FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY AND POLICE:Violent Criminals

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Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Lesson 03

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY AND POLICE

Few topics from previous lecture

Violent Criminals

A violent criminal is about to be released upon completing his sentence. How can the psychologist help

ensure he would not re-offend? The role of Forensic psychologist is again very critical as homicide is a

tragedy which doesn't always begin with the offender. Young offenders often come from broken homes

and turbulent childhoods. Some are victims of abuse and many grow up using the survival instincts they

learn on the streets. A psychologist must take these factors into consideration when dealing with

violence, because execution of criminals clearly does not address the source of the problem.

Forensic psychologists are increasingly being called on to evaluate sex offenders in both the civil and

criminal arenas. Evaluations typically focus on understanding the offender's psychopathology,

establishing treatment and management needs, and/or predicting the likelihood that the individual will

not re-offend. So, a psychologist can help a criminal to become a better person by taking into account

multiple dimensions and factors.

Offenders with MR/LD

What should the legal system do with offenders with a low IQ?

Forensic psychologist can help to deal with these types of questions. Psychologists apply psychological

principals to plan for the effective treatment, whether within the community or in imprisonment, of

persons with combinations of low IQ, substance abuse, and mental health problems.

Risk Assessment

What is risk assessment?

"Risk assessment is a step in the risk management process. Risk assessment is measuring two quantities

of the risk, the magnitude of the potential loss, and the probability that the loss will re-occur."

Suppose we are going to allow a serial rapist to walk free after he has finished his jail sentence. How

can psychologists help us in this situation? An area that is in particular demand at present involves

violence risk assessment. Forensic psychologists provide valuable expertise to other practitioners,

agencies, and the legal system regarding assessing risk of violence. This involves not only providing

risk assessments, but also consulting on the appropriate use of specialized tests and actuarial

instruments. With increasing public concern about school shootings, workplace violence, and sex

offending, there is increasing demand for clarity about the reliability, validity, and generalizability of

proposed instruments.

Risk assessment is fundamental to the criminal justice process because it is a means for distinguishing

between offenders who are likely to re-offend and those who are at a lower risk for recidivism (Solicitor

General Canada, 1998a).

There has been a lot of controversy about the accuracy of risk assessments. Risk assessments are

essentially predictions of future behaviour and are subject to error. The result of a risk assessment has

serious implications for both the assessed individual and society. For the individual offender, the

assessment will decide his or her freedom; for society, it may determine whether a potentially dangerous

person will be released into the community. The community requires protection, but at what expense?

Clearly, risk prediction has a place in the justice process, but predictions cannot be taken as fact.

Unfortunately, the error inherent in the risk prediction process often results in longer periods of

imprisonment for certain offenders who are found to be high-risk, but who, when released, do not

commit further crimes.

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Importance of risk assessment

"Risk assessment is such a rich and important factor to consider that failure to reflect on it may

constitute professional negligence. Through risk assessment we will have an idea of how likely the

person is to re-offend. The development of assessment methods in this area has focused primarily on:

Identifying various types of offenders

Discovering their special characteristics to improve treatment efforts

Assessing treatment progress

Evaluating risk of future re-offending when discharge from treatment programs

Assessment in this area can employ some of the general risk assessment factors discussed earlier, but it

also requires additional factors as well as special attention to specific diagnostic features of youthful sex

offenders (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999). That is why a good risk

assessment should also attend to external factors that may increase the likelihood that violent acts may

occur among youths who are high in other risk factors (e.g., the availability of weapons, the accessibility

of a specific person with whom a youth may be in conflict).

POLICE PSYCHOLOGY

Objectives:

To understand the relationship of police and Forensic Psychology

To understand the Low IQ issue of police force

To discuss the use of different psychological tests for screening in and screening out

Relationship of police and Forensic Psychology

Whenever the distinctive phrase "police psychology" is used, it is usually by people like Bartol (1996;

2004) and others (Chandler 1990) who are recognizing the pioneer Dr. Martin Reiser (Reiser 1972;

1982; Reiser & Klyver 1987) as America's first police psychologist, and who was hired by the LAPD

full-time in 1968. Other psychologists may have worked with police before Reiser's time, but records of

their contributions have been lost in history and/or they were most likely part-time consultants.

Policing is the central topic of forensic psychology because Forensic psychology is relevant to law and

police works as a law enforcement department. Do not misinterpret that police and forensic psychology

both deal with criminals that is why both fields are relevant but this bond becomes even stronger

because of the stressful nature of police job, now let's see how forensic psychologist can help police to

perform better.

Stressful nature of job

There has been a lot of research on the negative effects of stress on people in general. Surely you know

that police work is one of the top rated professions for job stress next to air traffic controllers and

dentists. Forensic Psychologists help the police men to come out of the stress and assist departments

with optimal shift schedules, pre-employment screening tests, developing profiles of serial offenders,

and training in how to deal with the mentally ill, and provision of counseling services. We will discuss

in detail police stress and strategies to cope with stress in next lectures.

Police and Intelligence Quotients

To understand the IQ scoring first understand what is meant by different IQ scores.

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients

Police has low IQ , To understand this issue in 1917 Louis Terman gave IQ tests to a large number of

police applicants and found that only three

Description

candidates scored over 100, that is the average IQ

score. So, he concluded that police attracted people

130+

Very superior

with low IQ and support people only who have low

intelligence.

