Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

psych > forensics > Flashcards

forensics Flashcards

1
Q

what is the top down approach to profiling?

A

-broad approach used by FBI
-looks carefully at crime scene and draws conclusions from the evidence about the offender.
-by interviewing criminals profilers could build a picture of typical offender behaviours and build a profile from the top down.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

who made a distinction between organised and disorganised offenders?

A

-Hazelwood and Douglas 1980
-highlighted diff characteristics for each

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

what are the differences between organised and unorganised offenders?

A

-organised: planned, victim targeted, weapon absent from scene, body is removed or hidden in crime scene.
-unorganised: unplanned, victim not targeted and unplanned violence.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

what are the stages of top down profiling?

A

-Jackson and Bekerian 1997
-stage 1: Data assimilation, collection of all evidence available.
-stage 2: crime classification, organising crime into a particular type e.g organised or unorganised.
-stage 3: crime reconstruction, reconstruct the crime scene in order to develop predictions about the motives and behaviour of the offender.
-stage 4: profile generation, developing a profile based o information regarding various characteristics.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

what is the first stage of top down profiling?

A

-stage 1: Data assimilation, collection of all evidence available.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

what is the second stage of top down profiling?

A

-stage 2: crime classification, organising crime into a particular type e.g organised or unorganised.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

what is the third stage of top down profiling?

A

-stage 3: crime reconstruction, reconstruct the crime scene in order to develop predictions about the motives and behaviour of the offender.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

what is the fourth stage of top down profiling?

A

-stage 4: profile generation, developing a profile based o information regarding various characteristics.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

who studied the accuracy of the organised and disorganised offender types?

A

-Canter et Al
-conducted content analysis on 100 cases of serial killers in the US and used criteria set out by Douglas to classify and disorganised and organised.
-found significantly more disorganised crimes and further analysis of types of crime did not clearly separate the organised and disorganised crimes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

evaluation of top-down approach to profiling?

A

-out of 184 police officers 82% said it was useful and 90% would use it again.
-sample problems, classification based on 36 interviews with most dangerous murders found highly manipulative and not likely to give reliable info.
-not applicable to all crimes like stealing, destruction of property.
-difficult to distinguish between organised and disorganised crime

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

what is the bottom up approach to offender profiling?

A

-makes use of past data on similar crimes committed in order to build a picture of the offender.
-use different principles to build up picture of offender

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

why did Canter develop a way of the bottom up approach?

A

-partially motivated by a desire to see offender profiles built up on objective data rather than an intuition approach

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

what are the principles of the bottom up approach?

A

-time and place, will communicate something about their own place of residency or employment.
-interpersonal coherence, consistency between the way that offenders interact with their victims and with others in their everyday lives.
-criminal characteristics, characteristics about the offender can help to classify them which helps the police investigation.
-forensic awareness, offenders who show an understanding of a police investigation are likely to have had previous encounters with the criminal justice system.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

what is the atavistic form?

A

-Lombroso believed that criminals were individuals who had failed to evolve at the same pace as everyone else and could be identified by their characteristics.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

what features characterise the atavistic form?

A

-18 different.
-large jaw
-high cheekbones
-large chin
-insensitivity to pain
-hard shifty eyes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

what did Lombroso research?

A

-gathered info from autopsies of dead criminals and studied the faces of living criminals.
-over career studied 50,000
-21% of convicts had only one atavistic feature while 43% had at least 5

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

what three types of criminals did Lombroso believe there were?

A

-born criminals,
-insane criminals
-criminaloids, large proportion who were predisposed towards crime under the right environment.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

what are the three different body types Lombroso believed?

A

-Endomorphic, fat and soft tend to be sociable and relaxed, even tempered and easy to get along with.
-ectomorphic, thin and fragile, introverted and restrained self conscious and afraid of people.
-mesomorphic, muscular and hard, tend to be aggressive and adventurous, seek vigorous physical activity, most likely to offend.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

strengths of Lombroso?

A

-shifted the emphasis away from moralistic discourse towards a more scientific and credible realm of evolutionary influences and genetics, in many ways marked the beginning of criminal profiling.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

weaknesses of Lombroso?

