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Forensic psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is offender profiling?

A

A behavioural & analytical tool used when trying to solve crimes

Intended to help investigators narrow down the likely suspects

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2
Q

How does offender profiling help investigators narrow down likely suspects?

A

It predicts the possible characteristics of the unkown criminal(s)

e.g. age, background, occupation etc - using evidence from the crime scene

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3
Q

What is another name for the top-down approach?

A

The typology approach

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4
Q

What is the top-down approach?

A

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

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5
Q

What is the bottom-up approach?

A

When the profilers look at the evidence from the crime & uses these to develop likely hypotheses of what the offender is like

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6
Q

Which sort of profiling do the FBI use?

A

The top-down approach

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7
Q

What is the key idea that the top-down approach is based on?

A

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

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8
Q

What are the two pre-existing categories in the top-down approach?

A
  • Organised offenders

- Disorganised offenders

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9
Q

In the top-down approach, how are offenders categorised?

A

The profilers have pre-existing conceptual categories of offenders in their minds

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10
Q

What is used to determine what category of offender a criminal is in the top-down approach?

A
  • 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
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11
Q

Once a criminal has been sorted into a category what happens next?

A

A profile is constructed on the offender

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12
Q

What is included in a criminal’s profile (top-down approach)?

A

Includes hypotheses about their likely:

  • Demographic background
  • Habits
  • Physical characteristics
  • Beliefs
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13
Q

What is the top-down approach generally regarded as?

A

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

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14
Q

Where did the top-down approach originate?

A

In the USA, as a result of work carried out by the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit in the 1970s

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15
Q

How did the FBI create the top-down model?

A

They drew upon data gathered from in-dept interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers

Including: Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez & Charles Manson

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16
Q

How did the FBI create the organised and disorganised categories from the 36 serial killers?

A
  • Used insights from the interviews
  • Thorough analysis of the crime detailed
  • Intuition of experienced police
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17
Q

Give some characteristics of an organised criminal

A
  • 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
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18
Q

Give some charateristics of a disorganised criminal

A
  • Unskilled work/unemployed
  • Socially incompetent
  • Below avg. intelligence
  • Victim is likely to be random
  • Little evidence of planning; often spontaneous
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19
Q

What are the 6 stages in the Top-down approach to profiling?

A 
1 - Input
2 - Decision
3 - Assessment 
4 - Profile
5 - Assessment
6 - Review
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20
Q

What are psychological explanations for offending behaviour?

A

Explanations that focus on social & psychological that affect offending behaviour

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21
Q

What are cognitive distortions?

A

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

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22
Q

How do cognitive distortions affect offenders?

A

The distortions allowed an offender to deny (to reduce -ive emotions) or rationalise (justify) their criminal behaviour

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23
Q

What are the two main types of cognitive distortions?

A
  • Hostile attribution bias (HAB)

- Minimalisation

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24
Q

What is hostile attribution bias (HAB)?

A

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

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25
Q

How does hostile attribution bias (HAB) cause offenders to commit crimes?

A

Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues e.g. being ‘looked at’

This may trigger a disproportionate & often violent response

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26
Q

How does hostile attribution bias (HAB) cause offenders to justify their crimes?

A

Offenders rationalise their behaviour by blaming other factors e.g. the victim

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27
Q

What is atavistic form?

A

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

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28
Q

What theory is the biological explanation: Historical approach?

A

The Atavistic form

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29
Q

Who was Lombroso?

A

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

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30
Q

What research did Lombroso conduct to prove his theory?

A

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

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31
Q

What did the historical approach (atavistic form) suggest made someone a criminal?

A

(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

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32
Q

What did the historical approach (atavistic form) see criminals as?

A

It saw offenders as ‘genetic throwbacks’ or ‘primitive sub-species’ who were biologically different from non-criminals

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33
Q

What did the historical approach (atavistic form) say that criminals lack?

A

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

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34
Q

How did the historical approach (atavistic form) distinguish criminals?

A

By particular facial features & cranial characteristics

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35
Q

What are the facial and cranial features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?

A

Narrow, sloping brow, strong prominent draw, high cheekbones & facial asymmetry

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36
Q

What are the bodily features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?

A

Dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers

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37
Q

What are the other (not cranial or bodily) features of criminals according to Lombros’s theory?

A

Insensitivity to pain, use of slang, tattoos and unemployment

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38
Q

According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for a murderer?

