Forensic Psychology

1. Forensic Psychology

2. What is Forensic Psychology? The application of the science of psychology to criminal law

3. What do researchers in this field do? • They examine human behavior in relation to the legal system • Determine sanity and competence • Evaluate and examine criminals • Help lawyers prepare for trial • Help police catch criminals

4. What is Forensic Psychology? Is it like Criminal Minds?

5. Criminal Minds Clip

6. What is Forensic Psychology? Is it like Silence of the Lambs?

7. Silence of the Lambs Clip

8. More Silence of the Lambs? Are you Sure?

9. Well, Not So Much:What isn’t forensic psych? • When most people think of forensic psychology, they think of profilers • Most forensic psychologists are not involved in solving crimes (few are) • They are involved in assessing people already arrested, checking for competence and insanity

10. Forensic Psychiatry …crime prevention and solution, criminal rehabilitation, and issues of the criminal law

11. Psychological Theories Personality is the major motivational element within individuals. It is the seat of drives and the source of motives

12. Psychological Theories Crimes result from abnormal, dysfunctional, or inappropriate mental processes within the personality

13. Perception and Reality Perception: the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses Reality: the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them

14. But What Is Reality?

18. I’m Going Crazy!

19. Insanity Defense • An insanity defense is based on the theory that most people can choose to follow the law; • But a few select persons cannot be held accountable because mental disease or disability deprives them of the ability to make a rational/voluntary choice

20. What is Insanity? • Mental illness of such a severe nature that a person… • cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, • is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.

21. Famous Case John Hinckley • Shot President Ronald Reagan, in front of television cameras -- but declared “not guilty by reason of insanity” and sent to a mental institution.

22. Hinckley • Developed an obsession of Jodi Foster, the actress in a movie called Taxi Driver • Followed her to Yale University and stalked her, slipping poems and messages under her door and calling her by telephone.

23. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him. • Developed such plots as hijacking an airplane and committing suicide in front of her to gain her attention. • Settled on a scheme to win her over by assassinating the president (just like the main character in Taxi Driver).

24. Hinckley • Just prior to Hinckley's failed attempt on Reagan's life, he wrote to Foster • "Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. [...] the reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I cannot wait any longer to impress you."

25. Hinckley • In 1981, Hinckley fired a revolver six times at President Reagan. • Wounded press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and President Reagan. • All victims survived.

26. Hinckley • At the trial in 1982, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity • The defense psychiatric reports found him to be insane while the prosecution reports declared him legally sane.

27. Hinckley • The verdict led to widespread dismay • The U.S. Congressand a number of states rewrote the law regarding the insanity defense. • Idaho, Kansas, Montana, and Utah have abolished the defense altogether. • Shortly after his trial, Hinckley wrote that the shooting was "the greatest love offering in the history of the world", and was upset that Foster did not reciprocate his love • To this day still resides in St. Elizabeth's Hospital with limited freedoms.

28. How can we tell if someone is competent?

29. Competency • The mental state of the defendant at the time of trial • Criminal proceedings should not continue against someone who cannot understand their nature and purpose. • Can include low intelligence, young age, under the influence of drugs, etc…

30. Guilty, but too stupid to know any better Guilty

31. Guilty, but too crazy to know any better

32. Psychopaths and Sociopaths • These terms define different pathologies of the mind, although they share the following: • A disregard for laws and social mores • A disregard for the rights of others • A failure to feel remorse or guilt • A tendency to display violent behavior

33. Sociopath • Sociopaths tend to be nervous and easily agitated. Volatile and prone to emotional outbursts, including fits of rage. • Likely to be uneducated and live on the fringes of society, unable to hold down a steady job or stay in one place for very long. • It is difficult but not impossible for sociopaths to form attachments with others. • In the eyes of others, sociopaths will appear to be very disturbed. • Any crimes committed by a sociopath, including murder, will tend to be haphazard, disorganized and spontaneous rather than planned.

34. Psychopath Psychopaths, on the other hand, are unable to form emotional attachments or feel real empathy with others, although they often have disarming or even charming personalities. Psychopaths are very manipulative and can easily gain people’s trust. They learn to mimic emotions, despite their inability to actually feel them, and will appear normal to unsuspecting people. Psychopaths are often well educated and hold steady jobs. Some are so good at manipulation and mimicry that they have families and other long-term relationships without those around them ever suspecting their true nature.