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Summary AQA Psychology Forensic Psychology
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Detailed and comprehensive coverage of the theories and explanations in Forensic Psychology as well as Offender Profiling.
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Offender Profiling: Offender Profiling: The Bottom-Up Approach (Geographical)Also known as 'criminal profiling'. Behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators accurately To generate a picture of the offender-their likely characteristics, background and routine
predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals. Help create a biogeographical sketch. begin with fixed typologies, profile is data-driven.
Offender Profiling: The Top-Down Approach (Typology) Came from the 'Railway Rapist, John Duffy who was involved in 24 sexual assaults and 3
The American approach. Formed from the work of Robert Ressler in the FBI Behavioural Science Unit. Based Investigative psychology:
off in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. Applies statistics to psychological theory.
Matches what is known about the crime and offender to a pre-existing template that the FBI developed. Key details from analysis of offences are matched to a database to reveal important deta
Classification into organised or disorganised offender: background, personal history etc. And determine if the crimes are linked and by the sam
Organised: planned crime in advance, deliberately targeted victim reflective of the killers' 'type', high degree Interpersonal coherence-the way the offender behaves at the crime scene and how it refl
of control-operates with detached surgical precision, little evidence/clues left behind, average-high IQ, behaviour. Significance of place and time-may indicate where the offender lives. Forensic
skilled/professional occupation, socially/sexually competent. those individuals who have been subject to police interrogation before and their mindful
Disorganised: little evidence of planning, spontaneous crime, crime scene reflects impulsive nature of the tracks. Also, criminal career and characteristics.
crime with lots of clues/evidence, low control, low-average IQ, unskilled/unemployed, history of Geographical profiling:
social/sexual dysfunction. Crime mapping-use of the location information of linked crime scene to make inferences
Profile Construction: operational base of the offender
Data assimilation-reviews evidence Modus operandi-ways of working and is used in conjunction with psychological theory to
Crime scene classification-organised/disorganised Based on the assumption that serial killers will restrict their 'work' to geographical areas
Crime reconstruction-hypothesises terms of sequence of events etc.. understanding their pattern of behaviour gives a 'centre of gravity'. Help establish a jeop
Profile generation-hypotheses related to offender, eg demographic/background strike.
Study: Arthur Shawcross Canter's circle theory:
Murdered 11 women in New York; key aspect of profile was belief he would return to the crime scene; set Marauders-close proximity to home base
up surveillance of the 11th victim which is where he was caught. Profile predicted 35+ yrs old, he was 44 and Commuter-travelled distance from home base
he would have a police record which he did etc. Supports the use of profiling due to its success. Evaluation:
Study: David Canter et al (2004) Evidence supports investigative psychology-Canter and Heritage (1990) content analysis
To test validity of FBI typology profiling cases, analysed using SSA. Several characteristics identified as common in most cases e.g
100 murders by 100 serial killers in US for 39 characteristics of organised/disorganised lack of reaction to the victim. this can illustrate changes over the offences. Shows use of
Smallest Space Analysis-39 variables in 100 cases. Organised characteristics found in abundance psychology..
Disorganised rarer thus concluded no clear distinction. Evidence supports geographical profiling- 120 murder cases, SSA revealed spatial consis
Evaluation: created a centre of gravity. Offenders base was at the centre invariably particularly for m
Only applies to particular crimes-I.e. ones that reveal important details about the subject such as rape, Canter's claim about the importance of spatial information.
murder, arson etc..t.f limited. Scientific basis-more evidence grounded and objective
Based on outdated models of personality-assumption that patterns of behaviour remain consistent across Wider application-wider range of offences, SSA and spatial consistency can be used in in
situations and contexts, based on dispositional traits rather than the ever-changing external factors, static Mixed results for profiling-
models of personality t.f low validity Gary Copson (1995) 48 police forces surveyed, profiler advice useful in 83% of cases but
Evidence does not support disorganised offender-see Canter study identification.
Classification is too simplistic-Organised/disorganised characteristics are not mutually exclusive I.e a variety Richard Kocsis et al (2002) found that chemistry students gave more accurate profile tha
of characteristics could occur at any murder scene. Goodwin (2002) questions how a competent, intelligent detective.
but spontaneous killer would be classified. Focus should be on the motivations of killers not the 'types'. Overall Evaluation of Offender Profiling
Compare Profiling:
Original sample-36 killers in the US, 25 serial 11 single, small and unrepresentative a sample which can Bartol (1999) admits profiling is probably 90% art a
Scientific basis
have a significant influence on police investigation. Also, issues of self-report from serial killers. and 10% science.
