Psychology- forensic psychology

What’s meant by a top-down approach

When pre-determined theories are applied to data

Which country developed the top-down approach

America

When was the top-down approach developed

The 1970’s

What’s the top-down approach based on

Interviews conducted with 36 violent offenders

What two typologies does the top-down approach use

Organised and disorganised offenders

Offender profiling

a behavioural and analytical tool that’s intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of an unknown criminal

What are Holmes and Holmes three main goals of profiling

1. Social and psychological assessment (personality, age, sex)

2. Psychological evaluation of belongings (possessions like souvenirs from the crime scene)

3. Interviewing suggestions and strategies

What type of crimes is the top-down approach most useful for

Extreme/unusual crimes e.g. rape/murder

What are some characteristics of organised offenders

Specific victim types, above average IQ, monitors media coverage

What are some characteristics of disorganised offenders

Random victim selection, lower than average IQ, no interest in media coverage

What are the stages developed by the FBI to use the top-down approach to build an offender profile

1. Data assimilation

2. Crime classification

3. Crime reconstruction

4. Profile generation

What did canters 2004 study on organised and disorganised killers show

They found a significantly higher number of disorganised crimes

What’s a limitation about the application of the top-down approach and what’s a counterpoint to this

Top-down profiling was originally thought to only be applicable to rape/torture and so weren’t helpful for solving everyday crimes like burglary

However, Meketas meta analysis demonstrates that this isn’t true and it can be applied to burglary leading to an 85% increase in solved cases

What’s a limitation to do with the validity of the evidence

The approach was developed using interviews with 36 serial killers, this small unrepresentative basis for the profiling system reduces the scientific basis of the system and the self-report methods use reduce the reliability it lacks temporal and population validity

Explain how reductionism is a limitation of the top-down approach

The approach assumes that offenders patterns of behaviour and motivations remain constant in all situations and contexts and fails to account for any variability. Its also based on outdated personality models which see personality as driven by stable disposition as factors

What country is the bottom-up approach associated with

Unites Kingdom

What’s investigative psychology

Using patterns between crime scenes to generate dats about an unknown offender

What are the key assumptions of the bottom-up approach

1. Interpersonal coherence

2. Significance of time and place

3. Forensic awareness

4. Criminal characteristics

5. Criminal career

Explain evidence support for investigative psychology

Canter analysed 66 sexual assault cases using small space analysis, each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of behaviours which helps establish whether 2 or more offences are committed by the same person which supports the principle of investigative psychology that people’s behaviour remains consistent

However case linkage only consists of historical crimes that have been solved however these may have been solved because it was straightforward to link the crimes and therefore tells us little about crimes that have few links between them

What’s crime mapping

The assumption that offenders will restrict their work to geographical areas that they’re familiar with providing a centre of gravity allowing educated guesses to be made about wheee they’re likely to strike again

What s jeopardy surface

The area an offender is likely to strike next

What’s a marauder

an offender that operates in close proximity to their home base

What’s a commuter

An offender that’s likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence

Explain evidence as a strength of geographical profiling

Canter collated the information from 120 murders involving serial killers which showed that every body was disposed of in a different direction from the previous forming a centre of gravity which was more noticeable for marauders

What’s a limitation of Canters circle theory

Of the 45 sexual assaults studied the vast majority of offenders studied were marauders therefore the distinction between marauders and commuters isn’t very useful. Furthermore if an offenders home isn’t in the centre of the circle then time may be wasted looking at the wrong area

How is insufficient geographical data a limitation of the bottom-up approach

The large majority of crimes aren’t reported in the first place and the success of geographical profiling is reliant on the quality of data the police provide. This questions the utility of an approach that relies on the accuracy of geographical data

Explain offender profiling going wrong as a limitation of the bottom-up approach

Cops on surveyed 48 police departments and found advice from the profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases but only led to the accurate identification of the offender in 3% of cases. Thus questions the usefulness of offender profiling in solving crime

What’s atavistic form as an explanation for offending behaviour

An early biological explanation which proposes that criminals are subspecies of genetic throwbacks that cannot conform to the rules of modern society distinguishable by certain facial and cranial features

