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Psychology > Forensic development AO1 and AO3 > Flashcards

Forensic development AO1 and AO3 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is forensic psychology?

A

The study of psychological aspects of the legal processes including applying theory to criminal investigations, understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behaviour and the treatment of criminals

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2
Q

Why is defining crime difficult to do?

A

Crime is subjective to culture and changes over time

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3
Q

Outline official statistics as a way of measuring crime

A

The government records the total number of crimes reported to the police and is published by the Home Office

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4
Q

Outline the victim surveys as a way of measuring crime

A

A record of experience of crime of the victim through the Crime Survey for England and Wales. 50,000 households are randomly selected

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5
Q

Outline the offender surveys as a way of measuring crime

A

Offenders volunteer to give details of the number and types of crimes they have committed. It targets people based on social background and previous convictions

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6
Q

What are the strengths of official statistics? (AO3)

A
  • less biased and has no investigator effects
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7
Q

What are the limitations of official statistics? (AO3)

A
  • Underestimates how much crime is committed in the country

- Police recording rules may differ (Nottinghamshire theft law)

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8
Q

What are the strengths of victim surveys? (AO3)

A
  • Less chance of being biased as participants are randomly selected
  • Large sample size so there is greater accuracy
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9
Q

What are the limitations of victim surveys? (AO3)

A
  • Victims may have forgotten about crime or they may not accurately recall (telescoping is mis-remembering when an event occurred)
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10
Q

What are the strengths of offender surveys? (AO3)

A
  • Provide insight to how many people are responsible for offences
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11
Q

What are the limitations of offender surveys? (AO3)

A
  • Unreliable responses-may conceal or exaggerate information

- Over-representation of certain offences

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12
Q

Outline the Top-Down approach

A
  • Originated in the USA from FBI work in the 1970s
  • Data from interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers (Ted Bundy)
  • Offenders have a unique style that informs us about their characteristics (Modus Operandi)
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13
Q

What are the signs of a disorganised offender?

A
  • Little planning done
  • Often leave evidence at the scene
  • Usually unskilled and unemployed
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14
Q

What are the signs of a disorganised offender?

A
  • Little planning done
  • Often leave evidence at the scene
  • Usually unskilled and unemployed
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15
Q

Name the four stages of FBI profiling

A
  • Data assimilation
  • Crime scene classification
  • Crime reconstruction
  • Profile generation
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16
Q

Outline the Bottom-Up approach

A
  • The UK’s approach which generates a picture of the offender
  • Profile is data driven
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17
Q

Outline investigative psychology (Bottom-Up)

A
  • Establishing patterns that occur across crime scenes
  • Offence details are matched with offender details
  • Interpersonal coherence: the way an offender acts at the scene may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
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18
Q

Outline geographical profiling (Bottom-Up)

A
  • Kim Rossmo (1997) developed this method which is about crime mapping
  • Establish ‘centre of gravity’ which helps to work out the ‘jeopardy surface’ (where an offender will strike next)
  • Carter and Larkin (1993) suggest they may be marauder (home) or a commuder (travels)
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19
Q

Outline the idea that the top-down approach has limited application (AO3)

A
  • It only applies to particular crimes such as rape or murder where the scene reveals information about the offender
  • Therefore the application of this approach is limited
20
Q

Outline the idea that the top down approach is based on outdated models of personality (AO3)

A
  • Previous models see personality as being driven by dispositional traits rather than external factors that may be constantly changing
  • This means the approach has poor validity when identifying possible suspects
21
Q

Outline the fact that evidence doesn’t support the disorganised offender in the top-down approach (AO3)

A
  • Evidence from Canter (2004) analysed data from 100 murderers and tried to classify the characteristics into organised or disorganised offenders.
  • There was evidence for the organised offender but not the disorganised offender which undermines the approach
22
Q

Why is there a problem with the original sample for the top down approach? (AO3)

A
  • The typology approach was developed using interviews from 36 US killers which is too small a sample and is unrepresentative of other criminals
  • It isn’t possible to rely on self-report techniques as they may not be accurate and demand charcteristics may occur
23
Q

Why is the classification too simplistic for the top-down approach? (AO3)

A
  • It would be difficult to classify an offender who fell in both parts of the classification therefore Holmes (1989) suggested that there are 4 types of serial killer and other researchers have focused on the motivation to commit crimes
24
Q