A

Bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears

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39
Q

According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for sexual deviants?

A

Glinting eyes, swollen & fleshy lips

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40
Q

According to Lombroso, what are the physical characteristics for fraudsters?

A

Thin and reedy lips

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41
Q

What is eugenics?

A

Genetically “unfit” people should be prevented from breeding

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42
Q

Which body type tends to do petty crimes?

A

Ectomorph - tall and thin

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43
Q

Which body type tends to do violent crimes?

A

Tall and muscular

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44
Q

Which body type tends to commit crimes involving deception, sometimes with violence?

A

Short and fat

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45
Q

Which body type tends to do commit crimes against morality?

A

A mixed body type (any of the main 3)

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46
Q

What was the study done by Kretschmer (1921)/Sheldon (1954)?

A

They studied 4000 convicted criminals & came up with the classification system of body types:

  • Ectomorph
  • Mesomorph
  • Endomorph
  • Mixed
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47
Q

What was Charles Goring’s (1913) contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?

A

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

48
Q

What was DeLisi’s (2012) contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?

A

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

49
Q

What was Lombroso’s contradictory evidence for the atavistic form?

A

Revised his early theory to include the fact that criminals can be made as well as born due to range of environmental factors

50
Q

Which method of profiling does the UK use?

A

The bottom-up approach

Also called investigative psychology

51
Q

What are the 4 ways of dealing with offending behaviour?

A
  • Custodial sentencing
  • Behaviour modification in custody
  • Anger management
  • Restirative justice
52
Q

What is custodial sentecing?

A

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

53
Q

What are the aims of custodial sentencing?

A
  • Deterrence
  • Incapacitation
  • Retribution
  • Rehabilitation
54
Q

What is deterrence in custodial sentencing?

A

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

55
Q

What is incapacitation in custodial sentencing?

A

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

56
Q

What is retribution in custodial sentencing?

A

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

57
Q

What is rehabilitation in custodial sentencing?

A

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

58
Q

What does institutionalisation do to a person?

A

Leads to a lack of autonomy, conformity to roles & a dependency culture

59
Q

What is brutilisation in prisons?

A

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

60
Q

What are the -ive psychological effects of custodial sentencing?

A
  • Stress & depression (including self-harm & suicide)
  • Institutionalisation
  • “Prisonisation”
  • Overcrowding & lack of privacy
  • Deindividuation
  • Effects on the family
  • Labelling
61
Q

What are the +ive effects of custodial sentencing?

A
  • Opportunities in prison –> e.g. certain courses will be availble
  • Treatment
  • Rehabilitation
  • Remorse
62
Q

What is recidivism?

A

It’s the problem of reoffending - a tendency to relapse into a previous way of behaving

i.e. to commit other crimes

63
Q

What are the reconviction rates according to the Prison Reform Trust?

A
  • 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release

- Over 67% of under 18s are reconvicted in a year

64
Q

What is the cost for re-offending each year?

A

It’s at least £9.5 billion per year for the economy

65
Q

How are Norwegian prisons different to the UK ones?

A

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

66
Q

What is the prison in Norway that allows more freedom called?

A

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

67
Q

What are the problems with the FBI’s approach to offender profiling (Top-down) approach?

A
  • 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)
68
Q

Who proposed the differential association theory?

A

Sutherland (1939) - he proposed this social learning theory to crime

69
Q

What does the differential association theory suggest?

A

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

70
Q

How does the differential association theory suggest that criminal behaviour is learned?

A

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

71
Q

Who may offenders learn crime from?

A

Family, peer group, wider neighbourhood

72
Q

What exactly can offenders learn from people around them?

A

Pro-criminal attitudes & techniques for criminal acts

73
Q

How do offenders learn criminal behaviours from their peers?

A

Direct & vicarious reinforcement

74
Q

Who developed the bottom-up approach?

A

Canter - he was hired to catch the railway rapist

His model is known as the Five Factor Model

75
Q

What were the 5 factors in Canter’s Five Factor Model?

A
  1. Interpersonal coherence
  2. Time and place
  3. Criminal characteristics
  4. Criminal career
  5. Forensic awareness
76
Q

What is “interpersonal coherence” (step 1 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?

A

There is a consistency between the way offenders interact with their victims & with others in their everyday lives

77
Q

What is “time and place” (step 2 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?

