Forensics

• What is offender profiling

  An investigative tool to narrow the field of enquiry or suspect list. Professional profilers will often be called to work alongside the police
• What is the top down approach to offender profiling

  The US method of categorizing offender based on organised or disorganised

  
  

  Organised:

  - Planned in advance

  - Deliberately targeted victim

  - Little evidence left behind

  - Above average IQ

  
  

  Disorganised:

  - Little evidence of plan

  - Crime reflects impulse as they have no control

  - Lower IQ

  - History of sexual dysfunction
• What are the four steps of constructing a FBI profile in the Top Down approach

  Data Assimilation - Reviewing all the evidence

  Crime Scene Classification - Organised or Disorganised

  Crime Reconstruction - Hypothesis in terms of events

  Profile Generation - Hypothesis in terms of likely offenders
• AO3 - Top down Approach

  Only applies to particular crimes - most crimes do not have a crime scene

  Alison et al - Approach is to naive and doesn't acknowledge how personality can change (deterministic)

  Canter et al - Analysed 100 murders in the USA, evidence for organised criminal but not disorganised (cultural bias)

  List is too simplistic
• What is bottom up approach to offender profiling

  British model that is data-driven and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper and more details of the offence. Much more grounded in psychological field as they use evidence to generate a picture of the offenders likely characteristics, routines and social background.

  Includes investigative psychology and geographical profiling
• What is involved in Investigative Psychology in the Bottom Up approach

  Statistical database - A baseline for comparison to establish patterns of behaviour likely to happen. This can reveal links

  Interpersonal coherence - The way an offender acts at a crime scene may reflect everyday behaviour

  Significance of time and place - May indicate where the offender is living at time of crime

  Forensic awareness - May indicate police interrogation before if they demonstrate high skill in covering their tracks
• What is involved in Geographical Profiling in the Bottom Up approach

  Crime mapping - Make inferences about home. This is used for the hypothesis on the offenders thinking. Serial killers often work in a familiar area which provides a centre of gravity

  Canter's circle theory:

  Marauder - A criminal who works near their homebase

  Commuter - Someone who works away

  People work in their circle and this gives insight on the person and the offence committed.
• AO3 - Bottom Up approach

  Canter & Heritage - Content analysis of 66 SA cases. Analysed for correlations which they found several characteristics aligned (supports investigative psych)

  Canter - 120 serial killer cases in USA. Spatial consistency with effect more noticeable for marauders (supports geographical profiling

  Grounded in evidence and theory (hypothesis construction - scientific feature)

  Copson - Surveyed 48 police forces and only found advice from profiling useful in 83% cases but accurate only in 3%

  Cases such as Colin Stagg suggest police rely on these too much and get carried away
• Biological explanations of criminality - Atavistic Form

  Lombroso - Criminals are a primitive subspecies as they lack evolutionary development. They have a savage and untamed nature not suited to modern society which means it is impossible for them to meet the needs of today. A link back to atavistic life where dominance and high aggression was needed to survive, their geneology hasn't adapted to change of society.

  Cranial features - Narrow, sloping brow. Strong prominent jaw. Facial asymmetry. High cheekbones

  Other features - Dark skin. Extra toes and fingers. Murderers - Bloodshot eyes. Sex offenders - Big lips

  Other traits - Insensitivity to pain, tattoos and unemployed
• How does Lombroso's theory link to the halo effect

  Lombroso's theory of criminality creates a cognitive bias of a typical criminal. When a good looking criminal gets sent to court, due to the "unattractive" looks being matched to criminality, errors in schema is presented which results in good looking criminal getting away with a crime
• Biological explanations of criminality - Neural

  Raine et al - Lower activity in the prefrontal cortex (associated with emotional behaviour) of those with APD (Antisocial personality disorder). They also had 11% drop in grey matter

  Keysers et al - Criminals asked to empathise with a person in pain in which they did. They suggest criminals have a neural switch for mirror neurons
• Psychological explanations of criminality - Eysenck

  Extraverts have underactive nervous system, encouraging them to seek excitement and engage in risky behaviour. Neurotics tend to be more jumpy and nervous and therefore demonstrate behaviour which is difficult to predict

  
  

  Assessed 2070 male prisoners on measures of Extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism and found neurotic and extrovert to be the criminal personality.

