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Psychology > Forensic Psychology > Flashcards

Forensic Psychology Flashcards

1
Q

Crime

A

Breaking the rules of a state

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2
Q

Deviance

A

Breaking societal norms and values

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3
Q

Cultural issues defining crime

A

Certain behaviours are treated as criminal offences in different countries but not in others. Also, forensic research is often ethnocentric.

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4
Q

Historical issues defining crime

A

Crimes change over time, and things become legal as society develops.

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5
Q

Top-down approach

A

Developed by the FBI Behavioural Science Unit from date gathered from 36 sexually motivated serial killer cases. The data is reviewed, the crime scene is classified and potentially reconstructed. They then generate a profile of likely characteristics.

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6
Q

Organised crime scene

A

Planned, clean crime scene, no/ very few clues, targeted victim, attempts to control the victim.

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7
Q

Organised criminal

A

Above average IQ, socially/ sexually competent, married, anger or depression at the time of the offence, follows media coverage, skilled occupation.

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8
Q

Disorganised crime scene

A

Little planning, lots of evidence, minimal use of constraint, random/ disorganised behaviour.

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9
Q

Disorganised criminal

A

Lives alone near the scene, sexually/ socially inadequate, unskilled or unemployed, physically/ sexually abused, frightened or confused at the time of the attack.

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10
Q

Top-down approach evalutation

A
  • Can only be applied to sexually motivated serial killers.
  • Alison et al 2002- approach is based on outdated theories of personality being stable.
  • Reductionist- classification system is too simple- not every offender is organised or disorganised.
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11
Q

Bottom-up approach

A

Canter (1990)- starts with the details to build the bigger picture. The approach uses the Smallest Space Analysis Database to identify patterns with the offence and other offences committed. This is then used with Geographical Profiling to make inferences about where an offender is likely to live.

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12
Q

Canter’s Circle Theory (1993)

A

Marauders commit their homes close to home where they are comfortable (usually disorganised). Commuters travel to another location further away (usually organised).

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13
Q

Bottom-up Approach Evaluation

A

+ Evidence support- Canter and Heritage (1990) analysed 66 sexual assault cases using the approach and found common patterns.
+ Evidence support (Geographical Profiling- Canter and Lundrigan (2001) collated evidence of 120 murder cases and found that the offenders home base was located in the centre of the crime scene pattern.
+ Scientific
+ Wider applications
- Copson (1995) found that 83% of forces found the profile useful but only 3% of cases lead to an accurate conviction.
- Researcher bias- supported by Canter’s own research.

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14
Q

Atavistic Form

A

Lombroso (1876)- offenders are ‘genetic throwbacks’ or a ‘primitive subspecies’ with distinguishing features, like large noses, large jaws, flashy lips, shifty eyes, etc, that they are born with.

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15
Q

Sheldon’s Body Types (1942)

A

Stated that there are three body types: ectomorph (sensitive, apprehensive, introverted), endomorph (relaxed, comfortable, pleasant, extraverted), and mesomorph (courageous, risk taker, aggressive, assertive).

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16
Q

Atavistic /Body Type Evaluation

A

+ The theories were the beginning of offender profiling and lead to a lot of modern forensic research.
+ Championed the use of scientific method.
- No control groups- could’ve just been common characteristics.
- Scientific racism
- Temporal validity

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17
Q

Goring (1913)

A

Criminals tend to have lower intelligence.

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18
Q

Eberhardt

A

Stereotypical ‘black’ looking men were more likely to get the death penalty in the USA.

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19
Q

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A

Impulsive, reckless risk takers with a disregard for the safety of others and a lack of remorse.

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20
Q

Adrian Raine (2000)

A

Used PET scanning techniques to examine the brains of offenders. He found that those with APD had reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex (regulates emotion). Also, individuals with APD had an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in their prefrontal cortex.

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21
Q

Keysers (2011)

A

Individuals with APD had less activity in mirror neurones that are responsible for feeling empathy. They had to be asked to feel empathy when watching a sad film.

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22
Q

Neuro-ethical dilemma

A

The usefulness of knowing information about someones neurological condition.

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23
Q

Price (1966)

A

Suggested that males with an extra Y chromosome were predisposed toward violent crime. They were above average height and below average intelligence.

