Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Psychology Paper 3 > Forensic Psychology > Flashcards

Forensic Psychology Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
Psychology 101 flashcards GRE® Psychology flashcards AP® Psychology flashcards
1
Q

Cognitive Explanations
outline Kohlberg theory

A
  • there are 3 unniversal levels of moral reasoning - characterised by logic
  • Pre conventional level (punishment orientation)
  • conventional level (maintenance of social order)
  • post conventional level (morality of contract or certain indivduals)
  • criminals have childlike immature sense of reasoning - will reason at the pre conventional level
  • non criminals reason at conventinal or post conventional - display more civil and empathetic behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Cogntive Explanations
define cogntive distortion

A
  • dysfunctional thought processing where we show errors in our logic.
  • Hostile attribution bias- judging ambigious situations or the actions of others as agressive/ threatening when it reality its not
  • minimalisation- coping mechanism for guilt or regret, where offenders will under-exaggerate the significance of their crimes and the emotional consequences suffered by their victims
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

cogntive explanations
Minimalisation support

A

barbaree
* 26 concited rapists
* 54% denied they committed a crime
* 40% minimsied the harm they had caused
Pollock and Hashmall
* 35% of a sample of child molester said crime committed was non sexual ad 36% said child had consented

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

cognitive explanations
histile attribution bias support

A

Justye
* 55 offenders were presented with images of emotionally ambigious facial expression.
* compared to Control group - violent offenders were more likely to percieve images as angry/ hostile
Dodge and Frame
* children were showed ab ambigious orivation where the intention wasnt hostile ]children judged as agressive wer emore likely o percive the situation as hostile

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Offender profiling
Top Down approach

A

FBI method to assign offenders to either organised or disorganised offenders
(Created by self report from 36 criminals p- rape or murder)
Organised: socially competent, planned crime, intelligent and don’t live alone
Disorganised: socially inept, random attacks,live alone and unemployed

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Offender profiling
4 stages of top down approach

A

Profile generations includes 4 steps:
Collect information from crime scene
Classify type of crime
Reconstruction of crime scene
Generate criminal profile

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Limitation of top down approach
Lacks generalisability

A

Based on sample of 36 criminals that conduct horrific crimes
Can’t trust validity as self report method
And criminal traits areant applicable tot other crimes that involves material such as theft or fraud
As visible characteristics are unlikely to be idenfied
So only apply to blue collar crime

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Limitations of top down approach
Unlikely that all offenders are able to identify as either organised or disorganised

A

Oversimplified classification system
More helpful to study the motives that each criminal has
So contradictory crimes can still be explained- no clues left at scene by appears to be sexually incompetent and impulsive attack

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is the bottom up approach

A

Uses no preestablished typology
Develops a profile as the crime scene and eyewitness testimonies are analysed
GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING
Offender has an operational base -inferred by mapping locations of previous crimes - circle theory
Canpredict future crimes
Marauders or commuters

INVESTIGATIVE PROFILING
Emphasis importance of time and place clinks to geographical profiling
Way the uttendo treats victim reflects functioning in real life

  • all based on assumption that the way attendees behave is constant
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What are the five charactersistic identified using bottom up approach

A

Location
Criminal history
Domestic and social history
Personal characteristics
Occupational y educational history

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Limitations of bottom up approach
Doesn’t always lead to correct identification of offender

A

Copson found that information from an offender profile only led to successful identification of the offender in 3% of cases
But was useful 38% of time

Decided it’s best reserved for simply narrowing the filed and opposed to being relied upon as only way of identification

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Strength of bottom up approach
Scientific methods of enquiry

A

Scientific methods of enquiry and statistical tests
Use of psychological theory compared to the top down approach which is over simplified

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Strength of bottom up approach
Geographical profiling

A

Canter
120 murder cases with serial killers
Smallest space analysis showed consistency in spatial behaviour
All cases had a centre of gravity
And boilers based on was in the middle of the circle
Effect was more noticeable for marauders than commuters
Thus supporters claim that geographical and spatial information is key in profiling an offender

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Limitation of a top down approach
Outdated model

A

Based on assumption that offenders have patterns in behaviours that remain constant over situations
Alison et al suggested that that the approach is naive and is old fashioned models of personality
As it sees behaviour as being driven by stable dispotional traits rather than external factors that may be constantly changing
Is a static approach that is likely to have poor validity when profiling offender or guessing next move

