Forensic Psychology Study Guide

PSYC 3018 -
FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
STUDY GUIDE
SPRING 2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS
L2: Nature and Scope of Forensic Psychology .............................................................................................................................1
L3: Criminal Profiling ............................................................................................................................................................................6
L4: Psychopathy .................................................................................................................................................................................. 12
L5: Eyewitness Testimony ................................................................................................................................................................. 21
L6: Insanity and Competency ........................................................................................................................................................ 27
L7: Detecting Deception ................................................................................................................................................................... 34
L8: Domestic Violence........................................................................................................................................................................ 39
L9: Rape................................................................................................................................................................................................... 48
L10: Child Sexual Abuse .................................................................................................................................................................... 52
L11: Violence Risk Assessment........................................................................................................................................................ 59
PSYC 3018 Final Exam Preparation ............................................................................................................................................... 62

Learning Objectives L2: Nature and Scope of Forensic Psychology
Upon the successful completion of What is Forensic Psychology?
this lecture students will be able to:
• The application of methods, theories & concepts of psychology
1. Identify training and within the legal system.
professional opportunities in • The field of psychology that deals with all aspects of human behavior
forensic psychology. as it relates to the law or legal system.
2. Indicate and define sub-fields in • Forensic psychology refers to any application of psychology to the
forensic psychology. legal system.
3. Define forensic psychology and • The practice of clinical psychology and its intersection with the law.
explain the duties of a forensic • Forensic psychology is so much more than the sensational aspects
psychologist. we see on TV.
4. Explain the ways forensic • Forensic psychologists are not biologists or chemists and are rarely
psychology differs from other crime scene investigators or law enforcement officers.
related fields.
• They are just psychologists – study human behavior and try to apply
5. Explain the development of those principles to assist the legal system.
forensic psychology as a distinct
discipline. Development of Forensic Psychology as a Discipline
6. Explain the relationship
between Psychology and the • Hugo Munsterberg is often identified as one of the first psychologists
Law, considerations & conflicts to apply psychological principles to the law.
between the disciplines. • He argued on the basis of psychological research that eyewitness
testimony was unreliable & shouldn’t be used by the legal system
to bolster convictions.
• Published On the Witness Stand in 1908.
• 1908 - Lightner Witmer teaches courses on the psychology of crime.
• 1909 - Establishment of the Chicago Juvenile Psychopathic Institute.
• 1921 - psychologist allowed to testify as an expert witness in State
v. Driver.
• 1940 - People v. Hawthorne, set the U.S. precedent for psychologist
testifying as an expert witness on competence and criminal
responsibility. This case overruled an earlier lower courts decision
to disallow a psychologist testimony.
• 1962 - in Jenkins v. United States, an appeals court in the District of
Columbia ruled that psychological testimony could be admitted to
The word forensic originated
determine criminal responsibility.
from the Latin word forensis,
which means of the forum. • Prior to the Jenkins ruling, psychological testimony on insanity
had been excluded in favour of physician and psychiatrist
In ancient Rome, Forum was the
testimony.
location where citizens resolved
disputes, something akin to our • Jenkins led to a boom in forensic psychology in the United States
modern-day courtroom. during the 1960s and 1970s because of the courts willingness to
admit a variety of nonmedical testimony.
PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 1

• 1969 - Creation of the American Psychology-Law Society.
• 1970s - Founding of scholarly journals that publish articles exclusive
to forensic psychology.
Training and Professional opportunities
Who Employs Forensic Psychologists?
• Governments & facilities: i.e. prisons, jails, police departments,

corrections facilities, probation and parole, military, etc.
• Treatment facilities: i.e. drug/chemical rehabilitation, short/long
term residential facilities, counseling centers, mental hospitals, etc.
• Courts, attorneys and legal advocacy groups.
• Self employed, private practice & consultants.
• Teaching: colleges/universities with courses in psychology &/or
criminal justice.
The Duties of Forensic Psychologists
• Jury Selection
• Consultation with Lawyers
• Expert Witness
• Competency Assessment
• Insanity Assessment
• Lethality Assessment
• Custody Assessment
• Researcher
• Law Enforcement Screening
• Within the legal context, concepts such as:
• Psychopathy
• Insanity
• Risk assessment
• Personal injury
• Civil commitment
• … are of focus when psychological assessments are done by
clinical psychologists.
Only about 10% of forensic • In Prisons
psychologists and psychiatrists • Work closely with inmates, probationers, and parolees.
have ever engaged in criminal
profiling and only about • Administer psychological assessments, interpret results, and
17% even believed it was a prepare comprehensive results.
scientifically reliable practice • MMPI, Suicide, Lethality, Cognitive Assessments.
(Torres, Boccaccini, & Miller, • Develop, organize, and administer individual and group therapy.
2006).
• Alcohol and Other Drugs, Sex Offender Treatment, Anger
2 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

Management, Domestic Violence Counseling and Cognitive
Who is NOT a forensic
Intervention Counseling.
Psychologist?
• Inside the Court Room
Forensic Scientist • Psychologists can be called upon to render an opinion about
• Analyze, compare, identify & whether a defendant suffered from a guilty mind
interpret physical evidence. • Mens rea, (guilty mind) - means that an individual has
• Identify evidence & link it to committed an unlawful act wilfully or purposefully.
the suspect, victim & crime • These instances usually focus on the issue of insanity.
scene.
• As Expert Witnesses:
Forensic Psychiatrist
• Must help the court understand and evaluate evidence or
• Apply Psychiatry to the Law. determine a fact at issue.
• Application of medical • Experts can by asked to testify by the court or by counsel of
treatment in forensic either defendant or plaintiff.
settings.
• Judge decides if an expert witness can claim expert status.
• Working with Lawyers to convince the Jury
• Help attorneys in way they present cases and evidence to
jurors.
• Help establish presentation of opening and closing
statements.
• Outside the Court Room

• Witness Preparation
• Help witness present testimony better without changing the
facts.
• Manner of presentation, associated emotions, preparation
for being a witness in a courtroom, etc.
The Obligations of Psychologists in the Legal System
• The use of expert psychological testimony in courts has the

potential to advance the public confidence in the justice system as
being safer, fairer and more humane.
• Maintaining the public confidence requires facing significant
ethical questions for the psychologists and attorneys who work in
the justice system.
Examples of Academic Journals
• Journal of Forensic Sub-fields and other related yet distinct disciplines
Psychology Practice.
• Clinical-Forensic Psychology - Very similar to clinical psychology.
• Journal of Police and Clients here are not only suffering from some type of mental
Criminal Psychology. problem, but their issues are of importance to legal decision making
• Journal of Forensic Psychiatry as well.
& Psychology. • Developmental Psychology - Deals with juveniles, the elderly, and

the law. Focus on policy making rather than treatment of those with
Questions to Ponder
mental problems.
• Social Psychology - Concerned with how jurors interact and arrive
• Are there enough adequately
at a group decision.
trained psychologists to
staff the justice system to • Cognitive Psychology - Closely associated w/social psychology
provide adequate training subfield, but looks more into how people make decisions in legal
and supervision of the cases.
probation and parole staff • Criminal Investigative Psychology - Police psychology, criminal
in conducting needed profiling and psychological autopsies. Experts may choose to
screenings? conduct research and/or work closely in analyzing the minds of
• Are there enough adequately criminal suspects.
trained psychologists to staff
the justice system to provide What is Insanity?
valid assessments?
• Mental illness of such a severe nature that a person:
• Are there adequately
trained psychologists to • Cannot distinguish fantasy from reality.
staff the justice system • Cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis.
treatment programs so • Is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.
that the treatment ordered
is appropriate for the • Legal Standards of Insanity:
individual, culturally and • M’Naghten Rule (not knowing right from wrong) - With the
diagnostically and delivered M’Naghten rule, a defendant is deemed to be legally insane if
with fidelity to the evidence he or she was unaware of what he or she was doing when the
based model? offense was committed or, even if the defendant knew what he or
• Are the professionals she was doing, that defendant was incapable of understanding
provided adequate private that what they were doing was wrong.
office space and other • The “Irresistible Impulse” Test - In some cases, however, a
resources to conduct the defendant may know that his or her actions were wrong,
screening, assessments and but committed them because of an “irresistible impulse.” The
treatment with competence “Irresistible Impulse” test is used by a number of states in
and confidentiality? combination with the M’Naghten rule. With the “Irresistible
Impulse” test, the focus is on volition. Essentially, the test
allows for a defendant to be found not guilty by reason of
insanity if his or her mental illness meant that, although
recognizing the wrongness of the offense, he or she was
compelled to commit the offense anyway.
• The Durham Rule - States that the accused is not criminally
responsible if his/her unlawful conduct is or was the product of
mental disease or defect.
The Relationship of the Law and Psychology
• A more recent theoretical conceptualization of the relationship

between psychology and law is something called therapeutic
jurisprudence.

• Defined as “the use of social science to study the extent to which
a legal rule or practice promotes the psychological and physical
well-being of the people it affects.”
• The idea of therapeutic jurisprudence simply highlights some
important ways in which the law can have positive and negative
ramifications in the practice of forensic psychology and ways in
which forensic psychology can assist the legal system.
Conflicts between Psychology and the law
1. The principle of stare decisis (to let a previous decision stand), is at

the heart of the law. The courts put great stock in prior legal rulings
and are resistant to changing those prior rulings.
Psychology on the other hand focuses on the aggregation of a
number of pieces of information with conclusions that may shift
across time as the research examines a given question from different
perspectives.
2. The law tends to be authoritative.

Psychology tends to be empirically based.
3. The law uses the adversarial system (at least in Commonwealth

countries), in which two opposing sides are assumed to use
maximum effort to achieve victory.
Psychology uses experimentation through objective research.
4. The law is idiographic – focuses on an individual case or a specific

pattern of facts.
Psychology is nomothetic - focuses on the aggregate or on broad
theories that can be generalized to a number of instances.
5. The law is definitive - attempts to be certain. A defendant is either

guilty or not guilty. That is, either evidence is admissible or it is not
admissible.
Psychology is probabilistic - talks about the likelihood of a given
event occurring.
The Importance Of Research
• “The rule of law is threatened when the science used by the courts
is biased, arbitrary or otherwise unreliable. A decision using flawed
science is likely to produce an unjust result. Whether one is a forensic
psychologist or a lawyer, any failure to insure that psychological
testimony provided is ethically produced and ethically explained,
harms the entire justice system.”

Learning Objectives L3: Criminal Profiling
Upon the successful completion of What is Criminal Profiling?
• Criminal profiling is the process of identifying personality traits,
1. Define Criminal Profiling and behavioral tendencies, geographical location, and demographic
indicate major goals of this or biographical descriptors of an offender (or offenders) based on
process. crime scene characteristics.
2. Explain the different ways in
which one can gain certification Goals of Profiling
as a criminal profiler. • The primary goal of profiling is to narrow the field of possible
3. Explain the general stages of suspects.
the profiling process. • Profiling is also a form of prediction -- the profiler tries to “predict”
4. Provide examples of who the offender or offenders might be and where and how the
international regulations which next crime may occur.
offer guidance as to what
constitutes expert profiling Pros and Cons
testimony in the courtroom.
Pros:
5. Identify and describe the • Offers Investigative Data - Absent witness, video recording, and
processes involved in various other substantial evidence, criminal profiling is the only tool that
criminal profiling methods/ police can use to identify the perpetrator based on minute evidence
approaches. in the crime scene and other related locations. No matter how little
6. Critique the approaches the information may be, with criminal profiling, law enforcers have
identified in terms of their something to work on and develop leads.
similarities and differences; • Provides Protection for Potential Victims - Criminal profiling may
strengths and weaknesses. identify the demographics of a suspect’s target victims, which
7. Discuss actual cases where makes it easier for police to heighten alerts and impose protection
criminal profiling was successful for these potential victims.
and unsuccessful. • Clearer Identification of Suspect - Profiling gives a clearer description
of possible culprits, including age, marital status, criminal history,
routines, and other details, which police can use to narrow
down their list of prospect criminals and have a solid basis for an
investigation.
• Needs No Physical ID - Criminal profiling can describe the suspect
via their personal characteristics and does not require description
of their physical traits. Violent offenders with criminal records may
be easier to identify after evaluation of the crime and development
of a profile.
Cons:
• Based on Assumptions - It is possible that the real culprit does not

actually fit into the profile. That law enforcers may be after someone
who could be wrongfully accused of a crime they did not commit all
because the profile points to them.

• Relies Heavily on Consistency - Criminal profiling is largely based on
a person’s routine or habit, as in the case of serial rapists and serial
killers who do crimes with a clear pattern. But this is not always the
case with other criminals who kill at random and for the sheer fun
of it.
• Has Limited Methods - There seven methods and six scientific
approaches to criminal profiling, and all of which are imperfect.
Police create criminal profiles using these methods and approaches,
and beyond these, there is no way that criminals may be accurately
profiled.
• Subject to Different Interpretations - It was found that investigators
use ambiguous language in criminal profiles that is subject to
different interpretations. The culprit must be clearly identified,
but this is impossible or difficult when the profile language is
unverifiable and unclear.
Who is Qualified to Give Expert Offender Profiling Testimony?
• In the United States, the Federal Rule of Evidence 702 provides the
guideline for trial judges.
• This rule came about due to Daubert v. Merrell Dow
Pharmaceuticals, in which the plaintiffs were claiming that their
defects were caused by the drug the defendant gave out to
their mothers during pregnancy. Both sides had valid evidence
against one another until it was revealed that the plaintiffs
evidence was not accepted to the general scientific community
due, therefore the defendants won.
• The Federal Rule of Evidence 702 mandated the standard for
admitting expert testimony in federal courts:
• Whether the theory is generally accepted in the scientific
community;
• Whether the theory/method has been subjected to peer
review and publication;
• Whether the theory/method has been tested or can be
tested;
• Whether the potential or known rate of error is acceptable.
How can I become a Criminal Profiler?
• In the U.S., training in criminal profiling has been controlled by

the FBI and most programs in forensic psychology do not offer
specialized courses on this topic.
• The vast majority of those who do profiling in the US did not do
graduate work in psychology.
• In the UK, many profilers are psychologists.