A

-obvious racial undertones by atavistic features.
-correlation does not imply causation and facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors like poor diet rather than being an indication of delayed evolutionary development.
-Gowing 1913 compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non criminals and concluded no evidence for offenders being a distinct group.
-Lombroso himself didn’t have a control group and sample may have had individuals with learning difficulties which may have effected criminals features anyway.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

what does the genetic explanation process for offending?

A

-one or more genes which criminals inherit predisposes them for criminality.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

how were twin studies used for genetic explanation?

A

-Raine 1953 reviewed a large range of research studies on the delinquent behaviour of twins and found that for MZ twins concordance rates were 52% and for DZ 21%

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

what gene predisposes you to criminality?

A

-Monoamine oxidase MAOA
-CDH13

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

what does the MAOA gene do?

A

-controls production of dopamine and serotonin which have been linked to increased aggression

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

what research into genes of criminals?

A

-Tiihonen et al 2014 analysed genetic make up of 900 criminals.
-findings reveal that offenders were 13% more likely to have a violent offending past with CDH13 and MAOA genes.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

what is the diathesis-stress model?

A

-is a biopsychosocial model which says that even though genes will likely play a role in the development of criminality they are likely to be meditated by environmental factors.
-although criminals may have a tendency towards criminality they need to be placed in stressful environment to commit the behaviour.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

what are epigenetics?

A

-proposes that genes are switched on or off by environmental factors.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

what did Capsi et al research?

A

-2002
-found that 12% of those men with low MAOA genes had also experienced maltreatment when they were babies.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

weaknesses of genetic explanation for offending?

A

-criminality is complex and explanations can reduce it to a simple explanation.
-crime does appear to run in families but so does emotional instability, mental illness poverty etc so it makes it difficult to detangle effects of genes and natural influences.
-notion of a criminal gene presents a dilemma legal system is based on the premise of free will only with mental health can you claim no free will so raises ethical questions around what society does with people who are suspected of carrying environmental genes and implications for sentences

30
Q

what are neural explanations for offending?

A

-have different regions of the brain and neurotransmitters.

31
Q

what regions of the brain effect criminality?

A

-prefrontal cortex, Raine cited 71 different studies showing evidence that murders, psychopaths and violent individuals have reduced activity here, when it is involved in regulating emotional, controlling behaviour and impulsiveness.
-thalamus and amygdala

32
Q

what research was done into the thalamus and amygdala?

A

-Raine 1997
-41 US murders found guilty by reason of insanity and matched with 41 normal.
-6 were schizophrenic and 23 had suffered head injuries.
-schizophrenic prisoners were matched with schizophrenics and results showed that the prisoners had asymmetry with the amygdala activity was reduced on the left but increased on right.

33
Q

what neurotransmitters effect offending?

A

-serotonin, suggested by Seo et Al that low levels make individuals more likely to be aggressive and impulsive or inhibit the prefrontal cortex.
-noradrenaline, both high and low amounts and high levels associated with activation of the flight or fight response.

34
Q

what did Eyesenck suggest?

A

-neuroticism and extroversion are related to anti-social behaviour.
-he developed questions to develop peoples levels of these and believed that most people would score in the middle of these two scales.
-created the Eysenck personality inventory

35
Q

what is neuroticism?

A

-low self-esteem
-emotionality
-tendency to depression and anxiety.

36
Q

what is extraversion?

A

-sociability
-impulsivity
-search for excitement

37
Q

what did Eysenck believe made up the criminal personality?

A

-high scores of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.
-some people are born with different types of autonomic nervous systems and this determines the way people react to stimuli

38
Q

what does a high score on the extraversion scale mean?

A

-under aroused, impulsive and out going sensation seekers who are difficult to condition.

39
Q

what does a high neuroticism score mean?

A

-linked with moodiness anxiety and depression which means resistance to social conditioning

40
Q

research supporting Eysenck Personality Inventory?

A

-Eysenck and Eysenck 1977
-compared 2070 male prisoners scores on the EPI with 2422 male controls and subdivided into groups ranging from 16-69
-prisoners scored higher on all three

41
Q

research against EPI?

