Forensics Exam 2

Custody Arrangement

Custody Arrangement

• Sole: one parent has full custody

• Joint: shared legal or physical custody (increasing)

• Split: siblings split between parents (parent trap)

• Divided: parents alternate full custody for set periods (not common)

Uniform Marriage & Divorce Act (5 Criteria for Determining Custody)

1. Parent wishes

2. Child wishes

3. Family relationships

4. Child adjustment to their home, school, and community

5. Physical and mental health of all participants

Two Types of Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1979) by Catherine Mackinnon

• Quid pro quo: exchange of favors for benefits 

• Hostile Environment: discriminatory workplace atmosphere

sexual Harassment (legal)

• Civils Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) → bans gender discrimination (not trans)

• 1980 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) → gov’t agency that enforces Title VII, requires employers to prevent/stop harassment (affirmative duty)

Sexual Harassment Motives (in workplace)

• Romantic interest: harasser things women should be in traditional female jobs so they act this way when a woman is violating those romantic beliefs. 

• Hostility in traditionally male jobs: women don’t belong here

• Women in traditional male white-color jobs: competition in the workplace

  • “If i throw her off, i'll get this promotion instead of her”

  • “I'm supporting my family, she has a husband”

workplace discrimination (legal)

• Title VII (1964): limits on employer to hire/fire at will, required better work conditions to retain employees

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967): protects people over 40

• Americans with Disabilities Act (1990): protects mental/physical disabilities

employers liable for discrimination in four areas

• Hostile work environment: creating an intimidating, or hostile atmosphere

• Disparate treatment: treated less favorably because of race, gender, age, religion

• Adverse impact: policies disproportionately affecting certain groups

  • Griggs v. Duke Power (1971): Employers must prove that requirements (like a high school diploma or test scores) are directly related to job performance.

• Reasonable accommodations: required for religious beliefs and disabilities

Decreasing workplace discriminaiton

• Equal Status Contact: Include all racial groups at all workplace levels.

• One-on-One Interactions: Encourage collaboration across diverse groups.

• Superordinate Goals: Set shared goals that foster unity.

• Inclusive Social Norms: Support intergroup collaboration.

• Diversity in Leadership: Promote underrepresented groups to supervisory roles.

• Accountability: Monitor behavior and enforce respectful interactions.

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Separate is not equal; Ended school segregation

3 Interrelated dimensions about fairness

• Distributive justice: fairness of outcomes relative to contributions

• Procedural justice: fairness in the rules for allocating rewards

• Interpersonal justice: considerations and respect in distributing rewards

Actus Rea and Mens Rea

Crime requires  Actus reus (a voluntary act) and Mens rea (knowledge of guilt)

Conduct Disorder, antisocial behavior, and antisocial PD

conduct (misbehavior in youth), antisocial behavior (harm towards others), antisocial PD (18+, history of CD)

Five categories of juvenile offenses

• Personal: against individuals (e.g., assault)

• Property: theft, vandalism

• Drug: possession, distribution

• Public order: disturbances, disorderly conduct

• Status offense: only illegal for juveniles (e.g., truancy)

Executive Functions

1. Working memory: retains and manipulates information (17)

2. Cognitive flexibility: enables perspective-shifting and adaptation, aiding in creativity, planning, and judgment (18-19)

3. Inhibitory control: self-control, self-regulating (25)

Moffitt’s Theory

• Life-Course Persistent Offenders (LCPs): Pattern of beginning antisocial behavior early and remaining at a high level throughout lifetime

  • Aggressive and violent crimes

  • have less brain surface area and thinner cortexes in areas related to EF than ALs

• Adolescent-Limited Offenders (ALs): Delinquent behavior begins in adolescence, peaks at 16, and ends in early adulthood

  • Offenses that symbolize adult privilege and demonstrate autonomy from parental control (vandalism, theft, drug use)

  • not aggressive like LCPs

  • Behavior tends to subside as they mature and find socially acceptable behaviors rewarding

• Low-Level Chronic Offenders (LLCs): exhibit a rise in offending through early adolescence, reach a plateau by mid-teens, and remain at the same offending level well past age 18. 

• Non-Offending Individuals (NCs): Those with non offending pattern

• Fifth Category: show minimal delinquency in adolescence but may increase in adulthood. 

Steinberg’s Dual-Systems Model

• The socioemotional network, which influences sensitivity to social and emotional stimuli, develops rapidly in adolescence.

• The cognitive control network, which inhibits risky behavior, develops more slowly, leading to an imbalance and increased risk-taking during adolescence.

