Forensic Psychology Exam 2 (Golding)

Criminal Profiling
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Criminal Profiling
is there a system criminals have to commit crimes or choose their vics that leave clues to their psychological makeup?
-profiling is stimilar to fingerprints, DNA, or ballistics.
-the clues allow one to draw inferences about a criminal's personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on the crime scene and other evidence.
Process of Profiling
drawing inferences based on crime scene and other evidence.
Video: Criminal Minds- location
-noticed all places where bodies are; all in shitty places
-only one place he didn't hit- eliminate it, or it's the next spot.
-info about chemical used.
Video: Criminal Minds- handwriting
-excessively heavy pressure- uptight.
-cursive/connected: shows he deals with problems practically and directly. (just shot the dude).
Criminal Profiling is also called:
Criminal Investigation Analysis
Profiles emphasize the "signature" of a perp, aka:
Modus Operandi (M.O.)
-it's considered most helpful in crimes in which the offender has shown some form of repetitive behavior with unusual aspects (e.g., sadistic torture, bizarre behavior, acting out a fantasy.
-also, typically used in low volume serious crimes, such as serial murder, serial rape, serial arson.
What is Personality?
unique psychological qualities that influence a variety of characteristic patterns of behaviors and ways of thinking that determines a person's adjustments to the environment.
Theories of Personality
1 Type Theory
2 Trait Theor(y/ies)
Type Theory
distinct (no overlap) pattern of personality characteristics (assigned to categories), Type A vs Type B.
-Type A: gets heart diseases more; aggressive when frustrated, impatient, controlling, more likely to suffer a heart attack; organized, perfectionist.
Type B: easy-going.
Trait Theory
-traits: characteristics and patterns of behaviors or conscious motives.
- thousands of words described traits: narcissistic, honest, affectionate.
-research has shown that various traits tend to cluster in various dimensions.
-5 Factor Model of Personality
5 Factor Model of PersonalityOCEAN. 1 Openness: inventive/curious vs consistent/cautious 2 Conscientiousness: efficient/organized vs easy-going/careless. 3 Extraversion 4 Agreeableness 5 NeuroticismPersonality Disorders-everyone's personality isn't normal. -abnormality as it relates to psychological disorders involves behavior: * consideres atypcal * considered disturbing to others * unjustifiable- not a normal reaction. (e.g., laughing at a funeral) * maladaptive harmful.PsychopathologyThe study of mental disorders. under the realm of clinical psychology.Diagnosing DisordersDSM-5: classifies, but does not attribute cause. -helps in describing, treating, and researching the causes of the disorders. -297 psychological disorders; conditions are put into 17 categories.Statistics concerning mental disorders-National Institute of Mental Health- 2008. -Mental Disorders (all types) are common in the US. -An estimated 26.2% of Americans ages 18+ (1 in 4 adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year: 70 million adults in 2008.personality disorderlongstanding, inflexible, maladaptive patterns of perceiving, thinking, or behaving.Some Subtypes of Personality DisorderA. Narcissistic PD: beyond conceited; need for constant attention, respond inappropriately to criticism, grandiose sense of self-importance. ex: Bryn, Gaston. why- person does not grow out of the view that he/she is the center of the world. B. Antisocial PD (formerly a sociopath or psychopath): typically male (e.g., Hannibal) -violates rights of others- violent, criminal, unethical, exploitative, total disregard for others, feel no remorse. why- emotional deprivation in early childhood; learned from parents; arrested moral development (e.g., only care if they get caught, not that it's wrong); brain abnormalities; heredity.Famous Profiles1 Jack the Ripper (1888) 2 Mad Bomber of NY 3 Olympic Bomber (1996)Jack the Ripper-1st subject of a criminal profile. -at least 5 prostitutes found in London. *strangled, slit throats *great strength- no escapes, calls for help. *sometimes organs were removed. *profile: likely to be quiet, inoffensive looking man probably middle aged and neatly/responsibly dressed (likely, because he entered and exited the crime scene without detection). *wasn't caught.Mad Bomber of NY-30 bombings over an 8 year period in NY area (40s-50s) -police unable to solve, so they went to psychiatrist who examined the crime scenes and analyzed letters the bomber had sent. -psychiatrist said to look for a heavy-set, middle-aged, Eastern European, Catholic man who's single and lived with an aunt or sibling. *George Metsky, very similar to profile, was caught by police.Olympic Bomber-Richard Jewell incorrectly accused by criminal profile *real guy captured and convicted in 2005. *anti-abortion activist responsible for 2 bombings of abortion clinics.Who Does Criminal Profiling- a successful profiler should have an understanding of: *human psychology *investigative..... -often, profilers are forensic psychologists (clinical) -major source of research and development on criminal profiling has been FBI's BSU (behavioral science unit) (also, CIA, US Marshals).How is profiling done: 6 stages1 Profiling inputs: collecting evidence about crime. 