Forensic Psychology

Offender Profiling

The Top Down Approach - Originated in the USA, when in-depth interview data from 36 sexually-motivated serial killers was used to classify offenders as either 'organised' or 'disorganised' killers. New crimes and offenders are then matched to the template in order to better understand patterns in their actions and motivations

Evaluation of the Top-Down Approach
❌ One limitation is the way in which the typology was developed - used a small unrepresentative sample of offenders, and relies on self report data, which is unreliable and reduces the internal validity
❌ Only applies to particular types of crimes - best suited to crimes revealing key details about the suspect, e.g. rape, but more common crimes do not lend themselves to profiling, e.g. theft
❌ Classification system is too simplistic - categories are not mutually exclusive, for example, Jeffery Dahmer (dis) had a set type (org)
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - REDUCTIONIST - Unrealistic to have only two categories for all killers, can miss key details as it is too simplistic

The Bottom Up Approach -
The British bottom up model does not begin with fixed stereotypes. Instead, the profile is more data-driven and is backed by details to the specific offence at hand.

FBI Profile Construction

  1. Data Assimilation - Profiler reviews the evidence (crime scene photographs, pathology reports, forensics etc).
  2. Crime Scene Classification - Classifies offender through typology as either an organised or disorganised offender
  3. Crime Reconstruction - Hypotheses formed about the sequence of events, behaviour of victims etc.
  4. Profile Regeneration - Hypotheses related to offender, e.g. demographic, background, physical characteristics etc.

Investigative Psychology

  • Applying statistical procedures to psychology
  • Theories generated to analyse crime scene evidence
  • Interpersonal Coherence refers to the way offenders behave at the scene of the crime, in terms of their normal everyday behaviour

Geographical Profiling

  • Uses information to do with location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the home/base of the offender, linking to the use of crime mapping
  • Provides the centre of gravity, which could reveal the base of the offender
  • Offenders could be marauders or commuters

Evaluation of the Bottom Up Approach
✅ Supportive research and real world applications - for example, in David Canter's case (the railway rapist) offender profiling was extremely accurate, which increases the reliability of this approach, and its external validity
✅ More scientific and objective - the approach is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory, using statistics and artificial intelligence, which supports its use in the judicial process
❌ Significant failures - for example, in the Rachel Nickell's case, the murderer was ruled out and not identified until years later
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - IDIOGRAPHIC - Can be criticised for being overly idiographic, in that small errors in the offender profiling of the criminal can skew the case, e.g. Rachel Nickel

Organised Offenders

  • Meticulous, thought out and planned crimes
  • Often has a 'type'
  • High degree of control
  • Methodological, leaving little evidence behind
  • Socially and sexually competent

Disorganised Offenders

  • Little evidence of any planning
  • Spontaneous and impulsive
  • Little control
  • Likely to be unemployed, with a lower than average IQ
  • Sexually dysfunctional

click to edit

Biological Explanations of Offending

Historical Approach - Lombroso (1876) suggested criminals were genetic 'throwbacks'; a primitive sub-species who were biologically different to non criminals. He also suggested that offenders lacked evolutionary development, and they were savage so it would be impossible to fit in, leading them to criminality.

The Atavistic Form

  • A narrow sloping brow
  • A strong, prominent jaw
  • Facial Assymetry
  • Extra toes, nipples or fingers
  • Dark skin, swollen fleshy lips, bloodshot eyes, curly hair etc.

