Forensic Psychology

Question 1

What is offender profiling?

Answer 1

• A tool used by the police to narrow down the list of criminal suspects.
• This is based on the idea that the characteristics of the offender can be deduced from details of the offence and the crime scene.
• Profiling methods usually involve careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of evidence, including witness reports, to generate a hypothesis about the probable characteristics of the offender.

Question 2

What is the Top-Down approach?

Answer 2

• A type of offender profiling.
• This is when templates of an organised and disorganised offender are pre-existing in the mind of the profiler.
• Evidence and possible details about the crime are then used to determine the offender as one type or the other.

Question 3

What are organised offenders?

Answer 3

• Organised offenders show evidence of having planned the crime in advance.
• The victim here will be deliberately targeted, and it will often be revealed the fact that the killer or rapist has a preference for a certain type of victim.
• They will maintain a high level of control and operate with almost surgical precision, leaving behind little evidence at the crime scene.
• These offenders tend to be of above average intelligence, skilled, employed professionally, socially and sexually competent and even married with children.

Question 4

What are disorganised offenders?

Answer 4

• These offenders show little evidence of having planned the crime, suggesting the offence to be spontaneous.
• The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack, demonstrating little control on the part of the nature.
• These offenders may be of below average intelligence, unskilled in work or unemployed, and possibly have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships. They tend to live alone and close to the crime scene.

Question 5

What are 3 weaknesses of the top-down approach in offender profiling?

Answer 5

• Top down profiling only applies to certain crimes. Crimes like burgulary do not work with the top-down approach.
• The organised and disorganised classifications are based on interviews with 36 US serial killers, which is too small and unrepresentative of a sample.
• Organised and disorganised distinctions are very simplistic compared to Holmes (1989) suggestion of 4 types of serial killers (visionary, mission, hedonistic, power)

Question 6

What is the bottom-up approach?

Answer 6

• A type of offender profiling.
• The aim of this approach is to generate a picture of the offender, including their likely characteristics, behaviour and social background.
• This is achieved through systematic analysis of evidence left at the crime scene.

Question 7

What is investigative psychology?

Answer 7

• Investigative psychology is designed to establish behaviours that are likely to occur at certain crime scenes.
• This is done to create a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for possible comparisons.
• Specific details of an offence can be matched against this database to reveal possible details about the offender, as well as an idea of whether multiple offences can be linked and possibly by the same individual.
• Central features of investigative psychology include interpersonal coherence (the way someone acts at a crime scene may reflect how they act in everyday situations), significance of time and place (to determine where they might live) and forensic awareness (an attempt to cover their tracks may indicate knowledge of police methods).

Question 8

What is geographical profiling?

Answer 8

• The idea that the location of the crime is a clue as to where the offender may live, work and/or socialise.
• Relavant data includes the crime scene, local crime statistics, local transport and geographical spread of similar crimes.
• It is assumed that a serial offender will restrict criminal activities to an area they are familiar with.
• Earlier crimes may be closer to the offenders’ location, and later crimes may be further away as the criminal gains confidence.
• This may also help the police to determine if the crime was planned or opportunistic.

Question 9

What are the two models of behaviour according to Canter and Larkin (1993)?

Answer 9

Canter and Larkin (1993) propose two models of offender behaviour:

• The marauder: who operates close to their home.
• The commuter: who operates a distance from their home.

The spatial pattern of their crime scenes would still form a circle around their home, however.

Question 10

What are 2 strengths of the bottom-up approach?

Answer 10

• Canter argues that the bottom-up approach is more rooted in psychological theory, as there is less speculation involved compared to the top-down approach.
• Bottom-up profiling can be applied to a wider variety of offences compared to top-down profiling.

Question 11

What are 3 weaknesses of the bottom-up approach?

Answer 11

• In 2008, Robert Napper was convited for the stabbing and sexual assault of Rachel Nickell in 1992. He had been ruled out early in the investigation as he was taller than the profile had claimed the offender to be.
• Copson (1995) surveyed 48 police forces and found that advice provided by a profiler was useful in 83% of cases but only led to accurate identification of the profiler 3% of the time.
• Kocsis et al (2002) found chemistry students who produced a more accurate offender profile than experienced senior detectives, suggesting the bottom-up approach is simple guess work.

