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Forensics Flashcards

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1
Q

Explain offender profiling in 3 points

A
  • behavioural and analytical tool
  • used when solving crimes
  • helps investigators narrow down no. of likely suspects by predicting possible characteristics of the unknown criminal using evidence of the crime scene
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2
Q

What are the two types of offender profiling?

A
  • top-down approach (knowledge->evidence)

- bottom-up approach (evidence->knowledge)

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3
Q

What are the two categories of the top-down approach?

A
  • organised offenders

- disorganised offenders

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4
Q

When using the top-down approach, what determines whether it is an organised or disorganised criminal?

A

The evidence at the crime scene (eg. any patterns, is it messy/careless or clean, did they try to hide it/cover their tracks etc)

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5
Q

Give the 6 stages of the top-down approach

A
  1. profiling inputs
  2. decision process models
  3. crime assessment
  4. criminal profile
  5. crime assessment
  6. apprehension
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6
Q

Where did the idea behind organised and disorganised offenders come from?

A

the insights of 36 sexually motivated serial killers including Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez and Charles Manson

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7
Q

Give 3 traits of an organised offender

A
  • avg. to high intelligence
  • high degree of control during the crime
  • plans offences
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8
Q

Give 3 traits of a disorganised offender

A
  • victim likely to be random
  • unskilled work or unemployed
  • offender is messy and makes no effort to hide any incriminating evidence
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9
Q

Give 3 evaluation points for the top-down approach

A
  • some people might not fit into either category (organised/disorganised)
  • gender bias sample (36 men) (beta bias)
  • only a certain type of criminal (36 sexually motivated serial killers)
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10
Q

How does the bottom-up approach (investigative psychology) work?

A

uses objective evidence to predict things about the criminals, rather than using subjective methods like the FBI

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11
Q

Who developed the bottom-up approach?

A

Canter (five factor model)

  • he was hired to find the ‘railway rapist’
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12
Q

Give the 5 stages of Canter’s Five Factor Model

A
  • interpersonal coherence
  • time and place
  • criminal characteristics
  • criminal career
  • forensic awareness
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13
Q

The bottom-up approach - Canter’s Five Factor Model (stages)

What is interpersonal coherence?

A

consistency between the way offenders interact with their victims and others in everyday life

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14
Q

The bottom-up approach - Canter’s Five Factor Model (stages)

What is time and place?

A

time and location of crime will communicate something about their own place of residence/employment

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15
Q

The bottom-up approach - Canter’s Five Factor Model (stages)

What is criminal characteristics?

A

characteristics of the offender can help classify them - this helps the police investigation

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16
Q

The bottom-up approach - Canter’s Five Factor Model (stages)

What is criminal career?

A

crimes tend to be committed in similar fashion by offenders and can provide indication of how their criminal activity will develop

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17
Q

The bottom-up approach - Canter’s Five Factor Model (stages)

What is forensic awareness?

A

offenders who show understanding of a police investigation are likely to of had past encounters with the criminal justice system

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18
Q

What is geographical profiling?

A
  • a form of bottom-up profiling
  • based on the principle of spatial consistency]
  • assumption is serial killers restrict their ‘work’ to areas that they are familiar with
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19
Q

What is crime mapping?

A

any crime statistics are used to make inferences about the likely home/operational base/workplace/social hangouts of the offender

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20
Q

What is atavistic form? Explain in 3 points

A
  • a historical approach/explanation
  • sees criminals as a ‘primitive subspecies’ of ‘genetic throwbacks’ that cannot conform to rules of modern society - they lack evolutionary development
  • individuals are distinguishable by particular cranial and facial characteristics
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21
Q

Who is Cesare Lombroso?

A
  • father of modern criminology

- he was the first to attempt any form of criminal profiling

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22
Q

Explain Cesare Lombroso’s famous study in 3 steps?

A
  • study on facial and cranial features of 100s of italian convicts both living and dead
  • 3839 living criminals examined
  • concluded that 40% of crimes were accounted for by atavistic characteristics
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23
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 3 facial/cranial features that criminals were thought to have

A
  • prominent jaw
  • narrow
  • high cheekbones
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24
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 3 bodily features that criminals were thought to have

A
  • dark skin

- extra toes, nipples or fingers

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25
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 4 other characteristics that criminals were thought to have

A
  • insensitivity to pain
  • use of slang
  • tattoos
  • unemployment
26
Q

What did Lombroso later do to his initial ideas of criminal cranial and facial features?

A

categorised them to particular types of criminal

27
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 2 features that murderers were thought to have when the initial criminal features were categorised

A
  • bloodshot eyes

- curly hair

28
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 1 feature that fraudsters were thought to have when the initial criminal features were categorised

A
  • thin and reedy lips
29
Q

A historical approach - Atavistic form:

Give 2 features that rapists were thought to have when the initial criminal features were categorised

A
  • glinting eyes

- swollen and fleshy lips

30
Q

Define eugenics

A

genetically ‘unfit’ people should be prevented from breeding

31
Q

Atavistic form - somatotypes - body shape

What did Kretschmer (1921)/Sheldon (1954) study?

A

Over 4000 convicted criminals and came up with a classification system

32
Q

Atavistic form - somatotypes - body shape

In the Kretschmer (1921)/Sheldon (1954) study what was the somatotype and criminal tendencies for:

  • Ectomorph
  • Mesomorph
  • Endomorph
  • Mixed
A
  • tall and thin/petty crimes
  • tall and muscular/violent crimes
  • short and fat/decepcion, sometimes with violence
  • more than one of the above/crimes against morality (eg. prostitution)
33
Q

Who was Phineas Gage? What happened to him?

