Forensics

Question 1

Outline the Top Down Approach

Answer 1

This originated in America from the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit which used data from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers.

Based on the idea that serious offenders have signature ways of working (modus operandi) that generally correlates with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics.

Based on the evidence collected from the crime scene, offenders are classified as organised or disorganised. These classifications are based on pre-existing templates that the FBI developed and informs the following police investigation.

This approach is sometimes known as the ‘typology approach’ because offenders are classified into types.

Question 2

What is meant by Crime

Answer 2

An act committed in violation of the law where the consequence of conviction by a court is punishment, especially where the punishment is a serious one such as imprisonment.

Question 3

What is meant by Official statistics

Answer 3

Figures based on the numbers of crimes that are reported and recorded by the police which are often used by the government to inform crime prevention strategies.

Question 4

What is meant by Victim survey (or victimisation survey)

Answer 4

A questionnaire that asks a sample of people which crimes have been committed against them over a fixed period of time and whether or not they have been reported to the police.

Question 5

What is meant by Offender survey

Answer 5

A self-report measure that requires people to record the number and types of crime they have committed over a specified period.

Question 6

What is meant by Offender profiling

Answer 6

Also known as ‘criminal profiling’, a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals.

Question 7

What is meant by The top-down approach

Answer 7

Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene.

Question 8

What is meant by Organised offender

Answer 8

An offender who shows evidence of planning, targets the victim and tends to be socially and sexually competent with higher than average intelligence.

Question 9

What is meant by Disorganised offender

Answer 9

An offender who shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower than average intelligence.

Question 10

What is meant by The bottoms-up approach

Answer 10

Profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender.

Question 11

Outline what is meant by Investigative psychology

Answer 11

A form of bottom-up profiling that matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory.
The aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes. This helps to develop a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for comparison.

Specific details about the offence or related offences can then be matched against this database to reveal important details about the offender, their personality, history, family background etc. This may also reveal whether a series of offences are linked in that they are likely to have been committed by the same person.

There are 3 main features of this approach:

· Interpersonal coherence – the way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they ‘interact’ with their victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.

· Time and place – this may indicate where the offender is living or working.

· Forensic awareness – certain behaviours might reveal awareness of police techniques and past experience

Question 12

What is meant by Geographical profiling

Answer 12

A form of bottom-up profiling based on the principle of spatial consistency: than an offender’s operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes.
It can be used in conjunction with psychological theory to create a hypothesis about how the offender is thinking as well as their modus operandi.

The assumption is that repeat offenders will restrict their ‘work’ to geographical areas they are familiar with. Therefore, understanding the spatial pattern of their behaviour provides investigators with a ‘centre of gravity’ which is likely to include the offender’s base. It may also help investigators to guess where the offender is likely to strike next – ‘the jeopardy surface.’

Canter’s Circle Theory proposed two models of offender behaviour:

· 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

The spatial decision making of the offender can offer the investigative team important insight into the nature of the offence. Was it planned or opportunistic? It can also reveal other features such as their mode of transport, employment status and age.

Question 13

What is meant by Atavistic form

Answer 13

A biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are genetic throwbacks or a primitive sub-species ill-suited to conforming to the rules of modern society. Such individuals are distinguishable by particular facial and cranial characteristics.

Question 14

Describe what is meant by the Genetic explanation for offending

Answer 14

Genes consist of DNA strands. DNA produces ‘instructions’ for general physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and also specific physical features (such as neurotransmitter levels and size of brain structures). These may impact on psychological features (such as intelligence and mental disorder). Genes are transmitted from parent to offspring, i.e. inherited.

Genetic explanations for crime suggest that would-be offenders inherit a gene, or combination of genes, that predispose them to commit crime.

Question 15

Outline the Neural explanation for Offending

Answer 15

Any explanation of behaviour (and its disorders) in terms of (dys)functions of the brain and nervous system. This includes the activity of brain structures such as the hypothalamus, and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine
Evidence suggests that there may be neural differences in the brains of criminals and non-criminals- such as in the pre-frontal cortex’s size of grey matter ( controls ability to regulate emotions)
and dysfunctional mirror neurons that could lead to a lack of empathy in individuals and lead to offending.
This evidence has focused on individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder which is a condition that characterises many convicted criminals – reduced emotional responses, a lack of empathy for the feelings for others.

