Forensics psychology Flashcards
What are some features of an organized offender?
- Planned crime in advance
- High degree of control
- Precise
- Few clews left
- Often married
- High IQ
- Targeted crime
- Professional occupation
- Socially/ sexually competent
- High interest in crimes
What are some features of a disorganized offender?
- Lack of planning
- Lack of control
- Clues left and often body
- Often single
- No specific victim
- Low IQ
- Socially awkward
- Poor employment history
- Little interest in crimes
DCCP
What are the four main stages of FBI profiling?
- Data assimilation - evidence is reviewed
- Crime scene classification - either organised or disorganzed
- Crime reconstruction - Hypothesis in terms of the sequence of events
- Profile generation - Hypothesis of likely offender.
What type of offender profiling fo the FBI use?
The top-down
What is meant by the bottom-up approach to offender profiling?
Using past data of similar crimes in order to build a picture of the offender, investigators will use systematic analysis of the crime scene and compare this with historical data, it does not use fixed typologies but is instead data-driven.
What approach to offender profiling is geographical profiling associated with?
Bottom-up profiling
What is a marauder?
Someone who commits crimes in close proximity to their base.
What is a commuter?
Someone who commits crimes away from their base traveling to commit crimes.
What is spatial consistency?
How people commit crimes within a limited geographical space.
What is crime mapping?
Using information about the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of the offender.
What is Modus operandi?
A particular way or method of doing something.
What did Canter and Heritage do?
SA cases
Conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assault cases and identified common. behaviors, they also discovered that each assaulter has their own patter of behavior at the crime scene this helps establish case linkage and therefore shows that the bottom-up approach is useful and valid.
What did Copson’s study find?
accuracy of advice from the profiler
He found that that advice provided by the profiler was judged to be ‘useful’ in 83% of cases but in only 3% of cases it led to accurate identification of the offender.
Describe the Rachel Nickell case.
In 1992 Rachel Nickell was stabbed 47 times on Wimbledon Common and sexually assaulted investigation from the profiler led to police targetting Colin Stagg and the police had an undercover policewoman fake a relationship with him for 5 months to try and get a confession, in 2008 Robert Napper was convicted of the murder having been originally left out as he was several inches taller than the profile.
Define the Atavistic form.
An early biological explanation which proposed criminals are a sub-species of genetic throwbacks that cannot conform with the modern rules of society, such individuals are identifiable by particular facial and cranial charicteristics.
Explain Lombroso’s study.
Method: Lombroso examined the features and measurements of nearly 4,000 criminals, as well as the skulls of 400 dead criminals.
Results: Some common findings from Lombroso’s investigation included:
sloping brow
pronounced jaw
high cheekbones
large ears
extra nipples, toes, and fingers
Conclusion: Lombroso concluded that these characteristics indicated that such people were more primitive in an evolutionary sense. He went on to say that such individuals were therefore not responsible for their actions as they could not be blamed for their innate, inherited physiology.
Explain a limitation of Lombros’ study when compared to modern society.
It has racist connotations as many of his ‘criminal features’ are features often seen in people of African descent.
Explain a limitation of Lombroso’s method.
He did not use a control group so although these features may have been seen in offenders he did not cross-examine to see how common they were in the general public.
Explain a strength of Lombroso’s study.
A primary strength is that Lombroso shifted the emphasis of crime onto a more scientific theory, looking at evolution and genetics. Secondly, he also introduced the idea of criminal profiling, which is vital for forensic psychologists, by assuming people with certain characteristics are more likely to commit crimes, this has led to criminal profiling now used by most modern police forces.
What was the sample size for Lombroso’s study?
4000 Criminals and 400 skulls of dead criminals.
What did Christiansen’s study show?
MZ vs DZ offending rates
Studied 3500 twin pairs born between 1880-1910 in Denmark, he found by looking at their offender records and found 35% concordance rates in MZ twins and 13% for DZ twins.
What did Crowe find?
Adopted children with an offender mother
He found that adopted kids with an offender mother had a 50% higher chance of being an offender.
What are the two genes linked with an offending?
MAOA
CDH13
What is the CDH13 gene linked with?
Attention deficit disorder.
