Exam #3 - Psych of Criminal Behavior Ch 7-9

Sociopath

An individual who continually commits crimes.

Does not usually qualify as a psychopath

Psychopath

Defined by Hare - Social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life.

Completely lacking in conscience and empathy, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.

Primary Psychopath

“true” psychopath - the individual who shows those physiological and behavioral features that represent psychopathy

Secondary Psychopath

Individual with psychopathic characteristics, but who commits antisocial acts because of severe emotional problems or inner conflicts.

Dyssocial Psychopath

Individual with psychopathic characteristics who is antisocial because of social learning and does not have the features of the primary psychopath.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Disorder characterized by a history of continuous behavior in which the rights of others are violated.

Criminal Psychopath

A primary psychopath who engages in repetitive antisocial or criminal behavior

Psychopaths & Mental Disorders

Most psychopaths do not exhibit severe/disabling mental disorders

They remain cool under pressure

Psychopaths & Suicide

Psychopaths rarely, if ever, commit suicide

Tend to commit suicide in intolerable situations

Intolerable Situations

Long prison sentence, incurable illness, surrounded by cops

Semantic Aphasia

Characteristic in psychopaths where the words they speak are devoid of emotional sincerity

Psychopathy Checklist

Developed by Robert Hare - best known instrument for the measurement of criminal psychopathy

Recidivism

The tendency to return to offending.

Factor Analysis

Statistical procedure by which underlying patterns, factors, or dimesnions are identified among a series of scale items

Two-Factor Scheme

Factor 1 - a behavioral dimension, identified through factor analysis, representing the interpersonal and emotional aspects of psychopathy

Factor 2 - A behavioral dimension representing the socially deviant lifestyle characteristics of psychopathy

Three-Factor Position

Factor 3 - A core feature of psychopathy that refers to emotional shallowness, callousness, and lack of empathy

Four-Factor Model

Factor 4 - Incorporates antisocial behavior

Triarchic Psychopathy Model (TriPM)

Recent model focusing on callous-unemotional traits, disinhibition, and boldness

Meanness (TriPM)

Generally cruel behavior or physical behavior toward others

Callous-Unemotional Traits (TriPM)

Persistent and significant lack of empathetic concern for others, limited capacity for guilt, and deficits in emotional expression

Disinhibition (TriPM)

Refers to impulsivity, poor self-regulation, low frustration tolerance, irresponsibility, alienation, and unreasonable risk-taking

Boldness (TriPM)

Charisma, fearlessness, novelty seeking, calmness in danger, low stress reactivity

Dark Triad

A cluster of personality traits that are associated with criminal psychopathy

Includes psychopathy, narcissism, and machiavelianism

Emotional Paradox

Psychopaths seem to be able to talk about emotional cues but lack the ability to use them effectively in the real world

Executive Function Deficits

May result in faulty impulse control, judgement, and planning in certain conditions

Avoidance Learning

A process whereby someone responds in time to a warning signal to avoid painful or aversive stimuli

Lower Amygdala Function

Fight or flight response won’t scare you

Takes more to produce fear, won’t care

Gives criminals ability to commit crimes

Are brutal crimes usually committed by people with mental illness? How would this be reflected in crime rates?

Brutal crimes are not usually committed by people with mental illness. If people with mental illness were responsible for these crimes, then crime rates would be much higher.

What percentage of the total United States adult population has a mental illness?

About 18%

Of this group what percentage of the adult population has a serious mental illness?

3.6% (or 1/5 of that 18%)

what is one of the major criticisms to this day of drug treatment for mental illness?

The side effects that they often cause.

Side effects can include nausea, loss of energy, having a hard time concentrating, loss of appetite, dizziness, and other problematic symptoms. 

Competency to Stand Trial

A defendant can understand the court proceedings and is able to help the attorney prepare the defense

Incompetent to Stand Trial

A judicial ruling that says a criminal defendant who, because of mental illness or other circumstances, is not able to understand what is happening in court or is not able to help their defense lawyer prepare for the trial

If a defendant is found to be incompetent to stand trial, what are the next steps?

They are typically sent to a forensic unit in a psychiatric hospital until they are deemed competent. 

According to the text, what is the average time needed to restore a defendant to competency?

About 3 months

What is the significance of the 1972 Supreme Court ruling in Jackson v. Indiana?

Significant because it established that defendants who were incompetent to stand trial could not be held indefinitely just because they were unable to regain competency. If they made no progress, they had to be released or recommitted under civil rather than criminal status. This helped protect the constitutional rights of defendants with mental illness.

What is the significance of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Sell v. United States?

Significant because it established that courts must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of medication before forcing a defendant to take it to restore their competency to stand trial. The court must also consider how serious the crime is and how important it is for the government to bring the defendant to trial.

Insanity Defense

Legal strategy where a defendant admits to committing a crime, but argues they are not criminally responsible because a severe mental illness prevented them from understanding what they were doing or knowing it was wrong

Competence to Stand Trial vs the Insanity Defense

looks at defendant’s current mental state during the court proceedings

Focuses on the defendant’s mental state during the time when the crime was committed

What is the significance of the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in Foucha v. Louisiana?

Significant because it established that people found not guilty by reason of insanity cannot be kept in a psychiatric facility solely because they are considered dangerous if they are no longer mentally ill. Just because they could be dangerous, that is not a good enough reason to hold them if they are no longer actively mentally ill.

