topic 16: forensic psychology

Question 1

outline the psychodynamic explanation of crime

Answer 1

blackburn
the 3 inadequate superegos

1. weak superego
   absent parent prevents experiencing castration anxiety, absent same sex parent during phallic means there’s no chance for identification and so kid can’t internalise a fully formed superego
   increases chance of immoral/criminal behaviour
2. deviant superego
   a boy raised by a criminal father will internalise that and not associate crime with wrongdoing
3. excessively punitive superego
   individual is crippled with guilt and anxiety from being told off lots as a child and now performs criminal acts to satisfy the superegos overwhelming need for punishment

Question 2

evaluate the psychodynamic explanation of crime

Answer 2

– gender bias
says girls have a weaker superego bc of lack of castration anxiety and so no motivation to identify with mum, implying girls are more prone to criminal beh.
BUT 80-90% of prisoners worldwide are males so like…

– contradictory ev. for Blackburn
theres v. little ev. that kids raised w/out a same sex parent are less law-abiding as adults/fail to de. a conscience
sim. it could be that kids with crim parents that do crime could do it bc of genetics/learning vs deviant superego

– it’s unfalsifiable (aka bad science)
freud says castration anxiety is so traumatic that boys repress it; so if a criminal is being psychoanalysed and says they didn’t do crime bc of the freud thing, they’re just told that they’ve repressed it and are now in denial
but, not only can you not disprove it you can’t prove it either

Question 3

outline differential association theory

Answer 3

Sutherland’s DAT is based on 9 scientific principles which attempt to explain all types of offending; its designed to discriminate between criminals and not, regardless of race/class/ethnicity

crime can be learned the same as anything else; most sig. learning with inner circle of attitudes towards crime and learning of specific acts

pro-crime > anti-crime –> criminal
a person takes on these by socialising to their group
he suggests we can mathematically predict if an individual will commit crime if we know the freq, intensity and duration of exposure to deviant and non-deviant norms+values

offenders can learn criminal tech. the same ways we learn anything eg. observation and imitation, or direct tuition

reinforcement: a lack of concern leads to increasing the behaviour

Question 4

evaluate sutherland’s theory of differential association

Answer 4

+ shifted focus
he succefully moved the explanation of crime away from bio like Atavistic form and also that focused on individual immorality of weakness
it showed that dysfunctional social circumstances may be more to blame than dysfunctional people

– hard to test
theres no maths sum of criminal exposure and people might not recognise all pro-crime attitudes like speeding or anti-crime attitudes like sunday school saying dont steal/murder
so, it’s unscientific

+ evidence support
criminally convicted dad = 40% sons also crime
non-crim dad = 13% sons crime
BUT, could be linked to other reason like alcohol, drugs and lack of supervision (pboro youth study)

+ versatile theory
explains both juvenile delinquency and lower class crime as well as white collar and organised crime

Question 5

what is introversion

Answer 5

more focused on internal thoughts, feelings and moods rather than seeking external stimulation

Question 6

what is extraversion

Answer 6

outgoing, seeking excitement, stimulation, more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours

Question 7

what is neuroticism

Answer 7

distress, dissatisfaction with themselves and their lives, more prone to neg emotions like anger and guilt

Question 8

what is psychoticism

Answer 8

cold, unemotional and prone to aggression and interpersonal hostility

Question 9

what is socialisation

Answer 9

the process of learning to behave in a socially acceptable way

Question 10

outline Eysenck’s Theory of criminal personality

Answer 10

he believed personality could be measured throughout the use of dimensions

Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI) measured personality across introversion/extraversion (E), neuroticism/stability (N) and psychoticism (P)

Someone with a criminal personality would score high on all dimensions

Question 11

outline atavistic form as an explanation for crime

Answer 11

Lombroso, Italian physician
atavistic form: features from a more primitive era, marking the individual as a ‘genetic throwback’ that is biologically different from non-criminals, making them turn to crime as they are unable to adjust to civilised society

he examined almost 400 dead Italian criminals’ skulls and almost 400 living Italian criminals skulls and concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for via atavistic characteristics eg. long ears, dark skin, curly hair
he even got more specific
eg. murderer: bloodshot eyes and hawk like nose
sex offender: thick lips and protruding ears

Question 12

evaluate the atavistic form as an explanation for crime

Answer 12

+ contributed strongly to criminology as he introduced a scientific approach to psychology and profiling, evolution and genetics
it previously focused on a moralistic discourse where offenders were judged as wicked + weak minded
in trying to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit certain crimes he kind of heralded the start of criminal profiling

