Shrichakradher.com 1 BPCE-142: FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY GUESS PAPER- 1 QL. Describe the sub- specialities in forensic psychology. Ans, Let us briefly look atthe sub-specialities in forensic psychology. 1. Police Psychology: One of the first sub-specialties that we could discuss is police psychology. As the name suggests this has to do with police. Police psychology as a suject focuses in various aspects of enforcement of law that includes government agencies at local, state and federal level. Police psychology also relates to the employment related aspects ‘of police personnel, ‘Thus, right from recruitment to selection, police personality, police stress, assessment. and ‘evaluation of psychological entities like intelligence ete. ofthe police personnel is covered! in police psychology. Police psychologists to a greater extend are also involved in training police personnel they may also play a role in provide counselling and therapeutic interventions to police personnel as and when required. Investigative psychology: Yet another sub-specialty in forensic psychology is investigative psychology and this also will be discussed in detail in unit $ of this course. But to briefly discuss or introduce investigative psychology, itis, application of principles of psychology to the process of criminal investigation. Thus, it mainly involves gathering of information from crime scene and decision making in that regard, which is then applied in order to carry out criminal behaviour analysis. Thus, investigative psychologists can play a role in developing greater understanding about criminal behaviour and they can contribute greatly to the process of investigation. Investigative psychologists are often involve din examination of pattems and styles as reflected by the criminal 30 as to develop a better understanding about the psychological characteristics and thought process of the criminal 3. Criminal psychology: This is a sub-section that is often interchangeably used in place of forensic psychology. Though both the fields vary, criminal psychology is a sub-speciality under forensic psychology» Criminal psychology will be discussed in detail in units 4 and 5 of this course. Criminal psychology, mainly focuses on the belaviour, thought process ‘and pattems of the eriminal. Criminal psychologists are thus involved in seeking answers to why the criminal behaved the ‘way he’ she did. Criminal psychologists are often involved in offered profiling, consultations and research, assessment of ‘mental health and other psychological entities, proving counselling and psychotherapy and they could alse be involved in aiving testimonies in the court 4, Legal psychology: Another sub-specialty under fOrensie paycholoay that is closely related to forensic psychology is legal psychology. In legal psychology the concepts and prineiples of psychology are applied to legal system. Legal psychologists often advice judges and individuals from legal syste in making decisions. To differentiate between forensic psychology and legal psychology, forensic psychology mainly focuses on the criminal or the offender and legal psychology focuses on the through process ofthe judges, legal process, and legal system andl s0 on. 5. Correctional. psychology: ‘The last sub-specialty’ of forensie psychology that we will discuss is correctional psychology, The focus of correctional psychology, as the mame suasests, is on treatment and management of the ‘riminals or offenders. ‘Thus, the concepts and principles of psychology are applied for correctional. purposes Correctional psychology would include topies related to the prison and prison set up and also interventions for the inmates and offenders. Q2. Explain difference between forensic psychology and criminal psychology. Ans. In the very first unit of this course, we discussed about forensic psychology. In this section of the unit, we will explain the difference between forensic and criminal psychology. The terms forensic psychology and criminal psychology are often used inerchangeably. Though, there are differences between the both, a8 such criminal psychology can be tenined as one of the sul specialties under forensie psychology. Forensic psychology deals with work related to prisons, victims of crime, witnesses to the crime, and handles counselling of “at-risk? youths. Forensic psychology also assists lawyers and advocates, as well as the law enforcement in regard criminal investigation. Forensic psychologists render an opinion as to whether an individual is competent to stand trial, whether the person‘ capable and competent to eontinne with the legal proceedings in the const of law. Thus, forensic psychology mainly focuses in the association between psychology and law. Forensic psychology deals with work related to prisons, victims of crime, witnesses to the erime, and handles counselting of ‘at- risk’ youths. A forensic psychologist does not evaluate criminals. He/ she focusses on cases related to both criminal and civil law. He she assist lawyers and advocates, as well as the law enforcement in regard criminal investigation render an opinion as to ‘whether an individual is competent to stand trial, whether the person is capable and competent to continue with the legal proceedings in the court of law. A forensic psychologist also renders opinion as to whether an individual is competent to stand ivial, whether the person is capable and competent to continue with the legal proceedings in the court of law. Criminal psychology nses the psychological expertise in evaluating criminals, whereas forensic psychology