Profiling Admissibility in Court
• Psychiatrists and psychologists made significant contributions to

the early development of criminal profiling.
• The profiles created by these practitioners were based largely
on clinical judgment and prevailing theories of personality and
psychopathology.
• For example, many early profiles from mental health practitioners
were rooted heavily in psychoanalysis. These profiles focused on
the probable interpersonal functioning and psychopathology
of the person responsible for committing the crime.
• Although some criminal profiling work is done by mental health
professionals (e.g., psychologists and psychiatrists), most of it is
done by trained law enforcement agents.
• When reviewing profiling research, one must recognize that multiple
approaches to profiling exist, each with different underlying
theories, methods, and assumptions.
• When profiles are created, both the prosecution and the defense
may attempt to have the profiler testify as an expert witness.
• The general acceptance of profiling has not been systematically
examined among mental health professionals, and arguments
that support the acceptance of profiling in the law enforcement
community typically are based on the rationale that profiling must
be accepted if it continues to be used.
• Many professionals who engage in profiling work believe that
profiling testimony is more likely to be admitted into court when it
is called something other than profiling.
• One likely reason for the discrepant decisions concerning
the admissibility of profiling testimony is that there is little
documentation one way or the other about whether profiling,
regardless of what it is called, is a generally accepted investigative
technique.
• Profiling has been referred to as:
• Behavioral evidence analysis
• Linkage analysis
• Signature analysis
• Investigative analysis
• The FBI, which originally coined the term profiling, now uses
“criminal investigative analysis.”

The FBI - Criminal Investigative Analysis
• “a process of reviewing crimes from both a behavioral and

investigative perspective.
• It involves reviewing and assessing the facts of a criminal act,
interpreting offender behavior, and interaction with the victim, as
exhibited during the commission of the crime, or as displayed in the
crime scene”.
• This approach is based on crime scene analysis and involves an
examination of the method of operation and other behavioral
patterns that can be deduced from the crime scene characteristics.
• Stage 1 - Profiling Inputs: This involves collecting all available
information about the crime, including physical evidence, crime
scene photographs, autopsy reports, witness and victim statements,
as well as police reports. Detailed background information about
the victim is noted.
• Stage 2 - Decision Process Models: At this stage, the profiler
organizes “the input into meaningful questions and patterns” (for
example, what type of murder - serial, mass or spree murder?). What
is the primary intent? The location, pattern and acts that took place
before and after the offense will also be noted at this stage. Attempt
will also be made to ascertain the length of time taken to carry out
the attack.
• Stage 3 - Crime Scene Assessment: This is arguably the most crucial
stage and care should be taken to note whether the crime scene
is staged or not. The profiler at this stage tries to reconstruct the
behavior of the offender and the victim. The aim here is to try to
ascertain what kind of weapon was used and the type of injuries.
Here the profiler also tries to classify the crime scene and the
likely offender. Does the crime scene appear to be the work of an
organized or disorganized offender? Also to be determined at this
stage are the likely motives of the crime.
• Stage 4 - Criminal Profile: At this stage, the profiler formulates an
initial description of the most likely suspects. The actual criminal
profile is now created and the best methods of apprehending the
unknown offender will be suggested. A criminal profile usually
contains such information as the likely age, race, height, gender,
marital status, job type, education, location, criminal record,
military background, social skills, sexual life, as well as use of drugs
or alcohol.
• Stage 5 - Investigation: At this stage a written report will be
presented to the investigators and they will concentrate on the
suspects matching the profile. Any new information about the
crime or other connected crimes will also be put together.
• Stage 6 - Apprehension: If any suspect is arrested, an interviewing

technique will be chosen. The criminal profile is then evaluated to
see how it matches the suspect.
The Criminal Profiling Generating Process
• A comprehensive study of the nature of the criminal act and the

type of persons who have committed like offenses in the past.
• A detailed analysis of the crime scene.
• An in-depth examination of the background and activities of the
victim or victims.
• A formulation of possible motivating factors for all parties involved.
• The development of a description of the perpetrator based on overt
characteristics from the crime scene and past criminal’s behavior.
Diagnostic Evaluation or Clinical Approach
• The oldest approach to offender profiling; an approach mainly

adopted by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists.
• Diagnostic evaluation approach looks at offenders from a mental
illness point of view and tries to examine crimes and crime scenes
from that perspective.
• Based on their clinical practice experience, their knowledge of
mental health processes and their knowledge of psychological
disorders, these practitioners try to predict the type of offenders
who are likely to be responsible for certain types of criminal behavior.
• Hence, the diagnostic evaluation approach “relies on the clinical
judgment of a profiler to ascertain the underlying motives behind
an offender’s actions.”
• Was very useful and in fact seen to be accurate in the “New York
Mad Bomber” case in 1956, when Dr. James Brussel produced a
psychological profile of the bomber using this approach.
• This approach was also used by Dr. Thomas Bond in profiling Jack
the Ripper. Similarly, this was also the approach used to produce a
psychological profile of US President Woodrow Wilson (this was not
for criminal investigation).
The Investigative Psychology (IP) or Environmental Psychology

Approach
• An approach developed in 1985 by Professor David Canter, a

professor of psychology at the University of Liverpool, when he was
invited to discuss the possibility of using psychology to assist in
police investigations.
• Professor Canter came up with what he called a five-factor model of
offender behavior.

• Interpersonal Coherence: Canter argued that an offender’s
criminal activity makes sense to them within their own personal
psychology.
• This involves analyzing an offender’s criminal actions to see
if it is related to the way he/she deals with other people in
non-criminal situations.
• It is believed that an offender’s actions at a crime scene
mirror his or her actions in non-criminal day to day activities.
• As such, “the psychologist should be able to determine
something about the offender from the victim and the
way the offender interacted with the victim (where this
can be determined, such as with “For instance, the offender
will select victims that are consistent with the important
characteristics of people who are important to the offender.”
• Significance of Place and Time: Canter believed that an offender
will likely choose to attack at a location that has some sort of
significance to him or her.
• There is the idea that offenders tend to commit murder and
rape in familiar locations, where they feel in control and
comfortable. “Therefore, if all of the crimes are committed
in a certain geographic location, there is a high chance that
the offender lives or works around the area”. Furthermore,
an examination of the place and time of an attack “may
provide valuable information on the constraints of offender’s
mobility.
• Forensic Awareness: Canter also maintained that if a crime
scene reveals that the offender took conscious steps to conceal
physical evidence, that such offender is likely to have had
previous contact with the police and knows about crime scene
investigation techniques.
• Therefore, this sort of offender is likely to have a criminal
record, and so investigators are able to narrow their search
to suspects with criminal records.
• Criminal Career: It is believed that many offenders do not
change their crime patterns.
• Therefore, attempts should be made to determine if the
likely offender is a career criminal. This involves looking at
the possible skills and occupations of the likely offender.
• Criminal Characteristics: Here attempt is made to classify
offenders, the crimes, and the crime scenes.
• There are various ways of classifying offenders and crimes
scenes. For instance, the FBI’s classification into organized
and disorganized offenders, power reassurance rapists,
power assertive rapists.

Learning Objectives L4: Psychopathy
Upon the successful completion of What is Psychopathy?
• Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient
1. Define psychopathy. emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls,
commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal
2. Explain the behavioral
behavior (Anderson & Kiehl, 2014).
characteristics of a psychopath.
• Single most important clinical construct.
3. Outline the criteria used in
the DSM-5 to diagnose a • “The most important forensic concept of the early 21st century.”
psychopath.
4. Explain various forms of Behavioral Characteristics of a Psychopath
assessment of psychopathy (at • Interpersonal Characteristics
least 2).
• Pathological lying - Can be moderate or high; in moderate
5. Discuss the nature of form, they will be shrewd, crafty, cunning, sly, and clever; in
psychopathy in regard to extreme form, they will be deceptive, deceitful, underhanded,
violence, interpersonal/ unscrupulous, manipulative, and dishonest.
affective behavior, language,
learning and cognition. • Glibness and superficial charm - The tendency to be smooth,
engaging, charming, slick, and verbally facile. Psychopathic
6. Discuss possible causes of and charm is not in the least shy, self-conscious, or afraid to say
treatment of psychopathy. anything. A psychopath never gets tongue-tied. They have freed
themselves from the social conventions about taking turns in
talking, for example.
• Grandiose sense of self-worth - A grossly inflated view of
one’s abilities and self-worth, self-assured, opinionated, cocky,
a braggart. Psychopaths are arrogant people who believe they
are superior human beings.
• Conning and manipulative - The use of deceit and deception
to cheat, con, or defraud others for personal gain; distinguished
from Item #4 in the degree to which exploitation and callous
ruthlessness is present, as reflected in a lack of concern for the
feelings and suffering of one’s victims.
• Affective or Emotional Characteristics
• Lack of remorse or guilt - A lack of feelings or concern for
the losses, pain, and suffering of victims; a tendency to be
unconcerned, dispassionate, cold-hearted, and non-empathic.
This item is usually demonstrated by a disdain for one’s victims.
• Shallow affect - Emotional poverty or a limited range or depth
of feelings; interpersonal coldness in spite of signs of open
gregariousness.
• Callousness and lack of empathy - A lack of feelings toward
people in general; cold, contemptuous, inconsiderate, and
tactless.

• Failure to accept responsibility for own acts - A failure to accept
responsibility for one’s actions reflected in low conscientiousness,
an absence of dutifulness, antagonistic manipulation, denial of
responsibility, and an effort to manipulate others through this
denial.
• Lifestyle Characteristics
• Parasitic lifestyle - An intentional, manipulative, selfish, and
exploitative financial dependence on others as reflected in a
lack of motivation, low self-discipline, and inability to begin or
complete responsibilities..
• A need for stimulation or proneness to boredom - An excessive
need for novel, thrilling, and exciting stimulation; taking chances
and doing things that are risky. Psychopaths often have low self-
discipline in carrying tasks through to completion because they
get bored easily. They fail to work at the same job for any length
of time, for example, or to finish tasks that they consider dull or
routine.
• Lack of realistic, long-term goals - An inability or persistent
failure to develop and execute long-term plans and goals; a
nomadic existence, aimless, lacking direction in life.
• Impulsivity - The occurrence of behaviors that are
unpremeditated and lack reflection or planning; inability to
resist temptation, frustrations, and urges; a lack of deliberation
without considering the consequences; foolhardy, rash,
unpredictable, erratic, and reckless.
• Irresponsibility - Repeated failure to fulfill or honor obligations
and commitments; such as not paying bills, defaulting on loans,
performing sloppy work, being absent or late to work, failing to
honor contractual agreements.
• Antisocial Characteristics
• Early behavioral problems - A variety of behaviors prior to age
13, including lying, theft, cheating, vandalism, bullying, sexual
activity, fire-setting, glue-sniffing, alcohol use, and running
away from home.
• Juvenile delinquency - Behavior problems between the ages
of 13-18; mostly behaviors that are crimes or clearly involve
aspects of antagonism, exploitation, aggression, manipulation,
or a callous, ruthless tough-mindedness.
• Poor behavior control - Expressions of irritability, annoyance,
impatience, threats, aggression, and verbal abuse; inadequate
control of anger and temper; acting hastily.
• Revocation of conditional release - A revocation of probation
or other conditional releases due to technical violations, such as
carelessness, low deliberation, or failing to appear.

• Criminal versatility - A diversity of types of criminal offenses,
regardless if the person has been arrested or convicted for
them; taking great pride at getting away with crimes. The word
psychopath can be replaced with the word sociopath throughout
this page. The meaning is very similar, if not the same.
• Other Psychopathic Characteristics
• Promiscuous sexual behavior - A variety of brief, superficial
relations, numerous affairs, and an indiscriminate selection of
sexual partners; the maintenance of several relationships at the
same time; a history of attempts to sexually coerce others into
sexual activity or taking great pride at discussing sexual exploits
or conquests.
• Many marital relationships - A lack of commitment to a long-
term relationship reflected in inconsistent, undependable, and
unreliable commitments in life, including marital.
Psychopathic Statistics
• Make up only 1 % of general population.

• Not all psychopaths are criminals, although associated with
aggressive and antisocial actions.
• Psychopaths commit a disproportionate number of serious
violent crimes.
• Ease with which a psychopath can engage in violence holds
significance for society and law enforcement.
• Their ability to potentially manipulate the authorities poses concern.
• Can be adept at imitating emotions that they believe will lessen
their punishment.
• Psychopathic killers more likely to:
• Deny charges brought against them,
• Manipulate the criminal justice system to receive reduced
sentences
• Appeal sentences to a higher court.
• Research suggests that the linguistic patterns of psychopaths are
unique compared with the patterns of non-psychopaths.
• Individuals’ language is one of the best ways to gain insight into
their thoughts and general outlook.
• Psychopaths do not differentiate in voice emphasis between
neutral and emotional words.
• More past-tense verbs, suggesting a greater psychological and
emotional detachment.
• Make fewer references to social needs relating to family and
friends.

Making a Diagnosis
• Psychopathy is not a diagnosis.

