Forensic Flashcards
State research on genetics leading to crime
Popma & Raine (2006) suggest criminality is heritable
Brunner (1996) MAOA deficit in Dutch family leading to aggression
What are the 3 main theories which affect criminality?
Neuropsychology
Cognition
Family/social
How can neuropsychology affect criminality?
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)
State extra reading research for theories of crime
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
How can cognition affect criminality?
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
How can family/social factors affect criminality?
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
What are protective factors
Hobbies
A good job
Relationship/marriage
What is Moffit’s (1993) theory?
Suggests that criminality is either adolescent limited of life-course persistent
State 2 studies on the unreliability of EWT
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
State a study on the persuasiveness of EWT
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)
What are factors affecting EWT?
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
How does the retention interval affect EWT?
There is a reduction in correctly recalled events when interviewed immediately vs 4 week interval (Ebbesen & Reinick, 1998)
State research on line ups
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)
How did the ‘old’ approach to interviewing suspects create problems
Often lead to false confessions as it was coercive and intimidating (Leo, 2008)
Often use false evidence (Kassin, 2007)
How do the adolescent limited and life-course persistent pathways differ?
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
What is the PACE Act?
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
What is the PEACE model?
Planning and Preparation, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, Evaluation
State research on the effectiveness of the PEACE model
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)
State studies on children which show their suggestibility
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)
What kind of questions should be asked to children?
Open ended questions that encourage free recall
What factors can affect memory of an event?
Stress and trauma
Intoxication
Age
Frequency of the event
Time
Why was the innocence project set up and what does it do?
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
State the 3 types of false confessions
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
What are 4 theories in geographic profiling
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