does not evaluate criminals, Futhernore, criminal psychology focusses on criminal behavior, whereas forensic psychology focusses on cases related to bath eriminal and civil law. Thus, the focus of criminal psychology’ is on crime and criminal behaviour. A criminal psychologist could look in tothe history, past experiences of the criminal, in order to ascertain his! her behaviour. Various factors related to the crime are also analysed. Further, criminal psychologists are also involved in ascertaining the progress of the offender ‘when he! she has been sentences or after a treatment play is assigned to him/her. A criminal psychologist uses psychological expattise in evaluating criminals, Heshe may also conduct studies using psychological tools focusing on the causes of criminal behaviour. A criminal psychologist is also involved in devising psycholoaical tests that could tap the criminal traits and tendencies individuals. He! she help in policy decisions regarding prevention of crime in society and may present number of measures, tools and techniques to prevent crime and criminal behaviours. Forensic psychologists work with judges and lawyers. They may also serve as legal consultants and could be involved in assessment of competency to stand trial and assessment of the mental health of the criminal. The focus of forensic psychology is also on investigation of crime and processes related to the judiciary. Whareas, a criminal psychologist is mainly involved in the assessment and treatment of the offender. To summarise, the difference between forensic psychology and criminal psychology, forensic psychology involves analysis of the effect that the2 GUESS PAPER ime has on the victims and also on the mental status of the offender. Criminal psychology on the other hand involves termination ofthe reason why the criminal may have committed the crime, Q3. Define Psychological Autopsy. Ans. Psychological Autopsy: A psychological autopsy is a very valuable tool in a criminal investigation. Through this, the forensic psychologist is able to collect all the available information regarding the victim of the erime (the deceased) thrcush interviews of family members, relatives, friends as well as health personnel. In addition, information is collected from available health care and psychiatric records, other documents, and forensic examination, Thus, a psychological autopsy integrates and synthesises all the information obtained from multiple sources, informants and records. The psychological autopsy which is 2 standard approach gathers information through a semi-structured interview of key informants. Whenever there is a discrepancy, they reinterview the informant, hold a case conference and wse the ‘best estimate! procedures ‘The report of the psychological autopsy provides the following: ‘+ In-depth information is presented about the cause of death based on interviews with Key persons, the medical autopsy tepat, medical records, and relevant documents, The sources fiom where the information was acquited have to be clearly documented for evaluation and its potential validity The forensic psychologist and other mental health professionals provide systematic details about the important psychological stages in the person's thought processes including the peisonality wait, psychopathic/sociopathic personality, motivation to commit the crime ete + Since the forensic psychologist is presenting hisvher interpretation of the facts, which are again limited, makes the forensic psychology evidences somewhat not very valid, as in any’ case the final judgement as to the mode of death will be based upon a review of all the known facts and circumstances, ineluding the magisterial report, forensic medical repatt, police reports, crime scene analyst reports, and the psychologi¢al reconstruction. While in a physical autopsy, the causes for death are explained, similarly, in psychological sutopsyyan attempt is made to explain why a person has taken their life. This is done as mentioned earlier, throxigh analysing medical records, interviewing friends and family, and conducting research into a person's state of mind prior to their death, There are many reasons to ordering psychological autopsy. Most importantly, it is caried cubin suicide cases, to decide without doubt that the person had! committed suicide. It is a useful tool fo. gather information for understanding why a person committed suicide, and then onwards to work out strategies to prevent suicides. ‘The indications for psychological autopsy are as follows: ‘© Todecide whether a case is suicidal or accident or murder, ‘* Drug ingested deaths also raises doubts about accost all or sicidal ‘Fire arm related deaths require an in depth analysis of the history of the individual, the obsession of the person to on ‘weapons, carelessness in handling weapons, et + Tate asso iis by downing, wing face auhenciS6@dneined Wy oot ly vides by the ‘victim, but also by psychological au ‘Two main invedigatins are caried cut using peyéhologcal autopsy, and thegeinlude the psychosocial factors contributing to death and determining the manner of death, ‘Towards the completion of the investigation the forensic psychologist collects information by collecting details of the medical and case history of events surrounding the case concemed, the details of the scene of crime and the quality of the autopsy. In this, the forensie pathologist and the doctor conducting the postmortem, provide the results of the medico-legal autopsy and indicate the cause of death, the manner in which the death occurred, the circumstance of death etc, The forensic