– unscientific method
he used no control group in his research so the characteristics he found could be found throughout the population, not just in criminals
his sample was all Italian and they may have been inbred as it was a small place in Italy in the 18-1900

– racist??
having some atavistic characteristics, doesn’t mean that they’re destined to become criminal. this logic says that some races are more likely to become criminal than others, eg. African Americans bc curly hair and dark skin is common. Therefore, this may have lended itself to giving ‘scientific justification’ for discriminatory practices and eugenics
might not be intended but still has effects

– correlation ≠ causation and criminals having atavistic features doesn’t mean that why they are criminals and the features could be caused by poverty, diet etc.
lombroso adapted and considered this in later work, saying they can be made as well as born

Question 13

what is evidence for a genetic basis to crime

Answer 13

suggest criminality is linked to genes
Lang 1930: studied MZ and DZ twins where one twin in each pair had served prison time and found 77% MZ and 12% DZ to have the other also be in prison

shows that there is a genetic link

Question 14

evaluate modern explanations of crime (ie. genetic, neurotransmitter and neural)

Answer 14

– low validity of using twin studies
twin studies used to be poorly controlled and judgements on MZ or DZ were based on appearance until 1986, when DNA testing was introduced; they also often use small sample sizes and are unusual within themselves, lowering generalisability; and raising them in the same env. is a major confounding variable bc it could be learnt vs genetics

– diathesis-stress model support
researchers defined crim. beh. as possession of min. 1 conviction
major study of >13,000 danish adoptees shpwed 13.5% conviction with no bio/adoptive parents with convictions,,, 20% with one of bio/adoptive parents,,, 24.5% when both convicted

– issues w/ adoption studies
presumed sep of gen+env influence in adop. is affected with extrane like late adoption and maintaining reg. contact post adoption

– biological reductionism
criminality is complex and reducing it to just neural or genetic may be innappropriate and over-simplistic
crime runs in fam but so does mental illness, social dep. and poverty,,, makes it hard to seperate effects of genes+neural from other factors
And MZ arent 100%

Question 15

outline the neurotransmitter crime explanation

Answer 15

genetic analysis with almost 900 offenders and found abnormalities on 2 genes potentially associated with violent crime; CDH13 (linked to substance abuse and ADHD) and MAOA (controls dopamine and serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive beh.) (–> risk-taking behaviours/lose inhibitions –> crime)
–> p’s with this high -risk combo were 13x more likely to have a history of violent behaviour

Question 16

outline and evaluate a neural explanation of crime

Answer 16

several dozen brain imaging studies demonstrated that ppl with antisocial personalities (APD) had reduced pre-frontal cortex activity
APD pts also had an 11% reduction in prefrontal cortex grey matter volume vs controls

— not necessarily crime though, just APD

— biological determinism —> justice system

— all correlational

Question 17

outline a staged cognitive explanation of crime

Answer 17

says that people make decisions based on their judgement of right and wrong

Kohlberg made a staged theory of moral development
gave moral dilemma’s: a man’s wife is dying and the druggist selling the treatment is upcharging 10x and not allowing for later payments so what should he do and why

Kohlberg’s moral ladder
pre-conventional level: morality of self-interest; to avoid punishment/gain concrete rewards

conventional level: morality of law and social values; to gain approval/avoid disapproval

post-conventional level: morality of abstract principles; to affirm agreed upon rights + personal ethical principles

criminals are pre-conventional and are focused on how their actions will benefit themselves

Question 18

evaluate Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality which is measured using the EPI (Eysenck’s Personality Inventory)

Answer 18

– reductionist
3 dimensions probs can’t account for all of personality and personality can even change depending on the circumstances and who you interact it
so what he’s measuring might not be accurate/valid
Digman put forward a Five Factor Model of personality that suggests that alongside E+N, there are additional dimensions of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness… this suggests multiplt combos are available and so a high E+N doesnt mean deffo offending

— cultural bias
he used a largely western sample and when a Hispanic convict group was studied, they were comparatively less extravert vs controls
suggesting that Eysenck’s theory isn’t universal and lacks generalisability

+ ev. support
Eysenck’s compared 2070 male prisoners’ scores on the EPI with 2422 male controls,,, prisoners were higher with P,E+N across all age groups compared to controls which follows the theory

– critics say personality may not be measurable;
eysenck says personality can be measured w/ a psych test but critics ssay personality may not be reducible to a ‘score’ like this
many even say theres no such thing as a stable entity of personality, but it actually changes depending based on who we’re with and the situation

