Forensic Psychology

Question 1

Define crime.

Answer 1

Act committed which breaks the law and warrants some form of punishment such as imprisonment.

Question 2

What are the issues with defining crime?

Answer 2

• Legalistic definition may change over time and not all acts that break the law are punished.
• May differ between cultures as social expectations and norms are different, e.g. polygamy.
• May change over time due to social change e.g. legality of homosexuality.

Question 3

What are the different ways of measuring crime?

Answer 3

• Official statistics
• Offender surveys
• Victim surveys

Question 4

How are official statistics used to measure crime?

Answer 4

• These are government records of the total number of crimes reported to the police and recorded in official figures, published by Home Office.
• Allows government to develop crime prevention strategies and policing initiatives, as well as directing resources to area most in need.

Question 5

How are offender surveys used to measure crime?

Answer 5

• Involve individuals volunteering details about the number and types of crimes they have committed.
• Targets group of ‘likely offenders’ based on factors such as age range, previous convictions, social background etc.
• The Offender Crime and Justice Survey, ran from 2003-2006, was first of its kind and as well as measuring self-reported offending it also measured relationship between offender and victim, drug and alcohol abuse, trends in prevalence of offending and indicators of repeat offending.

Question 6

How are victim surveys used to measure crime?

Answer 6

• Record people’s experience of crime over a period of time.
• The Crime Survey for England and Wales asks victims to document the crimes they have been a victim of in the past year.
• Randomly selects 50,000 households and this enables the Office of National Statistics to produce crime surveys based on these victim surveys.

Question 7

What is an issue with using official statistics to measure crime?

Answer 7

• Unreliable, significantly underestimate true extent of crime.
• Many crimes go unrecorded by police or unreported by victims that only 25% are included in official statistics.
• 75% = ‘dark figure’.
• Many reasons e.g. mistrust of police, victims fearing revenge and differences in police recording rules e.g. study in Nottinghamshire.
• Suggests policing priorities may distort official figures.

Question 8

How is using victim surveys to measure crime a better approach to using official statistics?

Answer 8

• More likely to report crimes that go unreported to police, so more likely to have greater degree of accuracy than official stats.
• Less likely to conceal dark figure.
• Evidence: 2006/7 official stats showed 2% decrease in crime from previous year whereas offender surveys showed 3% increase from prev. year.

Question 9

What is an issue with using victim surveys to measure crime?

Answer 9

• Relies on accurate recall from victims, ‘telescoping’ may occur where victim misremembers an event as occurring in the past year when it did not and this may distort figures.

Question 10

What is an advantage of using offender surveys as a way to measure crime?

Answer 10

• They provide an insight into how many people are responsible for certain offences (as a small group or individual may have committed several offences).

Question 11

What is an issue with using offender surveys to measure crime?

Answer 11

• Confidentiality is ensured but may be unreliable.
• Offenders may not reveal more serious crimes they have committed or may even exaggerate.
• Targeted nature of survey means some crimes such as burglary may be overrepresented whereas other middle-class crimes e.g. corporate crimes and fraud may not be included.

Question 12

What are two other evaluative points for ways of measuring crime?

Answer 12

• All three methods have issues in terms of reliability and validity, multidisciplinary approach may be better to figure out dark figure.
• Political parties have vested interests in using some crime measures rather than others when discussing crime rates across the country.

Question 13

What is offender profiling?

Answer 13

• Based on idea that characteristics of offender can be deduced from characteristics of the offence and particulars of crime scene.
• Investigative tool used by police to narrow field of enquiry and list of likely suspects.
• Usually involves careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of evidence to generate hypotheses about probable characteristics of the offender.

Question 14

What are the two types of approaches used in offender profiling?

Answer 14

• Bottom-up approach.

- Top-down approach.

Question 15

How was the top-down approach developed?

Answer 15

• Originated in US from work of FBI in 70’s.
• Interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
• Gathered data from these and made pre-existing template.

Question 16

What does the top-down approach involve?

