Forensic Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
What are the main problems with defining crime?
A
- time relative
- culturally relative
- age relative
2
Q
What is meant by time relative?
A
- peoples attitudes, social norms and moral values change over time
- laws change over time
3
Q
What is meant culturally relative?
A
- attitudes aren’t always the same across all cultures
- what’s legal in one culture could be considered illegal in another
4
Q
What is meant by age relative?
A
- e.g a toddler wouldn’t understand what they could be doing, so they aren’t criminals
5
Q
What are the three ways of measuring crime?
A
- official statistics
- offender surveys
- victim surveys
6
Q
What is official statistics?
A
- based on crimes that are reported to the police
- recorded in official figures
- dark figure of crime (unreported crimes)
- published by Home Office on annual basis, develops crime prevention strategies
7
Q
What are victim surveys?
A
- interviews w/ large samples
- RPS asked whether they or member of their household has been a victim of crime in the last year
- 50k households randomly selected to take part
8
Q
What are offender surveys?
A
- young people in England and Wales interviewed about their attitudes towards and experiences of crime
- random selection, National, longitudinal survey
- focuses on 10-25 year olds
9
Q
Evaluate offender surveys.
A
- unreliable, significantly underestimate true extent of crime
- 75% make up dark figure of crime
- Farrington and Dowds (1985) police in Nottinghamshire were more likely than other areas to record thefts of under £10
10
Q
Evaluate victim surveys.
A
- more accurate, more likely to include unreported crimes
- 2006/7 official statistics suggested 2% decrease in crime, BCS showed 3% increase
- telescoping may occur as victims may misremember
11
Q
Evaluate offender surveys.
A
- provide insight into how many people are responsible for offences
- offenders may want to conceal or even exaggerate offences
- targeted nature of surveys means crimes such as burglary are over-represented
12
Q
What is the Top Down Approach?
A
- aim is to narrow the field of enquiry
- methods usually involves scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of evidence to generate hypotheses about gender, age, background and education
- profilers match what is known about the crime and offenders pre-existing template that FBI develop
13
Q
What is meant by an organised offender?
A
- show evidence of having planned the crime in advance
- maintain a degree of control and operate w/ surgical precision
- little evidence left at the scene
14
Q
What characteristics do organised offenders have?
A
- above average intelligence
- skilled
- professional
- socially and sexually competent
- usually married and have children
15
Q
What is meant by disorganised offender?
A
- show little planning
- offences are spontaneous
- very little control
16
Q
What are the characteristics of disorganised offenders?
A
- lower than average IQ
- in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations
- history of unsuccessful relationships or sexual dysfunction
- live alone and live close to where offence takes place
17
Q
What are the stages of constructing an FBI profile?
A
- data assimilation - profiler reviews the evidence
- crime scene classification - organised or disorganised
- crime reconstruction
18
Q
Evaluate the Top Down Approach.
A
- only suited to crimes that reveal important details about suspect
- critics suggested that the approach is naïve and informed by old fashioned models of personality, poor validity
- Holmes (1989) suggests there’s 4 types of serial killer; visionary, mission, hedonistic and power
- small and unrepresentative sample
19
Q
What is the Bottom Up Approach?
A
- generates a picture of the offender (characteristics, behaviour, background)
- doesn’t begin with fixed typologies
- more grounded in psychological theory
20
Q
What is investigative psychology?
A
- attempt to apply psychological procedures alongside psychological theory to analysis of crime scene
- interpersonal coherence, way offender acts at scene, interact w/ victim and may reflect behaviour in everyday interactions
21
Q
What is geographical profiling?
A
- uses crime scene to predict characteristics of criminals profile
- Canter (1994) five main characteristics in profile; personality traits, criminal history, residential location, domestic and social characteristics, occupational and educational history
22
Q
What is the difference between the marauder and the commuter?
A
- marauders operate in close proximity to their own home
- commuters likely to have travelled a distance from their base
23
Q
Evaluate the Bottom Up Approach.
A
- evidence supports investigative psychology. Canter+Heritage (1990)
- more grounded in evidence and psychological theory
- wider application, can be used for less serious offences
24
Q
What is meant by atavistic form?
A
- Lombroso suggested there were ‘genetic throwbacks’ - criminals and non are biologically different
- offenders viewed as lacking evolutionary development
25
What are considered atavistic characteristics?
- narrow sloping brow
- strong prominent jaw
- high cheekbones
- facial asymmetry
26
What atavistic characteristics do murderers and sexual deviants have?
- murderers have bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears
| - sexual deviants have glinting eyes, swollen fleshy lips and projecting ears
27
What was Lombrosos research on Italian convicts?
- living and dead convicts
- 383 dead and 3839 living convicts were studied
- found that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
28
Evaluate the biological explanations of offending.
- Lombroso is credited with shifting crime research towards a more scientific realm.
- DeLisi (1912) drawn attention to racial undertones of the work, amny features are found among African descendants
- Lombroso didn't compare his criminal group w/ control group
- facial and cranial differences may be influenced by poor diet, deprivation, poor health etc. rather than delayed evolutionary development
29
What are the genetic explanations of offending?
- suggests that criminal inherit a gene or combo of genes that predispose them to commit crime
- Lange (1930) + Christiansen (1977) MZ and DZ twin studies, suggested geneitc factors play a role.
- Tiihonen et al (2014) those w/combo of MAOA and CDH13 genes were 13x more likely to have history of violent behaviour
30
What is the diathesis-stress model?
- applied to schizophrenia
| - criminal behaviour may come from combo of genetic predisposition and biological or psychological trigger
31
What are the neural explanations of offending?
- Raine conducted many studies of APD brain reporting, anti-social personalities have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex
- Keyers et al (2011) suggested APD individuals aren't totally w/o empathy but may have neural switch that can turn on and off
32
Evaluate genetic and neural explanations of offending.
- early twin studies had little control and zygosity was based on appearance rather than DNA testing
- separation of environmental and genetic factors in adoption studies is complicated, many were adopted late or seen biological parents regularly
- determinist; only in cases of mental illness can someone claim they aren't acting under free will
- reductionist; reducing offending to neural or genetic influences is too simplistic
33
What is Eysenck's theory of criminal personality?
- Eysenck (1947) proposed behaviour could be represented in 2 dimensions: introversion/extroversion and neuroticism/ stability
34
What is the biological basis for Eysenck's theory?
- he believed personality traits have biological origin and come about from our nervous system that we inherit
- all personality types are innate
