists look to inner conflicts, beliefs, drives, personal needs, traits, or attitudes to explain behavior
Disposition
A pattern that generally includes conduct disorder and oppositional disorder
- Characterized by chronic violation of social norms and rights of others
Disruptive Behavior Disorders
A state of mind during which the person feels detached from self and surroundings
Dissociated State
A psychiatric syndrome characterized by the existence within an individual of two or more distinct personalities, any of which may be dominant at any given moment
- Formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Twins who developed from two fertilized eggs and are no more genetically alike than nontwins
- Also called fraternal twins
Dizygotic Twins
Term used for a wide variety of ideologically motivated violent crimes that are carried out by people within their own country
Domestic Terrorism
Theory of adolescent brain development that focuses on differences between cognitive and emotional maturity in most adolescents
Dual Systems Theory
A rarely used legal standard of insanity that criminal defendants are not criminally responsible if their unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect
- Also known as the Product Rule
Durham Rule
Requirement from the Tarasoff case that clinicians must take steps to protect possible victims from serious bodily harm as a result of threats made by the clinicians’ clients
- The duty to protect does not require that the clinician contact the potential victim
Duty to Protect
Requirement from the Tarasoff case that clinicians must actively warn potential victims of threats of serious bodily harm made by their clients
Duty to Warn
Both the accumulation of risk factors and their interaction lead to criminal activity, in the absence of protective factors
Dynamic Cascade Model
Individual with psychopathic characteristics who is antisocial because of social learning and does not possess the features of the primary psychopath
Dyssocial Psychopath
Period between adolescence and adulthood when individuals may not have reached the psychological maturity associated by society with adulthood
Emerging Adulthood
Belief by some child sex offenders that their relationships with children are more emotionally satisfying than relationships with adults
Emotional Congruence with Children
The research observation that psychopaths seen to be able to talk about emotional cues but lack the ability to use them effectively
Emotional Paradox
A parental style in which the parent takes extraordinary control of the child’s life including imposing rigid rules and seeing even trivial, minor behaviors are problematic
- Typically results in harsh punishment but inconsistent discipline
- Opposite of lax style
Enmeshed Style
In this form of stalking, the stalker usually has serious mental disorders and is considered delusional
- Public figures are typically the targets
Erotomania Stalking
The study of the evolution of behavior using the principles of natural selection
Evolutionary Psychology
Theory explaining how physiological arousal can generalize from one situation to another; based on the assumption that physiological arousal, however produced, dissipates slowly over time
Excitation Transfer Theory
Higher order mental abilities involved in goal directed behavior
- They include organizing behavior, memory, inhibition processes, and planning strategies
Executive Function
A theory of motivation that takes into account both the expectancy of achieving a particular goal and the value placed on it
Expectancy Theory
An adult who seeks children almost exclusively for sexual gratification
Exploitative Child Sex Offender
Burglars who take considerable pride in developing ingenious techniques and skills for successful burglary
Expressive Burglars
In firesetting, characterizes serial firesetters who are fascinated with fire and damage inhabited objects
Expressive Object Pattern
In firesetting, behavior intended to draw attention to the person’s emotional distress
- Most common firesetting pattern among children
Expressive Person Pattern
A rape situation in which the offender’s primary goal is to gain some control over his life
Expressive Sexual Aggression
In children, maladaptive behaviors directed at persons in the environment, such as temper tantrums and aggression
Externalizing Disorders
The decline and eventual disappearance of a conditioned or learned response when it is no longer reinforced
Extinction
Sex abuse in which victims are outside the immediate or extended family
Extrafamilial Child Molestation
A behavioral dimension, identified through factor analysis, representing the interpersonal and emotional aspects of psychopathy
Factor 1
A behavioral dimension representing the socially deviant lifestyle characteristics of psychopaths
Factor 2
A core feature of psychopathy that refers to emotional shallowness, callousness, and lack of empathy
Factor 3
A statistical procedure by which underlying patterns, factors, or dimensions are identified among a series of scale items
