Forensic psychology for exam

Question 1

What is the top-down approach to offender profiling?

Answer 1

An analysis of previous crimes creates a profile of a likely offender. This helps narrow down the field of potential targets.
Relies on intuition and beliefs of the profilers.
Is the America FBI approach to profiling.

Question 2

Give 3 features of an organised offender.

Answer 2

• Planned offences.
• High degree of control during crime.
• Average high intelligence.

Question 3

Give 3 features of a disorganised offender.

Answer 3

• Victim likely to be random.
• Little evidence of planning.
• Unskilled work/unemployment.

Question 4

Give an example of an organised offender - what did this person do to put themselves in the organised category. (2 things)

Answer 4

Ted Bundy, an American serial killer. Murdered numerous young women and girls which shows he has a type he targeted.
Bundy was charming and highly intelligent, had a degree in psychology.
Killed he claims up to 30 women, Tf he had high control over his murders because he was able to get away with a lot of murders.

Question 5

What is offender profiling?

Answer 5

Method of working out the characteristics of an offender by examining the characteristics of the crime and crime scene.

Question 6

A weakness of the top-down approach is that can only be applied to particular crimes, explain this.

Answer 6

Best suited to crimes that reveal important details about the suspect such as rape, arson.
More common offences such as burglary reveals very little about the offender - Tf unable to create a profile.

Question 7

What is the undermining evidence about the top-down approach.

Answer 7

Canter et al.(2004) analysed data from 100 murders in USA. Analysed in terms of 40 characteristics, found no evidence of a distinct disorganised type of killer. Suggest most serial killers are organised which undermines the utility of the system as a whole.

Problem of this it has a cultural bias, just to the USA, characteristics of a murderer in collectivist cultures may be different.

Question 8

A weakness of the top-down approach is that the organisation types are not mutually exclusive.

Answer 8

Possible for offender to be of high intelligence who commits a spontaneous murder - Tf, difficult to categorise some offenders as one type of another.

Question 9

A weakness of the top-down approach is it was developed on the basis of 36 killers in the USA (including Ted Bundy).

Answer 9

• Small sample size.
• Cultural bias.
• Based of the most dangerous, sexually motivated killers. Unrepresentative of the typical offenders, cannot be generalised to wider population.

Question 10

What are cognitive distortions in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 10

Faulty, irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves and others in a way that does not match reality. As a result our perceptions are wrong and allow the offender to deny or rationalise their criminal behaviour.

Question 11

What is hostile attribution bias in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 11

One example of cognitive distortion which is where the other people’s actions are misinterpreted as aggressive.
Most likely linked to increased levels of aggression.

Question 12

What is minimalisation in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 12

Offender downplays seriousness of one’s offences to explain the consequences as less significant or damaging than they already are.

Question 13

What is Kohlberg’s level of moral reasoning in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 13

Refers to how an individual draws on their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong.

Question 14

What are the three levels of morality Kohlberg suggested in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 14

• Pre-conventional morality
• Conventional
• Post-conventional

Question 15

What stage of morality are offenders most likely to be in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.

Answer 15

Pre-conventional, characterised by avoiding punishment and gaining rewards, associated with less mature and child-like reasoning.

Question 16

How do people progress through the stages of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning.

Answer 16

People progress as a consequence of biological maturity and by having opportunities to discuss and develop their thinking.

Question 17

Conventional levels of morality people who break the law would feel what?

Answer 17

Feel their behaviour was justified to break the law because it helps maintain relationships or society.

Question 18

What is Schonenberg and Aiste (2014) research support for hostile attribution bias.

Answer 18

• Showed 55 violent offenders in prison, shown ambigious faces and found they are more likely to interpret angry faces as aggressive than the control group.
• Small sample size of this study has been generalised to ‘violent offenders’.

Question 19

What is the research support for minimalisation in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour.
Eval point.

Answer 19

Kennedy and Grubin (1992) found that sex offenders ofren downplayed their behaviour saying that it was something people typically do.

Question 20

What is the real world application for cognitive distortions in the psychological explanations of offending behaviour. Eval point.
Give a weakness.

Answer 20

Heller et al. (2013) worked with a group of young men who were mainly disadvantaged groups in Chicago. CBT techniques for those who attended 13x1 hour sessions had a 44% reduction in arrests.

-Mainly young men, beta gender bias.

Question 21

What is an ISSUE of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning? Eval point.

Answer 21

Ignores the differences women have to men in offending and morals - beta bias.

Question 22

How does Kohlberg’s moral reasoning have Real World Application. Eval point. What does Kohlberg gather and say from this?

Answer 22

-Gilligan set up Cluster Schools that can encourage moral discussions which foster moral development.

Question 23

Give an example of hostile attribution bias.

Answer 23

For example, someone smiles at you but you think that the person is actually thinking bad thoughts about you. These negative interpretations then leads to more aggressive behaviour.

Question 24

Give an example of minimalisation.

Answer 24

For example, a burglar when planning a crime may think stealing from rich people is more justified as it would have little effect on their lives.

Question 25

What is Gudjonsson and Sigursson (2007) research support for Kohlberg’s level of moral reasoning

Answer 25

In a study of male juveniles found 38% did not consider the consequences of their actions and 36% were confident they would not be caught.
Supports the pre-conventional level as they believed they would get away without punishment.