Forensic Psych Exam 3

What is more accurate: clinical or statistical predictions?

statistical predictions

when does clinical accuracy get worse?

information overload, few precise measurements/not strong enough theories, disregard for base rates, overconfidence with broken leg cases

what is nomothetic?

laws and patterns to predict and control behavior (think conditioning)

what is idiographic?

focuses on subjective, personal experiences

what is quantitative vs qualitative?

think quality over quantity…

• quan: numerical measurement

• qual: non-numerical measurements that seek to understand thoughts and emotions

what is the best role for the clinician in predictions and postdictions?

best utilized at the interface with the predictand, like maintaining relationships, extracting additional data, render relevant judgements, and administer treatments

in which type of cases is clinical judgement still required in directing construction and evaluation of equations?

identifying broken leg cases and devising variables to look for (based on theory)

what are some types of criminal prediction and postdiction?

• criminal profiling

• psychological autopsies

• predicting dangerousness (duty to warn, bail, civil commitment, parole)

what are the practical difficulties to criminal prediction and postdiction?

• open-ended task, unlimited variables

• underdeveloped theory (relevant factors, strengths, configurations)

• measurements are unreliable or unavailable

• accuracy feedback is often not available

• range restriction issues (ethics, low base rates)

• balancing accuracy with due process concerns

what is SSA in statistical profiling?

smallest space analysis, which is a multidimensional scaling technique in psychology used to visualize the relationships between variables as points on a map

what is MDS in statistical profiling?

multidimensional scaling, which is a set of statistical techniques used to visualize the hidden, underlying structure of similarity or dissimilarity data among stimuli

in criminal profiling, where can individual vs. situational variance be analyzed (cross-situational consistency)?

statistical profiling, in which replicable findings related to statistical predictions are made up of serial offenders’ characteristics

what are serial killers?

3 or more people in separate acts, with a “cooling off” period

what are spree killers?

multiple victims, separate acts, no “cooling off” period

does criminal profiling work?

it is not often reliable, as it is developed out of casework (not science), is in its infancy, and profiling can cause tunnel vision in cops, leading them to ignore evidence suggesting the suspect’s innocence

• most profiling cases are not associated with arrests

when are psychological autopsies used?

• may be requested in cases of equivocal death

• usually used in cases of suicide

• NASH (Natural, Accidental, Suicide, Homicide)

***rarely produce definitive conclusions

***often admissible in civil cases, not criminal

What is Tarasoff v Regents about?

“duty to warn, duty to protect” => if one of your clients makes a threat to an identifiable other, they must tell authorities and the one who was threatened

What is Ewing v Goldstein about?

threats made by client’s family must also be reported to authorities and the one who was threatened

what is Megan’s law?

states must make personal information of known sexual offenders public to the relevant community

what are SVP civil commitment laws?

some states can exert their power to further incarcerate/treat soon-to-be paroled offenders

what is involved when analyzing possible future offenses?

• risk assessments underly legal decisions: bail, involuntary civil commitment, parole

• criteria includes a clearly articulated threat to oneself or others, has a history of violence or indicators of escalating behavior, if it can be treated

• psychologists struggles to predict risk accurately although they are allowed to testify in court about future dangerousness

what is the duty to warn, duty to protect?

it is a risk assessment that is conducted as a part of normal psychotherapy, as therapists have a duty to protect their clients potential victims

why is the book incorrect when it mentions unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial predictive instruments, and structured professional judgment instruments?

additionally, why is the book wrong when it identifies actuarial prediction as quantitative, nomothetic and clinical prediction as qualitative, idiographic?

actuarial is NOT the same as statistical. for example, all actuarial predictions are statistical but not all statistical predictions are actuarial.

this idea conflates the type of data with the mode of combining those data with the evaluative reference for the data.

what is the difference between quantitative, qualitative?

refers to whether the raw observations have been assigned a numerical structure

• Quantitative = yes, Qualitative = no (or not yet)

what is the difference between clinical vs statistical?

refers to who makes the final, synthesized decision or judgment

• Clinical = human, Statistical = some sort of algorithm

what is the difference between nomothetic vs idiographic?

refers to the evaluative standard for making decisions

• Nomothetic = group summaries or cutoffs, Idiographic = individual’s own benchmarks or history

what are preliminary considerations?

when clinical psychologists frequently conduct evaluations to inform and advise the court, they make a formal diagnosis and conduct an evaluation of the individuals

• assessments to appraise the relationships and situations of the clients

what is difficult about characterizing IPV?