Question 19

what are the biological explanations of crime

Answer 19

• atavistic form
• genes (MAOA and CDH13 abnormalities)
• neural (pre-frontal cortex)

Question 20

what are psychological explanations of crime

Answer 20

• Eysenck’s EPI
• Sutherland’s differential association
• psychodynamic: 3 superegos (blackburn)

Question 21

what are cognitive distortions as an explanation for crime

Answer 21

errors in information processing and interpretation of behaviours

hostile attribution bias and minimalisation

Question 22

outline Hostile attribution Bias (HAB) and evidence

Answer 22

a tendency to interpret neutral behaviour from others as threatening, which triggers a disproportionate and violent response

a group of violent offenders and a non-aggressive matched group were showed emotionally ambiguous facial expressions
- violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as hostile

Question 23

outline minimalisation and evidence

Answer 23

the downplaying of an offence by the offender
around 50% of imprisoned rapists denied any offense

Question 24

what are the aims of custodial sentencing

Answer 24

• rehabilitation
• deterrance
• protection
• retribution (justice)

Question 25

what can be the effects of custodial sentencing

Answer 25

self harm and suicide rates among prisoners are much higher than the general population
approx. 90 deaths a year in uk prisons

prisonisation: the beh. and attitudes of the prisoner mimic those of the prison world (don’t grass, don’t back down from a challenge) which don’t match the outside worlds conventions

institutionalisation: the structure and routine of prison life can make the unpredictable and unstructured outside world difficult to cope with

Britain focuses on retribution has around 50% of prisoners reoffending within a year whereas norway focuses much more on rehabilitation and has one of the lowest European recidivism rates

Question 26

evaluate custodial sentencing as a way of dealing with offending behaviour

Answer 26

– prison affects everyone differently
the extent of the effect can depend on the type of person, length of sentence, type of prison etc.
this can make custodial sentencing more effective for some vs others and cast be viewed as a universally effective method for all types of offending behaviour

+ prisoners are surrounded by learning and training opportunities
sex offenders may take part in compulsory CBT schemes to reduce minimalisation (50%), violent offenders can take part in anger management schemes. this suggest prison is useful method of dealing with offending behaviour

– it doesn’t work as a deterrent; research found that some prisoners would rather be in prison than at home because it has regular meal and routine. the issue may be that some prisoners lack resources and a strong social; support network outside of prison

– universities of crime

Question 27

outline behaviour modification in custody and supporting evidence

Answer 27

largely features token economies

researchers studied over 100 male juveniles in alabama and found that over 14 months, there was increased desirable behaviour from all of the boys
this suggests that token economy systems can be used in improving the running of prisons by decreasing violence and conflicts there

Question 28

evaluate behaviour modification in custody

Answer 28

– can be seen as only treating the proximal cause of offending
anger management addresses the distal cause and improves long-term behaviour
token economies aren’t present outside of prison, making this a short-term solution

– may be unethical
researchers have suggested that it could be harmful that this is compulsory in many prisons and failure to do so (maybe from mental illness) can deny them ‘rewards’ which may be considered rights
eg. calling home, family visits
so many do a cost-benefit analysis to asses utility of token economy systems

+ flexible
they can be moulded to the sintitution; those found in psychiatric hospitals and those in maximum-security prisons can be v different but the principle is the same
and as long as the implementation of rules and tokens are consistent then improvement in behaviour is likely to be seen

– only effective if the rewards and frequecy of them is designed to suit each idnividual, which might not be affordable or practical
Field examined a token economy system with yound ppls with beh. problems which was gen effective BUT when repeated with the youths on a special reward programme with more requent and imm. rewrds with better results

Question 29

what are the ways that offending behaviour is dealt with

Answer 29

• custodial sentencing
• behaviour modification in custody
• anger management
• restorative justice programmes

Question 30

outline anger management as a way of dealing with offending behaviour

Answer 30

anger management tries to identify and deal with emotions preceding anger and has 3 stages
it is seen as an ‘eclectic’ approach because it utilises various different approaches in psychology

1. cognitive preparation: offenders identify and rationale the patterns of emotion occurring before, during and after aggression
2. skill acquisition: therapist teaches techniques to manage anger and prevent them from spiralling (like in phobia)
   eg. meditation, positive self-talk, creating techniques
   done via direct learning
3. application practice: offender applies skills learn above to a real-life situation that would usually trigger anger like a role-play

research found that a majority of prisoners that took part in the National Anger Management Package were more aware of and able to control their anger vs before