Outline the definition of biological explanations to offending behaviour

A

Crime is an innate tendency and is genetically determined or a result of abnormalities in the brain

25
Q

Outline the Atavistic Form as an explanation to offending behaviour

A

Lombrosso (1876) suggested that criminals were genetic throwbacks and were biologically different to non-criminals

26
Q

Outline the procedure and findings of Lombrosso’s research into offending behaviour

A

He examined the facial and cranial features of 383 dead and 3,839 living Italian convicts
- Atavistic form was associated with physical abnormalities which were key indicators of criminality
He concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic charcteristics

27
Q

State 5 atavistic charcteristics

A
  • sloping brow
  • prominent jaw
  • high cheek bones
  • dark skin
  • extra toes, nipples or fingers
28
Q

What does the atavistic form state about murderers?

A

Blood shot eyes, curly hair and long ears

29
Q

What does the atavistic form state about sexual deviants?

A

Glinting eyes, swollen lips and projecting ears

30
Q

Outline the fact that Lombrosso was the father of criminology as a strength of Atavistic form (AO3)

A
  • He shifted the emphasis away from moralistic discourse to mor scirntific realms of evaluatiion and genetics
31
Q

Evaluate atavistic form based on the scientific rascism (AO3)

A
  • Lombrosso’s description of criminals as ‘uncivilised primitive and savage’ lent support to the eugenic philosophies of the time.
  • This is a disadvantage because it causes a controversial issue for the atavistic form
32
Q

Outline the fact that there is contradictory evidence for the atavistic form (AO3)

A
  • Charles Goring (1913) found no supporting evidence after comparing 3000 criminals with 3000 non-criminals
  • There was no evidence that criminals have specific facial structure which disproves the atavistic form explanation
33
Q

Outline the poor control in Lombrosso’s research for atavistic form (AO3)

A
  • Lombrosso didn’t have a non-criminal control group so he couldn’t compare properly
  • Also, he didn’t account for other variables that could affect facial structures such as psychological disorders
34
Q

Outline the idea that correlation is an issue in Lombrosso’s research (AO3)

A
  • Finding a correlation doesn’t mean this is the cause

- Also he didn’t control poverty and diet in his research

35
Q

Outline the twin study into offending behaviour by Johannes Lange (1930)

A
  • He investigated 13 identical and 17 non-identical twins where 1 of the twins had been in prison.
  • He found that 10 of the MZ twins also had a co-twin in prison but only 2 of the DZ twins
36
Q

Outline the twin study into offending behaviour by Karl Christiansen (1977)

A
  • He studied 87 MZ and 147 DZ twins
  • He found a concordance rate of 33%for MZs and 12% for DZs
  • This supports the genetic basis of offending behaviour
37
Q

Outline research into candidate genes by Tiihonen et al (2014)

A
  • He analysed 900 offenders and received abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime: MAOA gene and CDH13
  • Individuals with this high risk are 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour
38
Q

What is the function of the MAOA gene in offending behaviour?

A

Controls serotonin and dopamine which affect mood

39
Q

What is the function of the CDH13 gene in offending behaviour?

A

Linked to substance abuse and attention deficit disorder

40
Q

Outline a weakness of the Tiihonen’s research to explaining offending behaviour (AO3)

A

The study is relatively new and hasn’t been replicated yet so we don’t know if this is reliable

41
Q

Outline the diathesis-stress model to explaining offending behaviour

A

Criminal behaviour may be due to a combination of a genetic predisposition and biological or psychological trigger

42
Q

Outline the problems with twin studies to explaining offending behaviour (AO3)

A

Concordance rates are not ever 100% which they should be to suggest a genetic basis.
Also twin usually share their environment so offending behaviour may not be due to genetics

43
Q

Outline the problems with adoption studies (AO3)

A

We don’t know the separation time between the parent and child so this could make it difficult to assess the impact of genetics on offending behaviour

44
Q

Outline Mednick’s findings through adoptions studies on the genetic basis of offending behaviour (genetic behaviour)

A

Mednick et al (1984) found that when neither adoptive parents or biological parents were criminals, adoptees were criminals at 13.5%
This rose to 20% when either adoptive or biological parents had convictions
It was 24.5% when both adoptive and biological parents had convictions
This proves that

45
Q

Outline the support for the diathesis stress model of genetics for offending behaviour (AO3)

A

The adoption studies showed that genetics play an important role in offending but environmental basis is also important

Psychology (18 decks)

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