forensic psychology Flashcards

Question

Case Two Between 1986 and 1988, seven attacks on elderly women took place in tower blocks in Birmingham. Women in their 70s and 80s, often infirm, were followed into the lifts by a stocky young man who took them to the top floor of the tower block. He would rape the women and then flee. Consistent patterns seemed to suggest the same man was responsible. In his interactions with the women he appeared confident and at ease. He made no attempt to disguise himself and forensic evidence was found on each occasion. Police eventually arrested Adrian Babb, an attendant at the local swimming pool, to which all of Babb's victims were regular visitors.

Answer 1

Case 2 - organised because there are several victims and the description is the same for all of them. The victims have a similar profile in terms of age, the area of the attacks and what happens to them is consistent. This suggests the crimes have been planned. He was able to interact with them comfortably which suggests he is socially competent.

Answer 2

Both these cases illustrate a key problem with top-down profiling because, even though they had many characteristics of one type of offender, there were anomalies (e.g. take Case 1, the duct tape must have been taken to the crime scene, which suggests he may have planned the attack, hence an ‘organised’ feature, although taken as a whole the case was categorised as disorganised) (in case 2, forensic evidence was found at the scene, which may be indicative of a ‘disorganised’ crime scene as organised criminals tend to cover their tracks)

Answer 3

-the categories only apply to particular crimes -the classification is too simplistic and two categories is too restrictive -the original sample used to develop top down profiling was not representative

Answer 4

P - top down profiling is best suited to crime scenes that reveal details about the suspect (e.g: rape, torture) E - more common offences such as burglary do not lend themselves to profiling because the crime scene doesn’t reveal much about the offender L - this makes this a limited approach for identifying a criminal

Answer 5

P - the classification is too simplistic and two categories is too restrictive E - canter et al. argued that it was overly simplistic to reduce the types of criminal to only two / having only 2 categories is very reductionist as it is likely that criminals do not fit neatly into either category → this makes the prediction of their characteristics difficult L - this suggests that top-down profiling’s focus on intuition or “hunch” rather than objective methods, could lead to bias in interpretation of the evidence ↳ this is a problem because it reduces the scientific basis of top-down profiling

Answer 6

P - the original sample used to develop top down profiling was not representative E - the approach was developed using interviews with 36 killers in the US – 25 were serial killers, the other 11 were single/double murderers ↳ this is an extreme small and unrepresentative sample to base a profiling system that may have a significant influence on the nature of police investigation on it’s also not sensible to rely on self-report data from convicted killers when constructing a classification system (could be invalid, untrue) L - this means that top down profiling may not be very applicable

Answer 7

profilers use evidence collected from the crime scene to develop a picture of the offender (their likely characteristics, motivations and social background)

Answer 8

-unlike the US top-down approach, the British bottom-up- approach is 'data driven' -it doesn’t begin with fixed typologies, it develops a profile as the investigator learns more about the crime

Answer 9

-investigative psychology -geographical profiling

Answer 10

a form of bottom-up profiling that matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory

Answer 11

david canter (2004)

Answer 12

his criticism wad partially motivated by a desire to see offender profiles built on objective data rather than an “intuition” based approach

Answer 13

to establish a statistical 'database of information which can be used as a baseline for comparison

Answer 14

-specific details of an offence, or related offences, can then be matched against the database to reveal important details about the offender, their personal history, social background etc -using computer databases and a programme called Smallest Space Analysis, patterns are identified and it is possible to see if a series of offences are linked

Answer 15

-interpersonal coherence -the important of time and place (geographical profiling) -forensic awareness can reveal criminal characteristics

Answer 16

the idea that the way an offender acts at the crime scene and with their victims may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations

Answer 17

-degrees of violence used in serious crimes, especially rape, may reflect how the criminal treats other women in his non-criminal life -for example, whilst some rapists want to maintain maximum control and humiliate their victims, others are more apologetic – this might tell police something about how the offender relates to women more generally

