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Forensic Psychology (unfinished) Flashcards

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1
Q

Top Down Approach

A

USA based typology, Starts with the big picture and then builds up the details afterward.

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2
Q

FBI Approach To Top Down Typology Of Offender Profiling

A

1970’s - gathered data from 36 sexually motivated killers. 4 stages to offender profiling:
1) Data assimilation
2) Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised
3) Crime reconstruction - hypothesis on how the crime took place
4) Profile generation - likely characteristics of the offender

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3
Q

Organised/Disorganised Offender

A

Research - Hazelwood & Douglas, lust murderers are mainly categorised by two types.
Organised Offenders - Characteristics of murder include: a planned crime, victim is a targeted stranger, attempts to control the victims. Characteristics of offender include: above average IQ, socially and sexually competent, follows media coverage of the crime.
Disorganised Offenders - Characteristics of murder include: little planning or preparation, minimum use of constraint, little attempt to hide the evidence. Characteristics of offender include: sexually and socially inadequate, frightened or confused at the time of the attack, unskilled occupation or unemployed.

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4
Q

Evaluation Of The Top Down Approach

A
  • Can only be applied to sexually motivated serial killers i.e. not generalisable
  • Alison (2002) based on outdated theories of a stable personality. External factors also have an influence.
  • Reductionist, organised to disorganised more of a scale, can have features of both.
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5
Q

Crime

A

Breaking the law

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6
Q

Deviance

A

Breaking social norms

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7
Q

Cultural issues in defining crime

A

Ethnocentric research, e.g. age of criminal responsibility differs between countries.

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8
Q

Historical issues in defining crime

A

Definitions change over time, e.g. homosexuality didn’t become legal in Britain until 1967.

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9
Q

Hazelwood and Douglas

A

Published an account of the lust murderer. Suggested that they can be categorised into 2 types: the organised offender and the disorganised offender.

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10
Q

Allison (2002)

A

The top down typology is based on outdated theories that the personality is stable. External factors can have an impact upon a persons actions and behaviours.

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11
Q

Bottom Up Approach To Offender Profiling

A

UK based, created by Canter (1990). Looks for consistencies in offenders behaviour at the time of the crime. No initial assumptions are made. Utilised computer databases, in particular smallest space analysis. Central to the approach is the theory of interpersonal coherence which means that the behaviour of the offender at the time of the crime is comparable to their behaviour in everyday life. Also includes geographical profiling.

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12
Q

Canter (1990)

A

Created the bottom up approach for offender profiling. Analysed the geographical details of 3 murders of women near railway stations and was able to draw up a significantly accurate profile of the offender (John Duffy).

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13
Q

Canter’s Circle Theory (1993)

A

Proposed two models of offender behaviour.
1) Marauders - commit their crimes close to where they live or feel secure (usually disorganised offenders)
2) Commuters - Commit their crimes away from where they live (usually organised offenders)

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14
Q

Research Support For Bottom Up Approach

A
  • Canter and Heritage (1990), analysed 66 sexual assault cases using Smallest Space Analysis and identified clear common patterns of behaviour.
  • Lundrigan and Canter (2001), collated evidence from 120 murder cases and found that the offenders home base was located in the centre of the crime scene pattern.
  • Copson (1995), 83% of police forces found the profile to be useful.
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15
Q

Evaluation For The Bottom Up Approach

A

+ Scientific due to use of computer databases
+ Wider applications, can be applied to crimes other than sexually motivated serial killers.
- Only lead to an accurate identification of the offender in 3% of cases.
- Profile can be misleading, e.g. in the case of Rachel Nickell

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16
Q

Biological Explanations Of Crime

A

1) Atavistic Form
1b) Body Type Theory
2) Neural Explanations
3) Genetic Explanations

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17
Q

1) Atavistic Form

A

Lombroso (1876), Criminality is inherited and people can be born criminal. They can be distinguished by particular features such as a large jaw, hard shifty eyes or an upturned nose.

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18
Q

1b) Body Type Theory

A

Sheldon (1949), found that male delinquents were more likely to be mesomorph than male students of a similar age.

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19
Q

Lombroso

A

Atavistic Form - Biological explanation of crime
Studied 383 dead Italian criminals and 3839 living ones and found that 40% of them had atavistic features.

