Forensic psychology

Question 1

What are the 2 approaches to criminal profiling?

Answer 1

Top down - American method
Bottom up - British method

Question 2

How is the top down approach to criminal profiling completed?

Answer 2

Police build an overall picture for all criminals. Each criminal is then placed into this pre existing template and a profile is found.

Question 3

How is the bottom up approach to criminal profiling completed?

Answer 3

Finding small details then using them to build up a bigger picture.

Question 4

What information is used in the top down to criminal profiling?

Answer 4

Information regarding the crime
The crime scene
Anything about the offender

Question 5

What is a offender firstly separated into?

Answer 5

Being organised or disorganised

Question 6

What are the characteristics of a organised offender?

Answer 6

Lead an orderly life and kill after experiencing a critical event.
Actions at a crime scene reflect control and planning.
Few clues on the crime will be left at the scene.
More likely to lead a verbal approach with victims
Above average intelligence therefore more likely to be employed and may have a family.

Question 7

What are the characteristics of a disorganised offender?

Answer 7

Commits crimes in the heat of the moment.
Crimes display no preplanning which is shown by the use of items already being at the scene.
Could leave multiple clues at the scene such as blood, fingerprints, semen, or even a murder weapon.
Likely to have lower IQ, being impulsive and socially incompetent possible history of failed relationships.
Tend to be unskilled workers or unemployed.

Question 8

What are the 4 stages to the construction of an FBI profile?

Answer 8

Data assimilation
Crime scene classification
Crime reconstruction
Profile generation

Question 9

What happens in the data assimilation stage of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 9

Profilers reviews the evidence eg crime scene photos, pathology reports etc.

Question 10

What happens in the crime scene classification stage of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 10

Decide if the criminal is organised or disorganised.

Question 11

What happens in the crime reconstruction stage of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 11

Hypotheses in term of how the murder was committed in term of the sequence of events, victim/offender actions.

Question 12

What happens in the profile generation stage of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 12

Create a hypothesis related to all aspects of the likely offender and their life eg demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviours, personality type.

Question 13

What is the point in constructing a FBI profile?

Answer 13

To apply it to a list of suspects which helps to narrow down the search to make it more time effective.

Question 14

What is the definition of a serial killer?

Answer 14

Someone who has killed more than 3 people

Question 15

What did Douglas say are the reasons for there being more than one type of crime scene?

Answer 15

More than one offender
Escalation of situation
Victim forcing a change in approach from the offender

Question 16

What is a support for the top down approach?

Answer 16

It’s widely used and has been found to be effective.

Question 17

What did Alison et al (2002) say about the top down approach?

Answer 17

Suggest that the personality theory element of the theories are outdated and not
inline with modern theories of personality, being seen to be driven by stable internal personality traits
that are hard wired, where modern theories recognise the role of environmental factors and personal
development.

Question 18

What did Keppel and Walter (1999) argue about the top down approach?

Answer 18

That we need to focus upon the motivation of the killers to understand who they are and to apprehend them.

Question 19

What happens in the British model or Bottom up profiling?

Answer 19

The data derives the formation of the profile, rather than having set profiles which are assigned. Which forces a more deeper and rigours investigation by the police in order to collect every piece of data available to the which can then be used to build the picture.

Question 20

What is meant by investigative psychology?

Answer 20

The attempt to use psychological theory and statistics to create a suitable profile for the offender based upon there actions.

Question 21

What did Dwyer (2001) come up with

Answer 21

Interpersonal coherence.

Question 22

What is meant by interpersonal coherence?

Answer 22

That an offenders behaviour when interacting with victims and how the crime scene is left could be reflected in everyday life.

Question 23

What can be interpreted by the dump sites and the level of forensic awareness an offender has?

Answer 23

The level of thought and specialist knowledge an offender has, which may show they have been operating for a longer/shorter time.

Question 24

What are the 2 sorts of serial killer/rapist suggested in Canters circle theory?

Answer 24

Marauders
Commuter

Question 25

What is meant by a marauder in Canters Circle theory?

Answer 25

Who operates in closer proximity to their own home. Ie Steve Wright “the Ipswich ripper” - killed 5 women working as sex workers.

Question 26

What is meant by a commuter in Canters Circle theory?

