Assessment in Forensic populations: Behaviour, risk and profiling - Lecture 9

Question 1

What is characterising for describing the behaviour?

Answer 1

Scene
Time/Date
Motive
Victim
Weapons
Property 
Crime scene analysis

Question 2

What is characterising for describing the individual?

Answer 2

Physical characteristics
Age
SES and education 
Social circumstances and history 
Psychological characteristics
Guilt
Risk of re-offending

Question 3

What are considered psychological characteristics?

Answer 3

Social circumstances
Mental health/IQ
Moral reasoning 
Deviant interests
Anger and feelings 
Impulsivity 
Personality disorders 
Attitudes and thoughts
Guilt, denial and minimisation 
RISKS: RE-OFFENDING, SUICIDE

Question 4

How can these be assessed?

Answer 4

Self-report (questionnaires, structured interview, diary) - problems = social desirability, denial, bias 
Objective measures (cognitive and biological tasks) - problems = indirect measures, problems in interpretation 
Observational methods (CCTV, confederates) - problems = labour intensive, ethics, difficulty

Question 5

What does the self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) cover?

Answer 5

Covers a range of social/individual problems (q1-27) and likelihood of re-offending (q28).

Question 6

Across 126 prisons and probation areas, how many SAQs were completed?

Answer 6

Between January 2003 and May 2006, 101,240 questionnaires were completed.

Question 7

What percentage said they had no social or individual problems?

Answer 7

17%

Question 8

What percentage said they weren’t likely to re-offend?

Answer 8

47%

Question 9

Who was very likely to re-offend?

Answer 9

Younger and white

Question 10

What percentage of those that said they would re-offend had a drugs problem?

Answer 10

56%

Question 11

What percentage of those that said they would re-offend said that drugs would be involved?

Answer 11

27%

Question 12

What should be assessed for all offenders?

Answer 12

Mental health
IQ
Risk of re-offending

Question 13

What should be assessed for sexual offenders?

Answer 13

Offence details and history
Denial or minimisation
Willingness to treatment
Other psych assessments (eg. attitudes)

Question 14

What should be assessed for violent offenders?

Answer 14

Levels of anger
Experience of violent episodes
Sensational interests (eg. martial arts)
Other psych assessments (eg. pro-offence attitudes)

Question 15

What are the static factors that can be used to help predict re-offending?

Answer 15

Age, gender, criminal history

Question 16

What are the dynamic factors that can be used to help predict re-offending?

Answer 16

Substance abuse, beliefs, medication non-compliance

Question 17

What schemes can be used to assess these factors for violent offenders?

Answer 17

HCR-20 (Webster et al, 1995a) and Violence prediction scheme (Webster et al, 1995b)

Question 18

What schemes can be used to assess these factors for sex offenders?

Answer 18

SVR-20 (boer et al, 1997)

Question 19

What other tools can be used?

Answer 19

Static 99R, Stable and acute, Rick matrix

Question 20

What self-report tools can be used to assess anger and feelings?

Answer 20

Anger diaries, the STAXI (Straight-trait Anger Expression Inventory - Spielberger, 1988)

Question 21

What objective measures can be used to assess anger?

Answer 21

Cognitive biases for detection and attention to violently themed material (Smith and Waterman, 2003)

Question 22

What is the emotional stroop test?

Answer 22

When the person has to say the name of the colour that the word is written in. Words that are emotionally salient produce longer reactions.

Question 23

What is the dot-probe test?

Answer 23

When the person has to locate a dot that appears very quickly after the presentation of two words in the position of one word. Quicker to detect violently-themed words.

Question 24

What is the definition of psychopathy?

Answer 24

“…a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioural characteristics, including egocentricity, impulsivity, irresponsibility, shallow emotions, lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, pathological lying, manipulativeness, and the persistent violation of social norms and expectations (Hare, 1996).”

Question 25

Diagnosis of psychopathy is not via DSM-IV, TR or ICD-10 but by….

Answer 25

…PCL-R (Hare, 1991)

Question 26

What does it mean if you score less than 30?

Answer 26

That you have distinct patterns of behaviour, thoughts, emotions, physiological responses. Distinct difference from those meeting criteria for ASPD.

Question 27

A third meeting criteria for ASPD…

Answer 27

meet criteria for Psychopathy. 7% males and 2% female, so lower presence in population than thought?

Question 28

How many in prison have psychopathy?

Answer 28

20% (Hare, 1991) but some prison psychologists estimate much higher (eg. 60%)

Question 29

What is seen as the ‘gold standard’ of deviant sexual interest?

Answer 29

Penile plethysmography (PPG)

Question 30

However, what has there been an increased interest in recently?

Answer 30

Cognitive tasks as objective measures

Question 31

What two types of profiling are there?

Answer 31

Inductive

Deductive

Question 32

What is inductive?

Answer 32

Expert skills and knowledge of profiler

Question 33

What is deductive?

Answer 33

Forensic evidence, crime scene, offence related

Question 34

What are the different types of profiling often distinguished as?

Answer 34

Clinical and statistical

Question 35

What is behavioural consistency?

Answer 35

That at least some offenders have consistent behaviour which persist from crime to crime and influence life-style and personality (eg. violent offenders lose temper easily)

Question 36

What is homology assumption?

Answer 36

That the more similar two offenders are, the more similar their offences will be (eg. that two rapists, both married and drink excessively will commit rape in ways more similar than would an unmarried rapist who never drinks)