Access Psychology Hannah Butler

Outline and Critically Assess Psychological Research Into Obedience

Outline-Convey the main points placing emphasis on global structures and interrelationships rather than minute detail. Assess- Weigh up to what extent something is true. Persuade the reader of your argument by citing relevant research but also remember to point out any flaws and counter- arguments as well. Conclude by stating clearly how far you are in agreement with the original proposition.

Unit 2 Criminal Psychopathology

In your groups, answer the following questions..... What is Crime? What is the difference between crime and deviance? What is meant by psychopathology?

Definitions What is Crime? The category of crime is usually associated with behaviour which the formal, written laws of a given society. The punishment of crime is likely to be more serious than the punishment of ‘deviance’ in general but obviously different crimes and different laws are treated in varying ways. What is Deviance? To deviate means, literally means, to move away or stray from, set standards in society. Deviance, then is a much more general category than crime, and is used by sociologists to refer to behaviour that, while being different, is often not controlled legally.

Introduction to Psychopathology We tend to use terms like ‘madness’ and ‘insanity’ in so many circumstances: When someone’s behaviour deviates from ‘normal’ When we’re not sure why someone is behaving in a way that seems to deviate from ‘normal’ codes of behaviour When someone’s behaviour definitely seems irrational When a behaviour appears to be maladaptive or possibly dangerous. For psychologists, the study of these deviations from normal behaviour are labelled as Psychopathology. Treating Psychopathology is known generally as Clinical Psychology

Defining Psychopathology It is important to remember that just because someone’s behaviour deviates from accepted norms and behavioural patterns, does not mean that they are mentally ill. We are unable to define Psychopathology as a ‘normal’ psychological/neurological/biological functioning going wrong. This is because we don’t know whether this is the case for some disorders.

Defining Psychopathology (contd…) A basic definition of Psychopathology is: “the study of deviations from normal or everyday behavioural and psychological functioning.” However, there are issues of bias involved when it comes to understanding Psychopathology as a whole.

Psychologists are involved in rehabilitating offenders, providing expert advice in court cases, assessing both offenders and victims, preventing crime and much more. In the 1960’s criminological psychology as a specific branch of psychology emerged. In criminological psychology, research findings and theories from areas of pure psychology are applied to the questions raised by real life legal and criminal problems. How can the pure psychological approaches that you studied in the last unit be applied to criminological psychology?

Social psychology – conformity and how juries reach verdicts Learning psychology – treating offenders using behavioural techniques/learned criminal behaviour Biological psychology – do genetics play a role in criminality Psychodynamic psychology – whether the choice of victim is influenced by an earlier episode in an offender’s life

What do you think causes someone to become a criminal/murderer?

Are we be born evil?

Ted Bundy Serial killer, rapist, kidnapper. Confessed to 30 homicides.

Ian Huntley School caretaker. Kidnapped two young girls who were missing for 13 days. He killed both.

The Kray Twins 1960’s gangsters and sadists in London. Involved in torture, arson, armed robbery, murder.

The Wests Fred & Rosemary West kidnapped, tortured and murdered at least 12 young girls.

Peter Sutcliffe Known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Murdered 13 women, attacked 7 others.

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady Known as The Moors Murderers. Kidnapped, abused and murdered children and hid their bodies on the moors. Some bodies still missing.

Robert Thompson One of the two ten year old boys who kidnapped, tortured and killed two year Jamie Bulger.

Tony Blair An ex British Prime Minister. Some would argue that he is responsible for the deaths of many soldiers.

Sir Cyril Burt Devised the first IQ tests on falsified evidence. Partially responsible for prejudice, he stated the darker your skin, the less intelligent you are.

Why? Power Success Women Money Status Sadism Mental Illness Sibling rivalry

Psychopaths

TASK: Write down a definition of what you think a psychopath is. Prepare to feed this back to the group. What is a Psychopath?

A psychopath is “A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behaviour without empathy or remorse”. What is a Psychopath?

What is a psychopath? They are simply morally depraved individuals who represent the "monsters" in our society. They are unstoppable and untreatable predators whose violence is planned, purposeful and emotionless. The violence continues until it reaches a plateau at age 50 or so, then tapers off.

Psychopaths have been described as: arrogant, callous, dominant, superficial and manipulative. They are short-tempered, unable to form strong emotional relationships and are lacking in empathy, guilt or remorse. The personality traits of psychopaths lead to socially deviant lifestyles typified by irresponsible impulsive behaviours. Characteristics of a Psychopath

Psychopaths make up about 1% of the total population, but around 25% of the prison population. Some Statistics…

There are four types of psychopaths: ▫ Primary Psychopath ▫ Secondary Psychopath ▫ Distempered psychopaths ▫ Charismatic psychopaths Types of Psychopaths

Primary psychopath A better term would be emotional masochists. They won't respond to stress, punishment, or disapproval. Another strong trait is that they don't understand the meaning of words well, a condition called semantic aphasia. They have no life plan and are just breathing machines with no emotion, good or bad.

