Assignment 2: RA 2: Personality Characteristics and Criminal Behavior

A particular set of personality characteristics does not turn a person into a criminal. However, a criminal will have the same set of characteristics. This concept may not be easy to understand. Here is another example: all college graduates have attended college, but not everyone who attended college is a college graduate. The mistake “if A then B” is the same as “if B then A” is a common one in research, criminal investigation, and profiling.

Criminal profiling is a difficult task. Complete the following three parts and present it in your report.

Part I

Identify at least five offense characteristics of each of the following crimes: sex offense, murder, acquisitive crime, organized crime, and terrorism.

Part II

Choose two offenses for those listed in Part I. Using the selected characteristics, complete the following for each of the two offenses you selected:

• Analyze the selected characteristics to develop a forensic profile for that particular type of offense. For example, how would you use the two offense characteristics you have selected for murder to develop inferences regarding the personality of a murderer?
• Explain how an offender’s level of cognitive and emotional functioning, as well as social and environmental factors, could contribute to his or her maladaptive behavior in each of the above offenses.
• Identify and justify the types of tests and/or personality measures that might be used to gather additional information for each of the two offenses.
• Identify and justify the type of collateral information you would need to learn about the offender in the case of each of the two crimes.

Part III

• Identify the differences in ethical standards between a criminal investigation and a psychological interview.
• Offer your recommendations for future research needed to advance the science and research of psychological profiling techniques.
• Discuss the different ethical considerations one must follow as an investigator and as a psychologist.

Support your responses giving reasons and examples from 8–10 scholarly resources.

Write a 7- to 9-page report in a Microsoft Word document. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Your paper should be written in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.