Final Exam for CJ-425

What two theories are accepted by those using predictive models of profiling? Explain them.

Behavioral consistency: the same criminal will behave in relatively the same way across their offenses.  Homology assumption: different criminals who commit similar acts will have similar traits or characteristics.

Explain the problems with using these theories.

These theories are generalizations

Does BEA succumb to the same issues? Why or why not?

BEA does not assume that crime-related behavior must reflect an offender’s core or cardinal traits. It does not tell us who a person is, who they might be, or who they want to be.

Define and explain the importance of personal identification.

Personal Identification term that refers to establishing the precise identify of individuals, typically witnesses, victims, and offenders. The only way to classify or individuate evidence is if it has something that can only be found with one person.

What are the three problem characteristics that Turvey describes? What does he suggest we do with them?

Age, sex, and intelligence. Turvey argues that what profilers should really be looking for is offender skill level.

Name and explain the four offender characteristics that have been proven to be investigatively relevant.

Evidence of Criminal Skill: Did they avoid leaving fingerprints? Did they leave evidence behind? Knowledge of the victim: Was the offender a stranger? If yes, strangers stay in the suspect pool. If no, what knowledge about the victim was needed, and who had that information? Knowledge of the crime scene: security schedules, security devices, employee shift changes, location of valuables, safes, etc. Knowledge of Methods and Materials: Were they able to do the crime successfully?

What are the two problems with using criminal profiling in court?

Ignorance about the nature of criminal profiling and crime reconstruction. Zeal that profilers apply to their opinions (making them seem like fact).

Explain the difference between genocide and mass murder.

The murder of multiple victims during a single event, at one or more associated locations. Genocide – deliberate and organized killing of groups of people for ideological purposes (Is a subtype of mass murder)

Define mass murder.

The murder of multiple victims during a single event, at one or more associated locations.

Name and debunk the four myths about mass murder.

This is only a problem in America, Mass murders happen all over the world, Most know what they are doing and have a plan, and Most are employed and are married/in a relationship.

What was the demographics of mass murderers according to Fox & Levin?

94.4% of mass murderers are male, 43.3% of them are between 20 and 29 years old, and 62.9% are White

What are the five types of mass killers? Define.

1. Power-oriented mass killers: thirst for power and control; have a passion for symbols of power including assault weapons

2. Revenge-oriented mass killers: motivated by revenge, either against a specific individual, particular category or group of individuals, or society at large. Seeks to get even

3. Loyalty-oriented mass killers: have a warped sense of love and loyalty – desire to save their loved ones – father or husband takes the lives of wife and children to protect them or take away their pain and suffering

4. Profit-oriented mass killer: some seral and mass murders are committed for profit. Specifically, they are designed to eliminate victims and witnesses to crime

5. Terror-oriented mass killer: Terrorist acts in which the goal is to send a message

Define serial crime.

Refers to any series of two or more related crimes

True or false: serial crime refers to two or more related crimes of the same type.

False

Define cooling off period / interval.

Psychological component; interval during which the offender psychologically disconnects, separates, or compartmentalizes themselves from the behaviors and motives that lead to or culminated in their homicidal behavior and then reintegrates back into normal life.

What four preconditions must occur prior to any sex crime?

• The offender must be motivated to commit the offense, which requires a historical context of related psychodynamics

• The offender must have some strategy for overcoming their own internal inhibitions – can be contextual or cultural.

• The offender must be able to overcome any external constraints that might prevent access to the victim

• The offender must be able to overcome any victim’s resistance – either by choosing victims incapable of physically or emotionally resisting, or through planning and strategy.

Be able to match the Baker Typologies to their definitions.

• Sex & Lovemaking – for these offenders, rape behavior represents a confused attempt to experiment sexually and find intimacy.

• Sex & Shoplifting – Victims are devalued and taken (stolen); objectified.

• Uniting – Group- or gang-related rape behavior. Rape committed out of the need to prove something to the group

• Dividing  - involves the perception that women are the property of other men, and rape is used to establish power over them (the other men)

• Power – Describes rape used to assert power over a particular victims.

• Anger – Attacks all parts of the victim’s body, forces them to engage in repeated nonsexual degrading acts, and uses much more violence than is necessary to force them into submission

• Sadism – Baker argues that sadism is a product of anger becoming eroticized aggression over time. 

What are Keppel’s four solvability factors?

• The quality of police interviews with eyewitnesses

• The circumstances which led to the initial stop of the murderer

• The circumstances which established the probable cause to search and seize the physical evidence from the person and or the property of the murderer; the solvability factors in each case

• The quality of the investigations at the crime scene(s)

Describe the balance of information that should be provided to the media when a law enforcement body needs help from the community?

Investigators give enough information for community help but hold back enough to: prevent the offender from understanding investigative efforts and changing their MO, and to screen copycats and false confessions

Name the three current issues with terrorism research.

The three current issues with terrorism are no consensus on the definition of terrorism, many articles are thought-pieces; only 20% of articles written from 1995-1999 had any new knowledge or understanding, and many terrorism ‘experts’ have never spoken to a terrorist.

Define moral and divine mandates.

Moral mandates are the specific positions that people develop out of a moral conviction that something is right or wrong. Divine mandates on the other hand are unique feature of the extremist driven by religious ideology.

Define torture

Any form of intentional damage caused, and the violation of the human rights of individuals, in order to obtain information or induce confessions

Why doesn’t torture work?

Torture victims will say or do anything they need to survive.

Define evidence according to Black

Testimony, writing, material objects, or other things presented to the senses that are offered to prove the existence or non-existence of a fact

Can ideographic profiling be relevant? Under what circumstances?

Turvey argues that ideographic profiling can be scientifically and forensically relevant – but only if the scientific method is used and scientific protocols are followed

What is the Daubert standard?

A rule that determines the admissibility of expert testimony in federal courts and some state courts, requiring that the testimony be both relevant and reliable.