What cranial features did Lombroso identify

Strong, prominent jaw, high cheekbones and asymmetry

What research is the atavistic form based on

Lombroso investigated the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts and suggested that the atavistic form was associated with many physical anomalies which indicated criminality. He examined 4000 living criminals and concluded that 40% of crimes were accounted for by atavistic characteristics

What are the problems with Lombroso’s research

It’s culturally bias as all the convicts were Italian, it lacks a control group and therefore the validity of his approach is limited

Explain developing criminology as a strength of Lombroso’s theory

Lombroso shifted the emphasis of crime research away from a moralistic discourse to a more scientific and credible position, and by describing how certain groups wee

How is scientific racism a limitation of Lombroso’s theory

Lombroso’s suggestions of many atavistic features were specific to people of African descent and therefore supported many 19th century eugenics attitudes, therefore some aspects of his theory were highly subjective and influenced by racial prejudices at the time

Explain contradictory evidence as a limitation of the atavistic form

Goring compared 3000 criminals with 3000 non-criminals and found no evidence of facial characteristics being distinct in the criminal group. This challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population. This contradicts the link between atavism and crime proposed by Lombroso

How is nature vs nurture a limitation of the atavistic form

Lombroso’s work raises questions about whether criminals are born or made, the atavistic form suggests that crime has a biological basis but even if criminals have atavistic features this isn’t necessarily the cause of their offending behaviour. Facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other confounding variables such as poverty or poor diet and therefore the explanation is biologically deterministic

What are genetic explanations of offending behaviour

What is meant by genetics

Genes consisting of DNA strands which produce instructions for the general physical features of an organism which are inherited

Explain Lange’s twin study into genetic explanations

He studied 13 MZ twins and 17 DZ twins where one of the twins in each pair had spent time in prison and found that 10 of the MZ twins and only 2 DZ twins had a co-twin that had also spent time in prison

Describe Crowe’s twin study into genetic explanations of crime

Studied adopted children who had a biological parent with a criminal record had a 50% greater risk of a criminal record by 18 compared to adopted children whose biological parents did

What are the two candidate genes associates with offending behaviour

MAOA (controls dopamine and serotonin) and CDH13 (linked to substance abuse and ADD)

Describe the study done into candidate genes by Tiihonen

He studied 900 Finnish offenders and found that indivduals with the MAOA and CDH13 genes were 13x more likely to have a history of violent behaviour

What’s a limitation of twin studies in the genetic explanation

Early twin studies can be unreliable as zygosity was based on appearance rather than DNA testing resulting in a lack of validity. Furthermore these studies involve small sample studies where twins are raised in the same environment which becomes a confounding variables such as concordance rates may be due to shared experiences rather than genetics

Explain support for the diathesis-stress model

A study of 13,000 danish adoptees where neither adoptive or biological parents were convinced found that 13.5% committed a crime, this rose to 20% when the biological parent had convictions and 24% when both had convictions, showing that genetic inheritance plays an important role in offending but environmental influence is also important

What’s are neural explanations of offending behaviour

There may be neural differences in the brain of criminals and non-criminals evidence specifically comes from individuals with antisocial personality disorder

How does APD affect the brain

Individuals with APD showed reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex which controls emotional regulation Raine also found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex in people with APD

Explain brain evidence as a strength of neural explanations

There’s support for the link between crime and the frontal lobe for example Kandal and Freed found that people with damaged frontal lobes displayed more antisocial behaviour, thus supports the idea that brain damage may be a casual factor in offending behaviour

Explain intervening variables as a limitation of neural explanations

The link between APD and neural differences is complex, Farrington studied a group of men scoring high on psychopathy, they experiences various risk factors during childhood and these experiences could cause APD and the associated neural differences. Therefore neural differences may not cause APD

Explain how level of moral reasoning evidence is a strength of Kohlbergs theory

Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning in over 300 non-offenders and over 100 convicted offenders using 11 moral dilemma questions and found that the offending group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offending group which supports Kohlbergs prediction of moral reasoning and criminality

How does Eysenck describe extroverts

Outgoing people who enjoy risk and danger because their nervous systems are under aroused

How does Eysenck describe neurotics

People with a negative outlook who are upset easily and are unstable due to an overactive response to threat

According to Eysenck how are personality traits determined

They’re biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit

What’s the Eysenck Personality Inventory

A form of psychological test which locates respondents along the E (extroversion/introversion) and N (neuroticism/stability) to determine their personality traits

What evidence is Eysenck’s theory based on

Him and his wife assessed over 2000 prisoners on the EPI and compared their results to a control group of over 2000 males, the prisoners scored more highly on measures of E, N and P which supports Eysenck’s initial theory

What’s a counter argument to Eysenck’s initial study

Farrington reviewed the study and found that offenders scored highly on P measured but not on E and N.