Secondary psychopaths Secondary psychopaths are risk-takers, but are also more likely to be stress-reactive, worriers, and guilt-prone. They expose themselves to more stress than the average person, but they are as vulnerable to stress as the average person. (This suggests that they are not "fully psychopathic." This may be due to distinctive genetic variations.)

They are daring, adventurous, unconventional people who began playing by their own rules early in life. They are strongly driven by a desire to escape or avoid pain, but are unable to resist temptation. As their anxiety increases toward some forbidden object, so does their attraction to it. They live their lives by the lure of temptation.

Distempered psychopaths Distempered psychopaths are the kind that seem to fly into a rage or frenzy more easily and more often than other subtypes-their frenzy will resemble an epileptic fit. They are also usually men with incredibly strong sex drives, capable of astonishing feats of sexual energy, and seemingly obsessed by sexual urges during a large part of their waking lives. Powerful cravings also seem to characterize them, as in drug addiction, kleptomania, paedophilia, any illicit or illegal indulgence. They like the endorphin "high" or "rush" off of excitement and risk-taking.

Charismatic psychopaths Charismatic psychopaths are charming, attractive liars. They are usually gifted at some talent or another, and they use it to their advantage in manipulating others. They are usually fast-talkers, and possess an almost demonic ability to persuade others out of everything they own, even their lives. Leaders of religious sects or cults, for example, might be psychopaths if they lead their followers to their deaths. This subtype often comes to believe in their own fictions. They are irresistible.

Sociopath V Psychopath

Psychopaths are born with temperamental differences such as impulsivity, cortical under-arousal, and fearlessness that lead them to risk-seeking behaviour and an inability to internalize social norms. On the other hand, sociopaths have relatively normal temperaments; their personality disorder being more an effect of negative sociological factors like parental neglect, delinquent peers, poverty, and extremely low or extremely high intelligence NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

SociopathsPsychopaths Personality A very noticeable nervous and easily agitated personality – appear abnormal to others. Charming personalities, manipulative and they gain people’s trust very easily – appear “normal” to others. Education/Career Uneducated and unable to hold down a steady job. Educated and hold down steady jobs. Family/Relationships Usually single with no family or sexual relationships. Some are so good at manipulating mimicry of emotion they have family and long term relationships without those around them every suspecting their true nature. Crime Any crime committed tends to be disorganised and spontaneous leaving many clues to their identity. Well planned out crimes in every detail with little or no clues.

Serial killers

What is a serial killer? The FBI defines a serial killer as: A minimum of three to four victims, with a "cooling off" period in between; The killer is usually a stranger to the victim — the murders appear unconnected or random; The murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim; The murder is rarely "for profit"; the motive is psychological, not material; The victim may have "symbolic" value for the killer; method of killing may reveal this meaning; Killers often choose victims who are vulnerable (prostitutes, runaways, etc.)

The Macdonald triad 1963 The Macdonald triad (also known as the triad of sociopathy) is a set of three behavioural characteristics that were originally claimed, if present together, to be associated with later violent tendencies. Serial killers exhibit one, two, or all three of the Macdonald triad.

The Macdonald triad The triad links animal cruelty, obsession with fire setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five to violent behaviours, particularly homicidal behaviour.

The Father of modern serial killing The one who got away with it!!!

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story.

Between August and November 1888, the Whitechapel area of London was the scene of five brutal murders. All the women murdered were prostitutes, and all except for one were horribly mutilated. Their throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations and the removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims.

There has been much speculation as to the identity of the killer. It has been suggested that he or she was a doctor or butcher, based on the evidence of weapons and the mutilations that occurred, which showed a knowledge of human anatomy. Many theories have been put forward suggesting individuals who might be responsible. One theory links the murders with Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor, also known as the Duke of Clarence, although the evidence for this is insubstantial.

Motives of a serial killer The motives of serial killers are generally placed into four categories: visionary mission-oriented hedonistic power or control however, the motives of any given killer may display considerable overlap among these categories.

