Week 12: Forensic psychology

Question 1

What is the key idea of incapacitation?

Answer 1

To limit opportunities to reoffend by removing people from society

Question 2

What are the two different types of incapacitation?

Answer 2

1. Collective: Longer sentences for all offenders - ‘tough on crime’
2. Selective: Incarcerate all individuals predicted to reoffend (eg. repeat offenders for violence)
   - Most effective for high-risk offenders

Question 3

What are the criticisms of incapacitation?

Answer 3

It is really expensive to keep someone locked up in a humane way - per person, $100k p.a

Not really an efficient way of reducing crime - to get a 10% reduction in crime rates, need to double prison populations

Assessment techniques can be an inflexible approach (with an emphasis on static factors) and inaccurate - we need to take into account dynamic factors

Question 4

What factors are involved in the assessment of how long to incarcerate someone for?

Answer 4

Static: don’t change over time - eg. gender, age, SES

Dynamic: malleable - behaviour patterns, kinds of treatments people engage in, current circumstances

Question 5

Recent developments in incapacitation sentences?

Answer 5

Computer program (COMPAS) using risk assessment algorithms used by the state of Wisconsin
- No human involvement in these decisions  (how just are these outcomes?)

SCARY

Question 6

What is deterrence?

Answer 6

Purpose of punishing people for crimes is to discourage reoffending

Question 7

What are the 2 types of deterrence?

Answer 7

Specific: by punishing a particular offender it deters this person from committing crimes in the future

General: threat of punishment deters other potential offenders (social learning theory) - observe consequences for other peoples behaviour and may make you less likely to do this yourself

Question 8

Criticism of deterrence?

Answer 8

Doesn’t seem to work well
- May even create a slight increase in reoccurring

Corporate crime - penalty is numerically less than what the offender gained

Are the penalties too light? Depends not only on severity of the penalty but also the perceived likelihood of getting caught (offenders underestimate odds of apprehension - self-serving biases)

Question 9

Is the death penalty common?

Answer 9

Quite common around the world (58 countries)

Question 10

What are some arguments for the death penalty?

Answer 10

It is an effective deterrent

Reduces homicide/saves lives - as executions became more common, homicides became less common(study) - dodgy stats though

Question 11

Arguments against the death penalty?

Answer 11

• Stats are not reliable
• May be alternate explanations for the drop in homicides (e.g. increased access to abortions has been correlated in data studies)
• Models violence - legitimises killing as an acceptable, legal reaction
• Certainty of guilt: can be sure that we actually have the right person? NO - we cannot take this punishment back if we get it wrong

Question 12

Aim of rehabilitation?

Answer 12

Want to prepare offender for re-integration while they’re incapacitated

Question 13

Evidence for rehabilitation?

Answer 13

Mixed!!

• ‘nothing works’
• Reoffending rates are much higher in countries like Norway - some techniques are better than others

Question 14

Which rehabilitation techniques are better?

Answer 14

Things that are based on proven techniques such as
CBT

Better when they include ways to boost problem solving skills and communication skills (things that will help people to make their way in life)

Beneficial to include stable family in this

Question 15

Rehabilitation techniques have to be….

Answer 15

structured, intensive and done regularly (violent offenders)

Question 16

What is retributive justice?

Answer 16

If someone commits an offence, the punishment should be equal in magnitude (‘an eye for an eye’)
Equating the punishment with the harm that was done as decided by the courts

Question 17

Which is the default approach?

Answer 17

Retributive justice
- scored pretty highly on surveys asking if was ‘just’

People tend to adopt retributive approaches when assigning punishment in many settings

Question 18

What are the criticisms for retributive justice?

Answer 18

• Expensive (imprisionment)

- issues with how we work out which sentences are appropriate

Question 19

Why is it hard to work out which sentences are proportional to the crime (retributive justice)?

Answer 19

• Victims may have some say in the punishment (perceive harm as greater = higher level of punishment to be proportional)
• Jurors: when involved in penalty length decisions - tend to be swayed by moral outrage and empathy etc
• Judges: (study) judges to consider cases and give opinion on sentencing - huge variations seen in opinions (ranged from warnings to 13 years in prison)

Question 20

Aim of restorative justice?