Answer 18

forensic awareness may reveal details of the offender → offenders who show an awareness of forensic investigation (e.g. by covering their tracks) will probably have committed a crime before and been through the criminal justice system

Answer 19

time and place may give clues as to where the perpetrator may live or work

Answer 20

an investigative technique that uses the locations of a connected series of crimes to work out where an offender most likely lives, or bases their activities from (crime mapping)

Answer 21

it can help create a hypothesis about how the offender thinks and their modus operandi (a particular way of doing something)

Answer 22

the assumption that offenders will restrict their 'work' to areas they are familiar with → m understanding the geographical pattern of their behaviour will provide a 'centre of gravity which is often the offenders base

Answer 23

two models of offender behaviour

Answer 24

-the marauder -the commuter

Answer 25

the criminal operates in close proximity to their home base

Answer 26

someone who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence

Answer 27

circle around their usual place of residence, the more offences, the more apparent this becomes

Answer 28

geographical gives vital insight into the nature of the offence: was it planned or opportunistic, what 'mental maps' exist for this person i.e. access and mode of transport, employment status, approximate age?

Answer 29

-there is evidence support for investigative psychology from canter -canter’s profile has been useful in real life -there is evidence to support geographical profiling -a strength of the approach is its scientific basis

Answer 30

P - there is evidence support for investigative psychology from canter E - canter and heritage conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases → the data was examined using the smallest space analysis (a computer program that identifies correlations across patterns of behaviour) ↳ several characteristics were identified as common in most cases (e.g. use of impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim) ↳ this could help to establish whether 2 or more offences were committed by the same person L - this supports the usefulness of investigative psychology because it shows how statistic techniques can be applied

Answer 31

P - canter’s profile has been useful in real life → it resulted in the arrest of john duffy & subsequently the arrest of his accomplice E - using evidence, canter put together a profile of the “railway killer”, this included both personality and geographical characteristics ↳ canter’s profile suggested that the criminal had a poor history with women, violent sexual history, forensic awareness, was in his mid to late twenties, was a semi-skilled labourer & had railway knowledge ↳ these characteristics matched the profile of john duffy (29, separated from his wife - abusive to her during their marriage, criminal record, made efforts to remove evidence of himself from the bodies of his victims, was a carpenter & worked for the railways, living centrally to the clusters of crimes committed) L - canter’s theory has also been applied to historical cases and still manages to measure up → this proves the credibility of canter’s profiling

Answer 32

P - there is evidence to support geographical profiling E - lundrigan & canter (2001) collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA / smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers: the location of each body disposal site was in a different direction from the previous ones, creating a 'centre of gravity' ↳ the offender's base was located in the centre of the pattern, the effect was more noticeable for marauders (travelled short distances) L - this supports canter's claim that spatial information is a key factor in determining the base of an offender

Answer 33

P - a strength of the approach is its scientific basis E - canter argues that compared to the top-down approach, bottom-up profiling is more objective, scientific, less driven by hunches and more grounded in evidence and psychological theory ↳ it uses geographical, biographical and psychological data to assist an investigation L -this use of statistics and theory has removed intuition & human terror of the profiler from the process, which is argued to make it more reliable than the top down approach

Answer 34

-there are mixed results for profiling

Answer 35

P - there are mixed results for profiling E - copson surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by the profiler was useful in 83% of cases, but in only 3% did it lead to accurate identification of the offender ↳ kocsis found that chemistry students produced a more accurate profile on a solved murder case than experienced detectives L - this evidence questions the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach

Answer 36

US ( top-down) vs UK (bottom-up) based on qualitative data (top-down) vs based on quantitative data (bottom-up) subjective - based on speculation, hunches & police experience (top-down) vs objective - based on statistical data analysis links SSA (bottom-up analysis) reductionist (top-down) vs holistic (bottom-up) quick (top-down) vs slow (bottomup)