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24
Q

Christiansen (1977)

A

Studied 3586 twin pains in Denmark- found a 52% concordance rate for criminality in MZ twins compared to 22% in DZ twins.

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25
Q

Brunner (1993)

A

Studied 5 males from a family affected by a syndrome of borderline mental retardation and abnormal violent behaviour, including aggression, arson, attempted rape and exhibitionism. He collected urine samples over 24 hours and studied medical, school and criminal records. He found that a mutation of the X chromosome for the gene that produces MAOA was present. High levels of MAOA causes reduction in serotonin (sleep and mood), dopamine (emotional arousal) and noradrenaline (arousal).

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26
Q

Genetic Evaluation

A
  • Diathesis stress model- biological tendencies can cause crime if triggered by an environmental stressor.
  • Biological determinism- everyone has free will, plus crime is extremely complex- Jim Fallon has the brain of a serial killer but isn’t one.
  • Crime is a social construct- how can you have a biological predisposition to society’s set of rules.
  • Neuro-ethical dilemma- usefulness of knowing someone has a biological predisposition to crime.
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27
Q

Neurological Evaluation

A
  • Not every criminal has APD or abnormal brain structure and everybody has free will.
    + Scientific method/ equipment- reliability
  • Neuro-ethical dilemma
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28
Q

Eysenck’s theory of personality

A

He believed that our personality is oinnate and has a biological basis. The criminal personality is seen with people who score highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism and are difficult to condition and interact with.

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29
Q

Extraversion

A

Enjoys being around people, outgoing, confident

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30
Q

Neuroticism

A

Moody, anxious, angry, jealous, no set mood

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31
Q

Psychoticism

A

Impulsive, risk taker, unpredictable

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32
Q

Eysenck’s Study

A

Studied 2070 male prisoners and 2422 male controls- the prisoners scored higher on the measures of personality.

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33
Q

Eysenck Evaluation

A
  • Farrington- reviewed several studies and found evidence of prisoners only scoring higher on psychoticism.
  • The idea of one personality type explaining all offending behaviour isn’t plausible- not all criminals are the same.
  • Culturally biased- Holanchock studied Black and Hispanic criminals in America, finding them less extroverted than non-criminal groups.
  • The validity of measuring personality through a psychometric test is questionable as personality isn’t entirely stable.
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34
Q

Cognitive distortions

A

Offenders have faulty, biased or irrational ways of thinking.

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35
Q

Hostile attribution bias

A

An offender misreads or misinterprets the actions or intentions of another person. This is probably learnt during childhood.

36
Q

Schonenberg and Justye

A

Presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous faces- more likely to perceive them as angry/ hostile than the control.

37
Q

Dodge and Frame

A

Showed children video clips of ‘ambiguous provocation’- those who had been identified as rejected or aggressive were more likely to classify it as hostile.

38
Q

Minimalisation

A

The offender downplays or denies the seriousness of their offence (more common in sex offenders).

39
Q

Barbaree

A

Found 54% of 26 convicted rapists denied their offence and 40% minimised the harm caused.

40
Q

Internal Attribution

A

When a person accepts full responsibilty for their own behaviour.

41
Q

External Attribution

A

When a person sees the cause of their behaviour as an external factor, denying guilt/ responsibility.

42
Q

Fundamental Attribution Error

A

Attribute more significance to situational factors when considering the causes of our own behaviour but attribute more significance to personality when considering others behaviour.

43
Q

Personality Evalutation

A

+ Practical applications- CBT can be used to alter the way offenders think and therefore behave.
- Cognitive distortions can’t explain all crimes- individual differences.
- We can’t really know what someone is thinking.

44
Q

Morals

A

A set of norms and values about what is right and wrong, often learnt from out parents.

45
Q

Kohlberg (1963)

A

Heavily influenced by the work of Piaget- a child’s cognition develops through stages. He presented a set of moral dilemmas to a group of 58 middle/working class boys to see how they reacted to then. They were followed up ever 3 years.

46
Q

Stages of Morality

A

Level 1- Pre-morality- < 9 years of age: stage 1- punishment and obedience orientation (fear of punishment, stage 2- hedonistic orientation (personal gain/ reward).

