Constitutional Law

1-What role do aggravating and mitigating factors play in deciding whether to sentence

a convicted defendant to death? Aggravating and Mitigating factors play a huge role in

determining whether a defendant should get the death penalty. The aggravating factors are

generally the most gruesome facts of the case and are more likely to sway a jury towars the

death penalty. These factors make the defendant out to be a monster while the Mitigating

factors cause more sympathy. When a jury hears about the defendants past, the situation

they were in at the time of the crime, or mental illness it could change their mind. Regardless

unless the prosecution has determined one of the aggravating factors were proven, they

cannot come back with a death sentence.

2-Describe typical criminal thinking patterns, criminal worldviews, and the reasons why

criminals do crime.

Why a criminal is a criminal usually is based on four different subtypes. There is the born

criminal,insane criminal, criminal by passion, and ocassional criminals. I believe these 4

subtypes describe why these criminals commit crime. The born criminal is born with a

criminal predisposition and commit crime due to degnerative genetics. The insane criminal

commits crime because they may have psychological issues and therefore cannot distinguish

right from wrong. The criminal of passion commit crimes in the heat of the moment due to

extreme emotions. The occasional criminals do not seek out crime and are just drawn into it

easily. When Criminals commit crime it is out of their free will, having made a rational choice

and weighing their options of whether they'd be caught or not. A criminals thinking patterns

are manipulative, irresponsible, self-indulgent, grandiose, interpersonally intrusive, and

anti-social.

3-Describe some potential conflicts between psychologists as expert witnesses and lawyers

or judges. One of the biggest conflicts that could arise is that a psychologist is generally just

speculating. They are taking an educated guess and for a defendants lawyer that would not

sit well. The lawyers case rests on the expert witness of psychologist in alot of cases and

judges have to rely on their word.

4-List and describe 10 topics in which Psychologists might serve as expert witnesses.

There are many different topics/cases that a psychologist could be called to be an expert

witness on. (1) Child abuse-A childrens psychologist could be called to evaluate whether a

child displays the characters of someone who has been abused. (2)PTSD-Evaluate whether

someone is suffering from PTSD and if it caused them to commit a crime. (3) Suicide-

Psychologist could determine if certain factors in the case led to suicide. (4) Juevenile

Violence-Determine whether in their expert opinion a juevenile is acting out because of

home situations, if they are a threat to society, deserves jail time, etc. (5) Traumatic Brain

Injury-Evaluate if the TBI has caused violent behavior. (6)Pain Management,(7)Drug Abuse,(8)

Alcohol Abuse-Whether there is an addiction and how it might be affecting their behavior.(9)

Child Psychology-Evaluate any situation in which a child is involved either as a victim or

suspect. (10)-Developmental Disabilities- Whether someone suffers from developmental

disabilities.

5-Describe three different personality inventories used for police selection and describe the

validity of each. These are three different personality inventories; the MMPI, the CPI, and the

16PF. The MMPI which was updated to the MMPI-2 but in all versions of the MMPI the validity

scales have three different types of measures. Those that were designed to detect

inconsistent responding, those designed to detect when clients are exaggerating the

prevalence or severity of psychological symptoms, and those designed to detect when test-

takers are downplaying psychological symptoms. The CPI is very popular in research and in

individual assessments of adolecents and adults.

6-Why is the D.C. Sniper case an example of Criminal profiling stereotypes? This case is a

good example of stereotyping because it displays all the pitfalls, and dangers to criminal

profiling. So many people got the profile of these snipers wrong. Muhammed was profiled as

a single white male around 26, who was native to the D.C. area. He was not. He was a

married, african american father of four children in his forties. Because they had the profile

so wrong it deterred police from catching them sooner. They were not looking for an african

american sniper, because it was not the usual sniper stereotype.

7-Do physical or mental counter measures work when a suspect is taking a polygraph

examination?

8-Why is determining whether a defendant is insane difficult? It is difficult to determine

because you cannot know what the person was thinking or doing when they committed the

act. Also the judge and Jury have to separate a likely sane person at time of trial from

someone who was considered "insane" at the time of the crime. There are also very few

tools to assess insanity.

9-Describe how forensic psychologists assess criminal responsibility.

10-Define malingering. What are three types of malingerers? Malingering is The deliberate

fabrication or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms in order to gain an

advantage. There are three types:(1)Psychological malingering, (2)Physical malingering, and

(3)neurological malingering.

11-Is it acceptable for states to confine sexual offenders after completion of their prison

sentences if they are assessed to be a continuing threat? Why or why not? This is difficult to

answer because I believe the assessment can vary from psychologist to psychologist. While I

believe that sexual offenders do not change there have been cases where some have. I do

not think someone's freedom should be based off of one person's assessment. If the

offender has been assessed with tests and numerous imput from different psychologist then

yes, I see no harm in it. There would be more potential harm and trauma to another person

the offender victimizes.

12-In what ways might a psychologist testify for the defense in a case involving claims of the

sexual abuse of children? A psychologist would most likely bring the offenders childhood

into play. It is proven that most sexual abusers were abused themselves. This can be useful

to the defense and they can claim that the defendant grew up with this as the "norm"

therefore he does not know right from wrong in sexual situations.

13-A psychologist doing a child-custody evaluation has, in effect, three types of clients. Who

are they? They are the children, the parents , and the presiding judge.

14-Do judges want ultimate-opinion testimony from psychologists in custody-determination

cases? Why or why not. I think that alot of them do so they can better understand each side

of the trial. It's proven that out of the many types of testimony that ultimate opinion is one

that judges favor the most. Without the testimony the judge would not be able to envision w

hat living with one person as opposed to the other is like.

15-Suggest a topic to use for one of our Discussion Board Questions. The hiring process for

police officers includes psychological and personality testing. What do most people consider

to be the most important traits, skills, and abilities in a new hire for this line of work? Would

they be in favor adopting this set of traits as a “profile” that had to be used in the selection

process? Would this "weed out" the "dirty cops" and lessen the amount of lethal force cases?