Question 12

What is the Atavistic Form Theory?

Answer 12

• Cesare Lombroso (1876) argued that criminals were genetic throwbacks to a primitive sub-species that were biologically different to non-criminals.
• Lombroso argued that this sub-species had biologically determined atavistic features.
• He examined the facial and cranial features 383 dead criminals and 3893 living criminals, and found that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by the criminal subculture.
• The atavistic form included a narrow sloping brow, a strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry.
• Murderers were described as having bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears. Sexual deviants were described as having glinting eyes, fleshy lips and projecting ears. Fraudsters were described as having thin lips.
• Criminals also held other characteristics such as insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment.

Question 13

What is a strength of the atavistic form theory?

Answer 13

• The atavistic form had an important role in the shift away from theories based on wickedness and demonic possession, and served as the frontrunner to more biological explanations.

Question 14

What are 3 weaknesses of the atavistic form theory?

Answer 14

• Critics have made note of the racist undertones in Lombroso’s work, as the atavistic features he made note of are more likely to be found in those with African descent.
• Lombroso did not compare his criminal sample to a non-criminal group. If he had done so, the differences he reported may have disappeared.
• Facial features can be influenced by poverty and poor diet, which in turn can lead people to crime. Therefore, atavistic features do not necessarily cause criminal behaviour.

Question 15

What research evidence suggests that offenders inherit a gene?

Answer 15

• Lange (1930) investigated 13 monozygotic twins and 17 dizygotic twins.
• At least one of the twins in each pair served time in prison.
• 10 out of the 13 pairs of monozygotic twins had both spent time in prison.
• Only 2 out of the 17 pairs of dizygotic twins had both spent time in prisons.
• Since monozygotic twins share more genes, this suggests that offenders inherit a gene.

Question 16

What is meant by polygenic

What research evidence suggests that criminal behaviour is polygenic?

Answer 16

• Polygenic: No one single gene is responsible for a behaviour, but rather many genes might be responsible for causing criminal behaviour. These are known as candidate genes.
• Tilhonen et al (2014) conducted a genetic analysis of over 900 Finnish offenders, revealing abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with crime.
• 1: MAOA gene: this controls dopamine and serotonin in the brain and is linked to aggressive behaviour.
• 2: CDH13 gene: this is linked to substance abuse and attention defecit disorder.
• Within this sample, individuals with this high-risk combination of genes were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour when compared with a control group.

Question 17

How does the diathesis-stress model explain criminal behaviour?

Answer 17

• The diathesis-stress model argues that genetics influence criminal explanations but this is moderated by the effects of the environment.
• A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come through a combination of genetic predisposition and biological and psychological triggers, such as a dysfunctional home.

Question 18

What what 2 pieces of research evidence support a link between anti-social personality disorder and criminal behaviour?

Answer 18

• Individuals with anti-social personality disorder (APD) are associated with reduced emotional responses and a lack of empathy, a condition which categorises criminals.
• Raine et al. (2000) found an 11% reduction in the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain which regulates emotional behaviour) of people with APD compared to a control group.
• Keysers et al (2011) found that individuals with APD sporadically feel empathy compared to those without APD with permanent empathy after asking participants to emphasise with a person feeling pain in a film and analysing the mirror neurons in the brain (which control empathy).

Question 19

What are 3 weaknesses of genetic and neural explanations for offending?

Answer 19

• Genetic and neural explanations are biologically reductionist, as crime can be explained environmentally, families not only share genes but also poverty, social deprivation and mental illness, which can all be explanations for offending behaviour.
• Genetic and neural explanations can also be biologically determinist, as there is no right to punish an individual for having a ‘criminal gene’, as they have no control over their criminal personality.
• Offending behaviour as a term is too vague, as some form of crimes may be more biological than others, such as physical aggression.

Question 20

What is Eysneck’s personality theory?

Answer 20

• Eyeneck (1947) proposed that behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion/extraversion and neuroticism/stability. There was later a third dimension known as psychoticism.
• Eyeneck argues that our personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit from our parents. Therefore, all personality types have an innate, biological bias.
• Extraverts have an underactive nervous system, therefore they are seeking engagement and stimulation. Neurotic individuals may be nervous and overanxious with unpredictable behaviour.

