Forensic Psychology Flashcards

Question

# biological explanations What does the MAOA gene do

Answer 1

MAOA is a chemical that breaks down excess neurotransmitters such as serotonin. If this gene is defective then there will be less serotonin being broken down so there will be an excess which could result in aggression and risk taking

Answer 2

ADHD and substance abuse

Answer 3

Supporting evidence- Mednick studies 13000 Danish adoptees who committed petty offences. Found that if neither biological or adopted parents had a criminal record the percentage of adoptees that did was 13.5%. If one biological parent did this rose to 20% and if one biological and one adopted parents did this rose to 24.5%

Answer 4

Lack of validity- MZ twins are more likely to have higher concordance rates because they look the same so are therefore treated notes similarly than DZ twins

Answer 5

Looking at brain structure and how offenders may differ. Much of these findings come from offenders with antisocial personality disorder.

Answer 6

Reduced emotional and lack of empathy. Psychopaths are also impulsive, self-centred and manipulative

Answer 7

Found an 11% reduction in the volume of gray matter in the PFC of people with APD compared to a control group. PFC regulates emotion Damage to PFC can result in lack of control over impulses

Answer 8

Asked psychopaths to watch someone on film feel pain They did not feel empathy until told to

Answer 9

Psychopaths are not completely without empathy and can turn it on and off

Answer 10

Kandel and Freed rescued people with frontal lobe damage including to the PFC. They found evidence for lack of control over impulses and emotional instability, this supports Raine’s study

Answer 11

Intervening variables- Farmington studied a group of men who scored high on a psychopathy test and found many of them had convict parents or were physically neglected Problematic real world implications- suggests they are hardwired to do crimes so hard to convict

Answer 12

Personality can be measured on two dimensions introversion/extroversion and neuroticism/stability. He later added psychotism

Answer 13

Psychotism- aggressive, manipulative Neuroticism- anxious, low self esteem Extroversion- sociable, dominant

Answer 14

Extroverts- underactive nervous system, so participate in more risk taking activity Neurotic individuals- nervous, jumpy, unpredictable Psychotic individuals- higher levels of testosterone, cold and aggressive

Answer 15

Supporting evidence- Sybil and Hans Eysneck compared 2070 inmates to a control group of 2422 non criminals. They found that the criminal sample scored much higher on psychotism neuroticism and extroversion

Answer 16

Contradictory evidence- Farrington concluded via a meta analysis that offenders scored higher on P but not on N or E. Kussner also said there was very little difference between an introvert and an extrovert on an EEG measurement. Poor generalisability- Bartol and Holanchock investigated the personalities of Hispanic and African American inmates in a high security prison in New York. They were split into 6 groups depending on their crime and all 6 groups are found to be less extrovert than a non criminal control group too simplistic- Moffitt suggested that offending in adolescence and offending consistently are different. suggested that if someone is offending through their later life it is due to personality AND environment.

Answer 17

The Heinz dilemma

Answer 18

A group of violent youths were much lower in moral development than non violent youths.

Answer 19

Preconventional Morality Stage 1- punishment orientation: rules are obeyed to avoid punishment Stage 2-personal gain orientation- rules are obeyed for personal gain Conventional morality Stage 3- good boy orientation: rules are obeyed for approval Stage 4- maintenance of social order Postconventional morality Stage 5- rules obeyed if impartial but challenged if oppressive Stage 6- individual establishes own set of rules which align with their beliefs

Answer 20

Supporting evidence- palmer and hollin compared 126 offenders to a control group and found low levels of morality are associated with offending using the Socio moral reflection short form (SMR-SF)

Answer 21

Poor generalisability- Thornton and Reid found that for burglary and other crimes for financial gain morality was lower but for impulsive crimes there wasn’t a lack of morality Poor internal validity- Rosen argues the Heinz situation doesn’t work as children aren’t married so the dilemma lacks realism

Answer 22

Faulty ways of thinking where a persons perceptions do not match reality. This can lead to criminals wrongly deny or justify their actions

Answer 23

When people misinterpret a person or situation as being confrontational when it is not