Question 16

What is meant by The criminal personality

Answer 16

An individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and cannot easily be conditioned, is cold and unfeeling, and is likely to engage in offending behaviour.

Question 17

What is meant by Level of moral reasoning

Answer 17

Moral reasoning refers to the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong. Kohlberg attempted to objectify this process by identifying different levels of reasoning based on people’s answers to moral dilemmas.

Question 18

What is meant by Cognitive distortions

Answer 18

Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively.

Question 19

What is meant by Hostile attribution bias

Answer 19

The tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they may not be.

Question 20

What is meant by Minimalisation or minimisation

Answer 20

A type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion. A common strategy when dealing with feelings of guilt.

Question 21

What is meant by Differential association theory

Answer 21

An explanation for offending which proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour.

Question 22

What is meant by Psychodynamic explanations

Answer 22

A group of theories influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud which share the belief that unconscious conflicts, rooted in early childhood and determined by interactions with parents, drive future - and in this case criminal - behaviour.

Question 23

What is meant by Custodial sentencing

Answer 23

A judicial sentence determined by a court, where the offender is punished by serving time in prison (incarceration) or in some other closed therapeutic and/or educational institution, such as a psychiatric hospital.

Question 24

What is meant by Recidivism

Answer 24

Reoffending, a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behaviour; in the context of crime, a convicted criminal who reoffends, usually repeatedly.

Question 25

What is meant by Behaviour modification

Answer 25

An application of the behaviourist approach to treatment (such as the management of offenders in penal institutions). It is based on the principles of operant conditioning. The general aim is to replace undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through the selective use of positive and/or negative reinforcement.

Question 26

What is meant by Anger management

Answer 26

A therapeutic programme that involves identifying the signs that trigger anger as well as learning techniques to calm down and deal with the situation in a positive way. The aim of anger management is not to prevent anger but to recognise it and manage it. Anger management can be offered in prison to encourage self-awareness and facilitate rehabilitation.

Question 27

What is meant by Restorative justice

Answer 27

A system for dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims. This enables he offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower victims by giving then a ‘voice’.

Question 28

What are the four main stages of constructing an FBU profile

Answer 28

1) Data assimilation where the profiler reviews the evidence
2) Crime scene classification- is it organised or dis
3) Crime reconstruction- hypothesise the sequence of events
4) Profile regeneration- hypothesise suspects

Question 29

Compare Top Down to Bottom up profiling

Answer 29

DIFFERENCES
- TDown Originates in law enforcement expertise (FBI) whereas BUp comes from psychological expertise (psychological theory).

• TDown involves classifying offenders into pre-determined classifications whereas the Bup doesn’t.
• TDown is used for mainly rape and murder whereas the BUp can be used for any crime.
• TDown doesn’t focus on the distribution of crimes but the BUp does.
• The TDown works down to assign offenders into categories so is deductive, but the BUp works up from evidence collected at the crime scene so is inductive.
• The TDown was formed in the Us, the BUp was in the UK.

SIMILARITIES
-Both used to narrow the field of suspects

• Both assume that there is a pattern in an offender’s behaviour, which is not always the case
• Both use information from the crime scene to make the profile
• Both Captured the public’s imagination

Question 30

Outline the Atavistic form

Answer 30

Atavistic form is a biological approach to explaining offending. It attributes criminal activity to a lack of evolutionary development. Offenders are thought to be “genetic throwbacks” who have a savage and untamed nature meaning that they cannot adjust to the demands and rules of modern society, so turn to crime.

Lombroso argued offenders are distinguishable by particular facial and cranial characteristics. These include: a narrow, sloping brow; a strong prominent jaw; high cheekbones; facial asymmetry. Other physical markers included dark skin and the existence of extra toes, nipples or fingers. He even categorised particular types of criminals in terms of their features.
Lombroso is credited for making criminology more rigorous and scientific. His ideas may have laid the foundations for modern profiling offender.

Question 31

How did Lombroso categorise murderers, sexual deviants and fraudsters?

Answer 31

Murderers- bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears

Sexual deviants- glinting eyes, swollen, fleshy lips and projecting ears

Fraudsters- thin and reedy lips

Question 32

Outline Lomroso’s research for the AF

Answer 32

What did they do?
-Examined the facial and cranial features of 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones.