Answer 20

Not going to consider the amount of harm and attempt to dish out a proportional punishment
INSTEAD.. want to restore community back to the state it was in prior to the offence (victim, offender and community as a whole)

Question 21

What type of crime is restorative justice recommended for?

Answer 21

Non-violent (especially when involve juvenile offenders)

• are trying to extend this

Question 22

Restorative justice is a bilateral process, what does this mean?

Answer 22

The offender is involved in the sentencing

Question 23

Community members in restorative justice?

Answer 23

More positive in close-knit communities

Members of the community contribute to discussions and sometimes sentencing

Question 24

What is re-integrative shaming (restorative)?

Answer 24

Need to acknowledge that the offence was bad - not avoiding this
But it is the offence that was bad, not necessarily the person who did it

Important part: opportunity for offender to apologise to the victim (when used well, tends to be a + experience for both people involved - if remorseful etc)

Question 25

What are the positive results that have come from restorative justice?

Answer 25

• Increases court attendance (80% vs. 50%)
• Can reduce re-offending
• Less severe reoffending

Question 26

What are the criticisms of restorative justice?

Answer 26

• only applicable to some crimes
• potentially traumatic for victims (if done well - limited)
• may encourage false remorse

Current research suggests that these shouldn’t be concerning

Question 27

Why does restorative justice work?

Answer 27

Good at reaffirming the shared values of your community - eg. ‘we have a right to feel safe’

Question 28

There are links between brain physiology and…

Answer 28

Criminal and antisocial behaviour as well as moral reasoning

Question 29

What role does the prefrontal cortex play and what results from damage here? any particular studies/findings?

Answer 29

Executive control (monitor, control and inhibit responses)  and emotional regulation (monitor reactions of others: eg. empathy) 
Lesions = behavioural disturbances 

Impulsive killers were found to have damage/deficiency in PFC

Vietnam vets with head injuries had reduced executive function and had an increase in aggression

Question 30

What role does the anterior cingulate cortex play?

Answer 30

• Risk/reward assessment
• Anticipation of consequences
• sensation seeking

Question 31

What role does the orbital-frontal cortex play? Damage here?

Answer 31

• Rules of social interactions
• Anticipation of consequences

Damage:

• poor social judgement
• intentional norm violation
• impulsivity
• decreased empathy

Potential role in criminal behaviour

Question 32

The PFC is late to develop! What implications might this have?

Answer 32

Adolescents are less morally culpable

Question 33

Is the CJS trying to find the truth or facilitate conflict resolution?

Answer 33

Easy to think about the system to punish offenders - makes us think it is set up to find truth

HOWEVER, it is a method of conflict resolution
- we have a situation that produces a conflict
X is true vs. X is not true - we need to resolve this conflict (the stronger of these accounts is likely to win)

A non-guilty verdict doesn’t mean the person didn’t do it, it means the evidence isn’t strong enough

Question 34

Distributive justice (fairness of outcome) vs. procedural justice (fairness of procedure)?

Answer 34

Is it justice if we get the right outcome from a crappy procedure?

Can we even be confident that it is the right outcome if we haven’t gone through the right procedure?

The only protection we have at arriving at the right outcome is following proper procedure

Question 35

What is more important: individual vs. common good (society)?

Answer 35

Is it, or under what conditions is it okay to constrain individual liberty for the greater good

The CJS is built on the idea that the most important thing is the rights of the individual

Question 36

Equality vs. discretion?

Answer 36

Should the same crime receive the same punishment? on face value, yes.
But to what extent do we/should we prioritise equality

Blind pursuit of equality can actually promote unfairness - context matters

Question 37

Plea bargains?

Answer 37

Are remarkably common - 90% of cases end in one

• defendant chooses to waive rights to a jury trial
• given opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for the prosecutor not bringing in the higher charge ( more lenient sentence or an agreement to drop other charges)
• Murder vs. manslaughter