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Unit 3 Psychology Revision Guide
(Forensic Psychology)

Specification:
Offending behaviour:
- Problems in defining crime, measuring crimes including official statistics and alternatives
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- Theories of offending:
o Early biological approaches: atavistic form and somatotype theories
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o Psychodynamic
o Social learning theory explanations
o Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality
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Effectiveness of custodial sentencing, including recidivism
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- Treatment programmes: behaviour modification and anger management
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Problems in defining crime
Definition: Crime might simply be defined as ‘breaking the laws of society’
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Historical context: What was defined as a crime at one point in time may not be considered a crime
at another point in time
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Culture: What is acceptable in one culture may be a criminal offence in another
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Age: Age is a factor in determining whether a person is a criminal, in the UK if a person under the
age of ten commits an illegal offence they are not considered a criminal
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Deviance approach: Classifying behaviour as crime if it breeches codes of socially acceptable
behaviour
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Measuring crime
Reasons crimes aren’t reported: No victim (speeding), victim to scared or embarrassed, too trivial,
mistrust of police
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Official statistics: These consist of crimes reported to the police
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Hollins (1992) estimated that the crimes reported only account for 25% of crimes committed
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Farrington & Dowds (1985): Different policing rules may affect the crime records in different areas
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Victim surveys: People are asked if they have be a victim of crime in the last year, an example of a
victim survey is The British Crime Survey (BCS)
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These surveys focus on
people previously convicted or at a risk of offending
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Offender Profiling

Profiling entails providing a description of the offender based on an analysis of the crime
scene
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• Features of the crime:
- Corpus delecti: the evidence from the crime scene
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 Part of the modus operandi is known as signature behaviours
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taking a memento from their
victim (shoe)
• Holmes & Holmes (1996): Identified 3 major goals to profiling
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Interview suggestions and strategies:
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Methods of profiling: There is no single established methods, however there are two main
techniques, the top down approach used by the FBI called Typology and the bottom down
approach which is used in Britain called the geographical approach
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The asked them questions about their background and why and how
they committed the crimes they were found guilty of
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From this study grew the idea that those committing indictable crimes could be categorised
as either organised or disorganised
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Defined as intelligent, well-educated and sexually competent
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Defined as
unintelligent, not well educated ad often had poor social skills
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Data assimilation: collection of available information
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Crime classification: crime into category based on data
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Crime reconstruction: Developing a hypothesis about the victim and modus
operandi
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Profile generation
Criticism:
- The sample of serious offenders interview was small, this makes it unrepresentative
and they could have lied which makes it invalid
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- Classifications were quite basic and not very helpful in terms of detection
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Jenkins (1988) suggested 2 types of serial killers the respectable type and the
predictable type
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- The profile may be inaccurate if the existing knowledge is untrue
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- Interviews with convicts may not be valid as they may lie to make themselves seem
important
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One case was a sex case, the homicide,
profilers were more accurate in the sex offence case, but no significantly better than
the untrained people for the homicide case
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- Douglas (1981): Internally reviewed FBI cases
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Geographical approach
David Canter was the main person to develop this approach
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Involves collecting pieces of evidence and piecing them together to build a picture of the
perpetrator
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- Interpersonal coherence: criminals are likely to be consistent
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lives
there, works there or visits regularly
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Canter was famous for his help in solving a multiple rape and serial killer case: John Duffy in
1986
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A specific schema is mental map, an organised set of information about spatial information
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The location of the crimes can also be used to work out the offender’s
interests, employment and relationships
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Spatial data
relating to distance, movement and time are analysed to produce a three dimensional model
(Jeopardy surface)
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- Firm conclusions cannot be drawn, only probably’s
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- Location needs to be understood in the context of the offender’s behaviour at the
scene, the time of the crime and the victim
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Copson (1995): survey of 184, found profilers had very different approaches and
satisfaction depends on the individual profiler
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Goodwill and Alison (2006):
found profiling useful in linking house burglaries committed by the same burglar
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7% of the
cases and only helped solve 16% of cases
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CID chiefs
completed the questionnaire and responded negatively about the usefulness of
