Forensic Psychology Flashcards
What is offender profiling ?
this is a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the accurate characteristics of an unknown criminal.
What is the top-down approach ?
the approach begins with a general classification of the crime scene into organised or disorganised. Profilers will match what is known about the crime into a pre-existing template.
What are characteristics of organised crime ?
- crime is planned
- crime is specifically targeted
- the crime has a high degree of control
What are characteristics of disorganised crime ?
- convict is socially incompetent
- criminal has lower than average IQ
- crime is unplanned
What are the characteristics of constructing a top-down FBI profile ?
- Data assimilation: profile reviews the evidence
- Crime scene classification: either organised or disorganised
- crime reconstruction: hypothesis in terms of sequence and events
- profile regeneration: hypothesis related to likely offender
Give me an evaluation of the top down approach ?
- Limited application: the top down approach only works for some type of crime. For example rapists and murderers typically have a particular way of committing the crime, that reveal information about their character and so for these crimes the top down approach may be useful. However crimes such as burglary do not typically reveal any strange details about the criminal and so the bottom approach would be more useful.
- Over simplistic: its likely that most offenders wont fit directly into either the organised or disorganised category.
- Supporting evidence: Mccrary and Grant used the top down approach to develop a profile of the man responsible for the murders of several prostitutes in the later 1980s. This profile ended being a close match to the offender, Arthur Shaw cross, who was eventually found guilty. This suggests the top down approach works.
What was the key study associated with Canter (2004) ?
The aim of the test was to rest the reliability of the top-down approach by applying them to 100 cases of serial killers from the USA. The findings of the study showed that twice as many disorganised crimes as organised crimes were identified. Canter concluded that instead of their being a distinction between the two types of serial killers, all the crimes had to have had an organised element to them. It would be better to look at personality differences between offenders.
What is the bottom up approach ?
the bottom up approach looks for consistencies during the crime. This can be identified from the crime scene or from surviving victims accounts. No assumptions on the offender are made until a statistical analysis using correlation techniques has been carried out on the details of the case.
What is investigative technology in the bottom up approach ?
this is using scientific psychology and psychological theory to solve crimes and identify crimes.
What is geographical profiling in the bottom up approach ?
this is using statistical analysis to make inferences about the criminal’s location
What is the marauder model ?
this suggests that criminals live and commit crimes within the same geographical circle.
What is the commuter model ?
describes criminals who commit crimes in a different geographical circle to where they live
Give me an evaluation of the bottom up approach ?
- Wider range of applications: the bottom up approach can be applied to a much wider range of crimes. For example most burglaries are similar in method, therefore a top down approach wont reveal much about an offenders profile. Whereas geographical profiling only requires the locations of the crimes, and so the bottom up approach can basically be applied to any type of crime.
- More scientific: the bottom up approach relies on objective and measurable data using mathematical tools and relying on psychological theory. Therefore making it more reliable and accurate than the top down approach which relies on institution
- Supporting evidence for investigative psychology: Canter uses his bottom up profiling to develop the profile of the railway rapist. Canter developed a profile of man in his late 20s, with a criminal record and working a semi-skilled job, who had a poor relationship with women and lived close to the crime scenes. This profile turned out to closely match the details of the offender John Duffy, who was later guilty of these crimes
What does the term atavistic mean ?
this means a tendency to revert to an ancestral type
What was Lombrosos’s belief in criminals ?
he believed that they were a separate species of mankind and he believed that criminals could be identified by a series of characteristics, known as atavistic characteristics.
What are some examples of atavistic characteristics ?
- asymmetrical force
- usually large or small areas
- a low reseeding forehead
What was the Lombroso study ?
This is where Lombroso examined cranial and facial features of hundreds of Italian convicts. He studied 383 dead criminals and 3839 living convicts. He concluded that 40% of the criminal acts could be accounted for people with atavistic characteristics
What was Lombroso’s 3 types of criminals ?
- born criminals: the atavistic type
- Insane Criminals: suffering from mental illness
- Criminaloids: mental characteristics predisposed them to criminal behaviour under the right circumstances.
Give me an evaluation of the atavistic form ?
Strength: Historical influence
played an important role in advancing criminology and scientific explanations of criminal behaviour.Prior to Lombroso’s research criminal behaviour was explained by a religious or moralistic perspective. The use of revolutionary reasoning in Lombroso’s research shifted the discussion of criminal behaviour towards more scientific explanations. Paving the way for more scientific explanations such as genetic factors.
Methodological concerns: a key methodological flaw in Lambroso’s approach is that he did not use a non-criminal control group to compare his measurements of criminals against. Without comparing the features, it is impossible to say whether criminals have distinctive features that differentiate them from non-criminals
Ethical concerns: Lambroso’s atavistic for explanation is socially sensitive because it would lead to stereotyping and discrimination based on the way a person looks.