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20
Q

Sheldon

A

Body Type Theory - Biological explanation of crime

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21
Q

Evaluation Of Atavistic Form (And Body Type Theory)

A

+ Beginning of offender profiling
+ Scientific Method, evidence based approach
- Methodological Flaws, did not use a control group
- Scientific Racism
- Open to bias
- Physical differences may be due to other factors such as poor diet.
- Lacks temporal validity

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22
Q

2) Neural Explanations Of Offending Behaviour

A

Raine - Conducted Research using PET scanning and found brain abnormalities in violent criminals. Most of the criminals in these studies has been diagnosed with APD. Found that these individuals had reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain which makes it difficult for them to control their impulses and also means they don’t suffer from guilt or remorse. (2000) individuals with APD had an 11% reduction in grey matter in the pre- frontal cortex compared to normal controls.
Keysers (2011) - Mirror neurons did not function in the same way in individuals with APD which affected their ability to feel empathy. It appeared that they were able to switch them on or off.

23
Q

Raine

A

Conducted Research using PET scanning and found brain abnormalities in violent criminals. Most of the criminals in these studies has been diagnosed with APD. Found that these individuals had reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain which makes it difficult for them to control their impulses and also means they don’t suffer from guilt or remorse. (2000) individuals with APD had an 11% reduction in grey matter in the pre- frontal cortex compared to normal controls.

24
Q

Keysers (2011)

A

Mirror neurons did not function in the same way in individuals with APD which affected their ability to feel empathy. It appeared that they were able to switch them on or off.

25
Q

Evaluation Of Neural Explanations For Offender Behaviour

A
  • Too deterministic, not every criminal has APD or an abnormal brain structure.
26
Q

3) Genetic Explanations For Offending Behaviour

A

Price (1966) - males with an extra Y chromosome were predisposed to more violent crime. Theses individuals are commonly of above average height but below average intelligence.
Christiansen (1977) - Higher concordance rates for MZ twins than DZ twins.
Brunner - Genetic abnormality known as the ‘warrior gene’ is associated with excessively aggressive and violent behaviour.
- A mutation on the X chromosome led to increased levels of MAOA which is meant to remove serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. This leads to higher levels of these neurotransmitters which may lead to behavioural problems.

27
Q

Price (1966)

A

Males with an extra Y chromosome were predisposed to more violent crime. Theses individuals are commonly of above average height but below average intelligence.

28
Q

Christiansen (1977)

A

Out of 3586 twin pairs in Denmark, there was a 52% concordance rate for MZ twins compared to a 22% concordance rate for DZ twins.

29
Q

Brunner (1993)

A

Conducted a case study on a family in the Netherlands where the 5 males presented with abnormal violent behaviour. He found that they had a mutation on the X chromosome which lead to an excess of MAOA. This meant that they had higher levels of serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline which is believed to be the reason for their violent behaviour.

30
Q

Evaluation For Genetic Explanations

A
  • Need to avoid biological determinism. Reductionist.
  • Crime is a social construct so how can somebody be biologically predisposed to break laws which have been created by society.
  • Concordance rates not 100%. Requires an environmental trigger. Diathesis stress model.
31
Q

Psychological Explanations Of Crime

A

1) Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality
2) Cognitive distortions
3) Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
4) Sutherland’s differential association hypothesis
5) Psychodynamic Explanations

32
Q

Eysenck’s Theory Of Criminal Personality

A

Personality is innate. Individuals with a criminal personality have higher levels of extraversion (enjoy being around people), neuroticism (moody, anxious, jealous) and psychoticism (impulsive and risk taking). These people are seen as difficult to condition and are cold and unfeeling.

33
Q

Research Support For Eysenck’s Theory Of Criminal Personality

A

Study of 2070 male prisoners and 2422 male controls. The prisoners scored higher on the 3 aspects of the criminal personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism) than the male controls did.

34
Q

Evaluation For Eysenck’s Theory Of Criminal Personality

A
  • Androcentric & Ethnocentric (Holanchock - Black and Hispanic criminals found to be less extroverted)
  • Reductionist - Not all criminals are the same
  • Methodological Flaws - Using a questionnaire lacks validity
  • Alison - Based on the outdated notion that the personality is stable when it is actually very changeable.
  • Biological determinism - sees personality as innate and unchanging.
35
Q

Cognitive Distortions

A

The assumption made is that criminals have a fundamentally different thought process to non-criminals.
There are 4 basics to this theory:
- Hostile Attribution Bias
- Minimisation
- Internal and External Attribution
- Fundamental Attribution Error

36
Q

Hostile Attribution Bias

A

A cognitive distortion which mat explain offending behaviour. It occurs when a person misreads a situation as hostile when in reality it is not.
Schonenberg and Justye presented 55 violent criminals with emotionally ambiguous faces. They were much more likely than the control group to perceive the faces as angry or hostile.
It is thought that this may be learned in childhood. Dodge and Frame showed children a video clip of ‘ambiguous provocation’ and those who had been described as aggressive were more likely to classify the situation as hostile.

