Forensic psychology AO1+AO2 Flashcards

Question

What did Lombroso do?

Answer 1

Pioneered a more scientific basis for the study of crime. * l'Uomo Deliquente (1876) * Criminals are 'Genetic throwbacks' * Genetic subspecies * Biologically different from non-criminals

Answer 2

Offenders were seen by lombroso as lacking evolutionary development * Savage and untamed * Could not adjust to civil society - turned to crime * Crime is rooted in genes - innate

Answer 3

The subtype could be identified via phsyiological markers. These are linked to specific types of crime and mainly (but not exclusively) involve the face and head : * Narrow, slopping brow * Strong jaw * High cheekbones * Facial Asymmetry * Dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers * Insensitivity to pain, use of slang; tattoos and unemployment

Answer 4

Lombroso went on to categorise particular types of offedners in terms of their physical amd facial characteristics. * Muderers = Bloodshot eyes; curly hair and long ears * Sexual Deviants = Gliniting eyes; swollen fleshy lips and projecting ears * Fraudsters = Thin reedy lips

Answer 5

Lombroso studied the facial and cranial features of many Italian convicts. * Studied 383 and 3839 living criminals * Concluded there was an atavistic form and that these features were key indicators of criminality * Concluded that 40% of criminal acts are commited by people with Atavistic characteristics

Answer 6

**Lombros's Legacy** One strength of Lombroso's research is that it changed the face of the study of crime * Father of modern criminology * Shifted the emphasis of crime away from a moralistic discourse * more towards the scientific realm * Tried to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit crimes brought about the beginning of offender profiling **This suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology**

Answer 7

**However, there is some question as to whether or not Lombroso’s legacy is entirely positive (DeLisi, 2012)** * Racist undertones in Lombroso’s work. * Many of the atavistic features Lombroso identified are most likely to be found in people of African descent. * Fitted the attitude of the eugenics movement of the 19th century. **This suggests that Lombroso’s work might be more subjective that objective and may also be heavily influenced by racial predjudices.**

Answer 8

**Goring (1913) set out to establish whether there were any physical or mental abnormalities among offenders.** * Compared 3000 offenders and non-offenders. * No evidence to support Lombroso’s ideas. * Although he did suggest a lower level of intelligence. **This challenges the idea that offender can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population and are therefore unlikely to be a sub-species.**

Answer 9

**Lombroso failed to control important variables within his research.** * No control group of non-offenders * Knock on effect to less control over confounding variables. * E.g. there is research showing a link between crime and poverty and poor educational outcomes. * Such a link would explain for example why offenders were more likely to be unemployed. **This suggests that Lombroso is research does not meet modern scientific standards and therefore his results lack validity.**

Answer 10

**Genetic explanations,Candiate genes, Diathesis stress model .**

Answer 11

**Research prefrontal cortex and mirror neurones**

Answer 12

**Criminals inherit genes**

Answer 13

**Twin studies, adoption studies**

Answer 14

**Twin studies** * Christianesen (19770 - 3500 twin pairs in Dennmark * CR for offender 35% vs 15% * Sugesting behaviour and underlying predisposing traits are inherited

Answer 15

**Adoption studies** * Crowe (1972) * Biology lead to a 50% risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18% compared to 5%.

Answer 16

**Tiihonen et al. (2014) – genetic analysis of 800 offenders** * Abnormalities on two genes: * MAOA * CDH13 * 5-10% of all several violent crime in Finland is attributable to the MAOA and CDH13 genotypes.

Answer 17

Makes sense that the environment would moderate the influence of genes. * As with schizophrenia - a biological predisposition to criminal behaviour could be triggered by environmental factors. * E.g. Criminal role models or a dysfunctional environment.

Answer 18

* Evidence suggests neural differences between criminals and non-criminals. * Lots of research on APD * Reduced emotional responses, lack of empathy, impulsive, needing stimulation etc.

Answer 19

* Evidence suggests neural differences between criminals and non-criminals. * Lots of research on APD * Reduced emotional responses, lack of empathy, impulsive, needing stimulation etc. * Raine et al. reported several brain imaging studies showing reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex in people with APD. * Raine et al. also found an 11% reduction in grey matter in the prefrontal cortex.

