Forensic Psychology Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
An investigative tool employed by the police when solving crimes, the main aim of which is to narrow the list of likely suspects.
What is the top-down approach?
Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down to lower levels in order to assign offenders to one of two categories, based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene.
What are the two categories of offenders?
Organised and disorganised.
What is an organised offender?
An offender who shows evidence of planning, targets a specific victim and tends to be socially and sexually competent with higher-than-average intelligence.
What is a disorganised offender?
An offender who shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower-than-average intelligence.
Where did the top down approach originate?
Originated in the US, as a result of work carried out by the FBI.
FBI drew upon data gathered from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated murders including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
Why is it actually called the top down approach?
Because it starts at the top (the actual crime e.g murder) and works down through the crime scene to decide on a category that fits the offender best.
What are the four main stages of the FBI top down profiling?
1-Data Assimilation
2-Crime Scene Classification
3- Crime reconstruction
4- Profile generation.
What happens during data assimilation?
The profiler reviews the evidence (crime scene photographs/pathology, reports).
What happens during crime scene classification?
As either organised or disorganised.
What happens during crime reconstruction?
Hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim, etc.
What happens during profile generation?
Hypotheses related to the likely offender, e.g demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour etc.
What piece of research supported there being a distinct organised category of offender?
David Canter 2004: conducted an analysis of 100 US murders each committed by a different serial killer. Used smallest space analysis.
It appears there is a subset of features of many serial killing which matched the FBI’s typology for organised offenders.
What is an issue with the organised and disorganised typology?
Maurice Godwin (2002) argues many crimes can be classified as both organised and disorganised and that they are not mutually exclusive.
What is a strength of the top down approach in regards to crime application?
Critics argued it only applies to a number of crimes e.g sexually motivated murders. However, Meketa reports that is has now been applied to burglary leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states.
Why has there been limitations regarding the sample used for which the top down typology is based upon?
Developed using interviews of 36 murders, 25 of which were serial killers and 11 being single or double killings. Argued that the sample is poor due to being small and also not being randomly selected.
What is offender profiling?
A behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigations accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown offenders.
What is the bottom up approach?
Profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender.
How does bottom up profiling differ from top down offender profiling?
Top down is based on typologies whereas the bottom up is data driven and emerges as the investigator engages in more deeper scrutiny of the research.
What are the two methods used by the bottom-up approach?
Investigative psychology and geographic profiling.
What is investigative psychology?
Attempt to apply statistical procedures alongside psychological theory.
This is in order to develop a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for comparison.
What are three important components of investigative psychology?
Interpersonal coherence
Significance of time and place
Forensic Awareness
What is interpersonal coherence in investigative psychology?
The way that an offender behaves at the scene, including how they interact with the victim may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.
Might tell the police something about the offender.
What is the significance of time and place in regards to investigative psychology?
Might indicate where the offender lives.
What is the significance of forensic awareness in regards to investigative psychology?
Describes those individuals who have been subject of police interrogation before, their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of covering their tracks.
What is geographical profiling?
A form of bottom up profiling based on the principle of spatial consistency - that an offenders operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes.
In regards to geographical profiling what is the least effort principle?
If an offender has an option between 2 criminally attractive places they will choose the one closest to them to carry out their crime
In regards to geographical profiling what is distance decay?
The number of crimes will reduce the further away from the offenders base until they become confident. However offenders leave a buffer zone around their house to decrease chances of being recognised.
What is the circle of gravity theory?
Criminals have limited mindsets and the crimes they commit radiate out from their homes creating a circle.
The majority of the time, if a circle is drawn that encompasses all of a series of linked crimes with the furthest crimes on the rim of the circle, the offender will be based somewhere within the circle.
What is a maurader?
Operate in close proximity to their home
What is a commuter?
Likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence.
How does Canter & Heritage (1990) provide support for the bottom up approach?
Conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assault cases.
Several behaviours were identified as common in different samples of behaviour, such as the use of impersonal language and lack of reaction to victim. Each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of such behaviours and this can help establish whether two or more offences were committed by the same person (case linkage).
What are the police departments views on the bottom up approach and why does this support it?