profiling leading to arrest but believed it had high potential which was worth
developing
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This groups attributes had enabled their survival
in the wild, but meant they were not suited for civilised society
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Evaluation:
- The sample for his study were all convicted criminals without control groups and
without careful sampling, however the sample size was large
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- Goring (1913) conducted a study comparing 3000 criminals with 3000 non criminals
and found no significant difference
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- Even if certain features occur more often, it does not mean there is a causal
relationship
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- The theory has significant racist undertones and describe people of African origins
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Endomorphic: Soft body, underdeveloped muscles, round shape, and over developed
digestive system
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Ectomorph: thin, flat chest, delicate build, young appearance, tall, lightly muscled, stoopshouldered, and large brain
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Mesomorph: Hard, muscular body, overly mature appearance, rectangular shaped, thick
skin and upright posture
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According to Sheldon, delinquency is associated with mesomorphic body types
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- Method: 200 photos of delinquencies and 200 photos of control group (students)
were rated on a scale of 1-7 for memsomophy
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- Results: The average rating of the delinquents was 4
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- Conclusion: Delinquency is associated with a memsorphic body shape
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However the sample size is of
decent size
- Sheldon rated the photo’s himself which makes it biased and the ratings are
subjective
- It’s reductionist as it only looks at body shape/type
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- However British national survey found that delinquents who were found guilty of
serious offence where often smaller
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Found that when reanalysed using this criteria the
association between delinquents and mesomorphic did not exist
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- High testosterone levels may affect both body type and aggressive behaviour
(Blackburn 1993), which may explain the association
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Twin studies:
Concordance rates between Monozygotic and Dizygotic twin pairs are compared
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- Evaluation/ Conclusion:
 MZ twins more concordant than DZ twins
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 However if genetics was the sole factor for criminal behaviour then
should be a 100% concordance in MZ twins, this means that
environmental plays apart
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- Dalgaard and Kringlen (1976): (Makes the Christiansen study reliable):
studied Norwegian twins and found a concordance rate of 26% for MZ and
15% DZ
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As
they don’t show a 100% concordance rate there may be an environmental
influence
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Adoption Studies:
These involves comparing criminal features of adopted children with the criminal
history of their biological parents and adoptive parents
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Evidence:
- Mednick et al 1984: Studied the heritability of criminal behaviour in an
adoption study
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Criminal conviction rates were compared of male
adoptees with their biological and adoptive parents
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5% of criminal adoptees whose parents weren’t convict
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Evaluation:
- Children who are adopted tend to be placed environmental that are similar
to their biological parents
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- Andrews and Bonta (2006): point out that the common criminality of
biological parent and adopted child may be a side effect of inherited
emotional instability and/or mental illness rather than directly inherited
criminality
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The Y chromosome is responsible for the ‘maleness’ and is responsible for the male
sex organ and testosterone
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5% of the prison population as opposed to 0
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 Doesn’t account for most of the criminals, however is 15 times more
in the prison population compared to the normal population
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- Although much is known about chromosomes and genetic disorders, no
single criminal gene has been identified
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This response usually requires an environmental stimulus
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Research Evidence:
- Adams (1986): found lesions to the ventral tagemental area of the midbrain
of rates let to the disruption of offensive aggression but not defensive or
predatory aggression
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 Control, scientific, and cause + effect
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APD studies using ECG’s of
the brain activity show abnormal patterns of slow wave activity, which are typical of
brain immaturity
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The
results showed there was reduced volumes of grey matter (11%) in the prefrontal
area for APD group
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This shows there is a structural brain deflect in people with APD behaviour
such as poor arousal, lack of conscience and poor fear conditions
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- Evidence from animal studies cannot be readily be generalised to explain
human behaviour
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- There are ethical implications of the bio explanations, such as issues of blame
and criminal responsibility
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Psychodynamic
Weak, deviant and harsh superego
Defence mechanism
maternal deprivation
Inadequate Superego
Blackburn (1993): suggested three types of superego may result in a person
demonstrating offending behaviour:
- The weak superego
- The deviant superego
- The over harsh superego
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The child has no idea of right and wrong
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The deviant superego: The same sex parent whom the child identifies with in the
phallic stage is immoral
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The over-harsh superego: The child’s superego is excessively punitive and
demanding of guilt, leading the child to seek out opportunities to be punished
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Defence Mechanisms
Defence mechanisms are unconscious processes which defend the conscious self
from unpleasant events in the world and unpleasant truths about the self
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Some are cathartic meaning they operate allowing the person to release pent up
