stats forensics

how many interviews with sexually ,motivated serial killers is top down approach based on?

36

When was top down developed

1970s

how many interviews with sexually ,motivated serial killers is top down approach based on?

36

When was top down developed

1970s

Who developed bottom up

Canter

When was bottom up developed

1980s

Why did Canter develop bottom up

He had been asked by police for help on the case of the railway rapist John Duffy who had committed rapists and murders in and near London train stations

Canter and Larkin

Circle theory- crimes usually committed within a circle with the centre of gravity being the base

Canter and Goodwin

85% of offenders lived within circle encompassing offences

Koscis and Iris

Only 50% of burglars lived in circle encompassing offences

What did Canter do?

Analysed 100 serial killers in the US and found no distinction between organised and disorganised and concluded that all crimes have an organised element

He argued that it is better to study individual personality differences of criminals than classify crimes as organised or disorganised

Copson

Survey of detectives who had worked with offender profiling

Advice given in the profile useful in 83% of cases but only led to catching offender in 3% of cases

Who created the atavistic form explanation for offending?

Carl Lombroso

When did Lombroso create his explanation

1870s

Goring

Compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals.

No evidence that criminals are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics

Raine twin studies

Higher concordance rate in criminality for Mz twins (52%) vs Dz twins (21%)

Tiihonen

Studied 2 independent groups of Finnish prisoners

Lower activation variation of MAOA gene associated with extreme violent behaviour

No substantial signal observed for MAOA among non-violent offenders

What did a study in New Zealand do and find

A longitudinal study following 1000s of New Zealanders over deceased found that the MAOA gene was not enough to predict violent behaviour

Those with a history of violence had the faulty MAOA gene AND difficult childhood experiences

Raine research neural

Used PET scans to scan the brains of 41 murderers and 41 non murderers

Differences in brain activity in PFC and limbic system, including amygdala

reduced functioning in PFC- impulsive and emotionaL

Limbic system deficiencies - harder to learn from mistakes and to understand their emotions

Suggests neural differences can explain offending behaviour

What did Raine claim?

Biology is not destiny- must consider all other factors

E.g. pfc dysfunction does not make you a criminal

Brain structure can predispose but social and situational factors (e.g. culture and upbringing) play a role

Farrington et al

Reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score highly on psychotic and neurotic measures but not on extroversion

Hollin

Hollin noted a similar pattern of findings to Farringdon- high P and N scores but not necessarily high E scores

Who created the theory of criminal personality

Eysenck

Who created the levels of moral reasoning theory?

Kohlberg

How did Kohlberg create the levels of moral reasoning theory?

Longitudinal study

Interviewed 72 boys from Chicago every 3 years for 20 years

Asked them a series of moral dilemmas and was interested in the differences between different ages

Stage 1 Kohlberg

Punishment orientation- commit a crime based on whether or not will be punished

Stage 2 Kohlberg

Reward orientation- reasoning centres in what can be gained from committing crime

Ashkar and Kenny

• compared moral reasoning of juvenile sex and non-sex offenders in a maximum security prison in New South Wales, Australia using hypothetical offending situations (both sexual and non-sexual)

• All used a pre-conventional level in the context related to the types of crimes they had committed

• When it was a non-related crime they were able to use a conventional level of moral reasoning

Gilligan

Redid Kohlberg’s research on females and found differences in moral development/moral reasoning

Women tend to have an ethics of care whilst men have an ethics of justice

Differences may explain differences on offending rates between men and women

Hasmal

• 35% of a sample of child molesters argued that the offences they committed were non sexual

• 36% stated that the victim had consented

• Minimalisation- removes guilt

Schonenberg and Justye

Presented 55 violent offenders with imaged of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions

When compared with a matched control group of non-aggressive participants the violent offenders were significantly more likely to interpret the facial expressions as hostile or aggressive

Who devised the differential association theory (DAT)?

Sutherland

Osbourne and West

40% of the sons of convicted criminals also had convictions by age 18 compared to only 3% of the sons of non-criminal fathers

Recidivism rates for all offenders within 1 year

45.5%

Recidivism rates for juvenile offenders within 1 year.

69.9%

Recidivism rates people who served less than 12months within 1 year

57.7%

How many people currently serving sentence for violent crimes or serious sexual offences?

Over 35000

What percentage of people serving sentences are serving sentences for non-violent crime

61%

How much higher are suicide rates for men in prison compared to in the general population?

3.7x

When is suicide risk in prison highest?

In the first month- find adjusting to the prison environment too psychologically distressing

What did the chief inspector of prison reports do and find?

Studied 469 male and female prisoners

Found that 42% had already been diagnosed with a mental illness (e.g. anxiety, OCD)

Self harm rates in women how much higher than in men in prison?

5x higher

Talbot

Those with learning disabilities are 3x more likely to have clinically significant anxiety and depression in prison

Coid

Offenders who had treatment for mental health issues 60% less likely to reoffend

Sherman and Strang

• Reviewed 20 studies involving 142men convicted of violence and property offences who had taken part in restorative justice

Restorative justice reduces reoffending

11% recidivism compared to 37% of a matched control group

Research in Canadian federal prison

• Compared violent prisoners who had 2hours of anger management a week with violent prisoners who had no treatment

• Although general recidivism rates were high (61%) the anger management group had significantly less recidivism for violent crimes and the length of time before re-arrest was also significantly longer than the non-treatment group

• Supports anger management

Hobbs and Holt

• Introduced a token economy programme with groups of young delinquents across 3 behavioural units

• Significant difference in positive behaviour compared to non-token economy group

Allyon et al

Found a similar effect to Hobbs and Holt in offenders in an adult prison

Shapland

Every £1 spent on restorative justice saves the government £8 through reducing reoffending

What have Women’s Aid called for?

A ban in the use of restorative justice in cases of domestic abuse as they believe it is inappropriate