Unit Objectives: Understand and describe the different Psychological Theories of crime; Understand and describe the main features of the different Psychological Theories of crime; Recognise strengths and weaknesses in theories; and Understand why theories are criticised.
Unit Objectives: Understand and describe different biological theories; Understand the importance of systematic observations taken in carefully controlled surroundings; Understand the importance of testing the validity of theories; and Evaluate research into the biology of crime and recognise weak versus strong research.
Unit Objectives: Understand and describe the different sociological theories of crime; Understand and describe the main features of the different sociological theories of crime; Recognise weaknesses in theories and understand why theories are criticised; and Understand that some theories are hybrid, combining a number of different perspectives.
Unit Objectives: To have an awareness of the longitudinal methodology for studying criminal behaviour; Understand and describe the various types of offender, as identified by Moffitt and other researchers; Recognise weaknesses in longitudinal research, & understand why theories & research are criticised; and Understand the various theories on moral development and how they complement other theories.
Unit Objectives: Understand and describe why: Class A Drugs (e.g. cocaine, heroin) are considered the most harmful; There appear to be links between drug abuse and crime; Habitual drug abuse causes changes in brain function which affect behaviour; There is an increasing tendency to sentence drug abusers to punishment within the community; Efforts are being made to educate young people with respect to the dangers of drug use.
Unit Objectives: To understand the discussion around violence, frustration and aggression; To have an awareness of the research into violent behaviour; To have an awareness of the emotional aspects of violence; To have an awareness of the various posited explanations for domestic violence; and To conduct research into a possible psychological cause of violent behaviour.
Unit Objectives: Understand what is meant by rape, sexual assault, sexual violence and sex offending; Be aware of the various risk factors in sex offences; Understand the various theoretical explanations regarding rape; Have an awareness of both the evolutionary and feminist perspective on rape; Understand the definition of the ‘justice gap'; and Conduct research and produce a review of the factors that contribute to the ‘justice gap' for rape.
Unit Objectives: Understand the definition of fire-setting and arson; Understand the development of fire-play behaviour at an early age, to fire-setting behaviour as an adolescent; Understand the various motivations for the crime of arson; and Have awareness of various explanations for such behaviour (including an evolutionary perspective).
Unit Objectives: Understand the definition of stalking to denote a range of behaviours; Understand the possible progression from stalking to intimate partner violence; Recognise types of stalking and possible outcomes; and Awareness of the various motivations for stalking behaviour.
Unit Objectives: Understand the common characteristics of mass murderers and how they may explain the reasons for the behaviour; Understand the differences, and similarities, between serial murder, mass murder and spree killing; Evaluate various explanations for mass murder; and Understand the Trauma Control Model and how it can help explain serial murder.
Unit Objectives: Understand the difficulties in defining terrorism; Understand that there are two different aspects to the psychology of terrorism (1. The psychological aspects of terrorist behaviour and 2. The psychological aspects of the effects of terrorism on the victims); Understand the need for quality research and the caution with which research results should be treated; Understand that there are a vast number of terrorist groups with different agendas, different names and different labels; and Understand what is meant by hate.
Unit Objectives: To have an awareness that perceptions of mental disorder, as a cause of violent crime, are distorted; Understand what is meant by schizophrenia, amnesia and Dissociative Identity Disorder; To have an awareness that research suggests serious violent behaviour is not frequent among people with schizophrenia; Develop an awareness of the characteristics used to define psychopathy; Understand that, until the Mental Health Act 2007, a distinction was drawn between psychopathy and anti-social personality disorder; and Understand what effect the removal of this distinction will have on certain groups of offenders.
Unit Objectives: Understand and describe what is meant by: sychological (or Offender) Profiling; Typological Approach; Intuitive (Experiential) versus Actuarial (Statistical) Approaches to Profiling; Investigative Psychology; Research into Investigative Psychology & its real world application; and Recognise & discuss the differences & similarities between the two models.
Unit Objectives: Understand and describe what is meant by: Geographic profiling; Basic theories and principles of geographic profiling; Research into geographic profiling; The application of geographic profiling; and How results are obtained.
Unit Objectives: Understand the development of investigative interviewing, and recognise the difference between interviews and interrogations; Understand the underlying principles of modern investigative interviewing, and recognise the differences between the UK and USA; Recognise bad practice in police interviewing (including factors such as intimidation, robust challenges and manipulation) and effective good practice; and Have awareness and understanding of the Cognitive Interview approach to witness interviewing.
Unit Objectives: To recognise there are no clear-cut ways of detecting deception/lies; To review three possible sources of evidence of deception; To review the background to the polygraph and its use; and Critically evaluate the accuracy of the lie detection methods.
Unit Objectives: To recognise that eyewitness memory is highly fallible; To recognise that memories are considered a product of conceptual systems; To have a basic understanding of some of the research into perception, memory and eyewitness testimony; and To examine and report on personal perception and memory.