What did they find?
-Concluded that 40% of criminal acts are accounted for by people with atavistic characteristics. It led to Lombroso proposing that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anomalies which were key indicators of criminality.

How does it relate to the atavistic form?
-Provides some support for atavistic form.

Question 33

Outline Goring’s research for the AF

Answer 33

What did they do?
-Compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals to establish whether there were physical or mental abnormalities among the criminal “classes”.

What did they find?
-Concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics. Although he did suggest that many people who commit crimes have a lower than average intelligence.

How does it relate to the Atavistic form?
-Does not provide support for atavistic form.

Question 34

Outline Twin studies (Lange) in relation to the Genetic explanation for offending

Answer 34

Lange (1930) investigated 13 MZ and 17 DZ twins where one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison. Lange found that 10 of the MZ twins but only 2 of the DZ twins had a co-twin who was also in prison. Lange concluded that genetic factors must play a predominant part in offending behaviour.

Christiansen (1977) studied 87 MZ and 147 DZ twin pairs where one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison. Christiansen found a concordance rate of 33% for MZs and 12% for DZs (concordance rate = both twins had served time in prison). Christiansen’s research supports the view that offending may have a genetic component.

Question 35

Outline Candidate genes in relation to the Genetic explanation for offending

Answer 35

Tiihonen et al (2014) conducted a genetic analysis of 900 Finish offenders. Each criminal was categorised as violent or non-violent. They found abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime. The MAOA gene codes for the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, which is important for controlling the amount of dopamine and serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive behaviour. CDH13 has previously been associated with substance abuse and Attention Deficit Disorder. Those with the two genes were 13 times more likely to have a history of repeated violent behaviour.

Question 36

Outline the diathesis stress model in relation to the Genetic explanation of offending

Answer 36

It is likely that even if genetics do have some influence on offending, it is at least partly moderated by the effects of the environment. A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come about through the combination of genetic predisposition and biological or psychological trigger. For example, being raised in a dysfunctional environment or having criminal role models.

Question 37

Outline the pre-frontal cortex in relation to the neural explanation for offending

Answer 37

The prefrontal cortex is part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour.

Raine reports that there are several dozen brain-imaging studies demonstrating that individuals with antisocial personalities have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex. Raine et al (2000) found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls.

Reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex suggests that people are not able to regulate their emotions and behaviour as well as those with normal activity which may explain the offending behaviour.

Question 38

Outline Raine et al’s research (1997) in relation to neural explantations

Answer 38

Aim: To identify brain regions specific to offenders charged with murder or manslaughter, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Method: The participants were 41 murderers (2 female) who had been charged with murder or manslaughter and had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The researchers used a (positron emission tomography) PET scanning method to highlight areas of brain activity and these results were compared to an age and gender matched control group.

Results: They found reduced activity for the offender group in areas such as the prefrontal cortex and corpus callosum (the nerve fibres responsible for swift communication between the hemispheres). Additionally, there were abnormalities in the activity of the limbic system, including the amygdala and thalamus.

Conclusion: There is indication that offenders (specifically violent offenders) have abnormal brain function when compared to normal controls.
As there is largely reduced activity, it would suggest that the brains of offenders are slowed and perhaps unable to make the swift decisions to react appropriately in certain situations.

For example, the frontal lobes are linked to planning behaviour; therefore, perhaps the decreased prefrontal cortex activity indicates that offenders are unable to consider the consequences of their actions and control their behaviour.

Question 39

Outline Mirror neurons in relation to the neural explanations for offending

Answer 39

Criminals with APD are thought to be able to experience empathy but more sporadically than “normal” people.

Keysers et al (2011) found that only when criminals were asked to empathise with a person depicted on a film experiencing pain did their empathy reaction, controlled by mirror neurons in the brain, activate. This suggests that APD individuals do have some empathy but may have a neural ‘switch’ that can be turned on and off, unlike “normal” brains where empathy is permanently turned on.

Dysfunctional mirror neurons suggest that people are not always able to feel empathy as well as those with normal activity which may explain the offending behaviour.

