Chapter 7: Forensic Psychology 🧠⚖️

Media & Forensic Psychology 🎬🧠

• 🐑🩸 Films like Silence of the Lambs & Hannibal exaggerate forensic psychology
• 🔮❌ Psychologists cannot psychically connect with killers
• ⚗️ Forensic psychology relies on scientific methods
• 📈 Career opportunities limited but slowly growing

Crime Scene Investigation 🏠🔍

Types of Crime Scenes: Organized, Disorganized, Mixed

Organized Crime Scenes 🧩

• 🕵️‍♂️ Criminal plans carefully, avoids detection
• 👤 Controls self & victim
• 🎯 Victim is targeted, chosen stranger

Characteristics:

• 📋 Planned offense
• 🚗🪦 Body transported & hidden
• 🗣️ Controlled conversation
• 🧍‍♀️ Victim submissive
• 🔪❌ Weapon/evidence missing
• 🔒 Crime scene shows control
• ⛓️ Restraints used
• 😡💥 Aggressive acts before death

Disorganized Crime Scenes 🔥

• 😡 Impulsive, emotional motive
• 🏚️ Chaotic scene
• 🎲 Victim random
• 🪓🪑 Uses available materials

Characteristics:

• 🪦 Body left at scene
• ⚡ Spontaneous offense
• 🔪 Evidence/weapon present
• 👥 Victim known or familiar
• 👀 Body left in view
• ❌👤 Victim depersonalized
• 🤐 Minimal conversation
• 🏚️ Sloppy crime scene
• 💥 Sudden violence

Mixed Crime Scenes ⚖️

• Features of both organized & disorganized
• Could be two offenders or interrupted crime ⏳
• 💰🔪 Example: planned robbery, unplanned murder

Trophy Taking 🏆

• 🖼️ Violent offenders may keep souvenirs
• ✨ Purpose: remember crime, control victim, signature

Staging 🎭

• 🚨 Crime scene altered to mislead authorities
• 👪 Often done by someone close to victim
• 💵🛡️ Motives: insurance fraud, protect reputation
• ⏱️⚠️ Red flags: inconsistencies due to stress & time

Psychological Autopsy 🧠⚰️

• Reconstructs deceased person’s psychological state
• AKA psychiatric autopsy, retrospective death assessment, reconstructive evaluation
• 🏥 Term coined 1977 by LA Medical Examiner’s Office
• 💔 Helps detect/prevent suicide in jails, gives closure to staff
• Technique valid when focused on manner & circumstances of death

Elements:

• 🍺💊😰🏥👨‍👩‍👧🎖️💼🎓❤️🥗 History: alcohol, drugs, stress, medical, family, military, work, education, sexual, diet
• 📝📦🎨👹 Relationships: writings, belongings, hobbies, enemies
• 👥 Reactions of others
• 🧠 Decedent’s role in own death
• 💭🌙😱😡😢🧠🧐🧠 Socio-emotional state: fantasies, dreams, fears, mood swings, mental status, concentration, IQ

Types of Death ⚰️

• 🌿 Natural, Accident 🚗, Suicide ⚡, Homicide 🔪, Undetermined ❓

Equivocal Death Analysis 🔄

• ❓ Death open to multiple interpretations
• 🎭 May appear homicide, suicide, accident, natural
• 💵🇺🇸 Often staged; used to uncover reality, insurance checks, US military investigations

Reconstruction 🔬

• 🧪📊 Uses scientific method, logic, info sources, experience
• 🚶‍♂️🔄 Steps: walk through crime scene, test event sequences
• 🧠👥💍💰 Consider mental state, psychosocial factors, family/marital relations, finances

Procedure of Equivocal Death Analysis 📝

• 👨‍👩‍👧 Interviews with family/acquaintances
• 📝 Examine documents: suicide notes, diaries, letters
• 🏥 Post-mortem & medical reports
• 🚓 Police reports

Limits of Profiling & Psychological Autopsy ❌

• 👤📖 Individual differences: no two humans alike, complex nature, limited knowledge
• ⚡ Unpredictability: past behavior ≠ future behavior (criminal can become spiritual, pious person may commit crime)
• 💸 Socio-economic bias: servant assumed to steal

Clinical/Subjective Approach ⚖️

• 🧪 Limited alone; courts require physical evidence
• 🎯 Forensic psychologists balance intuition & statistical probabilities
• 🎨🧠 Start with science, then integrate artistic/intuitive judgment

Key Milestones, Figures, and Researches