Forensics Flashcards
What is offender profiling
An investigative technique used to narrow down the list of suspects by identifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of the offender from an analysis of the crimes they committed
Briefly describe the top down approach
- aka typology approach
- offender profilers will match what is known about the crime and the offender to a pre existing template the FBI developed
- organised/ disorganised
Describe an organised offender:
Crime scene
Crime Scene: The victim is deliberately targeted- a ‘type’ Crime has been planned in advance Body hidden No weapon at crime scene
Describe an organised offender:
Personality
Planned the crime in advance High degree of control Above average intelligence Skilled professional occupation Socially competent
Describe disorganised offender:
Crime scene
Victim is known Little evidence of planning Spontaneous Body left at scene Little control
Describe the disorganised offender:
Personality
Lower than average IQ
Unskilled work
History of sexual dysfunction
Live alone
Evaluate the top down approach
❌canter, investigated 100 murders, found characteristics for ‘organised’ criminals to be true but not for ‘disorganised’
❌Alison: predictive validity
assumes how they act at the crime scene is how they act in real life
What is the bottom up approach
Profilers work up from the evidence gathered at the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics and social background of the offender
To generate a profile of the offender
What is investigative profiling
A type of bottom up profiling:
- aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur or coexist across crime scenes so to establish a statistical ‘database’
- an attempt to apply statistical procedures alongside psychological theory to the analysis of crime scene evidence
What is interpersonal coherence
The idea that the way an offender behaves at the scene reflects their behaviour on more everyday situations
Define geographical profiling
A form of bottom up profiling based on the patterns shown by the locations of a series of crimes
Allows the researcher to make educated guesses about where the offender is likely to strike next
How is timing of offences related to georgraphical profiling
Information about the geographical location is more useful when it’s combined with the information about when the crime was committed
Canters ‘circle theory’ proposed two models of offender behaviour, what are they
The marauder- who operates in close proximity to their home base
The commuter- who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence
Evaluate the bottom up approach
✅John Duffy, ‘railway rapist’ carried out 24 sexual attacks and 3 murders in women near railway, canter analysed geographical information from crime scenes and details from past similar offences, profile was surprisingly accurate
✅lundrigan & canter, investigated spatial consistency in the behaviour of killers. The location of each body disposal created a centre of gravity where the offenders base was in the centre, supports the role of spatial information
✅comparison, bottom up profiling is more objective and scientific than the top down approach as it is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory and less driven by speculation and hunches
❌Rachel Nickell - took 16yrs to find real killer after killed was ruled out because he was several inches taller than profile
What are the two biological explanations of offending
Atavistic form
Genetic explanations
Neural explanations
Define atavism
Relating to or characterised by reverting back to something ancient or ancestoral
Who suggested atavistic form
Lombroso
What did lombroso suggest
-Criminals were a more primitive version of humans, essentially a genetic throwback to an earlier species
‘-Less evolved people’
-Not evolved enough to function in a civilised society
Name 3 physical anomalies that lombroso suggested
Narrow sloping brow
High cheek bones
Long ears
What are the characteristics of the two sub types of criminal according to lombroso
Murderers:
Bloodshot eyes
Curly hair
Long ears
Sexual deviants:
Glinting eyes
Swollen fleshy lips
Projecting ears
Evaluate atavistic form
✅lombroso
Examined facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, found 40% of criminal acts could be accounted by atavistic characteristics
❌scientific racism
Many of the facial characteristics identified were typical of African origin, this theory would offer support for eugenics (selective breeding)
✅father of modern criminology
Lombroso has been credited for shifting the emphasis in crime research away from
Being ‘weak minded’ towards a more scientific credible claim
Define neural explanation
An explanation of behaviour in terms of the brain and nervous system
Describe Raine as supporting evidence for the neural explanation
Studied 41 violent offenders using PET scans, found violent offenders showed significantly less activity in prefrontal lobe than the controls
Suggesting they have less control over impulsive behaviour
What does the genetic explanation suggest
People may inherit a gene that makes them pre determined to criminal behaviour
Describe Tihonen
A genetic analysis of almost 900 offenders revealed abnormalities one the MAOA gene (responsible for dopamine and serotonin- links to aggression)
What does the MAOA gene do
Monoamine oxidase A
ENZYME↪️ breaks down neurotransmitters in the brain including dopamine and serotonin
Low levels of serotonin have been associated with impulsive and aggressive behaviour
