Forensic Psychology (definitions) Flashcards
Crime
An act committed in violation of the law
Official Statistics
Figures based on number of crimes reported and recorded by police
Used by government to inform crime prevention strategies
Victim Survey
A questionnaire that involves asking a sample of people which crimes have been committed against them and whether they were reported or not.
Offender Survey
A self-report measure
Requires people to record the number and types of crime committed over a specific period
Offender Profiling
A behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigator predict and profile characteristics of unknown criminals
Top-Down Approach
Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories
Organised Offender
Shows evidence of planning, targets the victim, tends to be socially and sexually competent, higher than average intelligence
Disorganised Offender
Shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent, lower that average intelligence
Bottom-Up Approach
Profilers work from evidence collected from crime scene to develop hypotheses about likely characteristics, motivation and social background of offender
Investigative Psychology
A form of bottom-up profiling
Matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory
Geographical Profiling
A form of bottom-up profiling
Based on the principle of spatial consistency: an offender’s operational base and possible future offences are revealed by geographical locations of their previous crimes
Atavistic Form
Biological approach to offending
Attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are genetic throwbacks/ primitive sub species ill-suited to conforming to rules of modern society
Distinguishable by facial and cranial characteristics
Genetics
DNA produces ‘instructions’ for general physical features of an organism and also specific physical features (e.g eye colour)
These may impact on psychological features (e.g. intelligence)
Genes are inherited
Neural Explanation
Any explanation of behaviour in terms of (dys)functions of the brain and nervous system
Includes the activity of brain structures (e.g. hypothalamus) and neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin)
The Criminal Personality
An individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and cannot be conditioned easily
Likely to engage in offending behaviour
Level of Moral Reasoning
The process where an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong
Kohlberg’s Model and Criminality
Objectified the process of ‘Level of Moral Reasoning’ by identifying different levels of reasoning based on people’s answers to moral dilemmas
Hostile Attribution Bias
Tendency to judge ambiguous situations/ actions of others, as aggressive and/or threatening
Minimalisation
Type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event/ emotion
Cognitive Distortions
Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and often negatively
Differential Association Theory
An explanation for offending: proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn their values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour
Psychodynamic Explanations
A group of theories influenced by the work of Freud
Share the belief that unconscious conflicts, rooted in early childhood, drive future behaviour
Custodial Sentencing
Judicial sentencing determined by a court
Offender is punished by serving time in prison/ in some other closed therapeutic and/or educational institution
Recidivism
Reoffending
Behaviour Modification
Treatment based on the principles of operant conditioning to replace undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through use of positive and negative reinforcement
Anger Management
Therapeutic programme which involves identifying signs that trigger anger, as well as learning techniques to calm down
Offered in prisons to encourage self-awareness and facilitate rehabilitation
Restorative Justice
System for dealing with criminal behaviour
Focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims
Enables offenders to see impacts of their crime and empowers victims by giving them a ‘voice’
Atavistic Characteristics
Cranial - narrow sloping brow, strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones, facial asymmetry
Physical - dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers
e.g. Murderers - bloodshot eyes, long ears, curly hair
Sexual deviants - glinting eyes, swollen fleshy lips, projecting ears
Candidate Genes
Jari Tiihonen et al (2014) revealed abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with crime - MAOA gene (linked to aggression) and CDH13 (linked to substance abused and attention deficit disorder)
Diathesis-Stress Model
A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come about through the combination of genetic predisposition and biological/ psychological trigger (e.g. having criminal role models)
Prefrontal Cortex
The part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour
Raine (2011) reported that there are many brain-imaging studies demonstrating individuals with antisocial personalities having reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
Associated with reduced emotional responses, a lack of empathy for the feelings of others, a condition that characterises many convicted criminals
Affectionless Psychopathy (Bowlby)
Characterised by a lack of guilt, empathy and feeling for others
These individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency
Deterrence - Aims of Custodial Sentencing
Based on the behaviourist idea of conditioning through punishment
Unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual from engaging in in offending behaviour
Incapacitation - Aims of Custodial Sentencing
Offenders are taken out of society to prevent them reoffending as a means of protecting the public
Likely to depend on the severity of the offence
Retribution - Aims of Custodial Sentencing
Based on the biblical notion an ‘eye for an eye’
The idea that the offender should pay in some way for their actions (e.g. prison)
Rehabilitation - Aims of Custodial Sentencing
Reform - prison should provide opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programmes for drug addiction
Institutionalisation - Effects of Custodial Sentencing
Inmates become accustomed to prison routines and norms and are no longer able to function on the outside
Prisonisation - Effects of Custodial Sentencing
Behaviour that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of the institution
Stress and Depression - Effects of Custodial Sentencing
Suicide rates are considerably higher in prison, as well as self-harm
Stress in prison may increase the risk of psychological disturbance following release
Token Economy
Based on operant conditioning
Reinforcing desirable behaviour with a token that can then be exchanged for some kind of reward
Restorative Justice Council (RJC)
Independent body whose role it is to establish clear standards for the use of restorative justice and to support victims and specialist professionals in the field