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Atavistic form
Historical approach

A

Lombroso Suggested that criminals were genetic throwbacks
Primiative sub species who were biologically different to non criminals
Had been credited for moving criminology into a more rigours and scientific realm - foundations of offender profiling
Criminals seen as lacking evolutionary development, savage nature meant its impossible to fit in and adjust to civilised society and thus turn to crime

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What are atavistic characteristics

A

Would have possession of physiological markers that were linked to particular crime
Narrow sloping brow
Strong jaw
High cheekbones
Face asymmetry
Dark skin
Murderers- bloodshot eyes curly hair and long ears
Sexual deviants- glinting eyes swollen lips and projecting ears

Criminals also expected to have insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment

17
Q

Lombrossos research into atavistic characteristics

A

Examined facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian concurs
And found that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anamolies
380 dead criminals and 3800 living ones
40% of all criminal acts are committed by people with atavistic characteristics

18
Q

Strengths of lombrossos research into atavistic characteristics
Contribution to criminology

A

Father of modern criminology
Shifted emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse towards are more scientific and credible realm of evolutionary influences and genetics
Influenced beginning of criminal profiling

19
Q

Limitations of lombrosos research
Scientific racism

A

There are distinct racial undertones to lombrosos work
Characteristics such as curly hair and dark skin found within African people
Descriptor of atavistic. Wing uncivilised and primitive - supports the eugenic philosophies of the time
Socially sensitive

20
Q

Limitations of lombrosos research into atavistic form
Contradictory evidence

A

Goring et al tried to establish whether there were any physical or mental abnormalities among the criminal classes
Conducted comparison between 3000 criminals and 3000 non criminals
Condlcuded that there was no evidence that offenders have unusual facial, and crania, characteristics

21
Q

Biological explanations of criminality
Genetic explanations
TWIN STUDIES AND ADOPTION STUDIES

A
  • suggests that offenders inherit a gene or combination of genes that predispose them to crime
    TWIN STUDIES
    Lange studied 13 identical twins and 17 non identical twins swhere one of each twins had served time in prison
    10 of MZ twins had a co twin in prison
    Compared to only 2 DZ twins
    Therefore there must be genetic factors

ADOPTION STUDIES
Crowe found that adopted children who had a biological parents with a criminal record had a 50% risk of having a criminal recoed
Whereas, adopted children whose mother didn’t have a criminal record only had a 5% risk

22
Q

biological explanations for criminality
GENETIC EXPLANATION
CANDIATE GENES AND DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL

A

CANDIDATE GENES
genetic analysis of 900 offenders reve,aged abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime MAOA genes ( dopamine and serotonin in the brain ) and CDH13 ( linked to substance abuse)
Those with the hig risk combinations were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour

DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL
Genetics moderated by effects of the environment
Combination of genetic predispotjon and biological or psychological freighter

23
Q

Biological explanations for criminality
neural explanations

A

anti social personality disorder is associated with reduced emotional response and lack of empathy for others

Prefrontal cortex: APD have reduced activity in prefrontal cortex
Regulates emotional behaviour
Found to have 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to to controls

MIRROR NEURONES
Criminals with APD can expeience empathy bur do more sporadically than others
Empathy is controlled by mirror neurons p
Only when criminals were asked to empathise did their mirror neurones activate
APD individuals may have a neural switch that can be turned on or off

24
Q

Evaluations of genetic explanation of criminality
Problem with twin studies

A

Lances research were poorly controlled and judgments related to if twins were DZ or MZ were based on apperance rather than DNA testing
Lack validity
Twin studies are small sample sizes and unusual sample that may not represent the rest of the population
Most twins are reared in the same environment is a confounding variable are concordance rates may be due to having a shared learning experience rather than genetics

25
Q

Evaluation of Genetic explanation of criminality
Support for DIATHESIS stress model

A

Mednick 13000 danish adoptes
Research defined criminal behaviour as being in possession of one court conviction
When neither the biological or adoptive parents had conviction number of adoptees was 13%
20% when both adoptive and biological parents had convictions
Genetic inheritance plays an important role, environmental influences cannot be disregarded