Application
Copson & Holloway (1997) suggest profiling led to i
Issues of information
an offender in less than 3% of the 184 cases they st
Start with fixed ideas/vs not
, Biological Explanations
Historical-Lombroso's theory of Atavistic Form
Lombroso argued criminals were genetically different from non-criminals and this difference could be seen in their faces. He believed they had distinguishing features that originated from a more prim
development.
Lombroso measured the physical features of Italian criminals and argued that they had measurements that distinguished them from non-criminals.
He argued: Murderers: cold, glassy, blood-shot eyes, curly, abundant hair, strong jaws, long wars and thin lips. Sex offenders: glinting eyes, strong jaws, thick lips, lots of hair, projecting ears.
Lombroso studied 389 dead 3,839 living ones, 40% were accounted for by people with atavistic characteristics, not atavistic characteristics.
Goring (1913) studied 3,000 English convicts and found although there were anatomical differences not extreme as Lombroso argued, the common factor in his subjects was low intelligence. At the tim
regarded as genetic, so too was criminal behaviour. Social factors was minimised.
Evaluation:
Methodology: not particularly rigorous and conclusions bizarre. Fails to recognise correlation does not include causality. Shared characteristics does not mean it made them criminal, could be poverty
rather than genetic transmission.
Sampling issues: measured features of criminals w/no control group. With no group for comparison it is difficult to draw conclusions. Sample may have included people with learning difficulties-skewe
Racism: Many of the characteristics Lombroso's identified as atavistic are likely to be found among those of African descent.
Link to criminality due to poor social interactions..possibly due to the way they look resulting in low self-esteem and reluctance to conform [Kaplan's self-derogation theory]
Historical context: Prior to Lombroso's work, criminality was seen from religious perspective and attributed to bad spirits. Despite lacking scientific rigour, still attempted to make criminology scientific
Genetic Explanation
*No criminal gene identified but twin and adoption studies indicate a genetic transmission.
Tilhonen et al 900 candidate genes and found abnormality in two genes MAOA and CDH13, relating to neurotransmitters and ADHD.
Twin studies
MZ twins genetically the same so any common behaviour after being reared in separate environments must be due to genes.
Bartol (1999) 55% concordance rate for MZ and 12% for DZ suggesting large part of the cause of criminality is genetic. However, early research didn't account for MZ twins having similar environments
Grove et al (1990) 31 MZ twins reared apart. Avg. Age 43 y/o. Scored on a variety of criteria. Concordance for AS personality disorder was 29%. Researchers concluded genetic component.
Adoption studies
Criminal parents w/ non-criminal adoptive families. Must be inherited if criminality exposes itself.
Mednick (1987) court convictions 1927-1947, 14,000 adoptees, strong relationship for criminal conviction-however tend to be placed into similar environment so early life experiences cause criminal
Family studies
CSDD (Farrington 1996) 411 males from 400 families monitored from age 3-32 using interviews and age 10-40 in crime records. Conviction rates of biological parents with close family members comp
64% one convict, 6% families accounted for 50% of convictions, 75% convicted parents had convicted child I.e. strongly concentrated and passed on generations.
Chromosomes
XYY chromosome hypothesis, extra Y in males is linked to low IQ and Avg. height. XYY used in defence in trials. Witkin study-4591 men screened for XYY and found only 12 cases, 41.7% more likely to b
Overrepresentation in prisons is likely to be due to the other characteristics I.e IQ. XYY theory largely defunct.
Evaluation:
Illustration not explanation: Research indicates offending behaviour is at least partially due to genetics but does not account for social factors etc that may also have an effect. Studies also cannot exp
Stress of adoption could account for offending behaviour and thus is difficult to say if offending behaviour is to blame or not. Also, stress in the foetus and pre-birth environmental influences are not c
Concordance rates are higher when twins are more similar, could show genetic transmission but could be equally suggested MZ twins are treated more similarly so this could account for it too.
Criminal gene and its implications also has not been identified.
Biological determinism implies no free will and not acting of our own accord
Reductionism and inaccuracy MZ twins should have 100% concordance
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