Forensic Psychology

Intro:

A crime is harmful to an individual, group or society.

Culture can affect what is known as a crime - for example: homosexuality used to be a crime in the UK but became legal because of the change of society.

Crime - a social construct – this means that what is judged to be a crime is dependent on society and culture.

Ways to measure crime:

Official statistics - where the government counts the amount of crime (these are only crimes that were recorded)

Victim Surveys - where surveys are done by the person who was affacted by the crime

Offender Surveys - questioning the people who committed the crime to gain knowledge on why they did the crime.

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Top-Down approach

The american approach

Context:

There is two types of crime: organised (planned) and disorganised (spontaneous)

Organised Crime - won't be much evidence, victim is targeted, follows their crime on the media, high intelligence, body is transported from the scene of the murder, socially and sexually competent.

Developed by the FBI in the 1980's to try and explain bizarre murders and crimes

It was based upon the answers of notorious serial killers (e.g. Ted Bundy) on why they did the crimes they committed.

Disorganised Crime - random victim, a lot of evidence at scene, body found at scene of the crime, low intelligence, wouldn't follow on the media, socially and sexually incompetent.

Steps:

  1. Profiling inputs (assessment of crime scene)
  1. Decision process methods (type of murder, time, location)
  1. Crime assessment (organised or disorganised)
  1. Criminal profile (likely background, habits, beliefs of offender)
  1. Crime assessment (re-assessment/written report)
  1. Apprehension (suspect is taken into custody)

Bottom-Up Approach

The UK Approach

Context

the two data driven approaches:

It was made by David Canter (a well respected psychologist), he reviews 100 serial killers cases in the US, he found there was no clear difference between organised and disorganised crime.

He found that organised killers became disorganised with time,

Investigative psychology

Geographical profiling

Based on psychological theory and research

Interpersonal coherence - there is consistency in behaviour and will be links between the crime and the offenders life. However, if the crimes haven't occurred within a close period, there would be differences

Forensic awareness - certain behaviours may relate to particular police techniques and past experiences

Smallest Space analysis

Instrumental Opportunistic - 'instrumental' meaning using murder to accomplish a goal, 'opportunistic' means they took the easiest opportunities.

Instrumental cognitive - a particular concern about being detected, therefore the murder is more planned.

Expressive Impulsive - uncontrolled, in heat of strong emotions, may feel provoked by the victim.

It is the analysis of locations that are connected to a certain crime that might relate to each other

Circle theory

People who murder are most likely to kill near where they live or where they visit the most.

Most offenders have a spatial mindset and commit crimes in an imaginary circle

Marauder - the offenders home is found within the proximity/geographical area of the murders,

Criminal Geographic Targeting (CGT)

Commuter - offender travels to another geographical area and commits crimes within a defined space in which a circle can be drawn.

This is a three dimensional map that shows the time to travel to the crime scene from surrounding areas

the map is called the jeopardy surface