Answer 16

• Matches what is known about crime and offender to pre-existing template.
• Murderers and rapists classified into one of two categories (disorganised and organised) based on evidence and this informs subsequent police investigations.
• Categories based on idea that serious offenders have certain signature (modus operandi) and these correlate with specific set of social and psychological characteristics.

Question 17

Give examples of characteristics that an ‘organised’ offender may have.

Answer 17

• Evidence of planning.
• High degree of control during crime and operate with detached surgical precision.
• Killer or rapist usually has ‘type’ of victim.
• Little evidence/clues left.
• Above average intelligence and skilled professional occupation.
• Sexually and socially competent.
• Usually married and may even have children.

Question 18

Give examples of characteristics that a ‘disorganised’ offender may have.

Answer 18

• Little evidence of planning.
• Offence may have been spontaneous, little surgical precision.
• Body still at scene.
• Below average intelligence and unemployed/unskilled work.
• History of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.
• Live alone and live close to where offence occurred.

Question 19

What are the four main stages in the construction of an FBI profile?

Answer 19

1. Data assimilation: profiler reviews evidence.
2. Crime scene classification: disorganised or organised.
3. Crime reconstruction: hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim.
4. Profile generation: hypotheses related to the likely offender, e.g. demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour etc.

Question 20

`Evaluate the top-down approach.

Answer 20

• Only applies to certain crimes, e.g. rape and murder and not other crimes such as burglary or destruction of property. Limited approach.
• Organised and disorganised characteristics not mutually exclusive, could be a combination and behaviour may not remain consistent across different situations.
• Sample on which template is based only used 36 criminals, most of which were sexually motivated serial killers.
• Canter analysed data from 100 murders, found no evidence of a distinct disorganised type, undermines classification system as a whole.

Question 21

What are the main ideas behind the bottom-up approach of offender profiling?

Answer 21

• Developed in UK by David Canter.
• More scientific than top-down approach.
• Generate pic of offender (likely characteristics, social background, routine behaviour) through analysis of evidence at crime scene.
• No assumptions made about person being dealt with, profiler gathers all info then builds logical description.

Question 22

What are the two main types of profiling in the bottom-up approach?

Answer 22

• Investigative psychology

- Geographical profiling.

Question 23

Outline investigative psychology.

Answer 23

• Uses stats and psychological theory to analyse crime scene.
• Allows profilers to see whether a series of offences have been committed by the same person.
• Patterns of behaviour help build a statistical database.
• Specific details of offence can be matched against database to reveal important details about offender e.g. personal history.
• Central to approach = interpersonal coherence, states that how person behaves at crime scene may reflect their behaviour in everyday life.

Question 24

Outline geographical profiling.

Answer 24

• Uses locations of crimes to determine likely home or operational base of offender - crime mapping.
• Assumption: serial offenders restrict their ‘work’ to areas they are familiar with and pattern of offending likely to form circle around usual residence.
• Offender’s base often found in middle of this area.
• Canter identified two types of offenders: marauder and commuter.
• Helps profilers make educated guesses as to where offender will strike next and provides valuable insight into nature of offence e.g. planned or opportunistic, mode of transport used e.t.c.

Question 25

Evaluate the bottom-up approach to offender profiling.

Answer 25

• Real-life application e.g. Canter helped catch John Duffy (serial rapist) using bottom-up approach and developed highly accurate profile of Duffy.
• More objective and scientific than top-down approach, rooted in evidence and psychological theory rather than speculation.
• Can be applied to wide range of offences. Techniques such as smallest space analysis and principles of spatial consistency can be used in many crimes, e.g. burglary and theft as well as rape and murder, less limited than top-down.
• Time-consuming and requires huger investment of resources.

Question 26

Outline atavistic form as a biological explanation of offending by Lombroso.

