Forensic psychology Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
A behavioural & analytical tool used when trying to solve crimes
Intended to help investigators narrow down the likely suspects
How does offender profiling help investigators narrow down likely suspects?
It predicts the possible characteristics of the unkown criminal(s)
e.g. age, background, occupation etc - using evidence from the crime scene
What is another name for the top-down approach?
The typology approach
What is the top-down approach?
When profilers have pre-existing conceptual categories of offenders in their minds
They then use the evidence from the crime to fit into categories to classify the offender as one type or another
What is the bottom-up approach?
When the profilers look at the evidence from the crime & uses these to develop likely hypotheses of what the offender is like
Which sort of profiling do the FBI use?
The top-down approach
What is the key idea that the top-down approach is based on?
Based on the idea that offenders have certain signature ways of working (modus operandi)
These generally correlate with a particular set of social & psychological characteristics
What are the two pre-existing categories in the top-down approach?
- Organised offenders
- Disorganised offenders
In the top-down approach, how are offenders categorised?
The profilers have pre-existing conceptual categories of offenders in their minds
What is used to determine what category of offender a criminal is in the top-down approach?
- Evidence from the crime scene & other details of the crime
- Victim/context then used to fit into pre-existing categories
- Categorises the offender as one type or another
Once a criminal has been sorted into a category what happens next?
A profile is constructed on the offender
What is included in a criminal’s profile (top-down approach)?
Includes hypotheses about their likely:
- Demographic background
- Habits
- Physical characteristics
- Beliefs
What is the top-down approach generally regarded as?
Generally regarded as a more intuitive application of a profiler’s prior knowledge
They have a ‘feel’ for the kind of person who committed the crime
Where did the top-down approach originate?
In the USA, as a result of work carried out by the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit in the 1970s
How did the FBI create the top-down model?
They drew upon data gathered from in-dept interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
Including: Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez & Charles Manson
How did the FBI create the organised and disorganised categories from the 36 serial killers?
- Used insights from the interviews
- Thorough analysis of the crime detailed
- Intuition of experienced police
Give some characteristics of an organised criminal
- In a skilled profession or occupation
- Avg. to high intelligence
- Weapon usually hidden
- Usually married & may have children
- Plan offences
- May carry out violent fantasies on victims
Give some charateristics of a disorganised criminal
- Unskilled work/unemployed
- Socially incompetent
- Below avg. intelligence
- Victim is likely to be random
- Little evidence of planning; often spontaneous
What are the 6 stages in the Top-down approach to profiling?
1 - Input 2 - Decision 3 - Assessment 4 - Profile 5 - Assessment 6 - Review
What are psychological explanations for offending behaviour?
Explanations that focus on social & psychological that affect offending behaviour
What are cognitive distortions?
Faulty, biased irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and/or the world in a way that does not match reality & is usually -ive
The person’s perception of events is wrong - they think it’s accurate
How do cognitive distortions affect offenders?
The distortions allowed an offender to deny (to reduce -ive emotions) or rationalise (justify) their criminal behaviour
What are the two main types of cognitive distortions?
- Hostile attribution bias (HAB)
- Minimalisation
What is hostile attribution bias (HAB)?
The tendency to misinterpret or misread other people’s actions, words and/or expressions as agressive, provocative and/or threatening when in reality they’re not
How does hostile attribution bias (HAB) cause offenders to commit crimes?
Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues e.g. being ‘looked at’
This may trigger a disproportionate & often violent response
How does hostile attribution bias (HAB) cause offenders to justify their crimes?
Offenders rationalise their behaviour by blaming other factors e.g. the victim
What is atavistic form?
An early biological explanation which proposed that criminals are a subspecies of genetic throwbacks that cannot conform to the rules of modern society
Individuals are distinguishable by particular facial & cranial characteristics
What theory is the biological explanation: Historical approach?
The Atavistic form
Who was Lombroso?
He was the first to attempt any form of criminal profiling
He was strongly against “free will” explanations & a supporter of Galton and Darwin
This created criminology as a scientific discipline for the first time
What research did Lombroso conduct to prove his theory?
