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Forensic Psychology Topics and Objectives | Summer School London 2019

Explore forensic psychology concepts like crime linkage, psychological factors in criminal behavior, and mental health implications in the legal system. Enhance understanding through practical examples. Improve knowledge of offender profiling and eyewitness testimony.

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Forensic Psychology Topics and Objectives | Summer School London 2019

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  1. Forensic Psychology Warwick in London Summer School 2019 Week 3 / Day 2 (Tues 30/7) Dr Liz Blagrove

  2. Aims & Objectives After today’s lecture, you will be able to… • Understand what Forensic Psychology is and why Forensic Psychologists are important to the UK legal system • Evaluatesomeofthereasonswhyindividualscommitcrime • Consider the practices of Crime Linkage & Offender Profiling • Review thenatureofmemory in relationtoEyewitnessTestimonyandFalse Memory • Examine your own life experience in relation to the Psychological Science we’ve explored…

  3. What is Forensic Psychology? Legal Psychology Forensic Psychology Criminological Psychology

  4. What is a Forensic Psychologist? Reviewing Eyewitness performance Research for Policy & Practice Assessments Parole & MH Tribunals Counter-Terrorism & Hostage Negotiation Court Evidence/Reports Offender Treatment Interview Techniques Intervention for DV/Family Issues Crime Analysis/Offender Profiling Treatment for Substance Abuse

  5. Why does the legal system need Forensic Psychologists? Two components of crime in UK Law: • Actus Reus • The Guilty Act • Mens Rea • The Guilty Mind

  6. Why do People commit Crimes? • Person factors • Moral Reasoning ✅ • Social Information Processing • Mental Health issues • Personality Disorder & Psychopathy • Environmental factors • Lifestyle • Attachment ✅ • Social Learning ✅ • Hybrid factors ???

  7. Social Information Processing (Crick & Dodge, 1994) Encoding of Social Cues Interpretation & Mental Representation Clarification of Goals & Outcomes Access to/ Construction of Responses Choice of Responses Performance of Chosen Response

  8. WhatRoledoesMental Healthplay? • Two key sources • Schizophrenia? Disturbance of perception/thought/action/affect • Cause? Consequence? Correlate? • Prevalence • Depression? Unipolar vs bipolar. Mood/self-esteem/appetite/fatigue • Cause? Consequence? Co-occurring but not linked? • Consequence of punishment (imprisonment)

  9. ChallengestoIntellect..? • IQ of 100 = average • IQ of 70 = borderline impairment (intellectual disability) • + below average social function (learning disability) • IQ of 50 = substantial impairment • 70> c2.5% of general population • 0-2.8% of offenders • BUT- alternative sentences… • 4.6% (Wheeler et al, 2009) • 2-5% of service users (Lyall et al., 1995; McNulty et al., 1995)

  10. MadorBad?

  11. DSM-5: What is a Personality Disorder? • Lasting pattern of behaviour/ internal experience • Differentiated from individual’s culture • Impact on • Affect • Cognition • Impulse control • Relationships • Diagnostic caveats: The 4 Ds • Duration? (NB onset) • Diffuse contexts • Distress/Disability • Differential Diagnosis

  12. DSM 5*: What is a Personality Disorder? How are they classified? • Previously defined by clusters • Useful way to conceptualize these… • Cluster A • Withdrawn/cold/suspicious/irrational • Cluster B • Theatrical/emotional/ • attention-seeking/shallow • Cluster C • Anxious/tense/ over-controlled * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM 5. American Psychiatric Association.

  13. Histrionic • Overly emotional • Vague • Desperate for attention • Need constant reassurance- often re appearance • Self-centred • Sexually seductive • Self-important & manipulative • Preoccupied with envy, fantasy and rumination • Sense of entitlement/uniqueness • Lack of compassion • Need constant admiration Narcissistic • Irresponsible, often criminal behaviour • Starts- childhood/early adolescence • Behavioural markers of truancy, absconding, cruelty, violence, lying & theft • Adultbehaviour marked by impulsivity & lack of remorse Antisocial • Impulsive • Self-harming behaviour • Unstable affect • Intense inappropriate anger • Feel empty & bored • Frantic avoidance of abandonment • Uncertainty about self & others Borderline Cluster B -Personality Disorders

  14. What Issues can we see withPersonality Disorder Diagnoses?

  15. The Dark TriadPsychopathy, Narcissism & Machiavellianism Imagine that “problem person” in a work/study environment…

  16. Exploitation for advancement? Others’ efforts taken for granted? Lies & Deception? Cynical view of human nature? Ingratiation? Centre of attention? Selfish manipulation? Hunger for admiration? Lack of remorse? Lacking empathy? No worries about ethics? High status & signs of importance? The ‘Dirty Dozen’ (Jonason et al. 2010)

  17. The Dark Triad • Psychopathy • Machiavellianism • Manipulation of others, for own gain • Narcissism • Self-obsession, self-aggrandizement • Cluster of 3 personality traits M + P N • Characterized by… • Social malevolence • Self-promotion • Emotional Coldness • Duplicity • Aggression

  18. A Psychopath by any other name… Have we seen this concept before…? Terminology? In cultural ‘consciousness’ ? Literature & film/tv Popular psychology writing Prevalence in population (James, 2013) 1% of population Equates to 600k UK, 3 Million US citizens 25% of UK prison population But… Which means…?

