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