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Introduction to Forensic Psychology Summary
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Summary of the lecture slides and explanations of the teacher for the intro to forensic psychology course at UVT during the 2024/2025 academic year
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LECTURE 1 - History, legislation and organizationHistorical overview:
Hippocrates(father of medicine) - found people not responsible for their criminal actions due to
mental illness -> also in roman times the insane and mentally ill were not found (fully)
responsible for their actions
Middle ages - responsibility of the mentally ill lie with the family who responsible for taking care
of them and had the right to contain them (the only way they had to deal with mentally ill people
was “lock them up”)
15th century - mental illness was due to being possessed - first time any type of treatment was
introduced(exorcism)
Johannes wier - acknowledgement of natural causes for mental illness and criminal
behaviour(biological underpinnings, brain)
18th century(age of enlightenment) - turning point for the law and concept of human being
- Code of law: judge in no longer the only person responsible for punishing
criminals(used laws written by others)
- Not yet acknowledgement of the genetic, developmental, psychological
and sociological factors but it was starting to develop(=>more sensibility
towards human beings, less harsh punishments)
- Code pénal: based on eliminating the incorrigibles=> people didn’t learn
from punishment, it was meant to scare and intimidate people
- Cesare beccaria-principles on crime and punishment: punishments
should not only be retributive(pay if you do smth wrong) but also
utilitarian(preventive function; whole society should benefit from it)
- Introduction of the code of law(1886 in nl) - more attention to
psychological disorders=>people weren’t considered responsible for a
crime if they had defective development or a medical disorder(scientific
approach to judging, involving a psychiatrist)
- “Moral treatment” in gb - criminal was not only contained and punished;
idea that behaviour could be treated was introduced
19th century: - philippe pinel-”manie sans délire”=state of mind without delusions-before this
mentally ill people were considered only those with psychosis or an intellectual disability; pinel
introduced the idea that mental illness may also be related to emotion(eg affective personality
problems)=>more cases in which criminals were not considered guilty due to mental illness
=> 1841 in the nl “krankzinnigenwet”=judge not doctor could determine admission or
dismissal of criminals to treatment centers
,19th century had 2 main biological explanations for mental disorders and crime:
- Hereditary explanation: people are either born criminal or not; lombroso-
phrenology=there are physical criminal traits(sloping forehead,
prognathism, asymmetry of the face, arms of excessive length, ears of
unusual size); morality was considered hereditary => criminality was
considered a degeneration of human evolution
- Neurological explanation: the case of phineas gage(disruptions in
personality do to neurological damage)
=> for both lead to diminished responsibility and also diminished possibility to
change
Juvenile criminal law in 19th/20th century - before there was no difference between adult and
children in law(during code pénal) in 1905 “kinderwetten” was introduced under which children
under 10 could not be punished and a child under 16 could get a lower sentence(bc children
were still developing their morality, brain)
- shift from punishment to treatment of criminals
1906: van hamel preposition in the nl - more mild offences the regulation and conviction should
aim for deterrence(scaring people from vomiting it in the future) but for serious offences there
should be long-term treatment=”psychopathenwetten” or psychopathic laws - in the previous
code of law people were either found guilty or not guilty, now this new code the mentally ill could
be held partially accountable for their crimes => sentencing to TBR
- Nr of people in TBR grew fast => a “stop law” was introduced to impose the TBR for only
very serious offences and where the recidivism risk was high
- In 1988 TBR was replaced by TBS in order to provide better/special care for offenders
with mental disorders
Differences between TBR and TBS:
- TBR could be imposed for any crime while TBS was only for crime with a minimum
sentence of 4 years
- TBR could last 2 years and extend to an indefinite time, TBS can last for a max of 4
years unless 2 conditions are met(if the crime put other people in danger; if there is risk
for recidivism)
- In TBS people are reassessed every 6 years by behavioral experts to decide whether an
extension is needed, this did not happen in TBR where the extension was approved
without any expert advice
Principles used to determine the necessity of treatment or punishment:
, - Proportionality: regulation should be seen in light of the danger/likelihood of
reoffending(high =>higher security, longer TBS)
- Subsidiarity: severe regulation is only acceptable when a mild regulation is not sufficient
- Effectivity: treatment of regulation should be effective by diminishing danger/reoffending
- it should be beneficial to both the person and the society
-short term TBS - aim is containment
-long term TBS - aim is reducing risk of reoffending by treatment
Criticism for TBS:
- Released patient aren’t checked on(followed only for a little time after release)
- Need for additional research into risk and effectivity of treatment used in TBS
- Need for tailor-made treatments that fit each patient
Mental health care institution for criminal patients:
- Forensic psychiatric outpatient clinics
- Forensic supervised housing (F-RIBW)–Level 1
- Forensic psychiatric departments (FPA)–Level 2
- Forensic psychiatric clinics (FPK)–Level 3
- Forensic psychiatric centers (FPC) = TBS clinics–Level 4
, LECTURE 2 - Clinical models of offending
Explanatory models=models that try to explain criminal behaviour: Risk-Need-
Responsivity(RNR) model & Good Lives Model(GLM)
“Nothing works” attitude(70’/80’)= No way to reduce offenders disposition towards crime =>
need harsher punishment(to work as a deterrent and have people not commit crime in the first
place)doesn’t work
Risk-Need-Responsivity(RNR) model:
Andrew, Bonta and Hoge:three principles related to successful treatment
- risk principle(who should be treated): treatment needs to be tailored to the specific risk of
each person - problem: need tools that can differentiate between low medium and high
risk offenders(hard) in order to decide the intensity of the treatment
- need principle(what should be treated): only have to treat criminogenic need=aspects of
personality of the offender directly related to the crime
- responsivity principle(how one should be treated): need to connect to the skills and
abilities of the offender
- general responsivity: general principles that match all treatments
- specific responsivity: principles that need to match to specific offenders
Assessing the risk of reoffending:
1st gen assessment - based only on the ability of the professionals(whether they thought a
criminal was high risk or not)
2nd gen assessment
- more evident based, more structured/systematic
- main focus is to reduce risk factors
- assessing reoffending - there are both specific tools(based on offending type and
offender characteristics) and more general ones => statistical approach coupled
with clinical insights
- Risk principle: mapping offender risk / risk assessment:
- Predicting reoffending risk: different types of assessment tools from very
general ones to ones tailored to specific crimes, risk, age, etc.
- Empirical basis risk factors
- Statistical approach coupled with clinical insights
- Need principle: seven central dynamic risk factors:
- 8 criminogenic needs: antisocial behavioural pattern(impulsivity),
antisocial attitudes(rationalising criminal conduct), social support for
antisocial behaviour(criminal peers), substance abuse, family
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