forensic psychology Flashcards
What is the top down approach?
Developed as a way of producing a profile of the most likely offender, it is regarded as a more intuitive application of a profilers prior knowledge. The data collected is the description of the crime scene, the crime itself (weapon, cause of death etc). Then murder type (mass, spree, serial), time factors (whether the crime took a long or short amount of time), location factors (was the crime scene the same as the murder scene) are all considered. Then a crime assessment takes place before the criminal profile is constructed with hypotheses about their likely background, habits etc. It is then used to try and help the investigation. A written report is given to the police and if the offender is caught then they see if the profile was legitimate.
Evaluate the top down approach?
Strength - the top down approach is useful - research wuestioning 184 US police officers, 82% said it was operationally useful, 90% said they would use it again. Although it doesn’t result in actual identification but offers different perspectives and opens new avenues for investigation, may also help prevent wrongful convictions
Criticisms - classification is based on interviews with 35 serial killers from the US, individuals are highly manipulative and aren’t the most reliable sources of information. The approach may also be different to the one used with ‘typical’ offenders.
May have issues regarding accuracy - Alison et al, police officers given a profile along with a profile of offenders actual characteristics over 50% said the profile they were given was very accurate even though half of them were given a fake version.
What is the bottom up approach?
Data driven approach where statistical techniques are used to produce predictions about offender characteristics. Involves geographical profiling and investigative psychology.
Evaluate the bottom up approach
Strength - bottom up approach is useful - research supports the usefulness as a survey if 48 UK police officers using investigative profiling found that 75% of officers questioned said the profilers advice had been useful. HOWEVER only 3% said that the advice actually helped them identify the offenders, and after 1 year only 75 study used profiling.
Geographical profiling is successful - Suggested it can be useful in prioritising house to house searches or identifying a geographic area where DNA can be collected. However cannot distinguish between multiple offenders in the same area - limited to spatial behaviour and not personality characteristics.
Criticism - Geographical profiling will not work without accurate data on the offences committed, police data on crime can be limited due to under-reporting of crimes or inconsistencies in the locations of crimes recorded. Crime maps are likely to therefore be incomplete, can be difficult to know what to leave out when attempting to construct a map.
What is Eysencks theory?
Psychological explanation - theory of personality, contains three dimensions:
Extraversion - outgoing people, is determined by the level of aroual in a persons nervous system = people more likely to seek arousal and engage in dangerous activities
Neuroticism - more likely to feel negative emotional states, determined by level of stability I the sympathetic nervous system (how they respond e.g. fight or flight) = over react when they feel threatened
Psychoticism - egocentric, aggressive and impulsive, determined by high levels of testosterone = aggressive and lack empathy
Interaction with environment is key in the development of criminality also.
Evaluate Eysenck
Strength - Research support - McGurk and McDougall found significant differences between the two groups, delinquent group had high p, e and n scores. However other research disputes the theory, research only found a small number of delinquents who had high scores on all 3 of Eysencks variables.
Research support for biological basis - twins studies found neuroticism had a positive correlation of +0.52 in MZ twins and +0.24 in DZ twins. Extraversion +0.51 in MZ twins and +0.12 for DZ. HOWEVER not as high as Eysenck originally suggested.
Criticism - Personality may not be consistent - family and friends were asked to rate 63 students in a variety go situations and found almost no correlation between the traits displayed. Someone may be relaxed at home but neurotic at work.
What are the cognitive explanations of offending behaviour?
Cognitive distortions - a form of irrational thinking. Two examples are:
Hostile attribution bias - someone always seems to think the worse e.g. someone smiles at you but you think they are thinking bad thoughts, linked with increased levels of aggression
Minimalisation - consequences of a situation are under-exaggerated, reduce negative interpretation of the crime e.g. stealing from a rich family isn’t bad because they have money.
Level of moral reasoning - Kohlberg’s stages
Preconventional level - children accept the rules of authority figures and judge actions by their consequences (punishment and reward) - criminals most likely at this level believe breaking he law is ok because it can be justified is the rewards outweigh the costs.
Conventional level - maintain conformity to social rules to keep social order - adults who are at this level would think their crime is justified to maintain social relations
Post-coventional level - individual now defines morality in terms of principles which apply to all situations - only 10% of people reach here.
What are the psychodynamic explanations of offending behaviour?