pathologist works almost like a detective and probes and investigates the truth bchind the death. The medical doctor or the medical examiner certifies the many aspects related to death. This certification by the doctor or the medical examiner, who conducted the post mortem, is of ‘eat importance for legal, social, medical and research implications, ‘The forensic team that investigates the death in detail often consists of magistrate, medical eéxaminer/doctor conducting the post mortem, forensic psychologist, psychiatrist, a psychiatric social worker, police and the law enforcement offical dealing with the erime. The psychological autopsy flmetions as an important investigative tool which covers many factors that have contributed to death, The forensic psychologist uses hissher skills and training as well as typical techniques to assess the deceased person's behaviour, thoughts, feelings and the relationships he’ she had its different people both nears and dears and friends and other persons with ‘whom he! she liad interaeted and who could have some information to provide in rezard to the death that occured, They conduct interviews with the relevant people identified as informants, in addition to the deceased person's doctor, physician and other relevant persons to, prepare the psychological autopsy report. Such a psychological autopsy report beccmes essential and important mainly because the medical examiner, ot the forensic scientists and forensic pathologists do not have the skill or have had aury taining in the behavioural aspects of humans. These behavioural aspects provide a very important contribution to ‘understanding of both the perpetrator of the crime and the victims in termes of their motivation, state of mind, impulsivity, the kind of relationship fegative or positive and the mental health as well as other psychological factors that gives che to determining how far the accused i responsible for the crime and what factors within the victim had also led to the erime. ‘Thus, it may be stated that psycholosical autopsy is conducted to obtain information in regard to the many behavioural and psychological factors within the perpetrator as well as the victim which all could have led to the concemed crime. Whatever motivated the perpetrator to commit the crime, what were the typical characteristic traits or behaviours in the victim that led to choosing hint’ her asa target for attack? The major criticism against psychological autopsy focuses on its limitations ‘There is no standard measurement tool to asceriain if the interviewee is telling the truth and whether his statements arc valid and reliable. The records related to the accused and the victim may be so many years ago that it may not be very relevant atthe time the crime was committed. In interview, many of the individual's recollections may not be totally accurate as over time, many things in the memory may have been erased and many associated but irrelevant things would have been added. All these would vitiate the psychological autopsy report. Another drawback is the informetion related to the mental state and Dehaviour of the victim. Quite often those who are interviewed may give distorted information about the victim's mental stae, and based on thatthe report presents the mental status ofthe victim which may not be the correct one.Shrichakradher.com 3 ‘Many times, during the interview by the forensic psychologist, the interview will try to recall certain incidents and events that had ‘occurs in the past having some bearing on the crime, However many of these recalls may not be accurate and the respondents may have the tendency to recall more of positive than negative aspects thus rendering the psychological autopsy unreliable as it may thus contain biased information based on false and biased information also, a researchers and practitioners have pointed out over the year, serious methodological problems in the psychological autopsy reports, Most psychological autopsies are conducted more on medical model paradiam and the report relates the crime with mental disorder Pouliot and D Leo, 2005). This is one type of wrong association as mental disorder may not necessarily caused the person to indulze in the offence. For instance in the case of suicide, mental disorder may not be the real cause but various other factors may be linked to suicide. By using the medical paradigm the tendeney will be to associate the offence with mental disorder Another drawback is that forensic psychologists do not use standardised! measuring instrument to asses8 the mental disorder and its severity. They invariably use non standardised and ill-defined instruments for diagnostic purposes, Often they use uunstandardised semi structured questionnaire which leaves the results open to interviewer bias. Another limitation is related to the informants. Very often the informants are highly cmotional and thus their response will be tinged with exaggeration of the negatives. Since there is no systematic control in the sclestion of informants, their attitudes towards crime, tmurder or suicide, a5 well as their emotion-laden responses render the results biased, and thus the psychological autopsy report becomes un-teliable. One other important problem in regard to the psychological autopsy is related to the interviewers themselves. Before interview, ‘whether the interviewers were well trained, whether they were alerted to look for their own bins and errors that may creep into the interviewing situation. This adds to the report being again not very reliable and valid. ‘The nest problem in psychological