Copson (1995) surveyed 48 police departments and found that the advice provided by the profiler was judged to be ‘useful’ in 83% of cases, which suggests it is a valid investigative tool
Why might the bottom up approach be better than the top down approach?
bottom-up approach can be applied to a much wider range of crimes. For example, most burglaries are similar in method and so a top-down approach won’t reveal much about the offender’s profile. However, geographical profiling only requires the locations of the crimes, and so this bottom-up approach can be applied to basically every type of crime
How might the dark figure of crime relate to the bottom up approach?
As with investigative psychology, the success of geographical profiling may be reliant on the quality of data that the police can provide. Unfortunately, recording of crime is not always accurate, can vary between police forces and an estimated 75% of crimes are not even reported to the police in the first place
Is there any evidence to suggest the bottom-up approach isn’t accurate?
Copson (1995) study revealed that in only 3% of cases did it lead to the accurate identification of the offender! The Rachel Nickell case offers a stark reminder of how profiling can be misused.
What is the atavistic form?
A biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are a genetic throwback or primitive subspecies.
What are some of the characteristics of Lombroso’s atavistic form?
Narrow sloping brow, strong prominent jaw, ears of unusual size, facial asymmetry, insensitivity to pain, unemployment
What did Lombroso say about why people commit crime?
People are born with a criminal personality (innate).
They are a throwback to a more primitive ancestor.
What did Lombroso base his theory off?
was based on research that examined the features and measurements of nearly 4000 criminals, as well as the skulls of 400 dead criminals.
Did Lombroso believe the people are responsible for committing crime?
No, he believed it was not the fault of the criminal as they were born this way- as a primitive evolutionary throwback
Why has Lombroso been coined the father of modern criminology?
Credited as shifting the emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse (where offenders were judged as being wicked and weak-minded) towards a more scientific and credible position (of evolutionary influences and genetics where individuals are not to blame)
What may Lombroso have also contributed towards?
Offender profiling
Why has Lombroso been criticised for being scientifically racist?
Attention has been drawn to the racist undertones within Lombroso’s work. Many of the features that Lombroso identified as atavistic (curly hair, dark skin) are most likely to be found among people of African descent.
How did Goring (2003) dispute Lombroso?
comparing 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders finding there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics (though he did suggest that many people who commit crime have lower-than-average intelligence).
Why is the fact Lombroso couldn’t control variables with his own research on criminals brains and skulls?
no control group or accounting for confounding variables that might have equally explained higher crime rates in certain groups of people.
For example, research has demonstrated links between crime and social conditions such as poverty and poor educational outcomes (Hay and Forrest, 2009) – links that would often explain why offenders were more likely, for example, to be unemployed.
Why is cause and effect an issue with Lombroso?
Even if there are criminals who have some of the atavistic features that Lombroso suggested, this does not mean this is the cause of their offending. Facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors, such as poverty or poor diet, rather than inherited.
How would the genetic explanation explain criminal behaviour?
Suggest some people may inherit a gene that is passed down from family members and may make them more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
What genes are said to be involved in criminal behaviour?
MAOA & CDH13
Name two biological regions associated with neural explanations
Frontal cortex, Mirror Neurons (can also have hypothalamus)
What is APD?
Antisocial Personality Disorder
What are the three assumptions of the genetic explanations?
1- Criminal tendencies can be inherited.
2-Investigation of the person’s genetic material, brain or body will reveal criminal tendencies.
3-Stressors in the environment can trigger genetics (diathesis stress model) but people are pre-disposed to crime
What did Christiansen (1977) find?
3500 pairs twin pairs in Denmark born between 1880-1910 with “offender behaviour” checked against Danish Polish records.
Findings:
MALE:
MONO- 35% DYZO- 13%
FEMALE
MONO-21% DYZO-8%
What did Raymond Crowe (1972) find?
Adopted children whose biological mother had a criminal record had 50% risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18, whereas adopted children whose biological mother didn’t have a criminal record only had a 5% risk.
What is the responsibility of the MAOA gene?
MAOA Regulates dopamine and serotonin which (as well as mood) can play a role in impulsive aggression.
Low variants (MAOA-L) results in low activity of this enzyme
What is the responsibility of the CHD13 gene?
is linked to substance abuse and ADHD.
About 5-10% of all severe violent crime in Finland is attributable to MAOA and CDH13
how can the diathesis stress model be applied to criminal behaviour
Frazzetto et al. (2007) found a higher level of antisocial aggression and the MAOA-L variant in men but was only the case in those who had experienced significant trauma (e.g. sexual or physical abuse) before age 15. Those with the gene variant but no trauma did not display the same levels of aggression.
