Introduction to Forensic Psychology

Question 1

What is a crime

Answer 1

Act committed in violation of the law where the consequence of conviction by court is punishment (especially a serious punishment such as imprisonment)
CRIME IS CRIME

Question 2

What are 2 problems with defining crime

Answer 2

Cultural
Historical

Question 3

Example of culture conflicting w defining crime

Answer 3

Forced marriage was made illegal in the UK in 2014, however it is practice in other countries

Question 4

Example of history conflicting w defining crime

Answer 4

Homosexuality is still illegal in many parts of the world and was only made legal in the UK in 1967
A parents right to smack their child was outlawed in 2004

Question 5

How is crime age relativw

Answer 5

Deliberate and with intention
Under 10s cannot be arrested or charged with a crime because they are not considered fully responsible for their actions

Question 6

What are the dark figures of crimes

Answer 6

Crimes that aren’t reported often
Hidden from the police

Question 7

What are the 3 ways of measuring crime

Answer 7

Official statistics = crimes reported to police and recorded allowing gov to formulate prevention strategies and police initiatives, only a fraction of actual number
Victim surveys = public’s experience of crime over a particular period. 50k households are randomly chosen to report on the crimes that they have been a victim of in the past yr and this is compiled in the Crime Survey for England and Wales
Offender surveys = individuals self-report on the types of crimes that they have committed. offender Crime and Justice Survey was the first national self-report of this kind; it aimed to identify trends in offending and the relationship between perpetrators and victims

Question 8

Evaluating official statistics

Answer 8

Unreliable as significantly underestimate true extent of crime
25% of offenses included in statistics only
75% referred to by criminologists as the ‘dark figure’ of crime
Farrington and Dowds 1985 = in Nottingham more petty crimes were reported than neighbouring areas

Question 9

Official statistics rape

Answer 9

129 fewer rape suspects were convicted in 2013 than 2012
Number of rape cases referred to prosecutors have fallen by a 1/3 since 2011
Rape offences increased substantially, reaching a high of 69,973 offences in the 2021/22 reporting yr, before failing slightly to 68,949 in the 2022/23 reporting yr

Question 10

Men are more likely to be raped than falsely accused of raping someone
True or false

Answer 10

True
2016 says 1 in 18 men sexually assaulted
Where only like 1 in 30 falsely accused

Question 11

Victim surveys statistics of cria 2% decrease a me

Answer 11

Greater degree of accuracy
2006/7 official statistics suggested a 2% decrease in crime from the year before
3% increase
Recall - telescoping could distort figures
Telescoping = inaccurate perceptions regarding time, where people see recent events as more remote than they are (backward) and remote events as more recent (forward)
This mental error in memory can occur whenever we make temporal assumptions regarding past events

Question 12

Offender surveys evaluation

Answer 12

Provides insight into how many people are responsible for certain crimes
Unreliable - exaggerated or concealed?
White collar or blue collar crimes (white collar = organisations, blue = everyday crimes)