Describe Christiansen (1977)
Looked at over 3,500 twin sets in Denmark
52% concordance rate for criminality was found for MZ twins
22% CC for DZ twins
❌not 100% = other factors must be involved
Evaluate neural and genetic explanation
❌diathesis stress model
Diathesis= a genetic predisposition
Stress= triggered by a stressor
The idea of epigenetics suggests that genes are switched on or off as a result of environmental factors Eg childhood
✅Caspi
Longitudinal study of 1000 people, found a significant number of men with low MAOA genes had experienced maltreatment when they were babies
❌Jim Fallon
Low activity of prefrontal cortex. Defective MAOA gene, not a serial killers as not had trauma in childhood
❌reductionism, reduces behaviour down to our biological components such as na and brain structures
What did Hans Eysenck Argue
There are identifiable personality traits and that these have a genetic basis
A personality is a mix of biological tendencies combined with learning experiences
NATURE and NURTURE
How was Eysencks criminal personality tested
Using a questionnaire designed to give a
N score- neuroticism
P score- psychotism
E score- extraversion
What is the biological basis of a high neurotic score
Over active sympathetic nervous system
↪️unstable and therefore unpredictable
What is the biological basis of a high extravert score
Under active nervous system
↪️more likely to do risky behaviour, requires more stimulation to gain arousal
What is the biological basis of a high psychotic score
Men more psychotic- higher levels of testosterone = aggression
What is the process of socialisation
Where children are taught to become more able to delay gratification
What did Eysenck argue about people with high E and N scores
We’re less easily conditioned, therefore do not learn to avoid antisocial behaviour the same, consequently would not learn to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety
Evaluate Eysencks criminal personality
✅ Eysenck and Eysenck
-2000 male prisoners were given the questionnaire, prisoners had higher PNE scores than controlled. However scores fell with age
❌Bartol and Holanchock
Cultural differences of Hispanics and AA,
Found no difference in P&N scores but prisoners had lower E scores
❌determinism
What are the two cognitive explanations For offending
Levels of moral reasoning
Cognitive distortions
Describes Kohlbergs work into levels of moral reasoning
Kohlbergs used moral dilemmas and found that a group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development than non violent youths (controlled for social background)
What stages of moral reasoning are criminals at
Level 1: Pre- conventional
Stage 1- punishment- obey to avoid punishment
Stage 2- reward- obey for personal gain
Describe Chen and Howitt
✅300 male offenders & controls from 3 high schools in TAIWAN
found moral reasoning development stage was significantly lower despite being older
Kohlbergs theory is universal
Describe an issue with levels moral reasoning
❌hypothetical
- concerned with moral thinking rather than behaviour
- situation which the children have never faced so there answer may differ from how they would really act
.: lacks ecological validity
Define cognitive distortions
Errors in people’s information processing, characterised by faulty irrational ways of thinking so we perceive ourselves and other people inaccurately and usually negatively
Define hostile attribution bias
The tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others as aggressive or threatening when in reality they may not be
✅schonenberg and Justye
They presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions
Found the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile
Define minimalisation
Downplaying then significance of an event or emotion, often done when dealing with feelings of guilt
✅Describe Barbaree
Found among 26 imprisoned rapists
- 54% denied they had committed an offence at all
- further 40% downplayed the harm they had caused the victims
Therefore suggests that individuals who commit sexual offences are prone to minimalistion
Criticise cognitive approach
❌descriptive rather than explanatory
One key failing with the cognitions approach is that it’s good at describing the criminal mind but not explaining it
.: neural explanation better at identifying cause
Who propose differential Association theory
Edwin Sutherland
What does differential Association theory mean
We learn from the people that we associate with and the different people you are around
Sutherland argues that if the number of pro criminal attitudes a person acquires outweigh the anti-criminal attitudes
What two theories does DAT include
Behaviourism:
C/c, reward (respect), avoid punishment
Social learning theory:
Vicarious reinforcement: seeing others rewarded
Identification: older/ role model
Evaluate differential Association theory
✅Osborne and West
Found that when the father is a convicted criminal 40% of the sons had committed a crime by the age of 18 compared to 13% of noncriminal fathers
(❌ biological explanation: GENES)
❌Environmental determinism
Removes moral responsibility
Biological explanation
What are the two psychodynamic explanations for offending
The inadequate superego and Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Explains the inadequate superego
Offending behaviour can be explained by an imbalance between the three components of personality because the ID is not sufficiently controlled
ID= pleasure principle
What did Blackburn suggest three types of superego where
The week superego