How does the pre-frontal cortex (neural) link to criminal behaviour?
Adrian Raine has conducted many studies of the APD brain- individuals with antisocial personalities have reduced activity in prefrontal cortex that regulates emotional behaviour.
Raine also found 11% reduction in volume of grey matter in prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls.
How does mirror neurons (neural) link to criminal behaviour?
Offenders with APD can experience empathy but do so more sporadically than the rest of us.
Did so when asked of them (Keysers 2011) suggests APD individuals not without empathy but may have a neural switch.
What was the procedure of Raine’s 1997 research?
41 murderers (NGRI) compared with a control group of 41 non-murderers. Matched pairs design. Were instructed to be medication free for two weeks prior to scanning.
What was the findings of Raine’s 1997 research?
Reduced brain activity in certain areas may be one of the many predispositions toward violence. The areas identified as having abnormal activity are associated with lack of fear, lower self-control, increased aggression, impulsive behaviour and problems controlling and expressing emotions. All of these could lead to an increased risk of committing acts of extreme violence.
What research supported the pre-frontal cortex explanation of neural?
Kandel & Freed (1989) found people with frontal lobe damage tended to show impulsive behaviour, emotional instability and an inability to learn from their mistakes.
Why are there issues with twin studies and adoption studies with genetics?
Identical twins may also be treated the same (as well as the same genetics) more so than DZ twins. Additionally, many adoptions may taken place at an older childhood age. Why does this complicate the theory?
Farrington et al (2006) found…?
Studied a group of adult males who scored high on psychopathy (APD). These individuals had experienced various risk factors during childhood, such as being raised by a convicted parent and being physically neglected. It could be that these early childhood experiences caused APD and also some of the neural differences associated with it such as reduced activity in the frontal lobe due to trauma (Rauch et al, 2006). This suggests that the relationship between neural differences, APD and offending is complex and there may be other intervening variables that have an impact other than biology.
What is an issue with biological explanations of criminality?
Biological determinism: The biological approach suggests that offending behaviour is determined by genetic/neural factors which cannot be controlled by the person. So, a person should not be held responsible for a crime. How does this conflict with our justice system?
What is the criminal personality according to Eysenck?
High Extravert/Neurotic/Psychotic Scores.
How did Eysenck measure the criminal personality?
Eysenck Criminal Personality Inventory
According to Eysenck, how does personality have an innate, biological basis?
Personality traits are biological in origin through the type of nervous system we inherit
How did Eysenck bring in the role of socialisation to the criminal personality?
Children are taught to delay gratification but those with high N and E scores are difficult to condition so as a result are more likely to be anti-social
What is extraversion?
Under active nervous system, seek excitement, need lots of external stimulation.
What is neuroticism?
High reactivity in SNS, difficult to predict, changeable emotions, unstable.
What is psychoticism?
High levels of testosterone, unemotional, cold, aggressive
What did Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) find?
Compared 2070 male prisoners’ scores on the (EPQ) with 2422 male controls. On measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism - across all the age groups that were sampled - prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls. This agrees with the predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions Eysenck identified.
Farrington et al. (1982)
meta-analysis of relevant studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of psychoticism, but not for extraversion and neuroticism.
Why might Eysenck not take cultural factors into account?
Bartol and Holanchock (1979) studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York. The researchers divided these offenders into six groups based on their offending history and the nature of their offences. It was found that all six groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert
What is an issue with the EPQ?
Personality type may not be reducible to a score in this way.
Personality is too complex and dynamic to be quantified.
What is a cognitive distortion?
Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that that mean we perceive ourselves/the world inaccurately and unusually negatively.
What are two examples of cognitive distortions?
Hostile attribution and minimalisation.
What is hostile attribution bias?
Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues (such as being “looked” at) and this may trigger a disproportionate, often violent response.
Michael Schonenberg and Aiste Justye (2004)…
Presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions.
When compared with a non-aggressive matched control group, the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile.
Where does hostile attribution originate?
Roots of this behaviour may be apparent in childhood. Kenneth Dodge and Cynthia (2014) showed children a video clip of “ambiguous provocation”.
Children identified as “aggressive” and “rejected” prior to this study interpreted situation as more hostile.
What is minimalisation?
An attempt to deny/downplay the seriousness of an offence.
Common strategy when dealing with feelings of guilt.
