Transcript FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

Crimes that are suitable
(1) Sadistic torture in sexual assaults
(2) Eviscerations
(3) Postmortem cases of slashing and cutting
(4) Motiveless fire settings
(5) Lust and mutilation murders
(6) Rapes
(7) Occult crimes
(8) Child sexual abuse including paedophilia
(9) Bank robberies
(10) Obscene and terrorist letter writing (Geberth 1996; Holmes & Holmes
2002)
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According to Holmes & Holmes (2002),
who take the FBI serial killer profiling
technique as a model for proactive
profiling of an UNSUB (Unknown
Suspect), there are three goals that a
profiler strives for:
To provide a social and psychological
assessment of the offender.
2. To provide a psychological evaluation of
belongings in possession by the offender.
3. To provide interviewing suggestions and
strategies .
1.
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This goal requires the profiler to
hypothesize as to the ‘Perps’ details
(I.e.age, race,gender) to what can
reasonably be inferred.
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They use both inductive & deductive
reasoning stats, and their knowledge.
These steps are likely to involve the
analysis of souvenirs and
motives..more commonly known as ?
 A: Signature behaviour.
 According to Douglas et. al (1986),
we should take the time to consider the
 "How plus Why equals Who" he
suggested a “good psychological profile
is an educated attempt to provide
parameters about the type of person
who committed a certain crime.”
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Jacob Fries (1773-1843) Enquires
began.
2. Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) Body
type theorist
1.
Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) Body
type theorist
4. Hans Gross (1847-1915) Personality
Theorist
3.
Lombroso's & Kretschmer's Early Attempts at Profiling
1 An aquiline beak of a nose
2. Fleshy, swollen, or protruding lips
3. Small receding chin
4. Dark hair and bushy eyebrows that meet across the nose
5. Little or no beard
6. Displays an abundance of wrinkles
7. 4 to 5 times greater taste sensibility
8. A cynical attitude, completely lacking remorse
9. More likely to wear a tattoo
10. Attaches no importance to dress as is frequently dirty
and shabby (Lombroso-Ferrero 1972)
1. Cycloid Personality -- heavyset, soft body type,
vacillates between normality and abnormality, lacks
spontaneity and sophistication, most likely to commit
nonviolent property crime.
2. Schizoid Personality -- most likely to have athletic,
muscular body; some can be thin and lean, schizophreniclike, commits violent types of offences
3. Displastic Personality -- mixed group, highly
emotional, often unable to control self, mostly commits
sexual offences or crimes of passion (Kretschmer 1925)
The doctor responsible for autopsy on
Mary Kelly.
 Reconstructed crime scenes, founded
signature behaviours.
 This led to work by other profilers such
as:
 The offices of OSS requested the help of
Walter Langer to develop the profile of
one Adolph Hitler he came with....
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A realistic appraisal of the
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German situation. If Hitler is
running the show, what kind of
person is he? What are his
ambitions? How does he appear
to the German people? What is
he like with his associates?
What is his background? And
most of all, we want to know as
much as possible about his
psychological make-up, the
things that make him tick. In
addition, we ought to know
what he might do if things
begin to go against
him." (Langer 1973)
These were the words of
Colonel William J Donovan.
The result of the
investigation
established the
psychodynamic
personality profile
that not only pointed
out Hitler's oedipal
complex in needing to
prove his manhood to
his mother, his
coprolagnia and
urolagnia, but
predicted that Hitler
would commit suicide
at war's end
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Applied criminology -- what Hans Gross said all criminal investigation
was
Behavioural evidence analysis -- Brent Turvey's profiling method
clinical criminology -- what Israeli schools call the study of insanity
crime scene analysis -- the FBI's profiling method
crime scene reconstruction -- interpreting what happened at crime
scenes
criminal investigative analysis -- what police call victimology-oriented
profiling
criminal personality profiling -- what police use with bizarre, sexual
cases
criminalistics -- interpreting the minutia (minute details) of crime scene
evidence
facet theory -- smallest space analysis; relies on differentiation of
patterns
geographic profiling -- Kim Rossmo's profiling method
hot spot analysis -- the geographic mapping of offender
residence/patterns
investigative process management -- Maurice Godwin's profiling method
investigative psychology -- David Canter's profiling method
psychodynamic personality profiling -- the CIA's profiling method
sociopsychological profiling -- Ronald Holmes' profiling method
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Profilers can expect significant challenge to the credibility
when giving evidence in a court of law.
