Forensic Flashcards
Oli is in prison for violent and aggressive behavior. He becomes angry very quickly and gets frustrated easily. He often feels threatened when he is near other people.
Explain how an anger management therapist might help Oli using anger management. 4 marks
- Cognitive appraisal - the therapist would help Oli to explore what it is that triggers his anger, why other people make him feel threatened, why he feels frustrated.
- Skills acquisition- the therapist would teach Oli calming strategies that he can use when he feels angry, frustrated or when he feels threatened by other people.
- Examples of suitable calming strategies Oli could use would be: mantra when he feels threatened; breathing exercises when he is near other people; positive self-talk eg ‘people are not going to harm me’, ‘people are usually kind’ etc.
- Application practice - the therapist would act out role-play situations with Oli so he can practice his calming exercises in a situation that would normally make him frustrated and angry eg therapist might act out the role of a person pushing against Oli in a queue.
Outline one cognitive distortion shown by offenders who attempt to justify their crime. 2 marks
Possible cognitive distortions:
• Minimization explaining the consequences as less significant/damaging than they really are
• Hostile attribution bias blaming other factors for behavior, eg blaming the victim.
One method of offender profiling involves categorizing offenders as either organised or disorganized offenders. Briefly explain one limitation of this method of offender profiling.
[2 marks)
• Based on a restricted sample of 36 serial sex offenders (therefore cannot be generalised to a wide population).
• Based on the self-reports from this sample (which cannot therefore be relied on for validity).
• Distinction is an oversimplification (difficult to categorise some offenders as one type
or another so is of questionable validity/usefulness).
• Research (Canter 2004) shows evidence for the organised type only (suggesting
that organisation is a characteristic typical of most serial killers).
Discuss the psychological effects of custodial sentencing. (16 marks)
• The problem of cause and effect – difficult to show that problems are due to imprisonment,
eg prisoners with psychiatric conditions may have problems before they are
institutionalized.
• Prevention is better (Harrower 2001) avoids labeling and negative consequences of prison.
• Need for selectivity – only 8–10% of criminals commit 50% of crimes (Peterson1981).
• Alternatives, eg community sentences better for low-risk offenders (keep a job and
social contacts).
• Counter-arguments re usefulness of custodial sentencing, eg justice is seen to be done,
limits danger to the public, possible reform, an opportunity for new skills/training.
• General arguments against custodial sentences, eg do not deter, given to appease
public, simply acts as retribution.
Briefly outline differential association theory as an explanation for offending. 2 marks
Notion that offending depends on the norms/values of the offender’s social group
Offending is more likely to occur where social group values deviant behaviour
Briefly explain one limitation of this theory. 2 marks
Only evidence in correlational
Findings could also be explained through heritability
Offenders may seek out people with criminal values
Why did the psychologist use the median as a measure of central tendency rather than the mean? 2 marks
- Median is used because the level of measurement is not interval – ratings data with units of variable size.
Discuss biological explanations of offending behaviour. 16 marks
Possible content
Genetic explanations, focusing on ‘criminal’ genes such as the MAOA gene (which controls levels of brain serotonin) linked to criminal aggression
Brain pathology explanations, possibly liked to genes and/or early abuse; examples include the relationship between psychopathy and abnormalities of frontal lobe and amygdala function
Credit biological aspects of Eysenck’s theory – cortical underarousal
Possible discussion points
Evidence from MZ/DZ twin studies and family studies looking at genetic factors
Findings support a genetic involvement in criminal behaviour but concordance rates in MZ
twins are not high and leave plenty of room for non-genetic environmental factors
Brain scanning studies that show pathology in brains of criminal psychopaths, but cannot
conclude whether these abnormalities are genetic of signs of early abuse
Some evidence from genome-wide association studies for particular genetic factors linked
to criminal psychopathy, but little replication
Counter-evidence for environmental factors in offending behaviour; socio-economic
status, social learning theory
General nature of ‘offending behaviour’ – some specific forms may be more ‘biological’
than others eg physical aggression
Cognitive preparation
- Understanding of triggers to angry outbursts is established
Application training
- Offenders learn new skills to help them combat their feelings of anger
How could the psychologists test the data for reliability and what steps could be taken to ensure the data was as reliable as possible? 3 marks
- Researchers would meet beforehand and decide on the behavioural categories to be used in the research study
- Independently observe the same behaviour
- Afterwards - compare their observational data and correlate the findings
- A positive correlation of +0.7 or above would indicate inter-rater reliability
Using your knowledge of the reasons behind recidivism, explain why criminals re-offend? 4 marks
- Criminal re-offend (recidivism) due to, for example, institutionalisation; non-adherence to behaviourist principles and addiction
Explain what is meant by behaviour modification of offenders
- Treatment approach, based on the principles of operant conditioning
- Replaces undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through positive or negative reinforcement.
Outline evidence to support the use of anger management with prisoners.
Ireland (2000)
- AM can be successful
- 50 prisoners completed 2 measures of anger both before and after completion of an AM
- 12 hours worth of intervention spread out into 1-hour interval over 3 days
- Questionnaires+ checklist of 29 problematic behaviours
- Control group of 37 prisoners (matched) - didn’t have intervention + completed the same measure
Results compared
= 92% reduction in anger levels for the intervention group on at least one of the measures
Explain what restorative justice programmes entail.
- Aim to help rebuild relationships between the offender, the victim.
- Improve the experience for the victim, as well as encouraging the offender to take responsibility for their crime.
- Face-to-face meetings between the offender and victim; direct mediation and indirect mediation.
