Forensic

Question 1

State research on genetics leading to crime

Answer 1

Popma & Raine (2006) suggest criminality is heritable

Brunner (1996) MAOA deficit in Dutch family leading to aggression

Question 2

What are the 3 main theories which affect criminality?

Answer 2

Neuropsychology

Cognition

Family/social

Question 3

How can neuropsychology affect criminality?

Answer 3

Abnormal brains - there are links between deficits in the amygdala and hippocampus and criminal behaviour

Brain injury - frontal lobe damage (Turkstra, 2003) and case of Phineas Gage

Physiology - antisocial people have a low resting heart beat (Raine, 1997)

Neurobiology - increased testosterone is associated with violent behaviour (Scerba, 1994)

Question 4

State extra reading research for theories of crime

Answer 4

Freud’s theory states that if an individual’s superego is weak or undeveloped due to not being able to identify with the same sex parent in the phalic stage, then the individual will have a lack of control of antisocial behaviour

Question 5

How can cognition affect criminality?

Answer 5

Executive functioning - executive dysfunction is found within criminal populations (Hancock, 2010) - but white collar criminals have better executive functioning

Empathy - cognitive empathy is strongly negatively associated with delinquency

Kohlberg - moral development better in non-violent youths

Question 6

How can family/social factors affect criminality?

Answer 6

Parenting - Poor parenting supervision is the strongest predictor of later criminality (Hoghughi & Speight, 1998)

Social learning Theory (Bandura, 1977)

Family size - larger family size may be a predictor

Criminal parents - 63% of offenders had criminal parents (Farrington, 2009)

SES and parental conflict - Wilkstrom (2016) shows that low SES may not necessarily be a predictor, but does increase the likeliness of exposure to criminal activity

Question 7

What are protective factors

Answer 7

Hobbies

A good job

Relationship/marriage

Question 8

What is Moffit’s (1993) theory?

Answer 8

Suggests that criminality is either adolescent limited of life-course persistent

Question 9

State 2 studies on the unreliability of EWT

Answer 9

Buckhout (1980) did a study which recorded crime on TV – in this, 2000 people rang in and 1800 made incorrect ID – only 14.1% gave the correct answer

Loftus & Palmer (1972) smashed and hit, with broken glass

Question 10

State a study on the persuasiveness of EWT

Answer 10

EWT results in 78% of guilty votes, compared to fingerprints (70% guilty votes), polygraph (53%) and handwriting (34%)

Mean % of guilty verdicts is much higher (72%) with a credible witness, compared to a discredited witness (44%) or no eyewitness (28%) – (Kennedy & Haygood, 1992)

Question 11

What are factors affecting EWT?

Answer 11

System variables: ones that can be controlled by the system e.g. line up construction, cognitive interviewing

Estimator variables: ones that cannot be controlled e.g. intoxication, proximity from the scene, emotional state

Question 12

How does the retention interval affect EWT?

Answer 12

There is a reduction in correctly recalled events when interviewed immediately vs 4 week interval (Ebbesen & Reinick, 1998)

Question 13

State research on line ups

Answer 13

Building face composites can harm the line up identification performance (Wells, Charman & Olson, 2005)

When too highly similar it is problematic, but when it is moderately similar, there is higher identification and fewer false positives (Fitzgerald, 2015)

Question 14

How did the ‘old’ approach to interviewing suspects create problems

Answer 14

Often lead to false confessions as it was coercive and intimidating (Leo, 2008)

Often use false evidence (Kassin, 2007)

Question 15

How do the adolescent limited and life-course persistent pathways differ?

Answer 15

Life-course persistent likely to be more violent crimes through life compared to less serious crimes from adolescent offenders

Adolescent limited likely to desist after 25, other to be throughout life time

Adolescent limited delays delinquency to young adulthood, life-course begins in childhood

Adolescent limited gap between biological and social maturity, life-course neuropsychological and family deficits

Question 16

What is the PACE Act?