autopsy is cancemed with the time lapse between the oceurrence of the offence and the interview. If there is a very long gap, the memory of the event gets considerably changed with addition of materials or deletion of inaterials from the factual narrative, This would affect the report adversely Despite the many adverse aspects and many limitations that are considered a part of psychologic itopsy. yet ths is an invaluable tool in criminal investigations, diagnosis and finding out the causative factors leading to the offence. Thoth physical evidences are maximally taken to explain an offence, in quite a few cases, psychological autepsy provides such. information on the behaviour, thought pattems, cognitive abilities, emotions and motivation to commit a ctime etc. that these psychological aspects over rule the physical evidence and the judgement given becomes quite different from what is thought of based on physical evidence. ‘Thus, psychological autopsy in both criminal and civil cases presents the mental state of the individual prior to death. In countries such as the USA psychological autopsies are permitted as evidence in the courts, criminal.or civil. Psychological autopsy is a very usefll investigative tool in criminal investigations. It examines all factors that are around the crime concerned and also includes the mental health and well-being of the witnesses being questioned regarding the erime that took place. In India, psychological autopsy is used more as a research instrument to understand the various factors in the case of suicidal deaths and the causes that Ted to suicide. It works out the association and dynamic inferaction between mental health issues and risk factors associated with suicidal deaths. It throws light on the various stressful life events in the individual's’ life ultimately culminating in suicide. Psychological autopsy is a very sensitive and important tool to examine the, state of mind of the people close to the deceased in order to reconstruct events leading up tothe death. Q4. Discuss Detecting Deception. Ans. There are a few bodily signs and physiological changes that could help detect deception. For instance, facial and bodily cu the size of the pupil (dilated), lip pressing, posture, eye blinking and so on. Detecting deception is extremely important in investigations, as the risk of going wrong when one is unable'to dillerentinte between a lie and truth. In the process justice may be denied. Also, ensuring this distinction Uetween lic and truth is very important when one is dealing with the allegations by the victims, witen eyewitnesses are deposing before the police regardiug what they witnessed, and to what extent they are telling the ‘ruth and finally the statements being made by the suspects, who deny they had committed the crime. ‘There are methods available to find out the truth of any statement by the victim or the suspect, for example the polygraph test, also called as ‘te detector’. This is based on the autonomic responses in the person concemed who is being subjected to polygraph, However this method has not been considered highly accurate and thus are not considered quite reliable. Hence other clues are also being used in addition to polygraph by psychologists. For example facial expression, body language, linguistics to assist in finding out the truth and differentiate deception from truth. Psychologists are also innovating new software's that could analyse facial expressions and writing style ‘There are persous who tell "high stakes" fies. Emmanuel and colleagues are collecting data on the demeanour and physiology of these high stakes liars. High stakes refers hefe to those people who tell lies even at the risk of their reputation being damaged, losing their freedomvand in seme cases their lifeand their family members’ lives too. Another clue is the physical appearance of the individual concerned. For instance, their very appearance seems to be deceiving. ‘They are less relaxed, no eye contact, tuning away their face etc. There is also an association between lying and increase in the person's pupil size, pursing their lips, which are indicators of the tension that the person is experiencing as a result of deceiving, Secondly those who deceive, appear to be more nervous than those who tell the truth, ‘There is even difference in the tone of their voice, for example the lias’ voice is pitched hisher In 1978, Ekman and his colleagues published materials on "Facial Action Coding System. When this FACS is combined with other cues such as voice m assures, speech ete. the possibility of accurate judgement of deception becomes very high, Face and voice cues, gestures and words help to detect accurately deception. There is also another indicator. As the questioning and interview as well as testing continues, the micro expressions thet may appear far a second or £o give a signal regarding the person's emotions that he/ she wants to conceal, which would give an idea of whether the person is deceiving. Another indicator is the time one takes to answer a query. Research has shown that liars seem. more negative, relatively more nervous than truth speaking persons. Also it has been observed that deceptions generally are uncooperative, talk less and reveal litle, their answers are more discrepant, illogical, use less gestures and repeat many phrases and words, as compared to the truth speaking persons. (DePaulo and Morris, 2004). There are three primary written markers for deception and these are: fewer first person pronouns, more negative emotions like hate and fewer exclusionary words such as ‘except, but