Forensics Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
A behavioral and analytical tool used when trying to solve crimes. It is intended to help investigation narrow down the number of likely suspects of crime by predicting the probable characteristics of the unknown criminal(s) -e.g. their age, background, occupation etc.- using evidence from the crime scene
What are the two types of offender profiling?
Top-Down Approach and Bottom-Up Approach
What are some key features of the top-down approach?
It is also called the typology approach. This is when the people who are profiling the criminals have pre-existing conceptual categories of offenders in their minds. They can use the evidence from the crime to fit into either of these categories.
What are some key features of the bottom-up approach?
When the profilers look at the evidence from the crime and use these to develop likely hypotheses of what the offender is like using their knowledge of psychological theories.
What are the two categories of offenders in top-down profiling?
organised offenders and disorganised offenders
How were the two types of offender developed?
It was formed by the FBI’s behavioral science unit in the 1970s. They drew upon data gathered from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers including Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez etc. They then classified organised/disorganised offenders within these subsections.
What are 5 feature of organised offenders?
Can have any 5 of the following: -More Intelligent -High degree of control during the crime -violent fantasies may be carried out on the victim -Usually in a skilled, professional occupation -Socially and sexually competent -Uses restraints and hidden weapons - Follow their crimes in the media - Usually married/with a family - Victim is especially targeted as the offender seems to have a type
What are 5 features of disorganised offenders?
Can have any 5 of the following: -Unskilled work or unemployed -Socially incompetent -Below average intelligent -Tend to live alone and relatively close to where the offense took place - Minimal control in the crime-impulsive -Messy; doesn’t conceal incriminating evidence so evidence is likely to be present at the crime scene -History of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships -Victim is likely to be random - Crime is likely to have no elements of planning
What are the six stages of Top-down profiling?
Input, Decisions, Assessment 1, Criminal Profile, Assessment 2, Apprehension
What occurs in the “input” stage of Top-down profiling?
Input of description of the crime scene, background information about the victim and details of the crime itself. All information should be included but only confirmed suspects are used, not possible subjects.
What occurs in the “decisions” stage of Top-down profiling?
Decisions made about the data and the data is split into meaningful categories. Issues like murder type (i.e. mass/spree/serial), time factors and location factors are considered.
What occurs in the “Assessment 1” stage of Top-down profiling?
The crime is classified as organised or disorganised
What occurs in the “Criminal Profile” stage of Top-down profiling?
The profile is made including hypotheses of their likely background, habits and beliefs of the offender which helps in investigation of the offender.
What occurs in the “Assessment 2” stage of Top-down profiling?
Written report given to the investigator. If new evidence is generated/no suspects are identified the profiles will revert back to stage 2- “decisions”
What occurs in the “Apprehension” stage of Top-down profiling?
If the suspect is apprehended, the active profile-generating process is reviewed to check the conclusions were legitimate and can be revise for future cases.
What was one criticism of the top-down approach suggested by A____n 2002?
Alison- She proposed an issue with the dichotomy between organised/disorganised offenders. Crimes can contain aspects of both and criminals can change their behaviors over time. It therefore does not consider individual differences and is too simplistic.
What did G___in 2002 suggest was was an issue with the top-down approach?
Godwin- He suggested that judgement of what makes a person an organised or unorganised offender is subjective.
How can we criticise the FBI Science Unit study that top-down approach was based on relating to methodology?
There were some issues with the study. The sample was very small and unusual as they were all serial killers, which makes this less generalisable. They also used a self report design, which would have been invalid as the ps would be prone to exaggeration due to them most likely showing narcissism or arrogance.
How can we criticise the FBI Science Unit study that top-down approach was based on relating to temporal validity?
AS the study was in the 1970s, we can suggest that the attitudes of serial killers have changed (i.e. less women being persecuted as they are less likely to be seen as weak), suggesting poor temporal validity.
How can we criticise the FBI Science Unit study that top-down approach was based on relating to gender?
One could argue that the study involved beta bias.
What was one criticism of top-down profiling suggested by C_nt_r 2004?
He suggested that the criteria have little basis in reality/reliability/support. In a study of 100 serial killers they found no clear division between organised and disorganised types of offender. This shows issues with construct validity/being too simplistic.