Answer 26

Who travels to the area to engage in there crime, often traveling some distance. Ie. Colin Ireland the “gay slayer” travelled from Southend on sea to west London to meet his victims.

Question 27

What did Rossmo's (1997) crime mapping show?

Answer 27

That by collecting the information about abduction sites, murder site and dump sites, you could map an area of activity. This enables you to work out the operating area.

Question 28

What does geographical profiling help the police to do?

Answer 28

To work out the possible residence but also where the acts are planned or opportunistic, whether offender has detailed mental maps of the area or sticking to certain routes, their mode of transport and even the job type.

Question 29

What strengths are there for the use of the bottom up process?

Answer 29

+ Used in real crimes such as the john Duffy case where a profile was built and he fit it. + It uses a logical scientific process by developing theories based on evidence, increasing reliability.

Question 30

What is a criticism of the bottom up process?

Answer 30

- Results can be wrong for example case of 'Robert Napper' where police ruled him out for being to tall. But in the John Duffy case it was particularly useful.

Question 31

What is meant by criminology?

Answer 31

Scientific study of the nature, extent, management, causes, control, consequences, and prevention of criminal behavior, both on the individual and social levels.

Question 32

What did Cesare Lombroso suggest?

Answer 32

That crime was committed by a criminal underclass whom were effectively a genetic throw back to an earlier less civilised form of humanity, calling them a “sub-species of humans”.

Question 33

What did Cesare Lombroso say is the reason for a person failing in society?

Answer 33

A person lower level of intellectual development made them poorly adapted to survive in modern world. Which inevitably led them to fail within society and forcing them to turn to a life of crime and violent based solutions.

Question 34

Where did Cesare Lombroso draw his theory from?

Answer 34

By observing and measuring prisoners within jails in Italy.

Question 35

What did Cesare Lombroso do?

Answer 35

Came up with a useful list of distinguishing characteristics, including many facial features which were said to be typical in the sub species of humans.

Question 36

What atavistic characteristics did Cesare Lombroso say are related to murderers?

Answer 36

Blood shot eyes, curly hair, and long ears.

Question 37

What atavistic characteristics did Cesare Lombroso say are related to sexual deviants?

Answer 37

Glinting eyes, swollen, fleshy lips and projecting ears.

Question 38

What atavistic characteristics did Cesare Lombroso say are related to fraudsters?

Answer 38

Thin and “Reedy” meaning they were highly flexible.

Question 39

What is a criticism for Cesare Lombroso's atavistic characteristics theory?

Answer 39

The creation of so many other theories since shows that it must not be good enough to predict and prevent crime.

Question 40

What criticises the reliability of Cesare Lombroso's study?

Answer 40

That his own research had no control group. Meaning it cannot be reliably replicated.

Question 41

What ethical problems does the atavistic characteristics theory carry?

Answer 41

Breaches modern standards of thinking about the implications of your research. This is because it is seen to have a direct link to the theories of eugenics which is soon after carried out by the Nazis in WW2.

Question 42

What does the genetic theory into offender behaviour say?

Answer 42

That peoples genetics are a casual factor in developing their criminality.

Question 43

What is it said that the genes do in the genetic theory into offender profiling?

Answer 43

Genes cause underlying predispositions which are triggered by environmental pressures and stimulus, such as needs for resources.

Question 44

Which genes did Tiihonen et al (2014) say are related to offenders?

Answer 44

MAOA which controls dopamine and adrenaline in the brain and can be associated with aggression. CDH13 which links to substance abuse issues and attention deficit disorders.

Question 45

What supports can be used for the genetic theory of offender behaviour?

Answer 45

Mednick et al (1984) Moffitt (2002)

Question 46

What did Mednick et al (1984) find?

Answer 46

Conducted adoption study and found 20% concordance for biological parents and child criminality rate which was 6.5% more than with just adoptive parents.

Question 47

What did Moffitt (2002) find?

Answer 47

Found low levels of MAOA genes to be associated with aggressiveness and criminal conduct

Question 48

What is a criticism of Mednick et al (1984) when looking into genetic theory of offender behaviour?

Answer 48

While it used a huge sample size it did not take into account the violent crimes only non violent ones which were associated with burglary.