  19. Psychopathy- The Other as ‘Object’ • Overlap with Machiavellianism • Three Main Components • Immune to anxiety • Absence of stress • Impact of punishment? • Absence of empathy • Evidence from neural ‘circuitry’ • Adept at social cognition • Superficial charm and glibness • ‘Pushing the right buttons’

  20. What is different in a Psychopath’sBrain…?

  21. Any Comments?

  22. HaveweseenthisBEFORE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhDZPYu8piQ&t=64s

  23. How can Psychology help ‘predict’ crime or find offenders? • Crime linkage • Behavioural analysis • Same offender-same behaviour • Temporal/geographical proximity • Offender profiling • Deducing characteristics from crime scene behaviour • Estimating future level of threat • Advice to police (e.g., interviewing, media, search, assessment)

  24. Crime Linkage • Less well known (less well-publicized!) • Technique used across the world (particularly in UK, USA, Canada, NZ, Australia, South Africa) • Offender Consistency Hypothesis (Canter, 1995) • Behavioural Distinctiveness (Woodhams et al., 2007) • Discrimination (Bennell & Canter, 2002) • Typically in investigation (sometimes in legal proceedings)

  25. The FirstProfiler?

  26. What is Profiling? Three Approaches • The Criminal Investigative Approach • Determined by expert’s knowledge base • Cases/Investigations/Reviews • 4 Steps: Assimiliation-Classification-Reconstruction-Generation • The Clinical Approach • Less coherent approach • Different knowledge base • Interpretation-Expertise-Theory

  27. What is Profiling? Three Approaches • The Statistical Approach • Pioneered by Canter • Multivariate analysis • Crime scene behaviour • Forensic evidence • Offender characteristics • Psychological processes • Assumptions made in profiling procedure

  28. What/How do Witnesses Remember?

  29. Basic Memory Processes System Variables Key Process Estimator Variables Example Factors Affecting Witnesses’ Memory

  30. Witness to a Crime? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2iszEQi_g

  31. Weapon Focus • Attentional focus, due to fear or surprise • Memory failure for other details • Cue Utilization Hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959) • Attention Capture (Hope & Wright, 2007) • Exposure effects (Fawcett et al. 2013) • Inconsistent evidence, but… potentially important factor

  32. Emotional & Traumatic Memories • Flashbulb Memory (Brown & Kulik, 1977) • Highly detailed, accurate memory • Vividness (Porter & Birt, 2001) • Emotional memories intact after 13 months (Terr, 1979) • Accuracy Trade-off? • 9/11 memories (Hirst et al, 2015) • Omissions, commissions, less salient details, • Decay & Reconstruction over time…

  33. Your turn…

  34. What about if it NEVER really happened? • Global Amnesia after trauma? • Recovered memories (Bass & Davies, 1994) • Implants (Ofshe & Watters, 1994) • Source Monitoring Errors (Hyman & Loftus, 2002) • Suggestibility • Individual Differences in memory function (i.e., Working Memory)

  35. Remember YOUR RIDE in a Hot Air Balloon? (Wade, Garry, Read & Lindsay, 2002)

  36. Does it matter HOW you ask? • Open Questions? • Free responses (Kebbell & Wagstaff, 1999) • Closed Questions • Yes/No answers • Response-limiting answers • Complexity (Kebbell & Gilchrist, 2010) • Leading Questions? • Impact of emotional words…

  37. Smashing the Speed Limit…(Loftus & Palmer, 1974)

  38. Retrieval Enhancement… • Self-Administered Interview • Resource issues • Delay • Use of other memory improvement techniques (Gabbert et al., 2012) • The Cognitive Interview (Fisher & Gieselman, 1992) • 4 techniques • Context reinstatement • In-depth report • Varying event order • Varying perspectives

  39. Audience Participation, Please!

  40. Eyewitness Questions • How many guards were in the room with Hannibal Lector & Clarice Starling? (#1) • What is Lector doing at the start of the clip? (#1) • Does Starling get angry with Lector? (#1) • What was the colour of the van that turned off the main road?(#2) • How many vehicles were in the official convoy? (#2) • What can you tell me about the car fire? (#2)

  41. Any Questions for ME?

  42. Reading • Required Reading: Johnson et al., (2011)To be completed by (please): Thursday 2/8 • Optional Reading: Chapter 7 (Memory) of Text book • Optional Task: Reflective Questions(Suggested completion- whenever you feel like it! )

  43. Some Questions to Reflect on… • Have you or your family/friends ever been a victim or witness to a crime? • What memories do you have of the event? Are these 1st or 2nd hand? • How did you feel about the event at the time/when you were told? • How do you feel about it now? • Did you interact with Police/Experts? • How could Psychologists contribute?

  44. Further Reading • Forensic Psychology: 3rd Ed. (Davies & Beech, 2012) • Chapters 1,2, 3, 6 & 10) • The Psychopath Test (Ronson, 2012)

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