Question 40

Outline Eysenck’s psychological explanation for offending

Answer 40

Psychological explanations of offending shift the focus away from biological causes of crime towards social and psychological influences. These include the influence of dysfunctional learning environments and the influence of the family, cognitive factors and personality.

The Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality explains that offending is a “halfway” house being classed as psychological ( to do with personality) but with a biological basis. According to Eysenck personality traits are biological and come from the type of nervous system we inherit.Eysenck (1947) proposed behaviour could be represented along three dimensions:
· Introversion-extraversion

· Neuroticism (unstable)-stable

· Psychoticism (high to low)

Introversion is a personality trait characterised by a focus on INTERNAL feelings rather than on external sources of stimulation= reserved and solitary behaviour.

Extraversion is a personality trait characterised by a focus on EXTERNAL sources of stimulation to gain pleasure= outgoing, talkative, energetic behaviour.

Extraverts have an underactive nervous system. This means that they are constantly seeking excitement, stimulation and are likely to take risks.

Neuroticism is a broad personality trait dimension representing the degree to which a person experiences the world as distressing, threatening, and unsafe.
- HIGH ON NEUROTICISM are more likely than average to be MOODY and to experience such feelings as ANXIETY, WORRY, FEAR, ANGER, ENVY, FRUSTRATION, JEALOUSY, GUILT, DEPRESSED, MOODY, and LONELINESS.

• NEUROTICS respond WORSE TO STEESSORS and are more likely to INTERPRET ORDINARY situations as THREATENING and MINOR FRUSTRATIONS as HOPELESSLY DIFFICULT.
• Often SHY, SELF-CONSCIOUS, and they may have TROUBLE CONTROLLING URGES and DELAYING GRATIFICATION.
• HIGH LEVEL OF REACTIVITY in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS)– they respond quickly to threat- so tend to be NERVOUS, JUMPY, OVER-ANXIOUS and their general instability makes their behaviour difficult to predict.

PSYCHOTISM is a personality pattern typified by aggressiveness and interpersonal hostility.

• LACK OF EMPATHY, CRUEL “LONERS”.
• HIGHER LEVELS OF TESTOSTERONE. High psychoticism leads to a personality type of cold, unemotional and prone to aggression.

An individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism is likely to engage in offending behaviour because these personality types “mix” together.

This creates an individual who is cold, unemotional, prone to aggression, jumpy, difficult to predict, that seeks excitement and stimulation and is likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours.

An individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism cannot easily be conditioned i.e. moulded to react correctly in society.

Eysenck saw criminal behaviour as developmentally immature - it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification.

Socialisation teaches children to become more able to delay gratification and become more socially oriented.

However, people with high N and E scores had nervous systems making them difficult to condition. They do not learn easily to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety. Therefore, they would be more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presented itself. This in turn can lead to criminal behaviour.

The criminal personality is measured using the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). This locates respondents along the E and N dimension to determine their personality type. A later a scale for psychoticism was introduced.

Question 41

Outline Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning in the context of cognitive explanations for offending

Answer 41

This type of explanation suggests that criminal activity may have a cognitive basis i.e. mental processes such as thoughts, perceptions, and attention impact on behaviour.

Moral reasoning refers to the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong.

Kohlberg attempted to objectify this process by identifying different levels of reasoning based on people’s answers to moral dilemmas.

He proposed that people’s decisions and judgements on issues on right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral development- the higher the stage, the more sophisticated the reasoning.

Kohlberg based his theory on people’s responses to a series of moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma.

Moral Development and Criminality

Many studies suggest that criminals tend to show a lower level of moral reasoning.
Kohlberg et al. (1973) using his moral dilemma technique found that a group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development that non-violent youths- even after controlling for social background.

Kohlberg’s Model and Criminality

Criminals are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level of Kohlberg’s model, whereas non-criminals have generally progressed to the preconventional level and beyond.
The pre-conventional level is characterised by a need to avoid punishment and gain rewards, and is associated with a less mature, childlike reasoning. Both adults and teenagers who reason at this level may commit crime if they can get away with it, or gain rewards in the form of money, increased respect, etc.

This is supported by studies which suggest that offenders are often more egocentric (self-centred) and display poorer social perspective-taking skills than non-offending peers. Individuals who reason at higher levels tend to sympathise more with the rights of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours such as honesty, generosity, and non-violence.