Answer 24

Schonenberg and Justye presented 55 violent criminals with emotionally ambiguous facial expressions and the violent control group were much more likely to view the expressions as hostile

Answer 25

When an offender downplays the severity of their crime to revert guilt or even blame the victim

Answer 26

Bombaree found that out of 26 convicted rapists 54% devoted committing a crime and 40% minimalised the harm they caused Pollock and Hushnall found that 35% of a sample of child molesters said what they did want sexual and 36% stated the victim consented

Answer 27

Real works application- developed a way to give therapy to sex offenders to get them to ‘face up’ to their crimes and stop down playing it

Answer 28

Poor generalisability- Howitt and Sheldon found that minimalisation depended on crime. Non physical sex offenders were more likely too minimalise crime than physical sec offenders

Answer 29

Proposes that behaviours and attitudes are learnt through the people you associate with

Answer 30

Learning attitudes Learning techniques

Answer 31

Frequency + intensity + duration = Limehouse of offending

Answer 32

441 boys were surveyed from a deprived area of south london 41% were convicted of at least one offence between 10-50 Factors that were looked at between 8-10 were family criminality risk taking poverty etc 7% were said to be chronic offenders

Answer 33

Good generalisability- Sutherland found that some crimes such as burglaries were more common in working class communities and white collar crime was more prevalent in middle classes Moved criminology forwards- DA established in 1924, moved criminology away from harmful theories such as atavistic form

Answer 34

Hard so prove- based off someone’s pro crime attitudes outweighing their anti crime ones but it is impossible to measure this so cannot be proved Harmful- ignores that people can choose not to offend even if from rough environment, can create harmful stereotypes about the working class

Answer 35

Making an individual spend time incarcerated

Answer 36

Deterrence Incapacitation Retribution Rehabilitation

Answer 37

Stress and depression Institutionalisation Prisonisation

Answer 38

UK- 45% Norway- 20% US and Australia- 60%

Answer 39

Good effects- Vera institute of justice claims that offenders who take part in college programmes in prison are 43% less likely to reoffend and more likely to be employed

Answer 40

Worse for offenders- prisons can act as ‘schools for crime’ which leads to high recidivism rates and could mean petty offenders move onto worse crimes Negative impacts- Bartol suggested that suicide rates are 9 times higher in prison than in the outside world. 25% of women and 15% of men in prisons show signs of psychosis

Answer 41

The inadequate superego Maternal deprivation theory

Answer 42

The weak superego- when a same sex parent is absent so child cannot overcome complex through identification The deviant superego- if same sex parents is criminal child will pick up characteristics through internalisation The over harsh superego- crippled by anxiety and guilt so commits criminal acts due to superego’s need for punishment

Answer 43

Bowlby says that affectionless psychopathy can result of lack of a warm mother figure (IWM)

Answer 44

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study 14 classed as affectionless psychopaths 12/14 had been separated from their mothers a lot during first 2 years of their lives Of a non criminal control group only 2 suffered from maternal deprivation

Answer 45

Supporting evidence- Goreta studied 10 criminals referred from psychiatric facilities and found all of them suffered from ‘disturbance in superego formation’ and all reported guilt and need for punishment

Answer 46

Gender bias- Freud’s theory assumes that women have a weaker superego than men because they don’t have the fear of castration and therefore lack morals meaning they should be more prone to crime- 90% of people in prisons are males Lack of evidence- psychodynamic approach relies on subconscious thoughts which cannot be tested to be wrong so is a ‘pseudoscience’ contrasting evidence- Lewis analysed interviews with 500 young people and found maternal deprivation played a limited role in future offending. if this was the case hard to establish cause and effect as mother being absent may link to poverty

Answer 47

Easy to use- can be implemented by anyone as training isn’t needed. Also very cheap and cost effective Supporting evidence- Hobbs and Holt found that young offenders displayed more positive behaviour after using token economy system. Field supports this if reads were frequent and immediate

Answer 48

Not rehabilitative- doesn’t look at why poor behaviour occurs so won’t fully change behaviour. Inmates can comply in prison but because of no rewards outside of prison they don’t behave well Inconsistent approach- Basset and Blanchard found that all positive effects were lost if applied inconsistently. This was due to lack of staff training and high staff turnover. Unethical- Moya and Achtenburg say the withdrawal of prisoners rights is unethical

Answer 49

Patient is taught how to recognise cognitive factors that causes anger and techniques to combat it.

