Test 4

Question 1

What is monocultural (non-multicultural) psychology, and what challenges does it present to forensic psychologists?

Answer 1

Euro-American contexts may be limited in their application to racial and culturally diverse populations

Question 2

Are persons with disabilities more likely to be victims of crime? Explain your answer.

Answer 2

The data indicates that victimization rates for children and adults with disabilities far exceed those of individuals who do not have disabilities.

Question 3

What are the two venues in which victims of crime may seek recourse?

Answer 3

criminal court and civil courts

Question 4

List and describe any four rights granted to victims as a result of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004. What type of information about victimization is available from the NCVS?

Answer 4

-reasonably protected from the accused, notification of victims, right of allocution, speedy trial

Question 5

What is the right of allocution?

Answer 5

right to speak out during court proceedings

Question 6

How would you describe, in a nutshell, the psychological impact of criminal violence on its direct victims? List some of the common psychological effects of crime on its victims.

Answer 6

substantial and far-reaching

Question 7

Summarize the research on homicides of young children (birth to 5 years), including (a) what age range is most at risk, (b) who is the most likely offender and what is their sex (gender), and (d) what are the most common triggers.

Answer 7

<1 year are most at risk

The most likely offender is a parent, often the mother

Two of the most common triggers of young-child homicide are crying that will not stop and toileting accidents

Question 8

What role do forensic psychologists play in dealing with the co-victims of criminal homicide? Specifically, what are the needs of the co-victim regarding death notification?

Answer 8

During notification the co-victim’s needs may include (1) an opportunity for venting of
emotion; (2) calm, reassuring authority; (3) restoration of control; and (4) preparation for what the co-victim needs to do next.

Question 9

What type of information about victimization is available from the NCVS or research reports (e.g., Kilpatrick, Whalley, and Edmunds (2002)? Specifically, what do the data show regarding the relationship between victim and offender?

Answer 9

-not a stranger, it’s relatives and people you know

Question 10

Why is Summit’s child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome controversial?

Answer 10

results in highly suggestive questioning of children, which could lead to false reports and not proven to be valid

Question 11

What role do forensic psychologists play in dealing with adult victims of sexual assault? Specifically, why is it difficult to estimate the number of trafficked victims?

Answer 11

Difficulty in estimation:
1. Because there is no uniform system for collecting data on the victims, the number of
trafficked victims is extremely difficult to estimate.
3. Victims are fearful of retribution from their traffickers.
4. Victims also tend to be highly distrustful of authority because they may be runaways or
undocumented immigrants.
5. not much cooperation between law enforcement agencies

Question 12

What do official data (e.g., NCVS), research studies, and records from women’s shelters reveal about the course of violence against women and the motivations for the violence men perpetrate against women in IVP?

Answer 12

-persistent and escalating
-motivation is to establish or maintain power and control

Question 13

Summarize Meuer, Seymour, and Wallace’s nine-stage theory of domestic violence.

Answer 13

Stage 4: Characterized by the beginning of excessive control through psychological and
emotional abuse.

Question 14

Name at least four obstacles in the path of victims of intimate partner violence who want to leave the relationship.

Answer 14

economic options limited, cultural norms, no support

Question 15

State four reasons why the term battered woman syndrome is controversial.

Answer 15

validity issues

Question 16

What are the major differences between same-sex intimate partner violence (SS-IPV) and opposite-sex intimate partner violence (OS-IPV)?

Answer 16

how the community, police, medical personnel, and available social service programs (e.g., women’s shelters) respond to the victims

Question 17

What is the most important factor to consider for a practitioner working with a victim of IPV?

Answer 17

safety of the victim

Question 18

List and briefly describe the four major types of child maltreatment.

Answer 18

neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse

Question 19

What are the key psychological features (most common cluster of symptoms; typical characteristics of parents) of medical child abuse (formerly known as Münchausen syndrome by proxy)?

Answer 19

-seizures, failure to thrive, vomiting, diarrhea, asthma/allergies, and infections
-overinvolved mother and emotionally distant father

Question 20

State (a) three conclusions reached by the APA Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse that specifically address memory and (b) your own conclusion regarding the validity of repressed and recovered memories.

Answer 20

-Most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what
happened to them.
-It is possible for memories of abuse that have been forgotten for a long time to be
remembered.
-It is also possible to construct convincing pseudo-memories for events that never
occurred.

Question 21

What are the four important points about the limitations of memory made by leading experts Peter Ornstein, Stephen Ceci, and Elizabeth Loftus?

Answer 21

1. Not everything gets into memory.
2. What gets into memory may vary in strength.
3. The status of information in memory changes across time.
4. Retrieval is not perfect; not all that is stored gets retrieved.

Question 22

Know the victimology of child abduction.

Answer 22

most kidnappings are not stranger abductions

Question 23

Where do most cases of elder abuse occur and who is the most common perpetrator of elder abuse?

Answer 23

1. Adult children are the most frequent abusers of their elderly parents.
2. Most cases of elder abuse and neglect take place at home.

Question 24

Explain the difference between institutional and community corrections.

Answer 24

institutional corrections is when offenders are being supervised in an institution (jails and prisons), while community corrections is when the offender is being supervised outside of an institution (probation and parole).

Question 25

Know the purpose of the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology (IACFP) Standards.