Factor Analysis
The end result if any proposition of a theory is not verified
Falsification
A situation in which at least three family members are killed (usually by another family member)
Family Mass Murder
An individual who accepts stolen goods and resells then
Fence
Broad term for a continuum of conditions that result from alcohol exposure in utero
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD)
Killing of one’s child older than 24 hours
- This time period has fluctuated over years and research projects
Filicide
The term used primarily in the literature on child and adolescent psychopathology for an abnormal fascination with fire accompanied by successful or unsuccessful attempts to start harmful fires
Firesetting
Model of psychopathy that incorporates antisocial behavior
Four Factor Model
An aversive internal state of arousal that occurs when one is prevented from responding in a way that previously produced rewards (or that one believes would produce rewards)
Frustration
The theory first formulated by Berkowitz that frustration leads to aggressive behavior
Frustration Aggression Hypothesis
A tendency to underestimate the importance of situational determinants and to overestimate the importance of personality or dispositional factors in identifying the causes of human behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error
Combines social learning and cognitions to explain aggressive behavior
General Aggression Model (GAM)
Death resulting from hostile aggression
General Altercation Homicide
Proposes that crime and delinquency can be explained largely by deficits in self control and self regulation
General Theory of Crime
A type of profiling that focuses on the location of the crime and how it relates to the residence and/or base of operations of the offender
Geographic Profiling
A comprehensive research project designed to gain a better understanding of girls’ delinquency and recommend effective prevention programs directed specifically at girls
Girls Study Group (GSG)
Term used in sexual assault literature, it refers to the belief that one is at lower risk of victimization than one’s peers
Global Risk Recognition Failure
A verdict alternative in some states that allows defendants with mental disorders to be found guilty even if they might meet standards for insanity
- The verdict is said to afford them treatment in prison settings, but such treatment is not guaranteed
Guilty but Mentally III (GBMI)
Things or events that a person with mental disorder sees or perceives
- Characteristic of schizophrenia and some forms of dementia
Hallucinations
A 1990 federal statute that directs the FBI to collect data on all crimes motivated by hatred of or bias against victims based on their racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual orientation
- Other characteristics (eg; physical or mental disability) were later added
Hate Crime Statistics Act
The attraction to young adolescent girls or boys for sexual gratification by adults, usually males
Hebephilia
In the UCR program, the rule that requires that only the most serious crime in a series be reported in the crime statistics
- The exception is arson, which is always reported
Hierarchy Rule
Crimes committed by someone illegally entering a residence while someone is at home
Home Invasions
The tendency to perceive hostile intent in others even when it is lacking
Hostile Attribution Bias
A cognitive model of aggression developed by Dodge and colleagues
Hostile Attribution Model
In stranger rape, a highly aggressive attack that includes not only physical violence but also violent verbal expressions, tearing of clothing, and similar hostile behaviors
Hostility Theme
The transportation and exploitation of individuals, usually for sex related purposes but also for high economic profits
- Children and women from impoverished nations or parts of the United States are particularly vulnerable
Human Trafficking
A new theory of aggression, it organizes and summarizes risk factors for aggression and considers instigating triggers, impelling forces, and inhibiting forces
- Self regulation is the core emphasis of the theory
I3 Theory
A process whereby mental or physical disorders are unintentionally induced or developed in patients by physicians, clinicians, or psychotherapists
Iatrogenic
The fraudulent use of another person’s personal identification information - such as social security number, date of birth, or mother’s maiden name - without that person’s knowledge or permission
Identity Theft
A child sex abuser who demonstrates a longstanding, exclusive preference for children as both sexual and social companions
- Also called fixated child sex offender
Immature Child Sex Offender
A rapist who demonstrates neither strong sexual nor highly aggressive features, but engages in spontaneous rape when the opportunity presents itself
- The rape is usually carried out in the context of another crime, such as robbery or burglary
- Also called exploitative rapist
Impulsive Rapist