Lombroso's Research
Aim: To establish a biological link to explain offending behaviour in criminals
Method: Examined facial features of 383 dead criminals and over 3000 living
Findings: Criminal behaviour is biologically determined, and are physically different (atavistic form). He suggests 40% of all criminal acts could be accounted for by AF

Evaluation of the Historical Approach
✅ The first to look at offender profiling - Lombroso is known as the 'father of criminology' and moved away from the idea of 'weak morals' using a scientific approach, leading into a new era of positivist criminology
❌ Distinct racial undertones overshadow the explanation - described the atavistic form as 'savage' which feeds into eugenics philosophy prominent at the time
❌ Methodological issues - Lombroso did not compare this sample to non-criminal controls. Many of his sample suffered from psychological disorders, which acts as a confounding variable. Therefore, his research could be said to lack internal validity
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - BIOLOGICALLY DETERMINISTIC - Ignores the role of free will and offers an excuse for malevolent behaviour

Genetic and Neural Explanation
Genetic Explanations

  • Twin Studies: Lange (1930) - Found that 10/13 Mz twin pairs had been in prison, compared to 2/17 Dz twins
  • Candidate Genes: Tiihonen et al - Found the MAOA gene which controls seratonin/ dopamine levels which is linked to aggressive behaviour, and CDH13 which is linked to substance abuse and ADHD
  • Diathesis-Stress Model: Diathesis - 'biological vulnerability' - candidate genes, stress - psychological or environmental stressor, e.g. drugs and alcohol as a result of a bereavement

Neural Explanations

  • Anti-Social Personality (APD): Diagnosed disorder characterised by lack of empathy, reduced emotional responses and impulsive/ irresponsible behaviour, which is common in criminals
  • Prefrontal Cortex: Raine et al - Found an 11% reduction in volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD - the region of the brain that regulates emotions
  • Mirror Neurons: Keysers et al - Found that mirror neurons (control empathy) might not always be turned on in people with APD. Criminals only empathised when asked to, suggesting that they can switch these mirror neurons 'on' and 'off'

Evaluation of the Genetic and Neural Explanation
✅ Mixed research evidence from Mednick et al - Their analysis of 13,000 Danish adoptees found that when both the child's adopted and biological parents and criminal convictions, 24.5% of the adopted children did too, compared to 13% when neither parents had committed crimes
❌ Methodological issues with twin studies - Lange's twin study does not separate genetics from environment, as the twins are raised together, so this confounding variable lowers the internal validity of his research
❌ Biological explanations can be overly simplistic - correlation-causation issue with the neuron explanation as APD could lead to the 11% reduction in grey mater, or this reduction could lead to APD, reducing the validity of the explanation
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - BIOLOGICAL REDUCTIONISM - Only looks at the neurochemical level of explanation, not the other levels of holism all the way up to the socio-cultural level

Psychological Explnations of Offending

Differential Association Theory

Cognitive Explanations

Psychodynamic Explanations

Eysenck's Criminal Personality

Dealing with Offending Behaviour

Behaviour Modification

Anger Management

Custodial Sentencing

Restorative Justice Programmes

Eysenck's Personality Inventory
Eysenck believed that personality could be measured and developed the EPI in order to do so. The EPI measures participants on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.

Biological Basis
Eysenck believed that personal traits have a biological origin, based largely on the type of nervous system we have. For example, he suggests that extraverts have an underachieve nervous system, which makes them seek excitement and risk.

The Role of Socialisation
Children are taught through socialisations and process how to delay gratification and become more socially oriented. Eysenck believed that because ENPs were harder to condition, they would not have learned these skills. This makes criminals immature, selfish and more likely to behave antisocially.

Evaluation of Eysenck's Criminal Personality
✅ Supportive research - Eysenck compared 2070 male prisoners' EPI scores to 2400 male controls, where prisoners scored higher on the EPI. But Farringdon's research showed prisoners were often high with P but low in E/N, which could link to correlation-causation, reducing validity
❌ Cultural bias - Bartol and Holanchock studies hispanic and African offenders, and in comparison to controls, prisoners were less extraverted, debunking his theory
❌ Unrealistic explanation with methodological issues - social desirability boas in using questionnaires, personalities are prone to change. The model is now outdated and has been replaced with the OCEAN model
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - REDUCTIONIST - Only focuses on one personality type and ignores other factors

Levels of Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg was the first researcher to apply the concept of moral reasoning to criminal behaviour - he proposed that the higher the stage, the more sophisticated the reasoning.

