forensics

Question 1

definition of offender profiling

Answer 1

process of predicting the characteristics of an offender based on information available

Question 2

features of top-down approach

Answer 2

-starts w big picture and fills in details
-developed using 36 sexually motivated serial killers
-4 stages:
1. data assimilation
2. classification
3. reconstruction
4. profile generation
-organised vs disorganised offenders

Question 3

eval of top-down approach

Answer 3

-practical app - aids in solving crime
-not generalisable - only applied to sexually motivated serial killers
-reductionist - organised/disorganised
-ethno/androcentric - done in US on men
-temporal validity - alison et al - based on theories of personality being stable for a person’s lifetime

Question 4

features of bottom-up approach

Answer 4

-starts w small details and builds up big pic
-no initial assumptions made
-uses investigative psychology (smallest space analysis- computer database) and geographical profiling
-uses canter’s circle theory - marauders/commuters

Question 5

what is geographical profiling

Answer 5

-feature of bottom-up approach
-inferring where an offender is likely to live based on the locations of their crimes

Question 6

what is investigative psychology

Answer 6

-feature of bottom-up approach
-Uses smallest space analysis computer database to identify patterns in behaviour to see if a series of offences are linked

Question 7

eval of bottom-up approach

Answer 7

-wider applications - used on more than just sexually motivated serial killers
-Canter and Lundrigan - reviewed 120 murder cases using geo profiling and found offenders invariably lived in centre of crime scenes
-scientific and reliable - uses computer databases
-misleading - Rachel Nickell - wrong person arrested using bottom-up, so can only be used in conjunction w other investigation methods

Question 8

atavistic form - explanation

Answer 8

-bio explanation of crime
-Lombroso - suggests criminality is inherited and some are ‘born criminal’ as offenders are ‘genetic throwbacks’ or a ‘primitive sub-species’ that cannot conform to rules of modern society
-have physical features eg. large protruding chins, baldness, tattoos, hawk-like noses, hard eyes etc.

Question 9

atavistic form - Lombroso research

Answer 9

-used over 4000 dead and alive italian criminals
-found 40% had atavistic features

Question 10

strengths of atavistic form

Answer 10

-research support - sheldon’s body types - male delinquents more likely to be mesomorphs (largest, strongest body type) than male students of similar age. this body type associated w courage, aggression and risk-taking
-beginning of offender profiling - first to take scientific approach so acted as starting point for research

Question 11

limitations of atavistic form

Answer 11

-low validity - didnt have control group, so characteristics may have just been common in general pop OR traits may be due to poverty, disease, poor diet etc
-scientific racism - traits identified are more prevalent in certain racial groups
-alt explanation - Goring - found criminals to have below average intelligence, so crime may be due to lack of education, rather than biology
-lack of temporal validity - from time when eugenics theories were popular eg. Hitler

Question 12

bio explanations - neural explanations of crime

Answer 12

-Raine - found individuals w APD had 11% reduction in grey matter in pre-frontal cortex associated w emotional reg and empathy - used PET scans
-Keysers - suggested mirror neurons (responsible for empathy) did not function the same way in individuals w APD - had to be told to feel empathy when watching film of person in pain

Question 13

bio explanations - genetic explanations of crime

Answer 13

-Christiansen - twin studies - studied 3586 twin pairs from Denmark and found 52% concordance for criminality in MZ and 22% in DZ
-Brunner - MAOA gene - studied 5 men from Netherlands from same family who showed abnormal violent and sexual behaviour - collected urine samples and analysed medical, school and criminal records - MAOA decreases serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline levels

Question 14

evaluation of bio explanations

Answer 14

-limitations of twin studies - no 100% concordance and difficult to differentiate between nature and nurture due to shared upbringing
-bio determinism and reductionism - criminals have free will and crime has varied reasons
-case study - Jim Fallon - has brain of serial killer (mutated MAOA gene and reduced prefrontal cortex activity), yet is not criminal due to good upbringing
-crime is social construct so bio explanations are illogical

Question 15

psychological explanation of crime - eysenck

Answer 15

-Eysenck’s theory of personality
-personality is innate and has a biological basis
-there is a ‘criminal personality’ and these people will score highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
-these people are seen as difficult to condition and cold/unfeeling

Question 16

evaluation of psychological explanation of crime (eysenck)

Answer 16

-strength - Eysenck - studied 2070 male prisoners and 2400 male controls and found prisoners scored higher on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
-lim - Farrington - found prisoners only scored higher on psychoticism
-lim - reductionist - idea of one personality type explaining all offending behaviour is not plausible
-lim - culturally biased - Holanchock - studied black and hispanic criminals in america and found them to be less extraverted than non criminal groups
-lim - bio determinism - sees personality as innate and unchanging, so if u have this personality, crime is inevitable so ignores role of free will.

