forensic psychology Flashcards
crime
violation of the law where a consequence of conviction by a court is punishment (act or omission)
normative crime
breaking social norms
ways of measuring crime
- official statistics
- British Crime survey
- offender surveys
official statistics
- highly accessible and can be analysed
- no specifics of the nature of the crime
- lacks validity and doesn’t reflect cultural change
- a lot of crimes are under reported
British Crime survey
- ask 50,000 people about crimes they’ve experienced in the last year
- high in detail and validity and context
- untruthful and they’re values may influence their answers
offender surveys
- people voluntarily submit information about crimes
- focus on at risks group aged 10-25
- untruthful and may conceal larger crimes
Lombroso study (1876)
- studied facial and cranial features of 383 dead and 3839 living criminals
- 40% had atavistic, abnormal traits
atavistic traits
- unusual head shape/size
- dark skin
- nose curled up
- abnormal teeth
- strange eyes
Lombroso evaluation
- Delisi (2012) traits are more typical in non-white races
- no control group to compare to
Somatotype theory
Sheldon (1942) identified 3 body types which he believed underpinned human psychology
3 body types:
- endomorph
- mesomorph
- ectomorph
endomorph
- increased fat storage
- large bones and wide waist
- viscerotonic personalities (extravert)
mesomorph
- square and muscular
- semitonic personalities (aggressive)
ectomorph
- thin and athletic
- cerebrotonic personalities (introverted)
Somatotype theory explaining crime
- criminal behaviour correlated with mesomorph body type
- high aggression and low sensitivity caused criminal behaviour
evaluation of Somatotype theory
- reductionist as ignores other affecting factors
- could be correlation not causation
Lange (1930)
- studied 13 MZ twins and 17 DZ twins with one twin who had served time
- 10/13 of MZ had a twin in prison
- 2/17 of DZ had a twin in prison
Christiansen (1977)
- studied over 3500 pairs of twins in Denmark to find concordance rates of criminal behaviour
- male MZ twins had 35% and DZ twins had 13%
- female MZ twins had 21% and DZ twins had 8%
Tiihonen (2014)
- analysed genes in 500 offenders
- found those with low activity MAOA genes and CDH13 genes were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour
CDH13 gene
associated with substance abuse and ADHD
MAOA
helps the re-uptake of neurotransmitters
Brunner (1883)
- 28 males in a Dutch family had been involved in violent crimes
- they all had the warrior gene, low levels of MAOA causing heightened aggression and ADD
Raine et al (2000)
compared neural activity with murderers with anti-social personality disorder and non-criminals
Raine et al findings
- APD sample had less activity in the frontal lobe and pre-frontal cortex
- areas associated with self restraint and rational thinking
- APD sample showed an 11% reduction in grey matter volume in the pre-frontal cortex
- matter involved in sensory perception and self control
Keysers (2011)
found criminals could empathise when asked but otherwise only did it sporadically, which shows a ‘neural switch’
Mednick (1984)
studied 11,000 Danish adoptees with at least 1 court conviction
- 13% had neither parents with a conviction
- 20% had one of biological parents with a conviction
- 24.5% had both biological and adoptive parents with a conviction
evaluation of twin studies
- zygosity was based on appearance and not DNA so lacks validity
- small sample can’t be generalised
- twins aren’t very representative
- nurture not nature
diathesis stress model
genetics and environment are likely to have an effect on behaviour
biological reductionism
- emotional instability
- mental illness
- social deprivation
- MZ twins don’t show 100% concordance
monozygotic twins
identical twins
dizygotic twins
non-identical twins
Eysenck’s theory
behaviour can be represented along 2 dimensions: introversion/extraversion and neuroticism/stability
extraversion
a person with a high biological need for environmental stimulation and a low level of arousal
introversion
a low biological need for environmental stimulation
neuroticism
is the stability of one’s personality and have lower activation thresholds biologically
psychoticism
associated with aggression, non - conformity, anger and impulsiveness which is linked with higher levels of testosterone
Kohlberg
summarised the development of moral reasoning in 3 stages;
- pre conventional
- conventional
- post conventional
pre-conventional level
- approach a moral problem from the interests of individuals
- criminals are seen as egocentric
- offending is justified if punishment is avoided and if the benefits outweigh the costs
conventional level
- approach a problem as a member of society
- take into account societies expectations
- offending is justified if it maintains relationships and is sanctioned by a social institution
post-conventional level
a moral problem is considered from above society perspective and sees moral principles, not just laws
Schonenberg and Justye (2014)
55 violent offenders were more likely to interpret emotionally ambiguous faces as aggressive angry or hostile in comparison to a non-aggressive control group
Dodge and Frame (1982)
- showed children a video of an ambiguous provocation where the intention was not hostile or accidental
- children labelled as aggressive showed greater hostile attribution bias
Pollock and Hashmall (1991)
35% of a sample of child molesters minimised their crimes by believing they were being affectionate
Edwards, Bradshaw and Hinsz (2014)
31.7% of college-aged men said they had an intention to force a women to have sex with them if they could get away with it
Thorton and Reid
- found people who committed financial crimes had pre-conventional morality
- impulsive crime tends to be associated with no reasoning at all
Oedipus complex
boys desire their mothers sexually but fear their fathers
electra complex
girls compete with their mothers as they consider their own sex inferior and suffer penis envy
Blackburn (1993)
argues a deficient superego means the id may be dominant and will lead to criminality
Blackburn’s 3 concepts
- a weak superego - develops if a parent is absent during the phallic stage so the child never resolves their complex
- socialisation - a child internalises deviant morals and values from parents