Duty to Warn

Says that therapists or clinicians have to warn potential victims of threats of harm made by their clients

Duty to Protect

Says that therapists or clinicians do not have to directly contact the possible victim, but they do have to take steps to protect them from serious harm from their clients

Availability Heuristic

the cognitive shortcuts we use to make quick judgements about the world based on information that is most readily available to us from recent experiences or through the news/media.

How might the availability heuristic account for our perception of violence?

 If we are constantly exposed to media that constantly talks about violence, it makes us think that it is happening more frequently than it actually is.

Criminal Homicide

Killing someone without legal justification - includes murder & nonnegligent manslaughter

Murder

the intentional, unlawful killing of another person with the intent to cause death.

Nonnegligent Manslaughter

he killing of another person without premeditation, but with the intention to kill in the moment (heat of the moment, very angry / passionate in the moment)

Negligent Manslaughter

The killing of another person, without intention, through reckless behavior.

Assault

intentionally inflicting or trying to cause bodily harm to someone else

Aggravated Assault (Battery)

intentionally inflicting or trying to cause serious injury to someone else. Deadly weapons are often used in aggravated assault, but not always.

Which groups of people are involved in criminal homicide as both offenders and victims at a rate that significantly exceeds their numbers in the general population?

Black Americans, American Indians, and Alaskan Natives are more likely to be represented among both homicide offenders and victims than their proportion of the general population would suggest. For example, Black Americans make up about 13% of the U.S. population but accounted for about 54% of homicide arrests in 2017 when the offender’s race was known.

What challenge has emerged with reporting statistics on gender?

Traditional crime statistics only categorize individuals as male or female, even though gender is more complex than male or female identities. This makes it really difficult to accurately represent transgender or transitioning people in crime and victimization statistics, since their gender identities may not be reflected in the data being collected.

According to the UCR, what are the annual rates for murder in terms of gender?

Male - 80-90%

Female - 10%

According to the UCR, are most murders interracial or intraracial?

Most murders are intraracial

What age group represents the commission of violent crimes the most?

Ages 20-29

What is the most frequently cited situation that results in murder?

Interpersonal arguments

What is a red flag law?

A law which allows courts to order law enforcement to take a gun from someone who is considered dangerous to themselves or others based on their behavior, including behavior associated with a mental disorder.

What are the four classifications identified by the New Jersey Department of Corrections related to patterns of motivation to commit murder?

Altercations or arguments

During the commission of a felony

Domestic Violence-related

Accidents

What appears to be the most prominent learning problem among juvenile murderers?

Significant language handicaps

In terms of risk factors related to the Hispanic population, what three risk factors were consistently found which can be applied to both victims and perpetrators of abuse?

Individual

Community

Relationships

What differences in heterosexual and nonheterosexual IPV were discovered using data from the National Violence Against Women survey?

Women in same-sex relationships were twice as likely as women in heterosexual relationships to report verbal aggression, controlling behaviors, physical aggression, and sexual aggression.

According to research, what 6 common themes emerged related to IPV among older adults?

Abusers often continue their abusive behaviors over many years, even as their own health begins to decline.

Physical and sexual abuse tend to become less common with age, while nonphysical forms of abuse, such as emotional abuse, may continue.

As relationships get longer, physical abuse may shift toward psychological abuse. However, in some cases, physical abuse continues even when the abuser’s health declines.

Leaving an abusive relationship later in life can be more difficult because of financial and emotional concerns, declining health, and the possibility of losing connections to friends, neighbors, and the community.

Many healthcare facilities do not routinely screen older adults for signs of IPV, especially physical or sexual abuse.

Being isolated from the community can increase an older adult’s risk of experiencing IPV. This can happen in both rural and nonrural areas.

What are the distinguishing characteristics between Type I, Type 2, and Type 3 batterers?

Type 1 batterers: Only abuse family members

Type 2 batterers: Abuse family members because of their own emotional issues

Type 3 batterers: Violent towards family members and people outside of the family.

Type 1 Batterers

Only abuse family members

Type 2 Batterers

Abuse family members because of their own emotional issues

Type 3 Batterers

Violent towards family members and people outside of the family.

What are the 6 types of child maltreatment, and how is each one defined?

Physical abuse: When a parent or caregiver intentionally hurts a child or allows them to be physically harmed, often through cruelty or excessive punishment.

Emotional abuse: An ongoing pattern of behavior that harms a child’s emotional well-being, such as constantly putting them down, withholding love to control their behavior, or using extreme punishment

Emotional neglect: Failing to give a child the emotional support, attention, and affection they need

Sexual abuse: Using a child or adolescent for another person’s sexual gratification or exploitation

Child neglect: When a parent or caregiver consistently fails to provide a child’s basic needs, including food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, protection, and supervision

Missing and exploited children: Includes situations where children are kidnapped by a stranger or taken from a parent who has custody, as well as sexual exploitation through things like child pornography or prostitution

Abusive Head Trauma (shaken baby syndrome)

Occurs when someone shakes or throws an infant, which can cause serious brain damage or even death.

Medical Child Abuse (Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy)

Happens when a parent repeatedly brings a child in for medical care by making up or intentionally causing symptoms

Infanticide

When a parent kills their infant / child

Neonaticide

When a parent kills a newborn baby, usually within 24-48 hours

Filicide

When a parent kills their child, who is older than 24 hours old

Sororicide

Killing your sister

Fratericide

Killing your brother

Matricide

Killing your mom

Patricide

Killing your dad

Which type of violence is believed to be the most common form within families?

Violence between siblings