Forensic Psychology: Glossary

Question 1

Define crime

Answer 1

Refers to any behaviour that is unlawful and punished by the state. It is an act that is harmful to an individual, group or society.

Question 2

Define disorganised type of offender

Answer 2

The crime scene is left with many clues such as fingerprints, there is little evidence of engagement with the victim, and the offender has lower intelligence and competence.

Question 3

Define offender profiling

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Define organised type of offender

Answer 4

This type of offender commits a planned crime and may engage in violent fantasies with the victim and is high in intelligence and socially competent.

Question 5

Define top down approach

Answer 5

(Also called the crime scene analysis)
An analysis of previous crimes creates a profile of a likely offender. A profiler uses this knowledge to narrow the field of possible suspects. Unlike the bottom up approach, the top down approach relies on the institution and beliefs of the profiler.

Question 6

Define bottom up approach

Answer 6

A data driven approach where statistical techniques are used to produce predictions about the likely characteristics of an offender.

Question 7

Define geographical profiling

Answer 7

A form of bottom up profiling based on the pattern shown by the location or locations of a series of crimes.

Question 8

Define investigative psychology

Answer 8

A form of bottom up profiling based on psychological theory.

Question 9

Define atavistic form

Answer 9

An explanation for criminal behaviour, suggesting that certain individuals are born with a criminal personality and this innate personality is a throwback to earlier primate forms.

Question 10

Define epigenetics

Answer 10

Refers to the material in each cell of the body that acts like a set of ‘switches’ to turn genes on or off.

Question 11

Define genetic explanations

Answer 11

The likelihood of behaving in a particular was is determining by a person’s genetic makeup.
i.e. It is inherited from parents.

Question 12

Define neural explanations

Answer 12

Involve areas of the brain and nervous system and the action of chemical messengers in the brain known as neurotransmitters in controlling behaviour.

Question 13

Define extraversion

Answer 13

According to Eysenck, this refers to outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their nervous systems are under aroused.

Question 14

Define neuroticism

Answer 14

According to Eysenck, this refers to people with a negative outlook who get upset easily. Their lack of stability is due to an over reactive to threat (fight or flight).

Question 15

Define psychoticism

Answer 15

According to Eysenck, this refers to an aggressive, antisocial person who lacks empathy. This may be related to high levels of testosterone.

Question 16

Define cognitive distortion

Answer 16

Thinking that has a bias, such that what is perceived by a person does not match reality.

Question 17

Define hostile attribution bias

Answer 17

When a person automatically attributes malicious intentions to another.

Question 18

Define minimalisation

Answer 18

Underplaying the consequence of an action to reduce negative emotions such as feeling guilty.

Question 19

Define moral reasoning

Answer 19

Thinking in a consistent and logical way about right and wrong, with reference to socially agreed principles.

Question 20

Define victim survey

Answer 20

A questionnaire that asks a sample of people which crimes have been committed against them over a fixed period of time and whether or not they have been reported to the police.

Question 21

Define official statistics

Answer 21

Figures based on the numbers of crimes that are reported and recorded by the police which are often used by the government to inform crime prevention strategies.

Question 22

Define offender survey

Answer 22

A self report measure that requires people to record the number and types of crime they have committed over a specified period.

Question 23

Define criminal personality

Answer 23

An individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and cannot easily be conditioned, is cold and unfeeling, and is likely to engage in offending behaviour.

Question 24

Define level of moral reasoning

Answer 24

Moral reasoning refers to the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong. Kohlberg attempted to objectify thus process by identifying different levels of reasoning based on people’s answers to moral dilemmas.

Question 25

Define cognitive distortions

Answer 25

Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively.

Question 26

Define hostile attribution bias

Answer 26

The tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of other, as aggressive and/ or threatening when in reality they may not be.

Question 27

Define differential association theory

Answer 27

An explanation for offending which proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour.

Question 28

Define psychodynamic explanations

Answer 28

A group of theories influenced by the work Sigmund Freud which share the belief that unconscious conflicts, rooted in early childhood and determined by interactions with parents, drive future - and in this case criminal - behaviour.

Question 29

Define custodial sentencing

Answer 29

A judicial sentence determined by a court, where the offender is punished by serving time in prison (incarceration) or in some other closed therapeutic and/ or educational institution, such as a psychiatric hospital.

Question 30

Define recidivism

Answer 30

Reoffending, a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behaviour; in the context of crime, a convicted criminal who reoffends, usually repeatedly.

Question 31

Define behaviour modification

Answer 31

An application of the behaviourist approach to treatment (such as the management of offenders in penal institutions). It is based on the principles of operant conditioning. The general aim is to replace undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through the selective use of positive and/ or negative reinforcement.

Question 32

Define anger management

Answer 32

A therapeutic program that involves identifying the signs that trigger anger as well as learning techniques to calm down and deal with the situation in a positive way. The aim of anger management is not to prevent anger but to recognise it and manage it. Anger management can be offered in prison to encourage self awareness and facilitate rehabilitation.

Question 33

Define restorative justice

Answer 33

A system for dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims. This enables the offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower victims by giving them a ‘voice’.