Question 21

What is criminal personality according to Eysneck?

Answer 21

• Eyesenck argued that the criminal personality is a neurotic extravert. Furthermore, a criminial may score highly in terms of psychoticism, acting cold, unemotional and prone to aggression.
• Eysneck saw criminal behaviour as immature in that it is selfish and concerned with instantaneous gratification. People with high extraversion and neuroticism scores had nervous systems which made them difficult to condition, and are more likely to act antisocially when the opportunity presents itself.
• Eysneck’s personality inventory locates respondents along the extraversion and neuroticism dimensions to determine their personality type, in which a scale was later used to measure psychoticism.

Question 22

What are 3 strengths of Eysneck’s criminal personality theory?

Answer 22

• Farrington et al. (1982) found that offenders scored highly on psychoticism but not on extraversion and neuroticism compared to non-offenders.
• Crime is too varied and complex to be explained with a single out of many personality types: the type of person who may murder is different from the type of person who may commit fraud.
• Bartol and Holanchock (1979) found that Hispanic and African-American offenders who were divided into 6 groups based on criminal history were ALL less extravert than non-criminal control groups, suggesting that Eysneck’s theory may be culturally biased.

Question 23

What is moral reasoning?

Answer 23

• Moral reasoning is a cognitive explanation of offending behaviour. This refers to the process by which an individual draws up their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong.

The three levels of moral reasoning are:

• 3: Post conventional, where the individual presents autonomous decision making based on principles of right and justice.
• 2: Conventional, where the individual does what is expected of them by others.
• 1: Pre-conventional, where the individual only acts based on punishment (whether or not it will lead to consequence) and rewards (what can be gained). Offenders are more likely to have moral reasoning at this stage. This reasoning lasts from 3-7 years of age, however, those who maintain this level of thinking are likely to commit crime if they can get away with or or gain rewards.

Question 24

What is a strength of moral reasoning?

Answer 24

• Palmer and Hollin (1998) compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using 11 moral dilemas. They found that the offenders showed less mature moral reasoning compared to the non-offenders.

Question 25

What is a weakness of moral reasoning?

Answer 25

• Thornton and Reid (1982) found that individuals who committed crimes for financial gain were more likely to show pre-conventional reasoning than those convicted of impulse crimes, suggesting that this level of moral reasoning is dependent on the type of offence.

Question 26

What are cognitive distortions?

Answer 26

• Cognitive distortions are a cognitive explanation of offending behaviour. These are faulty and irrational ways of thinking which make people percieve themselves, other people and the world around them as negative.
• Hostile attribution bias is the tendency to judge ambiguous situations as aggressive or threatening when they are not in reality. Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues and and trigger a disproportionate, often violent response. This may lead to the offender claiming that the victim started the conflict.
• Minimalisation is when a criminal downplays the impact of their crime on their victims. This strategy is used to avoid an offender feeling guilt. Offenders will use euphemisms, such as a burgular making the claim that they were just ‘doing a job’.

Question 27

What is a strength of cognitive distortions?

Answer 27

• Cognitive distortion theories have helped to pave the way for treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, a dominant approach in the rehabilitation of sex offenders. This encourages offenders to face what they have done and establish a less distored view of their actions.

Question 28

What are 2 weaknesses of cognitive distortions?

Answer 28

• Although it explains thinking, it does not account for where these thoughts came about, such as if it was nature or nurture.
• Cognitive distortions cannot be observed or measured, meaning that the cognitive explanation of criminal behaviour is unscientific.

Question 29

What is differential association theory?

Answer 29

• Differential association theory states that offending depends on the norms and values of the offender’s social group.
• When a person socialises into a group, they will be exposed to the group’s norms and values towards the law. Sutherland (1924) argues that if the number of pro-criminal influences outweight the anti-criminal influences, the individual will be more influenced by the former.
• Learning in this environment can occur through imitation, vicarious and direct reinforcement and direct tuition.
• This theory states that it should be mathmatically predicatable how likely it is that someone commits a crime if there is knowledge of the intensity and duration to which they have been exposed to criminal and non-criminal norms and values.
• Sutherland argues that there are many reoffenders because whilst in prison, inmates will learn specific offending from more experienced criminals that they can practice upon their release, therefore, differential association theory explains techniques a potential offender may be exposed to to commit crimes.