• About one-third of individuals in prison deemed “antisocial
personality disordered.”
• Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is defined mostly based on
behaviors and psychopathy is defined partially on behaviors,
but it also adds this interpersonal component.
• APD is a DSM-5 diagnosis assigned to individuals who
habitually violate the rights of others without remorse (APA,
2013).
• Almost everyone who has psychopathy would also qualify for
antisocial personality disorder, but only some individuals with
antisocial personality would also qualify as having psychopathy.
• Psychopathy is similar to all of the Cluster B personality disorders:
antisocial, narcissistic, and to a lesser extent it is associated with
borderline and histrionic personality disorder.
DSM-5 Criteria
A. A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of

others, occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more)
of the following:
1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful
behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are
grounds for arrest.
2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or
conning others for personal profit or pleasure.
3. Impulsivity of failure to plan ahead.
4. Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical
fights or assaults.
5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to
sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations.
7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being different to or rationalizing
having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.
B. The individual is at least age 18 years.
C. There is evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15
years.
D. The occurrence of antisocial behavior is not exclusively during the
course of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder

Assessment of Psychopathy
• Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) - a psychological assessment tool

most commonly used to assess the presence of psychopathy in
individuals.
• Developed by Robert Hare.
• Current version is the Psychopathy Checklist—revised (PCL-R).
• It is a 20-item inventory of perceived personality traits and recorded
behaviors, intended to be completed on the basis of a semi-
structured interview along with a review of ‘collateral information’
such as official records.
• Each item is scored on a 3-point scale ranging from 0 to 2. A
score of:
• 0 - indicates the absence of a symptom.
• 1 - indicates the possible presence of an item,.
• 2 - indicates that the symptom is definitely exhibited by the
examinee.
• A score of 30 and above is considered a conservative cut
off for psychopathy, though some studies have found that
scores as low as 25 are appropriate.
• The PCL-R, and psychopathy in general, has been used as a
categorical variable; either you are not a psychopath (a score
under 30) or you are a psychopath (score of 30 and above).
• Self-report Measures
• Advantages:
• Cost-effective
• Measure emotions that cannot be observed
• Easy to administer
• Do not require inter-rater reliability
• Can detect faking (good and bad)
• Challenges:
• Psychopaths lie
• May not have sufficient insight
• Do not experience certain emotions
Psychopathy Subtypes - Sociopathy
• More associated with criminal behavior than is primary psychopathy.

• Psychopaths and sociopaths share a DSM-5 APD diagnosis of the
following characteristics:
• Regularly breaks or flouts the law.

• Constantly lies and deceives others.
• Is impulsive and doesn’t plan ahead.
• Can be prone to fighting and aggressiveness.
• Has little regard for the safety of others.
• Irresponsible, can’t meet financial obligations.
• Doesn’t feel remorse or guilt.
• Sociopaths, in general, tend to be more impulsive and erratic in their
behavior than their psychopath counterparts. While also having
difficulties in forming attachments to others, some sociopaths may
be able to form an attachment to a like-minded group or person.
Unlike psychopaths, most sociopaths don’t hold down long-term
jobs or present much of a normal family life to the outside world.
• When a sociopath engages in criminal behavior, they may do so
in an impulsive and largely unplanned manner, with little regard
for the risks or consequences of their actions. They may become
agitated and angered easily, sometimes resulting in violent
outbursts. These kinds of behaviors increase a sociopath’s chances
of being apprehended.
• Both psychopaths and sociopaths present risks to society, because
they will often try and live a normal life while coping with their
disorder. But psychopathy is likely the more dangerous disorder,
because they experience a lot less guilt connected to their actions.
• A psychopath also has a greater ability to dissociate from their
actions. Without emotional involvement, any pain that others suffer
is meaningless to a psychopath.

• Not all people we’d call a psychopath or sociopath are violent.
Violence is not a necessary ingredient (nor is it for a diagnosis of
antisocial personality disorder) — but it is often present.
Correlates of Psychopathy
Psychopathy and Violence
• Psychopaths make up a small proportion of the population but

account for a large proportion of all crime committed. Psychopaths:
• Start their criminal careers younger.
• Persist longer and commit a greater variety of crime.
• Engage in more violent crime.
• More likely to reoffend.
• One aspect of psychopathic violence has been the difference in
type of violence.
• Instrumental violence – violence with a clearly defined goal or
planned.
• Reactive violence – perpetrated out of emotion.
• In cases of murder, psychopaths have multiple victims, stranger
victims, male victims, left the scene of the crime, and deny
responsibility (Häkkänen-Nyholm, 2009).
• Psychopathic homicide offenders are more likely to engage
in instrumental homicide as compared to nonpsychopathic
homicide offenders (Woodworth & Porter, 2002).
• Psychopathic violence is more likely to be:
• Predatory
• Instrumental
• Callous
• Calculated
• Not reactive in nature
• Target strangers
• Vindictive or opportunistic
Psychopathy and Sexual Violence
• Psychopathy is weakly associated with sexual offenses.

• Psychopathy was related to number of previous violent offenses,
but not related to previous sexual offenses.
• Offenders who commit sexual homicide score higher on
psychopathy.

• Mixed sexual offenders (assault both adults and children) are the
second most psychopathic offenders.
• Compared to other sex offenders, child molesters have the lowest
psychopathy scores.
• Psychopathic sexual offenders are more likely to be vindictive and
opportunistic, whereas, nonpsychopathic rapists are more likely to
report feeling anxious.
Learning and Cognitive Ability

• Psychopaths have inability to learn from punishment or even
declining reinforcement, whether experimenters use loud noises,
electrical shocks, or financial incentives.
• Passive avoidance learning - the inability to learn from
behaviors that punish.
Causes of Psychopathy
• Antisocial Personality Disorder is a result of a genetic predisposition
in that the individual is born without conscience.
• Do not exhibit global neuropsychological deficits (Hart, Forth, &
Hare,1990).
• Hart et al. (1990) administered a standard screening battery of
neuropsychological tests in two samples of participants divided
into low, medium, and high psychopathy. Results revealed no
differences across the three groups.
• Failure to identify differences using neuropsychological batteries
does not give definitive proof that there are no differences, but it
does tend to suggest differences may be functional rather than
structural (Hare, 2001).
• Structural biological differences – differences in the size and
shape of the brain structure.
• Functional differences – differences in how these structures of
the brain interact or function with one another.
• As a result of the possibility of functional differences, researchers
have continued to search for an underlying neurobiological basis
for the emotional and cognitive deficits of the psychopath.
• Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) test to
study the blood flow in the brains of psychopaths, while presenting
participants with emotional and neutral words.
• The study revealed that the brains, specifically the cerebral cortexes,
of psychopaths are less active and that activation is largely confined
to the occipital cortex.
• This finding suggests that psychopaths are processing the
information visually (using the occipital lobe) but that they may not
be doing much more with it.

• There is evidence for neuroanatomical differences in antisocials. Ars-
fMRI (resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) study
of n=480 adjudicated antisocial offenders showed “uncoupled
connections” in areas of the frontal and parietal lobes which are
associated with attention, self regulation, the ability to control
oneself, and resolve conflicts.
• It was noted that physiological and anatomical deficits observed in
the frontal /parietal areas, as well as the cerebellum, may account
for the chronic low arousal, high impulsivity, lack of conscience,
callousness, and decision-making problems commonly seen in
individuals with APD (Tang, Jiang, Liao, Wang, & Luo, 2013).
• There is also evidence that environmental factors, such as
internalizing messages from antisocial peers or parents are at work
in Antisocial Personality Disorder.
Theories of Psychopathy
• Response Modulation Deficit Theory - Psychopaths fail to use

contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to
modulate their behavior (Newman et al., 2007).
• Fail to learn to avoid punishment.
• Do not pay attention to cues that would inhibit behaviors.
• Affective Theory of Psychopathy - Psychopaths have a deficit in

the experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial
behavior (Blair, 2006; Hare, 2007; Patrick, 2007).
• Williamson, Harpur, and Hare (1991) - Psychopaths did not
identify emotional words faster than neutral words.
• Patrick, Bradley, and Lang (1993) - Psychopaths’ blink startle did
not differ in magnitude across pleasant, unpleasant and neutral
slides.
• Blair (2006, 2008) - proposed an amygdala dysfunction theory to
explain the affective deficits seen in psychopaths.
Psychopathy and Treatment
• Rice, Harris, and Cormier (1992) examined the effects of treatment

with psychopaths. Violent recidivism rates were:
• Untreated nonpsychopaths = 39%
• Treated nonpsychopaths = 22%
• Untreated psychopaths = 55%
• Treated psychopaths = 77%
• Caution is required when interpreting such results. It could be that
treatment to date just has not worked with psychopaths.
• Olver and Wong (2009) found that psychopathic sex offenders who
remained in treatment showed positive gains and were less likely
to reoffend.

Learning Objectives L5: Eyewitness Testimony
Upon the successful completion of
this lecture students will be able to: What is Eyewitness testimony?
1. Explain what is meant by eye • A legal term that refers to an account given by people of an event
witness testimony and its they have witnessed.
potential advantages. • For example they may be required to give a description at a trial
2. Discuss person based of a robbery or a road accident someone has seen.
characteristics which • This includes identification of perpetrators, details of the crime
increase the persuasiveness scene etc.
of eyewitnesses/eye witness • Testimonial evidence includes oral or written statements given to
testimony (Video). police as well as testimony in court by people who witnessed an
3. Evaluate the extent to which event.
person and environment • People are likely to view the same scene in different ways depending
based characteristics can bias/ on their positions, line of sight, familiarity with the area, and other
produce errors when providing factors that can interfere with a person’s ability to remember details.
eye witness testimony (see page
229 in Wrightsman for summary The Pros of Eyewitness Testimony
chart).
4. Apply theories of attention • It can be used as evidence in court.
in order to understand • A witness’s report of what occurred on that fateful day can prove
how individuals processes that the crime was really committed.
information from their external • It can provide support of the case filed in court, i.e., identifying
environment. any weapons used, offering additional information that will help
5. Discuss the processes identify the perpetrator.
underpinning our ability to • It sheds light into the sequence of the events that took place while
recognize faces. the crime was committed.
6. Identify and explain methods • An eyewitness testimony is solely based on their memory
used to improve eye witness of events that took place. This serves as evidence of a crime
testimony. committed or as a way of determining who may have been
7. Evaluate evidence regarding responsible for the incident.
the extent to which judges • It aids the jury and lawyers to better understand everything
permit psychologists to provide about a case.
evidence about the accuracy
of eyewitness testimony in the • It can influence jury decision.
court of law (see page 226 in • By having credible witnesses under oath, the jury will be able to
Wrightsman). determine whether the defendant is guilty of the crime he or
she is being accused of.
• It is generally reliable.
• If eyewitness testimony is obtained immediately after the crime,
as the witness’ memory is still fresh, then the details that are
inveighed from one person to another can be generally reliable.

Eyewitnesses are the Most
Persuasive Form of Evidence
Type of Evidence %
guilty votes
Eyewitness testimony ................. 78
Fingerprints .................................... 70
Polygraph ........................................ 53
Handwriting ................................... 34
The Cons of Eyewitness Testimony
• Because eyewitness is a form of social perception, it is subject to all

of the distortions therein, particularly that involving memory.
• In order for someone to be an accurate eyewitness, he/she must
complete three stages of memory processing:
• Acquisition - noticing and attending to the information.
Acquisition of information is affected by many factors, including:
• Whether a witness is a victim, or a bystander, the latter being
more accurate.
• How much time there is to watch the event (usually very
little).
• The nature of the viewing conditions (e.g., light, dark,
obstruction).
Biases and Errors • Biases and Errors:
• Confirmation bias: a greater focus on evidence
In the United States, apparently confirming one’s hypothesis than on
approximately 200 people have disconfirming evidence. i.e., event memory is influenced
been shown to be innocent by by the observer’s expectations.
DNA tests. More than 75% of
them were found guilty on the • Weapon focus: the finding that eyewitnesses pay so
basis of mistaken eyewitness much attention to some crucial aspect of the situation
identification. (e.g., the weapon) that they tend to ignore other details.

• Unconscious transference: the tendency of eyewitnesses
to misidentify a familiar (but innocent) face as belonging
to the person responsible for a crime.
• Verbal overshadowing: the reduction in recognition
memory for faces that often occurs when eyewitnesses
provide verbal descriptions of those faces before the
recognition-memory test.
• Cross-race effect: the finding that recognition memory
for same-race faces is generally more accurate than for
cross-race faces.
• Behrman and Davey (2001) found, from an analysis of
271 actual criminal cases, that the suspect was much
more likely to be identified when he/she was of the
same race as the eyewitness rather than a different
race (60% versus 45%, respectively).
• Loftus and Palmer (1974) argued that what happens
after observing the crime (e.g., the precise questions
eyewitnesses are asked) can easily distort eyewitnesses’
fragile memories.
• Storage - storing the information in memory. Storage of
information is subject to reconstructive memory.
• Reconstructive memory is the process whereby memories
of an event become distorted by information encountered
after the event has occurred.

• Loftus and colleagues have shown that misinformation
provided to witnesses tends to be incorporated into their
memories of the event and thereby distorts the true picture.
• The implication of these studies is that the way in which
police and lawyers question witnesses can change the
witnesses’ reports of what they saw.
• Misleading questions cause a problem with source
monitoring.
• Source monitoring is the process whereby people
try to identify the source of their memories.
• The implications for legal testimony are sobering.
Eyewitnesses who are asked misleading questions
often report seeing things that were not really
there.
• Retrieval - recalling the information stored in their memories.
There can be problems with how people retrieve information
from their memories.
• Identifying the guilty person from a police lineup is a good
example.
• Witnesses often choose the person in a lineup who most
resembles the criminal, even if the resemblance is not
strong.
• Errors are especially likely if the innocent person wears
clothing similar to that worn by the guilty person.
• To avoid the problem of witnesses choosing the
person who looks most like the suspect, psychologists
recommend that police follow six steps:
1. Make sure everyone in the lineup resembles the
witness’s description of the suspect.
2. Tell the witnesses that the person suspected of the
crime may or may not be in the lineup.
3. Do not always include the suspect in an initial lineup
4. Present pictures of people sequentially instead of
simultaneously.
5. Present witnesses with photographs of people and
sound recordings of their voices.
6. Try to minimize the time between the crime and the
identification of suspects.
The Role of Memory
• Eyewitness testimony relies on storing and recalling information.

• Storing memories requires several steps including attention,
encoding, short term memory, and long term memory.

• Not all memories pass successfully through these stages and
problems may occur at each stage.
Theoretical Considerations
• Broadbent’s Filter Theory - proposed that filtering occurs early in

processing based on physical characteristics (pitch, ear).
• People do not remember the content of the unattended ear.
Voice or noise, sex, but little else.
• Cocktail party effect – attention switches based on content of
unattended ear.
• Treisman’s attenuation theory – subjects deemphasize but not
filter out the unattended message.
• Meaning switched from one ear to the other.
• Some subjects switch ears even when told not to, following the
semantic content.
Using lineups to obtain identification evidence
• Judges’ rules for lineups:

• Physical lineups:
• Lineups should be used whenever practical and must be
used in situations where showups would not be authorized.
• Lineups not only minimize suggestions but also increase the
reliability of the identification evidence.
• They are used to test recognition in a manner that avoids
suggestiveness.
• Lineups should be sequential (one person at a time) rather
than simultaneous (group).
• There should be a Double-Blind Administrator (the
supervising officer of the lineup) who has no involvement in
the case or knowledge of the suspect.
• Photo “Lineups”
• Suspect is not present; only their photograph is viewed.
• The court has said the police must use at least 8 “suspects” to
compare from.
• Witnesses must view the photo’s independently of any other
witnesses.
• The photographic array must be maintained for court
purposes.
• Photographs must not be “suggestive” to identify the suspect.
• Photographs should be shown one photo at a time and the

person showing the photos should not have knowledge of
which photo is the suspect.
Facial Composites
• Investigators work with sketch artists and eyewitnesses to create

facial composites, or sketches of a person’s face. Today many police
departments are using facial reconstruction software to help them
with this task.
• The composite may be used internally to assist officers in identifying
the suspect or used externally through local media (radio, TV, and
newspaper) to solicit leads from citizens.
• Unusual features: tattoos, scars, etc.
• Clothing.
• Voice identification.
• Surveillance cameras, cell phones, cameras, and camcorders.
• Sketches can be done by an artist or with the assistance of one
witness or the input of a number of witnesses.

Learning Objectives L6: Insanity and Competency
Upon the successful completion of Criminal Responsibility
this lecture students will be able to
• The notion of criminal responsibility includes insanity but is more
extensive and refers to any situation in which someone lacks the
mental state required by the law to be guilty of a given crime.
Insanity vs. Competency
Insanity
• Insanity focuses on an individual ’s mental state at the time of the

crime.
• Insanity is a legal verdict that results in the defendant being found
not guilty.
• Insanity evaluations are a retrospective examination of an
individual’s mental state, because the forensic psychologist has to
go back in time.
• Insanity evaluations tend to consist of three major component:
• An interview
• Use of forensic related assessment instruments
• Collection of third-party and collateral information
• Insanity requires the presence of a mental illness.
Components of a Report • The use of the insanity defense requires that a defendant admit to
committing the crime.
1. Psychiatric history.
Rationale for Insanity Defense
2. Current mental status.
• The insanity defense is a legal defense that results in the removal of
3. Formal mental status exam. legal responsibility.
4. Any current psychotropic • Insanity is viewed as a legal compromise to a moral dilemma
medication. because society believes it is inappropriate for people who do not
5. Psychological testing. know what they are doing or who cannot control their behavior to
6. Mental health records. be punished.
7. Police information. Insanity Standards

8. Presence or absence of any • There is controversy surrounding insanity and this is exemplified
prior diagnosis. by the numerous descriptions or standards of insanity that have
9. Presence/absence /degree of existed over time.
any alcohol/substance abuse. • The definition or standard for insanity has been routinely
10. Defendant’s description of the changed over time because of concern about it being too
offense. lenient or sometimes too harsh.
11. Collateral description of the • Public outcry and a reconsideration of the insanity defense is
offense. a common result throughout history when a high-profile case
ends in an insanity verdict.

Wild Beast Test • Wild Beast Test (1724) - insanity indicated by total deprivation of
Insanity indicated by total understanding and memory and a lack of knowledge of what he is
deprivation of understanding and doing anymore than an infant, a brute, or a wild beast.
memory and a lack of knowledge • M’Naghten Rule (1843) - The M’Naghten insanity defense is
of what he is doing anymore than cognitive and focuses on the defendant’s awareness, rather than
an infant, a brute, or a wild beast. the ability to control conduct. The defense requires two elements:
• The defendant must be suffering from a mental defect at the
M’Naghten Rule time he or she commits the criminal act. The mental defect
can be called a “defect of reason” or a “disease of the mind,”
Insanity applies if the defendant depending on the jurisdiction.
suffers from a defect of reason,
from disease of the mind, as not to • The trier of fact must find that because of the mental defect,
know the nature and quality of the the defendant did not know either the nature and quality of the
act, or did not know he was doing criminal act or that the act was wrong.
wrong. • Criticisms
• Too narrowly focused or too conservative (Weiner, 1985).
• Focuses almost exclusively on the cognitive aspects of
insanity by emphasizing a defendant ’s intellectual ability to
know and not volitional aspects that could be impaired by
a mental illness.
• Rule makes it too easy for defendant with severe mental
illness to escape responsibility for crimes.
• An insanity standard that considers volition would generally
recognize problems with impulse control.
• Additions to the Rule
• Irresistible Impulse Test - States that even if a defendant
knows the nature and quality of an act and is aware that it is
wrong, he may be unable to stop his behavior.
• First adopted by the Alabama Supreme Court in the 1887
case of Parsons v. State.
• Focus is on defendant’s awareness and will.
• Defendant must suffer from mental disease or defect.
• Mental defect caused inability to control one’s actions or
conform one’s conduct to the law.
• Criticisms
• Seems to make the definition of insanity too broad,
Fun Fact failing to take into account the impossibility of
determining which acts were uncontrollable rather
Four states have abolished the
than merely uncontrolled, and also making it easier
insanity defence, including
to fake insanity..
Montana in 1979, Idaho in 1982,
Utah in 1983, and Kansas in 1996 • Too narrow; like M’Naghten, the test seemed to
(Nusbaum, 2002). exclude all but those totally unable to control their
actions.

Durham or Product Rule • Durham or Product Rule (1954) - Defendant cannot be convicted of
A person is found to be insane if a crime if the act was the result of a mental disease or defect.
the crime “was the offspring or • Durham is considered the most liberal or expansive of the three
product of mental disease in the modern insanity standards.
defendant.” • Does not require medical diagnosis of mental illness or disorder
• It assumed that forensic psychologists and other mental
health professional could not agree on the constructs that
constituted a mental disease or defect.
• Some experts believed it should be a narrow definition,
which suggested that without the presence of the mental
illness the defendant would not have committed the crime.
• Others suggested a much broader emphasis by considering
the defendant ’s entire life as a possible motivator for the
crime.
Trier of fact (finder of fact) - • The courts tried to remedy the perceived problem by
A person, or group of persons, ruling that mental health professionals could not testify
who determines facts in a legal about the connection between the mental disease and
proceeding, usually a trial. the criminal behavior (Washington v. United States, 1967),
thereby eliminating ultimate issue testimony and putting
the decision back in the trier of fact’s hands.
• Trier of fact (finder of fact) - a person, or group of persons, who
determines facts in a legal proceeding, usually a trial.
• To determine a fact is to decide, from the evidence, whether
something existed or some event occurred.
• New Hampshire only state to still use this rule.
• Model Penal Code (ALI or Brawner Rule) (1972) - A person is insane
if he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality
(wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the
requirements of the law because of mental disease or defect.
• Easier to establish insanity.
• Unlike M’Naughten, relaxes requirement for complete inability
to know right from wrong.
• “Wrong” using this standard is “criminality”, which is legal
rather than moral wrong.
• Unlike Irresistible Impulse Standard, must lack “substantial” not
total ability to conform conduct to requirements of law.
• Uses “appreciate” rather than “know.”
• Appreciate incorporates an emotional quality; evidence of the
defendant’s character or personality.
Competency
• Competency evaluations can focus on an individual’s present
mental state… whenever that moment may be occurring in the
legal process. Must be able to understand:

• Nature of charges - Must be able to understand nature of
charges and consequences given different legal outcomes.
• Role of legal professionals - Should know the role of the judge,
his/her attorney, how to communicate with attorney and role of
jury.
• Sentencing - If found guilty, will be sentenced to a particular
range of sentences.
• Competency evaluations do not always have to concern a person’s
current mental state.
• Individuals can be evaluated for:
• Competence related to standing trial.
• Refusal to enter an insanity plea.
• Prior to being executed.
• A finding of incompetence leads to a postponement in the legal
proceeding.
• Most competency standards do not require the presence of a mental
illness, even though most of those found incompetent suffer from
a mental illness.
• Defendants must only know the meaning of the charges and the
consequences of their actions at any point in the process to be
competent.
• Refers to a defendant’s capacity to function meaningfully and
knowingly in a legal proceeding.
• Idea is that if someone cannot understand the nature and purpose
of criminal proceedings, they should not continue.
• Competence applies at every stage in the criminal justice process,
but is most often raised in pretrial hearings.
• A defendant can be found competent and still plead not guilty by
reason of insanity.
Why is Competence Important?

• Defendants need to be able to understand the charges against
them so that they can meaningfully participate in the criminal
justice system.
• Punishment is only morally acceptable if the people understand
why they are being punished.
• The fairness and dignity of the adversary system requires that
defendants be able to defend themselves against the charges
brought against them.

Types of Competence
• Competence to Plead Guilty

• Requires that defendants:
• Understand the consequences of pleading guilty
• Understand the alternatives they face
• Have the ability to make a reasoned choice among the
alternatives
• Most states use the Dusky standard in determining competence
to plead guilty.
• Some psychologists believe a separate standard should be
applied.
• Competence to Stand Trial

• Dusky Standard - Provides that a defendant has the right to a
competency evaluation before his trial and that the standard
for competency to stand trial is whether the defendant has
“a sufficient present ability to consult with his attorney with a
reasonable degree of rational understanding, and a rational, as
well as factual understanding of the legal proceedings against
him.”
• Dusky v. United States (1960)
Requirements for Competence
• Foundational Competence
• The ability to understand the basic elements of the adversary
system (prosecutor, judge, jury).
• The ability to inform their attorney of information relevant to
the case.
• The ability to understand their situation as a criminal defendant.
• Decisional Competence
• The ability to understand information relevant to the decisions
they must make (pleading guilty, waiving a jury trial).
• The ability to think rationally about alternatives involved in the
decisions.
• The ability to appreciate decisions that need to be made in their
best interest.
• The ability to make a choice among the available defense
strategies.
Tests Used to Evaluate Competence
• Competency Screening Test (CST)
• 22 item sentence completion test.

• Often used as initial screening tool.
• Scores range from 2 (competent answer) to 0 (incompetent
answer).
• Scores less than 20 suggest possible incompetence to stand
trial.
• Examples
• When I go to court, the lawyer will ____.
• The way a court trial is decided ____.
• If the jury finds me guilty, I ____.
• While listening to the witnesses testify against me ____.
• When the jury hears my case, they will ____.
• Criticized for having an extremely positive view of the legal
process.
• Produces large number of false positives, labeling defendants
who are competent as incompetent.
• Has high interrater reliability and internal consistency with rater
training.
• Competency Assessment Instrument (CAI)

• A structured one hour interview that assesses 13 functions
relevant to competency for standing trial.
• Scores range from 1 (total incapacity) to 5 (total capacity),
Concerned if several scores are 3 or less.
• Shown to have 90% agreement with competency decisions
made after extensive hospital evaluations.
• Example
• Appraisal of role of: defense counsel, prosecuting attorney,
judge, jury, defendant, witnesses.
• The defendant should be able to identify the basic role of
each of these players. For example: the prosecutor as foe,
defense attorney as friend, judge as neutral, and the jury
as the deciders of guilt or innocence.
• Fitness Interview Test-Revised (FIT-R)
• Semi structured interview.
• 16 items assessing defendant’s abilities in three sections.
• Rated from 0 to 2 describing the degree of capacity demonstrated.
• Each item is assigned the weight it played in determining overall
competence.

• MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool Criminal Adjudication
(MacCAT-CA)
• Contains hypothetical situations that the defendant has to
comment on
• Includes information on four abilities:
• Understanding charges and trials.
• Appreciation of relevant information.
• Reasoning with information during decision making.
• Making a choice.

Learning Objectives L7: Detecting Deception
Upon the successful completion of Detecting Deception
this lecture students will be able to
• During investigation police have challenge of revealing deception.
1. Give an overview of some • Highly probable suspects and even witnesses lie during interviews.
examples of lie detection
techniques that were used in In Forensic Psychology
the past.
• Criminal investigations
2. Explain the rationale for
• Suspects
lie detection in forensic
psychology. • Accusers
3. Describe and explain concepts • Witnesses
such as micro expressions, • Psych evaluations
non-verbal communication,
• Pre-employment
paralanguage and other related
terms. • Fitness for duty
4. Discuss the function and • Insanity pleas
usefulness of various lie • Competence to stand trial
detection techniques used by
forensic psychologists and law • Threat Assessment
enforcement personnel. • Employment
5. Provide a critique of various lie • Interviews
detection techniques used by • Reference checking
forensic psychologies and other
law enforcement personnel. • Internal affairs
Modern Methods for Detecting Deception

• Electronic methods
• Polygraph - commonly called the “lie detector”— detects
psycho-physiological responses that accompany emotional
reactions to guilt, shame, and anxiety through heart rate, blood
pressure, breathing rate, and skin conductance.
• In addition to observing the physiological measures, the
skillful polygrapher makes behavioral observations and
notations to infer truth or deception in the subject being
examined.
• The polygraph can accurately measure and record the
physiological responses but it is unclear whether it can
detect actual lying and deception.
• Voice stress analyzer
• Neurological methods
• Brain fingerprinting
• Brain mapping

• Extreme methods
• Chemicals
• Torture
• Communication
• Actual words used
• Paralanguage - These can be used to subtly change the meaning
of a statement
• Volume
• Pace
• Tonal inclination
• Body language
• Modes of Communication
• Non-verbal communication
• Eye contact
• Posture
• Hand gestures
• Facial Expressions
• Micro expressions - Brief & involuntary facial expressions shown on
human faces according to emotions experienced.
• Paul Ekman
• Believes that facial expressions are universal rather than
culturally determined.

• Developed systems like the Facial Action Coding System
(FACS) and Emotion Facial Action Coding System (EMFACS).
• Analyzing body language

• Behavioral indicators will be more successful if:
• You have a baseline of behavior.
• There is a consequence for getting caught.
• The response is spontaneous.
• The person does not believe the lie.
• The lie involves a high degree of cognitive complexity.
Common Behavioral Cues To Detect Deception
• Changes from normal personality and mood.

• Attempts to delay – signs of delay: longer delays in responding,
signs of thinking that should not be necessary, repeating questions.
Speaking slower, more silent periods.
• Attempts to conceal: shorter answers, little detail, uncooperative
behavior/refusal to answer, no definitive answer, guarded/places
hand over mouth or covers eyes, posture shifts away from other
person, mumbling.
• Arousal: higher voice pitch, more speech errors, increased grooming
gestures, frequent swallowing, increased rate of eye blinks, increased
body movements/postural shifts, rigid posture.
• Unclear thinking: increased grammar errors, repeating sentences,
increased use of fillers (ah, um), not finishing sentences, stories that
don’t makes sense.
• Attempts to distract: more self-disparaging remarks, few factual
statements about self, changing the subject.
• Attempts to sell: “to be honest with you”, “to tell the truth”, overly
polite behavior, gestures that seem overly stiff or artificial, “saying
it was NOT me” rather than “it wasn’t me”, saying “I would NEVER do
that. It is NOT who I am.”
• Nonverbal: Increases in micro expressions, closed rather than open
body posture.
• Communication channel: smiling face and angry voice, calm face
and clenched hands, pointing down and saying “he went upstairs.”
• Expressions: no forehead expressions when showing fear or
sadness, head nods, emotions and gestures should occur before
or during point, not after, expression comes to sudden end or lasts
longer than usual.

Statement Validity Assessment
• A “verbal veracity assessment tool”

• Originated in Sweden (1963) as a method to determine the
credibility of child witnesses in sexual abuse cases. Based on what
Steller (1989) referred to as the Undeutsch hypothesis.
• Undeutsch hypothesis - states that an account based on memory
of a self-experienced event differs in content and quality from
an account of an event that is imagined or suggested.
Utility
• It is particularly difficult to evaluate the veracity of children’s

accounts of abuse because usually:
• There is no physical evidence.
• The only witnesses to the crime are the victim and the perpetrator.
Theoretical Underpinnings
• The Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) is the core component

of the Statement Validity Assessment (SVA) system.
• It is a comprehensive system used for credibility assessment of
sexual abuse allegations.
• The rationale underlying CBCA is its ability to discriminate between
two rivalling hypotheses concerning the origin of the statement:
• A “reality hypothesis.”
• The alternative hypothesis claiming that the statement is an
intentional construction.
• The SVA includes four components:
1. Case File Analysis - Analysis of facts in a case.
• Expert forms hypotheses about what happened.
• Details from the analysis will help the expert focus on critical
details later in the interview.
2. Semi-structured interview - What the Criteria-Based Content
Analysis (Stage 3) will analyze.
• Child gives his/her account of the allegation.
• Can be very difficult due to lack of verbal or cognitive skills
in young children
• Also highly influenced by personality factors such as
anxiety or simple embarrassment.
• Skill and knowledge of interviewer is critical.
• Proper kinds of questions/techniques:

• Open-ended (e.g. “Tell me what happened.”)
• Facilitative responses (“OK”, “mmhm”, head nods, etc).
• Focused questions
• Focus on specific details or aspects of the event
• Problematic questions:
• Leading (e.g. “Was it your dad?”).
• Option-posing (e.g. “Was the man white or black?”).
3. Criteria-based Content Analysis
• Used on transcripts of the interviews.
• Consists of 19 criteria judged on a three point scale.
• “0” if criteria is absent, “1” if criteria is present
• “2” if criteria is strongly present
• Consists of four categories
1. Psychological characteristics - In this category it is
important to assess the appropriateness of language and
affect and susceptibility to suggestion.
2. Interview characteristics - The assessor should analyze
the quality of the interview, rating the type of questions
asked (suggestive, leading or coactive questions) and its
overall appropriateness.
3. Motivation for making false accusations - The information
in this category should help to rule out those aspects of a
motivational nature that may be influencing the person
to provide a false testimony. It should also be borne in
mind that a minor can be under pressure from a third
person to make a false statement. An important aspect
of this category is the assessment of the context in which
the statement is generated.
4. Aspects related to the investigation - This section is
designed with the aim of rating the consistency between
previous statements and investigation results and
medical reports.
4. A validity checklist that incorporates information from the
interview and the CBCA rating.

Learning Objectives L8: Domestic Violence
Upon the successful completion of Definition
• Pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one
1. Describe the different ways partner to gain or maintain control over another intimate partner.
domestic violence can occur.
2. Explain the stages of Statistics
victimization. • Domestic Violence can occur between:
3. Identify the consequences • Spouses (same sex & opposite sex)
of domestic violence with
emphasis on battered women’s • Boyfriend and girlfriend
syndrome. • Gay and lesbian partners
4. Describe the various assessment • Parents and children
methods used within the • 85% of all domestic violence victims are female.
context of domestic violence.
• 1 in 3 women (35.6%) in the US reported experiencing rape,
5. Explain various modes of physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their
intervention for domestic lifetime.
violence cases.
• 1 in 4 (25%) women have experienced severe physical violence
by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
• 15% of all domestic violence victims are male.
• 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the US reported experiencing rape, physical
violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
•
°
1 in 7 men (14.3) have experienced severe physical violence by
an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Types of Abuse
• Physical - Can include hitting, biting, slapping, battering, burning,

shoving, etc.
• Can also include denying medical treatment and forcing drug/
alcohol use.
• Sexual - Coercing victim to have sexual contact or sexual behavior
without consent.
• Emotional - Intimidating or deflating victim’s sense of self worth
and/or self-esteem.
• Psychological - Invoking fear through intimidation; isolating the
victim from loved ones.
• Stalking - Following the victim, spying, watching, harassing, etc.
• Economic - Abuser makes or tries to make victim financially reliant.

Domestic Violence Against Men
• Embarrassment is double for men.

• Patriarchal concept: husband’s right to chastise wives.
• Fear of stigma affects statistics collected.
• Greater severity of physical damage to women makes their
victimization more visible.
• Gender norms: men naturally stronger than women; men believe
they can handle it.
• Law enforcement may not take allegations seriously if reported.
Risk Factors
• Persons with certain risk factors more likely to become perpetrators
or victims.
• Risk factors contribute to domestic violence but might not be direct
causes.
• Not everyone “at risk” becomes involved in violence.
• Combination of individual, relational, community, and societal
factors contribute to risk of becoming domestic violence victim or
perpetrator.
• Community Risk Factors:
• Poverty and associated factors (e.g. overcrowding, high
unemployment rates).
• Low social capital.
• Poor neighborhood support and cohesion.
• Weak community sanctions against domestic violence.
• High alcohol outlet density.
• Societal Risk Factors:
• Traditional gender norms.
• Gender inequality.
• Cultural norms that support aggression towards others.
• Societal income equality.
• Weak health, educational, economic, and social policies/laws.
Effects of Domestic Violence
• Survivors of domestic violence can face ongoing and challenging

effects.
• Can take time for survivor to adjust to safe environment.
• Effects can vary widely due to individuals’ responses to stress, age,
and frequency and severity of abuse.

• Physical Effects
• Bruises
• Sprained joints
• Broken bones
• Chronic fatigue
• Muscle tension
• Changes in eating and sleeping patterns
• Migraines and headaches
• Sexual dysfunction
• Menstrual cycle or fertility issues in women
• Cardiovascular disease
• Psychological Effects
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – includes flashbacks,
nightmares, severe anxiety, uncontrollable thoughts.
• Depression, including prolonged sadness.
• Low self-esteem
• Suicidal thoughts

• Alcohol and drug use
• Antisocial behavior
• Fear of intimacy
• Inability to trust others
• Emotional detachment
• Emotional & Spiritual

• Hopelessness
Effects
• Feeling unworthy
• Discouraged about the future
• Questioning and doubting spiritual faith
• Unmotivated
• Social
•
Effects
Restricted access to service
• Strained relationships with health providers and employers
• Isolation from social networks
• Homelessness
Battered Women’s Syndrome (BWS)
• Psychological condition.
• Describes pattern of behavior that develops in victims.
• Result of serious, long-term abuse.
• Dangerous because it can lead to “learned helplessness” – victim
becomes so depressed, defeated and passive she believes she
cannot leave.
• BWS recognized by many courts.
• As cycle of abuse continues, woman believes it is her fault.
• Becomes convinced of helplessness, abuse cannot be escaped,
unless drastic measures used.
Characteristics of BWS
• The woman is convinced it is all her fault.

• The woman is unable to transfer responsibility of the violence on
someone else.
• The woman believes the abuser is omniscient and omnipresent.
• The woman is concerned for her life and that of her children.

Role of Forensic Psychologists In Domestic Violence cases
• Describe - the nature, frequency, severity, and consequences of

previous violence.
• Make Predictions - about the likelihood and severity of future
violence.
• Provide - intervention recommendations for the batterer as well as
the victim.
• Make Predictions - regarding the likely outcomes of these
interventions.
Interventions for Victims
• Advocacy Interventions
• Inform, guide and help victims access range of services and
supports; ensure rights and entitlements are achieved.
• May improve women’s access to community resources, reduce
rates of domestic violence, improve safety, reduce depression
and stressors, improve parenting stress and well-being.
• Skill Building
• Teaching, training, experimental or group learning
• Has positive effects on victim’s coping, well-being, decision-
making abilities, safety and reduction of coercive and violent
behavior.
• Focus on building skills such as:
• Coping skills
• Safety planning
• Conflict resolution
• Decision making
• Danger assessment
• Economic education
• Sleep training
• Counseling
• Interventions based on brief educational, cognitive-behavioral
and motivational interviewing approaches.
• May improve
• PTSD symptoms
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Self-esteem

• Stress management
• Independence
• Re-occurrence of violence
• Motivational level
• Therapeutic
• More intensive treatments than counseling, such as group
therapy.
• May be effective in improving:
• Various PTSD symptoms
• Depression
• Trauma symptoms
• Psychological and social outcomes
• Parenting/family related outcomes
• May reduce likelihood of future domestic violence or re-
abuse
Interventions for Perpetrators
• Individual Interventions
• Types of individual interventions include:
• Case management
• Solution focused therapy
• Educational interventions
• Motivational interviewing
• May improve:
• Aggressive feelings toward partner
• Attitudinal change
• Understandings of violence and accountability
• Short Duration Group Approaches

• Lasts 16 weeks or less
• Approaches include:
• Family of origin group therapy
• Solution and goal focused treatment
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Interventions shown to reduce recidivism
←• Improve:
• Attitudinal, psychological and interpersonal outcomes

• Long Duration Group Approaches
• Over 16 weeks
• Approaches include:
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Psycho-educational components
• Abuser schema therapy
• Inconsistent results from studies
Risk Assessment In The Criminal Justice System
• Risk assessment tools used in criminal justice settings based on a

number of psychological and psychosocial factors associated with
recidivism. Two types of risk factors:
• Dynamic - Factors that can change. Changes may be associated
with changes in risk level.
• E.g. substance abuse, unemployment.
• Static - Fixed and unchangeable, such as demographic factors,
childhood history and criminal history.
Risk Assessment Instruments
• Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS)

• Developed by Straus (1979)
• Assesses intra-family conflict - how parent reacts in conflict with
child, e.g. trying to discuss an issue calmly, yelling or insulting,
threatening to spank and hitting or trying to hit child.
• Consists of 80 items
• 20 items – parent about relationship with child
• 20 items – parent about partner and his/her interactions
with child. If there is no partner, these questions not asked
• 40 items – interactions between parent and parent’s partner
• Rated on a 7 point scale: 0=never to 6= almost every day
• CTS has four scales:
• Parent-Child (Scale 1)
• Partner-Child (Scale 2)
• Parent-Partner (Scale 3)
• Partner-Parent (Scale 4)
• Criticisms
• Restricted to conflict related violence
• Underestimates violence

• Possible lost of data on purely malevolent acts
• Limited set of violent acts
• Threats are counted as violence
• Self-reports are inaccurate using a one-year period
• Equates acts that differ greatly in seriousness
• All forms of violence combined in simple sum index
• Two slaps counted the same as two knife attacks
• Context is ignored
• Counts acts of violence in isolation from circumstances
• Domestic Violence Screening Inventory (DVSI)
• 12-item tool used to assess likelihood of the occurrence of
domestic violence
• Danger Assessment (DA)
• Originally designed to assess likelihood of intimate partner
homicide. Now used to predict domestic violence recidivism.
• Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG)
• Designed for predicting recidivism.
• Shown to accurately predict partner violence recidivism
• Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA)
• Developed in Canada at British Columbia Institute on Family
Violence
• Consists of 20 items which focus on:
• Criminal history
• Psychosocial adjustment
• Spousal assault history
• Information on alleged offence
• Information collected from multiple sources including from the
accused, the victim, standardized measures of psychological
and emotional abuse and other records, e.g. police records.
• Evaluator considers items and determines whether the accused
is at low, medium, or high risk of causing imminent harm
• Used for other purposes:
• Determining treatment plans for offenders
• Intervention strategies
• Levels of supervision
• Strengths
• Good validity and reliability

• Easy to use
• Includes variety of static and dynamic factors
• Limitations
• Research dated
• Unclear which items are for predicting recidivism and which
are for treatment planning
• May not be practical
• No restrictions
• Coding criteria
• Lethality prediction not validated

Learning Objectives L9: Rape
Upon the successful completion of Definition
•
• Any person who has had sexual intercourse with another person
1. Define rape and explore without the consent of the other person and who knows that the
statistics. other person does not consent to the intercourse or is reckless as to
whether the other person consents to the intercourse.
2. Examine the various types of
rapists. Statistics
3. Discuss theories of rape. female :
• One in five women will be raped at some point in their lives.
4. Outline the effects of rape on
victims the role of forensic • 91% of rape victims are female.
psychologists. • 9.4% of women are raped by intimate partner.
• 81% of women with long and short-term effects after rape.
Male :
• One in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives.
• 9% of rape victims that are male.
• 2.2% of men are made to penetrate intimate partner.
• 35% of men with long- and short-term effects after rape.
• Relationship to the Offender
• 24.4% - strangers.
• 21.9% - husbands or ex-husbands.
• 19.5% - boyfriends or ex-boyfriends.
• 9.8% - relatives.
Facts About Rape
• Rape is not about sex; Rape is about anger, control and violence.
• Sex is the weapon.
• Not all rapists alike. Important to understand reasoning behind
their actions.
• Differences in motives, characteristics and techniques.
Reasons for Reporting
• 28% - to protect the household or victim from further crimes by the

offender.
• 25% - to stop the incident or prevent reoccurrence or escalation.
• 21% - to improve police surveillance or they believed they had to
duty to do so.
• 17% - to catch/punish/prevent offender from reoffending.
• 6% - gave different answer/declined to cite a reason.
• 3% - to get help or recover loss.

Reasons for Not Reporting Role of Forensic Psychologist
• 30% gave another reason/did not cite a reason. • Assessment

• 20% feared retaliation. • Treatment
• 13% believed police would not do anything. • Expert Witness
• 13% believed it was a personal matter.
• 8% reported it to a different official. Types of Rapists
• 8% believed it was not important enough to
report. • Typology based on:
• 7% did not want perpetrator in trouble. • Degree of aggression.
• 2% believed police could not do anything to help. • Underlying motivation of the offender.
• Existence of other antisocial behaviors.
Psychological Impacts
• Variation between offenders, however themes
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – 94% of rape can be used to identify motive.
victims meet criteria shortly after assault; 47%
three months after assault; 16.5% 17 years after • Power Reassurance
assault • Most common type
• Shame • Least violent – known as “gentleman rapist”
• Helplessness • Suffers from low self-esteem
• Anger • Probable psychosocial background: single
• Depression parent home; 10th grade education level
• Suicidal thoughts • Quiet, passive, loner with no friends or
• Rape Trauma Syndrome girlfriend
• First introduced by Anna Burgess and Lynda • Rape is not planned; murder not planned
Holmstrom (1974) • Acts out of fantasy and seeks reassurance from
• Acute state of extreme fear and other victim
emotional, physical, and psychological • Believes victim is enjoying rape
symptoms experienced immediately after
• Motive is sexual; trying to increase self-esteem
rape
through control of another person
• Second “reorganizational” phase of more
• May keep trophies for later masturbation
moderate and varied symptoms that appear
during recovery. • Power Assertive
• Problematic in courtroom because it was not • Usually sexually confident
supported by research
• Rape a way of validating his masculinity
• Strongly recommended that it be replaced by
• Finds victims in social locations, e.g. pubs,
PTSD because:
bars, parties
• PTSD less prejudicial; RTS symptoms only
• Will use con approach, getting to know victim,
equate with rape
then offering them a ride home, or walking to
• PTSD recognized as a well received term; car
found in DSM-IV
• Will usually rape away from home
• Numerous valid psychological measures
• Initially manner is friendly, changes very
and self-report inventories available for
quickly
PTSD.

• Violence is extreme, usually using fists • Photographs and video recordings may be
• Will also attack verbally taken
• Motive is to control and dominate “weaker sex” • Psychosocial background: usually raised
in single parent household; suffering from
• No apology after; keeps no souvenirs
physical abuse and sexual deviance; often
• Anger Retaliatory shows aggressive and -sexually promiscuity
tendencies early on;
• High levels of anger towards women; blames
women for injustices • Intelligent, education, usually no arrest record;
good at evading capture.
-
• Hate and anger out of control; wants to punish,

hurt and degrade women
Theories of Rape
• Often a similarity between victim and women
he has a grudge against • Evolutionary Theory
• Attacks often sudden with little forethought • Rape rooted in biology
• Assaults victim with fists, feet, weapon of • An adaptive male mating strategy to increase
choice chances of reproductive success
• Attacks may be fairly regular as a consequence • Thornhill & Palmer (2000) view all rape is
sexually motivated
Z
of built-up anger
• Psychosocial background: physical and • Evolutionary trait survived over time because
emotional abuse growing up from one or both it guaranteed the continuance of human
parents species
• Relationships with significant females was • Siegert and Ward (2002) dispute Thornhill
extremely poor and Palmer’s claim that rape is only for sex •
“…rapists are an extremely heterogeneous
• Victims will often have physical and genital
population motivated by quite distinct issues
injuries
and characterized by different clusters of
• Anger Excitation psychological characteristics.” (Seigert & Ward,
2002).
• Least common type
• Feminist Theory
• Rapist gains pleasure and sexual excitement
from distress of the victim • Rape one symptom of the larger problem of a
• Intent is to degrade, torture and kill male dominated society (Cahill, 2001)
• More a violent act than sexual act
• Often carries tools with him e.g. duct tape,
scissors, bindings, ski mask, pantyhose, etc. • Inspired by political motivations to dominate
and degrade
• Victims usually total strangers
• Deny that rape has individualistic nature
• Usually takes victims to secluded area for
complete control • Rape is a “…conscious process of intimidation
by which all men keep all women in a state of
• May keep them bound up for days or weeks, fear” (Cahill, 2001)
torturing and raping them
• Representation of women, social construction
• Tells victims what he plans to do to increase of femininity, socialization of men and social
their fear construction of masculinity can explain rape.
• Very ritualistic, planning every detail of
abduction, torture, rape, murder and disposal • Self Control Theory
of body • Male sex drive is uncontrollable

• Women have a key role in its loss of control • Females who co-offend with a male described
since women deny sex to men who have to as emotionally dependent, socially isolated,
relieve their sex drive (Polaschek & Ward, 2002) low self-esteem.
• Can be tied to Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) • Have a history of childhood sexual and physical
low self-control theory abuse.
• Theory suggests that criminal acts provide • Females who abuse alone more likely to abuse
immediate gratification; not able to deter unrelated males and be diagnosed with mood
gratification disorder.
• Crime easy, exciting, requires little skill • Female offenders who sexually abuse alone
• Individuals with low self-control more differentiated based on age of victim and
impulsive, adventurous, self-centered, more motivation for offense.
likely to engage in crime because of perceived • Often exhibit dependency needs and abuse
benefits. substances.
Female Sexual Offenders • Less likely to report severe child maltreatment;

behavior stems from dysfunctional adult
• More likely to sexually assault males. relationship and attachment deficits.
• Less likely than males to reoffend.
• Females who co-offend more likely to abuse
females and familial victims; commit multiple
sexual offenses.

Learning Objectives L10: Child Sexual Abuse
Upon the successful completion of Definitions
• Sexual Offender - Any person who has committed a sex crime.
• Define the terms child sexual • Term sexual offender likely to bring negative connotation.
abuse, child sexual offender and
pedophile. • Lots of stereotypes exists both among the general public and
mental health professionals.
• Outline the forms of child abuse.
• Child Sexual Offender - an individual who has had some form of
• Discuss the classification of sexual contact or involvement with children.
child molesters.
• Child Sexual Abuse - a form of child abuse that includes sexual
• Discuss the Barbados National activity with a minor.
Action Plan Against Child Abuse.
• No child can consent to sexual activity.
• Explain Child Sexual Abuse
Accommodation Syndrome. • Crime can have lasting effects on victim for years.
• Evaluate theories about sexual • Does not need to include physical contact.
offending. • Forms of Child Sexual abuse
• Exhibitionism, or exposing oneself to a minor.
• Fondling.
• Intercourse.
• Masturbation in the presence of a minor or forcing the minor
to masturbate.
• Obscene phone calls, text messages, or digital interaction.
• Producing, owning, or sharing pornographic images or
movies of children.
• Sex of any kind with a minor, including vaginal, oral, or anal.
• Sex trafficking
• Any other sexual conduct that is harmful to a child’s mental,
emotional, or physical welfare.
• Pedophile - an adult who has recurrent and intense sexually
arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual
activity with a prepubescent child or children—generally age 13
years or younger—over a period of at least six months.
• DSM-V criteria
A • An individual who has had arousing fantasies about, urges
for, or behaviors with a prepubescent child or children.
B • The individual has acted out these sexual desires, or is
experiencing significant distress or difficulty as a result of
these desires.
C• The Individual is 16 years of age, and at least five years older
than the child or children noted in Criterion A.

• Difficult to detect and address pedophiles that Grooming tactics
act out sexual fantasies by socially interacting
with children. • Favorite/special attention
• Impossible to estimate numbers. • Allow more choice than mother would allow
• Cannot be arrested for fantasies. • Have secrets with the child
• Allow more grown up behavior
Pedophilia vs Child Molestation • Loosen boundaries/allow child to set the
• Terms have become synonymous; media uses boundaries
them interchangeably. • Collude with child
• Labelling all child molesters as pedophiles is • Become indifferent – get child to come to them
confusing. • Create resentment in the relationship with the
• Clear differences. mum
D
• Are all pedophiles child molesters? • Give treats/allow behavior that mother would
• Person suffering from any paraphilia can not, “behind her back” (but mother aware)
legally engage in it by simply fantasizing and • Use family routines to create opportunities to
masturbating. offend, e.g. regular shopping trips, children’s
• Child molester sexually molests children. homework.
• Pedophile prefers sex with children. Strategies Against Child Sexual abuse
• Someone who prefers to have sex with adults
may, for a number of reasons, decide to have sex • Megan’s law
with a child. Such reasons might include simple • Named after Megan Kanka, who was
availability, curiosity, or a desire to hurt a loved kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered.
one of the molested child. The sexual fantasies • After murder, Kansas sought to have
of such individuals do not necessarily focus on communities warned about sex offenders in
children, and these people are not pedophiles. their area.
Child molesters • Law designed to provide information and
notification to communities.
• Fixated offenders • Nature of notification varies state to state.
• Prefers children for sexual partners and • Every state attempts to keep track of residence
identifies closely with them. of sex offenders.
• Developmentally fixated with sexual interest
in children rather than adults. • Barbados National Action Plan Against Child
Abuse
• Generally single and stranger victims.
• Developed in response to findings of Study on
• Regressed Offenders Child Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean.
• Prefers sexual partners the same age, but due • Collaboration with Child Care Board.
to precipitating stress substitutes child for • Also involved other stakeholders.
troubled adult relationship.
• Sexually mature males who return to earlier • Framework
level of development. • Public advocacy and education.
• Generally married and known to victims. • Legislation that discourages abuse,
- protects
children and penalizes perpetrators.

• Effective administration of justice • Perception of futility due to history
• Social service support to victims of abuse of inadequate responses from the
and to perpetrators. authorities;
• Desire to avoid the frustration of the
• Contributing factors to child sex abuse in protracted judicial process;
Barbados:
• Overall lack of confidence in the
• Poverty and social inequities, which led to legal process – perception that light
overcrowding in the home; sentences are handed down and that
• Lack of adequate parental supervision; there is no confidentiality in the system.
• The accepted norm that there was “nothing • Perpetrator groups
wrong” if it’s consensual, regardless of the • Fathers, brothers, uncles
child’s age;
• Victim’s boyfriends
• Children’s lack of sexual education, which
created a situation where they did not • Step fathers
know enough to protect themselves; • Mother’s boyfriends
• Aggressive female minors; • Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome
• A high level of societal tolerance attributed (CSAAS)
to: • Developed by Roland Summit, M.D. to address
• Financial dependencies – where the the secondary trauma that can be experienced
perpetrator was the main/significant by child sexual abuse victims, due to disbelief,
breadwinner in the family and taking blame and rejection from adults.
action could result in loss of income; • Normal coping behaviour of children
-
• Fear of the perpetrator and possible contradicts adult’s expectations, stigmatizing

reprisal; child with charges of lying, manipulating or
imagining from parents, courts and clinicians.
• A desire to keep the family intact;
• Abandonment by adults crucial to their
• A desire to avoid public “shame and protection and recovery pushes child deeper
embarrassment” and preserve the into self-blame, self-hate, alienation and re-
“image” of the family; victimization.
• Disbelief by parents when children • The CSAAS is a simple and logical model
speak to them about their experiences; which can be used to help in understanding
• Lack of communication between and accepting the ways in which many
parents and children means that the children react to sexual abuse. The syndrome
abuse is not always made known to challenges myths and prejudice, providing
responsible adults. credibility and advocacy for the child in the
• Under-reporting home, courts and treatment process, and
classifies the most typical reactions of child
• Fear by the potential reported that sexual abuse victims into five categories.
they may be considered “too nosey” or
“interfering in other people’s business” 1. Secrecy - Abused children tend to keep
by peers in the community; the abuse a secret. They do so for a variety
of reasons. They may be afraid of the
• Fear that the family/perceived victim abuser who may have threatened the
may deny the abuse and turn against child or someone whom the child loves.
the reporter; Physically abused children may be afraid of

being beaten again. The abuser may have
promised safety to the child or child’s loved
ones if the child keeps quiet. Neglected or
emotionally abused children long for their
parents’ approval and affection - they may
-
keep silent for fear of losing the parents’

love.
2. Helplessness - Children are inherently
helpless and subordinate. They are small,
dependent, and emotionally immature.
For all of these reasons, they cannot escape
from a dangerous situation. Children who children may imagine unacceptable
try to protect themselves are usually traits in themselves. Physically, sexually
overridden by more powerful adults. When and emotionally abused children may
their attempts to protect themselves fail, also employ defensive mechanisms (e.g.
these children come to believe that they dissociation or blocking out the memory)
are helpless. Eventually they stop trying in an attempt to accommodate to the
to protect themselves overtly. Instead abuse.
they may withdraw, go physically limp or
dissociate.* 4. Delayed, unconvincing disclosure - Adults
who ask a child to disclose abuse must
*Dissociation” is a way in which some recognize that this request may precipitate
children survive abuse by escaping an acute crisis for the child. Initial disclosures
mentally while the abuse is happening. may be fraught with anxiety, retractions
The body and the mind seem to separate. and inconsistencies. Therefore it may
While the body is being hurt, the child no sound unconvincing. Because the child
longer feels it because the mind manages has used various defensive mechanisms
to escape to a safe place. Different children to cope with the abuse, memory may be
may dissociate in different ways. One fragmentary, perceptions may be altered
example is “leaving” the body and floating and information may be scattered and
on the ceiling over the bed where the sparse.
abuse is occurring. The child may even
watch what is happening but it is as if it 5. Retraction and Recantation - Children
were happening to someone else. The who do disclose abuse may be flooded
child feels nothing. with guilt, fear and feelings of betrayal
or confusion. The adults’ immediate
3. Entrapment and Accommodation - responses may frighten them further. For
Children who keep their abuse a secret and example, the child may be removed into
continue to feel helpless inevitably feel foster care, the parent may be put in prison
trapped. However, they learn to accept the and members of the child’s family may
situation and survive. The helpless child suffer. All this may make the child retract
faced with continuing victimization must the disclosure. Children gravitate towards
learn to somehow achieve a sense of power the safety of a familiar situation, no matter
and control. The child may eventually come how painful it is. Most abused or neglected
to blame him or herself, believing s/he has children remain loyal to their families and,
provoked the abuse. Physically abused if given a choice, frequently want to stay
children may refer to their bad behaviors with their abusive parents.
as reasons why their parents must punish
them. Emotionally abused or neglected

Theories • Disinhibition is not a source of motivation,
it merely releases motivation. This second
Finkelhor’s Precondition Theory (1984) - a hierarchical precondition aims to isolate factors that
model which includes individual factors related to account for how inhibitions are overcome.
the victim, abuser and the family as well as social and
cultural factors to enhance our understanding of why 3. External inhibitors - The potential abuser must
sexual abuse occurs. overcome external obstacles and inhibitions prior
to sexual abuse.
Finkelhor’s model has more explanatory power
than other approaches in that it incorporates both • External inhibitors that may restrain the
psychological factors and sociological factors, as well abuser’s action include family constellation,
as views potential victims as not necessarily passive, neighbors, peers and societal sanctions as well
but possessing the power to resist. as the level of supervision a child receives.
• Although a child cannot be supervised
Finkelhor’s model provides a vital enhancement
24 hours per day, lack of supervision has
to treatment in that it allows for evaluation and
been found to be a contributing factor to
intervention on all four levels.
s
sexual abuse as has physical proximity and
All the factors known to contribute to child sexual
opportunity.
abuse are grouped into four pre-conditions. These
are: • External inhibitors are easily overcome if
the potential abuser is left alone with an
1. Motivation - the potential abuser needs to have
unsupervised child.
some motivation to sexually abuse. Finkelhor
argues that there are three fundamental 4. Resistance - finally, the potential abuser has to
components subsumed under the motivation to overcome the child’s possible resistance to being
sexually abuse children: sexually abused.
• Emotional Congruence - sexual contact with a • This capacity to resist may operate in a very
child satisfies profound emotional needs. subtle covert way and does not necessarily
• Sexual Arousal - the child represents the involve overt protestations. Abusers may
source of sexual gratification for the abuser. sense which children are good potential
targets, who can be intimidated or co-coerced
• Blockage - when alternative sources of sexual
to keep a secret or otherwise manipulated.
gratification are either not available or are less
satisfactory. • Abusers report that they can almost
• These components are not actual pre- instinctively pick out a vulnerable child on
conditions and not all three need to be whom to focus their sexual attentions while
present for sexual abuse to occur. The three ignoring those who might resist.
components do explain not only the instances • Frequently, these children may even be
of abusers who are not sexually motivated unaware that they are being sexually
but enjoy degrading victims and welding approached and have little or no capacity to
power but also the pedophile and the sexually resist.
motivated abuser.
• Some of the risk factor that inhibit the capacity
2. Internal inhibitions - the potential abuser must to resist include emotional insecurity and
overcome internal inhibitions that may act against deprivation etc.
his motivation to sexually abuse.
• Many children may be forced or co-coerced
• No matter how strong the sexual interest in despite displaying resistance and avoidance
children might be, if the abuser is inhibited by behaviors. Some instances of abuse are the
taboos then he will not abuse. Arguably, most result of force, threat or violence and no
people have some inhibitions against the matter how much resistance the child displays
sexual abuse of children.

it will not prevent the abuse. Precondition 4 • Most dominant in offenders who commit
has three possible outcomes: offences within the family (incest)
1. The child may resist by overtly saying no • Tend to misinterpret child’s behavior, perceive
and running away, or covertly by displaying sexual intent and show good planning
a confident and assertive manner which • Treatment involves management of perceived
conveys strong messages to the abuser not sexual entitlement and other distortions
to try for fear of detection or exposure.
3. Affective dyscontrol - Emotional regulation
2. The child may resist but still be abused
through force or violence. • Control and management of emotion
3. A child may resist but be overcome through • Poor regulation = problem behaviors (e.g.
coercion. over-use of sex as a coping strategy)
• While preconditions 1 & 2 account for the abusers • Negative emotions (e.g depression/anxiety
behavior, preconditions 3 & 4 consider the in child sex offenders can prevent the
environment outside the abuser and child which development of empathy
controls whether and whom he/she abuses. • Most dominant in offenders who show an
• Limitations impulsive and unplanned approach
• The main limitation of the model is that it is • Treatment involves learning to control and
essentially a descriptive framework which regulate their emotions
incorporates a range of dissonant theories and 4. Personality problems - Adverse early experiences
observed clinical data. lead to poor socialization, development of
• As such, it cannot be viewed as a theory until antisocial attitudes and distorted thinking.
it is tested empirically, in particular in its • Result of adverse early experiences (e.g. child
application to treatment and prevention. sexual abuse, disruptive upbringing)
• However, it does present us with a • Not clear how these factors lead to offending
comprehensive, multi causal, hierarchical • Most dominant in offenders who have
model with both psychological and sociological intimacy deficits/social functioning problems
explanatory power for understanding why and
how sexual abuse occurs, which is more than • Therapy is intensive, looking at schemas.
can be said of other theoretical approaches. • Whilst each factor contributes, one is more
Hall and Hirschman’s Quadripartite Theory Of Child prominent (the primary motivational precursor)
Molestation (1992) - Based on four components: • e.g. offender has arousal to a child
(physiological sexual arousal) and an over-
1. Physiological sexual arousal - Primary motivator riding belief that sex with a child is acceptable
of offending (cognitive distortions/personality problems).
• Deviant sexual urges and fantasies YET an offence is not committed UNTIL they
• Most likely found in offenders who commit feel depressed (affective dyscontrol being the
large numbers of offenses against children more prominent contributor - acting as a
catalyst).
• Treatment involves behavior modification for
deviant sexual arousal • Limitations
2. Cognitive Distortions - Justify their offending • Theory underpinning the model never been
behavior systematically evaluated
• Victim blame • Examines psychological factors, ignores
environmental/cultural influences
• Excusing sexually abusive behavior

• Not clear if all factors are required to some degree • Specifically, this theory suggests that individuals
for an offence to occur, or if they are optional experiencing developmentally adverse events
• IF this is the case, its is a single-factors model NOT (e.g., poor parenting, inconsistent and harsh
multi-factorial discipline, physical and sexual abuse) are likely
to exhibit distorted internal working models of
• Seems simplistic that only one factor ‘drives’ the relationships, particularly, with respect to sex
offending and aggression, resulting in poor social and self-
• No notion is given as to how factors interact regulation skills from an early age.
• Each of the four factors are really only explained • For these individuals, transition into adolescence
in general and simplistic terms is a particularly critical period. If an individual
• Are cognitive distortions a cause of offending, or comes from an adverse background and,
are they more a means to allow offending to take therefore, is already predisposed to behaving
place? in an antisocial manner, the pubertal release of
hormones may serve to fuse sex and aggression
• What about the different types of cognitive and to consolidate or enhance already acquired
distortion? sexually abusive tendencies.
Marshall and Barbaree’s integrated theory (1990)
• The sexual abuse of children occurs as a

consequence of a number of interacting distal
and proximal factors.

Learning Objectives L11: Violence Risk Assessment
Upon the successful completion of What is Violence Risk Assessment?
this lecture students will be aware
of: • Identifying factors likely to increase risk for violence, reduce risk for
violence, immediacy, severity, ways to manage violence.
Purpose
• VRA been happening in some form for centuries but contemporary
=
scientific study of VRA has roots in legal decisions and empirical
studies during mid60s and late 70s.
• Baxstrom v Herold, a 1966 decision of US Supreme Court found
that existing process of confining so-called mentally disordered
dangerous offenders after they have completed their sentence was
unconstitutional.
• Hundreds of them, who had been declared to be “dangerous” were
released from confinement or transferred to less secure institutions.
• The sociologist Henry J. Steadman took advantage of the opportunity
to study the fate of these persons and reported that there were very
few who subsequently committed new violent offenses, suggesting
that the accuracy of the determinations of dangerousness was low.
Common Contexts Where Violence Risk Assessment Is Used
• Involuntary Civil Commitment

-• Involuntary Civil Commitment
• Sexually violent predator determinations
• Transfer of youths to adult court
• Sentencing
Approaches
• Structured – represented first-generation research on risk

assessment, most commonly used today
• Unstructured – sometimes called clinical prediction, based on
clinician’s discretion, lacks rules that guide risk factor selection or
integration process. Leaves it vulnerable to decisional biases; quality
varies across clinicians. Although research shows it can still achieve
statistically significant predictable levels, differs across clinicians.
Research: lower reliability and predictive validity than structured.
• To increase reliability and validity, researchers focused on developing
and evaluating structured approaches: actuarial decision making
and structured professional/clinical judgment.

Structured Tools used in Violence Risk Assessment
• Actuarial Decision Making • Level of Service Inventory – Revised (LSI-R)

• Use of predictive or risk factors from specific • Developed by Andrews and Bonta (1995)
empirical research • 54 item risk assessment tool used to predict
• Risk factors assigned numerical value; total parole outcome and recidivism
score generated using an algorithm • Includes scales related to criminal history,
• Total score used to estimate probability alcohol/drug problems, education/
individual will offend within specific time employment, etc.
period. • Shown to predict general and violent
• Strengths recidivism
• Predictive ability • Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG)
• Easy replication • Developed by Quincy et al (2006)
• Ease of use • 12 item risk assessment tool used to predict
• Weaknesses violent recidivism
• Not much information on violence • Used with patients in forensic and non-forensic
prevention strategies settings, sex offenders, and offenders in prison
• Limiting • Includes items relating to childhood history,
• Infrequent variables adult adjustment, referral offense details, and
• Assessors may be uncomfortable psychiatric assessment results
• Structured Professional Judgment • Danger Assessment (DA)
• Shares some features with actuarial • Developed by Jacquelyn Campbell
approaches • Originally used to assess likelihood of intimate
• Allows professional judgment partner violence
• Provides guidelines but no strict cutoffs or • Now used to predict domestic violence
algorithms recidivism
• Relevance of risk factors considered to make • Used for victim education and awareness,
decisions safety planning and determining conditions
• Emphasis on risk management and importance of services.
of bridging assessment and management • Comprised of two parts:
• Focus on dynamic risk factors • Calendar on which victim indicates severity
• Strengths and frequency of abuse in last 12 months
• More flexible • 20 item checklist of risk factors
• More generalizable • Both sections completed in collaboration with
• More consistent and transparent victim
• Wide variety of information considered • Historical Clinical Risk Management (HCR-20)
• Allows for link between risk factors and
• Version 3 developed by Douglas, Hart, Webster
intervention
and Belfrage (2013)
• Weaknesses
• List of 20 probing questions as well as PCL-R
• Subjective
• Consists of three main areas: historical, clinical
• Additional empirical research needed and risk management

• Historical: review of background documents, management strategies, while others are focused
interviews and PCL-R; includes 10 domains on whether the victim will be re-victimized.
• Previous violence • Whether the purpose of the assessment is to
• Young age at first violent incident determine the risk of intimate partner violence or
intimate partner homicide.
• Relationship instability
• If the purpose of the assessment is to
• Employment problems
determine the likelihood of intimate partner
• Substance abuse problems violence recidivism, the evaluator could
• Major mental illness choose such tools as the Spousal Assault Risk
• Psychopathy Assessment Guide (SARA) or the Domestic
Violence Screening Inventory (DVSI).
• Early maladjustment
• If the purpose is to determine the likelihood
• Personality disorder
of intimate partner homicide, the evaluator
• Failure to respond to clinical supervision or could choose the Danger Assessment (DA) or
treatment in the past the DV-MOSAIC.
• Clinical: interview between subject and • The time it takes to complete the risk assessment
mental health professional, who will use their - Some tools consist of fewer items and thus are
own judgment; includes 5 domains less time consuming to complete.
• Lack of insight or difficulty understanding • For example, assessments that require file
• Negative attitudes reviews, interviews with offenders and
other contacts, and reviewing psychological
• Active symptoms of major mental illness
reports, are more time consuming than
• Impulsivity assessments that do not require these steps.
• Unresponsiveness to treatment • Furthermore, some tools require the input
• Risk management: includes 5 domains or assessment by a psychologist. One must
consider the availability of the psychologist to
• Plans lack feasibility
conduct the assessment and the time it may
• Exposure to destabilizers take him or her to conduct the assessment.
• Lack of personal support • The individual conducting the assessment.
• Refusal to attend counselling sessions or • For example, the tool that is chosen may
take medication depend upon whether the assessor is a
• Stress clinician, a law enforcement officer or a social
worker.
• Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA)
• The skill and experience of the individual
• Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) conducting the assessment.
Factors To Consider When Choosing A Violence • While some research shows that extensive
Risk Assessment Tool clinical experience is not necessary to complete
some measures, one should consider the level
• Whether the goal of the risk assessment is to of clinical experience needed to complete a
predict recidivism, to prevent violence, or both. specific tool when choosing an instrument.
• Whether the focus is offender-focused or victim- • The setting in which the assessment will take
focused - Some tools are designed to assess the place (e.g., courthouse, women’s shelter) and
offender specifically whether it is to determine the accessibility of the information necessary to
the likelihood of re-offending or to develop risk complete the assessment.

PSYC 3018 Final Exam Preparation
Criminal Profiling • Relies Heavily on Consistency - Criminal
profiling is largely based on a person’s
1. Define criminal profiling and discuss two routine or habit, as in the case of serial
advantages and two disadvantages of rapists and serial killers who do crimes
the profiling process. with a clear pattern. But this is not always
the case with other criminals who kill at
Criminal profiling is the process of using crime random and for the sheer fun of it.
scene characteristics to identify personality
traits, behavioral tendencies, geographical 2. Define the steps in the criminal profiling
location, and demographic or biographical process.
descriptors of an offender. The primary goal
of profiling is to narrow the field of possible 1. A comprehensive study of the nature of
suspects. Profiling also tries to predict who the criminal act and the type of persons
the offender might be and where and how who have committed like offenses in the
the next crime may occur. past.
Two advantages are: 2. A detailed analysis of the crime scene.
3. An in-depth examination of the
1. Provides Protection for Potential Victims background and activities of the victim
- Criminal profiling may identify the or victims.
demographics of a suspect’s target 4. A formulation of possible motivating
victims, which makes it easier for police to factors for all parties involved.
heighten alerts and impose protection for
5. The development of a description
these potential victims.
of the perpetrator based on overt
2. Clearer Identification of Suspect - Profiling characteristics from the crime scene and
gives a clearer description of possible past criminal’s behavior.
culprits, including age, marital status,
criminal history, routines, and other details, 6. Describe the Investigative Psychology
which police can use to narrow down their Approach to profiling.
list of prospect criminals and have a solid
basis for an investigation. Created by David Canter, the investigative
psychology approach uses psychology and
Two disadvantages are: a 5-factor model to create an offender profile
• Based on Assumptions - It is possible that that incudes:
the real culprit does not actually fit into
1. Interpersonal Coherence: Canter argued
the profile. That law enforcers may be
that an offender’s criminal activity makes
after someone who could be wrongfully
sense to them within their own personal
accused of a crime they did not commit all
psychology. This involves analyzing an
because the profile points to them.
offender’s criminal actions to see if it
to conceal physical evidence, that such
offender is likely to have had previous
contact with the police and knows about
Criminal Interpersonal crime scene investigation techniques.
Characteristics Coherence Therefore, this sort of offender is likely to
have a criminal record, and so investigators
are able to narrow their search to suspects
with criminal records.
Criminal Significance of 4. Criminal Career: It is believed that many
Career Time & Place
offenders do not change their crime
patterns. Attempts should be made to
Offender’s determine if the likely offender is a career
Forensic criminal. This involves looking at the
Awareness
possible skills and occupations of the likely
offender.
is related to the way he/she deals with 5. Criminal Characteristics: Here attempt is
other people in non-criminal situations. made to classify offenders, the crimes, and
It is believed that an offender’s actions the crime scenes. There are various ways
at a crime scene mirror his or her actions of classifying offenders and crimes scenes,
in non-criminal day to day activities. The e.g., classification into organized and
psychologist should be able to determine disorganized offenders, power reassurance
something about the offender from the rapists, power assertive rapists.
victim and the way the offender interacted
with the victim. 3. Describe the FBI criminal investigative
2. Significance of Place and Time: Canter analysis approach of profiling.
believed that an offender will likely choose
This approach is based on crime scene analysis
to attack at a location that has some sort of
and involves an examination of the method
significance to him or her. The idea is that
of operation and other behavioral patterns
offenders tend to commit murder and rape
that can be deduced from the crime scene
in familiar locations, where they feel in
characteristics.
control and comfortable. If all of the crimes
are committed in a certain geographic 1. Stage 1 - Profiling Inputs: This involves
location, there is a high chance that the collecting all available information about
offender lives or works around the area. An the crime, including physical evidence,
examination of the place and time of an crime scene photographs, autopsy reports,
attack may provide valuable information witness and victim statements, as well
on the constraints of offender’s mobility. as police reports. Detailed background
3. Forensic Awareness: Canter also information about the victim is noted.
maintained that if a crime scene reveals 2. Stage 2 - Decision Process Models: At this
that the offender took conscious steps stage, the profiler organizes “the input into

meaningful questions and patterns” (for arrested, an interviewing technique will
example, what type of murder - serial, mass be chosen. The criminal profile is then
or spree murder?). What is the primary evaluated to see how it matches the
intent? The location, pattern and acts that suspect.
took place before and after the offense will
also be noted at this stage. Attempt will 4. Identify and briefly describe one profiling
also be made to ascertain the length of technique that can be used by law
time taken to carry out the attack. enforcement and forensic psychologists.
3. Stage 3 - Crime Scene Assessment: This is Geographic profiling uses an offender’s past
arguably the most crucial stage and care crimes to predict his location. Ideally, profilers
should be taken to note whether the crime need five crimes to create an accurate
scene is staged or not. The profiler at this geographic profile. The different locations
stage tries to reconstruct the behavior of of these crimes help investigators narrow
the offender and the victim. The aim here down a particular geographic area where
is to try to ascertain what kind of weapon the offender may be located. This area may
was used and the type of injuries. Here include the offender’s home or work address,
the profiler also tries to classify the crime his regular travel route or places he frequents
scene and the likely offender. Does the for entertainment and recreation.
crime scene appear to be the work of an
organized or disorganized offender? Also Insanity and Competency
to be determined at this stage are the likely
motives of the crime. 1. Using an example, differentiate between
the two terms insanity and competency.
4. Stage 4 - Criminal Profile: At this stage, the
profiler formulates an initial description of Insanity refers to mental illness of such
the most likely suspects. The actual criminal a severe nature that a person: 1) Cannot
profile is now created and the best methods distinguish fantasy from reality; 2) Cannot
of apprehending the unknown offender conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis; 3) Is
will be suggested. A criminal profile usually subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.
contains such information as the likely age,Insanity is a legal verdict that results in the
race, height, gender, marital status, job defendant being found not guilty, and focuses
type, education, location, criminal record, on an individual’s mental state at the time of
military background, social skills, sexual the crime. Insanity requires the presence of a
life, as well as use of drugs or alcohol. mental illness, and that the defendant admit
5. Stage 5 - Investigation: At this stage a to committing the crime.
written report will be presented to the Competency refers to a person’s present
investigators and they will concentrate mental state, and their ability to understand:
on the suspects matching the profile. Any 1) the nature and consequences of charges; 2)
new information about the crime or other the role of the judge, his/her attorney, how to
connected crimes will also be put together. communicate with attorney and role of jury;
6. Stage 6 - Apprehension: If any suspect is 3) sentencing possibilities.

Competency evaluations do not always 3. The Durham Rule (1954) - States that
have to concern a person’s current mental the accused is not criminally responsible
state. Individuals can be evaluated for: 1) if his/her unlawful conduct is or was the
Competence related to standing trial; 2) product of mental disease or defect.
Refusal to enter an insanity plea; 3) Prior to 4. Model Penal Code (1972) - A person is
being executed. insane if he lacks substantial capacity
A finding of incompetence leads to a either to appreciate the criminality of
postponement in the legal proceeding. Most his conduct or to conform his conduct
competency standards do not require the to the requirements of the law because
presence of a mental illness. of mental disease or defect.
2. Identify two forms of competency and a

test that can be used to evaluate the form
identified. After Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals,
the Federal Rule of Evidence 702 mandated
Two forms of competency are competency to the standard for admitting expert testimony
stand trial, and competency to plead guilty. in federal courts:
Two tests are 1) Competency Screening Test, 1. Whether the theory is generally accepted
and 2) Fitness Interview Test. Dusky Starday in the scientific community;
-
3. Identify and describe the different 2. Whether the theory/method has been
insanity defenses. subjected to peer review and publication;
1. M’Naghten Rule (1843) - a defendant 3. Whether the theory/method has been
is deemed to be legally insane if he or tested or can be tested;
she was unaware of what he or she was 4. Whether the potential or known rate of
doing when the offense was committed error is acceptable.
or, even if the defendant knew what he
or she was doing, that defendant was • 1921 - psychologist allowed to testify as an
incapable of understanding that what expert witness in State v. Driver.
they were doing was wrong.
• 1940 - People v. Hawthorne, set the U.S.
2. The “Irresistible Impulse” Test (1887) precedent for psychologist testifying as
- In some cases, however, a defendant an expert witness on competence and
may know that his or her actions were criminal responsibility. This case overruled
wrong, but committed them because an earlier lower courts decision to disallow
of an “irresistible impulse.” Essentially, a psychologist testimony.
the test allows for a defendant to be
• 1962 - in Jenkins v. United States, an appeals
found not guilty by reason of insanity
court in the District of Columbia ruled that
if his or her mental illness meant that,
psychological testimony could be admitted
although recognizing the wrongness of
to determine criminal responsibility.
the offense, he or she was compelled to
commit the offense anyway.

©2018 Trevor A. Charles

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PSYC 3018 -

L2: Nature and Scope of Forensic Psychology .............................................................................................................................1

L3: Criminal Profiling ............................................................................................................................................................................6

L4: Psychopathy .................................................................................................................................................................................. 12

L5: Eyewitness Testimony ................................................................................................................................................................. 21

L6: Insanity and Competency ........................................................................................................................................................ 27

L7: Detecting Deception ................................................................................................................................................................... 34

L8: Domestic Violence........................................................................................................................................................................ 39

L10: Child Sexual Abuse .................................................................................................................................................................... 52

L11: Violence Risk Assessment........................................................................................................................................................ 59

PSYC 3018 Final Exam Preparation ............................................................................................................................................... 62

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 1

Training and Professional opportunities

Who Employs Forensic Psychologists?

• Governments & facilities: i.e. prisons, jails, police departments,

The Duties of Forensic Psychologists

2 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

• Outside the Court Room

The Obligations of Psychologists in the Legal System

• The use of expert psychological testimony in courts has the

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 3

The Relationship of the Law and Psychology

• A more recent theoretical conceptualization of the relationship

4 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

Conflicts between Psychology and the law

1. The principle of stare decisis (to let a previous decision stand), is at

2. The law tends to be authoritative.

3. The law uses the adversarial system (at least in Commonwealth

4. The law is idiographic – focuses on an individual case or a specific

5. The law is definitive - attempts to be certain. A defendant is either

The Importance Of Research

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 5

• Based on Assumptions - It is possible that the real culprit does not

6 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

Who is Qualified to Give Expert Offender Profiling Testimony?

How can I become a Criminal Profiler?

• In the U.S., training in criminal profiling has been controlled by

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 7

• Psychiatrists and psychologists made significant contributions to

8 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

• “a process of reviewing crimes from both a behavioral and

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 9

The Criminal Profiling Generating Process

• A comprehensive study of the nature of the criminal act and the

Diagnostic Evaluation or Clinical Approach

• The oldest approach to offender profiling; an approach mainly

The Investigative Psychology (IP) or Environmental Psychology

• An approach developed in 1985 by Professor David Canter, a

10 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 11

12 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 13

• Make up only 1 % of general population.

14 PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide

• Psychopathy is not a diagnosis.

A. A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of

PSYC 3018 - Forensic Psychology Study Guide 15

• Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) - a psychological assessment tool

Psychopathy Subtypes - Sociopathy