Criminal Psychology

What Criminal Psychology covers

Criminal Psychology is examined on component 03 of OCR Psychology, Applied psychology. It is one of the four applied options, of which a student studies two. 305 recall questions across 28 subtopics.

The 28 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Physiological explanations of criminal behaviourRecall questions on physiological and non-physiological explanations, the prefrontal cortex and amygdala in violent offending, serotonin and testosterone, Lombroso's atavistic form, and evidence that a tendency to offend is inherited.Open →
• Genetic factors and non-physiological explanations of criminal behaviourRecall questions on the MAOA gene and XYY chromosome claims, social learning theory, differential association, labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, hostile attribution bias, Kohlberg and moral reasoning in offenders, and interactionist accounts of criminal behaviour.Open →
• Raine et al. (1997) brain abnormalities in murderers: background, procedure and brain findingsRecall questions on the aim of Raine et al.'s 1997 brain imaging study of murderers, the experimental and control groups, medication screening, PET scanning and the continuous performance task, the quasi-experimental design, and reduced glucose metabolism and asymmetries in the murderers.Open →
• Raine et al. (1997) brain abnormalities in murderers: further findings, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Raine et al.'s findings on task performance and the corpus callosum, their conclusion and what it does not show, and the evaluation of method, sample, causation, social sensitivity and what makes a criminal.Open →
• Biological strategies for preventing criminal behaviourRecall questions on biological strategies for preventing crime, including dietary supplement trials, serotonin-raising drugs and anti-androgen treatment, ethical and practical objections, applying strategies to scenarios, screening, neurosurgery, and judging whether a strategy works.Open →
• Motivating factors and bias in collecting and processing forensic evidenceRecall questions on confirmation, contextual and role bias in forensic evidence, motivating factors, top-down processing, ACE-V verification, Dror's research, wrongful fingerprint identifications, fingerprint types and ridge patterns, chain of custody, contamination and the sixteen-point standard.Open →
• Hall and Player (2008) emotional context and fingerprint analysis: background and methodRecall questions on the aims, method and design of Hall and Player's 2008 study of emotional context and fingerprint analysis, the fingerprint examiners sampled, the examination packs, the low and high emotional contexts, and the ambiguous mark.Open →
• Hall and Player (2008) emotional context and fingerprint analysis: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Hall and Player's follow-up questionnaire, how many experts read the report and felt affected, the finding on actual decisions, their conclusion, differences from Dror's findings, and the strengths, artificiality and self-report limitations of the study.Open →
• Strategies for reducing bias in collecting and processing forensic evidenceRecall questions on strategies for reducing bias in forensic evidence, including sequential unmasking, case managers, blind verification, evidence line-ups, removing case information, bias training, contamination controls, applying them to scenarios, and testing whether they work.Open →
• Collecting and using evidence from witnesses and suspectsRecall questions on eyewitness testimony and reconstructive memory, leading questions, post-event information, weapon focus, anxiety, own-race bias, identity parades, confidence and accuracy, the cognitive and enhanced cognitive interviews, PEACE, interrogation tactics, false confessions and the polygraph.Open →
• Memon and Higham (1999) review of the cognitive interview: aims and componentsRecall questions on the nature and aim of Memon and Higham's 1999 review of the cognitive interview, the four issues it examined, its material, and the reasoning behind context reinstatement, report everything, and changing order and perspective.Open →
• Memon and Higham (1999) review of the cognitive interview: findings, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on the cognitive interview components Memon and Higham found most beneficial, structured interviews as a control, gains in correct recall and errors, interviewer training, reporting memory performance, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the review.Open →
• Police interview strategies: the cognitive interview and the PEACE modelRecall questions on police interview strategies based on the cognitive interview, including context reinstatement, free recall, witness-compatible questioning, transferring control, rapport and open questions, when it is unsuitable, the PEACE model for suspects, and evaluating and costing training.Open →
• How juries are persuaded by the characteristics of defendants and witnessesRecall questions on the halo effect and defendant attractiveness, baby-faced appearance, the similarity-leniency effect, accent, the chivalry effect, and how witness confidence and attractiveness influence juries.Open →
• Persuading juries: speech style, expert witnesses, order of evidence and publicityRecall questions on powerful and powerless speech, expert witnesses, primacy and recency, the story model, inadmissible evidence, pre-trial publicity, the problem of defendant characteristics for justice, predicting jury responses, and the limits of mock jury research.Open →
• Dixon et al. (2002) accent and perceptions of guilt: background and methodRecall questions on the aim, design and variables of Dixon et al.'s 2002 study of accent and perceptions of guilt, the sample, the recorded interview, how accent, race and crime type were manipulated, the guilt rating and the additional speech ratings.Open →
• Dixon et al. (2002) accent and perceptions of guilt: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Dixon et al.'s findings on accent, the highest guilt ratings, speech ratings and guilt, their conclusion, and the evaluation of method, ecological validity, sample and relevance to persuading juries.Open →
• Strategies to influence jury decision makingRecall questions on strategies to influence jury decision making, including story order, expert witnesses, preparing witnesses, defendants' appearance and accents, jury selection, note-taking and written directions, structuring a case, ethical problems and testing effectiveness.Open →
• Neighbourhood features, broken windows and defensible spaceRecall questions on physical and social incivilities, the broken windows idea, informal social control, collective efficacy, Newman's defensible space, natural surveillance and territoriality.Open →
• Zero tolerance policy and its influence on crimeRecall questions on anonymity on large estates, zero tolerance policing in New York and its criticisms, why falling crime does not prove it worked, community policing, predicting outcomes from broken windows, and whether disorder causes crime.Open →
• Wilson and Kelling (1982) broken windows: foot patrols and the abandoned car demonstrationRecall questions on the nature and aim of Wilson and Kelling's 1982 broken windows article, the Newark foot patrol programme and its evaluation, an officer's beat, and Zimbardo's abandoned cars in the Bronx and Palo Alto.Open →
• Wilson and Kelling (1982) broken windows: the argument, recommendations and evaluationRecall questions on the broken window metaphor, regulars and strangers, Wilson and Kelling's recommendations for police resources, and the strengths, methodological weaknesses, weak evidence and social and ethical criticisms of the article.Open →
• Environmental strategies for crime preventionRecall questions on environmental crime prevention, including crime prevention through environmental design, natural surveillance, alley gating, target hardening, repairing damage, street lighting, neighbourhood watch, CCTV, displacement, diffusion of benefits, and evaluating schemes.Open →
• Aims of punishmentRecall questions on the aims of punishment, individual and general deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, reform, reparation and restorative justice, operant conditioning conditions for effective punishment, and recidivism.Open →
• Effects of imprisonment and reform as responses to offendingRecall questions on short custodial sentences, prisonisation, institutionalisation, prisons as schools for crime, psychological effects of imprisonment on inmates and families, non-custodial responses, therapeutic community prisons, and punishing versus reforming.Open →
• Haney et al. (1973) simulated prison study: background, procedure and the prisoners' rebellionRecall questions on the aim and method of Haney, Banks and Zimbardo's 1973 simulated prison study, sample screening, random role allocation, making the prison realistic, deindividuating prisoners, the guards' role, and the prisoners' rebellion and its aftermath.Open →
• Haney et al. (1973) simulated prison study: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on the guards' worsening behaviour, the prisoners' psychological reactions, why the study was stopped, Haney et al.'s conclusion, and the evaluation of method, findings, Zimbardo's dual role, ethics and relevance to imprisonment.Open →
• Strategies for reducing reoffendingRecall questions on strategies for reducing reoffending, including the stages and evidence for anger management, restorative justice conferences and their conditions, token economies, education and housing, recommending a package, and evaluating programmes.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Criminal Psychology further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Contextual bias vs Blind verification

