Comprehensive Introduction to Forensic Psychology and Criminality

Definitions and Framework of Forensic Psychology

• Psychology: Defined broadly as the science of human behaviour.

• Forensic Psychology (Strict Definition): The science of human behaviour specifically associated with the work of the courts.

• Forensic Psychology (Current Scope): Encompasses criminal psychology and is defined as psychology applied to the law, the legal system, victims, and criminals (offenders or lawbreakers).

• APS Definition (Australian Psychological Society, 2017): Forensic psychologists are scientist-practitioners who apply psychological knowledge, theory, and skills to the understanding and functioning of legal and criminal justice systems. They conduct research and work across criminal, civil, and family legal contexts, providing services for litigants, perpetrators, victims, and personnel of government and community organisations.

• The Scientist-Practitioner Model:

  • Scientist: Focused on creating knowledge, theory, and skills within an applied area.

  • Practitioner: Focused on applying this knowledge to all aspects of the criminal justice system and all individuals involved.

• Professional Regulation in Australia:

  • The Australian Psychological Society (APS) maintains a specialist college for forensic psychologists (College of Forensic Psychologists), comprising both academic researchers and professional practitioners.

  • The Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) is the government body responsible for accrediting and regulating Masters-level programs in Forensic Psychology.

  • Forensic Psychologist is a protected title; only professionals with specific academic training and accreditation can legally use this title or practice under it.

Interdisciplinary Involvement in the Legal System

While forensic psychologists are specialists, other psychological disciplines frequently interact with the legal system:

• Clinical Psychologists: Determine sanity at the time of a crime or competency to stand trial.

• Cognitive Psychologists: Assess the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

• Personality Psychologists: Consult on the best methods for interviewing suspects.

• Educational-Developmental Psychologists: Determine appropriate methods for interviewing child eyewitnesses.

• Social Psychologists: Study the dynamics of group decision-making within juries.

• Cross-cultural and Indigenous Psychologists: Interpret cultural differences regarding acculturation and misunderstandings of foreign legal systems.

• Compatibility: Despite both law and psychology dealing with human behaviour, the two disciplines can be quite incompatible in their approaches and orientations.

Areas of Mastery for Forensic Psychologists

Practitioners must understand multiple layers of the legal and psychological landscape:

• Context of Work:

  • Relevant disciplines: Criminals, victims, police, judges, lawyers, and juries.

  • Legal framework: National laws and the specific structure of the criminal justice system.

• Application and Achievement:

  • The criminal investigation process.

  • Legal and custodial processes.

  • Intervention and treatment processes for both criminals and victims.

• Psychology of Individuals:

  • Individual differences including gender, developmental age, and culture.

  • Offender mental health and victim well-being.

  • Witnesses, including both eyewitnesses and expert witnesses.

  • Roles in the criminal justice system such as investigators and prosecutors.

• Basic Psychological Processes:

  • Differentiating legal requirements from standard psychological assessments.

  • Demands of professional reporting and expert testimony.

  • Legal processes of investigation, prosecution, and incarceration.

  • Judge and jury decision-making regarding innocence, guilt, sentence length, and the role of custody (punishment versus rehabilitation) and risk management.

Historical Foundations of Forensic Psychology

• Philosophical and Academic Roots:

  • Influence of Aristotle and deductive reasoning.

  • Wilhelm Wundt: The first academic and research psychologist.

  • Sigmund Freud: Viewed crime as a mental disorder involving conflict between the ID (biological impulses of sex and aggression), the Ego (reality), and the Super-Ego (morality).

• Development of Competence Research (13th Century onward):

  • Mental Competence: Originally termed "lunatics." Historically focused on the insanity defence, broaden to include fitness to stand trial and fitness to be executed. Currently expanding to include the holding of prisoners (such as serial killers or paedophiles) who have completed sentences but intend to reoffend.

  • Intellectual Competence: Originally labeled "idiots." Focuses on the ability to understand moral reasoning and the formation of intent.

  • Developmental Competence: Recognition that children may lack the intellectual decision-making capacity to form criminal intent.

• Hugo Munsterberg:

  • A pupil of Wundt who published "On the Witness Stand" in 1908.

  • Highlighted deficiencies in eyewitness memory and the disproportionate influence of such testimony on juries.