feelings
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Denial: involves refusing to accept that an unpleasant event is happening as
acknowledging it would be seriously disturbing
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Rationalisation: Explaining unacceptable behaviour in a rational way
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Sublimation: involves redirection of normally primitive impulses into a more
acceptable activity
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Maternal Deprivation
Bowlby (1951): claimed if a child of a continuous and loving relationship with their
mother in the first two years of their life, it is a results in irreversible and damaging
consequences: affectionless psychopathy, intellectual retardation, and delinquency
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Quick evaluation: biased, evidence, lacks validity
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Freud claimed greater fear in boys leads to stronger superego in boys than girls- so
males should be more moral, but statistics show that males commit more crime
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The theory does not explain all types of crime e
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fraud requires careful planning
rather than impulsively acting on irrational though processes
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No real evidence for their
existence
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Criticisms include:
- Retrospective data- unreliable
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- Some of the delinquents had not suffered maternal deprivation, so their
offending behaviour must be due to other reasons
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According to SLT behaviour is learn through a processes of observation, imitation,
identification, and reinforcement
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Differential Association Theory
Sutherland (1939): suggested a sociological theory which states that criminal’s
behaviour is learned through exposure to criminal norms/values
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Causes of crime: learned attitudes, and imitation of specific acts
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a child may learn needs and values from their parents by observing their
parents attitudes towards the law
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Later development of Sutherland’s theory focus on the effects
of reinforcement and punishment
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The benefit can be
respect and approval from people whom we associate
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Results showed that 41% had criminal
convictions between ages of 10-60 years
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Key risks: family criminality, poverty, poor parenting and low
school achievement
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SLT is deterministic in stating that criminal behaviour is the result of observation of
role models, but ignores the importance of free will
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Differential association theory can explain call types of offending, not just violent
crime
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Also it is uncertain how many unfavourable
attitudes a person needs to be classed as criminal
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The theory is founded on sound scientific principles, but it perhaps an
oversimplification to apply it to such a complex behaviour
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Eysenck’s Theory of the Criminal Personality
Hans Eysenck: a key figure in personality theory and intelligence research
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We
inherit a type of nervous system that predisposes us to offending Eysenck stated that
individuals vary across two dimensions: Introvert/ extrovert and Neurotic/ Stable
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An individual
who is low in neuroticism tends to lead to be more emotionally stable
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Extraversion is associated with automatic arousal; the lower this autonomic arousal
is, the more stimulation a person seeks from their environment
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Neuroticism leads to unstable, unpredictable behaviour and is related to stability of
the individual’s CNS; a high neuroticism scores shows that an individual has high
anxiety
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Individuals high
in this trait are uncaring, aggressive, solitary and capable of cruelty
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McGurk and McDougall (1981): investigated the link between criminality and
personality type
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There was a significant difference in scores on all three dimensions
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This shows that there
is a relationship between personality type, as assessed using the EPI and delinquent
behaviour
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- It is possible to have a high extravert/neurotic score and not offend implies
there are other reasons for offending behaviour
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There are neurological differences it is opposed to environmental
theories such as Sutherland differential association theories
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- Eysenck’s theory is reductionist in nature and ignores the role of society
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Thus questioning the assumptions that
both lead to criminality
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Thus
contradicting Eysenck’s view on extroversion
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Such as Five Factor Models (Digman 1990): includes other
dimensions: openness to experience, agreeableness and
conscientiousness
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- Eysenck suggested a single criminal type
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Dealing with Offenders
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Custodial Sentencing
The role: a custodial sentence involves the offender serving the time in either a
prison or a young offender’s institution
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Recidivism: Persistent committing of crime of ‘re-offending’
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They found
57% of re-offending within two years
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- Rehabilitation: changing their behaviour
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- Deterrence: put them of offending and other people
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- Davis and Raymond 2000: concluded that custodial sentencing do not deter
others and are given to appease the public or for political reasons
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- Prisons may have other negative effects:
 Prisoners’ experiences can have negative psychological effects on
mental health
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- Glaser 1983: suggested community sentences are better as prisons can
reinforce criminal behaviour, particularly for ‘low risk’ offenders
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Incarceration with
hardened criminals gives younger inmates an opportunity to learn from
experienced offenders
