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Forensic Flashcards

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1
Q

defining crime

A

dynamic construct dependent on historical, social, cultural and political context
any behaviour that is unlawful and punished by the state
harmful to an individual/group/society

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2
Q

cultural issues in defining crime

A

definition varies cross-culturally
social construct
socially acceptable
minority influence

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3
Q

age and issue with crime

A

age of criminal responsibility varies from country to country
uk=10
Bulger case-2 10 year olds abducted, abused and killed a 2 year old

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4
Q

historical issues in defining crime

A

laws change over tine
what is socially acceptable changes
homosexuality
child abuse

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5
Q

circumstance and issues with defining crime

A

Actus reus
Mens rea
M’Naghten rule

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6
Q

Actus reus

A

a voluntary act that constitutes a crime

the person is in control

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7
Q

Mens rea

A

the intention to do the crime

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8
Q

M’Naghten rule

A

not knowing right from wrong

M’Naghten shot and killed prime ministers secretary believing that the prime minister was conspiring against him

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9
Q

measuring crime

official stats

A

government records of the total number of crimes reported to the police
produced annually
only some crimes get through the crime funnel and reported to the police

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10
Q

measuring crime

strengths of official stats

A

allows crime prevention strategies/policing initiatives
make historical comparisons to look at trends in crime
general trends reported from stats tend to be in agreement with trend increase/decrease

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11
Q

measuring crime

weaknesses of official stats

A

unreliable-underestimate true extent of crime
not all crimes get reported
policing priorities may distort official figures

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12
Q

measuring crime

victim surveys

A

British crime survey, England and Wales

sample of 50,000 households randomly selected

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13
Q

measuring crime

strengths of victim surveys

A

provides more information on the dark figure of crime
more consistent then official stats- 2006/07 official suggested 2% decrease where survey showed 3% increase
good sample size

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14
Q

measuring crime

weaknesses of victim surveys

A

uses retrospective data of the last year
doesn’t record victimless crime
sample drawn only from those with postal address-bias sample

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15
Q

measuring crime

offender surveys

A

conducted every year 2003-2006 in England and Wales
aimed to increase knowledge about young people and criminal behaviour
as well as measuring self-reported offending it looked at indications of re-offending, drug and alcohol use, role of co-offending and relationship between offender and victim

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16
Q

measuring crime

strengths of offender surveys

A

provide insight into hoe many people are responsible for certain offences
asking offenders about the offences can give a picture of reasons for their behaviour
best chance on raising the dark figure as they know what crime might occur and when

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17
Q

measuring crime

weaknesses of offender surveys

A

self-report impacts reliability
lack of accuracy in answers
unreliable responses: offenders may want to conceal some of the more serious crimes committed

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18
Q

historical explanation

A

lombroso

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19
Q

hisoritcal explanation

lombroso

A 
criminals are separate species 
shape of face and head determine criminals 
based on homeless criminals 
used postmortoms 
atavistic 
atavistic form
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20
Q

lombroso

atavistic

A

the reappearance of a characteristic after several generations of absence

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21
Q

lombroso

atavistic form

A

certain individuals are born with a criminal personality which is a throwback to primitive forms

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22
Q

historic explanation

turvey

A

18 different characteristics

innate make up causes criminals

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23
Q

lombroso assumption

historical explanation

A

different features are related to different crimes
thin lips-muder
big nose-robber
hairy-sex offender

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24
Q

lomboro research

A

50000 bodies

383 italian criminals 21% has 1 atavistic trait and 43% had 5

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25
Q

strengths of lombroso historical explanation

A

can be studied scientifically

started research into criminals

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26
Q

weaknesses of lombroso historical explanation

A

androcentric-women are less evolved
not a representative sample-italian males
not reliable-subject

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27
Q

somatotypes

sheldon

A

endomorphic
mesomorphic
ectmorphic

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28
Q

somatotypes

endomorphic

A

short and fat

deceptive/violent

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29
Q

somatotypes

mesomorphic

A

tall and muscular

violent crimes

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30
Q

somatotypes

A

tall and skinny

petty thieves

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31
Q

strengths of somatotypes

A

supportive research Glueck and Glueck

Cortes and Gatti

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32
Q

supportive research on somatotypes

Glueck and Glueck

A

60% of delinquent sample were mesomorph and 31% of non-delinquent sample were mesomorph