• the cycle of abuse, and the many different escalation models

• predicting victims responses is difficult as well (the legal system may look to psychological/medical experts to help make sense of IPV)

• the fundamental attribution error affects evaluations of IPV victims

what is the difference between syndromes and disorders?

• syndromes are NOT well understood (when we know symptomology, syndromes are often reclassified as disorders

• syndromes can be legitimate (like fetal alcohol syndrome) but often are not (like Shaken baby syndrome or Wilson’s syndrome)

syndromes are a group of symptoms that consistently occur together whereas a disorder is an illness that disrupts normal physical/mental functions

• syndrome → disorder → disease

what is battered woman syndrome (bws)?

it is used to explain the behavior of IPV victims who turn violent and often underlies claims of self-defense

• does not have a strong evidence base to support its existence or its usefulness for triers of fact

what is rape trauma syndrome (rts)?

it is used to explain the behavior of victims of an SA (event → acute crisis → reorganization) and used as a therapeutic tool (as having a label for their experience can help people process and recover)

• does not have a strong evidence base to support its existence or its usefulness for triers of fact

what are custody evaluations?

• divorce, civil dissolution, death of parents/guardians require courts to appoint legal/physical custody of minor children

• most of the time, custody can be decided amicably, but when contested, psychologists often asked to predict the best custody arrangements for the children (and studying the effects of custody on children is hard!!)

why is studying the effects of custody on children so hard?

• cross-sectional designs are most common, but longitudinal designs are needed

• what is selective attrition: those with the worst outcomes most likely to drop out

• measuring dysfunction is much easier than measuring adaptive functions

• there is bias against finding null effects (but null effects can be good!)

what is BICS?

Best Interests of the Child Standard which is when courts must rule on custody

what is the tender years doctrine?

***not common but not gone

where young children and female children go to the mother

what is the approximation rule in child custody?

primary caretaker criteria: custody should be divided proportionately to caretaking duties, however it is distributed

what are the different philosophical perspectives on the purpose of criminal punishment?

retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence (which discourages negative behaviors), removal

**this brings into question how mental disorders may interfere with most of these goals (this makes punishment morally questionable)

legally, what is insanity?

a legal standard of past dysfunction

• it is NOT a diagnosis or an assessment of present impairment

what is actus rea?

the criminal act

what is mens rea?

criminal intent (associated with actus rea)

what is the insanity defense?

an affirmative defense tactic in which the defendant admits to the act but contests the intent to commit the act

***insanity defense is tethered to specific abilities NOT a diagnosis

what is NGRI?

not guilty by reason of insanity

is the insanity defense used a lot?

no! it is only invoked in less than 1% of cases AND when used, it is only successful 25% of the time.

in fact, successful insanity defense cases are associated with longer incarcerations than cases with guilty verdicts

***invoking the insanity defense does not mean that there are no consequences

what is the wild beast test?

test of insanity used in Rex v. Arnold in which jurors were instructed to acquit the defendant if they found him to be “totally deprived of his understand and memory, and doth not know what he is doing, no more like a brute or a wild beast”

• less of a moral failing, more of a cognitive failing (problems with understanding and memory)

what is the m’naghten rule?

a cognitive test in which there is a presumption of sanity UNLESS the defense proves that the defendant had a “defect of reason from a disease of the mind causing a break in reality”

what is the durham standard?

after the m’naghten rule received harsh criticism for being too conservation and vague, the durham standard created a broader criterion which enabled scientific knowledge to inform decision and be flexible to accommodated scientific advancements

• the defendant is found not criminally responsible if the act was the product of mental disease. which was accepted by psychologists, but not the courts

what is the ALI standard?

American Law Institute tried to find a middle ground between M’Naghten & Durham

The defendant is not criminally responsible if:

• due to a mental disease that isn’t due to intoxication or a repeated criminal activity

• defendant lacked substantial capacity

• to appreciate the criminality of the actions

• to conform conduct to the law

What is US v Hinckley about?

John Hinckley shot & wounded 4 people, including Ronald Reagan

• he was schizophrenic, reenacting a scene from Taxi Driver, trying to impress actress Jodie Foster

• ALI standard used and it was an NGRI verdict

• This case caused public outcry which resulted in the Insanity Defense Reform Act (burden placed on the defense instead of the prosecution)