Level 2- Conventional Morality- 9-adolescence: stage 3- interpersonal concordance orientation (majority), stage 4- law and order orientation (duty to help society).

Level 3- Post-conventional Morality- adolescence +: stage 5- social contract or legalistic orientation (morally right over lawfully right), stage 6- universal ethical principles (following inner conscience morality).

47
Q

Thornton and Reid (1982)

A

Criminals committing crime for financial gain show more immature reasoning than those committing violent crimes.

48
Q

Chandler (1973)

A

Individuals who function at higher levels of moral reasoning tend to sympathise more with the right of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours such as honesty, generosity and non-violence.

49
Q

Kohlberg Evaluation

A
  • Limited sample (ethnocentric, androcentric)
  • Lacks ecological validity
    + Supports idea of stage theory
    + Longitudinal - covers multiple developmental stages
50
Q

Sutherland (1939) Differential Association Hypothesis

A
  1. Criminal behaviour is learnt.
  2. Criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with other people in a process of communication.
  3. The principle part of the learning of criminal behaviour occurs within intimate personal groups.
  4. When criminal behaviour is learned, the learning includes the techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalisations and attitudes.
  5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favourable or unfavourable. (Dominant view of individual)
  6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law. (Peer pressure)
  7. Differential associations (number of contacts with criminals over non-criminals) may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity.
  8. The process of learning criminal behaviour by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning (behaviourism).
  9. While criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, since non-criminal behaviour is an expression of the same needs and values.
51
Q

Summary of Sutherland’s theory

A
  • Deviance occurs when people define a certain human situation as an appropriate occasion for violating social norms or criminal laws.
  • Definitions of the situation are acquired through an individual’s history of past experience.
52
Q

Sutherland Evaluation

A

+ This theory shifted the emphasis away from biology.
+ Accounts for white-collar crime- representative of all kinds of crimes and offenders.
- Impossible to test.
- Farrington found that family is a large influence- inter-generational crime.
- Doesn’t account for individual differences in susceptibility/ influence.

53
Q

Superego

A

Formed around the age of 5-6 years in the phallic stage. This contains our moral values and our internalised same-sex parent, ensuring that the ego doesn’t use unacceptable means to satisfy the id.

54
Q

Blackburn (1993)

A

If the superego is deficient, criminality is inevitable as the id is uncontrolled.

55
Q

Weak Superego

A

May develop if the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage of psycho-sexual development.

56
Q

Deviant Superego

A

May develop if the child internalises the morals of a criminal or deviant same-sex parent.

57
Q

Over-harsh Superego

A

May develop if the same-sex parent is overly harsh. May result in crippling guilt/ anxiety, so the person commits crime to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

58
Q

Psychodynamic Evaluation

A
  • Freud’s theory is seen as sexist as he focuses on the Oedipus Complex.
  • Little evidence to back up the theory.
  • The idea of an over-harsh superego and the need for punishment can’t be proven- most criminals make attempts to not be caught.
  • Unconscious motivations are not testable and unfalsifiable, therefore are pseudoscientific.
  • Bowlby’s research is bias and he did not distinguish between deprivation and privation.
  • Correlation does not equal causation.
59
Q

UK Prison Population

A

As of 2024, 88,691 people are in prison, 4% women and 422 under 16.

60
Q

Universities of Crime

A

Prisoners regularly come out of prison much more educated in crime- link to differential association hypothesis.

61
Q

Prison Reform Trust 2007

A

Prisoners have not reached the levels of literacy and numeracy of an average 11 year old child. 50% do not have the skills required by 96% of jobs.

62
Q

Parole

A

Applications to be released after a minimum time set by the judge has been served. The nature of the offence, the judge’s comments on sentencing and the inmates behaviour are all considered. Gives inmates an incentive to behave and comply with rules in prison.

63
Q

Deterrence

A

Prison should be unpleasant to deter people from wanting to return or commit offences in the first place.

64
Q

Incapacitation

A

Taking a criminal out of circulation means they are unable to commit more crimes, keeping society safe.

65
Q

Retribution

A

Revenge on the criminal- they are paying for their offences by having their freedom taken away from them.