Question 31

evaluate anger management as a way of dealing with offending behaviour

Answer 31

– they may be making the incorrect assumption that violent offences occur because of inability to control anger
research suggests that there maybe be minimal differences between violent and non-violent offenders in term of anger; this starts to question validity of use of anger management for most violent offenders
it could be exploited for more lenient sentences

– not likely to improve anger control irl
therapist won’t be present to positively reinforce desirable behaviours and the prisoner could find themselves surrounded by stimuli that trigger anger
so maybe its better for improving conduct inn the prison vs providing a long-term offending solution

+ it incorporates behavioural theories and skills from various psychological approaches; cognitivee basis but also behaviourist conditioning
a strength because it considers the variety of triggers and doesn’t try to over-simplify

– ££ and needs commitment
expensive to run and need highly trained specialists who are used to dealing with violent off. many prisons dont have resources to fund these programmes, so postcod lotteries can play a part
the success is also dependant on the commitment of offenders, so doesnt work w/ uncooperativ and apathetic prisoners

Question 32

outline the use of restorative justice programmes as a method of dealing with offending behaviour

Answer 32

RJ programmes take on a different perspective to the other methods; it focuses on showing the offender the emotional consequences of their behaviour and ‘giving the survivor a voice’
for the offender to show remorse, apologies can be made and damages to property can be paid for; the guidelines as to what is advised are set by the Restorative Justice Council

research has found it to be much more effective than non-restorative approaches in that it increases victim and offender satisfaction and reduces recidivism

Question 33

evaluate the use of restorative justice programmes as a method of dealing with offending behaviour

Answer 33

– £££
7-year gov. funded research project found that for every £1 spent on RJ would save the sytem £8 through reduced reoffending
but as a meeting can be v emotional, a skilled and exp. mediator will be needed who can be v. ££ and uncommon
also they have high dropout rates as offender/victim may ‘lose their nerve’ and withdraw
so might not be most cost-effective
– RJ schemes could be taking a naive approach to dealing with offending behaviour as they assume that the offender and survivor with always show remorse when participating
the offender could get a shorter sentence/ rewards for participating and survivors could want revenge via physical/verbal abuse
so may be less useful irl than in theory

– not appropriate for all crimes and has limited utility
RJ has been criticised when used in cases of domestic violence as it doesn’t place the offender and victim on equal power balance and makes the victim seem accusatory
in cases like this where there is a power imbalance, RJ schemes can fail to adequately place blame on the offender and can be traumatic for the survivor

+ can be used in varying environments
it is inherently flexible and can be amended and modify to fit each scenario
can be used in prisons, psychiatric institutions and Schoo and more use of RJ could encourage conflict resolution methods other than violence and aggression because the offender is made aware of their actions’ consequences first hand

Question 34

outline the top-down approach to offender profiling

Answer 34

it uses pre-established typology and the FBI method of profile generation to assign offenders to being either organised or disorganised
profile generation involves:
crime scene classification, crime reconstruction, data assimilation, profile generation

organised: socially and sexually competent, they show evidence of planning and are unlikely to leave the body/clues at the crime scene, often having a particular victim type and acting almost surgically

disorganised: show no evidence of planning, leave body/clues at scene often, random attacks that can occur closer to home/base and are socially and sexually incompetent

Question 35

evaluate the top-down approach to offender profiling

Answer 35

– can only be used to explain crimes with obvious and visible characteristics eg. rape/sadistic murder
so is unlikely to be effective in identifying criminals who are responsible for burglary/middle class crimes like financial fraud
so maybe only effective for ‘blue-collar’ crimes

– based on outdated personality models that suggest beh. is driven by stable dispositional traits vs constantly changing external factors
unlikely that all offenders will be either organised/disorganised
could be oversimplification and may be better to study individual motives, this can allow explanation of crimes that are seemingly contradictory in terms of be dis/organised
current method may lack validity when identifying suspects or trying to predict moves

– original sample was just 36 killers which critics have pointed out as being too small and unrepresentative to use to base a typology system off of that can have a sig. influence on the naature of police investigation
Canter also argues thst relying on self-report data from convicted killers is not a sensible way to make a classification system

– evidence for organised offenders but not disorganised
researchers used the statistical technique of smallest space analysis to analyse data from 100 murders in the US and compared them to 39 traits of both offender types
disorganised offenders couldn’t be identified as distinctly diff. from organised offenders which suggests a lack of validity and breadth of this sytem

