Forensic Psychology

In the top-down (FBI) approach to offender profiling, an offender who shows planning, controls the victim, leaves few clues and is socially competent would be classified as which type?

• ADisorganised
• BOrganised✓
• CMarauder
• DCommuter

Answer: The FBI typology distinguishes organised offenders (planned crime, high control, few clues, often socially and occupationally competent) from disorganised offenders (impulsive, chaotic scene, little planning). Marauder and commuter are concepts from Canter's geographical (bottom-up) approach, not the FBI typology.

Canter's bottom-up approach to profiling differs from the top-down approach mainly because it is:

• AData-driven, using statistical analysis of crime-scene evidence to generate the profile without fixed categories✓
• BBased on pre-set typologies derived from interviews with convicted murderers
• CConcerned with piecing together the offender's childhood experiences, upbringing and unconscious conflicts (a psychodynamic approach)
• DRestricted to property offences such as burglary and vehicle theft, where physical evidence at the scene is plentiful

Answer: The British bottom-up approach is data-driven: it builds a profile from statistical patterns in the evidence (e.g. investigative psychology, smallest space analysis) rather than imposing the pre-existing organised/disorganised templates that characterise the American top-down method.

In Canter and Larkin's (1993) geographical profiling, an offender whose crimes form a circle around their home base, indicating they offend close to home, is described as a:

• ACommuter
• BDisorganised offender
• CRecidivist
• DMarauder✓

Answer: Canter and Larkin distinguished the marauder, who operates from and around a home base (crimes encircle the residence), from the commuter, who travels away from home to offend. The circle theory of how offences cluster underpins geographical profiling.

Lombroso's (1876) atavistic form explanation proposed that criminals are:

• AProducts of poor parenting, broken homes and disrupted early attachment
• BIndividuals whose superego is over-active, making them seek punishment (a psychodynamic account)
• CGenetic throwbacks to an earlier, more primitive stage of evolution, identifiable by physical features✓
• DPeople who have learned crime through differential association

Answer: Lombroso, often called the father of modern criminology, argued the 'born criminal' was an evolutionary throwback (atavistic) distinguishable by physical markers such as a strong jaw, high cheekbones and extra digits. The other options describe psychological or sociological theories.

Eysenck's theory of the criminal personality predicts that offenders score highly on which combination of dimensions?

• AHigh extraversion, high neuroticism and high psychoticism✓
• BHigh introversion, high stability and low psychoticism
• CLow extraversion, low neuroticism and low psychoticism
• DHigh agreeableness, high conscientiousness and low openness

Answer: Eysenck proposed the criminal personality is high on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. Extraverts seek stimulation and condition poorly, neurotics are unstable and react strongly, and high psychoticism is linked to cold, aggressive tendencies. Agreeableness/conscientiousness/openness belong to the Big Five, not Eysenck's model.

In the cognitive explanation of offending, which term describes a criminal minimising the seriousness of their offence (e.g. 'they could afford to lose it')?

• AHostile attribution bias
• BLevel of moral reasoning
• CMinimalisation✓
• DDifferential association

Answer: Minimalisation is a cognitive distortion in which an offender downplays or denies the consequences of their actions to reduce guilt. Hostile attribution bias instead refers to misreading neutral cues as threatening. Both are cognitive distortions, but minimalisation matches the example given.

Sutherland's differential association theory explains criminality as the result of:

• AInherited genes passed from criminal parents, grandparents and other relatives
• BAn atavistic physiology, with a heavy jaw, sloping brow and long arms
• CRepressed childhood trauma dating from the phallic stage
• DLearning pro-crime attitudes, values and techniques through interaction with others✓

Answer: Sutherland argued crime is learned, like any behaviour, through association with others; individuals acquire attitudes favourable to law-breaking and the specific techniques to offend. If pro-crime attitudes outweigh anti-crime ones, offending becomes more likely. The other options are biological or psychodynamic.

Which statement best summarises a key problem with custodial sentencing highlighted by high recidivism rates?

• APrisons rehabilitate and reform the large majority of offenders, so few of them reoffend
• BRecidivism is confined to offenders who carry the low-activity MAOA gene (MAOA-L)
• CPrison may act as a 'university of crime', and effects such as institutionalisation and stigma can increase reoffending✓
• DCustodial sentencing is no longer used in the UK, replaced by community orders

Answer: High recidivism (reoffending) challenges the deterrence and rehabilitation aims of prison. Differential association inside prison ('university of crime'), institutionalisation, stigma on release and the psychological effects of incarceration are argued to raise rather than reduce reoffending.

Behaviour modification programmes in custody, such as token economies, are based on which principle?

