Profiling
This has been the biggest challenge to trait theory (stemming from social psychology).
What is the consistent finding that situational or contextual factors can influence behavior just as much (sometimes more) as dispositional factors?
This occurs when the results of a forensic analysis are biased by other evidence totally unrelated to the analysis.
What is forensic confirmation bias?
The theory that repression occurs because a child who has been abused by a trusted adult will experience conflicting emotions/motivations
What is betrayal trauma theory?
These are two assumptions underlying an arousal-based approach.
What is that lying is stressful (1) and will produce (non-verbal) visible signs of increased anxiety or nervousness (2)?
________ profiling uses information on past offenders to predict how likely or unlikely it is for the current offender to possess a particular background characteristic.
What is inductive (profiling)?
Describe the filler-control method and two of its advantages.
What is analysts would be sent samples from known-innocent fillers in addition to the suspect and crime scene sample; it would address contextual (confirmation) biases, reveal error rates, provide calibration info., and uncover fraudulent labs/techniques faster?
This emerges when research participants predict the study hypotheses and choose to alter their intuitive responses to responses that will "help" the researchers (by supporting their hypotheses).
What are demand characteristics?
These are two examples of maximization.
What are playing up the severity of the crime, presenting false incriminating evidence, etc.?
The value of criminal profiling rests on these two overarching assumptions.
What are 1) crime scenes can reveal offender behaviors, and 2) offenders' behaviors correlate with their demographic and dispositional characteristics?
The National Academy of Sciences (2009) report describes three important purposes for strengthening the forensic sciences.
What are (1) assisting law enforcement with their investigations; (2) reducing wrongful convictions (which will also help to ensure the right offenders are punished); and (3) improving homeland security?
A robust phenomenon wherein the presentation of false or misleading information significantly impacts memory accuracy (negatively)
What is the misinformation effect?
A forensic analyst claims that the results of their test indicate that it is 4x more likely that the suspect is guilty. This is an example of _____.
What is a diagnosticity ratio?
_______ is the assumption that an individual serial offender will behave similarly in each crime he or she commits where as _________ refers to the claim that the behavior of one individual offender differs from that of other offenders.
What are behavioral consistency and behavioral differentiation?
These are four forensic tests to which the filler-control method could be applied.
What are fingerprints, hair, fiber, soil, ballistics, bite marks, handwriting, shoe prints, etc.?
These are three contributing factors to the creation and eventual endorsement of false memories.
What is social pressure, imaginative activities, and general encouragement not to question one's constructions?
These are four questions a judge could ask to ensure that an expert’s testimony meets the Daubert criteria.
How do you identify mistakes (known error rates)? Where is your work published (peer review)? How could you prove the theory wrong (falsifiability)? Do most people in your area agree (scientific consensus)?
These are features of Carl Sagan’s ‘baloney detection kit’.
What are 1) the tendency to invoke ad hoc hypotheses, 2) intellectual stagnation, 3) excessive reliance on anecdotes, 4) evasion of scrutiny of the profiler's ability, 5) lack of controlled experiments, and 6) the burden of proof?
These are some of the proposed objectives for NIFS.
What are establish and enforce best practices (e.g., accreditation, certification, standardization, quality control, code of ethics), promote new research (via funding) & education, assess the development/introduction of new technologies, and separate labs from law enforcement agencies?
Describe three alternative explanations for the phenomenon of repressed memory.
What are people might not want to talk about the trauma, which could lead to natural forgetting; people might mistakenly believe memories that have not been retrieved for many years were repressed (forget-it-all-along); memories could be reinterpreted as abuse when retrieved as an adult?
Jessica is accused of drug possession and faces a potential sentence of 10 years (w/ a 60% conviction probability). She is offered a plea deal for 2 years despite being innocent. These are the predictions the SoT and TP models would make?
What is the SoT would predict that Jessica will accept the plea & forgo her right to trial (despite her innocence); the TP is not a predictive model and would not make a prediction?