Psychologists

• Lombroso

  1876

  383 dead and 3839 living criminals

  40% atavistic features

  (-) No control group

  (-) Lowers validity, 60% of affenders did nt have ativistic features

  (-) Lowers internal validity
• Lange

  1930

  10/13 MZ twins and 2/17 DZ twins had a twin in prison

  (-) Low sample size, low generalisability
• Tihonen et al.

  2014

  Individuals with the MAOA and CDH13 gene 13x more likely to be a criminal

  (-) Correlation, reduces internal validity
• Raine

  2000

  Found less activity and 11% reduction of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of individuals with APD

  (-) Only used individuals with antisocial personality disorder, lower generalisability
• Justye

  2014

  Violent offenders were more likely to percieve facial images as angry or histile

  (+) Control group, increased validity

  (-) Small sample size of 55 offenders, lowered generalisability
• Barbaree

  1991

  Out of 26 rapists, 54% denied causing offence and 40% minimised the harm caused to their victims

  (-) Only one type of offender, lower generalisability
• Bowlby

  1944

  14/44 juvenile thieves had affectionless psychopathy

  12/14 experienced maternal deprivation

  (-) Low sample size, lower generalisability

  (-) Maternal deprivation and criminality correlational
• Keysers

  2011

  Antisocial personality disorder individuals have a neural switch which can be turned on or off when asked to empathise

  (+) Used brain scans, increases credibility + internal validity
• Holt

  1976

  Significant difference in positive behaviour due to token economy programmes

  (+) Control group, did not have a token economy programme, increases internal validity
• Keen et al.

  2000

  Offenders reported increased awareness of their anger and self control

  (-) Only used young offenders between 17/21, lower generalisability to younger/older
• Canter et al.

  2004

  Analysis of 100 US murders committed by all different serial killers

  Smallest space analysis (statistical technique that identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour)

  Analysis used to assess the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings

  Torture, restraint, conceal the body, murder weapon, cause of death?

  Subset of features of many serial killings which matched the FBIs typology for organised offenders

  
  

  Top-down flawed evidence

  FBI did not select a random or large sample and only one type of offender

  No standardised interview so not really comparable
• Godwin

  2002

  Difficult to classify killers as organised or disorganised

  A killer may have contrasting characteristics

  Organised-disorganised typology more of a continuum
• Tina Meketa (2017)

  Top-down profiling applied to burglary

  85% rise in solved cases in 3 US states

  Retains organised/disorganised distinction

  2 new categories: interpersonal (offender usually knows their victim and steals something of significance) opportunistic (generally inexperienced young offender)
• Walter Mischel (1968)

  Peoples behaviour is much more driven by the situation then personality

  Behavioural patterns at a crime scene may reveal little about their behaviour in everyday life
• David Canter and Rupert Heritage (1990)

  Analysis of 66 sexual assault cases

  Data examined using smallest space analysis

  Several common behaviours identified

  Impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim

  Each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of such behaviours and this can help establish whether 2 or more offences were committed by the same person (case linkage)
• Samantha Lundrigan and David Canter (2001)

  Collected info from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US

  Smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of killers

  The location of each body disposal site created a centre of gravity

  Offenders base was invariably in the centre of the pattern

  Effect more noticeable for offenders who travelled short distances (marauders)
• Gary Copson (1995)

  Surveyed 48 police departments

  Advice provided by the profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases

  Offender profiling is a valid investigative tool

  
  

  Only 3% of cases lead to accurate identification of the offender

  Offender profiling can be misused
• Richard Kocsis et al. (2002)

  Chemistry students produced more accurate offender profiles on a solved murder case than experienced senior detectives

  Offender profiling limited validity
• Cesare Lombroso (1876)

  Italian physician

  Book called L'Uomo Delinquente (the criminal man)

  Criminals genetic throwbacks, primitive subspecies who were biologically different from non-criminals

  Atavistic form

  Examined 383 dead convicts and 3839 living ones' facial and cranial features

  Concluded 40% of criminal acts are committed by people with atavistic characteristics

  Coined term criminology
• Matt DeLisi (2012)

  Racist undertones of Lombroso's work

  Atavistic features most likely to be found among people of African descent

  Africans more likely to be offenders would fit 19th century eugenics attitudes
• Charles Goring (1913)

  After conducting a comparison between 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders

  No evidence offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics

  Suggested many people who commit crimes have lower-than-average intelligence
• Karl Christiansen (1977)

  Studied 3500 twins in Denmark

  Concordance rates for offenders behaviour of identical twins is 35% and 13% for non-identical

  Included all twins born between 1880 and 1910 in a region of Denmark

  Offender behaviour checked against Danish police records

  Data indicates behaviour and predisposing traits are inherited
• Raymond Crowe (1972)

  Adopted children whose biological mother had a criminal record had a 50% risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18

  Adopted children whose bio mother did not have a criminal record only had a 5% risk
• Jari Tiihonen et al. (2015)

  Genetic analysis of almost 800 Finnish offenders

  MAOA and CDH13 genes may be associated with violent crimes

  MAOA gene regulates serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive behaviour

  CDH13 gene linked to substance abuse and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

  5-10% of all severe violent crimes in Finland attributed to these 2 genotypes
• Adrian Raine

  Several dozen brain images of antisocial persona;ity disorder brains

  Reduced actiboty in the prefrontal cortex (regulates emotional behaviour)

  2000

  11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls
• Christian Keysers (2011)

  Only when APD offenders asked to empathise with a person depicted on film experiencing pain was their empathy reaction activated, controlled by mirror neurons in the brain

  Antisocial personality disorder people are empathetic but may have a neural switch that can be turned on or off unlike the normal brain which permanently has empathy switched on
• Sarnoff Mednick et al. (1984)

  Study of 13,000 Danish adoptees

  When neither the biological or adoptive parents had convictions 13.5% of the adoptees did

  20% when adoptive or bio parents had convictions

  24.5% when both adoptive and bio parents had convictions