Answer 20

* Mirror neurons active when we are performing or watching someone else perform * Intentions and emotions of other people 🡪 experience empathy. * Switched on by default. * Keysers et al. (2011) found that only when criminals were asked to empathise did their empathy reaction activate. * People with APD can experience empathy, but do so more sporadically and by “choice”

Answer 21

**Strength: Support for the Diathesis stress model** Mednick et al. (1984) conducted a study on over 13,000 adoptees. * It was found that when neither the biological nor adoptive parents had convictions the percentage of adoptees that did was 13.5% | 20% when either of the biological parents did | 25% when both sets of parents did. * Inheritance plays a role but environment cannot be disregarded.

Answer 22

**Weakness : Problems with twin studies** Problems with Twin Studies * Twin studies assume equal environments – because the twins are raised together. * This could however apply much more to MZ than DZ twins  people (parents) tend to treat them more similarly * Impacts behaviour. * Higher concordance rates could be a result of being treated the same, rather than due to genetics.

Answer 23

**Weakness : problems with adoption studies** Separation of genetic and environmental influences is problematic due to late adoptions. * Adoptees often maintain regular contact with their biological parents. * This makes it tricky to assess the relative impact of biology. * This suggests that assessing the relative impact of nature and nurture may only be possible with very early adoptions where contact with biological relatives does not occur. .

Answer 24

**Brain evidence** Brain Evidence * Research support for the link between crime and the frontal lobe. * Kandel and Freed (1989) reviewed evidence of frontal lobe damage and antisocial behaviour. * Impulsive behaviour | emotional instability | inability to learn from mistakes. * Supports the idea that brain damage may be a causal factor in offending behaviour.

Answer 25

**Intervening variables** Relationship is complex: Other factors could contribute to APD and ultimately to offending. * Farrington et al. (2006) studied males who scored highly on psychopathy. * Multiple risk factors involved: Raised by convicted parents, physically neglected 🡪 could have also caused neural differences e.g. reduced frontal lobe activity due to trauma (Rauch et al., 2006).

Answer 26

**Introversion - Extroversion (E) Neuroticsm - stability (N) Psycchoticsm - sociabilty (P) **

Answer 27

These dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or traits * Measured using the EPQ * Allowed him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours

Answer 28

There are biological basis to our persoanlity traits and based on the nervous system we inherit * Extroverts Underactive nervous system | Constantly seek stimulation | risk-taking behaviours | hard to condition * Neurotics High level of reactivity in SNS | nervous jumpy and overanxious | instability makes them unpredictable. * Psychotics High levels of testosterone | unemotional | prone to aggression

Answer 29

**The criminal personality is extrovert-neurotic-psychotic.** * Neurotics are unstable and are therefore likely to overreact in situations of threat. * Extroverts seek more arousal and therefore are more likely to engage in risky behaviour/dangerous activities. * Psychotics are aggressive and lack empathy.

Answer 30

* In this theory personality is linked to offending behaviour via the process of socialisation. * The socialisation process includes teaching children to become more able to delay gratification and become more socially orientated. * Teaching them to be less selfish and teaching them the difference between right and wrong. * High E and N makes people harder to condition. * Less likely to learn from previous punishment * E.g. via anxiety responses or punishments from parents. * More likely to behave antisocially if given the chance

Answer 31

* The idea that personality can be measured is one that is central to Eysenck’s theory. * Measured using the EPQ Allowed him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours e.g. criminality. Also allowed him to draw comparisons between people.

Answer 32

**Research Support** One strength of the theory is there is evidence to support the criminal personality. * Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) compared 2017 male prisoners scores on the EPQ with 2422 male controls. * Across all the age groups that were sampled prisoners recorded higher average scores in terms of E, N, and P than the controls. * This agrees with the prediction that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions identified by the theory.