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33
Q

supportive research on somatotypes

cortes and Gatti

A

57% of 100 delinquents were mesomorph compared with 19% of controls

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34
Q

weaknesses of somatotypes

A

assumes correlation was linked to causality (become mesomorph in prison/ select crime because of body type)
subjective
feldman

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35
Q

weaknesses of somatotypes

feldman

A

relationship can be explained by expectations

mesomorphs may catch police attention more/ influence sentencing

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36
Q

neural explanation of crime

A

the neurochemistry of criminals is different to those of non-criminals
effects levels of serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine

37
Q

neural explanation

noradrenaline

A

fight or flight

higher levels linked to violence and aggression

38
Q

neural explanation

serotonin

A

regulates mood and impulse control

low levels=high impulsivity

39
Q

neural explanation

dopamine

A

linked to addiction/substance use, makes crime more like;y
more dopamine in the limbic system means more pleasure is experiences
substance abuse-when stop taking drugs dopamine goes away
more likely to find different levels in offenders due to drug use
higher levels=thrill seek-more crime

40
Q

neural explanation research

higley et al

A

positive correlation between testosterone and aggression

negative relationship between serotonin and impulsivity and extreme aggression

41
Q

neural explanation research

Brunner

A

examined the effects of MAOA gene of 5 men in the same family
this gene is linked to aggression and applied to violent crime
urine sample
aggression and low IQ
gene doesn’t occur in women

42
Q

mirror neurons

A

people with anti-social personality disorder can experience empathy but not as often as the normal population

43
Q

mirror neurons research

Keysers et al

A

only when criminals were asked to empathises with a character in a film did their empathy reaction activate

44
Q

strength of neural explanation

A

practical applications
scientific-reliable
quantitative data

45
Q

weaknesses of neural explanation

A

can’t establish direct cause and effect
animal research
reductionist

46
Q

level of moral reasoning

cognitive

A

the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong

47
Q

research of level of moral reasoning

Kohlberg et al

A

using his moral dilemma technique found a group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development then non-violent youths
controlled for social background

48
Q

cognitive distortions

A

irrational/bias ways of thinking the mean we view ourselves, others and the world inaccurately and usually negatively
hostile attribution bias
minimisation

49
Q

cognitive distortions

hostile attribution

A

tendency to judge ambiguous situations/actions of others as aggressive/ threatening when in reality they aren’t

50
Q

cognitive distortions

minimisation

A

a type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion

51
Q

kohlbergs model and criminality

A

pre-conventional (up to 9)
conventional (most adults/adulescents)
post-conventional (10-15% of over 20s)

52
Q

kohlberg’s research into model and criminality

A

58 boys from Chicago
working/ middle class
2 hour interviews with 10 dilemmas some followed every 3 years until 30
later studied children in UK, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, USA and Yucatan
younger boys stages 1&2
older stages 3&4
no support fro stage 6

53
Q

kohlbergs model and criminality

pre-conventional

A

punishment and obedience- right and wrong defined by punishment
instrumental- relativist- right and wrong defined by reward (concern for other motivated by selfishness)

54
Q

kohlbergs model and criminality

conventional

A

interpersonal concordance- being god is what pleases others, adopts conformist attitude to morality. right and wrong determined by majority
law and order- being good means doing duty to society, obey laws without question and respect authority (most adults don’t pass this stage)

55
Q

kohlbergs model and criminality

post-conventional

A

social contract- right and wrong determined by personal values, these can be over-ridden by democratically agreed laws. when laws infringe own sense of justice we choose to ignore them
universal ethical principle- live in accordance with deeply held moral principles which are seen as more important then laws of land

56
Q

twin studies
genetic explanation
lange

A

13 identical twins
17 non-identical twins
1 twin in each pair had time in prison
10/13 identical twins and 2/17 twins when one went to prison so did the other

57
Q

twin studies
genetic explanation
support of lange

A

christiansen

raine

58
Q

research on candidate genes

Brunner

A

5 male family members

more violent outbursts among MAOA issues

59
Q

research on candidate genes

tihonen et al

A

900 offenders
abnormalities on 2 genes that may be associated with violence and crime
MAOA and CDH13
13x more likely to be violent