What is one criticism of top-down that relates to culture?
One could argue that it is culturally biased and that the criteria for organised/disorganised offenders is based on stereotypes.
Who was the bottom-up method created by? Why?
David Canter, so he could catch the railway rapist
What is the model of bottom-up approach?
the Five Factor Model
What are the five features of the five factor approach?
Interpersonal coherence, time and place, criminal characteristics, criminal career, forensic awareness
What does the interpersonal coherence feature of the five factor model involve?
Consistency between the way offenders interact with their victims and with others in their everyday lives.
What does the time and place feature of the five factor model involve?
The time and location of an offender’s crime will communicate something about their own place of residence/employment
What does the criminal characteristics feature of the five factor model involve?
characteristics about the offender can help to classify them
What does the criminal career feature of the five factor model involve?
An offender’s crimes all tend to be committed in similar fashion and helps us predict how their criminal activity can develop as the criminals and crimes in question can change.
What does the forensic awareness feature of the five factor model involve?
offenders who show an understanding of a police investigation are more likely to have had previous encounters with the criminal justice system.
What s circle theory and who was it developed by?
It was developed by David Canter and Paul Larkin (1993) offenders commit their crimes with a kind of imagined circle.
What are the two types of offenders in circle theory?
Marauders- live within the circle of crimes Commuter- Travels to another location but still follows a circle in this other location.
What is criminal geographic targeting?
A computerised system developed by Kim Rossmo and based on his formula. This formula creates a 3 dimensional map with special data relating to time, distance and movement to and from crime scenes. The map is called a “jeopardy surface”
What is one strength of the bottom-up approach relating to objectivity?
It relies on objective methods. For instance, they use computer programmes and criminal geographic targeting. which objectively focuses on crime location, and the crime scene.
What is one limitation of the bottom-up approach relating to data?
All bottom-up techniques use secondary data, so internal validity is uncertain, which makes internal validity uncertain.
What is one weakness of the bottom-up approach relating to construct validity?
There are issues with construct validity in circle theory. This is shown by geographical targeting too commonly identifying criminals as marauders. Furthermore, CGT has been rejected by police forces questioning it’s ecological validity.
What is one limitation of offender profiling relating to ecological validity (with evidence)?
A lot of the evidence is based on self-report either from the investigator or offender. For instance a self report study involving police officers suggested, though 75% thought profiling was useful, only 3% could give an example where profiling actually helped the case.
What are the main principles of atavistic form?
It is a historical biological explanation of criminology that proposed that are a subspecies of humans with genetic throwbacks that can not fit into modern society. They can be characterised by specific facial and cranial features.
What did F___z G___ suggest?
Via Phrenology, he suggested that the shape of your head corresponds to your personality, hence why you can tell if someone is a criminal due to the shape of their head.
What did C__are L_____so suggest? What did his study involve?
Casare Lombroso- He said that criminals were genetic throwbacks and that you could see their criminality in their physical features. He investigated the criminal and facial features of 3839 living and dead criminals and could tell 40% of these people’s crimes just by their face, so suggested that 40% of the crimes were accounted for by avarism.
What did lombroso suggest where characteristics of all criminals? (4 features)
Strong and prominent jaws, high cheekbones, dark skin, extra toes/nipples/fingers
What did lombroso suggest where characteristics of murderers? (3 features)
Bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears
What did lombroso suggest where characteristics of sexual deviants?
Glinting eyes and swollen/fleshy lips
What are some of the non-physical traits that Lombroso related to criminality?
Tattoos, unemployment and use of slang.
What was one way that Lombroso’s sample was biased?
The sample was all men and a lot were african.
What did Lombroso think of free will/determinism?
He didn’t believe in free will and instead supported the idea of humans being similar in nature to animals, as suggested by Galton and Darwin
What prejudices did Lombroso’s theory suggest?
Racism and ableism
What does somatotypes of criminology suggest and who was it made by?
That we can tell the nature of people’s crimes based on their body type (i.e. tall and muscular people commit violent crimes, tall and thin people commit petty crimes etc.). This was suggested by Kretschmer in 1921.