ete4 GUESS PAPER ‘Taking fewer first person pronouns, that is, liars generally avoid owership to words and distance themselves from the story they narrate. Thus, in their writing they avoid first person pronouns ete, and avoid taking responsibility for their behaviours. As for negative emotions, they use words such as hate, worthless, sad etc. These people are stated to be more anxious and also feel guilty of their behaviours. As for the exclusionary words that they use sich as ‘but’ ec. the researchers are ofthe view that these persons are able to distinguish between what they did and what they did not do. In this regard Gary Bond & Lee (2005) conducted a study on analysing the writing of felons jailed in New Mexico, Kansas and M ‘They were shown a video and then asked to write truthfully about the video, They found that truthful writing had far lesser negative emotions, greater number of self-referencing and less use of exclusionary words like but ete. as compared to those who were not truthful Apart from the computer based programmes and softwares, there are many more methods to use in detecting lie and deception. For instance behavioural clue is one which can be used ifthe personnel are well trained in how to detect these clues and in what ‘manner. In the USA, the American Psychology Association (APA), the Federal Bureat of Investigation and the National Institute of Justice joined together to conduct a comprehensive workshop for the personnel of the law enforcement agencies. Prof, Enunanuel Professor of psycholozy) took lectures for them along with many other experts. Research in the area were presented on lying and deception. The personnel were trained as to how to look for the subtle clues, what they are and how they appear and how not to miss the same etc, It was pointed out that behavioural training to spot subtle cues are extremely important forthe law enforcement personnel Thoush there may be no typical signs per se of lies, the manner in. which the person takes time to think and answer a very simple question is an indicator of the possibility of lying on the part of the person, Similarly an inappropriate emotion to a question which does not warrant such emotion could be another indicator of possibility ofthe person telling lies. The training given is such that the law enforcement personel are attuned to looking for. signs of body language, emotions, a slip of the tongue, tendency to jump a topic or divert attention from the topic etc. They leam how to I Spots", Also other indicators include demeanour of the person concemed (fom instance a suspect) and the many vocal clues mentioned earlier are highly important to note and add to the analysis. In addition it is important to note the word usage of the person and their typical judgments on behaviours etc. All these need to be noted and added t0 analysis so that lie and deception could be easily delineated. However, it must be kept in mind that everyone eannot be well trained in this technique, as it requires persons with certain special ability to be highly alert, perceptive and high on emotional intelligence. Only such persons will benefit from the training and can be of areat use in distinguishing persons who lie and deceive and persons who tell the truth so that justice could be ensured (O'Sullivan and Ekman, 2004), According to O' Sullivan, the law enforcement agencies should identify persons with basic core talent and give them the needed training forthe purpose of distinguishing deception and truth. Instead of invasive techniques like lie detection ete. one could tse non-invasive techniques in detecting lies and deception. These are non-verbal behaviours of the individual or the person concemed. ‘The main assumption here is that the person when telling lies, enters a mental state which is different from the one when he! she is telling the truth. This psychological state affects both verbal and non-verbal behaviours of the individual. This to quife an extent indicates that deception of an individual leaks in predictable ways from the person concemed. This leak can be observed in.the person's various behaviours, as for example in his communication cues, body movements, facial expressions etc. Depending on the skills acquired in such detections due to intense training, and with experience, the lav enforcement person ean diagnose aid detect the deception with ease and more accurately AL the same time it must be Kept in mind that the aeeused or the person being interviewed may also became so conscious about these cues that he’ she may hide them with effort thereby the law enforcement officer may not get the cue emitted by the accused and miss out important deception. Hence the training for the personnel as to keep in mind this aspect also. Adhering tothe principle ofthe psychosomatic aspects, that is whatever is happening psychologically will affect the physical states of the individual, though difficult to daect from the behaviows the psychological underpinnings, yet the fact remains that there is a clear linkage between psychological state and physical state of the mdividnal and hence if a person is deceiving or telling His, it can be detected from the behaviour or from the subtle changes that oceur intheperson’s physical state and behaviour. Research in the area has focussed on the cuessent by deceivers and received by the person interviewing. The findings showed that the cues consisted of nonverbal behaviours, These were oded systematically from the replays of speeches and interviews that had been videotaped and recorded for research purposes (National Research council, 1991)