He investigated facial & cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts both living & dead
After examining 3839 living criminals he found 40% of crimes were accounted for by atavistic characteristics
What did the historical approach (atavistic form) suggest made someone a criminal?
(It is a biological approach) It assumed the innate physiological make-up (genes) of the person caused them to become a criminal
i.e. they are born to become criminals
What did the historical approach (atavistic form) see criminals as?
It saw offenders as ‘genetic throwbacks’ or ‘primitive sub-species’ who were biologically different from non-criminals
What did the historical approach (atavistic form) say that criminals lack?
They lack evolutionary development
Their savage & untamed nature meant that they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilised society & would inevitably turn to crime
How did the historical approach (atavistic form) distinguish criminals?
By particular facial features & cranial characteristics
What are the facial and cranial features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?
Narrow, sloping brow, strong prominent draw, high cheekbones & facial asymmetry
What are the bodily features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?
Dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers
What are the other (not cranial or bodily) features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?
Insensitivity to pain, use of slang, tattoos and unemployment
According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for a murderer?
Bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears
According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for sexual deviants?
Glinting eyes, swollen & fleshy lips
According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for fraudsters?
Thin and reedy lips
What is eugenics?
Genetically “unfit” people should be prevented from breeding
Which body type tends to do petty crimes?
Ectomorph - tall and thin
Which body type tends to do violent crimes?
Tall and muscular
Which body type tends to commit crimes involving deception, sometimes with violence?
Short and fat
Which body type tends to do commit crimes against morality?
A mixed body type (any of the main 3)
What was the study done by Kretschmer (1921)/Sheldon (1954)?
They studied 4000 convicted criminals & came up with the classification system of body types:
- Ectomorph
- Mesomorph
- Endomorph
- Mixed
What was Charles Goring’s (1913) contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?
After comparing 3000 criminals with 3000 non-criminals, Goring concluded that there is no evidence of facial characteristics being distinct in the criminal group
He did uphold the view that criminals generally have a below avg. intelligence level
What was DeLisi’s (2012) contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?
The theory is heavily based on scientific racism
It’s evident in the fact that many of the atavistic features defined are specific to people of African descent
What was Lombroso’s contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?
Revised his early theory to include the fact that criminals can be made as well as born due to range of environmental factors
Which method of profiling does the UK use?
The bottom-up approach
Also called investigative psychology
What are the 4 ways of dealing with offending behaviour?
- Custodial sentencing
- Behaviour modification in custody
- Anger management
- Restirative justice
What is custodial sentecing?
Involves a convicted offender being pushed by serving time in prison (incarceration) or another closed institution such as a young offenders institute or psychiatric hospital
What are the aims of custodial sentencing?
- Deterrence
- Incapacitation
- Retribution
- Rehabilitation
What is deterrence in custodial sentencing?
The unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual (individual deterrence) & society (general deterrence) at large from engaging in offending behaviour
Individual deterrence is based on punishment from operant conditioning & general deterence is based on vicarious punishment from SLT
What is incapacitation in custodial sentencing?
The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending in order to protect the public - especially from those who may not be capable of controlling their behaviour
What is retribution in custodial sentencing?
Society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the offender suffer, should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime
The victim/family tend to feel a sense of justice being done
What is rehabilitation in custodial sentencing?
The offender can be reformed & made into a better person through some form of education (skills or training therapy)
They should leave prison better adjusted & ready to take their place back in society
What does institutionalisation do to a person?
Leads to a lack of autonomy, conformity to roles & a dependency culture
What is brutilisation in prisons?
Prison acts as a school for crime, reinforces a criminal lifestyle & criminal norms, leads to high recidivism rates, approx 70% of young offenders re-offend within 2 years
What are the -ive psychological effects of custodial sentencing?
- Stress & depression (including self-harm & suicide)
- Institutionalisation
- “Prisonisation”
- Overcrowding & lack of privacy
- Deindividuation
- Effects on the family
- Labelling
What are the +ive effects of custodial sentencing?
- Opportunities in prison –> e.g. certain courses will be availble
- Treatment
- Rehabilitation
- Remorse
What is recidivism?
It’s the problem of reoffending - a tendency to relapse into a previous way of behaving
i.e. to commit other crimes
What are the reconviction rates according to the Prison Reform Trust?
