Forensic Psychology

Professor David Canter

Part I: Nailing Forensic Psychology: A moving target

p024: Reliability: How consistently a procedure measures what it measures. (e.g. elastic measuring tape gives different results for every measure.) Validity: How well it measures what it claims to measure. (a proxy metric)

p031: Studying criminals means people who are convicted of crime. Not everyone who does something morally wrong, is legally a criminal.

p034: Criminal characteristics:

• Mostly men (80%)

• usually mid- to late teens

• coming from dysfunctional families

• access to other criminals (friends, family) [crimes as behaviour is normalized]

• they probably have low education

p035:

• nature vs. nurture; some general personality traits - desire for excitement, impulsivity and low intelligence

• Many thieves see burglary as an exciting opportunity and not a carefully considered way of making money.

p037: Female offenders:

• Commit less crimes (only 20% see above)

• Court decisions tend to be more lenient towards women for reasons like:

  • motherhood

  • perception of less wickedness

p039: Thinking about crime:

• Denial: It didn't happen or not as being claimed.

• Justification: Moral authority, need or entitlement to the crime.

• Minimisation: It wasn't that bad.

• Rationalisation: Shifting the blame to the victim (Opportunity makes thieves, Victim shaming/blaming), "If they didn't want to get robbed they shouldn't have carried a wallet."

p041: Personality traits more common in criminals than non-criminals

• External locus of control: The idea if wether one controls their own destiny (internal locus) or fate (external locus) does. Criminals tend to the latter, however research isn't cut-clear.

• Lack of empathy: Some criminals don't have the ability to feel what others/their victims are feeling.

• Lack of self-control: Impulsivity or a reluctance to delay gratification. Some highly successful people are on the opposite spectrucm.

• Search for excitement: Many criminals are sensation seekers, that enjoy the excitement of committing a crime. p043: Mental Disorders:

• Sadism: origin Marquis de Sade Causing suffering and humiliating the victim gives pleasuer to the sadist, they are likely to be fascinated by weapons and violence.

• Narcissism: A narcissist is wholly preoccupied with success, hypersensitive to criticism, self-important and feels entitled to admiration. They can get furious when being ignored and their desires not met, in these cases they might attack.

• Borderline Personality Disorder: People with mood swings, difficulties forming stable relastionships and getting intensly angry without reason.