What did Ch_____s G__ing (1913) suggest about Lombroso’s theories? What were some issues with this study?
Charles Goring— He compared 3000 criminals with 3000 non-criminals and concluded that there were no distinct differences, contesting Lombroso. He did, however, admit that criminals seemed to have lower than average intelligence. The assessment of people’s features would have been subjective as everyone has different perspectives, and the assessment could be biased due to investigator effect.
What did DeLisi (2012) suggest about Lombroso’s theories?
He suggested that Lombroso was subject to scientific racism as many of the atavistic features that he identified resembled people of African descent and were described to resemble the working class. This shows cultural bias and cultural relativism.
What is one issue with the temporal context of Lombroso’s study?
It was conducted during a time period when there was a lot of migration and violence in Italy, so a lot of the population in Italy was African and they were often persecuted for being foreign and put in prison.
How did Lombroso’s study experience revision and how can this relate to issues and debates?
Lombroso revised his theories to suggest that criminality could be cause by environmental factors. However, this still suggest there is a close relationship between cause and effect, disregarding extraneous variables such as free will, therefore being very determinist.
What is one issue with gender bias in Lombroso?
It showed gender bias as they only studies women.
Describe the case study of P____ P. G___?
Phineas P Gage- was in a railway accident where he worked in 1894. A rod was driven through his brain (the prefrontal lobe). He recovered physically but his personality changed from being a sober, quiet, family man to being a violent drunk with little impulse control.
What is one criticism of Phineas P. Gage relating to determinism?
It could be argued to be determinist as damage to other structures could have been affected by the explosion as well- the change in behavior could be due to them
What is one criticism of Phineas P. Gage relating to issues and debates?
Could be argued to be too idiographic.
What was the methodology of R___e 2009?
Raine- He compared pet scans of 27 psychopaths compared to 32 non-psychopaths.
What were the findings of R___e 2009?
Raine- In the psychopaths there was an 18% reduction in the amygdala and thinning of the cortex around it. He also found an 11% reduction in grey matter in the prefrontal cortex in those with APD.
What does Cadherin do?
It is a protein that slows down axon growth when neurons change shape or structure. It triggers apoptosis of vascular cells around neurons and provides a neural defense against atherosclerosis and oxidative stress. It can also be associated with new neural growth because of this.
WHat is Brunner’s syndrome?
Brunner syndrome is a rare genetic disorder associated with a mutation in the MAOA gene. It is characterized by lower than average IQ (typically about 85), problematic impulsive behavior (such as pyromania, hypersexuality and violence), sleep disorders and mood swings.
What gene creates Cadherin?
CDH13
How can childhood trauma affect the CDH13 gene?
Childhood stress/trauma can result in methylation of this gene, which could result in some networks being less well developed or well connected.
How does the CDH13 theory relate to Bowlby’s theory?
It relates to his suggestion of a critical period- he suggests that if people are deprived of a PCG in infancy, they will develop emotional maladjustment. He supported this when the affectionless psychopaths in his 44 thieves study all had maternal deprivation in childhood. This could have resulted in methylation of the CDH13, preventing certain neural connections from occurring, such as those that create empathy or an inner working model.
What are mirror neurons?
Allows you to watch someone doing something and imagine how they might feel- i.e. metarepresentation.
What was the methodology and results of K_____s et al (2011)?
Keysers In an fMRI a group of participants were shown upsetting texts and videos. This activated the control group’s mirror neurons and caused empathy. Participants with APD didn’t experience empathy and their mirror neurons were not activated. However, when the APD participants were asked to focus on the feelings of others, they could empathize.
What were the conclusions of K_____s et al?
Keyers This shows how, though in normal brains the empathy is always turned on, in APD diagnosed people it is turned on and off with conscious effort.
What is the MAOA gene/the monoamine hypothesis?
Monoamines include serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. These are broken down by enzymes called MAO-A to prevent excess. This enzyme is controlled by the MAOA. A lack of MAO-A results in an excess of monoamines, so causes heightened emotions for long periods of time and can result in emotional outbursts.
What does the graph relating to the stages of anger look like?
What does the graph for reasoning when we’re angry look like?