- 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release
- Over 67% of under 18s are reconvicted in a year
What is the cost for re-offending each year?
It’s at least £9.5 billion per year for the economy
How are Norwegian prisons different to the UK ones?
Norwegian prisons have some of hte lowest redidivism rates in the worls
Their prisons are much more open than the UK & greater emphasis is place upon rehabilitation & gaining skills
What is the prison in Norway that allows more freedom called?
Halden prison - the prison is like boarding houses rather than a prison, no cells & no limit on outdoors time
Only fencing around the outside of the building
What are the problems with the FBI’s approach to offender profiling (Top-down) approach?
- Assumptions about stable types (Alison 2002)
- Subjective judgements (Godwin 2002)
- Small & unusual sample, self-report (FBI science unit)
- Support/reliability (Canter 2004)
- Simplistic (Holmes 1989; Walter 1999)
Who proposed the differential association theory?
Sutherland (1939) - he proposed this social learning theory to crime
What does the differential association theory suggest?
That individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques & motives for crim. behaviour through association & interaction with others who have more/less favourable attitudes towards crimes
These attitudes influence their own crim. attitudes & behaviour
How does the differential association theory suggest that criminal behaviour is learned?
Offending depends on the criminal norms/values of the offender’s social groups - offending more likely to occur where social grps values crim, behaviours
i.e. offending behviour is acquired in same way as any other behaviour - through process of learning
Who may offenders learn crime from?
Family, peer group, wider neighbourhood
What exactly can offenders learn from people around them?
Pro-criminal attitudes & techniques for criminal acts
How do offenders learn criminal behaviours from their peers?
Direct & vicarious reinforcement
Who developed the bottom-up approach?
Canter - he was hired to catch the railway rapist
His model is known as the Five Factor Model
What were the 5 factors in Canter’s Five Factor Model?
- Interpersonal coherence
- Time and place
- Criminal characteristics
- Criminal career
- Forensic awareness
What is “interpersonal coherence” (step 1 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?
There is a consistency between the way offenders interact with their victims & with others in their everyday lives
What is “time and place” (step 2 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?
The time & location of an offender’s crime will communicate something about their own place of residence/employment
What are “criminal characteristic” (step 3 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?
Characteristics about the offender can help to classify them, which helps with the polic investigation
What is a “criminal career” (step 4 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?
Crimes tend to be committed in similar fashion by offenders & can provide indication of how their criminal activity will develop
What is “forensic awareness” (step 5 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?
Offenders who show an understanding of a police investigation are likely to have had previous encounters with the criminal justice system
What is Criminal Geographical testing and how does it work?
A computerised system developed by Kim Rossmo & based on Rossmo’s formula
Formula produces a 3D map displaying spatial data related to time, distance & movement from crime scenes
What is the map used in Criminal Geographic testing called?
The map is called a jeopardy surface
The different colours indicate likely closeness to residence
Who created the circle theory?
David Canter & Paul Larkin (1993)
What is the circle theory?
It suggested that a criminal’s base may be identifiable by looking at the spatial distribution of crime scenes
If crimes similar in nature are plotted on a map it may be possible to join plot points to form a circle
Criminal’s base would be in the centre of this circle
What are marauder criminal?
A criminal whose home base is within the geographical area where the crimes are committed
What is a commuter criminal?
Offenders who travel to another geographical location & may also commit crimes within a defined space around which a circle can be drawn
What are the 4 factors that make up the biological approach to criminality?
- Hormones
- Genes
- Brain structure
- Brain chemistry (NTs)
What did the case of Phineas Gage show?
Personality change via brain damage
What happened in the case of Phineas Gage?
- Gage, 1848
- Railway worker - catastrophic damage to prefrontal lobes caused by metal bolt catapulting through cheek & up through eye into brain (prefrontal area)
- Recovered physically but went from being a sobet, quiet man to a violent drunk
- Prefrontal lobes keep behaviour in check, moderate impulses
What did Raine’s (2009) neural study show?
- Compared 27 psychopaths to 32 non-psychopaths
- Pychopaths = 18% volume reduction in amygdala, thinning of cortex
“The amygdala is the seat of emotion. Pychopaths lack emotion. They lack empathy, remorse, guilt”
What did Raine find in his study about the PFC?
