Forensic Psychology Flashcards
Offender profiling
Techniques law enforcement use to narrow down suspects based off traits of the crime.
Top down approach AO1
-this approach uses pre made templates of types of offenders and basing that off the possible identity of the culprit
-there are two templates: disorganised, organised
-disorganised offenders tend to leave a messy crime scene which can leave a lot of clues behind
the crime tends to show signs of an impulsive attack
-disorganised offenders tend to be less socially competent and tend to have a low in
-organised offenders leave a cleaner crime scene which has fewer clues with the crime tending to show some sign of a planned attack - the victim was deliberately chosen
-organised offenders tend to be socially competent and tend to have a higher iq
-this narrows down the suspect list immediately
Top down approach AO3
Can narrow down suspects based off list immediately- time effective
+one strength of the top down approach is that it is useful for serious cases such as murder
Bottom up approach AO1
Bottom up approach AO3
Geographical profiling AO1
-geographical profiling is a technique used in forensic psychology to analyse the location of crimes committed by a suspect to try and get an important about who the offender could be
-for example it can suggest that a criminal shows familiarity of certain areas, potential escape routes from the crime used, jobs or a general idea of where the offender lives
-geographical profiling principle: centre of gravity hypothesis
-this suggests the crimes the offender committed tend to cluster around a central point often the offenders
home or place of work
-geographical profiling principle: distance decay
as the distance between the offenders home and the crime scene increases the likelihood of the offender committing the crime there decreases
-geographical profiling principle: least effort
an offender will commit a crime where it is the easiest to do
Geographical profiling AO3 (STRENGTHS)
+One strength is that Geographical profiling is very scientific and objective this is because it uses crime location data and statistical and mathematical techniques to calculate the probabilities of where the offender may live or base their operations from. This increases the validity of geographical profiling.
+ Another strength is that geographical profiling has had successful cases of identifying criminals. For example the railway rapist was identifies when geographical profiling was able to narrow down the list of suspects based on the locations of the attacks. Showing how geographical profiling can be an effective tool for law enforcement which allows then to catch offenders faster.
Geographical profiling AO3 (WEAKNESSES)
-One weakness in geographical profiling is that there are practical concerns. For example when an area is labelled as a high likelihood of where the criminal is potentially based, it could unjustly label innocent individuals in that area as a suspect without any other reason. This suggests that law enforcement shouldn’t be over reliant on geographical profiling alone , other evidence should be taken into account.
-another weakness of geographical profiling is that it isn’t suitable for all types of crimes, for example where offenders behaviour isn’t linked to the locations (like cybercrimes). This limits the application for geographical profiling
Atavistic form AO1
-lambroso believed that criminals were genetically different to non criminals
-he suggested that criminal behaviour was a natural tendency for those who have the gene
-he also suggested that we can identify chriminals based on physiological characteristics they have.
-some examples of the characteristics include: strong sloping brow, sharp jaw, high cheekbones, facial asymmetry and dark skin, curly hair.
Atavistic form AO3 (STRENGTHS)
+One strength of the atavistic form is that it has helped shift theories from outdated unscientific theories such as demonic possession and encouraged us to look more at biological explanations to explain human behaviour.
Atavistic form AO3 (WEAKNESSES)
-one weakness of the atavistic form, theory is that it contains racist undertones. The features he suggested were related to criminality were commonly found in non European ethnic groups. This is a scientifically flawed assumption because there are a lot of people with the “criminal” features Lombroso described who aren’t criminal.
-another weakness of lombroso’s theory is that he didn’t compare the criminal group he studied to a control group of non criminals. Without a control group it’s impossible to know whether these features were actually more common in criminals than in the general population, reducing the internal validity of his findings.
- Meanwhile Goring carried out a similar investigation to lombroso, studying criminals physical and mental traits. But the key difference is that Goring included a non criminals control group of similar age, class and background. He found no significant physical difference between criminal and non criminals than groups. Goring more valid and reliable research disproves lombrosos claims
