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Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology. Warwick in London Summer School 2019. Week 3 / Day 2 (Tues 30/7) Dr Liz Blagrove. Aims & Objectives. After today’s lecture, you will be able to …. Understand what Forensic Psychology is and why Forensic Psychologists are important to the UK legal system

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Forensic Psychology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  10. MadorBad?

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

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

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

  14. What Issues can we see withPersonality Disorder Diagnoses?

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

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

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

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

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

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

  21. Any Comments?

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

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

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

  25. The FirstProfiler?

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

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

  28. What/How do Witnesses Remember?

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

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

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

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

  33. Your turn…

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

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

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

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

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

  39. Audience Participation, Please!

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

  41. Any Questions for ME?

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

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

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

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