26
Q

Limitation of biological explanations of criminality
Biologically reductionism

A

Criminality is a complex explanations that reduced bsheviour to genetic or neural level may be inappropriate
Crime can run in family but so does emotional instability and mental disorder
Makes it difficult to disentangle the effects of genes and neural influences from other possible factors
And explains why MZ twins concordance rates are not 100%

27
Q

Limitation of biological explanation of criminality
Biological determinism

A

Notion of a criminal genes
Legal system criminals have to be morally and personally responsible for their crime - claim they acted on free will
Raises ethical issues about what society does with people who are suspected of carrying genes

28
Q

Eysencks theory of criminal personality

A

Behaviour can be represented along two dimensions
Introversion/ extroversion and neuroticism/ stability
Two dimension combines to form a variety of personality characteristics

Extraverts- have under active nervous system so constantly seek excitement so engage in risk taking behaviour
Neurotics- nervous and anxious individuals so behaviour is difficult to predict
( personality traits are biological in origin and inherit in nervous system) - innate
CRIMINAL PERSONALITY - neurotic extrovert and measures highly on psychoticism

29
Q

Eysencks theory of criminal personality
Role of socialisation

A

Personality is linked to criminal behaviour via socialisation processes
Criminal behaviour as developmentally immature and concerned with immediate gratification
Socialisation is a process in which children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and more socially orientation
High E and N scores had nervous systems that make them difficult to consign
Therefore would not learn to easily to response ri anti social impulses with anxiety= more likely to act antisocially in situations where there is the opportunity

30
Q

Eysemcks criminal personality
Measuring criminal personality

A

Eysencks personality inventory
locates respondents across the dimension to determine personality test

31
Q

Evaluation of Eysencks criminal personality
Supporting evidence

A

Compared 2000 male prisoners scores on the EPI with 2000 male controls
Prisoners recorded higher scores than the controls
Which supports prediction theory
BUT
Farringdon reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score high in P measures but not E and N
And there is little consistent differences in EEG measures between extraverts and introverts

32
Q

Evaluation of Eysencks criminal personality
Only a single criminal type

A

All offending behaviour is explained by a single personality type
Moffitt proposed several distinct types of adult male offender based on the timing of the first offence and how long offending persists
Digmans suggests a five factor model of personality that there are additional dimensions and multiple combinations are available but E and N does not mean that offending in innevitbale

33
Q

Evaluation of Eysencks theory of criminality
Mis measurement of personality

A

Theory is built on premise that you can measure personality through use of psychological tests
Critics state that personality type may not be reducible to a score in this way
Un measurable
But if score highly can still impact quality of life

34
Q

Differential association theory

A

Individuals learn the value and arriufies and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with different people
Scientific basis- conditions which have said to cause crime should be present when the crime is present
Pro criminal attitudes
Learning criminal acts

35
Q

Differential association theory
Pro criminal attitudes

A

When a person is socialised into a group they will be exposed to values and attitudes towards the law
Can be pro or anti crime
If number of pro crime attitudes outweigh anti crime attitudes then they will go onto and offend
Can mathematically predict how likely it is than an individual will commit crime if we have the knowledge of frequency intensity and duration of which rhey have been exposed to deviant norms and values

36
Q

Differential association theory
Learning criminal acts

A

Offender may also learn particular techniques for committing crime
Eg how to break into a house
Accounts for why so many convicts released from prison re offend
Inmates in prison will learn specific techniques and eager to practice on release
Observational learning and imitation or direct tuition from criminal peers

37
Q

Evaluation of differential association theory
Explanatory power

A

Ability to account for crime within all sectors of society
Eg white collar or corporate crime and how this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values

38
Q

Evaluation of differential association theory
Shift from atavistic theory

A

Draws attention away from biology and immorality
To the fact that dysfunctional social circumstances and environments may be more able to blame for criminality than dysfunctional people
Approach is more describable as it offers more realistic solution to the problem of crime instead of eugenics or punishment

39
Q

Evaluation of differential association
Difficulty testing

A

Despite promise of scientific basis to predict offending
Suffers from difficult of being tested
Hard to see how number of pro criminal attitudes of a persona has or has been exposed to could be measured
Difficult to know at what point the urge to offend is realised and criminal career is triggered
Does not provide solution so undermines its scientific credibility

Psychology Paper 3 (4 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions