Psychology and Law: Exam 2 Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering criminal profiling, geographic mapping, forensic trace evidence reliability, adjudicative competence standards, and legal insanity defenses based on Psych 317 lecture notes.

Profiling

The process of drawing inferences about a criminal's personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scenes and other evidence.

Serial Killers

Murderers who kill $3$ or more people in separate events with a cooling-off period between murders.

Criminal Profiles

Tentative descriptions of an unknown criminal that provide leads for police, help focus investigative efforts, assist in setting traps, and instruct investigators to look for a particular type of person while ignoring others.

Signatures

Distinctive, personal features of a crime (such as a specific form of torture or sexual activity) that presumably reveal the killer's personality and remain relatively constant even when abduction, transport, or disposal methods change.

Jack the Ripper

The perpetrator in what is considered the first criminal profile; he attacked and killed women on public streets, strangling and slitting the throats of at least $5$ prostitutes, mutilating bodies and removing internal organs, and was never caught.

The Olympic Bomber Case

The investigation of a $1996$ bomb explosion at the Atlanta, Georgia Olympics where security guard Richard Jewell was initially targeted as a suspect without evidence before Eric Rudolph was charged.

The Mad Bomber (George Metesky)

A criminal who terrorized the public by planting bombs across New York and at the Consolidated Edison Company, stopped during World War II, and was taken into custody after a famous profile by Dr. Brussel.

Serial Killer Recurring Characteristics

Patterns frequently seen across serial offenders, including mostly white males, average intelligence, impaired rational thinking from brain injury, childhood maladjustment (often animal cruelty), violent sexual fantasies, and having a particular victim type.

Serial Killer Demographics

Statistical distributions indicating offenders are $52.2\%$ White, $38\%$ Black, and $7.6\%$ Hispanic; $52.2\%$ are aged $27-37$ years; and educational levels consist of $42.8\%$ high school graduates, $29.8\%$ incomplete high school, and $27.4\%$ beyond high school.

Male Serial Killer Behavioral Patterns

Offender profiles characterized by motives that are more sexual and power oriented, a tendency to asphyxiate victims, and acting as hunters who stalk their targets.

Female Serial Killer Behavioral Patterns

Offender profiles characterized by motives toward financial gain, a tendency to poison victims, targeting vulnerable individuals, holding healthcare jobs more frequently than men, and acting as gatherers who bring people close to them.

Organized Murderers

An FBI classification for serial killers who carefully select and stalk victims, plan what they will do, exhibit patience and self-control, and perform elaborate rituals such as torturing victims or dismembering corpses.

Disorganized Murderers

An FBI classification for serial killers who are impulsive, pick victims at random, act out of sudden rage or obey internal voices, use available weapons and abandon them at the scene, and use victim bodies for sexual purposes.

Visionary Type

A Holmes typology category of serial killer who is usually psychotic and motivated by visions or voices from God or spirits instructing them to kill specific groups of people.

Mission-Oriented Type

A Holmes typology category of serial killer who is less likely to be psychotic and motivated by a desire to rid the world of individuals they deem evil or unworthy (such as targeting physicians who perform abortions).

Hedonistic Type

A Holmes typology category of serial killer who kills for pure thrill and derives sadistic sexual pleasure from torturing victims.

Power-Oriented Type

A Holmes typology category of serial killer who derives satisfaction from capturing and exercising complete control over the victim before killing them.

Profiling Accuracy Study

Empirical research evaluating four groups (undergraduate students, inexperienced clinical psychologists, untrained detectives, and trained detectives) on two actual cases, finding trained police were twice as accurate as other groups.

Profile Problems

Documented limitations of criminal profiling including unvalidated basic assumptions, suspect cross-situational consistency, reliance on ambiguous speculations, reliance on stereotypes, and induction of tunnel vision.

Crime Linkage

The investigative process of determining whether the same person committed $2$ or more crimes.

Tunnel Vision

A biased tendency to seek out evidence that fits a profile, stereotype, or preexisting belief while ignoring contrary evidence.

Geographic Profiling

Criminal spatial mapping used to estimate the general vicinity of an offender's home or workplace, or to project the location of the next crime based on spatial patterns and physical environmental features.

Anchor Point

The specific launch location (such as a home or workplace) from which an offender departs to commit attacks.

Buffer Zone

An area immediately surrounding a criminal's home base within which the offender is less likely to commit crimes.

Distance Decay

The principle that the probability of an attack decreases as distance from an offender's previous crime locations increases.

Temporal Sequencing

The observed tendency for a serial offender's geographic range and attack perimeter to expand over time.

Geographic Profile Misdirection

Errors occurring from linking the wrong series (unrelated or missing crimes), using the wrong spatial model (ignoring commuting routes and target availability), or drawing wrong conclusions regarding buffer zones or workplace bases.

Equivocal Death

A death occurring with an unknown, uncertain, or ambiguous cause and manner.

Psychological Autopsy

An investigative procedure that dissects and examines an individual's psychological state prior to death, reconstructing emotional states, lifestyle, thoughts, and personality via documents and interviews.

Criteria for Distinguishing Suicide vs. Accidental Death

Two foundational assessment criteria: determining whether the death could have been self-inflicted (accidental or intentional) and evaluating indications of an explicit intention to die.

CUU System

A standardized scoring method used to classify investigative propositions into Confirmed ($10$), Unconfirmed ($1-9$), and Unknown ($0$), representing professional judgments rather than statistical probabilities.

Confirmed (C10)

The CUU rating applied when compelling, valid, and credible evidence combined with consensus fully supports an investigative statement.

Unconfirmed (U1-9)

The CUU rating representing a current belief held with or without supporting evidence, requiring explanation of the rating, its evidentiary basis, and its limits.

Unknown (U0)

The CUU category used when a specific unanswered question remains that must direct further investigative inquiry.

Source

The originating object or individual from which physical or trace evidence came.

Case Theory

A proposed overarching narrative of what happened in an alleged crime, detailing who did what, when it occurred, and possibly why.

Classification (Forensic)

The forensic determination that an evidentiary item belongs to a specific group or category (e.g., determining that an unknown fiber is acrylic).

Individualization

The forensic conclusion that a specific evidentiary sample originated from one unique, definitive source (e.g., concluding a latent print came from a specific individual's finger).

Trace Evidence

Small physical materials transferred during an encounter (such as fibers, paint, glass, or soil) that analysts classify and attempt to match to a source.

Source Evidence

Patterns, impressions, or biological profiles (such as DNA profiles and latent fingerprints) used to connect evidence to a specific person or object.

Qualitative Statement

A subjective expert evaluation and the simplest approach to communicating match strength using categories such as weak, moderate, or strong.

Match with Statistics

A detailed statement communicating the strength of an evidentiary match by incorporating statistical data regarding how common or rare a characteristic is in a given population.

Source Attribution

An expert opinion identifying a definitive source of evidence, supported by empirical validation and performance data.

Reliability

The consistency, stability, or repeatability of a measurement or observation over time and across examiners.

Test-Retest Reliability

The consistency of measurement outcomes obtained when the same examiner evaluates the exact same evidence at different points in time.

Interrater Reliability

The degree of agreement achieved when two or more independent examiners analyze the same evidence without contact.

Validity

The extent to which an instrument or procedure accurately measures what it claims to measure; a technique cannot be valid without first being reliable.

Error Rate

The empirical frequency with which a forensic technique yields incorrect conclusions, specifically comparing false positive rates against false negative rates.

False Positive

A forensic error declaring a match between samples that actually originate from different sources, creating high-stakes risks of wrongful conviction.

False Negative

A forensic error declaring no match between samples that actually originate from the same source, potentially allowing guilty perpetrators to go free.

Daubert Standard

A legal standard governing expert admissibility requiring trial courts to evaluate whether scientific methodology is testable, peer-reviewed, has a known error rate, and is generally accepted.

CODIS

The Combined DNA Index System; the largest electronic database of DNA profiles in the world, maintained by the FBI.

Secondary Transfer

The indirect transfer of trace DNA to an intermediary person or object, which can lead to false accusations of uninvolved suspects.

Latent Prints

Fingerprint impressions left unintentionally on crime scene surfaces that are difficult to see with the naked eye until visualized using powders, specialized lighting, and magnification.

Dissimilarity Doctrine

The forensic guideline stating that an identification cannot be made if a single unexplained dissimilarity exists between two friction ridge impressions; routinely violated in practice.

Dusky Standard

The foundational constitutional standard established in Dusky v. United States ($1960$) requiring a defendant to have sufficient present ability to consult with an attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and factual understanding of proceedings.

Adjudicative Competence

The broad legal construct describing the psychological capabilities necessary for a defendant to participate effectively across all phases of the legal process.

Foundational Competence

The baseline capacity to assist legal counsel, understand the adversary trial system, and comprehend the distinct roles of the prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge.

Decisional Competence

The cognitive ability of a defendant to make informed, independent, and rational choices regarding trial decisions, plea offers, and constitutional rights waivers.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (BRD)

The most demanding legal standard of proof, utilized in criminal trials to convict a defendant, requiring decision-makers to be firmly convinced with roughly $95\%$ certainty.

Preponderance of the Evidence (POE)

The standard of proof applied in civil trials requiring the plaintiff to demonstrate that an allegation is more than $50\%$ likely true.

Clear and Convincing Evidence (CCE)

An intermediate standard of proof (roughly $75\%$ certainty) used when civil or quasi-criminal proceedings threaten substantial intrusions on individual liberty short of imprisonment.

Malingering

The intentional faking or gross exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms to obtain an external incentive, such as delaying trial, securing transfers, or gaining strategic advantage.

Knowing, Voluntary, and Intelligent Standard

The constitutional requirement for a valid guilty plea, demanding that the defendant admits guilt with full comprehension of charges and consequences, absent coercion, recognizing rights are forfeited.

Competency to Waive an Attorney

The psychological and legal ability of a criminal defendant to understand the perils of self-representation and execute the core responsibilities of managing their own defense.

Competency Restoration

The multi-month educational and psychiatric treatment process through which approximately $75\%$ of incompetent defendants are restored to trial competency within $6$ months.

Miranda-Related Vulnerability

The heightened susceptibility of adolescent suspects to stressful police interrogation because Miranda rights language often exceeds their reading and reasoning capacities.

Insanity

A legal concept—not a psychological diagnosis—evaluating an accused person's state of mind at the exact time of the crime, excusing moral responsibility due to severe mental illness.

M'Naghten Rule

A cognitive insanity test requiring proof that at the time of the offense, the accused was laboring under a defect of reason from disease of the mind such that they did not know the nature and quality of the act, or did not know it was wrong.

Neurolaw

Legal argument and expert testimony utilizing brain imaging and neuroscientific findings to demonstrate links between brain abnormalities and unlawful actions.