Forensic Psychology- Week 12

Flashcards based on lecture notes about criminal profiling.

Criminal Profiling

A method for narrowing suspect pools based on behavioral evidence.

Inductive Profiling

Based on statistical patterns.

Deductive Profiling

Based on specific crime scene details.

Criminal Profiling

Using crime scene evidence to infer a suspect’s personality, behavior, and background to narrow down likely characteristics in cases.

Inductive Profiling

Generalizes from patterns.

Deductive Profiling

Built up from specific case details.

Profile Characteristics of Jack the Ripper

Great physical strength, coolness, quiet appearance, likely middle-aged, habit of wearing a cloak, solitary habits, likely without occupation.

Initial Profile of the Olympic Bomber

Single, white, middle-class male, interested in police work.

Profile Characteristics of The Mad Bomber

Male, 40-50 years old, Roman Catholic, foreign born, single, living with a sibling, progressive paranoia, former or current Con Edison worker.

Characteristics of Organised Killers

Carefully select and stalk victims, plan crimes meticulously, show patience, clean up evidence, use rituals.

Characteristics of Disorganised Killers

Act impulsively, choose victims randomly, act on rage, use available weapons, leave weapons at the scene, use the body for sexual purposes.

Visionary Serial Killer

Psychotic, hears voices.

Mission-Oriented Serial Killer

Targets specific groups.

Hedonistic Serial Killer

Kills for pleasure.

Power-Oriented Serial Killer

Seeks control over victims.

Early Study in England (Copson, 1995)

Profiling found "helpful" but had a low success rate (2.7%), profiles often inaccurate and inconsistent.

Pinizzotto & Finkel (1990) on Profiling Accuracy

Trained profilers were more accurate only in the sex offense case.

Kocsis and Colleagues’ Follow-Up Studies

Trained profilers were slightly better at guessing physical attributes, but low accuracy rates overall (less than 50%).

Mokros & Alison (2002)

Analysis of 100 stranger rapes showed no correlation between crime behaviors and rapist demographics.

Implicit Bias

Shared societal bias, not individually held, unconscious stereotypes from media and experiences.

Joshua Correll’s Video Game Experiments (2000s)

Participants more likely to shoot unarmed black avatars and had a faster response to armed black targets.

Hugenberg and Bodenhausen’s Findings (2000s)

Higher implicit bias leads to perceiving black faces as hostile, and implicit prejudice causes perceptual skew.

Amodio’s Research on Brain Responses

Stronger fear responses to black faces and activation in the amygdala linked to emotional responses.

Tunnel Vision

Investigators may focus only on profile-matching suspects, ignoring disconfirming evidence.

Geographic Profiling

Spatial patterns, statistical models.

Geographic Profiling

Mapping key crime-related locations and using computer programs to predict the likely base of operations.

Concepts Used in Geographic Profiling

Anchor points, buffer zones, distance decay, and temporal sequencing.

Behavioural Investigative Advice (BIA)

Interview strategy, media handling, crime series linkage, based on research, not intuition.