Forensic Psychology Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
Offender profiling is an investigative tool employed by the police when solving serious crimes. It invariably involves the appointment of a professional profiler who will essentially provide a description of the offender based on an analysis of the crime, the victim and any other available evidence.
What is the main aim of offender profiling?
The main aim is to narrow down the field of investigation and ultimately the list of likely suspects
What sort of things will a profile try to establish?
Gender, height, age,clothing,facial factors
Is the top down approach British or American?
American
Who is used as evidence for the top down approach?
Ressler(1979)
What did Ressler study?
Ressler and other members of the FBI behavioural science unit interviewed 36 sexually motivated murderers & serial killers and examined their crimes/crime scenes in detail. They then used this data to create a crime classification system where by new crimes could be categorised as organised or disorganised depending on their characteristics, which in turn would provide a description of the offender.
Give a summary of an organised offender
Show evidence of having planned the crime in advance; the victim is deliberately targeted and will often reflect the fact that the killer or rapist has a ‘type. They maintain a high degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision. There is little evidence of cues left behind at the scene. They tend to be of above average intelligence, in a skilled, professional occupation and are socially and sexually competent. They are usually married and may even have children
Give a summary of disorganised offender
Show little evidence of planning, suggesting the offence may have been spontaneous, spur of the moment act. The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack - the body is usually still at the scene and there appears to have been very little control on the part of the offender. They tend to have a lower than average IQ, be in unskilled work or unemployed and often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships. They tend to live alone and often relatively close to where the offence took place
What is the process of profiling by the FBI?
- Data Assimilation
- Crime scene classification
- Hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim, etc.
- Hypotheses related to likely offender (e.g. demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour, etc.)
What is the supporting evidence for the top down approach to offender profiling?
Arthur Shawcross had murdered 11 women in the Rochester area of NY state. They key part of the profile was the belief that he would return to the dead victims later to re-experience the pleasure of the killing, so the police set up surveillance of his and he was caught masturbating on a bride near the body.
Why does the top down approach to offender profiling, have limited application?
The approach can only be used for rimes of rape and murder due to the fact that it is based on interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers. As a result, it cannot be used for more common offences, such as burglary. This is a weakness of the top-down approach because this lack of versatility impact its usefulness, especially compared to other approaches
Why is a strength of the top down approach usefulness?
User surveys generally indicate that it is a useful investigate tool. For example, Trager and Brewster (2001) surveyed 95 police departments in the US and found that a majority believed that criminal profiling was useful, particularly in relation to interrogating suspects and guiding the criminal investigation. Nevertheless they also found that it generally lacked usefulness in relation to identifying the suspect, therefore highlighting an issue/weakness of the top-down approach
Why is lack of support for disorganised offender a weakness of the top down approach to offender profiling
The typologies organised/disorganised offenders has been challenged by Canter(2004) who analysed the data of 1000 murders in the US using ‘smaller space analysis’. He found that there was support for the organised typology but no support for the disorganised typology. This is a weakness of the top down approach as this undermines the classification system.
What is the aim of the bottom up approach to offender profiling?
The aim of the bottom up approach is to generate a picture of the offender, their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and social background - through systematic analysis of evidence at the crime scene
Is the bottom up approach to offender profiling British or American?
British
Briefly summarise the bottom up approach to offender profiling
The profile is data driven(statistical analysis) and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper and more rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence. Furthermore, the bottom up profiling is also much more grounded in psychological theory than the top-down approach
What are the 3 main themes of the bottom up approach to offender profiling?
- Interpersonal coherence
- The significance of time and place
- Forensic awareness
In the bottom up approach to offender profiling, what is interpersonal coherence?
The belief that people are consistent in their behaviour and therefore there will be links with elements of the crime and how people behave in everyday life or alternatively the way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations
In terms of the bottom up approach to offender profiling, what is the significance of time and place about?
Both the precise location and the map of the relationship between places in which a series of offences take place may relate to where the offender is living and previous experiences (often employs geographical profiling techniques)
In terms of the bottom up approach to offender profiling, what is forensic awareness?
Certain behaviours may reveal an awareness of particular police techniques and past experiences
Give 3 strengths of the bottom up approach
- Objective
- Wider Application
- User surveys generally indicate that it is an investigate useful tool
Why is objectivity a strength to the bottom up approach to offender profiling?
It uses a statistical database whereby new offences can be matched/compared with previous offences to provide important regarding the type of offender (e.g. age, etc)
Why is wider application a strength of the bottom up approach to offender profiling?
The approach can be used for various crimes due to the fact that it is based on three varying factors that aren’t subjective. It can be used for crimes such as arson, car theft, burglary
Give a weakness of the bottom up approach to offender profiling
It has some notable failures
What are the notable failures of the bottom up approach to offender profiling?
In response to the murder of Rachel Nickell, Paul Britton produced a profile which eventually led to Colin Stagg being arrested & charged with murder. Nevertheless, it was later revealed that Colin Stagg was innocent & that the police had placed to much emphasis on the police.
What are the 3 strengths of the top down approach to offender profiling?