Question 17

psychological explanations of crime - cognitive distortions

Answer 17

-faulty, biased or irrational ways of thinking - assumption that criminals must think in a fundamentally different ways to law-abiding citizens
1. hostile attribution bias
2. miminalisation
3. internal and external attribution
4. fundamental attribution error

Question 18

what is hostile attribution bias + research

Answer 18

-cognitive distortion - psych explanation of crime
-offender misreads actions or intentions of another person eg. assuming someone is being confrontational
-schonenberg + justye - presented 55 violent offenders w images of emotionally ambiguous faces and found they were much more likely to perceive the faces as hostile or angry

Question 19

what is minimalisation + research

Answer 19

-cognitive distortion - psych explanations of crime
-offender attempts to downplay or deny the seriousness of an offence
-Barabee - found amongst 26 convicted rapists, 54% denied they had committed any offence and 40% minimalised the harm they caused to the victim

Question 20

what is internal and external attribution

Answer 20

-cognitive distortion - psych explanation of crime
-internal attribution is when person accepts full responsibility for their own behaviour and sees the cause as being within themselves
-external attribution is when person sees the cause of their behaviour as being external eg. ‘i had a bad childhood/i was provoked’
-a criminal is considered fully rehabilitated when they have an internal attribution

Question 21

what is fundamental attribution error

Answer 21

-we tend to attribute more significance to situational factors when considering causes of our own behaviour and more significance to personality when considering causes of behaviour of others
-eg. receiving a good grade will be attributed to their own hard work, and a bad grade will be blamed on the teachers

Question 22

eval of cognitive distortions

Answer 22

-strength - prac applications - understanding of CD can enable CBT to be used to change way offenders think, so change their behaviour
-limitation - lack of validity - can never know what other person is thinking, so theory is untestable

Question 23

stages of moral development research

Answer 23

kohlberg
-58 working and middle class boys from USA aged 7, 10, 13 and 16 given 2hr interview w 10 moral dilemmas to solve
-followed up w some boys at 3 yearly intervals
-study repeated in UK, Mexico and Taiwan

Question 24

stages of moral development findings

Answer 24

kohlberg
-younger boys perform at stages 1 and 2 (fear of punishment or personal gain)
-older boys at 3 and 4 (according to majority or helps society)

Question 25

strengths of moral development research (kohlberg)

Answer 25

-longitudinal study - shows how moral development changes
-practical appl - explains adult criminality - Thornton and Reid found criminals who commit for financial gain show more immature reasoning (stage 2 - personal gain) than those committing violent crime

Question 26

limitations of moral development research (Kohlberg)

Answer 26

-sample issues - small (58), androcentric, ethnocentric
-methodology issues - order effects (2hrs of deep thinking), too mature concepts
-lack of ecological validity - response may be different when facing actual situation

Question 27

what is the differential association hypothesis

Answer 27

-sutherland
-explanation for offending behaviour that suggests through interactions w other, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motivation for criminal behaviour
-process of learning crim behaviour involves classical conditioning, operant conditioning, SLT
-occurs within intimate groups (friendship groups)

Question 28

eval of differential association hypothesis

Answer 28

-impossible to test - persons associations and influences cannot be accurately counted
-research against - Farrington - found family is large influence on offending and crime can be inter-generational
-individual differences - some people much more susceptible to the influence of others

Question 29

psychodynamic explanation of offending - Blackburn

Answer 29

1. weak superego - absent same-sex parent = fail to internalise morals
2. deviant superego - internalises morals of a deviant/criminal same-sex parent
3. overharsh superego - overly harsh same sex parent = commits crime to satisfy superegos need for punishment

Question 30

psychodynamic explanations of offending - Bowlby

Answer 30

-maternal deprivation
-if an infant is deprived of mother there will be serious and permanent consequences eg. mental abnormalities (low IQ), delinquency, depression, affectionless psychopathy

Question 31

eval of psychodynamic explanations

Answer 31

-freud - sexist theories - focus on Oedipus complex and Electra afterthought, argues women less moral due to no castration anxiety
-low validity - many children grow up without same-sex parent and vast majority do not turn to crime