Answer 33

**Counterpoint** However, a meta-analysis of relevant studies conducted by Farrington et al. (1982) reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of P but not for E and N * Furthermore EEGs have provided inconsistent evidence of differences in cortical arousal between extroverts and introverts, which casts doubt on the physiological basis of the dimensions identified by the theory. * This means that some of the central assumptions of the theory have been challenged

Answer 34

**Cultural Factors** A further limitation is that cultural factors were not taken into account. * Bartol and Holanchock (1979) studied Hispanic and African-American offenders. * Divided into 6 groups based on offences and offending history. * All 6 groups scored lower on E then non-offender controls. * Suggested to be due to the fact the sample was culturally different to Eysenck’s sample. * This questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised and suggests that it maybe a culturally relative concept.

Answer 35

**Too simplistic** The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type is too simplistic. * Moffitt (1993) distinguished between adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offending. * Personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending would continue for. * She considered persistence in offending to be the result of a reciprocal process between personality and environmental reactions to those personality traits. * This presents a more complex picture of offending than Eysenck initially proposed and suggests that the course of offending in determined by an interaction between personality and environment.

Answer 36

**DAT rejects psychological and biological explanations proposing a social learning theory of crime by edwin sutherland**

Answer 37

* Offending is learned through relationships and associations with the people around us * Individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with different people

Answer 38

* Sutherland developed a set of scientific principles to help explain all types of offending. The conditiona which are said to cause cirme should be present when crime is present, and they should be absent when crime is absent * His theory was designed to discriminate between individuals who became offenders and those who do not, whatever their class or ethnic background

Answer 39

Offending behaviour may be acquired in the same way as any other behaviour through the processes of learning * Learning occurs most often through interactions with significant others who we value most and spend most time with * **Friends and Family** * **Mathmatically predict the likelihood of offending by knowing the frequency, intensity and duration of exposure to criminal and non-criminal norms**

Answer 40

**offending arises from two factors : Learned attitudes towards offending and the learning of specific acts/techniques**

Answer 41

**Socialisation into a group leads to being exposed to attitudes towards the law. If proiniminal attitudes are acquired outweigh anti-criminal attitudes then offending will occur **

Answer 42

would-be offenders may also teach particular techniques alongside the attitudes

Answer 43

As well as accounting for how offending may 'breed' among specific social groups and communities. DAT can also offer another explanation for high levels of reoffending levels. * Prison innmates learn specfic techniques from one another * Techniques are put into practic when released * Observational learning, immitation or direct tuition

Answer 44

**Strength : A shift of focus** One strength of of DAT is that it changed the focus of offending explanations * Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from biological accounts of offending such as Lombroso's Atavistic theory * DAT draws attention to the fact that deviant social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for offending than deviant people **This approach is more desirable because it offers a realistic solution to the problem of offending instead of biological or punishment**

Answer 45

**Counterpoint : Shift of focus ** * However, DAT runs the risk of sterotyping individuals who come from impoverished crime ridden backgrouns as 'unavoidable influences' * Although sutherland pointed out that offending should be considered on an individual case by case basis. * The theory does suggest that exposure to pro-crime values is sufficient to produce offending behaviour in those exposed to it. **This ignores people that may choose not to offend despite these influences, as not everyone who is exposed to pro-crime attitudes goes on to offend.**

Answer 46

**Strength : A wide reach** * Another strength is that the theory can account for offending within all sectors of society. * Sutherland recognised that some types of offence, such as burglary may be clustered in inner-city working class communities. It is also the case that some offences are clustered amongst more affluent groups in society. * Sutherland was particularly interested in so called ‘white collar’ or corporate offences and how this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values. * This shows that it’s not just the lower classes who commit offences and that the principles of differential association can be used to explain all offences.

