Forensic Psychology Lecture Notes

Flashcards on Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology

The application of psychology to crime and rehabilitation.

Risk Assessment

Trying to identify who is at risk of committing further harm.

Treatment (Forensic Psychology)

Working with known offenders and trying to help them reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

Bernie Madoff

Responsible for the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding people of an estimated $64,000,000,000.

White Collar Crime

Crimes committed by people in professional setting.

Chronic Offenders

A small number of people who engage in a lot of offending.

Age Crime Curve

The idea that crime peaks around late adolescence, early adulthood, and then drops off.

Prefrontal Cortex

The center of our brain where we do a lot of our planning and understanding of consequences, and isn't fully developed until around age 25 (for men).

Desistance

Studying what helps people stop committing crime.

Pro Social Hooks

Pro social hooks that hook people into living pro socially.

Monozygotic Twins

Identical twins share 100% of their DNA.

Dizygotic Twins

Non-identical twins share 50% of their DNA.

Cross Fostering Studies

The idea that you can take children who are born to criminal or non-criminal parents who have then been fostered out.

Difficult Temperament

People who are sensation-seeking, people who have low self-control, people with negative emotionality.

Limbic System

The brain system that controls emotions.

Pro Criminal Associates

Having friends who commit crimes too or family.

Pro Criminal Attitudes

Beliefs or thoughts that are supportive of crime.

School or Work (Central Eight)

Do you have education? Do you have meaningful employment?

Leisure or Recreation

What are you doing in your spare time? Do you have something meaningful to occupy yourself?

Dynamic Factors

These are factors that can change and they are things that we can help target either before or after crime has occurred to reduce the risk of crime.