  1. Pre-conventional Morality - Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment or for personal gain; where criminals are
  2. Conventional Morality - Rules are obeyed for approval or to maintain social order
  3. Postconventional Morality - The individual establishes his or her own rules, and democratic rules are challenged if they infringe on the rights of others

Cognitive Distortions

  • Hostile Attribution Bias: Misinterpreting the actions of other repeople, where offenders often assume others are being confrontational when they are not. This may trigger a disproportionate response in the offender, with origins from childhood
  • Minimalisation: Attempting to deny or downplay the severity of an offence to justify it to yourself, e.g. applying a euphemistic label, "having a cuddle"

Evaluation of Cognitive Explanations
✅ Understanding can lead to treatments - CBT is the dominant approach in the rehabilitation of sex offenders, which encourages a less distorted view of their actions, and anger management involves reducing HAB, which adds external validity
❌ Model does not account for individual differences - Intelligence may be a better predictor of criminality than moral reasoning, due to extraneous and confounding variables which question the internal validity of this explanation
❌ Limited usefulness - Cognitive explanations are useful for predicting future reoffending behaviour, but are essentially 'after the fact' theory, so are limited in their scope and generalisability
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - REDUCTIONIST - Doesn't give much insight into why the offender turned to crime in the first place

Evaluation of Differential Association Theory
✅ Ability to account for crime within all sectors of society - Sutherland looked at white collar crime, crime which occurs in affluent communities, therefore Sutherland's theory has greater explanatory power and is more applicable
✅ Research support from Farrington -
❌ Can result in negative stereotyping - Not everyone who is exposed to criminal influences will commit crimes, but there is still the danger of stereotyping people as unavoidably criminal
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - DETERMINISTIC - The whole explanation ignores the role of free will; people may choose not to commit crimes, despite their environment and exposure to attitudes of crime

Crime is a Learned Behaviour - Sutherland suggested that criminality arises from two factors an individual is exposed to...

  1. Pro criminal attitudes - When we socialise with others, we are exposed to their values and attitudes towards the law
  2. Learning criminal acts - The criminal will learn techniques for committing crime, supported by the high number of reoffenders

Edwin Sutherland - Propsed a theory of 'white collar crime' and DAT, where individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behave your through association and interaction with different people

Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate, then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is given 'free reign' and is not properly controlled

The Weak Superego - If the same sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification
The Deviant Superego - If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour
The Overly-Harsh Superego - Can cause anxiety and cripple someone with guilt, driving an individual to perform acts in order to satisfy the need for punishment

Bowlby 44 Thieves Study - 86% of affectionless psychopaths had experienced long maternal deprivation before the age of 5

Evaluation of the Psychodynamic Explanations
❌ Gender bias - The explanation says girls automatically develop weaker superego than boys because they do not experience castration anxiety, so this means that females should be more prone to criminal behaviour, which is not supported by government statistics
❌ Contradictory evidence - There is little evidence that children raised without a same sex parent are less law abiding as adults. Similarly, if children raised by deviant parents go on to commit crimes themselves, tis could be due to the influence of genetics or socialisation, rather than a deviant superego - (PEEICL Counter-Argument to DAT)
❌ Correlational Links - Bowlby's research doesn't necessarily indicate a causal link - there could be other mediating factors (PEEICL). Additionally, Bowlby can be accused of researcher bias, which lowers the internal validity
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - PSYCHIC DETERMINISM - With the presence of any of these superego characteristics, it is assumed that you will be a criminal, linking to the psychodynamic approach

Aims of Custodial Sentencing

  • Deterrence: Putting people off committing crime, based on VR conditioning principles in SLT
  • Incapacitation: Protecting society by removing criminals
  • Retribution: Revenge against offender; the level of suffering is proportionate to the crime
  • Rehabilitation: Reforming the offender, where the offender will learn new values and attitudes to stop further criminality

Psychological Effects
Institutionalisation: Inability to function outside of prison having adapted to prison norms/ routines
Prisonisation:
Behaviours unacceptable outside prison are encouraged via socialisation into an 'innate code'

