Forensic Psychology Key Words Flashcards
Offender profiling
A behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals
Top down profiling
Profilers start with a pre established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one or two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene
Organised offender
An offender who shows evidence of planning, targets the victim, and tends to be socially and sexually competent with a higher than average intelligence
Disorganised offender
An offender who shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues, and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with a lower than average intelligence
Bottom up approach
Profilers work from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender
Investigative Psychology
A form of bottom up profiling that matches the 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 - That and offenders operational bases and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes
Atavistic form
A biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are genetic throwbacks or a primitive subspecies, ill suited to conforming to the rules of modern society. Such individuals are distinguishable by a particular facial and cranial characteristics
Genetic explanations of offending behaviour
A biological theory that sees genes inherited from one’s ancestors as forming the basis to an individual’s criminal behaviour
Concordance rates
A measure of similarity, usually expressed as a percentage, between two individuals or two sets of individuals on a given trait
Epigenetic’s
This refers to the material in each cell of the body that acts like a set of “switches” to turn genes on or off
Neural explanations of offending behaviour
A biological theory that sees abnormally functioning brain physiology and biochemistry as forming the basis to an individuals criminal behaviour
Antisocial personality disorder
A mental health condition where a person has a repeated pattern of behaviour manipulating or violating the rights of others. It often leads to crimes against people.
Criminal personality
A feature of Eysenck’s theory of crime, an individual who scores high on measures of extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and cannot be easily conditioned, is cold and unfeeling, and is likely to engage in offending behaviour
Extraversion
According to Eysenck, this refers to outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their nervous systems are under aroused
Neuroticism
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 response to threat
Psychoticism
According to Eysenck, this refers to an aggressive, antisocial person who lacks empathy. This may be related to high levels of testosterone
Cognitive explanations of offending behaviour
A psychological explanation that sees offending may have a cognitive basis I.e. mental processes such as thoughts, perceptions, and attention impact on behaviour
Level of moral reasoning
Moral reasoning refers to the way a person thinks about right and wrong. It is presumed that such thinking then applies to moral behaviour. The higher the level, the more that behaviour is driven by a sense of what is right and the less it is driven by just avoiding punishment or avoiding the disapproval of others
Cognitive distortions
Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that means individuals perceive themselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively
Hostile attribution biased
The tendency to judge ambiguous situations or actions of others as aggressive and/or threatening when they may not be
Minimalisation
A type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion. A common strategy when dealing with guilt
Differential association theory
An explanation for offending which proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour
Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour
A psychological theory that sees criminal behaviour as formed from early childhood experiences, especially during the formation of the superego, which impacts later behaviour
Superego
The irrational, moralistic part of personality that acts as ones conscience
Maternal deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother, or mother substitute
Affectionless psychopathy
A behaviour disorder ion which’s and individual has no ability to experience shame or guilt and lacks a social conscience. This means they may find it ‘easier’ to commit crimes
Custodial sentencing
A judicial sentence determined by a court, where the offender is punished by serving time in prison or closed therapeutic and/or educational institution such as a psychiatric hospital
Recidivism
A convicted criminal who reoffends, usually repeatedly
Behaviour modification
An application of the behaviourist approach to treatment, such as management of offenders in prisons or secure institutions. Is it based on the principles prof operant conditioning. The general aim is to replace undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through the selective use of positive and/or negative reinforcement
Positive reinforcement
A stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it is pleasurable.
Negative reinforcement
A stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it leads to avoidance of an unpleasant situation and is experienced as rewarding
Punishment
A procedure that decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated because the overall experience is unpleasant
Restorative justice programmes
A system for dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with survivors. This enables the offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower survivors by giving them a ‘voice’
Anger management
Anger management is a therapeutic programme that involves identifying the signs that triggers anger, as well as learning techniques to calm down and deal with the situation in a positive way. The aim is not to prevent anger but to recognise and manage it
Cognitive behaviour therapy
A combination of cognitive therapy, a way of changing maladaptive thoughts and beliefs, and behavioural therapy, a way of changing behaviour in response to these thoughts and beliefs