120-129

Superior

Another Test: Same Score

In 1922 Louis Thurstone administered the Army 110-119

High average

Intelligence Test (Alpha) to 358 police officers of

different ranks in Detroit and founded that all were 90-109

Average

below average and average of 307 patrol officers

80-89

Low average

was 71.44 .the score of 34 sergeants was 54.71 and

17 lieutenants scored 57.80. Now this clearly shows

70-79

Borderline

that an immense number of police score is falling

into the mental retardation category. So, another test Below 70

Extremely low

administered to police force confirmed the findings

of Louis Terman's findings. On the other hand the

intelligence average score of 1.5 million army recruits was 100.then the following question emerged.

What causes low IQ in police?

Why would intelligent people avoid joining police department? So, Thurstone concluded that there is a

fundamental problem in terms of how police and intelligent people deal with each other, police did not

support people with High IQ levels and if some people with high IQ join police leave afterwards and

join for other professions where intelligence is valued more.

Many factors are involved in it

People with high IQ were not valued by the police

Early socialization into police

Home situations

Socio-economic status

An Exception

But in (1927) Maude Merrill tested Palo Alto Police in California interviewed and assessed the

policemen and founded that policemen average IQ Score is 104, those with over 2 years experience

averaged 143. Now 143 is the IQ score of very superior and genius people then question comes into our

mind that what made this possible?

Education: Key to Success

Poland (1978) reviewed the literature on police and intelligence scores and concluded that education is

the basic key to success and recruiting people with higher education means more intelligent policing.

Our religion also teaches us the importance of knowledge. We do not say that we need P.hd policemen

but at least we need reasonably educated police officers with average IQ for better performance of this

very important department of our country.

US recommendations

Now let's see how US has modified the police structure, training, recruitment in line with the

recommendations of psychologists and research done in this area.

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Recommendations:

A US committee gave following recommendations for the improvement of police department:

· Tests of mental ability or aptitude should be used while recruiting

· An oral psychiatric interview

· A Physical exam

· A Psychological Exam

· An in-depth background investigation

Psychological Exam should

· Include evaluation of intellectual capacity

· Include evaluation of emotional stability (as an emotionally unstable person can not prove to be

a good policeman)

· Include assessment of personality characteristics

Change of US police department over past few decades

US police in 1960s

Narrol & Levitt in the 1960's founded that police was being tested to assess whether they have aptitude

to become police officer means are they street smart? Or not but US recommendations were not being

followed about emotional stability and personality characteristics.

US police in1970s

Police changed in the light of psychologist's recommendations. Many large police departments in the

USA were using standardized personality inventories.

Standardized personality inventories are those psychological tests that are applicable to every one and

intend to assess personality.

Over 48 % were using Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory MMPI in 1970s.

US police in 2003

Cochrane,Tett & VandeCreek (2003) surveyed 155 municipal police departments. situation was

totally transformed as:

91% were using personality measures

71.6%were using MMPI

24.5%were using CPI

18.7% were using 16 PF

11.6% were using IPI

Other tests were also being used such as PAI

Use of different psychological tests was quite frequent.

The oldest known usage of psychology in policing was for mental testing, which was soon followed by

personality testing (Bartol & Bartol 2004). During the early 20th Century, several prominent

psychologists tested the intelligence of police officers. For example the work of following

psychologists:

Louis Terman (1917)

Louis Thurstone (1922)

Poland (1978)

Rationale of using personality inventories

The basic reason behind using personality inventory is to find the person who is fit for police job and for

those who are on duty whether they are fit for duty or not.

Forensic Psychology (PSY - 513)

Major aspects of personality assessment

1. screening in

2. Screening out

Screening in

Means searching for the person who is fit for the job and looking for a police personality, looking

for traits, habits, reactions and attitudes of an ideal police officer. So, once desired traits have been

identified tests are employed to find the matching personalities but the basic problem is individual

differences. May be two very different personality type officers would show excellent performance

and two identical personalities may show totally opposite behaviour. The Idea of Screening in was a

complete lost cause, because many different kinds of people make very good police officers and

consequently, screening in is not a pursuable goal.

Screening out

Screening out: the use of psychological tests to identify pathological personalities or people

unsuitable for policing is a reasonable objective. Use of MMPI can help screen out people with

pathology. Identify and exclude those people who should not join to this department.

Frequently used personality inventories

1. MMPI

2. IPI

MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

The MMPI, a standardized questionnaire developed at the University of Minnesota in 1940, is one

of the most popular clinical psychology personality inventories in use today, almost 70% police

psychologists are administering this test to identify the pathological personalities. There are

currently 567 items on the test. The scoring generate six validity scales and 10 basic clinical or

personality scales. The latter are, in order, as follows: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria,

Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity-Femininity, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia,

Hypomania, and Social Introversion.

Limitations

When we use MMPI for police screening out, few limitations are face like

Use of MMPI can help screen out people with pathology

Is not necessarily a good predictor of police performance

IPI (Inwald Personality Inventory)

The Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) is a 310 question "true-false" inventory and comparatively

designed to identify a variety of personality and behavioral characteristics. It was specifically

developed for selection of law enforcement personnel. It is specifically design and used to screen

applicants for high-risk positions such as police candidates. This assessment, or test, was developed

in response to the requirements of the public safety/law enforcement selection process. The Inwald

Personality Inventory (IPI) is a 310 item True/False questionnaire and has 26 scales. It has a better

Face validity; it is concerned with how a measure or procedure appears. Does it seem like a

reasonable way to gain the information the researchers are attempting to obtain? Does it seem well

designed? Does it seem as though it will work reliably.

Policing has improved significantly in last century in the light of psychologist's recommendations

that were made on the basis of research work, interviews and assessments. Let's hope to install

these progressive steps in Pakistan as well.

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