2 Decision process models: evidence organized infer meaningful questions and patterns along several dimensions of criminal activity: -age -time -patterns. 3 Crime assessment: reconstruct behavior of perp and victim. *how does the perp interact with the the vic (e.g., grab, choke, tie up) 4 Criminal Profile -initial description of most likely suspects. (race, sex, marital status, job, living arrangements, psychological characteristics, etc.) 5 Investigation 6 ApprehensionSerial killers tend tonot use guns, preferring more intimate methods such as strangulation, stabbing, or even torture.Characteristics of Serial Killers-nearly all are white males of average IQ -most seek to dominate victims before killing them. -prefer more intimate methods -tend to select victims of a particular type.Organized murderers-described as carefully selecting and stalking their victims and planning out what they'll do to their vics. -tend to use more elaborate rituals involving torturing the vic and dismembering the corpse.Disorganized murderers-tend to be impulsive, picking their vics at random (e.g., Son of Salem), acting on sudden rage; or following commands to kill from voices in their heads. -more likely to use any weapon that may be available, to leave it at the crime scene, and to use the dead body for sexual purposes.a more differentiated scheme (??- cant read writing) has also been proposed, which groups serial killers into 4 types:1 visionary type 2 mission-oriented type 3 hedonistic type 4 power-oriented typeVisionary Type-usually psychotic. -have visions, or believe they hear voices from god or spirits telling them to kill certain types of people.Mission-oriented Type-less likely to be psychotic -motivated by a desire to kill people they regard as evil or untrustworthy (e.g., one might set out to kill physicians who perform abortions).Hedonistic Type-kill for thrills -take sadistic sexual pleasure in the torture of their vics.Power-oriented Type-get satisfaction from capturing and controlling the victim before killing.Research on ProfilingAlthough profiling is popular, its basic assumptions havent been validated. *crime scene characteristics do not fit reality into categories such as organized/disorganized.. *particular crime scene characteristics dont seem to be reliably associated with particular criminal personality types.Specific Problems1 cross situational consistency is suspect. 2 context matters 3 Ambiguous and general speculations. 4 profiles result in tunnel vision. 5 profiles are sometimes based on stereotypes: -decision about who became a suspect, who should be interrogated, and who should be convicted are based on the intuitive profiles held by police officers, attorneys, judges, and jurors. -police sometimes rely on intuitive profiles not to solve crimes, but to predict criminal behavior. -ex: in MD, even though only 17% of drivers on I-95 were African American, 70% of drivers pulled over and searched for drugs by MD State Troopers were African American.Law Enforcement Techniques to Evaluation of Criminal Suspects: Lie Detection-lying and deception are common; so common that we have many words to indicate some type of lying/deception. -some would argue that the world is full of this, and that deception is part social interaction; in fact, it could be argued that we've all lied at some point in life. -even if we consider ourselves honest people, something as simple as feigning interest in a boring story our friend is telling is deceptive.Types of Lying-omission -commission -some are well-rehearsed, some are spontaneous. -lies are told to help others, to hurt others, or to help ourselves at the expense of others. -lying is so ordinary and such a part of our every day lives and conversations that we don't notice it. -in many cases, it'd be more challenging.Can We Tell When Others are Lying-detection is poor even among those with training. -flawed interpretation of verbal and non-verbal behavior is common. -a study of 24,000 people showed that odds of detecting lies was 54%; barely higher than chance. -police officers tested for ability to detect lies told by prison inmates: scored more poorly than college students, and their results were not significantly different than if lie detection was by chance. confidence of officers increased as a function of their training and years of experience, although detection abilities did not increase. -some studies have shown that attention to behavioral and verbal cues taught in training actually makes officers worse at deception detection, while boosting their confidence in their ability.interrogators are taught to focus on behavioral cues such as:crossing legs, shifting, fidgeting, grooming gestures, avoiding eye contact; but these are flawed indicators of deception, even though they form a stereotype of how we think liars behave.Polygraph-invented by Dr. William Marsten. -once used by employers to determine if individuals were lying. *Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 generally prevents employers from using lie detector tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exemptions. (Police, CIA, FBI, Secret Service) -Theory: lying will cause physiological changes: changes will impact the sympathetic nervous system which can be measured for these changes. measures HR, BP, respiration (pneumographs), and sweat (of