A

-Farrington et Al 1982
-revised a range of studies and concluded that whilst psychoticism appears to be related to crime extraversion and neuroticism were not.

42
Q

negative evaluation of EPI?

A

-responses to EPI are potentially variable dependent on the mood of individuals so validity and reliability are questioned.
-arguments that personality traits are inherited have far reaching complications to the justice system which uses free will not biological determinism.
-research findings do not support all three traits Bartol and Holanchick 1979 studied hispanic and African American in max security NY prison and all offenders were less extravert than non-offenders.

43
Q

what did Kohlberg do?

A

-psychologist interested in how we develop rules ethics and morals and govern behaviour and decision making.
-based his theory on research and interviews with young children with moral dilemmas.
-he then created the stages of reasoning in his theory of moral development and found that criminals are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level

44
Q

what were the levels and stages of reasoning for Kohlberg?

A

Level one pre-conventional morality.
stage 1: punishment stage, will i be punished?
stage 2: reward stage, rules are followed for personal gain, what is there to gain? if good gain then crime is more likely.
Level two conventional morality.
stage 3: good boy or good girl orientation, rules are obeyed for approval, this stage considers what other people would think.
stage 4: law and order stage, rules are obeyed to maintain the social order, considers obedience to the law, is the act illegal?
Level three post conventional morality
stage 5: social contract stage, at this stage adheres to the law but may commit a crime in the circumstances where they feel the law should not apply.
stage 6: ethical principle stage, individual has own moral code and may commit a crime if they feel the law is unjust.

45
Q

what is the level one of Kohlberg stages?

A

Level one pre-conventional morality.
stage 1: punishment stage, will i be punished?
stage 2: reward stage, rules are followed for personal gain, what is there to gain? if good gain then crime is more likely.

46
Q

what is the level two of Kohlberg stages?

A

Level two conventional morality.
stage 3: good boy or good girl orientation, rules are obeyed for approval, this stage considers what other people would think.
stage 4: law and order stage, rules are obeyed to maintain the social order, considers obedience to the law, is the act illegal?

47
Q

what is the level three of Kohlberg stages?

A

Level three post conventional morality
stage 5: social contract stage, at this stage adheres to the law but may commit a crime in the circumstances where they feel the law should not apply.
stage 6: ethical principle stage, individual has own moral code and may commit a crime if they feel the law is unjust.

48
Q

what is a cognitive distortion?

A

-errors or biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking

49
Q

what is a hostile attribution bias?

A

-when people misinterpret the actions of others as violent.

50
Q

what is minimalisation?

A

-attempt to deny or underplay the seriousness of offending behaviour.

51
Q

supporting evidence for hostile bias?

A

-Schonenberg and Justye
-presented 55 violent offenders with emotionally neutral images and compared to the control group were significantly more likely to perceive images as violent.

52
Q

supporting evidence for minimalisation?

A

-Barbaree 1991
-26 convicted rapists 54% claimed hadn’t been committing an offence and 40% downplayed damage to victim

53
Q

what is differential association theory?

A

-Edward Sutherland
-proposed that individuals learn values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal acts from association with other people.
-crime is a learned behaviour and by how much time and intensity spent with people with criminal values we can work out probability of offending.
-may learn specific techniques by criminals e.g hot wire a car.

54
Q

research of differential association theory?

A

-Farrington et Al 2006
-longitudinal study of development of offending and anti-social behaviour
-411 8 year old males in working class area of south London and followed them until they were 50.
-41% were convicted at least once and on average criminal career lasted from 19-28
-risk factors were family criminality, daring or risk taking, low school attainment, poverty and poor parenting.

55
Q

negative evaluation of DAT?

A

-doesn’t adequately explain the developmental pattern of explaining 40% of crimes are committed by people under 21 years.
-Blackburn 1993 raises questions that the model only fits to petty crimes and it is equally likely that adolescences with deviant tendencies seek out deviant peers.

56
Q

parts of Freuds theory of personality?

A

-if ego fails to balance demands of ID and superego conflicts may arise and disorders may result.
-if same sex parent is absent during phallic stage then may develop weak super-ego and cause pleasure of ID and ignore consequences.
-deviant superego, a son who’s father is a criminal develop morality based on his actions and the superego then fails to react with anxiety.
-over harsh superego, make person anxious regardless of tiniest gratification of ID, this then forces superego to feel that they need to be punished and seek out crime.