Answer 26

• Criminals are genetic throwbacks, biologically different.
• Offenders = lower primates and this could explain their criminality, seen as primitive sub-species uncapable of conforming to rules of modern society.
• Criminals sub-type could be identified by physiological markers linked to specific types of crime, biologically determined ‘atavistic’ characteristics which make criminals physically different from the rest of us.
• Atavistic form includes narrow, sloping brow, facial asymmetry, dark skin, strong prominent jaw and high cheekbones.
• Distinguished facial characteristics of different types of criminals, e.g. murderers having bloodshot eyes, curly hair, swollen and fleshy lips and fraudsters having thin and ‘reedy’ lips. Other traits - insensitivity to pain, tattoos, unemployment, use of criminal slang.
• Examined cranial and facial characteristics of skulls of 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones, concluded 40% of criminal acts accounted for by people w/ atavistic characteristics.

Question 27

Evaluate the theory of atavistic form.

Answer 27

• Lombroso considered ‘father of modern criminology’, shifted emphasis from moralistic discourse towards more scientific and credible realm. Opened up doors t criminal profiling.
• Scientific racism, distinct racial undertones in Lombroso’s work e.g. features such as curly hair and dark skin. Lends support to Galton’s eugenics movement.
• Contradictory evidence from Goring, conducted comparison between 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals, found no evidence of distinct physical characteristics (but did find criminals had below average intelligence).
• Research has lack of internal validity, did not compare criminal sample to non-criminal control groups.
• Correlation does not equal causation.

Question 28

What does the genetic explanation on crime suggest?

Answer 28

-Suggests criminals inherit a gene or combination of genes which means they are predisposed to commit crime.

Question 29

How do twin studies illustrate the importance of genes on criminal behaviour?

Answer 29

• Lange investigated 13 MZ and 17 DZ twins, where one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison.
• Found 10 of MZ twins but only 2 of DZ twins had co-twin who was also in prison.
• Concluded genes play predominant role in offending behaviour.

Question 30

How do adoption studies illustrate the importance of genes on criminal behaviour?

Answer 30

• Crowe found that adopted children who had biological parent with criminal record had 50% risk of having criminal record before the age of 18, compared to 5% in adopted children who had mothers with no criminal record.

Question 31

How do candidate genes illustrate the influence of genes on criminal behaviour?

Answer 31

• Genetic analysis of almost 900 offenders by Tiihonen et al. revealed abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent behaviour: MAOA gene (controls dopamine + serotonin in brain - linked to aggressive behaviour) and CDH13 (linked to substance abuse + attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Within Finnish sample, those with this high risk combo were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour.
• Study is in its infancy, has not been replicated.

Question 32

What does the diathesis-stress model in regards to criminal behaviour suggest?

Answer 32

• If genetics do have some influence on offending, it seems likely that this is at least partly moderated by effects of the env.
• Tendency towards criminal behaviour may come about through combination of genetic predisposition and biological or psychological trigger e.g. being raised in dysfunctional env. or having criminal role models.

Question 33

Outline the neural explanations for crime.

Answer 33

• Refers to explanation of (criminal) behaviour through in terms of dysfunctions of the brain and nervous system, including activity in certain areas of the brain.
• Evidence suggests there may be neural differences in the brains of criminals and non-criminals.
• Research in this area uses those with APD - characterised by lack of empathy for the feelings of others, reduced emotional responses, condition that characterises many criminals.

Question 34

What evidence is there for neural differences between the brains of criminals and non-criminals?

Answer 34

• Raine, brain-imaging studies of APD brain - reduced activity in pre-frontal cortex which regulates emotional behaviour. Also found 11% reduction in volume of grey matter in pre-frontal cortex of APD compared to controls.
• Criminals with APD can experience empathy, but more sporadically than normal. Found only when criminals were asked t empathise (with person in film experiencing pain) did their empathy reaction (controlled by mirror neurons) activate.
• Suggests people with APD are not totally without empathy, but have a neural ‘switch’ that can be turned on and off unlike ‘normal’ brain which has it permanently switched on.

Question 35

Evaluate the genetics and neural explanations for criminal behaviour.