- Influential / application - Ainsworth suggests that offender typologies are very useful
- Supporting evidence - Shawcross
- User surveys indicate that it is a useful investigative tool - Trager and Brewster
What did research by Copson show in terms of the bottom up approach?
Found that 83% of the 184 police officers states that the profile helped the, identify the criminal
In terms of geographical profiling, what are the 2 models that Cantee proposed?
- Marauder
2. Commuter
What does Marauder involve?
Offender operates in close proximity to their home base
What does commuter mean?
The offenders travels to another geographical area and commits crimes within a defined space around which a circle can be drawn
What is a strength of geographical profiling?
It has wider application - can be used for an array of crimes
What is a weakness of geographical profiling?
Theoretical problems:
- Need to ensure that all crimes have been committed by the same person
- Profiler needs to ensure that they capture the majority of crimes committed by that offender, failure to do so will result in spatial biasing
According to Eysenck, what are the 3 dimensions to an individual’s personality?
Extroversion/introversion
Neuroticism/stability
Psychoticism/normality
How did Eysenck measure the three dimensions/traits?
Via a questionnaire (EPQ)
What did Eysenck suggest?
That if an individual scored highly on extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism then this demoted a personality of a criminal
What does extroversion refer to?
Outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their NS is under aroused
What does Neuroticism refer to?
People who have negative emotional stress - lack of stability is due to an over-reactive response to a threat
What does psychoticism refer to?
Aggressive and anti social person who lacks empathy due to high testosterone
Give two strengths of Eysenck’s theory of criminal behaviour
- Supporting evidence - Eysenck and Eysenck
2. Practical application
What is the supporting evidence for Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality?
Eysenck and Eysenck 1977, compared 2070 male prisoners on the EPQ with 2422 male controls and found prisoners scored higher than controls
What is the practical application for Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality?
His theory suggests that the underlying tendencies that eventually manifest themselves as criminal behaviour are detectable in childhood. It may be possible to modify the socialisation or high risk individuals so they do not turn out to be offenders
Give two weaknesses of Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality
- Contradictory evidence - Farmington et al
2. Deterministic
What is contradictory evidence for Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality ?
Farmington et al 1982 reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on psychoticism measures but not for extroversion and neuroticism
How is Eysenck’s theory criticised for determinism?
It suggests that criminality is mostly influenced by internal factors that are out of our control e.g. our personality (EPQ) and our nervous system.
What are the 2 cognitive explanations of offending?
- Level of moral reasoning
2. Cognitive distortions
What are the 3 levels of moral reasoning?
- Pre conventional
- Conventional
- Post conventional
What are the 6 stages of moral reasoning?
- Obedience and punishment
- Individualism and exchange
- Interpersonal relationships
- Authority and social order
- Social contract
- Universal principles
What does obedience and punishment refer to?
Based on avoiding punishment, a focus on the consequences of actions, rather than intentions; intrinsic deterrence to authority
What does individualism & exchange refer to?
The ‘right’ behaviours are those that are in the best interest of oneself; tit for tat mentality
What does interpersonal relationship refer to?
‘Good boy’/‘good girl’ attitude, sees individuals as filling social roles
What does authority and social order refer to?
Law and order as highest ideals, social obedience is a must to maintaining a functional society
What does social contract refer to?
Being to learn others have different values; realisation that law is contingent on culture
What does universal principles refer to?
Develop internal moral principles; individuals begins to obey these above the law
What is the Heinz dilemma
About stealing drugs for his sick wife, devised by Kohlberg to test moral reasoning
Give a strength of level of moral reasoning
It is well supported by psychological evidence
What is the psychological support for level of moral reasoning?
Palmer & Hollin
Give 2 weaknesses of level of moral reasoning
- It is gender biased
- The Heinz dilemma was hypothetical meaning it lacks validity - Bocchiaro found that when you compare hypothetical responses with a mirrored real life scenario the behaviour outcome is significantly different
What are cognitive distortions?
Errors or biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking
What are 2 examples of cognitive distortions?
- Hostile attribution bias
2. Minimalisation
What is hostile attribution bias?
When an individual interprets ambiguous act as being hostile
What is supporting evidence for hostile attributing bias?
Palmer and Hollin
In terms of hostile attribution bias, what did Palmer and Hollin do?
Gave offenders & non offenders 12 scenarios of which four involved someone acting with hostile intent, four involved someone acting with pro social intent & four were ambiguous. In essence p, they found that offenders made more hostile attributions of intent when shown ambiguous scenarios compared to non offenders
What is minimalisation?
An attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence. This could explain criminal behaviour because if an offender minimalists an offence, either before or after it has happened they will not necessarily experience negative emotions associated with the act
In terms of minimalisation, what did Pollack and Hashmall do?
Reported that 35% of a sample of child molesters argues that the crime they had committed was non sexual (they were just being affectionate) & 36% states the victim had consented
Give 2 weaknesses for cognitive explanations of offending and related sub sections
- It is supported via research that utilises hypothetical scenarios - Bocchiaro
- reductionist - only focuses of psychological explanations
Give a strength for cognitive explanations of offending behaviour
Practical application - understanding how cognitive processes are associated with offending behaviour has been used to develop intervention/treatment programmes within prisms to help address offenders thinking, and thus in turn help reduce reoffending