Evaluation of Custodial Sentencing
✅ Can offer opportunities for training and treatment - Prisoners can access anger management schemes; although many prisons lack the resources to run these programmes but could be a worthwhile expense
❌ Negative psychological effects - Suicide rates in prisons are 15x higher than in the general population, effectiveness of rehabilitation?
❌ Individual differences - different prisons have different regimes, so there are likely to be variations in individual experiences which means we can't make general conclusions that apply to every prisoner
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE -NOMOTHETIC - Treats all prisoners the same

Behaviourist Approach

  • Proposes that behaviour is learned and therefore can be unlearned
    1.Token economies used
  1. Designing a specific behaviour modification programme:
  • Identify desirable behaviour
  • Broken down into smaller steps or increments to make it clear
  • Baseline measure established to objectively identify required behaviour
  • Prison staff must selectively reinforce the desired behaviour

Evaluation of Behaviour Modification
✅ Easy to implement - Doesn't require trained specialists, cost effective and can be individually tailored, but needs a consistent approach
❌ Arguably offers little rehabilitative value - Changes can be lost upon release, as token economies cannot continue to act as behaviour reinforcers; passive learning not active change
❌ Ethical Issues - Can be seen as manipulative and dehumanising; prisons should have an element of active rehabilitation, which token economies often lack
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - MACHINE REDUCTIONISM - Treats humans as passive with no free will over their learning

click to edit


Stage 1 - Cognitive Preparation: Requires the offender to reflect on their past experiences, and identify triggers to anger, and learn that their interpretation may be irrational (HAB)
Stage 2 - Skill Acquisition: Offenders are introduced to a range of techniques

  • Cognitive: Positive self talk
  • Behavioural: Assertiveness training
  • Physiological: Methods of relaxation
    Stage 3 - Application Practice: Offenders given the opportunity to practice skills

Keen et al (2000) - Studied the progress of young offenders between 17-21 who took part in 8x2 hour sessions. By the end, offenders reported increased awareness of their anger and better self control

Evaluation of Anger Management
✅ Holistic approach - All three stages deal with different elements (CBT) and acknowledges a range of social/ psychological factors
✅ Tackles the root cause - Addresses irrational thought processes that underly offending behaviour (PEEICL - Counter-Argument to behaviour modification)
❌ Long term effects are questionable - Little evidence to support long term effects of lower recidivism despite good initial effects. Could be because real life situations are more difficult to handle. Furthermore, it is expensive, requires highly trained specialists and cooperation from offender
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - HOLISTIC - Takes all factors into account and tackles the root cause of offending - HAB and anger

The Process: Restorative Justice council is an independent body who advocates the use of RJ in schools, hospitals and prisons.
These programmes switch the emphasis from the needs of the state (to enforce the law) to the needs of the victim. Victims take an active role in the process and offenders take responsibility.

Key Features

  1. Focus on acceptance of responsibility
  2. Non courtroom setting where offenders can voluntarily meet victims
  3. Active involvement
  4. Focus on positive outcome and healing

Variations

  • Not all RJPs involve face-to-face contact
  • Occasionally, the offender may make a financial restitution
  • RJPs may act as an 'add on' to a prison sentence
  • Offender could offer to fix any physical damage themselves

Evaluation of Restorative Justice
✅ Adaptablility - Great flexibility in the way they can be used, which is positive in the sense that schemes can be adapted and tailored to each situation
❌ May not always be entirely cost effective - Shapland found that for every £1 spent on RJPs, it could save the CJS up to £8. Requires skilled mediators which are expensive, and RJPs themselves have a high drop out rate
❌ Require cooperation which can be difficult - Offenders may sign up to RJPs to reduce their sentences, and victims themselves may have an ulterior motive for taking part, this means that RJPs may not have positive outcomes
⭐ ISSUE AND DEBATE - IDIOGRAPHIC - Tailored to individuals, both the victim and offender