Answer 35

• Many problems with twin studies: judging of zygosity, small sample sizes and confounding variable of shared learning experiences.
• Presumed separation of genetic and environmental influences complicated: many children experience late adoption, infancy and childhood spent with biological parents and also many adoptees maintain regular contact with biological parents. Difficult to assess env. impact bio parents may have had.
• Biological reductionism - criminality = complex. Simplistic explanation. Crime appears to run in families but so does emotional instability, poverty etc. Difficult to disentangle effects of genes and neural influences from other factors. Also, MZ twins do not show 100% concordance rate.
• Biological determinism: ethical implications, criminal justice system etc.
• Support for diathesis-stress model: Mednick et al.

Question 36

Outline Eysenck’s theory of offending.

Answer 36

• Behaviour can be represented along two dimensions: extraversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability. Combine to form variety of traits. Later added third dimension: psychoticism.
• Biological basis: all personality types including criminal personality type is innate, explained through nervous system they inherit.
• ## Extraverts have underactive NS, constantly seek stimulation, excitement and engage in risk-taking behaviours. Not easily conditioned and do not learn from mistakes. Neurotics are jumpy, over-anxious and nervous, general instability means behaviour difficult to predict.

Question 37

What is the criminal personality type and how is personality measured according to Eysenck.

Answer 37

• Developed EPI to measure personality.
• Criminal personality type: neurotic-extravert, also score high on psychoticism, characterised as cold, unemotional, prone to aggression.

Question 38

What is the role of socialisation according to Eysenck?

Answer 38

• Personality is linked to criminal behaviour via socialisation processes.
• Criminal behaviour = developmentally immature as it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification - cannot wait for things and is impatient.
• Process of socialisation: children are taught to delay gratification and become more socially-orientated.
• People with high E and N scores do not condition easily due to their nervous systems, so would not learn easily to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety, so more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presents itself.

Question 39

Evaluate Eysenck’s theory of criminal behaviour.

Answer 39

• Evidence: Eysenck and Eysenck compared EPI scores of 2070 male prisoners with 2422 controls, prisoners scored higher on E, P and N measures than controls.
• However, Farringtion et al. reviewed several studies and found offenders tended to score higher on P measures, but not E and N. Also, EEG shows little difference in cortical arousal of extraverts and introverts which casts doubt on physiological basis of theory.
• Cultural bias: Hispanic and A-American offenders studied, divided into six groups based on nature of offence and criminal history, all six groups less extravert than non-criminal control group.
• Theory built on idea that personality can be measured using psychological test, critics suggest personality type may not be reducible to score, not a stable entity. Also, use of questionnaires has issues with validity.

Question 40

Outline the main concepts of Kohlberg’s model as a cognitive explanation of offending behaviour?

Answer 40

• Proposed that people’s moral judgments of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral development.
• Many studies have suggested that criminals tend to have lower level of moral reasoning than non-criminals.
• Using moral dilemma technique, Kohlberg found that group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development than non-violent youth, even after controlling for social background.
• Criminals more likely to be classified at pre-conventional model.
• Characterised by need to gain rewards, avoid punishment, associated with less mature, childlike reasoning. So, adults at this level commit crimes if they think they can get away with it or gain rewards.
• Individuals who reason at higher levels tend to sympathise more with rights of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours e.g. honesty, generosity, non-violence.

Question 41

What is the stage theory of moral development according to Kohlberg?

Answer 41

• Level 1: Pre-conventional level - rules obeyed to avoid punishment and for personal gain,
• Level 2: Conventional morality - rules obeyed for approval and to maintain social order.
• Level 3: Postconventional morality - rules obeyed if they are impartial, democratic rules challenged if they infringe rights of others. Individual establishes own set of rules in accordance with own ethical principles.

Question 42

What are cognitive distortions (as a cognitive explanation of offending behaviour)?

Answer 42

• Errors or biases in people’s information processing system, characterised by faulty thinking.
• Research has linked this to how criminals interpret other people’s behaviours and justify their own actions.

