Forensic psychology

• Top-down approach:

  Profilers start with pre-determined categories and work down to assign offenders to one or two categories based on witness accounts and evidence.

  AO3:

  Strength- only applies to particular crimes: This kind of profiling is best suited to crimes scenes that reveal detailed about the suspects such as rape, torture.
• Organised offender: Offender shows evidence of planning

  Disorganised offender: Offender shows little evidence of planning. Leaves clues
• Bottom- up approach: Profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypothesis about the likely characteristics motivation.
• Investigative psychology: Matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns.

  Geographical profiling: Based on the principles of spatial consistency, offenders operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location
• Cognitive explanation:

  Cognitive Distortion: Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thing that mean we perceive ourselves.

  Hostile attribution bias: The tendency of judge ambiguous situation, or the actions of others, as aggressive or threatening when In reality they may not be.

  Minimisation: A type of deception that involves downplaying the significant of an event or emotion
• Cognitive explanation AO3:

  Application of research- Understanding the nature of cognitive distortion have proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour. The dominant approach in the rehabilitation of sex offenders is CBT which encourages offenders to ‘Face up’ to what they have done
• Custodial sentencing:

  1. Deterrence- Behaviour isn’t tolerated (prison)
  2. Incapacitation- Offender taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending
  3. Retribution- ‘pay for their actions’ (making offender suffer)
  4. Rehabilitation- Reformed and better adjusted to the demands and behaviour of society
• Psychological effects of custodial sentencing:

  • stress and depression
  • Labelling
  • Addiction issues
  • prisonisation
• Custodial sentencing AO3:

  Individual differences- prison may be psychologically challenging for many, it cannot be assumed that all offenders will react in the same way. Therefore it is difficult to make a general conclusion that apply to every prisoner and every prison

  Opportunities for training and treatment- Many prisoners access education and training whilst in prison increasing the possibility they will find employment upon release
• Behaviour modification:

  Token economy- Operant conditioning, involves reinforcing desirable behaviour with a token that can be exchanged for some kind of reward.

  Changing behaviour- WI thin the programme, the desirable behaviour is identified, and broken down into smaller parts.
• Behaviour modification AO3:

  Easy to implement- There is no need for expertise or specialist professionals as there would be for other forms of treatment such as anger management. Token economy are cost-effective and easy to follow

  Passive token learning- Deals with surface behaviour only and encourages a passive form of rather superficial learning
• Anger management:

  1. Cognitive preparation- Requires offender to reflect on past experiences and consider typical pattern of their anger
  2. Skill acquisition- Offenders are introduced to a range of techniques and skills to help deal with anger
  3. Application practice- Offenders given the opportunity to practice their skills within a carefully monitored environment such as role- play with therapist
• Anger management AO3:

  Limited long-term effectiveness- Blackburn said whilst anger management may have a noticeable effect in the conduct of offenders in short-term, there is very little evidence that is reduces in the long term
• Restorative justice: Focuses on the rehabilitation of offender through reconciliation with victim. Gives victim a voice.

  Key features of process:

  1. Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for people who harm others; less emphasis on punishment
  2. Not restricted to courtroom, offender and victims can choose to meet face-to-face in a non courtroom setting
  3. active rather than passive involvement
  4. focus on positive outcome for victims and those who have engaged in the wrongdoing
• variation of the process:

  Not all restorative programmes involve face-to-face encounters between offender and victim. Occasionally, the offender may make some financial restitution to the victim which may reflect the psychological damage done.

  Other vanations of the scheme may involve the offender repainng damaged property themselves. Restorative justice s flexible and can function as an alternative to prison
• Restorative Justice AO3:

  Relies on offender showing remorse- The success of the restorative justice programme may hinge upon the extent to which the offender feels remorse for their actions. However, there is a danger that some offenders may 'sign up' for the scheme to avoid prison, or for the promise of a reduced sentence, rather than a genuine willingness to want to make amends to the victim.
• Eysenck’s theory: Proposed that personality could be represented along three dimensions:

  1. Intrversion- Extraversion
  2. Neuroticism- Stability
  3. Psychoticism

  Extravert: under active nervous system, seek excitement and stimulation, risk taking

  Neurotic: nervous, jumpy and over anxious, behaviour difficult to predict.