Answer 37

-not an exact science -could direct sources away from other lines of enquiry -offender profiling is only suitable for certain crimes

Answer 38

-a historical approach (lombroso’s atavistic form) -genetics and neural explanations

Answer 39

in the 1870s

Answer 40

that some people are born with a criminal personality due to lacking evolutionary development (criminals were genetic throwbacks)

Answer 41

a primitive sub species that is biologically different from non-criminals

Answer 42

he believed that offender lack evolutonary development, their savage nature meant that they can’t conform to the rules of modern society and as instead, turn to crime

Answer 43

there were physical features which offenders had, which indicated they were less developed in an evolutionary sense than non-offenders

Answer 44

lombroso combined his ideas with darwin’s theory of evolution to imply that offenders were more primitive and therefore not completely responsible for their criminal actions

Answer 45

as atavistic

Answer 46

-narrow, sloping brow -strong prominent jaw -high cheekbones -facial asymmetry -dark skin -the existence of extra toes, nipples or fingers

Answer 47

bloodshot eyes, curly hair, long ears

Answer 48

glinting eyes, swollen/fleshy lips and projecting ears

Answer 49

criminals are insensitive to pain, use criminal slang, have tattoos and are unemployed

Answer 50

the idea that genetically “unfit” people should be prevented from breeding

Answer 51

-he suggests that criminals are ‘born’ (an inherited trait) with particular criminals displaying certain physical anomalies or characteristics -if society wanted to reduce crime ,. then theories of genetic superiority or people who are believers in the Eugenics movement could call for policies in which whole groups of peoples should be eliminated from the genetic stock of the world in order to prevent crime / or castration of those said to be habitual criminals in order to prevent them producing more children who,later would be criminals.

Answer 52

-lombroso's theory led to further psychological theory, especially in the field of crime -lombroso’s theory is supported by evidence from lombroso’s study (1876)

Answer 53

P - lombroso’s theory is supported by evidence from lombroso’s study (1876) E - lombroso aimed to identify physical features among criminals, which set them apart as offenders based on biological principles / he examined the features and measurements of nearly 4,000 criminals, as well as the skulls of 400 dead criminals ↳ some common findings from Lombroso's investigation included sloping brows, high cheekbones, pronounced jaw, large ears L - he found that 40% of the criminal acts could be accounted for by the atavistic characteristics that he had identified ↳ this suggests that these characteristics indicate that such people were more primitive in an evolutionary sense.

Answer 54

P - lombroso's theory led to further psychological theory, especially in the field of crime E - lombroso was hailed as the ‘father of modern criminology’. he shifted crime research towards a more scientific focus and kick started the beginnings of criminal profiling / the idea that criminals could be studied in order to create links and patterns, was a unique and insightful perspective ↳ his list of characteristics enabled a fairly objective measure L - so, despite the flaws in his research, Lombroso had an influence on forensic psychology

Answer 55

-lombroso’s methods were poorly controlled -there have been negative implications of Lombroso's work

Answer 56

P - lombroso’s methods were poorly controlled E - a criticism of Lombroso’s research is that he did not use a control group in his research; therefore, although he found physical trends amongst his substantial group of offenders, he was not comparing them to a group of ‘normal’ control ↳ it may be more likely that these physical features are coincidental and can be found amongst any people group of that size L - this means that Lombroso’s work and therefore atavistic form theory does not meet modern day scientific standards

Answer 57

P - there have been negative implications of Lombroso's work E - deLisi (2012) drew attention to the uncomfortable racial undertones in lombroso’s work / many features outlined as atavistic (e.g. curly hair/dark skin) are most likely found in african descent ↳ lombroso completed his work at the same time as the ‘eugenics movement’ (the idea that some social and cultural groups are genetically more ‘fit’ than others) ↳ the idea that atavistic characteristics were evidence of an uncivilised, primitive, sub- species seems to support the eugenics philosophy L - there have been negative implications of Lombroso's work for minority groups

forensic psychology Flashcards

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