Answer 47

**Weakness : Difficulty testing** One limitation is that it is difficult to test the predictions of differential association theory. * Sutherland aimed to provide a scientific, mathematical framework within which future offending behaviour could be predicted and this means that the predictions must be testable. The problem is that many of the concepts are not testable because they cannot be operationalised. For example, it is hard to see how the number of pro-crime attitudes a person has, or has been exposed to, could be measured. * Similarly, the theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-crime values outnumber anti-crime ones. Without being able to measure these, we cannot know at what point the urge to offend is realised and the offending career triggered. **This means that the theory does not have scientific credibility.**

Answer 48

* Ronalds Blacburn's idea of the inadequate superego * John Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory

Answer 49

The superego is one of the three parts of personality and is formed at the end of phallic stage. * Morality principle * Exert influnce by punishing the ego through guilt and rewarded with pride

Answer 50

It consists of three explanations for crime revolve around the concept of an inadequate or deficient, superego, which results in an uncontrolled id (Blackburn 1999).

Answer 51

* Absence of the same sex parent * No oppurtunity for identification * The child cannot identify * makes immorality/criminality more likely

Answer 52

* The superego that the child identified has deviant moral values * A boy that is raised by a criminal father is not likely to associate with guilt and wrongdoing

Answer 53

* The superego is based on identification with an authoritative * Strict and firm but forgiving * An excessive punitive or harsh parenting style leads to an over-harsh superego * Individual is crippled by anxiety and guilt * Could unconciously drive the indvidual to commit crimes to satisfy the superego's excessive need for punishment

Answer 54

A key feature of this approach is that it deals with the emotional life of individuals * Inadequate superego results in primitive emotional demands to take control and guide behaviour * Also acknowledges the role of guilt and anxiety and important lack thereof.

Answer 55

**Bowlby (1944) argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependant upon the child forming a warm, continuous relationship with a mother figure** * Bond is unique and superior and vital to child/s wellbeing and development * Failure to establish a bond means the child would experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences * Affectionless Psychopathy * Lack of guilt, empathy and feeling for others * Acts of deliquency & lack of ability to develop close relationships with others * - 44 thieves study

Answer 56

**Research Support : One strength of the psychodynamic approach is research support for the link between offending and the superego** * Goerta (1991) conducted a freudian style analysis of 10 offenders * Disturbances in the superego formation were diagnosed * Each offender experienced unconcious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment * Consequence of an overharsh superego - the need for pusnishment manifests its self as desire to commit acts of wrongdoing **This seems to support the role of psychic conflicts and an over-harsh superego as basis for offending**

Answer 57

**Generally, however the central principles of the inadequate superego theory are not supported** * If this theory were correct we would expect harsh punitive parent to raise children who constantly experience feelings of guilt and anxiety * Evidence however suggests the opposite * Harsh forms of discipline tends to result in children who are rebellious and rarely expressed feelings of guilt or self-crticism (Kochanska et al 2011)

Answer 58

**Limitation : Gender bias** * Another limitation of freudian theory is that it is gender biased * An assumption within the theory is that girls develop a weaker superego than boys because identification with the same sex parent is not as strong * Don't experience intense emotion associated with castration anxiety * Results in less pressure to identify with their mothers - superego (sense of morality) is less released * Should result in females being prone to reoffending than males * Prison rates do not support this, with around 20x more men in prison than women in the UK * Research by Hoffman (1975) has also found that females are slightly more able to resist temptation and are more moral than males **This suggests there is an alpha bias at the heart of psychodynamic theory and means it may not be appropiate as an explanation for offending behaviour**

Answer 59

**Limitation : other factors** * A limitation of Bowlby's theory is that it is only based on association between maternal deprivation and offending * Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence * Even if there is a link between the two that doesn't mean that it is casual link * There are many other reasons for this apparent link, for example maternal deprivation may be due to growing up in poverty, and this might then explain later offending **This suggests that maternal depirvation may be one of the reasons for the later offending behaviour, but not the only reason**

Answer 60

Custodial Sentencing

Answer 61

1. Deterence The unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual from the engaging in offending behaviour. It works on two levels general deterance and individual deternce 2. Incapaciation The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public. The need is often dependant on the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender 3. Retribution Society is enacting revenge by making the offender suffer. The suffering should be proportionate to the to the offender ; the offfender should pay for their crimers 4. Rehalibiltation Reform- when released offenders should leave better adjusted and ready to take their place in society prison should provide offedners with the oppurtunity to prepare for the outside world