paper 3: forensic psychology🔪

• Offender profiling


  The idea that the characteristics of the offender can be deduced from the characteristics of the offence
• Top Down Approach


  Begins by looking carefully at crime scene, drawing conclusions from evidence found about offender - to already have an idea of how the person is. Also looks at other cases to build picture of typical offender profiles
• Typological Method


  Came from 1978 setting up of Behavioural Support Unit at the FBI. Series of interviews with 36 convicted murderers and rapists to classify into different types
• Organised offenders


  Have control, are precise, preplanned. Crime victim is deliberately targeted. Leave few clues at crime scene. Attempt to control victim. Victim is a targeted stranger. Above average IQ, socially/sexually competent/charming, experience anger/depression, follow media coverage
• Disorganised offenders


  Opposite to organised, little preparation/planning, minimum use of constraint, reflects the impulsive nature of the offender, body is usually left at the scene and shows little control by offender. Random disorganised behaviour, little attempt to hide evidence. Lower than average IQ, unskilled/unemployed, lives alone, socially & sexually inadequate, history of failed relationships, severe mental illness. Frightened & confused
• There is no evidence for an organised-disorganised dichotomy
• The top-down approach is typically used for more extreme crimes e.g. murder
• Offender profilers who use the typological approach match what is known about the crime and the offender to a pre-existing template
• Organised and disorganised offenders (murderers) have a signature way of working
• The bottom-up approach is more objective and scientific than the top-down approach
• Bottom-up approach


  Begins with the details of the crime and builds up a profile of the offender based on this evidence
• Techniques used in bottom-up approach

  • Small space analysis
  • Principle of spatial consistency
• Techniques like small space analysis and the principle of spatial consistency can be used for the investigation of crimes such as burglary and theft
• Studies examining the effectiveness of offender profiling have produced mixed results
• In one survey, 48 police forces found profiler advice useful in 83% of cases, but only 3% led to accurate identification of the offender
• Lombroso's 'atavistic form' theory

  Lombroso (1876) claimed that criminality was genetic: He suggested that there was distinct biological class of people that were prone to criminality. These people exhibited atavistic' (ie primitive) features; Lombroso suggested that they were 'throwbacks' who had biological characteristics from an earlier stage of human development that manifested as a tendency to commit crimes.
• Lombroso's view of criminals

  • Offenders were seen by Lombroso as lacking evolutionary development and that their savage nature meant they would find it impossible to live in civilised society and would inevitably turn to crime
  • Lombroso saw criminal behaviour as a natural tendency, rooted in the genealogy of those who engaged in it
• Atavistic Characteristics

  • Strong jaw
  • Heavy brow
  • High cheek bones
  • Facial asymmetry
  • Bloodshot eyes
  • Curly hair
  • Long ears
  • Thick lips
  • Protruding ears
  • Thin lips
  • Insensitive to pain
  • Use of criminal slang
  • Tattoos
  • Unemployment
• Lombroso's research

  Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, both living and dead, and proposed that '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 criminals and concluded that 40% of criminality could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics.
• Lombroso has been hailed as the 'God Father' of criminology
• Contributions of Lombroso's theory

  • Shifted the emphasis away from moralistic-offenders being judged as wicked and weak-minded-towards a scientific and credible, for the time, with influences coming from evolutionary and genetic thinking
  • Tried to identify what types of offender would commit a particular type of crime, which can be seen as the first criminal profiling
• Several critics have drawn attention to the racial undertones of Lombroso's theory
• Goring (1913) conducted a comparison of 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals and concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with distinct facial and cranial features, although he did point out that criminals tended to have lower than average intelligence
• Genetic explanations for crime

  Criminality is inherited in a gene or combinations of genes and this predisposes the individual to commit crime. A predisposition is an increased likelihood or tendency to behave in a particular way, in this case criminal
• Twin studies on criminality

  • Lange (1930) found that 10 of the MZ twins and only 2 of the DZ twins had both twins spend time in prison, concluding that genetics plays a predominant role in offending
  • Christiansen (1977) found a concordance rate of 33% for MZ twins and 12% for DZ twins, also supporting the idea that genetics plays a role in criminality
• Candidate genes linked to criminality

  The MAOA gene (also known as the warrior gene) which is linked to aggression and CDH13 which is linked to substance abuse and ADD. Individuals with high risk were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour.
• Diathesis-Stress Model

  A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come about through a predisposition to criminal behaviour being triggered by the environment e.g. being raised in a dysfunctional environment or having criminal role models.
• Biological explanations for criminal behaviour

  • Reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for emotion, in individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
  • 1% reduction in grey matter in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-order thinking skills
  • Mirror neurons in people with APD can feel empathy towards others, but much more sporadically than normal
• Early twin studies of criminality, such as Lange's research, were poorly controlled and judgements related to zygosity (whether twins were MZ or DZ) were based on appearance rather than DNA testing
• Mednick et al's study of 13,000 Danish adoptees found that the percentage of adoptees with a conviction rose from 13.5% when neither the biological nor adoptive parents had a conviction, to 20% when either of the biological parents had a conviction, and to 74.5% when both adoptive and biological parents had convictions
• Criminality is complex and explanations that reduce offending behaviour to a genetic level may be inappropriate or over simplified
• The notion of a 'criminal gene' presents a dilemma for the legal system, which is based on rational choice and criminals being responsible for their behaviour
• Eysenck's personality theory

  Behaviour can be represented along two dimensions: introversion/extraversion (E) and neuroticism/stability (N). Eysenck later added a third dimension-Psychoticism (P).
• Biological basis of personality in Eysenck's theory

  Our personality traits are biological and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit. Extraverts have an underactive nervous system which means they constantly seek excitement, stimulation and are likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours. Neurotic individuals tend to be nervous, jumpy and over-anxious.
• The criminal personality type in Eysenck's theory

  A highly neurotic extravert with a combination of characteristics like being cold, unemotional and prone to aggression.
• Role of socialisation in Eysenck's theory

  Criminal behaviour is seen as developmentally immature in that it's selfish and concerned with immediate gratification. The process of socialisation teaches children to delay gratification and be more socially oriented. People with high E and high N scores have nervous systems that make them difficult to condition, so they are more likely to act antisocially.
• Measuring the criminal personality in Eysenck's theory

  Eysenck developed the Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI) to locate respondents along E and N dimensions to determine their personality type. A later scale was introduced to measure psychoticism.
• Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) found that across all age groups, prisoners recorded higher scores than controls on measures of P, E and N, supporting the criminal personality hypothesis
• Farrington et al. (1982) reported that offenders tended to score highly on the P scale but not the E and N, and there is little evidence of consistent differences in EEG measurements between extraverts and introverts
• The idea of all offenders fitting a single criminal type has been criticized as an oversimplification