  Psychotic: High levels of testosterone, unmotivated and prone to aggression
• Criminal personality:

  The criminal personality type is neurotic-extravert - a combination of all the characteristics and behaviours described above for both neurot cism and extraversion. In addition, Eysenck suggested that the typical offender will also score highly on measures of psychoticism - a personality type that is charactersed as cold, unemotional and prone to aggression.
• Role of socialisation:

  Criminals are impatient and cannot wait for things- so they more likely to act anti-socially

  Eysenck believed that people with high E and N scores had nervous Systems that is made it difficult for them to learn. As a result they are less likely to learn anxiety response to anti-social impulse
• Eysenck theory AO3:

  cultural bias- Bartol and Holanchock looked into cultural differences. They studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York and divided these into six groups based on their criminal history and the nature of their offence. it was revealed that all six groups were found to be less extravert than a non-criminal control group

  Bartol et al, suggested that this was because their sample was a very different cultural group than that investigated by Eysenck, which questions the generalisability of the criminal personality.
• Biological approach: Atavistic form

  Lombroso argued, the criminal sub-type could be identified as being in possession of particular physiological'markers' that were linked to particular types of crime. These are biologically determined 'atavistic characteristics, mainly features of the face and head.

  Atavistic form includes:

  • A narrow, sloping brow
  • high cheekbone
  • dark skin
  • Existence of extra toes, fingers
• Atavistic form:

  Lombroso went on to categorise particular types of criminal in terms of their physical and facial characteristics. Murderers were describes as having bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears; Sexual deviants - glinting eyes, swollen fleshy lips and projecting ears.
• Lombroso’s research:

  Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, both living and dead, and proposed that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anomalies which were key indicators of criminality. In all, Lombroso examined the skulls of 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones, and concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics.
• Biological approach AO3

  Contradictory evidence- Goring compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non- criminals and concluded there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual characteristics, although the did suggest offenders have lower then average intelligence.

  poor control in Lombroso’s research- Did not compare the criminals to a non criminal control group without this it is difficult to draw conclusions that a feature is distinctive.
• Genetic explanations of offending behaviour:

  Twin studies- Christiansen studied 87 MZ and 147 DZ pairs and found a concordance of 33% for MZ’s and 12% for DZ’s which support the view that offending may have a genetic component.

  MAOA Gene- Regulate serotonin in brain, defective version leads to criminal behaviour.

  Dutch family found that many of its male members behaved in a particular violent manner. These men were found to have abnormally low levels of MAOA in their bodies
• Genetic explanations AO3:

  Problems with twin studies- twin studies typically involve small sample sizes; and twins are an unusual sample in themselves and may not represent the rest of the population. Finally, the fact that most twins are reared in the same environment is a major confounding variable as concordance rates may be due to shared learning experiences rather than genetics.
• Psychodynamic explanations of offending

  Blackburn argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is given 'free rein' and not controlled
• Types of inadequate superego

  • Weak superego
  • Deviant superego
  • Over-harsh superego
• Over-harsh superego


  A healthy superego is like a kind but firm internal parent: it has rules, but it is also forgiving of transgressions. In contrast, an excessively punitive or overly harsh superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety. This may drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego's overwhelming need for punishment
• Recidivism: Person re-offends after receiving some form of punishment. This is a concern for society, as it has implication for the aim of custodial sentencing
• Psychodynamic explanations AO3:

  Contradictory evidence- There is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults. This contradicts Blackburn's weak superego argument.

  Similarly, if children who are raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves, this could be due to the influence of genetics or socialisation, rather than the formation of a deviant superego.
• Differential association theory


  Explanatory power: One of the great strengths of differential association theory is its ability to account for crime within all sectors of society
• Differential association theory


  • Not everyone who is exposed to criminal influences goes on to commit crime
  • The theory tends to suggest that exposure to pro-criminal values is sufficient to produce offending in those who are exposed and ignores the fact that people may choose not to offend despite such influences