66
Q

Rehabilitation

A

Prison can be used to reform criminals through training, education and therapy so they don’t commit any more offences.

67
Q

Stress and Depression

A

Suicide rates are extremely high in prisons as mental health issues are worsened significantly in prison.

68
Q

Institutionalisation

A

Some prisoners find it extremely hard to adapt back to life in society. It is common for offenders to reoffend to go back to the comfort of prison life.

69
Q

Prisonisation

A

Some behaviour are unacceptable outside but encouraged within prison, so prisoners learn to accept the rules within the prison.

70
Q

Recidivism

A

When a prison reoffends after being released. 57% of offenders reoffend within a year of release (2013).

71
Q

Prison Evaluation

A
  • Curt Bartol (1995)- prison is “brutal, demeaning and generally devestating”. - Suicide rates are extremely high. 15% of mean and 25% of women experience psychosis.
  • Individual differences- not all prisoners or crimes are the same- punishment should fit the individual.
  • Rehabilitation- opportunities are limited due to budget cuts.
  • University of Crime
  • Alternatives include restorative justice and probation.
72
Q

Economic Implication

A

The government are reluctant to invest in prisoners due to economic restraints and public opinion.

73
Q

Behaviour Modification - Operant Conditioning

A

Therapies based on the principles of operant conditioning aim to bring about specific changes in behaviour. This involves rewarding appropriate behaviour and withholding rewards for inappropriate behaviour. This works best in mental hospitals, schools and prisons.

74
Q

Token Economy

A

Rewards are given for good behaviour and can be exchanged for certain privileges.

75
Q

Hobbs and Holt (1976)

A

Introduced a token economy in three young delinquent behaviour units. They observed significant improvement in positive behaviour in these units.

76
Q

Allyon (1979)

A

Found token economies work well in adult prisons.

77
Q

Token Economy Evaluation

A

+ Easy to implement and do not require training.
- Requires consistency.
- The effects may be due to increased attention instead of the actual economy.
- They may not actually change behaviour- demand characteristics.
- Clinton Field (2004)- for maximum affect, the rewards and frequency of them must be individually tailored to the inmate.

78
Q

Restorative justice

A

Communication between offender and victim to enable everyone affected to find a positive way forward.

79
Q

Aims of Restorative Justice

A
  • Rehabilitation of offender- punishment is passive where RJ involves active participation enabling the offender to take full responsibility for their offence.
  • Atonement for Wrongdoing- allows the offender to offer compensation (physically or emotionally) and express remorse.
  • Victim’s Perspective- allows the victim to show how they have been affected and how they feel in response to the crime.
80
Q

Sherman and Strang 2007

A

Studied 20 studies involving 142 men convicted of violence and property offences and found only 11% reoffended when participating in Restorative Justice compared to 37% of a control group.

81
Q

Restorative Justice Evalutation

A
  • Cost- Shepland 2007- every £1 spent on RJ, the government would save £8 from reduced reoffending. However, it costs a lot to train mediators and there is a high drop out rate.
  • Offenders must feel full remorse.
  • Must not replace punishment.
  • Crimes like domestic violence or rape should not undergo RJ.
  • Works most effectively on first time offenders.
82
Q

Anger Management

A

Therapy to learn how to deal with feelings of anger and frustration effectively.

83
Q

Stages of Anger Management

A
  1. Cognitive Preparation- reflect on what makes them angry.
  2. Skill Acquisition- taught skills to manage anger and techniques to deal with stress/ triggers.
  3. Application Practice- the therapist will deliberately provoke the offender to see how they react.
84
Q

Ireland 2000

A

Conducted a natural experiment comparing a group of 50 prisoners who had undergone anger management with a group of 37 who hadn’t. They underwent a cognitive behavioural interview, a questionnaire and prison officers completed a checklist to rate angry behaviours. Found that those who had the therapy were less aggressive and had a 92% improvement on at least one measure of aggression/ anger.

85
Q

Anger Management Evaluation

A
  • Involves cognitive, behaviour and social approaches- holistic.
  • More likely to lead to a permanent change.
  • Works in the short term, but there is a lack of data considering reoffending behaviour.
  • Not all crime is motivated by anger.
  • Very expensive and time consuming.

Psychology (11 decks)

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