What was the Lange study to do with genes and criminal behaviour ?
In 1930 Lange conducted the first study into twins and criminal behaviour. 13 MZ twins and 17 DZ twins were studied, where in each pair one had served time in prison. They found 10 MZ twins and 2 DZ twins had a co-twin who was also in prison. This demonstrated a link.
What genes are linked to criminal behaviour ?
- MAOA regulates the metabolism of serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are linked with impulsive and aggressive behaviour.
- CHD13 linked to ADHA and substance abuse
What was the Tiihonen study ?
In 2015 he tested 900 offenders in Finland to look for genes which linked to criminal behaviour. These 900 people were divided into extremely violent, violent and non-violent. Criminals in the ‘extremely violent’ group had a deficiency in two genes: MAOMA and CHD13. They estimated that 5-10% of all violent crime in Finland are due to abnormalities in one of these two genes.
Give me an evaluation of genetic explanations for criminal behaviour ?
Weakness: genetics dont entirely explain criminal behaviour. If it were the concordance rate would be 100% among identical twins. However Lange found that the concordance rates for criminal behaviour between twins is less than 100%, which shows that other factors need to be present to fully explain criminal behaviour.
Weakness: deterministic. Genetic explanations state that a person’s genes are what cause criminal behaviour, not free will. This then raises moral and ethical issues. It is hard to hold someone morally responsible for criminal actions if they didn’t choose them, might to be unfair to punish them.
Weakness: Mednick’s study. Adoptees are often raised by their biological parent for a long time before being adopted. So the correlation between having a biological parent who is a criminal and becoming a criminal could be due to environmental factors rather than genetics.
What two aspects do neural explanations consider ?
- brain structure
- neurotransmitters
What two areas of the brain, if have a deficit can be responsible for criminal behaviour ?
- Pre-frontal cortex
- the limbic system
What was the Raine study (2004) ?
he compared 41 brains scans from convicted murderers and 41 brain scans from a control group. The study showed that convicted murders have reduced activity in the pre-front cortex compared to the control group.
What two neurotransmitters affect criminal behaviour ?
- serotonin
- noradrenaline
How can serotonin levels affect criminal behaviour ?
if an individual has lower levels of serotonin they are more predisposed to criminal behaviour. Serotonin inhibits the pre-frontal cortex.
How can noradrenaline levels affect criminal behaviour ?
if an individual has very high or very low levels of noradrenaline, then that person is perceived to be aggressive.
High levels of noradrenaline are associated with the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the flight or fight response.
Low levels of noradrenaline reduces an individuals ability to react to perceived threats.
Give me an evaluation for the neural explanations of criminal behaviour ?
Weakness: small sample sizes
studies which link criminal behaviour to neural factors often use small sample sizes because the population of serious criminals is hard to gain scientific access to. This is also due to the high cost of brain scanning tools, which makes it harder to test out on a larger population of people. Therefore it may be invalid to generalise the findings from these studies to the wider population.
Weakness: ethical issues
an implication of Raine’s research is that brain scans in childhood could be sued to identify potential criminals in the future. This could reduce crime but is socially sensitive, because it could lead to discrimination against people with these brain structures.
Weakness: deterministic
biologically deterministic because it states that neural factors is what causes criminal behaviour, not free will. However this could potentially raise moral and legal issues. If someone didn’t choose their actions it may seem unfair to hold them legally responsible for them.
What is Eysenck’s theory of personality ?
he states that there are 3 traits which are placed on a spectrum and are assessed using the Eysenck personality questionnaire.
What are the 3 traits in Eysenck’s theory of personality ?
- Extrovert vs introvert
- Neurotic vs stable
- Psychotic vs non-psychotic
Eysenck stated that having a personality high in extroversion , neuroticism and psychoticism makes an individual more likely to commit criminal behaviour.
Give me an evaluation of Eysenck’s theory of personality ?
Strength: supporting evidence
Furnham tested 210 subjects using Eysenck’s personality test, social skills test and a test of anomie. Of those 3 tests, the result of Eysenck’s personality test was the most accurate predictor of criminal behaviour
Weakness: methodological concerns
Eysenck’s Theory of personality uses self report methods such as Eysenck’s personality questionnaire to collect date. This is an unreliable source of data because a participant can easily lie when answering the questions and a participants answers can vary depending on the type of mood that they are in.
Weakness: other factors
There are many people who have high levels of neuroticism, extroversion and psychoticism who do not engage in criminal behaviour. Conversely there are many stable, introverted and non-psychotic people who do engage in criminal behaviour. This suggests that there are other factors (biological or neural) which are needed for a complete explanation of criminal behaviour.
