Test #1 Flashcards
Define “forensic psychology” both narrowly and broadly
Narrow Def: The professional practice by psychologists in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology, when they are engaged regularly as experts in an activity intended to provide professional expertise to the judicial system (Really only speaks to expert opinion)
Broad Definition: A research endeavour and/or a professional practice that examines human behaviour in relation to the legal system. (Speaks to a variety of contributors and does not just offer opinion but offers analysis, research findings, testing, assessment, etc.)
Define “Forensic Psychology” narrowly.
The professional practice by psychologists in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology, when they are engaged regularly as experts in an activity intended to provide professional expertise to the judicial system (Really only speaks to expert opinion)
Define “Forensic Psychology” broadly.
A research endeavour and/or a professional practice that examines human behavior in relation to the legal system. (Speaks to a variety of contributors and does not just offer opinion but offers analysis, research findings, testing, assessment, etc.)
How are forensic psychologists similar to regular psychologists?
BOTH are interested in studying people’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions. BUT Forensic Psychologists put an emphasis on the context of THE LAW
What are the 3 Interactions of the law? Explain.
1) Psychology and the law – The use of psychology to study the operation of the legal system
2) Psychology in the law – The use of psychology within the legal system as it currently operates
3) Psychology of the law – The use of psychology to study the law itself (least common form)
Compare & Contrast Clinical & Experimental Psychology
Clinical Psychology
• Job may include: Research and practice
• Area of interest: Mental health and the law
• Differences in education as well
Experimental Psychology
• Job may include: Research
• Area of interest: Human behavior and the law
Who are the 3 Major contributors to Forensic Psychology?
- James Cattell (1895)
- Alfred Binet (1900)
- William Stern
Explain what James Cattell offered to Forensic Psychology.
- Developed “psychology of eyewitness testimony”
- Conducted an experiment on everyday life events
- What he found was that participants were often inaccurate in their recollection of events and information. This suggests that witnesses to crimes may not be the best judge of what actually happened.
Explain what Alfred Binet offered to Forensic Psychology.
- Discovered that testimony provided by children was highly susceptible to suggestive questioning techniques.
- Conducted a study using different questioning techniques with children
Explain what William Stern offered to Forensic Psychology.
- Developed the “reality experiment” – used to study eyewitness recall and recognition
- Participants were exposed to staged events and then asked questions about the event. Testimony was often incorrect
- Important because emotional arousal can have a negative impact on the accuracy of a person’s testimony.
Discuss some relevant cases to false confession and wrongful convictions
- Richard Ivens (1906)
- Harry Orchard
Why is the Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) case so important?
- The success of the psychological input in the case had validated psychology as a science – the discipline had now achieved a status where it was deemed useful for assisting courts of the law on the USA.
- Psychologists spoke to how segregation impacted an individual, lasting psychological effects, etc.
Describe & explain the 3 Psychological Theories of Crime - using all relevant resources offered by Instructor
1)Psychoanalytical Theories – Internal dynamics and early experiences
• (John Bowlby – Theory of maternal deprivation)
• Early separation from one’s mother prevents effective social development from taking place, which results in antisocial behavior patterns
2) Learning Theories – Learning through direct and indirect consequences
• (Albert Bandura – Social learning theory)
• Criminal behavior is learned through direct and indirect reinforcement
• For example, by interacting with anti-social peers or watching violence on tv
3) Personality Theories – The make-up of criminal personalities
• (Hans Eysenck – Bio-social theory)
• Personality falls on a continuum of personality dimensions
• People high on neuroticism and extraversion are more likely to become involved in crime.
What is the difference between compliance? And suggestibility?
Compliance: Tendency to go along with people in authority (related to coerced-compliant confessions)
Suggestibility: Tendency to internalize information communicated during questioning (related to coerced-internalized confessions)
Briefly describe geographic profiling
Involves an analysis of crime scene locations in order to determine the most probable area of offender residence.
What are the functions of the expert witness.
Two primary functions:
1) Aid in understanding a particular issue relevant to the case
2) Provide an opinion
What are the 3 stages of the Reid Interview and Interrogation.
1) Gather evidence
2) Conduct a non-accusatorial interview to assess deception/guilt
3) Conduct an accusatorial interrogation to obtain a confession
What is the difference between inductive and deductive profiling
Deductive profiling: Profiling an offender from evidence relating to that offender’s crimes
Inductive profiling: Profiling an offender from what is known about other offenders who have committed similar (solved) crimes
Define Deductive Profiling.
Profiling an offender from evidence relating to that offender’s crimes
Define Inductive Profiling.
Profiling an offender from what is known about other offenders who have committed similar (solved) crimes
What are the 3 potential problems with profiling?
- Many forms of profiling are based on a model of personality that lacks empirical support
- Profiles often contain ambiguous advice and such advice can be interpreted to fit a wide range of suspects
- Professional profilers do not always produce profiles that are more accurate than the profiles produced by novices
Define Racial Profiling.
Racial Profiling – refers to any police initiated action that uses race to make decisions regarding an individual
What are the 3 main types of polygraph tests?