A

The time & location of an offender’s crime will communicate something about their own place of residence/employment

78
Q

What are “criminal characteristic” (step 3 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?

A

Characteristics about the offender can help to classify them, which helps with the polic investigation

79
Q

What is a “criminal career” (step 4 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?

A

Crimes tend to be committed in similar fashion by offenders & can provide indication of how their criminal activity will develop

80
Q

What is “forensic awareness” (step 5 - Canter’s 5 factor model)?

A

Offenders who show an understanding of a police investigation are likely to have had previous encounters with the criminal justice system

81
Q

What is Criminal Geographical testing and how does it work?

A

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

82
Q

What is the map used in Criminal Geographic testing called?

A

The map is called a jeopardy surface

The different colours indicate likely closeness to residence

83
Q

Who created the circle theory?

A

David Canter & Paul Larkin (1993)

84
Q

What is the circle theory?

A

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

85
Q

What are marauder criminal?

A

A criminal whose home base is within the geographical area where the crimes are committed

86
Q

What is a commuter criminal?

A

Offenders who travel to another geographical location & may also commit crimes within a defined space around which a circle can be drawn

87
Q

What are the 4 factors that make up the biological approach to criminality?

A
  • Hormones
  • Genes
  • Brain structure
  • Brain chemistry (NTs)
88
Q

What did the case of Phineas Gage show?

A

Personality change via brain damage

89
Q

What happened in the case of Phineas Gage?

A
  • 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
90
Q

What did Raine’s (2009) neural study show?

A
  • 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”

91
Q

What did Raine find in his study about the PFC?

A

He found an 11% reduction in grey matter of the PFC in people with APD compared to controls

92
Q

What is the process of synaptic transmission?

A
  • 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
93
Q

What are the two genes that are said to cause criminality?

A
  • The MAOA gene

- CDH13 hene

94
Q

What is the protein made by the gene CDH13?

A

Cadherin

95
Q

How does CDH13 affect the brain?

A
  • 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
96
Q

How does CDH13 slowing down axon growth affect the brain?

A

This “negative regulation” helps conserve energy & speed up neurons changing structure or type

97
Q

How does CDH13 slowing down apoptosis (natural death of cells) affect the brain?

A
  • 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
98
Q

How does CDH13 affect criminals?

A

It interrupts the building & strengthening of some neural networks during their development

99
Q

How does CDH13 affect the building & strengthening of certain genes in criminals?

A
  • Childhood stress/trauma might methylate (“switch off”) the gene
  • Some networks might end up less well-developed or well-connected
100
Q

What are mirror neurons?

A

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
101
Q

What are monoamines?

A

A group of NTs

These include: serotonin, noradrenaline & dopamine

102
Q

How does the monoamine hypothesis work?

A
  • 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)
103
Q

What is the production of MAO-A controlled by?

A

The gene MAOA

104
Q

How is the MAOA gene inherited?

A

It is located on the X chromosome & only one functioning copy is needed

105
Q

What was the aim of Brunner’s (1993) study?

A

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

106
Q

What was the method of Bunner et al.’s (1993) study?

A

Clinical examination of male family members & comparison with normal family members

107
Q

What behaviour was examined in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study?

(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)

A
  • Repeated episodes aggressive & sometiems violent behaviour
  • Sleep disturbance & night terrors
  • Inappropriate sexual behaviour towards sisters & female relatives
  • Arson
108
Q

What did the clinical examination of the men in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study show?

(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)

A

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

109
Q

What did DNA analysis of the men in Brunner et al.’s (1993) study show?

(Violence in a family with genetic abnormality)

A

All affected males showed genetic mutations in the genes producing MAO-A

110
Q

What 3 NTs does MAO-A break down & remove?

A
  • Noradrenaline
  • Dopamine
  • Serotonin
111
Q

What do the NTs; noradrenaline, dopamine & serotonin each control?

A
  • Noradrenaline - controls arousal
  • Dopamine - emotional arousal
  • Serotonin - sleep
112
Q

How do lower levels of MAOA affect the levels of NTs and what is the concequence of this?

A

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

113
Q

What supporting evidence is there for the MAO-A gene?

A
  • 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
114
Q

Who conducted the adoption studies for genetic explanations of criminality?

A

Medick et al. (1984)

115
Q

How many ppts were there in Medick et al.’s (1984) study?

A

14426 Danish adoptees

116
Q

What are conitive distortiosn?

A

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

Psychology A-level (7 decks)

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