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Psychology Paper 3 > Forensic Psychology > Flashcards

Forensic Psychology Flashcards

1
Q

what does profiling usually involve?

A

careful scrutiny of a crime scene and analysis to generate hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender

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2
Q

what is the top down approach also known as?

A

the american approach

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3
Q

when and where did profiling orignate from?

A

FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit in the 1970s

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4
Q

how did the FBI develop profiling?

A

the BSU drew upon data gathered from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually-motivated murderes including Ted Bundy and Charles Mason - concluded that the data could be catagorised into organised and disorganised crimes/murders

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5
Q

what does modus operandi mean?

A

a signiture

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6
Q

what is a signiture?

A

a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual

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6
Q

what are the characteristics of organised offenders?

A

show evidence of pre planning the crime
victim targetted
high degree of control
may operate with surgical percision
little evidence left
tend to have above average IQ
skilled, proffessional occupation
socially and sexually competent
usually married, maybe children

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7
Q

what are the characteristics of disorganised offenders?

A

little evidence of planning
may be spontaneous
crime scene tends to reflect impulsive nature of the attack
body usually left at scene
little control
tend to have lower than average IQ
unskilled work or unemployed
often have history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships
tend to live alone
often live relatively close to crime scene

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8
Q

what are the characteristics of an organised crime scene?

A

planned
victim targeted
control including restraints
aggression before death
body hidden or moved
weapon and evidence absent

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9
Q

what are the chracteristics of a disorganised crime?

A

spontaneous
victim usually known by the offender
little control
sexual acts before death
body not hidden/left at the crime scene
evidence present

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10
Q

what are the 4 stages of constructing an FBI profile?

A
  1. Data Assimilation
  2. Crime Scene Classification
  3. Crime Reconstruction
  4. Profile Generation
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11
Q

what is Data Assimilation?

A

reviewing evidence

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12
Q

what is Crime Scene Classification?

A

deciding whether crime is organised or disorganised

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13
Q

what is Crime reconstruction?

A

hyptheses in terms of sequence of events, behavious of the victim etc

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14
Q

what are the strengths of the top down approach?

A

research support = some validity
David Canter et al (2004)
can be adapted to other crimes, e.g., burglary
Tina Meketa (2017)

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15
Q

what did David Canter et al (2004) do regarding the top-down approach?

A

conducted analysis of 100 different US murders each committed by a different serial killer
used ‘smallest space analysis’ technique that indentifies correlations across different samples of behaviour. used to assess to co-occurance of 39 aspects of serial killings (torture, restraints, attempt to conceal body etc)
revealed that there does seem to be a subset of features of many serial killings which matched FBI’s typology

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16
Q

what did Tina Meketa (2017) do regarding the top-down approach?

A

reported that top-down profiling led to an 85%increase in unsolved burglary’s across 3 different US states
added 2 new categories alongside organised & disorganised : interpersonal and opportunistic
suggests that top down profiling has wider application than originally assumed

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17
Q

what is the interpersonal category?

A

offender usually knows their victim and steals something of significance

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18
Q

what is the opportunistic category?

A

offender is young and inexperienced

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19
Q

what are the limitations of the top-down approach?

A

variety of combinations of both organised and disorganised offenders can occur at ay given murder scene
Maurice Godwin (2002)
flawed evidence
based on the principle of behavioural consistency that serial offenders have characteristic ways of working
Walter Mischel (1968)

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20
Q

what did Maurice Godwin (2002) do regarding the top-down approach?

A

argues that is is difficult to classify killers as one type
a killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics such as high intelligence and sexual competence but commits a spontaneous muder leaving the victims body
typology is probably more of a continuum

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21
Q

what flawed evidence limitates the top-down approach?

A

original sample consisted of 25 serial killers and 11 single or double murderers
24 classified as organised, 12 disorganised
Canter et al argued the sample was poor - FBI agents did not select a random or even a large sample and did not include different kinds of offenders
no standard set of questions were asked - not really comparable

22
Q

what did Walter Mischel (1968) do regarding the top-down approach?