60
Q

diathesis stress model

genetic explanation

A

hereditary vs environment

epigenetic

61
Q

epigenetic

diathesis stress model

A

genes can be turned on/off as a result of environment

62
Q

family studies
genetic explanation
farrington

A

400 families
males
london
aged 8-33 interviewed and aged 10-40 crime records
6% of families accounted for 50% of crimes
75% of convicted fathers and mothers had a convicted child
longitudinal
androcentric

63
Q

strengths of genetic explanation

A

mednick study
Italy 2007-sentence reduced due to aggression genes
mobley case

64
Q

strengths of genetic explanations

mednick study

A

13000 danish adoptees
neither biological parents has convictions=13.5%
one biological parent had been convicted=20%
both biological parents=24.5%

65
Q

strength of genetic explanations

mobley

A

shot pizza takeaway manager
25 years old
4 generations of violent outbursts

66
Q

weaknesses of genetic explanation

A

can’t exclude nature from nurture
adoptive studies-stress of adoption
small sample sizes

67
Q

strengths of cognitive explanations

A

research support- schohenberg and arshe

kohlberg- cross cultural

68
Q

weaknesses of cognitive explanation

A

individual differences

reductionist

69
Q

strengths of cognitive explanations

schohenberg and arshe

A

criminals were more likely to interpret pictures as expressing aggression

70
Q

brain physiology

Limbic system

A

primitive brain

emotion control

71
Q

brain physiology

Raine’s brain

A

11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the pro-frontal cortex of people with APD compared with controls

72
Q

brain physiology

Kent et al

A

fMRI scanning to ascertain any abnormalities
emotion-based tasks
criminal non-psychopaths and non-criminal control
criminal psychopaths showed much less activity in the limbic system
psychopaths seem to use their frontal lobe to a greater degree in those situations suggesting an element of planning and control

73
Q

evaluation of kent et al (brain physiology)

A

socially sensitive research
scientific-reliable-objective
increased validity(control group)-change due to IV

74
Q

psychological explanation

Eysenck personality theory

A

behaviour can be represented along 2 dimensions of introvert/extrovert and neuroticism/stability
the psychoticism was later added

75
Q

psychological explanations

extrovert dimension

A

related to the level of stimulation we see and is based on the ascending reticular activating system
ARAS

76
Q

psychological explanation

neuroticism dimension

A

related to emotionality and is based upon the autonomic nervous system
ANS responds to emotional-producing stimuli, including stress

77
Q

psychological explantation

characteristics of extrovert

A

become board quickly
less responsive to pain
seeks change and excitement
poor at tasks which require concentration

78
Q

psychological explanation

characteristics of introvert

A 
doesn't seek excitement 
prefers calm and quiet 
dislikes the unexpected 
prefers order 
good at tasks requiring concentration
79
Q

psychological explanation

characteristics of stable

A

even tempered
emotionally stable
easy going

80
Q

psychological explanation

characteristics of neurotic

A

restless
excitable
anxious

81
Q

psychological explanation

psychoticism

A

related to the strength of the superego
hormonal system
personality traits related to a persons relationships/ attitudes to others
related to high level of testosterone

82
Q

psychological explanation

characteristics of psychoticism

A 
egocentric
aggressive 
manipulative 
suspicious 
coldness 
impulsivity 
hostile 
unsympathetic
83
Q

psychological explanation

Eysencks criminal personality

A

neurotic-extrovert

also score highly on measures of psychoticism

84
Q

psychological explanation

role of socialisation

A

development of criminal behaviour is due to selfishness and lack of deferred gratification
those with high E and N had nervous systems that made them hard to condition and so wouldn’t learn to resist anti-social behaviour

85
Q

psychological explanation

measuring the criminal personality

A

Eysenck’s personality inventory

86
Q

strengths of Eysenck’s theory

A

supportive research Eysenck
biological reductionist
EPI-quantitative

87
Q

weaknesses of Eysenck

A

contradictory research- Farrington et al
EPI-self report
cultural bias

88
Q

evaluation of Eysenck

Eysenck’s research

A

2070 male participants compared with 2422 male controls

prisoners scored higher then controls

89
Q

evaluation of Eysenck

farrington el al’s research

A

offenders scored high on P but not E and N

little difference of EEG measures between introverts and extroverts

Psychology (11 decks)

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