Question 30

What are 2 strengths of differential association theory?

Answer 30

• Sutherland (1924) recognised that types of crime involving burgulary is clustered within inner-city, working class communities, and white-collar crimes are found in middle-class social groups, demonstrating how this theory is able to account for crime within all sectors of society.
• Sutherland moved the emphasis away from earlier biological explanations (Lombroso) and explanations which saw offending as the product of weakness or immorality. This theory also draws attention to the role of dysfunctional social circumstances and environments in criminality.

Question 31

What are 2 weaknesses of differential association theory?

Answer 31

• This theory is difficult to test scientifically, as most of the evidence to support it is correlational, therefore not supporting cause and effect.
• Not everyone exposed to criminal influence is a criminal. This theory has a danger of stereotyping those who come from crime-ridden backgrounds as criminals, unavoidably. Therefore, this theory ignores free will. Differential association theory can be explained as offenders seeking out people with criminal values actively rather than passively being influenced by them.

Question 32

How is the superego formed?

Answer 32

• The superego is one of 3 parts of personality: it is the morality principle, compared to the pleasure principle of the Id and the reality principle of the ego.
• The superego is the last aspect of personality to form at 3-6 years old during the phallic stage where the Oedipus complex occurs. This is when a boy internalises their father’s superego to suppress the anxiety they have of the fear of their father castrating them.
• Girls go through the Electra complex instead, however, they do not internalise their mothers’ superego to the same extent, as they do not have castration anxiety, therfore, their superego is less developed than a mans.

Question 33

What is the inadequate superego explanation of offending behaviour?

Answer 33

• Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate, criminal behaviour is then inevitable, as the id is not properly controlled.

The three types of inadequate superego are:

• Weak: If the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego, as there is no opportunity for identification. This makes offending behaviour likely.
• Deviant: If the super-ego inherited by the child has immoral or deviant values, this can lead to offending behaviour.
• Over-harsh: A healthy superego is forgiving, an overly punishing one means an individual is crippled by guilt or anxiety, and therefore the individual may perform criminal acts to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

Question 34

What are 4 weaknesses of the psychodynamic explanation of offending?

Answer 34

• The idea that women develop a weaker superego than boys is not supported by crime statistics; women commit crimes less often compared to men.
• Children raised by deviant parents going on to commit crimes may be a result of genetics or learning rather than a deviant superego.
• There is little evidence to support the idea that children without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding than adults.
• The idea that some criminals have an unconscious desire for punishment is implausible, as many offenders go to great lengths to conceal their crime.

Question 35

What is custodial sentencing?

Answer 35

• Custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution, such as a young offenders institute or a psychiatric hospital.

Question 36

What are the 4 aims of custodial sentencing?

Answer 36

• Deterrence: The unpleasant prison experience. General deterrence aims to send a broad message to members of a society that crime will not be tolerated. Individual deterrence prevents the individual from repeating the same crime.
• Incapacitation: The offender is taken out of society as a means of protecting the public from reoffences. This depends upon the severity and the nature of the offender.
• Retribution: Society enacts revenge for the crime by making the offender suffer: the level of suffering must be proportionate to the crime.
• Rehabilitation: When released, prisoners are better adjusted and ready to take their place in society. Prison provides opportunities to develop skills, recieve training and access treatment.

Question 37

What are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?

Answer 37

• Psychological disorders: the Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis.
• Institutionalisation: Spending time in prison results in a lack of autonomy, conformity to the role of a prisoner and a dependency on prison culture.
• Brutalisation: Prison acts as a school of crime and reinforces criminal lifestyles and criminal norms, leading to high re-offence rates. 70% of young offenders re-offend within 2 years.
• Labelling: Prisoners lose touch with contacts, and their criminal records make it difficult to find employment. This contributes to re-offence rates.

Question 38

What is a strength of custodial sentencing?

Answer 38

• It demonstrates justice and limits danger to the public, as well as giving prisoners an opportuinity to access education and training whilst in prison. Treatments like anger management and social skill training may help offenders avoid reoffending.

Question 39

What are 3 weaknesses of custodial sentencing?

