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Forensic Psychology

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When most people think of forensic psychology, ... Hinckley Developed an obsession of Jodi Foster, ... Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and President Reagan. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: 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 MuchWhat isnt 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?
15
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16
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17
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18
Im 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 didnt 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 peoples 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.
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