  
  

  Personality is linked to criminal behaviour via the socialisation processes. Criminal behaviour is immature and selfish as they are concerned with immediate gratification. Socialisation is one in which children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and be more socially orientated. People high in E and N have nervous systems which make them difficult to condition, difficult to control their antisocial impulses.
• AO3 - Eysenck's theory of criminality


  Personality based on male prisoners (gender bias)

  Moffitt - Different types of offenders which may have different types of personalities (Supported by Farrington)

  Bartol - Hispanic and African American criminals were less extraverted suggesting cultural bias

  Determinist - People have free will

  Doesn't acknowledge how personality can change
• Psychological explanations of criminality - Cognitive (Kohlberg)


  Kohlberg - A group of violent youths had significantly lower moral development than non-violent youths.

  
  

  Criminals are more likely to be classified in level 1 of pre-conventional morality (Focussed on obedience and punishment orientation as well as being shaped by the standards of adults as their reasoning is based on the physical consequence. Commonly found level of 9 year olds). Lots of evidence for criminals being more egocentric

  
  

  Chandler - Criminals demonstrate poorer social-perspective taking skills
• Psychological explanations of criminality - Cognitive (Distortions)

  Cognitive distortions are errors or biases in peoples information processing system characterised by faulty thinking. Research has linked this to the way which criminals interpret other people's behaviour to justify their actions.

  
  

  Hostile attribution bias: Propensity for violence is associated with the tendency to misinterpret other actions. Offenders may misinterpret a non-aggressive cue which triggers a disproportionate response.

  Justye et al - Showed 55 violent offenders neutral expressions - More likely to take it as angry

  Dodge et al - Showed children video clips of ambiguous provocation - Those identified as aggressive and rejected beforehand took the situation as more hostile

  
  

  Minimalisation: An attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of the offence

  Barbaree - 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied their offence and 40% minimised the harm

  Pollock et al - 35% of a sample of child molesters argued the crime was non-sexual and 36% argued the child consented
• AO3 - Psychological (Cognitive) explanations of criminality

  Palmer & Hollin - Delinquent group showed less mature moral reasoning in results of moral dilemma related questions than the non-delinquent group.

  Blackburn - Delinquents show poor moral development due to lack of role playing opportunities in childhood

  
  

  Gibbs - Kohlberg's theory adapted to only have 2 levels (mature and immature). The post-conventional stage of Kohlberg's theory is said to suffer cultural bias

  
  

  Through understanding cognitive distortions involved in criminality, CBT is often used to rehabilitate sex offenders to encourage them to "face up" for what they did.

  Reduced denial and minimalization is highly correlated with lower levels of reoffending.
• Psychological explanations of criminality - Differential association theory

  Sutherland - "Conditions which are said to cause crime, should be present when crime is present. Most learning occurs through the interactions with significant people in our lives such as friends and family. We learn their attitudes and learn specific acts from them.

  Aims to be a scientific and objective method to measure the likeliness of someone turning to crime.

  If number of pro-crime attitudes outweigh anti-crime, the individual will turn to offending, this is the same when learning criminality or conformity to law.

  
  

  Recidivism rate is so high because prisons are the "universities of crime" as criminals receive observational learning, direct tuition or just imitate crimes learned in prisons
• AO3 - Sutherland


  Can be linked to all types of people. (Not all will have pro/anti crime attitudes)

  Successful in shifting focus on explaining criminality by looking at the environment (Nature v Nurture)

  Lacks scientific basis as it is not falsifiable - Attitudes cannot be clearly measured
• Psychological explanations of criminality - Psychodynamic (Superego)


  Blackburn - If superego is inadequate then crime is inevitable as the ID is given free reign.

  
  

  Weak superego - Same-sex parent is absent during phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully-formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification

  Deviant superego - If superego that is internalised has immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour

  Over-Harsh Superego - Individual is crippled with guilt and anxiety. This may (unconsciously) drive the individual to commit crimes as they need to satisfy the superegos' overwhelming need for punishment
• Psychological explanations for criminality - Psychodynamic (Bowlby)


  Maternal deprivation theory:

  Bowlby - Ability to form meaningful bonds is dependent on the child's upbringing. Failure to form an attachment to the primary caregiver during the critical period leads to irreversible effects such as affectionless psychopathy (lack of sense of guilt)

  
  

  44 thieves study:

  Interviews of families with juvenile thieves. 14 showed affectionless psychopathy with 12 of them having prolonged separation with their mothers
• AO3 - Psychodynamic theory


  Socially sensitive

  Lack of falsifiability (not scientific)

  
  

  Gender bias - Implicit assumption that girls develop weaker superegos' suggesting they commit crimes yet statistics suggest this to not be the case (Hoffman - no real difference)

  
  

  No evidence that having no same sex marriage parent children are less abiding to the law. Difficult to rule out genetic factors, socialisation?