fingertips; galvanometer).Polygraph Procedure1 start by asking subject questions that are neutral and that no one should lie to, such "when is your birthday." -used to create a baseline. -should not affect the physiological measures and thus give a baseline measure of physiological responses. -every once in awhile ask questions that could lead to the person getting anxious and thus increasing physiological arousal; such as, "did you rob the store?" -graph: lie control question on the x-axis, heart rate (etc) on the y-axis; positive linear relationship.Problems with Polygraph1 weaknesses -person being tested may be emotionally non-reactive and thus not vary in physiological measures. -person may be at an extreme level of emotional arousal and his/her physiological responses to critical questions may increase although there was no lying. 2 use of counter-measures. -you could cause yourself to raise physiological measures on neutral questions, thus increasing baseline responses, meaning that if you lie, it will read no higher than baseline questions, therefore leading to an assumption of innocence. 3 rejected on purely ethical grounds.Video: polygraph- the art of lying on polygraph.-use more energy and brain activity when lying; using your imagination vs using your memory. -problem: no measure/discussion of how much higher HR has to go to indicate a deception. -polygraph evidence has been banned in most states. still, results may inform the police about whether a case should be pursued. these results may then be combined with those of other interrogation techniques to encourage a suspect to make a confession.Interrogation-asking questions of someone (especially a suspect or prisoner) closely, aggressively, or formally. elicit a confession.Video: NYPD Blueundocumented immigrant being accused of killing his boss who hasnt been paying him, trying to elicit a confession from him.Video: The Shield-guy accused of raping and holding hostage a young girl, they bring in a buff guy to intimidate the confession out of him (not legal).benefits of confessions1 save time 2 save money 3 make conviction more likely.statistics of confessionsestimated that self-incriminating statements are obtained from about 68% of suspects interrogated by police.Independent variable.what's manipulated.Dependent Variablewhat's measured.2x2x3 design12 conditions. (ex: reading or video about something with something: speed (fast/slow; 2), witness/no witness (2), and form of social influences (internalized guilt, confabulation, confession; 3).Research on the impact of a confession-jurors heard about 3 conditions: 1 high pressure confession: suspect handcuffed, police took out a gun, questions asked then suspect confessed. 2 low pressure confession: sus confessed immediately. 3 no confession: - verdict: 1 high pressure: 50% voted guilty 2 low pressure: 62% guilty. 3 no pressure: 19% guilty.flipwhen a suspect gives the wanted information.design for interrogation-small, soundproof room. -no sensory stimulations or distractions so that the suspect is socially isolated. -interrogator invade suspect's personal space during questioning. -should use a carefully orchestrated procedure that will overwhelm suspect and get them to confess. -should: 1 confront suspect with certainty of his/her guilt. 2 interrupt any denial of guilt. 3 elicit trust by minimizing suspect's responsibility for alleged crime ("we get why you did it, but you still did it). 4 sympathize with suspect. 5 emphasize strength of evidence against suspect.Problem of/with Coercion-if a confession is deemed to have been obtained by coercion, its said to be inadmissible. ex: intimidating the suspect; depriving them of food, water, or sleep; physical abuse.the term coercion in a legal context:not well defined -police routinely lie to suspects about evidence that they do not have (completely legal).Coerced confessions often lead to:wrongful convictions. false confessions implicated in 25% of wrongful convictions.Wrongful convictionsespecially likely to occur in cases involving very serious crimes.Certain classes are particularly vulnerable to giving coerced false confessions:- low IQ - developmental disabilities - strong desire to comply - highly suggestible - sleep deprived - younger people.Types of False Confessions1. voluntary 2. (coerced-)compliant 3. (coerced-)internalizedVoluntaryconfess to achieve a goal (e.g., fame).compliantlong, intense interrogation; confess to stop the interrogation.internalizedlong, intense interrogation; suspect convinced they committed the crime (ex: 14 year old boy in later video accused of killing his sister; interrogations and false confession given without a guardian or lawyer present).Protecting Suspects-receive legal protection -since 1966, Miranda Rights (before interrogation, often at the time of arrest)Miranda Rights- based off on Miranda vs. Arizona 1 right to remain silent 2 right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you by the court. 3 must assent that they understand their rights.Miranda v. Arizonadude charged with kidnapping and rape, but charged were dropped/let go because he was not read his rights. -he was retried and convicted, got out, stabbed to death in a bar.statistics on Miranda rights-surprisingly, 80% of suspects waive their rights. -why- guilty people want to appear cooperative. - innocent people have nothing to hide.