A

railway worker - catastrophic damage to prefrontal lobes because metal bolt catapulting through cheek and up through eye into brain (prefrontal area)

34
Q

What happened to Phineas Gage after the accident?

Why?

A
  • recovered physically but went from being a sober, quiet family man to a violent drunk
  • prefrontal lobes keep behaviour in check, moderate impulses
35
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give the 2 findings of Raine et al’s 2 neural studies

A
  1. psychopaths = 18% volume reduction in the amygdala, thinning of cortex (the amygdala is the seat of emotion and psychopaths lack emotion (empathy, remorse, guilt, etc.))
  2. 11% reduction in grey matter of the PFC in people with APD compared to controls
36
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give 2 functions of the CDH 13 gene

A
  • slows down axon growth when neurons change structure or type
  • slows down the natural death (apoptosis) of vascular cells around neurons during periods of stress
37
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What can high activity of the CDH 13 gene cause in criminals (2)

A
  • interrupts the building and strengthening of some neural networks during their development
  • some networks might end up less well-developed or well-connected
38
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What could childhood stress/trauma do to CDH 13?

A

it might methylate (epigenetics; ‘switch off’) this gene

39
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What are mirror neurons?

A

a type of brain cell that fires when you do an action and also when you simply watch someone doing the same action, these help us to understand and interpret the actions of others

40
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What did Keysers et al. (2011) ask APP’s to do in their study?

A

asked them to empathise, when asked, they did and mirror neurons were activated

41
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give 3 findings of Keysers et al (2011) study (mirror neurons one in APP’s)

A
  • APP’s must make a conscious effort to understand - it does not come naturally to them
  • in a ‘normal’ brain, empathy is always ‘on’
  • shows that they empathise with important people to them (eg, family) but not others (need to be told to empathise with them not natural)
42
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What are monoamines?

A

a type of group of neurotransmitters (includes serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine)

43
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What enzyme breaks down monoamines?

A

MAO-A

44
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What is the production of the enzyme MAO-A controlled by?

A

a gene called MAOA

45
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

T/F - if you lack MAO-A then you’ll be unable to reduce levels of monoamines at the normal rate

A

TRUE

46
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What chromosome is MAOA on?

How many functioning copies do you need?

A

X chromosome

only need 1 (women inherit 2 - but men can inherit dysfunction from the mother alone so are at increased risk of having this defect)

47
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What was the aim of Brunner’s (1993) study?

A

to explain the behaviour of a large family in the Netherlands where men were affected by a syndrome of borderline mental retardation and abnormal violent behaviour

48
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What was the method of Brunner’s (1993) study?

A

clinical examination of male family members and comparison with normal family members

49
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give 4 things found in the behaviour examination of the affected men in Brunner’s (1993) study

A
  • repeated episodes of aggressive and sometimes violent behaviour (often out of proportion to provocation)
  • sleep disturbances and night terrors
  • inappropriate sexual behaviour toward sisters and female relatives
  • arson
50
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give 3 things found in the clinical examination of the affected men in Brunner’s (1993) study

A
  • all 9 affected males mentally retarded (avg. IQ 85) only 1 completed primary education
  • all unaffected males attended school and were employed
  • all females, including carriers appeared as normal
51
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What happened during the data analysis in Brunner’s (1993) study?

A

data was collected from the analysis of during samples over a 24hr period

52
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

What were the 2 main findings of Brunner’s (1993) study?

A
  • all affected males showed genetic mutations in the genes producing MAO-A
  • lower activity levels of MAOA = increased levels of these neurotransmitters (noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin)
53
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

How many adoptees did Mendick et al. include in his (1984) study?

A

14,427 danish adoptees

54
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Give the 4 results of Mendick et al’s (1984) adoptees study

A
  • 13.5 criminal with no criminal parents
  • 14.7 criminal with at least 1 criminal adoptive parent
  • 20% criminal with at least 1 criminal biological parent
  • 24.5% criminal with at least 1 criminal biological parent and at least 1 criminal adoptive parent
55
Q

Neural and genetic explanations of offender behaviour:

Explain the Mobley defence (case study - real world application) in 2 steps

A
  • Stephen Mobley - convicted murderer
  • Mobley’s attorney’s advanced a novel argument that he was genetically predisposed to seeking violent solutions to conflict
56
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

Explain Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality in 2 points

A
  • he proposed offending behaviour is caused by a criminal personality (psychological)
  • argued that the criminal personality type is biological in origin and comes about through the type of nervous system we inherit
57
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

What are the 3 factors in Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality which contribute to offending behaviour?

A
  • type of nervous system we inherit (biological)
  • criminal personality type (psychological)
  • responses to socialisation - reward and punishment (social)
58
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

What were the 2 dimensions that Eysenck proposed personality was represented along?

What was the third dimension that he added?

A
  • introversion/extraversion
  • neuroticism/stability

Later added: psychoticism/normality

59
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

What did Eysenck propose was the criminal personality type?

What did he also say offenders would score highly on?

A

Neurotic-extrovert (choleric)

  • high psychoticism-cold and unfeeling and prone to aggression
60
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

What was criminal personality type measured using?

A

Eysenck’s personality inventory (EPI)

  • a later scale was introduced to measure psychoticism
61
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

In Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality what is the neuroticism dimension linked to?

A

the sympathetic nervous system

62
Q

Psychological explanations for criminality

In Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality what is the extraversion dimension linked to?

A

the overall arousal of the nervous system

Psychology (12 decks)

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