Answer 50

Short term aim of cutting down on anger and aggression in prisons A long term aim of rehabilitation to reduce recidivism

Answer 51

Cognitive preparation- offender thinks back to times they got angry and therapist gets them to see this was irrational. Skill acquisition- offenders introduced to techniques to reduce anger including: positive self talk (cognitive), better communication (behavioural), meditation for relaxation (physiological) Application- role play in carefully controlled environment

Answer 52

Studied offenders between 17-21 who did 8 two hour sessions over 3 weeks Offenders reported increased awareness of their anger and better self restraint Some were said to not take it seriously and would forget diaries and forget routines etc

Answer 53

Long term- identifies cognitive causes of anger so offender can reinforce anger management outside of prison

Answer 54

Short term- use of role play is artificial and downs reflect real life. May suggest why there is little evidence treatment works in the long term (blackburn) Expensive- has to be carried out by highly trained specialists. This means that many prisons can’t afford this so many people can’t get help doesnt work for everyone- Howells found that there was little impact when compared to control group except for those who showd intense levels of anger or showed willingness to change- where there was significant improvement

Answer 55

A system of dealing with offender behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with the victim. This enables the offender to see the impact of their crime and gives the victim a voice.

Answer 56

An opportunity to explain the impact of the crime An acknowledgement of the harm caused A chance to ask questions Acceptance of responsibility Active not passive involvement from both

Answer 57

‘Crime hurts, justice should heal’ restorative justice is now about reparation than retribution

Answer 58

Trained mediator Non courtroom setting

Answer 59

Can reduce time served Can lead to community service not prison

Answer 60

Financial Practical Emotional

Answer 61

Supporting evidence- Shapland found 85% of victims were satisfied, 78% would recommend it, 60% said it made them feel better, 2% said they felt worse. Long term help- Strang conducted a meta analysis and found a drop in recidivism in criminals who took part in RJ. Bain found the same thing

Answer 62

Not always effective- Van Gijsegham suggests offenders only do it for personal gain. This means it is not always effective and can be the opposite Cannot be done by everyone- cannot be done by domestic abuse victims due to a power imbalance and pressure on the victim

Answer 63

an area established by profilers when investigating thye area in which a criminal has worked

Answer 64

when the offedners base and where their crimnes occurred are circled to show if they are a maurauder or a commuter

Answer 65

bloodshot eyes curly hair long ears

Answer 66

glinting eyes fleshly lips projecting ears

Answer 67

thin and reedy lips

Answer 68

diathesis-stress

Answer 69

offenders are devlopmentally immature and demand instant gratification socialisation is when children learn to delay instant gratification E believed those with high E and N scores had nervous systems which made them difficult to condition

Answer 70

eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ)

Answer 71

found offenders are often more egocentric and have poorer perspective-taking skills than non offenders

Answer 72

a set of scientific principles that could explain all types of offending.

Answer 73

explains why people reoffend upon release they learn new techniques and attitudes from observation, tuition etc

Answer 74

develops at end of phallic stage works on moprality principle it punishes id with guilt and rewrads it with pride

Answer 75

if it is somehow deviant then the id has free rein

Answer 76

when a person adopts an 'inmate code' which may reward them inside an institution but is seen as unacceptable in the real world

Answer 77

when a person adapts to the norms of life inside so much they cannot function on the outside

Answer 78

behaviourist

Answer 79

secondary reinforcers

Answer 80

through operationalised target behaviours- breaking target behaviours into smaller pieces

Answer 81

4-1 (Gendreau)

Answer 82

make sure it is standardised

Answer 83

help the 'survivor' of the crime to recover help the offender to recover

Answer 84

an independant body which establishes clear standards for restoratative justice and aids survivors and proffesionals in the field

Forensic Psychology Flashcards

(110 cards)