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Bukshel and kilmann 1980: found common reactions to imprisonment were
restlessness, anxiety, and sleeplessness
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‘A study of prisoners and guards in a
simulated prison
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Restorative Justice
Involves the offender making amends directly to the victim either emotionally or
materially
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A meeting between victim and offender enables the offender to see the
consequences of their actions and the victim to have their say
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Restorative justice can be used as an alternative to prosecution, particularly in young
offenders where it might serve a final warning
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Sherman and Strang (2007):
- Aim: set out to review evidence of the effect of restorative justice
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- Results: Offenders outcomes: Repeat offending was substantially reduced for
some offenders, in comparison to custodial sentencing
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Victim outcomes: Posttraumatic
stress reduced, desire for revenge was significantly lower
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In practise, victims are
often reluctant to meet the offender
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Some programmes identified as restorative justice schemes actually involve
very little victim participant
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- Many studies have very high rates of attrition because the offenders and
victims drop out before the programme is finished
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Electronic Tagging

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The offender has an electronic tag strapped to their ankle, this allows continuous monitoring
of when the offender is their permanent location, in which they have to spend a certain
amount of time
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For early release offenders which means they’ve already severed some of their sentence
inside prison/ youth offending institution they can have a curfew of at least 9 hours a day for
up to six months
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If this curfew is broken the offender will be re-arrested by the police and face further
penalty, possibly a custodial sentence
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- Aim: the use and effectiveness of tagging in juvenile offenders aged 12-16 years
- Methods: National statistics from youth offending teams and monitoring were
analysed, yielding data on 315 a literature review and interviews offenders
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- Results: tagging was reserved for the most persistent offenders- each person had
committed on average more than 7 offences before they was tagged
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- Conclusion: tagging of youth juvenile is reserved for the most persistent offender
and can be effective in some cases
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Evaluation:
- Tagging is much less expensive than prison and helps reduce pressure on the rapidly
expanding prison population
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It provide the
offender with order and structure, preventing them slipping back into old lifestyles
and allowing family relationships to be maintained
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- Some sub-groups could see the tag as a trophy, Farrington showed that attitudes
can be different in certain areas, therefore it isn’t a deterrent and is less likely to
rehabilitate the offender
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Also they can stay in education
which can allow for a better job and more money
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- Tagging isn’t useful in all types of crimes, especially indictable offences such a rape
and murder as they need to be kept away from society in order to protect the
public
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Token economy is a secondary reinforcer in prison this could be something such as making a
phone call
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- A baseline rate is measure over a period of days
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- All those in contact with the offender should adhere to this programme
- The offender progress is carefully monitored
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Cohen and Filipczak 1971
- Compared 2 groups of young male prisoners
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and a control group who did
not receive treatment
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After that reoffending rates were the same
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- A token economy designed to modify the behaviour of 125 adolescent males
committed to a stage correctional institutions was implemented to boy’s cottages
focusing on social behaviour, rule following and task completion
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Appropriate behaviour increased when the token program was introduced in each
cottage
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- Results: data was collected over 14 months and the token economy resulted in an
increase in the mean percentage if appropriate behaviours for each cottage with on
noticeable improvement in the comparison cottage
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6%
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7% to 80
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2% to 94
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Navaco 1974 anger management is a form of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
The process
- Stage 1: cognitive preparation: offenders learn to recognise feelings of anger and
event that trigger their anger response
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- Stage 3: Application practise: anger-provoking situations are role played and the
offender practices using learnt techniques to control anger in a non-threatening
environment
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The programme is intensive and usually eight 2hr sessions
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Evaluation:
- Ainsworth 2000: Anger management programmes are effective in reducing anger
within prisons but only if they are well managed or supported
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- Blackburn 1993: short term gain but no long term recidivism rates, therefore it is
not clear how useful it is in the long term
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Therefore the benefits may be generalised beyond the institutional setting
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Therefore this therapy may not be of use for
violent offenders
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Main study: Ireland 2000: Study of the usefulness of a group-based anger management
programme with young male offenders
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Compared age,
type of offence and anger level
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They used
a checklist of 29 problems behaviour and a self-report
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- Conclusion: Programme successfully reduced anger and disruptive behaviour in
prison

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