Question 43

What are the two types of cognitive distortions?

Answer 43

• Hostile attribution bias

- Minimalisation

Question 44

What is the hostile attribution bias and how does this explain offending behaviour? Where does the root of this behaviour lie?

Answer 44

• Propensity for violence may be associated with tendency to misinterpret actions of others - assume others are being confrontational when they are not.
• May read non-aggressive cues (e.g. being looked at, often results in disproportionate, violent response.
• May lie in childhood, Dodge and Frame showed children clip of ‘ambiguous provocation’ (where intention was neither clearly hostile or clearly accidental), children identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior to study interpreted situation as more hostile than those identified as ‘non-aggressive’ and ‘accepted’.

Question 45

What is minimalization? Which type of criminals are more prone to this?

Answer 45

• Attempt to downplay seriousness of an offence.
• Studies show individuals who commit sexual offences more prone to minimalization.
• Barbaree found among 26% incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they committed an offence at all and further 40% minimised harm caused to the victim.

Question 46

Evaluate Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning.

Answer 46

• 1. Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning in 210 female non-offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 convicted using 11 moral-dilemma related questions e.g. taking things that belong to others or keeping secret for a friend.
• Delinquent group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-delinquent group which is consistent with Kohlberg’s predictions.
• Blackburn suggests delinquents may show poor moral development due to lack of role playing opportunities in childhood, such opportunities to develop moral reasoning should be provided.
• 2. Gibbs proposed revised version, consists of two levels of reasoning: mature and immature (equivalents to pre-conventional and conventional). Argued that post-conventional level should be abandoned, it is biased to Western culture.

Question 47

Evaluate hostile attribution bias as a cognitive distortion to explaining offending.

Answer 47

• Evidence: presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions.
• When compared with non-aggressive matched control group, violent offenders more likely to perceive images as angry and hostile.

Question 48

How are individual differences a weakness of Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning?

Answer 48

• Level may depend on type of offence.
• Found those who committed crimes for financial crime, such as burglary, more likely to show pre-conventional level than those convicted of committing impulsive crimes such as assault where reasoning of any kind was not evident.
• Pre-conventional level of reasoning tended to be associated with crimes where offenders believe they have a high chance of evading punishment.

Question 49

What may be a better predictor of committing crime (than levels of moral reasoning) according to Langdon?

Answer 49

• Intelligence
• May explain the findings that groups of people with lower level of intelligence less likely to commit crimes despite having pre-conventional moral reasoning.
• Challenges Kohlberg as he would suggest they are more likely to commit crime.

Question 50

What is an issue with the cognitive explanation as a whole in regards to its ability to explain criminal behaviour?

Answer 50

• Good at describing criminal mind but less successful when it comes to explaining it.
• Cognitive explanations are ‘after the fact’ theories, may give good predictions but gives little insight into why the offender committed crime in the first place.
• Biological theory may be more suitable as it is determinist and concerned with identifying the cause of criminal behaviour e.g. genes.
• Eysenck identified personality and said high E, P and N measures cause criminal behaviour.

Question 51

What does the differential association theory propose?

Answer 51

• Individuals learn attitudes, values, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interactions with people.
• Offending behaviour acquired in same way as any other behaviour through processes of learning, learning occurs most often through who child associates with e.g. family or peer group.
• Criminality arises through two factors: learned attitudes towards crime + specific criminal acts.
• Person socialised into group, exposed to attitudes and values towards the law.
• Sutherland: if number of pro-criminal attitudes outweigh number of anti-criminal attitudes exposed to, carry out offending behaviour.

Question 52

How did Sutherland suggest prediction of offending behaviour?

Answer 52

• Suggests it is mathematically possible to predict whether person will offend through measuring intensity, duration and frequency pf exposure to deviant and non-deviant values.

Question 53

Evaluate the differential association theory.