  • Focused on "untrue confessions," examining fallibility in both normal confessions and those elicited under police pressure.

• Evolution of Legal Perspectives:

  • Children: Pre-18th century, children were considered adults capable of sexual consent. In the 18th century, they were viewed as instigators of encounters with adults. In the 20th century, they were transitioned to being seen as victims of crime.

  • Domestic Violence: Has undergone a similar evolution in most nations, moving from private matters to recognized criminal acts.

Current Status and Trends in the Field

• Public Perception vs. Reality:

  • Most people in the Western world believe crime rates are rising and demand severer penalties.

  • Statistically, overall crime rates have not significantly increased or decreased. Some specific crimes like homicide have decreased, while reporting and convictions for domestic violence and child sexual abuse have increased.

• Modern Foci:

  • Offender rehabilitation and restorative justice for the benefit of both victims and offenders.

  • Increasing the age of criminal competence (e.g., the current move in Australia to raise it from $10$ years to at least $14$ years).

  • Social-geographical distribution of crime and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED).

  • Neuropsychological causes of crime and exploration of chemical treatments.

  • The right of forensic psychologists to provide expert testimony, a role previously reserved for medical practitioners and psychiatrists.

Sources of Information Regarding Criminality

Statistics and data sources influence community perceptions and attitudes.

• Personal Experiences:

  • Over $90\%$ of Australian adults have been victims of crime, though $90\%$ of these instances involve mundane property crimes.

  • Victims of person crimes ($10\%$) experience a two-fold increase in the fear of crime and exhibit hypervigilance in avoiding crime-prone settings.

• Media Representation:

  • News: Crime and the criminal justice system form the largest proportion of media stories. There is a bias toward the unusual and sensational (homicides) rather than the mundane (vandalism). Violent crimes are over-represented.

  • Fiction: Movies and TV focus on "ingenious" plots created by professional writers, misrepresenting the reality of ordinary murders committed by amateurs.

• Victimisation Surveys:

  • Findings: Generally report the highest crime rates. Confirm that $90\%$ of crime is mundane property crime. Reveal that only around $40\%$ of crimes are reported to police.

  • Advantages: Identify "victimless" crimes (illegal drug consumption) and unreported sexual/domestic violence incidents (where less than $50\%$ are reported).

  • Disadvantages: Difficulty in obtaining representative samples; fails to capture community crimes (graffiti) or homicides (victim deceased); participants may avoid reporting their own criminality (drug use) or sexual offences due to ethical concerns/anonymity issues.

• Official Crime Records:

  • Collected by law enforcement under statutory requirements.

  • Breakdown of Reported Crimes:

    • Person crimes (homicides, assaults): Approximately $10\%$.

    • Property crimes (theft, burglary, arson): Focus on unattended possessions.

    • Crimes against society: Drug and public order offences.

    • Fraud: Mainly business-related.

    • Sex offences: Approximately $2\%$.

    • Homicides: Rare events, representing around $0.01\%$ of all crimes ($1\%$ of $1\%$).

  • Advantages: Standardised legal definitions; allows evaluation of CJS performance (clearance/incarceration rates).

  • Disadvantages: Relies on police discretion; biased because less than half of crimes are reported; over-represents serious person crimes while ignoring mundane ones.

• Offender Surveys:

  • General Population: Over $95\%$ admit to committing crimes, usually trivial and non-prosecuted (e.g., underage drinking).

  • Prison Population: Measure crimes across levels of detection, arrest, and conviction.

The Extent and Social Impact of Crime

• Detection Statistics:

  • Only $2\%$ of crimes are directly detected by police.

  • $27\%$ are reported by eyewitnesses who are not victims.

  • Approximately $70\%$ of reported crimes come from victims, yet these victims only report $40\%$ of total victimisations ($60\%$ go unreported).

• Theoretical Implications:

  • Committing crime is statistically "normal" (admitted by $95\%$ of Australians), which challenges the idea that all criminals possess a specific "psychopathology."

  • Evolutionary Theory: Explains criminality as inherent in human genetics.

  • Social Structural Theory: Explains criminality through societal structures, social classes, and learning.