- overly-harsh - strict parents cause their child to be riddled with guilt and thin they deserve punishment
differential association
through interaction with others we learn values, skills and motives necessary for crime
Sutherland (1939)
developed scientific principles to explain all types of offending and predicted 2 prerequisites to crime:
- learning criminal values
- learning specific behaviours
predicting crime
- based on frequency, intensity and duration of exposure to deviant values
- prisons and detention centres become ‘universities of crime’
- more knowledge of crimes mean they’re more likely to commit crime
4 factors that cause crime
- attention
- retention
- reproduction
- motivation
evaluation of differential association
- changed peoples views from the biological view
- less deterministic as doesn’t blame individual factors
- creates a more useful, positive implication for society as it’s not innate
the 4 aims of prison
- incapacitation
- retribution
- rehabilitation
- deterrence
effects of prison
- institutionalisation
- brutalisation
- seperation anxiety
institutionalisation
adopting norms and values to fit in to prison makes it impossible to cope with real life as it leads to a lack of autonomy and dependency culture
brutalisation
70% of young offenders recommit within 2 years as they adopt the criminal values of prison and become better criminals
seperation anxiety
prisoners away from their family develop mood disorders like anxiety and depression therefore theres more than 60,000 self harm incidents a year in prison
top-down approach
- American approach
- look for behavioural evidence and why the offender acted that way
- start with the big picture and narrow it down with more details
Hazlewood and Douglas (1980)
created a profile for a killer and organised crimes largely into 2 categories; organised and disorganised
organised crime
- attempts to control the victim
- any mess cleared up
- pre meditated
- any trace of them gone from the crime scene
organised criminal characterstics
- above average IQ
- socially and sexually competent
- experiencing anger/depression at the the time of the attack
- follows media coverage of the crime
disorganised crime
- body left how it was killed
- impulsive
- minimum use of constraint
- the weapon still there
disorganised criminal characterstics
- lives alone, near the crime scene
- socially and sexually inadequate
- abused in childhood
- frightened and confused at the time of attack
crime timeframe
- data assimilation
- crime classification
- crime reconstruction
- profile creation
bottom - up approach
David Canter - work up from collected evidence to develop hypothesises about likely characteristics, motivations and background of offender
John Duffy
- sexual assaults and murder in London
- these were grouped on the map as were all near railways at weird times of night
- helped link the offences to him who lived in the area and worked for the rail company
geographical profiling
used to make inferences about where the offender might live
Canter’s circle theory (1993)
offenders are either marauders or commuters
marauders = operates in a familiar area close to home
commuter = operates at a distance from where they live
interpersonal coherence
crime reflects our personality all the time, so the way we treat others in everyday life
Rachel Nickell
- was murdered and bottom up approach led to Colin Stagg being targeted
- staged a covert operation to get a confession from him as he perfectly fit the profile
- however it was actually Robert Napper who was already convicted for murder but his height didn’t fit the profile
Canter and Heritage (1999)
analysis of 66 sexual assault cases using smallest space analysis identified clear patterns of behaviour
Lundrigan and Canter (2001)
evidence from 120 murders reflected the offenders home location was central to the crime scene
Novaco (1975)
was the first to suggest that cognitive factors may trigger emotional arousal that precedes aggressopn
3 stages of anger management
- cognitive preparedness
- skills acquisition
- application practice
cognitive preparedness
patients identify triggers in past events and the irrational beliefs they had, so they can re-identify the situation as non threatening
skills acquisiton
patients develop different techniques:
- physiological = relaxation
- behavioural = rational strategies
- cognitive = positive self talk and calmness
application practice
patients replay past events and use new calming techniques to resolve these and be rewarded with praise
Howells (2005)
- 418 male offenders were given anger management
- results were still present after 2 months
- however the improvement was very small for the expensive and long therapy
token economy
is a scheme designed to reinforce obedient behaviour and punish disobedient behaviour through operant conditioning
primary reinforcers
encourage the primary drives, like food, water and shelter
secondary reinforcers
are not needed for survival, so things like money and have no intrinsic value in prison so can’t be exchanged for primary reinforcers
how token economy is implemented
- the desirable behaviour is identified
- the behaviour is broken down into achievable steps
- the tariff for the desirable behaviour is identified
Rice et al (1990)
studied 92 men in a maximum security prison and found 50% of men treated using token economy reoffended
evaluation of token economy
- doesn’t create a deep change of morals and values
- only works in the context of prison
- degrading and unethical as people are scared of punishment
+ cheaper and easier for inmates
+ not much training is needed
restorative justice
new scheme in the UK where the offender comes face to face with their victims as a form of rehabilitation and taking responsibilities for their actions
key features of restorative justice
- restoration
- voluntarism
- neutrality
- safety
- active positivity
Restorative Justice Council
they mediate and establish clear standards and advocate the use of this in other contexts like schools
evaluation of restorative justice
- not suitable for all crime
- ethical issues of finding out information they didn’t want to know
- easy way out for offenders
+ considers all aspects of the context of crime
+ recognises free will and change in behaviour
Shapland (2007)
for every £1 spent on restorative justice, it would save the criminal justice system £8 in re-offending fees