Answer 53

• Successful in shifting emphasis from biological accounts of crime e.g. Lombroso’s theory or those that explained offending as being result of weakness and immorality. Brought attention to how dysfunctional social circumstances may be more to blame than dysfunctional people - more desirable as it offers more realistic solution instead of eugenics or punishment.
• Difficult to test: e..g. measuring number of pro-criminal attitudes individual has been exposed, undermines scientific credibility.
• Individual differences, shows environmental determinism and has ethical implications (stereotyping).

Question 54

Outline the psychodynamic explanation of offending.

Answer 54

• Based on superego which is morality principle. Developed at end of phallic stage after Oedipus and Electra complexes are resolved. Determines which behaviours are permissible and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken.
• Blackburn: if superego is deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because id is given ‘free rein’ and not properly controlled.

Question 55

What are the three types of inadequate superego according to Blackburn?

Answer 55

• Weak superego
• Deviant superego
• Over-harsh superego

Question 56

Outline the weak superego.

Answer 56

• Occurs if child does not identify with same sex parent or if they are absent during phallic stage.
• Leads to person having little control over anti-social behaviour and likely to act in ways that satisfy the desire of their id.

Question 57

Outline the deviant superego.

Answer 57

• Occurs when there is normal identification with criminal same-sex parent.
• Child would adopt same deviant attitudes and offend as they have internalised superego with deviant/ immoral attitudes.

Question 58

Outline the over-harsh superego.

Answer 58

• Healthy superego is like a kind, but firm parent, has rules but also forgives transgressions.
• Occurs if child has very strong identity with strict parent, leads to excessive feelings of guilt and anxiety.
• May (unconsciously) drive individual to commit crime with hopes of being punished in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment.

Question 59

Outline the theory of maternal deprivation as a psychodynamic explanation of criminal behaviour.

Answer 59

• Ability to form meaningful relationships dependent on child forming warm, continuous relationship with mother.
• Maternal bond seen as unique, superior and vital to child’s wellbeing and development.
• Failure to establish bond during first few years of the child’s life will lead to irreversible and damaging effects.
• E.g. development of affectionless psychopathy, characterised by lack of guilt, empathy and feelings for others.
• Maternally deprived individuals likely to engage in acts of delinquency.

Question 60

Outline Bowlby’s 44 thieves study.

Answer 60

• Investigated 44 juvenile thieves, carried out interviews with their families.
• Found that 14 of the sample showed behaviourial and psychological characteristics that could be classified as AP.
• 12/14 experienced prolonged separation from mothers during infancy.
• Non-criminal group: only 2 had experienced prolonged separation in early years.
• Concluded that effects of maternal deprivation had caused affectionless and delinquent behaviour in the juvenile thieves.

Question 61

Evaluate the aspect of inadequate superego’s causing offending behaviour.

Answer 61

• Implicit assumption in Freudian theory is that girls are more likely to develop weaker superego than boys due to not suffering from castration anxiety and not being under as much pressure to identify with their mothers, so should expect females to commit more crimes than men - but not supported (male-female ratio).
• Contradictory evidence: little evidence that children raised without same-sex parent are less abiding as adults, if children go on to commit deviant acts due to having same sex parent who does so this could be due to genetics + idea that criminal behaviour reflects unconscious desire for punishment seems implausible - criminals often go to great lengths to conceal their crimes (suggest they want to avoid punishment).
• Theory suffers from lack of falsifiability, unconscious concepts means applications to crime are not open to empirical testing. (pseudoscientific, arguments such as inadequate superego can only be judged on face value not scientific worth), thus contributes little to understanding and how to prevent.

Question 62

Evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.

Answer 62

• Methodological issues: researcher bias, preconceptions of what he expected to find may have influenced responses of interviewees. Failed to distinguish deprivation and privation, many of the thieves he studied actually suffered from privation which is thought to be more damaging than deprivation.
• Correlation not causation - other reasons for link between prolonged separation and differential association theory e.g. genetics, differential association theory etc. or third variable involved e.g. different brain structure which leads to more crime or lower level of intelligence.