forensics

Question 1

what are the cultural problems in defining crime?

Answer 1

polygamy illegal in uk practiced in other cultures
Culture: 74 countries homosexuality and in 13 countries it is punishable by death. So important to highlight cultural relativism when defining crime.
Age: In the uk the age of criminality is about 10. However the case of 3 year old james bulger age 3 who was murdered by 2 10 year olds.

Question 2

what is actus reuses and mens rea?

Answer 2

when a guilty act violates the law it is actus reus. when person commits crime intentionally this is mens rea or guilty mind.

Question 3

what are offender surveys?

Answer 3

target groups of likely offenders based on previous convictions and risk factors. individuals volunteer number and types of crimes they have committed.

Question 4

what are victim surveys?

Answer 4

ask victims to document the crimes they have been part of in the past year

Question 5

what are official statistics?

Answer 5

published by the home office annually to document all the crimes reported by the police.

Question 6

problems with offender surveys

Answer 6

lack validity unlikely to be truthful about the extent of their own criminality. cant remember how many crimes they have committed or when they took place.

Question 7

problems with victim surveys

Answer 7

telescoping as victims may get years mixed up reporting crime that happen years ago. unaware victims of crimes, item misplaces not stolen. more accurate than official statistic report crimes that they would not go to the police with.

Question 8

problems with official statistics

Answer 8

lack validity,unreported and unrecorded crime
25% only reported to police
75% dark figure of crime, victims unaware or afraid to share experiences
police dont take crime seriously
misleading as counts number of criminal act not number of criminals relatively few account for most crimes.
lack reliability differences between police forces as what is considered crime. theft under £10 not taken into account by some police

Question 9

what offender profiling

Answer 9

FBI approach, offender profiling predict and profile characteristics of unknown criminal by using what is known about criminal and crime scene evidence. Relies on past experiences and computer databases.

Question 10

what is top down approach?

Answer 10

start with big picture, science unit, Drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews from real 37 serial killers such as TED BUNDY and charles manson. use info about criminal and crime scene to atch exisitng profile.

Question 11

what do top down profilers organise lust murdered into?

Answer 11

1980 hazelwood an Douglass came up with organised and disorganized crime

Question 12

what is modus opernadi

Answer 12

every criminal has their o wn unique way of working

Question 13

what are characteristics of an oraganised criminal?

Answer 13

high intelligence, shows self control at crime scene, skilled occupation, follows media cover of crime

Question 14

what are the characteristics of a disorganised criminal?

Answer 14

unskilled, unemployed, minimal preparation

Question 15

who is ted bundy?

Answer 15

Ted Bundy, organised serial killer, handsome, charming , intelligent used to win trust of his victims. fell in love with a wealthy young woman from california, upon their break up, felt devastated and many victims resemble his college friend

Question 16

Top down is a reductionist approach

Answer 16

Reduces behavior down to two categories. an individual can develop their modus operandi and become an organized offender.

Question 17

what did dougles et al mention?

Answer 17

there is mixed offender where there is a mixture of disorganized and organised offender

Question 18

what did alison et al mention

Answer 18

based on outdated theories of personality being stable external factors can affect personality.

Question 19

top down typology

Answer 19

can only be applied to sexually motivated killers as these were the only criminals interviewed. First data is collected and type of murder is decided then categorised into organsied or disorganised offender.

Question 20

David canter

Answer 20

small space analysis and found that 100 of the criminals and found diagnosed type had undermined the classification system

Question 21

what are the stages to the top down approach

Answer 21

1) data collection, location of the body weapons images, information about the victim
2) After they decide what type of murderer it is. for example, isolated incident, spree murderer, mass murderer ( more than one victim killed over a period of time in the same location), spree murderer ( more than one victim killed ins several locations over a given period of time or isolated murderers or serial killers. if more than one murder takes place then it is easier to identify a modus operandi and classify murderers. then classify them into organised or disorganized criminals
3) primary intent: was this a moment of passion or pre-mediated planned murder. will
4) victim risk, was the victim a high or low risk victim for the murderer to kill. some are more available and vulnerable to the killer since they offer little resistance e.g. old people or children or some are easily missed such as prostitutes
5) Offender risk how much risk did the offender take to commit the crime
then you categorise the murders into organised or disorganised

Question 22

what did Holmes say about the top down approach?

Answer 22

categorizing of murderers into spree mass and serial was not accurate enough as there are many more types of killers. the visionary ( psychotic hear voices or see images compelling them to kill), mission orientated ( target specific group of people who they believe society would be better without) power/control orientated( killing motivated by control maybe have been abused as a child, want to gain power and control over victims), hedonistic killers ( kill because they become sexually aroused during act of murder, can be divided into lust thrill and, lust orientated, thrill orientated, comfort killers)Lust orientated ( people become sexually motivated regardless if V is dead) thrill orientated ( kill random people for the thrill ) comfort-orientated ( kill for material gain or comfortable lifestyle. most likely killing family member or close friends usually females who use poison commit this.

Question 23

what is a bottom-up approach?

Answer 23

proposed by David canter where he uses geographical profiling, investigative psychology, to build up a profile. no initial assumptions are made until after interviews and when statistics are analysed from the ONS.

Question 24

what is investigative psychology?

Answer 24

computer databases such as small space analysis used to identify patterns and trends in the behaviour of criminal at the crime scene to compare to normal everyday life

Question 25

what are the different parts of investigative psychology?

Answer 25

1) interpersonal coherence
2) geographical profiling
3) forensic awareness

Question 26

what is interpersonal coherence?

Answer 26

to compare the behaviour of the criminal at the crime scene and in everyday life. used in serious crimes such as rape which may affect the way in which criminal treats women in everyday life.

Question 27

what is forensic awareness?

Answer 27

those individuals interrogated by police and how careful they are at hiding their tracks

Question 28

what is geographical profiling?

Answer 28

the geographical location of recent crimes will help predict where future crimes will occur. includes spatial consistency

Question 29

what is the circle theory proposed by canter?

Answer 29

two types of offenders
marauders. who stay close to home and commuters who travel far to commit a crime. marauders commit crimes in an area they’re familiar with which creates a circle around the usual residence. with commuters, u can find what form of transport was used.

Question 30

what is a jeopardy surface?

Answer 30

where all the crimes are mapped and linked causes a jeopardy surface

Question 31

3 strengths of bottom up approach?

Answer 31

more objective as its based on scientific data
no initial assumption is made reducing bias
computer based data so it can have element of bias can be applied to all criminals not just sexually motivated killers