57
Q

negative evaluation of Freud?

A

-less evidence that children are raised without a same sex parent are low abiding as criminals.
-children who are raised by deviant parents commit crime this can also be due to genetics or children may come to associate with criminals and Differential associate
-over-harsh ego searching for punishment seems unplausible as most go to great lengths to conceal crime

58
Q

what is the maternal deprivation hypothesis?

A

-Bowlby stressed the importance of the attachments made in early life and the importance of maternal deprivation in the critical period of up to 5 years as this leads to affection-less psychopathy.

59
Q

what did Bowlby study?

A

-44 juvenile delinquents and compared them to non-juveniles.
-more than half of the thieves had been separated from their mother for longer than 6 months during first 5 years and control group only had two.
-32% showed affectionless psychopathy

60
Q

negative evaluation of Bowlby?

A

-unrepresentative sampling and poor control group matching.
-Rutter pointed out his inability to distinguish between deprivation, privation and distortion of attachments.
-gender bias, alpha bias and androcentric

61
Q

what are the aims of custodial sentencing?

A

Retribution, society enact revenge
Rehabilitation, key purpose of reform and become better member of society.
Incapacitation, taken away from society for the safety of the public.
Deterrence, unpleasant prison experiences discourages offending.

62
Q

what are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?

A

-stress and depression
-instutionalisation, struggle to function in society.
-prisonisation, adopt an inmate code

63
Q

what is recidivism and what are the rates?

A

-reoffending
-ministry of justice 2013 57% reoffend within a year of release.
-even worse in some places with 14 prisons in England and Wales showing recidivism rates of over 70%

64
Q

what is a token economy?

A

-based on operant conditioning and involves rewarding desirable behaviour with a token which can then be used for rewards

65
Q

what are the two studies conducted into a token economy?

A

-Hobbs and Holt 1976 introduced token economy with three groups of juvenile delinquents with a fourth acting as a control group and found significant difference in positive behaviour from token economy group.
-Cohen and Filipczak 1971 showed that a token economy group showed more desirable behaviour in an adult prison and within 2 years of release the token economy group were less likely to reoffend but after 3 years went back to national levels

66
Q

how is anger controlled?

A

-cognitive behaviour therapy
-cognitive preparation, offender reflects on past experience and consider typical patterns of anger, offender learns to identify those situations which act as triggers and the therapist can explain where the offender has irrational reactions.
-skill acquisition, offenders are introduced to a range of techniques allowing them to deal with anger provoking situations rationally and effectively. techniques may be either cognitive by positive self talk behavioural or physiological.
-application practice, offenders given the chance to role play the skills in a monitored environment

67
Q

research around anger management?

A

-keen et al 2000, 17-21 young offenders studied their progress in anger management, final outcomes were generally positive and had greater self-control and awareness of their anger.
-Ireland 2004 compared two groups one receiving anger management therapy, 92% showed improvement

68
Q

negative evaluation of anger management therapy?

A

-role play is argued to have low ecologically validity and level of intensity and emotion is different to real life.
-lack of evidence for real life working in the long term

69
Q

what is restorative justice?

A

-sought to switch the focus from the state to the needs of the victim of the crime and victims play an active role in the process whilst encouraging offenders to take responsibility.
-supervised meeting between the two parties is organised and attended by a trained mediator.

70
Q

positive evaluation of restorative justice?

A

-shown to deliver 85% victim satisfaction for victims who choose to participate and reduces the frequency of reoffending by 14%
-cheaper than custodial sentencing.
-restorative gives victims answers to their questions and offers a chance to make amends.

71
Q

what are the negatives of twin studies?

A

-typically involve small sample sizes and so many lack representativeness.
-environment can affect
-correlation cannot show cause and effect

72
Q

study into prefrontal cortex effecting criminality?

A

-prefrontal cortex, Raine cited 71 different studies showing evidence that murders, psychopaths and violent individuals have reduced activity here, when it is involved in regulating emotional, controlling behaviour and impulsiveness.

psych (12 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions