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Criminal Psychology: What it takes to commit a crime

I. Criminal Psychology
a. Also known as Forensic Psychology
b. Application of methods, theories and concepts of psychology within the legal
system.
c. Concerned with the relationship between
i. Police officer
ii. Victim
iii. Juror
iv. Expert witness
v. Lawyer
vi. Judge
vii. Defendant
viii. Prison guard and/or parole officer
ix. And the legal system
II. Subfields of Criminal Psychology
a. Clinical-Forensic Psychology: clients here are not only suffering from some type
of mental problem, but their issues are of importance to legal decision making, as
well.
b. Developmental Psychology: deals with juveniles, the elderly, and the law
c. Social Psychology: concerned with how jurors interact and arrive at a group
decision
d. Cognitive Psychology: closely associated with social psychology subfield, but
looks more into how people make decisions in legal cases
e. Criminal Investigative Psychology: police psychology, criminal profiling and
psychological autopsies (case studies). Experts may choose to conduct research
and/or work closely in analyzing the minds of criminal suspects.
III. Forensic Psychologists in the Court
a. Psychologists and Psychiatrists testify in an estimated 8% of all federal civil trials
b. Mental health professionals participate in as many as 1,000,000 cases per year.
IV. Criminal Profiling
a. AKA: Offender Profiling
b. Learning about an offender based on details of the crime
c. Construction of a psychological, behavioral and demographic profile of the type
of person likely to have committed the crime
d. Usually applied to serial crimes (serial murders, serial rapes, etc.)
e. There are four types of criminal profiling techniques:
i. The geographical approach
1. A set of techniques for making inferences about crime and
criminals from the location and timing of offences
ii. Investigative Psychology
1. Grew out of geographical profiling and uses established
psychological theories and methods of analysis to predict offender
characteristics from offending behavior
iii. The typological approach
1. Involves looking at the characteristics of crime scenes to assign
offenders to different categories, each category of offender having
different typical characteristics
iv. The clinical approach
1. Uses insights from psychiatry and clinical psychology to aid
investigation where an offender is thought to be suffering from a
mental illness of other psychological abnormality
V. Geographic Profiling
a. By employing Geographical mapping, we may be able to get a glimpse of a
criminal’s mental map.
b. We may notice that crimes are centralized around a certain area.
c. Mental Maps: individuals construct mental maps of the areas they know.
i. These are not absolutely accurate maps. They embody the person’s
experience and perspective on the area.
ii. The distribution of linked offenses may reflect the offender’s mental map
of the area.
d. Crime Mapping: Plot the crimes on the map and then decide
i. How many offenders do you think are responsible and why?
ii. What other suggestions can you make about the offender(s)?
iii. Clustering: some similar crimes may be clustered or grouped in small
pockets
1. At this point, investigators will look for likely access points (like
roads) that the crimes have in common.
2. After identifying access points, investigators can put out
announcements to law enforcement agents, investigators, or the
general public to watch for suspicious behavior in these areas.
e. Routine activity theory
i. Crimes occur when three circumstances coincide:
1. A motivated offender
2. A suitable (and vulnerable) victim
3. Absence of a capable guardian
ii. Criminal offenses are an extension of the offender’s normal activities, so
will occur in places the offender makes regular use of.
VI. Criminal Profiling (The typological approach)
VII. Typological offender profiling
a. Developed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1970s and
1980s.
b. Key ideas:
i. There are different types of offenders
ii. Behavioural evidence can tell us which type of offender committed a
crime
iii. Knowing an offender’s type allows us to predict other things about
him/her
VIII. FBI profiling process
a. Data assimilation: data compiled from police reports, post mortems, crime scene
photos, etc.
b. Crime classification: profilers decide whether the crime scene is organized or
disorganized
c. Crime reconstruction: Hypotheses about crime sequence, offender, and victim
behaviour, etc.
d. Profile generation: offender’s physical, demographic, and behavioural
characteristics
IX. What to look for
a. Signature: something done to fulfill or satisfy the offenders emotional state
b. Not the same as Modus Operandi
c. Modus Operandi - what is needed to complete the crime
d. State of the crime scene
i. Gives clues about the type of offender
1. Age
2. Race
3. Motive
X. Organized vs. Disorganized
a. Organized crime scene:
i. Body is hidden
ii. Weapon is removed from scene
iii. Appears to be well-planned
iv. The victim is specifically targeted
v. Restraints often used
vi. Aggression takes place before death
b. Disorganized:
i. Body not hidden
ii. Weapon is present
iii. Appears to be spontaneous
iv. Victim may be an acquaintance
v. Aggression post-mortem
XI. What does it all mean?
a. Organized crime scene suggests an offender:
i. Average or above average IQ
ii. Employed, usually quite skilled
iii. Socially competent
iv. Uses alcohol in commission of crime
v. Uses car to drive to crime scene/hunt for victim
vi. Obsessed with media coverage of his crimes
b. Disorganized crime scene suggests an offender:
i. Below average IQ
ii. Unstable employment record, unskilled
iii. Socially isolated
iv. Lives close to crime scene
v. Strict discipline as a child
vi. Extremely anxious
XII. Definition of a Serial Killer
a. Murder of three or more persons
b. Involves a distinctive “cooling off” period
i. Can be days to months to years
c. Differs from Mass Murder & Spree Killing
i. Mass murder: 3+ persons killed together
ii. Spree killing: 3+ persons killed in short period of time at different locations
XIII. Typical serial killer
a. White male
b. Late 20’s to early 30’s
c. Kills within his own race
d. Method of murder is “hands on” (strangulation or stabbing)
e. Victims selected because they share specific characteristics
XIV. The Lust Murderer: subtype of a serial killer
a. Sadistic and brutal crime
b. Committed almost exclusively against women
c. Two types of offenders:
i. Organized Nonsocial
1. Indifferent to the well-being of others
2. Self-centered and narcissistic
3. Manipulative and cunning
4. Lives away from crime scene
5. Crime appears controlled, methodical
6. Pre and post-mortem mutilation and torture
7. Returns to the crime scene to see status of investigation
8. Wants his crime to outrage the community; feels he is “getting
even” with society
ii. Disorganized Asocial
1. Described by others as a “loner”
2. Inexperienced in relationships, unable to socialize
3. Crime is committed in a frenzied manner
4. Lives close to crime scene because he feels safe and secure in
his own neighborhood
5. Weapon of opportunity - demonstrates lack of plan
6. Post-mortem mutilation
a. Biting or slashing of skin and other tissues
7. Insertion of foreign objects
a. “an inquisitive child with a new toy”
b. Exploring how body works
8. Returns to crime scene often to continue mutilation
iii. Example of lust killers
1. James Russell Odom & James Clayton Lawson
a. Met in a mental institution
b. Talked about their fantasies regarding women: Odom
raping and Lawson mutilating
c. Their crime: Kidnapped, raped and brutally mutilated a
woman
XV. Problems with typological profiling
a. Assumptions about stable types
i. Don’t people change? Does every criminal fit the profile?
b. Incomplete data
c. Subjective judgements
i. Not all researchers agree on assessments.
d. Small and unusual sample
i. Only a small number of people actually commit violent crimes.
e. Validity of methodology
i. Who decided this was a good way to do things?
f. Narrative and anecdotal evidence
i. No experimental data is available, so each case is looked at individually.
XVI. Compare and contrast…
a. How are geographical and typological offender profiling similar and different?
i. Purpose
ii. Assumptions
iii. Use of categories/types
iv. Types of crime applicable
v. Evidence based

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