Question 42

Outline cognitive distortions in the context of cognitive explanations for offending

Answer 42

Cognitive distortions are faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively. They are errors or biases in people’s information processing system. Cognitive distortions have been linked to the way criminal’s interpret behaviour of others and justify their own actions.
An example includes HOSTILE ATTRIBUTION BIAS- the tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or actions of others as aggressive and/or threatening when they may not be. Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues (e.g. being ‘looked at’) and this may trigger a disproportionate, often violent response.
Schönenberg and Justye (2014) presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions. Violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive images as angry or hostile than a matched control group.
The roots of this behaviour may lie in childhood. Dodge and Frame (1982) showed children a video clip of an ‘ambiguous provocation’ (where the intention was neither clearly hostile nor clearly aggressive). Children who had been identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior to the study interpreted the situation as more hostile than those classed as ‘non-aggressive’ and ‘accepted’.

Minimalisation is a type of deception and another cognitive distortion that involves downplaying the significance of events or emotions which is common when dealing with guilt- “euphemistic label”. For example, burglars may claim that its “just a job”. Barbaree (‘91) found that 54% of 26 imprisoned rapists denied it happened at all, and 26% minimised the harm. Pollock and Hashmall (‘92) reported that 35% of a sample of child molesters said it was non-sexual and 35% claimed consent.

Question 43

Outline the differential association theory in relation to psychological explanations of offending

Answer 43

This is an explanation for offending which proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behaviour.

It suggests that offending behaviour may be acquired in the same way as any other behaviour, through the process of learning. Criminality arises from two factors: learned attitudes towards crime, and the learning of specific criminal acts.

When a person is socialised into a group, they will be exposed to values and attitudes towards the law. Sutherland argues that if the number of pro-criminal (for) attitudes the person has, outweighs the number of anti-criminal attitudes, they will go on to offend. A would-be offender would need to learn techniques for committing crime. These might include how to break into someone’s house through a locked window or how to disable a car stereo before stealing it.

This theory suggests that it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit crime, if we have knowledge of the frequency, intensity and duration of which they have been exposed to deviant and non-deviant norms and values.

Question 44

Outline the Inadequate superego in the relation to psychodynamic explanations

Answer 44

The superego is formed at the end of phallic stage when the Oedipus or Electra complex has been resolved.

The superego works on the morality principle and exerts its influence by punishing the ego through guilt for wrongdoing and rewards with pride for moral behaviour. Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable as the id has free rein and is not controlled.

Three types of inadequate superego have been proposed such as the weak superego, the deviant superego and the overharsh superego. The weak superego is developed in the absence of the same-sex parent during the phallic stage whereby the child can’t identify with the same-sex parent and so the superego isn’t fully formed, therefore the child struggles to differentiate between the right and wrong. Therefore, the superego doesn’t punish the child with guilt and the so this won’t hold the child back from immoral and criminal behaviour.

The deviant superego occurs when the child identifies with the same-sex parent but the parent is immoral so the child internalises these and so cannot associate these criminal behaviours with guilt.

The Over-harsh contrasts the healthy superego as it isn’t forgiving which increases the individual’s guilt for wrong-doing. Therefore, the child will unconsciously seek opportunities where they’ll be reprimanded to reduce their sense of guilt leading to criminal behaviour to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

Question 45

Outline the maternal deprivation theory in relation to psychological explanations of offending

Answer 45

Bowlby (1944) argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a warm, continuous relationship with mother-figure. The maternal bond was seen as unique, superior to others and vital for the child’s wellbeing and development.

Failure to establish this meaningful bond in the first few years means the child will experience damaging, irreversible consequences in later life. For example, they will develop a particular personality type – ‘affectionless psychopathy’ – where people experience a lack of guilt empathy and feeling for others.

Maternally deprived individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency (illegal, unacceptable behaviour) and cannot develop close relationships with others.

Bowlby supported his claims for maternal deprivation using his own investigation of 44 juvenile thieves. He interviewed the thieves and their families and found that 14/44 showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affectionless psychopathy.

12 of these 14 individuals had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy (particularly in the first 2 years). In a non-criminal group, only 2 had experienced early separation.

Bowlby concluded that the effects of maternal deprivation caused affectionless and delinquent behaviour among juvenile thieves.