Forenisic Psychology, Crime

Question 1

What is Forensic Psychology? What does it focus on?

Answer 1

Uses multiple psychological disciplines and applies to problems, issues and circumstances in the civil and criminal justice systems

• Focusses on behaviours that lead to crime.
• They identify patterns and interventions that help a range of people.
• They focus on the broader individual and societal factors that push people towards crime
• Focus on re-offenders and try to stop that.
• Focus on people who are most likely to offend

Question 2

Who commits crime?

Answer 2

Most crime is committed by a small number of chronic offenders.

• Males are over-represented in almost every demographic
• The age crime curve displays a certain age range where crime is more likely to occur - i.e younger ages

Question 3

Why does crime drop off after a certain age?

Answer 3

• Frontal lobes develop = better reasoning, can help see consequences, regulates impulse control.
• more financial security
• pro social attachment - has family, a job
• death, or imprisonment, of physical ability

Question 4

Explain the crime gender split

Answer 4

Male dominate in all crime , sexual offending, and homicide.

• we see more of a split in fraud and deception, and theft.

For women: often accounts aren’t accounted for

Question 5

What’s the ethnic breakdown of crime?

Answer 5

Maori are overpopulated in prison.

Question 6

How do we calculate the biological determination of crime?

Answer 6

We must separate nature from nurture in order to test which one it is, i.e biological basis or experience/environment.

To find this out:
- Twin studies
- cross-fostering studies
- sibling concordances

-t’s found that both environmental and genetic influence play a role.

Question 7

Explain the biological determination of crime.

Answer 7

Research shows genetics play a role, i.e nature. 30%

Explanations include:
- ‘Difficult Temperament’: sensation seeking, low self-control, negative emotionality/reactive and low empathy.

Other biological explanations is: traumatic brain injury

Biology paired with nuture is a strong determinnant.

Question 8

Explain the Central 8 in environmental factors that determine/predict crime.

Answer 8

Dynamic Risk Factors:
- Focus on Building skills in areas for a reduction in crime here

Procriminal Associates: having friends who commit crime, do crime around you
- Why? Modelling behaviour or social learning

Family/Martial: Family members being offenders.
Also, lack of proper supervision.
Also, family/home conflict etc.

Procriminal Attitudes: Having beliefs that are supportive of crime
- takes away blame of offending

School/Work: Do they have something meaningful to do with their time? A good job? Do they go to school? A qualification?

Substance Abuse: Are they abusing drugs/alc

Leisure/Recreation: What do they do in their free time?
Is their time spent doing meaningful things?
Hobbies? Social Connection?

Antisocial Personality Pattern: The Difficult Temperament stuff

Static Risk Factor:

Criminal History: this is the biggest indicator of reoffending

Question 9

Explain how criminal behaviour is learnt

Answer 9

All criminal behaviour is learnt.

It is learnt through reinforcement and punishment. eg. friends who are against a stolen car joy ride is a punisher
- friends joining is a reinforcer

Disistance: The process of abstaining from crime.
- as rewards for non crime increase, person has more to lose.
- helping people desist from crime - putting them in environments that are no longer supportive of crime