Answer 25

It is a professional group that provides guidelines for institutional corrections.

Question 26

What are the main differences between prisons and jails?

Answer 26

Jails are facilities operated by local governments to hold people who are temporarily detained, awaiting trial, or sentenced to short-term confinement for misdemeanors.
Prisons are correctional facilities operated by state and federal governments to hold persons convicted of felonies.

Question 27

Which service is psychologists most likely to perform in jail?

Answer 27

assessment and crisis intervention

Question 28

What is the leading cause of death in jails?

Answer 28

suicide

Question 29

What social-psychological principle did the Stanford Prison Experiment (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973) demonstrate?

Answer 29

Illustrated the power of a situation in dictating a person’s behavior

Question 30

What are constitutionally guaranteed rights of prisoners and what are not?

Answer 30

1. Right to treatment
2. Right to refuse treatment
3. Prison transfers (can’t request to be in specific facility but do have the right to be transferred to mental institution)
4. Privacy and confidentiality (little right to privacy but do have right to confidentiality)
5. Rights to competency for execution

Question 31

Identify the tasks that might be assumed by psychologists in relation to both screening and classification of inmates.

Answer 31

detecting mental disorders involving suicide risk

Question 32

Which two categories of adult offenders have been determined incompetent to be executed, according to the U.S. Supreme Court?

Answer 32

1. Intellectual disability
2. mentally disordered

Question 33

Regarding principles of risk, needs, and responsivity (RNR), briefly explain what is meant by the terms criminogenic needs and non-criminogenic needs and state an example of each need.

Answer 33

Criminogenic needs: Those dynamic risk factors that have been empirically found to be related to criminal behavior.
-substance abuse or misogynistic attitudes

Noncriminogenic needs: Needs that are subject to change but have been found to have little influence on an offender’s criminal behavior.
-Psychological states such as depression, anxiety, or low self-esteem

Question 34

(a) Describe the attitude of criminal psychopaths toward prison treatment programs and (b) the potential of these programs to rehabilitate psychopaths or prevent recidivism.

Answer 34

-may volunteer themselves
-psychopaths who participated in the therapeutic community exhibited higher rates of violent recidivism than psychopaths who did not

Question 35

What are the prospects for the rehabilitation of sex offenders?

Answer 35

no evidence that it reduces rates of sex offenses

Question 36

The first juvenile courts were based on the doctrine of parens patriae. What is this doctrine and what is its significant to juvenile justice and corrections?

Answer 36

It is a doctrine that gives the state the power to act as a child’s parent. It gave the state the ability
to decide if the child was in a dangerous environment over their own parents and allowed the
state to remove the child from their parent’s care.

Question 37

The Supreme Court cases Kent v. United States and In re Gault dramatically altered procedures associated with juvenile delinquency hearings. List four constitutional rights secured by these Supreme Court rulings for juveniles in criminal proceedings.

Answer 37

1. The right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against them.
2. The right against self-incrimination, often referred to as a privilege, but actually a right.
3. The right to written notice of the charges against them.
4. The right to the assistance of a lawyer in their defense.

Question 38

Discuss reasons why juveniles as a group may be especially susceptible to waiving their constitutional rights and to making false confessions.

Answer 38

1. The questioning of juveniles taken into custody by police is more likely to occur solely in
   the presence of a parent or non-lawyer guardian than in the presence of an attorney,
   which renders them especially susceptible to waiving their constitutional rights.
2. Many do not understand their rights

Question 39

The legal standard for adjudicative competence (the juvenile equivalent of adult competence to stand trial) is Dusky v. United States (1960). State at least two elements of the two-pronged Dusky standard.

Answer 39

Dusky Standard accord: This means that a case is raised in accordance with the Dusky standard: (a) sufficient present ability to consult with one’s lawyer and (b) a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings.

Question 40

What is the meaning of the term disposition in juvenile justice?

Answer 40

Disposition is the equivalent of sentencing in the adult context.

Question 41

Racial disparities in juvenile detention and sentencing.

Answer 41

-minority youth are more than 2/3 of the population
-blacks detained 6x the rate of white youth

Question 42

According to Grisso (2008), how does depression typically present in adolescents placed in juvenile detention?

Answer 42

They are commonly very irritable, sullen, and hostile

Question 43

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching-family approach commonly used in group homes

Answer 43

Positive features of teaching-family homes: Warm and compassionate teaching parents, the maintenance of ties with natural family and with the community, and the opportunity to learn prosocial behaviors.

Limitations of teaching-family homes: Not recommended for adolescents with serious mental health issues or who have committed serious offenses; behavioral gains are typically not maintained after they leave.

Question 44

What is CBT? Explain its usefulness in terms of correcting cognitive errors.

Answer 44

Meaning of CBT: Cognitive-behavioral treatment is a program or psychological treatment approach with demonstrated efficacy for juvenile and adult offenders.
Uses of CBT: CBT can be used in conjunction with other forms of treatment, such as substance abuse programs or sex offender treatment programs.

Question 45

List at least three characteristics of juvenile sex offenders.

Answer 45

1. A high percentage of all juvenile sex offenders were themselves sexually abused
2. Adolescent sex offenders, left untreated, are highly likely to continue to offend into adulthood
3. Assessment is controversial