According to Eysenck what is the criminal personality

An individual who scored highly in measures of extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism who cannot be easily conditioned and are cold, unfeeling and likely to engage in offending behaviour

What role did Eysenck believe socialisation played in offending behaviour

He saw offending behaviour as immaturity oriented around immediate gratification, during socialisation children are taught to be able to delay gratification and become socially oriented but high E and N scores have nervous systems that are hard to condition

How did Eysenck measure the criminal personality

The Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ)

How is simplicity a limitation of Eysenck’s theory

The idea that offending behaviour can be explained by a single criminal personality type has been criticised for example Digman suggested that 3 factors alone weren’t a good indicator of personality and instead suggested a 5 factors model including openness, agreeability and conscientiousness.

How are cultural relativism a limitation of Eysenck’s theory

Bartol and Holanchock studied cultural differences in criminals and after studying Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison they found that all of them were less extroverted than a control group despite Eysenck suggesting they should be more extroverted. They his suggests that the difference was due to cultural differences not a criminal personality, this limits Eysenck’s theory due to its nomothetic approach

Who first applied the concept of moral reasoning to criminal behaviour

Kohlberg

What study did Kohlberg use to base his theory on

He studied the answers of 72 Chicago boys aged 10-16 in response to moral dilemma questions he then followed up by re interviewing 58 of the boys every 3 years for 20 years allowing him to identify three distinct levels of moral reasoning each with 2 sub stages

What are the three levels of moral reasoning in order

Pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional

How are different types of offence a limitation of Kohlbergs theory

Thornton and Reid (1982) found that pre-conventional moral reasoning is associated with crimes like robbery but impulsive crimes aren’t linked to any specific type of reasoning. Pre-conventional reasoning is often evident when criminals believe they can evade punishment. Therefore moral reasoning can fluctuate based on the criminal offence limiting the generalisability of Kohlbergs theory

What are cognitive distortions

Errors or biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking

What are two examples of cognitive distortions

Hostile attribution bias and minimalisation

What’s hostile attribution bias

When someone has an inclination for violence which is associated with misinterpreting people’s actions triggering disproportionate reactions

What’s minimalisation

Denying or downplaying the severity of an offence

What evidence is there for hostile attribution bias

Schoenberg and Jusyte showed over 50 violent offenders images of emotionally ambiguous expressions and when compared to a control group they perceived more images as angry/hostile

What 2 pieces of evidence are there for minimalisation

Barbare studied 26 convicted rapists and found that 56% denied having done anything wrong and 40% minimised the impact of their actions

pollock and Hashmall studied a sample of child molesters and found that 35% claimed the crime was non-sexual

How is practical value a strength of cognitive distortions

One strength is that it can be applied to therapy for example CBT which challenges irrational thoughts can be applied to criminals to help them build a less distorted view of their crimes. Harkins stated that reduced denial and minimalisation is associated with reduced recidivism. Therefore the theory of cognitive distortions has practical value

How is the fact that cognitive distortions are descriptive not explanatory a limitation

Cognitive theories can describe therapy criminal mind allowing the reduction of long-term reoffending for example understanding minimalisation in CBT but they don’t help predict future offending behaviour. This is because just because someone has distorted thinking doesn’t meant they’ll become an offender