Question 36

outline the bottom-up approach to offender profiling

Answer 36

develops a profile as the crime scene and EWT are increasingly analysed
the hallmarks = investigative psychology and geographical profiling

investigative psychology: the process where each crime is recorded onto a database and details of each new crime are matched with it to build hypotheses. it emphasises imp of time and place and the idea of ‘interpersonal coherence” which suggests that how they treat the victim reflects their interpersonal functioning

geographical profiling: suggests each offender has an operational base that can be inferred via mapping previous crime locations
this should form a circular shape where the operational base, or ‘centre of gravity’ is at the centre
it is based on the assumption that the signature of offenders carrying out their crimes is constant
they can be marauders (crimes close to centre of grav) or commuters (crimes far from centre of gravity)
use crime scene and local knowledge to get clues and offenders life, jobs and habits

Question 37

evaluate the bottom-up approach to offender profiling

Answer 37

– doesn’t always lead to correct identification
info from an offender profile only led to successful identification in 3% of cases but was useful 83% of the time
so its best used to narrow down field of enquiry rather than as a chief means of offender identification

+ evidence support for geographical profiling
Lundrigan and Canter collated info from 120 murder cases with US serial killers; each body disposal site was a different direction from the last, creating a ‘centre of gravity’, witht he offenders base invariably at the centresupports canter’s claim of imp. of spatial info

+ it relies on scientific methods of enquiry and use of stats analysis
eg. many supporting studies used smallest space analysis to find correlation between 2 variables/ offender characteristics which is more scientific and based on psychological theory vs top-down which is over simplistic

+ evidence support for investigative psych
Canter and Heritage conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases; examined data using stats technique, smallest space analysis which finds correlations
various characteristics were identified as common; impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim, these will occur in diff. patterns in diff. people
this can lead to an understanding of how an offender’s beh. can change over a series of offences or when establishing if 2+ were committed by 1 person
supprts usefulness bc shows how stats tech. can be applied

Question 38

what are issues in defining crime

Answer 38

historical issues: what was considered criminal at one point in history may not be considered a crime today

cultural issues: smacking a kid may be seen as acceptable in one culture but not in others

Question 39

what are the ways of measuring crime

Answer 39

official statistics are collected by the govt describe the no. of crimes reported to police which were processed and published by the home office annually

victim surveys involve 50,000 random households self-reporting crimes they’ve experienced in the last year

offender surveys target a random cohort of criminals that give details on the types and frequency of crimes they committed over a set time period

Question 40

evaluate defining and measuring crime

Answer 40

+ victim surverys are less likely to conceal the dark figure, compared to official statistics as a self-report is used and individuals may feel less repercussions for their actions

— but victim surverys have serious methodological problems
eg telescoping: the victim may mistakenly believe that a crime was committed much more recently than it actually had been bc of the trauma and distress
this can make victim surveys just as accurate as official stats

+ offender surveys have been quite useful with crime prevention and management strategies bc they show the pattern and risk factors with offending
yay practical applications!

— offender survey data can be distorted or biased bc it’s from offenders
they may over-exaggerate their crimes so they feel accomplished or under-exaggerate to diminish responsibility, so we can’t over rely on offenders for honesty in self-reporting

Question 41

state cognitive crime explanations

Answer 41

• kohlberg
• HAB
• minimalisation

Question 42

evaluate cognitive explanations of crime

Answer 42

+ Kohlberg evidence
Palmer and Collin compared moral reasoning between offenders and non-offenders by using 11 moral-dilemma q’s and found delinquents to show less mature moral reasoning
blackburn said this could be bc of lack of role playing opportunities in childhood

– alternative moral reasoning theories
Gibbs revised Kohlberg theory with 2 levels: mature+immature, in 1st its personal gain and avoidance of punishment vs 2nd is empathy, social justice and conscience
Gibbs said we should abandon Kolhbergs pos-conven. level bc it was culturally-biased to western and didn’t represent a natural maturational stage

+ applications
sex offenders can be rehabilitated using CBT to encourage them to face up their actions and have a less distorted view; studies show that lower incidence of denial and minim. in therapy is highly correlated with less reoffending

– individual differences
moral reasoning level can depend on the offence type
eg. financial gain crimes (robbery) were more likely to show pre-conventional vs impulsive, like assault showed no evident reasoning of any type
pre-con. is found with crimes where they think pun. can be evaded
Langdon: intelligence could be better at explaining crime vs moral reasoning; this explains how people with v low intelligence are less likely to commit crimes even tho they have lower moral reasoning

Question 43

outline the Five Factor theory by Digman

Answer 43

E, N and P PLUS
openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness

Question 44

state neural explanations of crime

Answer 44

• pre-frontal cortex
• MAOA and link to nt