absence of same-sex parent in the phallic stage not been able to internalised moral standard
The deviant superego
the same sex parent is in moral child internalises in moral standard
The over harsh superego
would commit a crime with the wish of being caught and then punishment will reduce their feelings of guilt think Dobby
Evaluate inadequate adequate
❌Gender biased
Freud was alpha biased demonstrates women are morally inferior due to passively identifying
↪️❌However females commit less crime than males more serial killers are men
❌concept relates to unconscious
Unfalsifiable
Subjective cannot be observed
What was Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
If You don’t form in attachment within the critical period there will be negative consequences in the future
Evaluate of maternal deprivation theory
✅bowlby 44 thieves study
14 had affectionless psychopathy
12/14 had experienced maternal deprivation
❌criticised= can’t establish cause and effect so can’t directly say that the IV affects DV, no control of extraneous variables
❌retrospective data
Define incapacitation
This means that an offender is prevented from offending it’s essentially protecting the public
Define rehabilitation
Involves changing the offender for the better so that they become a law abiding citizen
Divine retribution
Making the offender pay back to society in some way
Define deterrence
Putting the rest of the population off from committing the crime
What Is the fancy term for reoffending rates
Recidivism
According to the prison reform trust what percentage of adults are reconvicted within one year of release
46%
Under 18s = 67%
What is available to prisoners
What’s a ❌ of this
Access to education and training, gives an alternate to crime so can get a job rather than reoffend
Anger management schemes
❌not all prisons have access to these resources
What are three psychological effects of custodial sentencing
1) institutionalisation
Where u forget how to function outside the prison
2) prisonisation
Learning antisocial behaviour in prison (inmate code) how to become a better criminal
3)depression
Suicide rates considerably higher than gen pop
Evaluate research into psychological effects of custodial sentencing
✅zimbardos-
Deindividuation, mental breakdowns, humiliation
❌pop and ecological validity and volunteer sample
Evaluate custodial sentencing
❌cause and effect:
Some prisoners may have issues before they go into prison, can’t be certain that prison caused these effects
✅treatments
Eg anger management (Ireland et al)
✅incapacitation, protects public
What idea is behaviour modification built around
The idea that criminal behaviour is learnt and so can be unlearnt
Explain token economies
In prisons behaviour modification programs used token economy to modify behaviour
Appropriate and desirable behaviour is rewarded with a token that can be exchange for material goods
based around the idea of operant conditioning
Evaluates behaviour modification
✅ Cullen and seddon
At a young offenders institute boys were reinforced with tokens to be exchanged at the shop for sweets, positive behaviours were rewarded with tokens and undesirable behaviours such as hostility were ignored = extinction, boys showed more positive behaviour over course of study
❌Long-term impact
after three years reoffending rates were the same token economies may delay recidivism but it doesn’t resolve the heart of the problem
❌Ethics
behaviour is manipulated there is a lack of active involvement in the process prisons in the system a very passive
What is anger management A form of
Cognitive behavioural therapy
What model is anger management based off
explain
Stress inoculation model
1) conceptualisation
identify triggers
2) skill acquisition
a range of coping techniques such as positive self talk improve communication or relaxation
3)Application practice
role-play scenario teach them to prevent getting worked up with a positive reinforcer
Describe research conducted by Ireland
Young male offenders were assessed using a self-report questionnaire and were also assessed by prison officers
Took 12 one hour sessions over three days
Eight weeks later all participants were reassessed using same method found significant improvements in experimental group
Criticise anger management
❌Not for everyone requires the participants to be motivated
❌Variation across anger management studies is wide which makes it difficult to draw effective conclusions
❌Loza & Loza-fanous
They found no difference between violent and non-violent offenders in terms of anger suggest violence can take place without anger being a factor
Compare behaviour modification and anger management
1) BM external AM internal
2) BM delays recidivism AM long terms
3) BM passive AM requires motivation
4) BM wide application AM purely anger related crimes
Define restorative justice
Reconciliation between offender and victim meet face-to-face for discussion
What are the three aims of restorative justice
Rehabilitation for offenders
made to feel guilty and come face-to-face with what they’ve done
Atonement for wrongdoing
visible attachments of what they have done
Victims perspectives
involves victims in the justice process
Evaluate restorative justice
✅uk restorative justice council report 85% satisfication from victim
✅Sherman and strang
Meta analysis
Recidivism rates significantly reduced
victim PTSD was reduced
✅cost effective
Less recidivism= less people to fund to go through prison
❌not all crimes
Severity may mean it would cause the victim too much trauma
❌offender may not feel any remorse