Answer 39

• Peterson (1981) reported that 8-10% of criminals commit 50% of all crimes, therefore, custodial sentencing may be better reserved for these repeat offenders.
• Crime prevention is more effective, as it avoids labelling a person as a criminal and avoids the negative consequences of prison. Alternative sentences, such as community service, are more effective for low-risk offenders as they are able to keep their social contacts and their job.
• David and Raymond (2000) concluded that government ministers often exaggerate the benefits of prison to appear tough on crime to appease the public, when in reality, prison does little to deter or rehabilitate offenders.

Question 40

What is token economy?

Answer 40

• Token economy is a form of behaviour modification used in prisons.
• Here, desirable behaviour, such as avoiding conflict or following prison rules, is reinforced with a token, which can be exchanged for some form of reward.
• Rewards could include access to a computer, phone calls to loved ones or extra food. This is an example of positive reinforcement.
• Tokens are examples of secondary reinforcers, whereas the rewards are the primary reinforcers.
• Disobedience may lead to withholding of tokens: this is negative reinforcement.

Question 41

What is a strength of token economy?

Answer 41

• Token economy is easy to administer, does not require professional or specialised equipment and can be implemented by virtually anyone in the prison. It is also cost effective and easy to follow.

Question 42

What are 3 weaknesses of token economy?

Answer 42

• Behaviour modification is only effective in the controlled environment: once the prisoner is released, any behaviour learnt is quickly lost. This could be because law-abiding behaviour is not reinforced outside prison the same way, or because the prisoners were simply ‘playing along’.
• Token economy can be unethical, as certain priveliges like exercise and contact with loved ones can be withdrawn and turned into a reward.
• Token economy is only applicable to surface behaviour: it is unable to delve deeper and allow for offenders to reflect on the cause of their offending and take responsbility for their rehabilitation.

Question 43

What is anger management?

Answer 43

Anger management is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. This is when the individual is taught to recognise when they are losing control and encouraged to develop techniques which resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. The 3 phases to anger management are:

• Cognitive preparation: The offender learns to identify triggers for their anger, reflecting on events in the past when they became angry and considering whether those feelings were rational. The therapist helps the offender by redefining the situation as non-threatening.
• Skill acquisition: The offender is introduced to a range of techniques to help them handle anger-provoking situations more rationally. This could include positive self-talk (cognitive), effective communication (behavioural) or meditation (physiological)
• Application practice: The offender is given the opportunity to practice what they have learnt. This is usually done in role-plays which re-enact past scenarios from the offenders life (such as the one which got them incarcarated). Successful role-plays may be met with positive reinforcement from the therapist.

Question 44

What are 2 strengths of anger management?

Answer 44

• It is multidisciplinary, as it involves cognitive, behavioural and social elements, acknowledging that offending is a complex social and psychological behaviour.
• Anger management manages to get to the root cause of offending behaviour, rather than focusing on superficial surface behaviour.

Question 45

What are 2 weaknesses of anger management?

Answer 45

• Because they require highly trained specialists, many prisons do not have the resources to run anger management programs.
• The success of anger management is based entirely on the committment of those who participate: uncooperative prisoners will not succeed.

Question 46

What is restorative justice?

Answer 46

• Restorative justice programmes switch the emphasis to the needs of the victim, who are encouraged to take an active role in the punishment of the offender.
• This is a process of managed empowerment based on the principles of healing and empowerment. A mediator facilitates a meeting between the offender and the victim. The victim has the opportunity to explain how the crime affected them, and the offender is confronted with the consequences of his actions.
• The key features between all restorative justice programmes include a focus on acceptance and responsibility, active involvement of all parties and a positive outcome for both survivors and offenders.

Question 47

What is a strength of restorative justice?

Answer 47

• Shapland et al (2007) conducted a government funded research project, and found that £1 spent on restorative justice saves the criminal justice system £8 by reducing reoffence.

Question 48

What are 3 weaknesses of restorative justice?

Answer 48

• The success of restorative justice depends on the offender showing remorse. Some offenders may only show up to avoid prison or to reduce their sentence, rather than from a genuine willingness to change.
• Victims may have an ulterior motive, such as seeking revenge.
• Restorative justice may be innappropriate in domestic abuse cases, as the offender can use this opportunity to convince the victim to take them back.