Forensic Psychology

Question 1

Canter et al (2004)

Answer 1

Analysed data from 100 murders with reference to the 39 characteristics of organised and disorganised criminals. Found support for there being an organised but not disorganised criminal. Undermines distiction of two types of criminal and therefore the entire top-down approach

Question 2

Canter and Heritage (1990)

Answer 2

Content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases using small space analysis. Characteristics were identified as well as patterns that were individual to each offender, which can be used to predict how an offenders behaviour may change or if two offences are committed by the same person. Supports bottom-up approach.

Question 3

Lundrigan and Canter (2001)

Answer 3

Information from 120 murder cases revealed that the places where the bodies were disposed created a centre of gravity around a killer’s base. The data was analysed using small space analysis. Supports the idea that the analysis of geographical locations of a certain events can lead to important information in a case.

Question 4

Copson (1995)

Answer 4

Surveryed 48 police forces, finding that the officers judged the information given by the profiler was useful 83% of the time, but only leads to accurate identification in 3% of cases. Criticises the usefulness of the bottom up approach.

Question 5

Lombroso (1876)

Answer 5

Examied the skills of 383 dead cand 3839 living criminials. There was no control group. He developed the avatistic characteristics which were facial and cranial characteristics. Concluded that 40% of criminal acts are committed by people with these features.

Question 6

Goring (1913)

Answer 6

Conducted a study of 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals and found no evidence for criminals being a distinct group with different features. Much more scientific and contracts Lombroso’s theory.

Question 7

Lange (1930)

Answer 7

Investigated 13 MZ and 17 DZ twins with one sibling serving time in prison. Of the MZ 10 of the other siblings had also served time, compared to 2 of the DZ group. Supports genetics as a factor in criminal behaviour.

Question 8

Crowe (1972)

Answer 8

Adopted children who had a biological criminal parent had a 50% chance of also having a criminal record at 18, a control group only had a 5% chance. Supports genetics as a factor in criminal behaviour.

Question 9

Tiihonen et al (2014)

Answer 9

Genetic analysis of 900 criminals found MAOA and CDH13 genes as factors in violent crime. MAOA is linked to dopamine and seritonin and SCDH13 is linked to ADHD and substance abuse. Individuals with both were 13x more likely to have a history of violent behaviour. Supports genetics as a cause of offending behaviour.

Question 10

Raine et al (2000)

Answer 10

Found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the pre-frontal cortex of people with APD. Supports neural differences.

Question 11

Keysers et al (2011)

Answer 11

Only when criminals were told to empathise with a person in pain was there an empathy reaction in the brain. Suggests a neural ability to turn off their empathy in criminals. Supports neural differences in a non-deterministic way.

Question 12

Eysenck and Eysenck (1977)

Answer 12

Compared 2070 male prisoners score on EPI to 2422 male controls. Across all ages prisoners cored higher on extroversion and neuroticism. Supports Eysenck’s theory of personality.

Question 13

Farrington et al (1982)

Answer 13

Meta-analysis revelaing that offenders score higher on psychoticism but not neuroticism or extroversion. Criticises Eysenck’s theory.

Question 14

Kohlberg et al (1973)

Answer 14

Gave the Heinz dilemma to a group of violent teenagers. Found lower moral development than non-violent participants. Supports moral development as a factor in criminal behaviour.

Question 15

Thornton and Reid (1982)

Answer 15

Found pre-conventional development common in crimes where criminals thought they would not be caught, like robberies. More impulse driven crimes have little association with a reasoning level. Suggests moral reasoning is not a sufficient explanation of offending behaviour.

Question 16

Schonenburg and Justye (2014)

Answer 16

55 violent offenders were presented with emotionally ambiguous facial expressions and were asked to interpret them. They were significantly more likely to interpret them as aggressive. Suggests hostile attribution bias as a cause of offending behaviour.

Question 17

Barbaree (1991)

Answer 17

Of 26 incarcerated rapists 54% denied the crime and 40% minimised the harm they had caused. Supports minimisation as a cause of offending behaviour.

Question 18

Farrington et al (2006)

Answer 18

Longituinal study of 411 males from when they were 8 to 50. Working class, deprived areas. 41% were convicted with of a crime between 10 and 50. The average conviction area lasted from 19-28 and had 5 convictions. Most important risk factors were family criminality, poor parenting, low school attainment and poverty. Supports differential association theory, as risk factors were associated with social behaviours.

Question 19

Bowlby (1944)

Answer 19

44 theives interviewed 44 teenagers and found out of the 14 with affectionless psychopathy 12 were maternally deprived, only 5 of the remaining had experienced deprivation and in a control group of 44 non-delinquents only 2 were deprived. Supports maternal deprivation as a cause of criminal behaviour.

Question 20

Prison Reform Trust (2014)

Answer 20

25% of women and 15% of men reported symptoms indicitave of psychosis in prison. Prison seems to trigger psychological disorders in the vulnerable. Suggests custodial sentencing is not effective since it cannot help in rehabilitating the individual.

Question 21

Davies and Raymond (2000)

Answer 21

In a review of custodial sentencing they found that ministers often overexaggerate the successes of custodial sentencing, when it does little to rehabilitate or deter future crime.

Question 22

Bassett and Blanchard (1977)

Answer 22

Benefits are lost when behavioural modification techniques are not consistent due to lack of staff training. Demonstrates how difficult it is to implement properly.

Question 23

Keen et al (2000)

Answer 23

Studied the progress made by an anger managemment program on young offenders and found that there was initially issues in them taking it seriously but by the end had better awareness of anger management and increased self-control. Supports anger management.

Question 24

Blackburn (1993)

Answer 24

Found that anger management works short term but there is little evidence for reduced recidivism rates, not practical in real life.

Question 25

Shapland et al (2007)

Answer 25

Found that for every £1 spent on restorative justice £8 is saved by reduced recidivism. Supports restroative justicem, but other estimates are much more conservative.