Maternal deprivation theory - prolonged separation between mother and child can lead to affectionless psychopathy, emphasises the need for a continuous relationship. Bowlby 44 thieves study. 86% of affectionless thieves, 17% of other thieves.
Superego:
underdeveloped - a result of a child who does not identify with their same sex parent, the consequence Is people have little control over anti-social behaviour and they and satisfy the ID.
overdeveloped - strong identification with a strict parebt- excessive feeling of guilt, people commit a crime to be punished due to guilt.
Deviant - normal identification with parent- if the parent is a criminal the child will take on the same deviant attitudes.
What is differential association theory?
Offending behavior a result of social learning. people are socialised into a life of crime. The child learns attitudes towards crime: desirable or undesirable. criminal has been taught positive attitudes. May learn specific methods for committing crimes. Learnt from both intimate personal groups and the wider neighbourhood, may not be criminals but may have deviant attitudes. Learnt through frequency length and personal meaning will determine how much influence these things have. Direct and indirect operant conditioning.
Evaluate differential association theory?
Supporting evidence - research found that 40% sons of criminal fathers had committed a rime themselves by the age of 18 in comparison to 13% of sons with non criminal fathers. Also survey of male and female adolescents in the US found that differential association theory was responsible for 68% of variance in marijuana use and 55% of alcohol use
Methodological issues - offenders likely to seek out other offenders, suggested theory is not testable because of the difficulty of separating learned and inherited influences. Cannot conclude cause and effect, sand cannot test experimentally so validity is unclear
Role of biological factors - absence of biological factors may be a drawback - diathesis stress may explain it better innate genetic factors and early experiences e.g. maltreatment can act as a vulnerability.
Evaluate the psychodynamic explanations of offending behaviour
Real world application - trying to prevent the problem before it occurs by trying to stop the effects of maternal deprivation - Bowlby and Robertsons found that children coped well if there was an alternative emotional care, as they found the lack of emotional support had a worse effect than a lack of physical support.
Gender bias - suggested women would have a weakened superego because they don’t identify as much with same sex parent, due to resolution of Electra complex is not satisfactory and because Freud believed that no one would want to identify with a woman due to their low social status.
Not causal findings - in Bowlbys 44 thieves study can’t draw causal conclusions as separation was not manipulated - can only say there is a relationship between separation and criminality. Should be be used with caution to support his theory.
Evaluate the cognitive explanations of offending behaviour.
Cognitive distortion
- real world application - researchers have used CBT techniques on people from disadvantaged groups to reduce judgement and decision making errors - participants who attend 13 one hour sessions had a 44% decrease in arrest compared to control
- research support for minimalisations - criminals accounts of behaviour downplay it, also suggested victim behaviour had a role to play in the crime, some may have just said the crime didn’t happen
Moral reasoning
- real application - found that children raised on Isreal kibbutzim were more morally advanced, suggested that belonging to a democratic group facilitated moral development. Create cluster schools, members had power to resolve disputes which allowed for moral development..
- limitations of the theory - found that moral principles were used to justify behaviour after it had been performed, a second issue is it was based on male samples which suggests a gender bias. Also based on male perspective - one of justice rather than caring.
What is investigative psychology and geographical profiling?
Investigative psych - developed by David Canter includes interpersonal coherence (people are consistent in their behaviour so there will be correlations between their crime and every day behaviour), there is also forensic awareness (people may act in a way which would suggest they have an awareness of police techniques) and smallest space analysis.
Geographical profiling - analyses locations and looks into spatial relationships between crime scene and offenders residence:
circle theory - plotting where all crime scenes have occurred to make a circle, offender should be in the centre
criminal geographic targeting - computerised system using three dimensional map called a jeopardy surface , colours indicate closeness to residence.
What is smallest space analysis?
Statistical technique after Canter analysed the co-occurence of 48 crime scene and offender characteristics from 82 murder cases found three categories:
instrumental opportunistic - use murder to obtain something and take the easiest option
instrumental cognitive - murder is planned because they are scared of being caught
expressive impulsive - uncontrolled and the result of strong emotions.
What is crime assessment?
Organised type of offender - someone who planned the crime and victim is specifically targeted, these people are typically of high intelligence and are socially and sexually competent
Disorganised type of offender - the opposite, unplanned and sexual acts are typically done on the body after death, many clues are left such as blood and semen.