A

he was a situational psychologist
argued that people’s behaviour is much more driven by the situation they are in than by a thing called ‘personality’
behavioural patterns seen at a crime scene may tell us little about that individual behaves in everyday life

23
Q

what is the bottom-up approach also known as?

A

the British approach

24
Q

who developed the bottom-up approach?

A

David Canter

25
Q

what are the 2 parts of bottom-up profiling?

A

investigative psychology
geographical profiling

26
Q

what is the aim of the bottom-up approach?

A

to generate a picture of the offender and their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and social background through systematic analysis

27
Q

what is investigative psychology?

A

an attempt to apply statistical procedures, alongside psychological theory to the analysis of crime scene evidence

28
Q

what is the aim of investigative psychology?

A

to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes

29
Q

why is investigative psychology important to a profile?

A

because it develops a statistical database and specific details of an offence can then be matched against the database to reveal important details about the offender (e.g. personal history, family background etc)
may also determine whether a series of offenses are linked

30
Q

what is central to the bottom-up approach?

A

Interpersonal coherence

31
Q

what is interpersonal coherence?

A

the way an offender behaves at a scene and it may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations

32
Q

whats an example of interpersonal coherence?

A

some rapists want to maintain maximum control and humiliate their victims, others are more apologetic
This might tell the police something about how the offender relates to woman more generally (Dwyer 2001)

33
Q

what does forensic awareness describe?

A

those individuals who have been the subject of police interrogation before, their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of ‘covering their tracks’

34
Q

what does information does geographical profiling use?

A

the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of an offender - crime mapping

35
Q

what assumption does geographical profiling use?

A

that serial offenders will restrict their ‘work’ to geographical areas they are familiar with

36
Q

who developed Canter’s circle theory?

A

Canter and Larkin (1993)

37
Q

what are the 2 ways we can describe an offender from Canter’s circle theory?

A

the marauder and the commuter

38
Q

what is the marauder?

A

operates close in close proximity to their home base

39
Q

what is the commuter?

A

likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence

40
Q

what insight does geographical profiling offer the investigative team?

A

into the nature of an offence

41
Q

what are the similarities between the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach?

A

both are used to narrow the field of suspects
both assume that there is a pattern in an offenders behaviour which is not always the case
both have captured the public’s imagination

42
Q

what is the strength of investigative psychology?

A

evidence support `
David Canter and Rupert Heritage (1990)
people are consistent in their behaviour

43
Q

what did David Canter and Rupert Heritage (1990) do regarding the bottom-up approach?

A

conducted analysis of 66 sexual assault cases
data identified as common in different samples of behaviour, such as impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim
each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of such behaviours and this can help establish whether 2 or more offences were committed by the same person - ‘case linkage’

44
Q

what is the limitation of investigative psychology?

A

case linkage depends on the database and this will only consist of historical crimes that have been solved
the fact they were solved may be because it is straightforward
may tell us little about crimes that have few links and remain unsolved

45
Q

what are the strengths of geographical profiling?

A

evidence support
Samantha Lundrigan and David Canter (2001)
can be used to identify and offender

46
Q

what did Samantha Lundrigan and David Canter (2001) do regarding the bottom-up approach?

A

collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US
smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers
the location of each bodys disposal site created a ‘centre of gravity’
when offenders start from their home base they may go in a different direction each time they dispose of a body, but in the end they make a circular effect around the home base
offenders base was in the centre
more noticeable with offenders who travelled short distances

47
Q

what is a limitations of geographical profiling?

A

may not be sufficient on its own
may be reliant on the quality of data provided by the police
recording of crime is not always accurate and can vary between police forces
estimated of 75% of crimes arent reported ‘dark figure of crime’
may not always lead to successful capture of an offender

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Psychology Paper 3 (4 decks)

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