He found an 11% reduction in grey matter of the PFC in people with APD compared to controls
What is the process of synaptic transmission?
- AP or NT arrives at presynaptic terminal
- NTs synthesised in vesicles
- Vesicles fuse w cell membrane
- NTs diffuse into synaptic gap
- Binding to receptors
- Reuptake
- Post-synaptic potential created
- Summation
What are the two genes that are said to cause criminality?
- The MAOA gene
- CDH13 hene
What is the protein made by the gene CDH13?
Cadherin
How does CDH13 affect the brain?
- Slows down axon growth when neurons change structure or type
- Slows down the natural death (apoptosis) of vascular cells around neurons during periods of stress
How does CDH13 slowing down axon growth affect the brain?
This “negative regulation” helps conserve energy & speed up neurons changing structure or type
How does CDH13 slowing down apoptosis (natural death of cells) affect the brain?
- It is a natural defence against atherosclerosis& harmful (oxidative) stress
- It is in a very low activity state in some types of cancer development - leaving growth mostly unchecked
How does CDH13 affect criminals?
It interrupts the building & strengthening of some neural networks during their development
How does CDH13 affect the building & strengthening of certain genes in criminals?
- Childhood stress/trauma might methylate (“switch off”) the gene
- Some networks might end up less well-developed or well-connected
What are mirror neurons?
A type of brain cell that fire when you do an action & also when you simply watch someone else doing the same action
- They help us understand & interpret the actions of others
What are monoamines?
A group of NTs
These include: serotonin, noradrenaline & dopamine
How does the monoamine hypothesis work?
- NTs called monoamies are released
- After they’re recieved we use enzyme MAO-A to break them down
- Production of MAO-A is controlled by hene MAOA
- If you lack MAO-A, you’ll be unable to reduce levels of monoamines at the normal rate (always overstimulated)
What is the production of MAO-A controlled by?
The gene MAOA
How is the MAOA gene inherited?
It is located on the X chromosome & only one functioning copy is needed
What was the aim of Brunner’s (1993) study?
To explain behaviour of a large family in the Netherlands where the males are affected by a syndrome of borderline mental retardation & abnormal violent behaviour
ie impulsive aggression, arson, attempted rape etc
What was the method of Bunner et al.’s (1993) study?
Clinical examination of male family members & comparison with normal family members
What behaviour was examined in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study?
(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)
- Repeated episodes aggressive & sometiems violent behaviour
- Sleep disturbance & night terrors
- Inappropriate sexual behaviour towards sisters & female relatives
- Arson
What did the clinical examination of the men in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study show?
(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)
All 9 affected males were mentally retarded (avg. IQ 85) –> only 1 completed primary education
(All unaffected males attended school & were employed)
Al females, including carriers appear normal
What did DNA analysis of the men in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study show?
(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)
All affected males showed genetic mutations in the genes producing MAO-A
What 3 NTs does MAO-A break down & remove?
- Noradrenaline
- Dopamine
- Serotonin
What do the NTs; noradrenaline, dopamine & serotonin each control?
- Noradrenaline - controls arousal
- Dopamine - emotional arousal
- Serotonin - sleep
How do lower levels of MAOA affect the levels of NTs and what is the concequence of this?
The NTs are broken down less by MAO-A therefore their levels increase
SEROTONIN - lowers impulse control
Lower levels of DOPAMINE & NORADRENALINE known to cause spontaneuos & irritable aggression
What supporting evidence is there for the MAO-A gene?
- Virkkunen et al. (1994) - Violent criminals whose violence was compulsive had lower levels of serotonin than violent criminals whose crime was planned
- Beggard et al. (2003) - serotonergic dysfunction linked to criminal behaviour
Who conducted the adoption studies for genetic explanations of criminality?
Medick et al. (1984)
How many ppts were there in Medick et al.’s (1984) study?
14426 Danish adoptees
What are conitive distortiosn?
Faulty, biased & irrational ways of thinking that mean wee percieve ourselves, others & the world in a way that does not match reality & is usually -ive
A person’s perceptions of events is wrong, but they think it’s accurate