Visionary Visionary serial killers suffer from psychotic breaks with reality, sometimes believing they are another person or are compelled to murder by entities such as the Devil or God-”demon mandated” and “God mandated”. E.G Dennis Rader

Dennis Rader  From Kansa, USA  Known as the BTK strangler-Blind, torture, kill.  He blames a demon for the murders, claiming a demon got inside of him at an early age.  He had a three decade reign of terror.  Rader pleaded guilty to ten counts of murder from the early 1970s until 1986, however not admitting to them until March of  He was sentenced to a minimum of 175 years without the possibility of parole. This is the maximum sentence allowed by USA law. l

Mission oriented Not psychotic typically justify their acts as "ridding the world" of a certain type of person perceived as undesirable, such as homosexuals, prostitutes, or people of different ethnicity or religion E.G The Zebra murders

The zebra murders The Zebra Killings occurred in the San Francisco bay area between 1972 and 1974 and left 71 people dead. They were dubbed the Zebra Killings because of the radio channel used by the police investigating the case (channel Z). The name would take on a more sinister meaning as it became apparent that a group of blacks was systematically stalking and killing whites simply because of the colour of their skin.

The killers were part of a group which believed that whites were created 3,000 years ago by a black mad scientist named Yacub who wanted a race of inferiors to rule over. They believed they could earn "points" towards going to heaven when they died if they killed whites. For them, whites were not human beings but "grafted snakes," "blue-eyed devils" and "white motherf-----s. The victims were mostly women and weak or old men who could not fight back. They were shot at gunpoint.

Hedonistic This type of serial killer seeks thrills and derives pleasure from killing, seeing people as expendable means to this goal. Forensic psychologists have identified three subtypes of the hedonistic killer: "lust", "thrill" and "comfort"

Hedonistic LUST: Sex is the primary motive of lust killers, whether or not the victims are dead, and fantasy plays a large role in their killings. Their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. They usually use weapons that require close contact with the victims, such as knives or hands. As lust killers continue with their murders, the time between killings decreases or the required level of stimulation increases, sometimes both E.G Kenneth Bianchi

Kenneth Bianchi  Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono also known as the “the Hillside strangler”.  Bianchi and Buono would usually cruise around Los Angeles in Buono's car and use fake badges to persuade girls that they were undercover policemen.  Their victims were women and girls aged 12 to 28 from various walks of life.  They would then order the girls into Buono's "unmarked police car" and drive them home to torture, rape and murder them.  They murdered 10 girls/women.

Hedonistic THRILL: The primary motive of a thrill killer is to induce pain or terror in their victims, which provides stimulation and excitement for the killer. They seek the adrenaline rush provided by hunting and killing victims. Thrill killers murder only for the kill; usually the attack is not prolonged, and there is no sexual aspect. Usually the victims are strangers, although the killer may have followed them for a period of time E.G Robert hansen

Robert Hansen  From Alaska, USA  He raped and assaulted over 30 Alaskan women. He is responsible for the murder of at least 17, ranging in age from 16 to 41  He took his victims to a secluded area, where he would let them loose and then hunt and kill them, like wildlife.

Hedonistic COMFORT (profit): Material gain and a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort killers. Usually, the victims are family members and close acquaintances. After a murder, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow any suspicions by family or authorities to subside. Female serial killers are often comfort killers, although not all comfort killers are female. E.G Dorothea Puente

Dorothea Puente  From California, USA.  Ran a boarding house for elderly and disabled.  She stole and cashed their social security benefits.  Those who complained were murdered by overdosing them on medication, and then burying them in the back garden.  She was charged with the murders of 9 people.  In 1993 she was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole.  She died in prison in 2008 aged 82.

Power The main objective for this type of serial killer is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power- or control-motivated killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust but as simply another form of dominating the victim. E.G Ted Bundy travelled around the United States seeking women to control-will look at him in more detail later in the course.

The “world’s worst serial killer”.  Luis Garavito, also known as “the beast”.  From Columbia  Active during the 1990s. Been referred as “the world’s worst serial killer” due to the vast amount of victims-most in modern times-post 1900

Luis Garavito Born in 1957 in Columbia. Eldest of 7 brothers. Suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father. Was also a victim of sexual abuse when a child. Garavito's victims were poor children, peasant children, or street children, between the ages of 8 and 16.

Garavito approached them on the street or countryside and offered them gifts or small amounts of money. After gaining their trust, he took the children for a walk and when they got tired, he would take advantage of them. He then raped them, cut their throats, and usually dismembered their corpses. Most corpses showed signs of torture. Garavito was captured on 22 April He confessed to murdering 140 children. However, he is still under investigation for the murder of 172 children in more than 59 towns in Colombia

He was found guilty in 139 of the 172 cases; the others are ongoing. The sentences for these 139 cases add to 1,853 years and 9 days behind bars. However, because of Colombian law restrictions, he cannot be imprisoned for more than 30 years. In addition, because he helped the authorities in finding the bodies, his sentence has been decreased to 22 years PUBLIC OUTCRY!!!