What does Differential Association Theory state

If someone is socialised more with pro-criminal attitudes than anti-criminak attitudes then they will believe that crime is acceptable and go on to offend

what factors are involved in Sutherlands differential association theory

It involves factors such as frequency, intensity and duration

Who suggested differential association theory

Sutherland

How does differential association theory explain recidivism

Because in prison criminals are socialised with other more experienced offenders allowing them to learn specific techniques

what processes does Sutherland suggest criminality develops form

Observational learning and imitation

Describe Farrington’s study supporting differential association theory

It was a longitudinal study of 412 males living in a working-class deprived area of South London starting from aged 8, it sound that 41% of the original sample were convicted of at least one offence between aged 10 and 50 with the average number of convictions being 5. The most important risk factors identified were family criminality, low school attainment and daring or risk-taking. This supports Sutherland suggestion that association with criminal behaviour leads to criminal behaviour

How is explanatory power a strength of differential association theory

The theory accounts for offending within all sectors of society and recognises that certain offences may be clustered within inner-city working-class communities but other may be clustered amongst affluent groups e.g. white collar crimes. This demonstrates that it’s not just the lower-class who commit offences and the theory can be used to explain all offences making it highly generalisable

How is difficulty of testing a limitation of Sutherland’s theory

Sutherland believed that his theory was scientific and the variables such as frequency quantifiable allowing crime to be predicted. However he assumed that criminality occurs when pro-criminal attitudes outweigh anti-criminal ones but these attitudes are hard to quantifiably measure and to know at which point offending behaviour begins

What 3 types of inadequate superego did Blackburn suggest

1. Underdeveloped/weak superego

2. Deviant superego

3. Overdeveloped superego

explain Blackburns underdeveloped superego

Develops from a child who doesn’t identify with the same sex parent leading to them acting to gratify their Id impulses

Explain Blackburn’s deviant superego

Develops from normal identification with the same sex parent who is deviant

Explain Blackburns overdeveloped superego

Develops through very strong identification with a strict parent leading to strong feelings of guilt when satisfying their id, someone in this situation would commit a crime to be caught, the punishment would reduce their anxiety and guilt

Explain research support as a strength of psychodynamic explanations and a counterpoint

Gordita studied ten offenders referred for psychiatric treatment, in all 10 cases she diagnosed disturbances in the superego formation as each offender experienced unconscious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment. This supports the role of psychic conflicts and an over-harsh superego as a basis for offending.

however the central principles of the superego theory aren’t supported as if the theory was correct the children would’ve been expected to be raised by harsh parents but evidence instead suggests that parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline raise children who are rebellious and rarely express guilt. This questions the relationship between strong, punitive parenting and excessive feelings of guilt in children

Explain gender bias as a limitation of the psychodynamic explanation

Freud implied that girls develop a weaker superego because they don’t identify as strongly with same-gender parents therefore women should be more prone to offending but in the Uk 20x more men are in prison. Hoffman studied children’s resistance to temptation and found girls to be more moral than boys. This suggests that Freuds theory suffers from alpha bias

Explain unconscious concepts as a limitation of psychodynamic explanations

Many Freudian concepts are intangible and therefore aren’t open to empirical testing, this means that the theory is unfalsifiable and the psychodynamic explanations for offending can be viewed as pseudoscientific

What’s maternal deprivation

Prolonged separation between a mother and child

What’s one long-term consequence of maternal deprivation that links to criminality

Affectionless psychopathy

How are methodological issues a limitation of bowlbys research

He conducted the interviews himself which may have led to researcher bias based on his preconceptions about the outcome of the study and furthermore he failed to distinguish between privation and deprivation which would’ve affected the validity of his results

Explain correlation not causation as a limitation of Bowlbys theory

Even if there is a link between children experiencing maternal deprivation and offending this doesn’t necessarily indicate a cause. Lewis analysed the interview data with 500 young people and found maternal deprivation to be a poor indicator of offending

What are the 4 aims of custodial sentencing

1. Deterrence

2. Incapacitation

3. Retribution

4. Rehabilitation

What’s deterrence

An unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual from engaging in offending behaviour

What are the two types of deterrence

Individual and general

What’s incapacitation

When offenders are removed from society to prevent reoffending and to protect the public

What’s retribution

When society enacts revenge for the offence by making the offender suffer

What’s rehabilitation

Many people see the aim of prison to reform people not just punish them, offenders should leave prison better adjusted and ready to reintegrate into society

What’s custodial sentencing

A convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution

What’s recidivism

When someone reoffends even after recieving some form of punishment for previous offending