  
  

  Retrospective studies lack internal validity
• Dealing with offending behaviour - custodial sentencing

  Aims of custodial sentencing:

  Deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation. Many of these contradict each other

  
  

  Psychological effects of custodial sentencing:

  Stress and suicide - Suicide and self harm rates are extremely high (not being dealt with appropriately due to cuts in cost)

  Institutionalisation - Adapted to the norms and routines of prisons

  Prisonization - Inmate code

  
  

  Ministry of Justice - 57% offenders reoffend after 1 year

  2007 - 14 prisons had a recidivism rate of 70%

  UK & US - Highest rates of recidivism
• AO3 - Custodial sentencing

  Bartol - "Brutal, demeaning and generally devastating"

  Suicide rates are 15x higher in prisons

  Prison reform trust - 25% of women and 15% of men are deemed psychotic in prisons - ecological validity supporting psychological effects of custodial sentencing

  
  

  Not all prisons and prisoners react in the same way. Some may have pre-existing emotional difficulties (reductionist)

  
  

  Can help with employment prospects as they're offered GCSE up to Undergrad opportunities which can help the economy though this doesn't happen as much now due to cuts in budget
• Dealing with offending behaviour - Behaviour modification


  Based on operant conditioning (Skinner). Desirable behaviour such as avoiding conflict and following rules gets rewarded with a token which can be exchanged for a reward such as more calls, gym or food

  
  

  Desirable behaviour is identified, broken down and a baseline measure is established. Reinforced behaviour is decided on and all those in contact with offender must follow same regime, overseen by prison officials who monitor the programme's effectiveness as well as behaviour of individuals
• Rights of a prisoner and punishments used in behaviour modification

  Rights:

  - Protection from bullying

  - Contact with solicitor

  - Healthcare

  - 30 minutes to an hour outside

  
  

  Punishments:

  - Kept in the cell for 21 days

  - Up to 42 days added onto sentence

  - Privileges taken away
• Hobbs & Holt


  Introduced a token economy programme with groups of young offenders across 3 behavioural units, they observed a difference in positive behaviour
• AO3 - Behaviour modification


  Easy to implement - Beneficial for economy

  Hobbs and Holt study

  
  

  Underfunding and overcrowding reduces use of this today

  Blackburn - Little rehabilitate value as rewards are gone in outside world (reoffend at a slower rate)

  Maya et al - Dehumanising and manipulative as this is obligatory
• Dealing with offending behaviour - Anger management


  Novaco - Cognitive factors trigger emotional arousal which generally precedes aggressive acts. CBT as a form of anger management aims to get the individual to recognise the lack of control which reinforces their anger and teaches them methods of coping.

  
  

  Stages:

  - Cognitive preparation: Reflection of past behaviour to identify triggering situations, making it clear their interpretation on the event is irrational as they attempt to break what may be an automatic event

  - Skill acquisition: Taught skills that allow them to be more rational. Cognitive skills include positive self talk. Behavioural skills include assertiveness training for communication. Physiological skills include methods of relaxation to feel in control of their emotions

  - Application practise: Role play an angry scenario with therapist and offender who must see it as real meaning the therapist must be brave. Successful negotiation is rewarded with positive reinforcement
• AO3 - Anger management

  Eclectic approach - Draws on different theories and acknowledges its extent - more success

  In comparison to behaviour modification it is more likely to lower recidivism rate

  
  

  Blackburn - The benefits are short term.

  Dependent on role play which lacks ecological validity

  Not used as much today - Many offenders on short sentences
• Keen et al


  Studied the progress of CBT with offenders aged 17-21 and found increases awareness of anger management and more ability to be self controlled
• Dealing with offending behaviour - Restorative justice

  System which focuses on rehabilitation through reconciliation with victims, allowing offenders to see impact of their crime.

  
  

  Restorative justice changes the emphasis from crimes against the state to crimes against the victim, allowing victims to move on as they are encouraged to take an active role to allow the offender to take responsibility.

  Includes a supervised meeting between offender and victim organised and attended by a trained mediator

  
  

  Braithwaite - Crime hurts but justice should heal

  
  

  Not all are face to face. May be financial restitution as they may repair damaged property and this may be an alternative to prisons
• Key features of restorative justice

  Focus on acceptance and responsibility

  The term "victim" is avoided and the term "survivor" is used

  Active process not passive
• Who are the restorative justice council

  An independent group who establish clear standards for the use of restorative justice. Advocates the use of restorative justice and to manage conflict
• AO3 - Restorative justice

  Unique to the offender - Holistic - May be more effective

  SHapland - For every £1 on restorative justice, it saves the CPS £8. Lacks resources and specialists

  
  

  Relies on remorse of the offender which is not always the case - lower population validity

  An expensive process which can be damaging for the victims

  Unlikely to happen as state of prisons and courts