37
Q

Schonenberg and Justye

A

Presented 55 violent criminals with emotionally ambiguous faces. They were much more likely than the control group to perceive the faces as angry or hostile.

38
Q

Dodge and Frame

A

Showed children a video clip of ‘ambiguous provocation’ and those who had been described as aggressive were more likely to classify the situation as hostile.

39
Q

Minimalisation

A

An attempt to downplay the seriousness of a situation.
Barbaree found that amongst 26 convicted racists, 54% denied they had committed any offence and 405 minimised the level of harm brought upon the victim.

40
Q

Barbaree

A

Shows the use of minimalisation as a cognitive distortion. Found that amongst 26 convicted rapists, 54% denied they had committed any offence and 40% minimised the level of harm brought upon the victim.

41
Q

Internal And External Attribution

A

An internal attribution is when a person accepts full responsibility for their behaviour and sees themselves as the cause. An external attribution is when a person view their behaviour as being a result of an external force. A criminal is considered rehabilitated when they can fully accept responsibility for their crimes.

42
Q

Fundamental Attribution Error

A

Attributing more significance to situational factors when considering the cause of own behaviour but attribute more to personality when considering the behaviour of others.

43
Q

Evaluation For Cognitive Distortions

A

+ Practical applications for rehabilitation through CBT
- Individual differences
- Cannot reliably know what a person is thinking

44
Q

3) Kohlberg’s Theory Of Moral Development

A

Believed that children’s cognition developed through stages. His research involved presenting groups of boys with moral dilemmas and asking them questions about them. He studied 58 boys with a 2 hour interview about 10 dilemmas and followed up with some of them at 3 yearly intervals. The study was repeated in 1969 in the UK, Mexico, Taiwan and again in the USA.

45
Q

Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development

A

Level 1 - Pre Morality (0-9) - Doing what is right for your own good:
Stage 1 - Punishment and Obedience Orentation
Stage 2 - Hedonistic Orientation
Level 2 - Conventional Morality (9 to adolescence) - Conforming and Obeying:
Stage 3 - Interpersonal Concordance Orientation
Stage 4 - Law And Order Orientation
Level 3 - Post Conventional Morality (adolescence +) - What you personally believe is morally right:
Stage 5 - Legalistic Orientation
Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principles Orienation

46
Q

Thornton And Reid (1982)

A

Criminals committing crime for financial gain show more immature reasoning than those committing violent crimes.

47
Q

Chandler (1973)

A

Individuals that function at higher levels of moral reasoning tend to sympathise more with the right of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours such as honesty and generosity. This links with Keyser’s view that those with abnormally functioning mirror neurons are more likely to be criminal as they are unable to empathise with other people.

48
Q

Evaluation For Kohlberg’s Theory

A
  • Issues with sample (too small, ethnocentric and androcentric)
  • Issues with social desirability (looks at how people think rather than how they would actually act)
49
Q

Sutherland’s Differential Association Hypothesis

A

Offenders learn how to be criminal through the same processes as any other behaviour is learned. I.e. through classical and operant conditioning. It therefore depends upon who a person associates with.

50
Q

Evaluation For The Differential Association Hypothesis

A

+ Explains crime amongst all groups.
- Impossible to test.

Farrington found that the family is a large influence on offending
+ Due to stronger associations
- Actually due to biology

51
Q

Farrington

A

The family is a large influence on offending.

52
Q

Psychodynamic Explanation

A

Id, Ego and Superego. Blackburn (1993) suggests that if the superego is deficient then criminality is inevitable. This is because the ID won’t be properly controlled and they give in to urges and impulses.

53
Q

Blackburn (1993)

A

Weak Superego - May develop if the same sex parent is not present during the phallic stage as the morality of the same sex parent can’t be internalised
Deviant Superego - May develop if the child internalises the morals of a criminal
Over Harsh Superego - May develop if the same sex parent is overly harsh which may mean that the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety and commits crime to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

54
Q

Aims Of Custodial Sentencing

A

1) Deterrence
2) Incapacitation
3) Retribition
4) Rehabilitation

Psychology (8 decks)

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