Forensic psychology

• Criminal profiling


  An investigative and analytical tool used to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of an unknown criminal
• Top-down approach to criminal profiling

  • Use what is known about the crime scene and offender and apply this to a pre-existing template
  • Developed from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers
• Characteristics of an organised offender

  • Evidence of planning
  • Target victims
  • Socially and sexually competent
  • High degree of control
  • Detached surgical precision
  • Often employed
  • Married with children
  • Cover their tracks
  • Forensically savvy
  • Likely to follow new reports of their crime
• Characteristics of a disorganised offender

  • Lack of planning
  • Leave evidence and clues at the scene
  • Lower intelligence
  • Socially and sexually incompetent
  • Likely to be unemployed
  • Less likely to be married
  • Act in the moment
  • Tend to live close to the crime scene
  • More likely to have a history of physical or sexual abuse
• Goodwin (2002) states that the top down approach is too simplistic and cannot categorise all criminals
• Constructing an FBI profile

  1. Data assimilation - review evidence

  2. Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised

  3. Crime scene reconstruction

  4. Profile generation
• Evaluation of top-down approach

  • Good
  • Bad
• Evaluation of bottom-up approach

  • Good
  • Bad
• Investigative psychology


  • Interpersonal coherence - way the offender behaves at the scene
  • Significance of time and place - may indicate where the offender lives
  • Forensic awareness
• Geographical profiling


  • Record where linked offences occur - crime mapping
  • Predict where they are going to strike next
  • Centre of gravity - will restrict crimes to areas they are familiar with
• Canter's circle theory


  • Two models of offending based on imagined boundaries that the offender works in
  • The marauder - offends close to home
  • The commuter - likely to travel a distance from their home
• Lombroso proposed that criminal activity is the result of individuals being evolutionarily underdeveloped
• General characteristics of criminals according to Lombroso


  • Narrow, sloping brow
  • Strong and prominent jawline
  • High cheekbones
  • Facial asymmetry
  • Dark skin
  • Extra toes, nipples or fingers
• Murderer characteristics according to Lombroso

  • Bloodshot eyes
  • Curly hair
  • Long ears
• Sexual deviants characteristics according to Lombroso

  • Glinting eyes
  • Swollen/fleshy lips
  • Projecting ears
• Fraudster characteristics according to Lombroso

  • Thin and reedy lips
• Other characteristics of criminals according to Lombroso


  • Insensitivity to pain
  • Use of criminal slang
  • Tattoos
  • Unemployment
• Lombroso's research examined the facial and cranial features of Italian convicts
• 40% of criminal acts were accounted for by people with atavistic characteristics according to Lombroso
• Strengths and weaknesses of Lombroso's theory

  • Strength: Lombroso moved crime research to a more scientific and credible realm
  • Weakness: DeLisi (2012) - Lombroso's work is racist. Specific characteristics like dark skin and curly hair are common in people of African descendant
  • Weakness: Goring (1913) - compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals and found no evidence of distinct facial and cranial features in the criminal group
  • Weakness: Doesn't consider other factors
  • Weakness: Socially sensitive - encourages eugenics
• Twin studies


  Concordance rates of 35% for MZ twins and 13% for DZ twins, suggesting genetic factors play a role but other factors are also important
• Candidate genes


  • MAOA - regulates serotonin and is linked to aggression
  • CDH13 - linked to substance abuse and ADHD
• Diathesis-stress


  The role of genetics is likely to be moderated by the environment so genes are not acting alone
• Mednick (1984) found that genetic inheritance was important but that environmental influence affects the likelihood of offending
• Prefrontal cortex


  Raine et al (2000) found an 11% reduction in prefrontal grey matter in men with psychopathy, suggesting APD is caused by reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex
• Mirror neurons


  Offenders may be able to feel empathy sporadically but not automatically, requiring conscious turning on and off
• Stephen Mobley case study - argued he had inherited a criminal gene and couldn't be held responsible
• Eysenck's criminal personality


  • Extraverts - underactive nervous system, seek excitement and risky behaviours
  • Neurotics - high levels of reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system, jumpy and overanxious
  • Psychotics - higher levels of testosterone, unemotional and prone to aggression
• Evaluation of Eysenck's theory

  • Strength: Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) found prisoners scored higher on E, N and P
  • Weakness: Farrington et al (1982) only found support for psychoticism, not extraversion or neuroticism
  • Weakness: Barton and Holanchock (1979) found Hispanic and African American offenders were less extraverted than non-offenders
  • Weakness: Eysenck saw the criminal personality as unchanging and stable, but personality is complex and hard to quantify
• Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning

  • Pre-conventional - concerned with gaining rewards and avoiding sanction
  • Conventional - concerned with approval and order in society
  • Post-conventional - concerned with the rights of others, ethics, and personal values
• Criminals sit at the pre-conventional level of morality according to Kohlberg
• Evaluation of Kohlberg's theory

  • Strength: The Heinz dilemma found offenders showed a lower level of moral reasoning than non-offenders
  • Limitation: Heinz dilemma is androcentric, artificial, and culturally biased
  • Strength: Colby et al (1983) found normal individuals pass through stages but criminals stay at the same level
  • Limitation: Gibbs (1979) stated the post-conventional stage should be removed as it only applies to Western cultures
  • Limitation: Gilligan states women and men do not share the same morals, making the theory androcentric
• Cognitive distortions


  Errors or biases in thinking that allow criminals to deny or rationalise their behaviours
• Hostile attribution bias


  • The tendency to judge ambiguous situations of others as aggressive or threatening, triggering a disproportionate and violent response
• Dodge and Frame (1982) found aggressive rejected children were more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as hostile
• Schonenberg and Jusyte (2014) found violent offenders were more likely to see emotionally ambiguous facial expressions as angry and hostile
• Minimisation


  The attempt to downplay or deny the seriousness of an offence, common in sex offenders
• Barbaree (1991) found 54% of rapists denied committing an offence and 40% minimised the harm caused
• Kennedy and Grubin (1992) found convicted sex offenders tended to blame the victim and minimise their involvement, with 1/4 believing the abuse was positive for the victim
• Heller (2013) found CBT reduced cognitive distortions, suggesting they are linked to criminal offences and can be treated