  Contextual bias: the distortion of an examiner's judgement by information beyond the evidence itself. Blind verification: having a second examiner check a conclusion without knowing what the first decided.

• Own-race bias vs Similarity-leniency effect

  Own-race bias: the greater accuracy of identification for faces of one's own ethnic group. Similarity-leniency effect: the tendency of jurors to judge a defendant like themselves more favourably.

• Leading question vs Witness-compatible questioning

  Leading question: a question whose wording suggests the answer expected. Witness-compatible questioning: ordering questions to match the way the witness has stored the event.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by a physiological explanation of criminal behaviour?

   Model answer

   An explanation that traces offending to the structure, chemistry or genetic make-up of the body and brain rather than to experience.

2. 2

   What is meant by a non-physiological explanation of criminal behaviour?

   Model answer

   An explanation that traces offending to learning, upbringing, thinking style or social circumstances rather than to the body.

3. 3

   Which region of the brain is most consistently linked to impulsive, violent offending?

   Model answer

   The prefrontal cortex.

4. 4

   Explain how reduced prefrontal functioning could make violent offending more likely.

   Model answer

   The prefrontal cortex controls planning, impulse control and the regulation of emotion, so when it is underactive anger is more likely to be acted on without thought of consequences.

5. 5

   What part is the amygdala thought to play in criminal behaviour?

   Model answer

   It processes fear and aggression, so abnormally low amygdala activity is associated with reduced fear of punishment and reduced empathy for victims.

6. 6

   Name the neurotransmitter whose low levels are associated with impulsive aggression.

   Model answer

   Serotonin.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Criminal Psychology revision questions

What does Criminal Psychology cover in OCR A-Level Psychology?

28 subtopics: physiological explanations of criminal behaviour, genetic factors and non-physiological explanations of criminal behaviour, raine et al. (1997) brain abnormalities in murderers: background, procedure and brain findings, raine et al. (1997) brain abnormalities in murderers: further findings, conclusions and evaluation, biological strategies for preventing criminal behaviour, motivating factors and bias in collecting and processing forensic evidence, hall and player (2008) emotional context and fingerprint analysis: background and method, hall and player (2008) emotional context and fingerprint analysis: results, conclusions and evaluation, strategies for reducing bias in collecting and processing forensic evidence, collecting and using evidence from witnesses and suspects, memon and higham (1999) review of the cognitive interview: aims and components, memon and higham (1999) review of the cognitive interview: findings, conclusions and evaluation, police interview strategies: the cognitive interview and the peace model, how juries are persuaded by the characteristics of defendants and witnesses, persuading juries: speech style, expert witnesses, order of evidence and publicity, dixon et al. (2002) accent and perceptions of guilt: background and method, dixon et al. (2002) accent and perceptions of guilt: results, conclusions and evaluation, strategies to influence jury decision making, neighbourhood features, broken windows and defensible space, zero tolerance policy and its influence on crime, wilson and kelling (1982) broken windows: foot patrols and the abandoned car demonstration, wilson and kelling (1982) broken windows: the argument, recommendations and evaluation, environmental strategies for crime prevention, aims of punishment, effects of imprisonment and reform as responses to offending, haney et al. (1973) simulated prison study: background, procedure and the prisoners' rebellion, haney et al. (1973) simulated prison study: results, conclusions and evaluation and strategies for reducing reoffending. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Criminal Psychology organised?

By the OCR H567 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.