Answer 16

This meant that all interviews had to be recorded

Moston (1992) found that London police spent little time trying to obtain people’s accounts of the events, instead they accused the interviewees of the offence and asked their response for the accusations

Question 17

What is the PEACE model?

Answer 17

Planning and Preparation, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, Evaluation

Question 18

State research on the effectiveness of the PEACE model

Answer 18

Research has shown that PEACE interviewing is associated with securing a greater number of comprehensive accounts, including exculpatory ones as well as admissions/confessions (Walsh & Bull, 2010)

Question 19

State studies on children which show their suggestibility

Answer 19

Children at preschool age and younger are prone to suggestion (Lindsay, 1995)

If a child is an active participant in an event, then their recollection of the event can be prone to suggestion (Reedier, 1991)

An experiment showed that 50% of children gave wrong answers when asked what they had just experienced in a paediatric examination (Ceci & Buck)

Question 20

What kind of questions should be asked to children?

Answer 20

Open ended questions that encourage free recall

Question 21

What factors can affect memory of an event?

Answer 21

Stress and trauma

Intoxication

Age

Frequency of the event

Time

Question 22

Why was the innocence project set up and what does it do?

Answer 22

Set up to help battle false confessions

Has helped to free inmates - shown the vulnerability of people: 52% of false confessors are 21 or under, with 10% having mental health problems

Question 23

State the 3 types of false confessions

Answer 23

Voluntary e.g. to cover up for someone else

Compliant (Gudjonsson) - victim wants to escape due to interrogating techniques

Internalised - extra interrogation, extra vulnerable victims can believe they actually did it

Question 24

What are 4 theories in geographic profiling

Answer 24

Distance decay (Bartingham) - the further the distance between two locales, the less likely the interaction between the two there is

Rational choice theory (Cohen & Felson)- criminals make their decisions with comprehensive thinking, outweighing costs/benefits - explains burglaries and thefts

Least effort principle (Zinf, 1950) choosing the shortest distance when all the destinations are of equal desirability

Routine activity theory (Clarke & Felson) the offender and victim must intersect in time and space for the crime to occur, so it may happen on route to work, etc

Question 25

State an extra reading theory of geographic profiling

Answer 25

Crime pattern theory (Brantingham & Brantingam) - the strongest influence in geographic profiling - crime patterns are not random, there is an interaction between the offender’s mental map and allotment of victims

Question 26

State weaknesses and limitations of geographic profiling

Answer 26

Strengths: provides investigative data when other evidence is absent, doesn’t need physical ID, can help inform victims

Limitations: relies heavily on algorithms and assumptions through software, does not consider multiple offenders, only considers spatial behaviours of offenders

Question 27

What does Rossmo (2004) study show?

Answer 27

Median distances of crimes e.g. assaults are closer to home, thefts/robberies are furthest from home

Question 28

What does Sampson (1993) model suggest?

Answer 28

Developed from Moffitt’s theory - suggests that crime becomes likely to occur when an individual becomes distanced from society

Question 29

What does Moffitt & Caspi (2002) show?

Answer 29

followed adolescent offenders and life-course offenders up at the age of 26 – life-course offenders were the most elevated on psychopathic personality traits, mental health problems, financial problems, work problems, etc

Question 30

What has Nagin (1995) shown?

Answer 30

Followed 400 males until the age of 32 (followed adolescent limited offenders, chronic offenders and non-offenders)

It was found that work records were similar of adolescent limited offenders and non offenders

Adolescent limited offenders’ work rate was far superior to chronic offenders

Question 31

State 4 studies which show the differences between life-course and adolescent-limited offenders

Answer 31

Weisner (2005) - alcohol and drug abuse occurred in young adulthood but stopped at 26, life-course persistent began at a younger age (12-13) and continues

Kennedy (2011) - life-course offenders showed more serious and more violent crimes

Farrington (2009) - by the age of 48, 18 year criminal career for life-course persistent offenders

Moffatt & Caspi (2002) - followed offenders till the age of 26, life-course persistent offenders were the most elevated on psychopathic personality traits, mental health problems, work issue, financial problems