Two main challenges seem to have some support in the
research
1. The personality of the offender stays the same
2. Elements of the crime scene reflect the personality
The criticism which involves the first assumption questions
whether criminal personality is the same from situation to
situation.
The criticism which involves the second assumption questions
whether there are such things as "signature" elements left
behind at the crime scene which reflect the thought patterns
of certain types of offenders
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The first criticism may well be valid..the
approach lacks predictive validity I.e.
Classifying offenders into broad
personality types (e.g., organized,
disorganised) and then relating those to
clusters of socio-demographic variables
(e.g., age, sex, marital status)
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It would seem more appropriate and
effective to use modern personality theories
where the personality is seen as a product
of person x situation.
Bartol & Bartol (2004) put it, there is some evidence
that criminal personality remains fairly stable across
time (trans-temporal consistency), but no evidence
that criminal personality remains fairly stable across
place (trans-situational consistency).
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Bottom-up processes
are those that take
in stimuli from the
outside world -letters and words, for
reading -- and deal
with that information
with little recourse to
higher-level
knowledge.
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Top-down processes,
on the other hand,
the uptake of
information is guided
by an individual’s
prior knowledge and
expectations.
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The creation of general
typologies of criminal behaviour
and motivation based on
interviews with captured
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criminals and
impressions of crime
scenes.
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The intuitive analysis of data
based on personal
experience in law
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enforcement.
Matching a particular type of
criminal to the features of a
particular crime.
The above type of profiling
focuses more on criminal
aspects (characteristics of
criminal)
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The data driven, building up of more
individualistic profiles through the
identification of specific associations
between particular characteristics of
the offence and the offender.
The use of scientific statistical
analysis and the application of
psychological principles.
Finding what kinds of criminal behaviours
were associated together and therefore
might be the work of the same type of
criminal.
Canter began to base profiles on
individualistic analysis, but he then
changed and begun to statistically
analyse larger number of solved crimes,
using techniques like smallest space
analysis, which reveals clusters of
events that commonly occur together, in
order to derive typologies.
In each case the behaviour of the
individual was used as a data source
rather than the interviews
Freud- Conflict between Id & Superego?
 Kohlberg-Reasoning & morality?
 Social learning theory-Observing
questionable role models?
 Bowlby-Lack of maternal figure results in
affectionless psychopathy?
 Biological (genetic, biochemical)
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According to Furnham & Heaven (1999)
studies have shown that personality is
related to anti social behaviour.
 The research has been largely cross
sectional thus looking at crime in relation
to personality types originally researched
by Eysenck: Neuroticism, introversion, extroversion &
Psychoticism.
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‘A criminal is neurotic extrovert.’
 N= Anxiety-these are similar to any drives.
 E= stimulus hungry-thrill seekers.
These individuals would be difficult to
condition!
Conscience is a response of anxiety
NE=responses are under socialised thus has
a under developed conscience.
Cochrane reviewed a number of studies
using prisoners vs. control group. They
were given the EPI questionnaire.
 Result
 Prisoners generally higher on N but not
higher on E (in fact several studies have shown criminals
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to be less extroverted-thus more introverted.)
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The EPI measures sociability of
extroversion rather than impulsivity which
is more pertinent to conditioning.
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Cochrane accepted that in it’s original
form the theory was discredited.
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Caught prisoners react differently to those
not caught (found guilty).
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Farrington (1992) role of N depends on
official vs. self reported delinquency.
Officials characterised by high N and low E
(as per Cochrane findings!)
Self reporters were opposite
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However both related to high P
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‘The notion that such a complex &
meaningful social phenomenon as crime
can ever be explained by appealing to
the activity of individual nervous systems
would be laughable were it not so
insidious ‘
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He went onto say….
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‘It places the fault inside the individuals
rather than in the social system where it
almost always belongs’.