Theories of Crim Behavior - part 2

Mental illness

Term used for a variety of psychiatric diagnoses that indicate that the individual has problems in living (aka mental disorder)

Intellectual Disability

limitation in cognitive capacity, determined by IQ tests and a variety of perfomance measures. Cannot be cured, but can be compensated by care and training.

Schizophrenia

Mental disorder charcterized by severe breakdown in thought patterns, emotions, and perceptions

Hallucinations

things or events that a person with mental disorder sees or percieves. Characteristic of schizophrenia and some forms of dementia

Delusional Disorder

MD characterized by a system of false beliefs or delusions

Bipolar

cycles of manic and depressive

MDD

General lable for symptoms that include an extremely depressed state, general slowing down of mental and physical activity, and feelings of self-worthlessness

Antisocial personality disorder (APD)

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

Conduct Disorder

a diagnostic label to identify children who demonstrate habitutal misbheavior

Adjudicative competence

the ability to participate in a variety of court proceedings (competence to proceed and decisional competence)

Competency to stand trial

the legal rquirement that a defendant is able to understand the proceedings and to help the attorney in preparing a defense

Incompetent to stand trial

a judicial ruling that a criminal defendant, beacuse of mental illness, defect, or other reasons, is unable to understand the nature and objective of the criminal proceedings or is unable to assist their lawyer. May apply to a cariety of judicial stages including plea bargain, trial, and sentencing

Insanity defense

a criminal defendant’s arguement that their mental illness relieves them from responsbility for a crime. Legal tests of insanity vary widely, with the most common being the ability to know right from wrong

not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI)

a legal determination that a defendant was so mentally disordered at the time of the crime that they cannot be held criminally responsible

M’Naughten Rule

states a person is not responsible for a criminal act if “at the time of committing the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it… he did not know he was doing was wrong”

Brawner Rule

“a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct of to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law

Caveat Paragraph

a section of the ALI/Brawner Rule that excludes abnormally manifested only by repeated criminal or antisocial conduct. It was sepcifically designed to disallow the insanity defense for psychopaths

Durham Rule

rarely used. Legal standard taht criminal defefendants are not criminally responsble if their unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect. AKA product Rule

Insanity Defense Reform Act 1984

A law designed to make it more difficult for defendants using the insanity defense in the federal courts to be acquitted

Volitional prong

the part of the insanity defense that requires that a defendant could not control thier behavior to conform to the requirements of the law. This is not recognized in federal law or the law of many states

Guilty but Mentally ill (GBMI)

a verdict alternative in some states that allows defendants with mental disorders to be found guilty even if they might meet the standards for insanity. the verdict is said to afford them treatment in prison settings but such treatment is not guaranteed

Iatrogenic

a process whereby mental or phsycial disorders are unintentionally induced or developed in patients by phsycians, clinicians, or psychotherapists

Amnesia

complete or partial memory loss of an incident, series of incidents, or some aspects of life’s experiences

Threat assessment

process of determining the likelihood and seriousness of harm carried out by a person who displayed warning signs, such as making veiled oral or written threats

Duty to Warn

requirement from the Tarasoff case that clinicans must actively warn potential victims of threats of serious bodily harm made by their clients

Duty to protect

Requirement from the Tarasoff case that clinicians must take steps to potect possible victims from serious bodily harm as a result of threats made by teh clinician’s clients. does not require that the clinicians contact the potential victims

Structured professional judgement (SPJ)

an approach to risk assessment that combines the strength of acturarial predictions with the experiences of the practioners

offers guidelines for providing the risk assessment

Availability Heuristic

the cognitive shortcuts that people use to make quick inferences about their world. It is the information that is most readily available to use mentally and is usually based extensively on the most recent material we gain from the news or entertainment

Criminal homicide

a term that encompasses both murder and nonneglignet homicide

murder

the felonious killing of one human being by another with malice aforethought

Nonnegligent manslaughter

the killing of a human being without premeditation but with the intention to kill in the “heat of the moment” such as under high emotional states of anger or passion

Negligent Manslaughter

the unlawful killing of anohter through reckless or negligent behavior, without the intention to kill

Assault

the intentional inflicting of bodily injury on another person, or the attempt to inflict such injury

Aggravated Assault

inflicting or attempting to inflict, bodily injury on another person, with the intent to inflict serious injury

typology

a classification system that identifies commonalities among members of groups (serial murderers, terrorists, S offenders) to aid in investigation of crime and offending treatment

stereotypical abductions

child abductions that are believed to result in tragedy, such as the complete discaperance or death of the child. rarest of child abduction

investigative psychology

the application of psychological research and concepts to the investigation of crim

clinical profiling

profiling based on experience and “gut feelings” rather than on research and statistical data

actuarial profiling

a procedure that employs statistical group data based on prior offenders to identify an individual offender who committed similar crimes

profiling

the process of identifying personality traits, behavioral tendencies, and demographic variables of an offender based on characteristics of the crime

threat assessment

the process of determining the likelihood and seriousness of harm carried out be a person who displayed warning signs, such as making veiled oral or written threats

susperct based profiling

controversial and potentially illegal method that tries to identify an offender based on characteristics of prior offenders who have committed similar crimes

racial or ethnic profiling

illegal singling out of someone (eg by law enforcement) solely on the basis of race or ethnicity

Geographical profiling

a type of profiling that focuses on the location of the crime and how it relates to the residence and/or base of operations of the offender

crime scene profiling

refers to examining features at the scene of the crime to discern characteristics of the offender (AKA offender profiling)

Signature

any behavior that goes beyond what is necessary to commit the crime.

crime scene signature is left deliberately by the offender

psychological signature is beyond the offender’s awareness

staging

the intentional alteration of a crime scene before the arrival of the police

autoeroticism

self arousal and gratifation of secual desire without a partner or partners

undoing

a behavioral pattern found at the crime scene whereby the offender tries to psychologically “undo” the murder

organized crime scene

indicated planning and premeditation on the part of the offender. the crime scene shows signs that the offender maintained control of themselves and the victim

disorganized crime scene

demonstates that the offender committed the crime without careful planning. in other words, the crime scene indicators suggest the person acted on impulse, in rage, or under extreme excitement

mixed crime scene

indicates that the nature of the crime demonstrates both organized and disorganized behavioral patterns

reconstructive psychological evaluation (RPE)

reconstruction of hte personality profile and cogntive features (especially intentions) of deceased individuals (AKA psychological autopsy or equivocal death analysis)

Psychological autopsy

postmortem analysis often reserved for cases in which suicide occurred of is suspected or alleged. the psychological autopsy is frequently done to determine the reasons and precipitating factors for the death

serial murder

incidents in which an individual (or group) kill a number of individuals (usually a minimum of three) over time

spree muder

killing of three or more individuals without any cooling off period, usually at 2 or more locations

mass murder

the unlawful killing of 3 or more persons at a single location with no cooling off period between

class mass murder

a situation in whcih an individual enters a public place or barricades themselves inside a public building and randomly kills patrons and other individuals

family mass murder

a situation in which at least 3 family members are killed (usually by another family members)

Workplace aggression

a term for conduct, usually on the part of the employees, that qualifies as emotional harm or minor physical harm to other employees. Distinct from workplace violence

Workplace violence

aggressive actions, including deaths, that occur at the workplace, not necessarily caused by those who work within the organization

Authority homicide

the killing of someone of higher authority than the perpetrator