• Individual Differences in Incarceration:

  • Approximately $3\%$ of adult Australians are likely to be jailed.

  • Likelihood increases based on specific factors:

    • Gender: Males are $5$ times more likely to be incarcerated.

    • Ethnicity: Indigenous people are $17$ times more likely to be incarcerated.

    • Education: Those who did not complete secondary school are $4$ times more likely.

    • Socio-Economic Status (SES): The bottom $20\%$ of the poor have increased chances.

    • Mental Health: Diagnosable disorders increase the chance of incarceration.

Sociopolitical Perspectives on Crime

• Conservatism: A philosophy seeking to preserve traditional institutions and values. Regarding drug crimes, it views the problem as a matter of law enforcement and the need for severe sentencing.

• Radical Thinking: Seeks to resolve problems at their roots. Regarding drug crimes (e.g., the $30\%$ of US convictions related to drug possession/trafficking), it views the "War on Drugs" as a policy failure and suggests alternatives like decriminalization (e.g., Portugal).

• Indigenous Over-representation:

  • Conservative View: Interpreted through a focus on inherited tendencies or a belief that the CJS is unbiased and reflects reality.

  • Radical View: Interpreted as a reflection of social inequalities and institutionalised racism in reporting, investigation, and court decisions.

International Comparisons and Methodological Challenges

Comparing crime between nations is complex due to several factors:

• Crime Indexes: Different nations include different combinations of crimes.

• Weighting: Varying emphasis on person versus property crimes.

• Legal Definitions: What is illegal in one nation (e.g., homosexuality) may not be in another.

• Sampling: Developing nations may not survey remote/rural areas.

• Timing: Surveys may occur years apart.

• Data Types: Prevalence (victims in a year) versus Incidence (frequency of crimes in a year).

• Homicide as a Metric: Generally considered the most reliable crime for comparison.

  • USA: $5.2 \text{ per } 100,000$ citizens.

  • Australia: $1.1 \text{ per } 100,000$ citizens.

Structural Differences in Legal Systems

• Adversarial System (UK, USA, Australia): Police and prosecutors compete against a defence team to convince a judge/jury of guilt or innocence.

• Inquisition System (France): The judge is involved during the investigation, including determining what evidence is used in court.

• Jury Usage: Common in UK, USA, and Australia for major crimes, but unused or restricted in countries like Japan and France.

• Age of Criminal Responsibility:

  • Japan: $20$ years of age.

  • Australia: Among the youngest at $10$ years of age.

  • USA: Children can be tried as adults for serious crimes like homicide.

• Police Structures:

  • National: Japan and many others.

  • Two-tiered: France (local and national).

  • Local: Australia (State-based with a small Commonwealth force) and USA (mainly city-based).

Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Data

• Offender Statistics (2022):

  • $369,488$ offenders proceeded against ($1.4\%$ of the population).

  • Offender rate up $3\%$ from 2020-21.

  • Illicit drug offences decreased for the sixth consecutive year ($50,920$ offenders, a $19\%$ drop).

  • Most common person offences: Acts intended to cause injury ($23\%$), miscellaneous ($17\%$), illicit drug offences ($14\%$).

  • Offender demographics: Three-quarters are male; median age is $31$ years; $70\%$ are under age $40$.

• Victim and Homicide Statistics (2021):

  • Sexual assault increased by $13\%$; $61\%$ of victims were under $18$.

  • Residential location: $63\%$ of homicides.

  • Weapon use: $61\%$ of homicides.

  • Homicide victims: $70\%$ male; $87\%$ aged $18$ or older.

  • Family and Domestic Violence (FDV): Related to $28\%$ of homicide incidents.

  • Australia's homicide rate ($1.1 \text{ per } 100,000$) is at its lowest annual rate since statistical analysis began in 1993.

Future Implications for Forensic Psychology

• Shift focus from purely offender-centric to a balanced view including victim impact.

• Avoid victim-blaming in crime prevention research.

• Expand beyond the heavy historical focus on eyewitness testimony and jury decision-making.

• Engage with radical solutions: researching effective rehabilitation both inside and outside of prisons rather than simply advocating for harsher penalties.

• Address community misperceptions: many Australians are surprised by the low homicide rate and incorrectly believe overall crime rates are increasing annually.