• AClassical conditioning of involuntary reflexes
• BOperant conditioning, using secondary reinforcers to shape desirable behaviour✓
• CInsight into unconscious conflicts
• DCognitive restructuring of irrational beliefs

Answer: A token economy applies operant conditioning: tokens are secondary (conditioned) reinforcers earned for desirable behaviour and later exchanged for primary reinforcers or privileges. This selectively reinforces and shapes compliant behaviour. It does not rely on classical conditioning, insight or cognitive change.

A central feature distinguishing restorative justice from custodial sentencing is that restorative justice:

• AFocuses on punishing the offender as severely as possible
• BRemoves the victim entirely from the process
• CCentres on the survivor/victim and involves the offender taking active responsibility to repair the harm done✓
• DIs available for white-collar fraud and other financial offences, but is closed to cases involving personal violence

Answer: Restorative justice is victim-centred and rehabilitative: through a supervised meeting or communication the offender accepts responsibility and works to repair the harm, while the victim has a voice in the process. It is not primarily punitive and does not exclude the victim.

What does the top-down approach to offender profiling involve?

• ABuilding a profile purely from statistical analysis of the available data
• BClassifying offenders as organised or disorganised from crime scenes✓
• CInterviewing the offender after conviction in order to explain the crime
• DMatching the crime scene against a database of known offenders

Answer: Developed by the FBI from interviews with 36 convicted murderers, it assigns crimes to pre-existing categories. Criticisms include the small unrepresentative sample and evidence that the two types are not distinct.

What is the bottom-up approach to profiling?

• ADeriving the profile from previously established offender categories
• BDeriving the profile from the offender's own childhood history and background
• CDeriving the profile from interviews with the victims
• DDeriving the profile from systematic analysis of crime scene evidence✓

Answer: Canter's approach builds up from the data with no prior assumptions, using investigative psychology and geographical profiling. The circle theory distinguishes the marauder, who offends near home, from the commuter.

What is Eysenck's theory of the criminal personality?

• ALow extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism scores
• BHigh extraversion but low neuroticism and psychoticism
• CHigh psychoticism but low extraversion and neuroticism
• DHigh extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism scores✓

Answer: Eysenck argued extraverts seek stimulation, neurotics are unstable and hard to condition, and psychotics are cold and aggressive. Measuring personality by questionnaire, and treating it as a single type, are both criticised.

What is meant by differential association theory?

• ACrime results from inherited criminal predispositions passed on genetically
• BCrime is learned through interaction with pro-criminal attitudes✓
• CCrime results from an inadequately developed superego in early childhood
• DCrime is a rational choice made after weighing the risks

Answer: Sutherland argued that offending is learned like anything else, from the frequency and intensity of exposure to attitudes favouring law-breaking. It shifted explanation away from individual pathology towards social learning.

What is restorative justice?

• AA process focused on removing the offender from society altogether
• BA process focused on deterring other people from offending in future
• CA process focused on retraining offenders for employment
• DA process focused on repairing harm between offender and victim✓

Answer: It gives the victim a voice and requires the offender to face the impact of what they did, and is associated with lower recidivism and high victim satisfaction. It depends on genuine remorse, so it is unsuitable in some cases.

What is a limitation of custodial sentencing?

• APrisons remove the possibility of any rehabilitation at all
• BPrisons have never been shown to protect the public
• CPrisons may act as universities of crime through association✓
• DPrisons cannot deliver any form of psychological treatment

Answer: Contact with more experienced offenders can transmit both attitudes and techniques, which differential association predicts. High recidivism rates, psychological effects such as institutionalisation and the cost are further criticisms.

What is anger management based on?

• ACognitive behavioural principles applied to controlling arousal✓
• BClassical conditioning principles applied to learned fear responses
• CPsychodynamic principles applied to unresolved unconscious conflict
• DBiological principles applied through medication alone

Answer: Novaco's programme runs through cognitive preparation, skill acquisition and application practice in role play. It addresses the cause rather than the symptom, but relies on offenders engaging honestly.

What is a criticism of using offender profiling in investigations?

• AIt can mislead an investigation if the profile is inaccurate✓
• BIt has been shown to be accurate in every documented case
• CIt can only be applied to crimes involving physical violence
• DIt requires the offender to have a prior criminal record

Answer: The Rachel Nickell case shows the danger of an investigation narrowing around a profile-derived suspect. Profiling is best treated as one investigative tool among many rather than as evidence.

What is recidivism?

• AReoffending after having been convicted previously✓
• BOffending for the very first time as an adult
• CCommitting several offences on a single occasion
• DBeing wrongly convicted of an offence not committed

Answer: Recidivism rates are the standard measure of whether a sentence has worked, and UK rates within a year of release are high. Comparing rates between countries is difficult because recording practices differ.