- Relevant/Irrelevant Test
- asks questions relevant to the crime and irrelevant to the crime
- no longer used in law enforcement, but used for employee screening (drug use, honesty)
- larger physiological responses to relevant questions indicates deception - Control Question Test (CQT)
Deception is assessed by comparing arousal levels of relevant and control questions.
Includes 3 types of questions: Irrelevant, Relevant, and Control - Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT)
- Assesses if suspect has information that only the criminal would know
- Asks suspects multiple choice questions, one option is correct
- Assumes if the suspect is guilty they will react strongly to correct information
- Not used in Canada or US
What are the vocal cues which detect deception?
Vocal cues most consistently related to deception include:
- Higher voice pitch
- Increased speech disturbance (ah, umm)
- Slower speech and Speech pauses
- Pattern of vocal cues may depend on how cognitively complex the lie is
What are the non-vocal characteristics of deception.
- Gaze aversion
- Smiling, blinking, fidgeting
- Illustrators, body movements
- Shrugs, head movement, shifting positions
Define Factitious disorder.
A disorder in which the person’s physical and psychological symptoms are intentionally produced and are adopted for no external rewards.
Define Somatoform Disorder?
Physical symptoms that cannot be explained by organic impairment
Define Malingering.
Psychological or physical symptoms are voluntary for personal gain
Define Defensiveness.
Opposite of malingering. Defensiveness refers to the conscious denial or minimization of physical or psychological symptoms.
Explain the Reid Technique?
Most common interrogation method used in Canada. Developed by John. E. Reid (poly-grapher). Used to extract confession from suspects.
Define the Minimization Technique?
Soft sell tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to lull the suspect into a false sense of security
Define the Maximization Technique?
Scare tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to intimidate a suspect believed to be guilty
What is the difference between minimizing and maximizing techniques?
Minimization (False Security) – Tactics include sympathy, excuses, and justification. Officer says things that make the suspect more inclined to admit guilt.
Maximization (Scare Tactics) – Tactics include: exaggerating the seriousness of an offence; false claims about evidence. Examples are referring to non-existence of eyewitness testimonies and mentioning non-existent video surveillance.
Define the Reid Model.
A nine-step model of interrogation used frequently in North America to extract confessions from suspects
What is the nine-step procedure in stage 3 of the Reid Model?
- Suspect is immediately confronted with their guilt
- Psychological themes are then developed
- Interrogator interrupts any statements of denial by the suspect
- Interrogator overcomes suspect’s objections to the charges
- Hold the suspects attention (ensure suspect doesn’t tune out of interrogation)
- Interrogator urges confession by presenting sympathy and understanding
- Suspect is offered self-incriminating explanations to the crime ex. It was accidental
- Once the suspect accepts responsibility for the crime, Interrogator develops admission into a full confession
- Finally, the interrogator gets the suspect to write and sign a full confession
What is criminal profiling? Describe its historical roots.
Criminal profiling is a technique for identifying the personality and behavioral features of an offender based on an analysis of the crimes they have committed. Historically, it came about in order to assist police officers to identify the criminal by narrowing down lists of suspects or providing new ideas.
What are the different types of false confessions? Include and relevant cases that can be used as examples.
1) Voluntary – a false confession that is provided without any elicitation from the police Ex. JonBenet Ramsey Case
2) Coerced-Compliant False Confession – occurs in response to a desire to escape further interrogation or to gain a promised reward Ex. Gerry Conlon and the IRA bombings
3) Coerced-Internalized False Confession – results from highly suggestive interrogations. The confessor comes to believe that they did commit the crime (i.e. internalizes) Ex. The Paul Ingram Case
Describe the main concept from the Ted Talk video from the Week 1 PPT.
- Studies how humans remember crimes
* He suggests that even close-up eyewitnesses to a crime can create “memories” they could not have seen
Describe the difference between expert witness & an expert Testimony?
Expert Witness – a witness who provides the court with information (often an opinion on a particular matter) that assists the court in understanding an issue of relevance to a case.
Expert Testimony - Testimony about a scientific, technical, or professional issue given by a person qualified to testify because of familiarity with the subject or special training in the field.
What are the three main problems with Reid.
1) Assumes that police officers can accurately detect deception when little evidence supports this assumption
2) Officers enter the accusatorial interrogation with the belief that the suspect is guilty, which can lead to inappropriate biases
3) Coercive techniques used in this model may elicit false confessions
Why is the R.V. Oickle (2000) case significant to the field of forensic psychology ?
Presented border-line techniques used by the police in interrogation to obtain a confession, where a judge actually thought the police were using coercive techniques to obtain a confession. However, the conviction was restored at the Supreme Court Level.
What are the 3 types of false confessions?
1) Voluntary – a false confession that is provided without any elicitation from the police Ex. JonBenet Ramsey Case
2) Coerced-Compliant False Confession – occurs in response to a desire to escape further interrogation or to gain a promised reward Ex. Gerry Conlon and the IRA bombings
3) Coerced-Internalized False Confession – results from highly suggestive interrogations. The confessor comes to believe that they did commit the crime (i.e. internalizes) Ex. The Paul Ingram Case