Violence vs Aggression

• Violence: use of physical force specifically intended to inflict pain, discomfort, or abuse

  • Reasonable force (e.g., self-defense) vs unjustified violence

  • Instrumental or reactive/expressive

• Aggression: behavior intended to harm another individual (can be passive or direct)

  • NOTE: All violence is aggressive, not all aggression is violent

Threat Assessment

• Predicting future violence based on a specific threat

• Risk Assessment (general likelihood of danger) vs. Threat Assessment (likelihood of specific threat being carried out)

• Four key steps

  • Identify: recognise potential threats

  • Inquire: gather more details

  • Assess: analyze risk level

  • Manage: develop a plan to reduce risk

Types of threats (school shootings)

• Transient Threats: Short-term, made in the heat of the moment (e.g., “I could blow up this school”).

• Substantive Threats: Clear intention to act on the threat.

  • Direct Threat: Clear and specific target.

  • Indirect Threat: Vague, unclear targets or intentions.

  • Veiled Threat: Implies violence without directly stating it.

  • Conditional Threat: Harm will occur if a demand isn't met.

Types of perpetrators (workplace violence)

• No Relationship: Attacker comes for another reason (e.g., robbery).

• Client/Patient/Customer: Current or former.

• Employee: Current or former employee.

• Personal Relationship: Partner, ex-partner, or family member of an employee.

criminal homicide

Causing death without legal justification (legal justification examples: self-defense, soldiers)

• Murder: unlawful killing with malice aforethought (intent to kill)

  • First-degree: planned, capital offense (death penalty)

  • Second-degree: intent to kill, not planned

• Manslaughter: unintended killing from unjustifiable conduct; harm was intended, but not death (drunk driving)

• Typical murder: between 18-34

  • Typical situations:

    • Felony murder: A person kills someone while committing another crime (the killing is a consequence of that crime, not the intended act).

    • Intimate partner/acquaintance murder: A person kills someone they know, often in a domestic situation.

• Homicide-suicide: a killer takes their own life after killing a victim, typically an intimate partner (e.g., politically motivated suicide bomber)

• Multiple murders

  • Serial Murder: killing 3+ people with gaps between

    • Example: Dennis Rader (BTK) killed 10 people between 1974 and 1991, captured in 2004.

  • Spree Murder: killing 3+ people at different locations, no cooling-off period.

    • There is no agreement on the exact length of a "cooling-off" period.

  • Mass Murder: killing 3+ people in one event, no cooling-off period.

    • Example: Family Mass Murder (At least 3 family members killed by a relative or family member, often in a murder-suicide.)

types of serial killers

• Visionary: driven by delusions (son of sam)

• Mission-oriented: eliminates a group (Joseph paul franklin)

• Hedonistic: seeks pleasure or thrill

  • Subtypes:

    • Lust killers: motivated by sexual desire

    • Thrill killers: motivated by inducing pain or terror

    • Creature comfort killers: motivated by obtaining luxury items or a comfortable lifestyle. 

• Power/control: motivated by dominance over victims

hate crimes (legal)

• Hate Crime Statistics Act (1990): FBI must collect the data on hate crimes

• Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994): physical/mental disabilities included in hate crime stats

• Violence Against Women Act (1994,200,2013): gender included in hate crime stats

• Statistics

types of stalkers based on relationship to the victim

• Intimate: Current/former partner.

• Acquaintance: Knows the victim but not intimately.

• Public Figure: Targets celebrities or leaders. (star stalkers)

  • Erotomanic: Believes they are loved by the victim.

  • Love-Obsessive: Thinks they are meant to be together.

  • Simple Obsessive: Wants to know everything about the victim.

• Private Stranger: Doesn't know the victim but is in their environment.

Rape by fraud

victim “willlingly” engages but is usually coerced by power imbalance

types of rapists

• Opportunistic rapists: takes advantage of the situation, not planned, displays impulsivity, lacks empathy, instrumental aggression

  • High social competence (type 1)

  • Low social competence (type 2)

• Pervasively angry rapists (type 3): high aggression (expressive); often random, unplanned attacks

• Sexually motivated rapists

  • Sadistic: victims experience of pain is the source of sexual excitement

    • Overt (type 4): openly sadistic, deriving pleasure from inflicting harm

    • Muted (type 5): less overtly sadistic but still finds arousal in control/pain

  • Non-sadistics: desires to “prove” virility, often tries to create a “loving” scenario with victim, victim probably stalked

    • Low social competence (type 6)

    • High social competence (type 7)

• Vindictive rapists: uses rape to humiliate; often strangers; highly brutal with no evidence of sexual pleasure

  • Low social competence (type 8)

  • Moderate social competence (type 9)