The absence crime scene DNA can allow a case to grow cold, a victim to remain unavenged and a criminal to walk free.

To solve crimes where no physical evidence exists, police use behavioural linkage analysis (BLA) to determine, on the basis of crime scene behaviour, whether multiple crimes were committed by the same offender. BLA, a prerequisite to other investigative tools such as criminal and geographic profiling, is still in its infancy.  Tamara Melnyk, a doctoral student in forensic psychology spent a year and a half in her MA researching the methodology to test its viability for future police work.

Melnyk examined serial crimes that included sexual assault, homicide and burglary. When she began her research, she anticipated it would be more difficult to find high levels of behavioural similarity between violent crimes because each crime would involve a different victim, who might in turn react differently and affect the perpetrator’s behaviour.

However, despite the presence of a victim, she found the behaviours of these offenders to be extremely similar from crime scene to crime scene.

“One possible explanation for this finding may be that the crime scene behaviour of violent offenders is often guided by very well-rehearsed, fantasy-based scripts,” said Melnyk.  Indeed, some rapists and murderers have been known to rehearse their crimes before committing them. This can involve them running though possible scenarios and preparing for reactions a victim might have. In addition to confirming that a criminal’s behaviour appears consistent across their crimes, Melnyk’s research showed that it is in fact possible, even in the absence of physical evidence, to accurately link crimes committed by the same offender based on behaviour patterns alone, especially in cases of serial homicide.

Melnyk is now working on her PhD dissertation. “My goal is to develop a highly accurate, user-friendly, crime linkage tool for police investigators.”

Society may not be able to prevent all crimes, but it can improve the chances of catching serial criminals before they rack up more victims.

As a child, Kendra McGuffin vacillated between visions of becoming a ballerina or an undercover detective. Neither career option proved as interesting as one devoted to studying crime.

Now a forensic psychology MA student, McGuffin recently took a look at the biases psychologists might apply when deciding whether or not someone is a psychopath.

Kendra McGuffin

McGuffin worked with existing data collected from international training sessions organized by her graduate advisor, Adelle Forth. McGuffin anticipated that psychologists’ gender and the culture from which they came would influence their interpretations of psychopathy assessments.

“We expected women might be more sympathetic to offenders with difficult backgrounds,” said McGuffin. “We also hypothesized that the rater’s profession might influence their scores.”

She found the opposite in fact. Women tended to rate subjects higher on the psychopathy scale than did men.  However the psychiatrists and psychologists’ nationalities did not influence the scores they gave.

McGuffin’s research has real implications. If she had found substantial differences in the scoring results it could have been an indication of an unreliable testing tool. A designation of psychopathy can mean the difference between a life spent in prison or the possibility of rehabilitation and parole.

There is more work to be done in the area.

“We all know that different political parties have different opinions on crime and criminal justice,” said McGuffin. “It would be interesting to know if differences in opinions about how to deal with offenders spill over into areas like psychopathy assessment.”

Teenage girls who end up on the opposite side of the law are often in the wrong place at the wrong time, and more importantly with the wrong person.

Leigh Greiner, a forensic psychology doctoral student, has recently conducted research that examined the factors that lead some young women into criminal behavior. 

She became interested in the field after meeting Shelley Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. Brown’s expertise focused on female offenders, gender and crime. 

“For years, girls and women have been neglected in research in the criminal justice realm,” said Greiner. “Now we are merely trying to catch up to research on males.”

Under Brown’s direction, Greiner examined the relationship between peer groups, delinquency and gender. Working through three Ontario young offender facilities, she conducted a questionnaire of 21 girls and 31 boys. 

She found that while peer pressure accounted for some of the misbehavior, the greater influence came from a wayward older boyfriend.

“Girls had a larger number of older male peers and older boyfriends compared to boys, whose peers were primarily male, and typically the same age,” said Greiner. “I found this interesting as it is in line with prior research that has found that male peers, particularly older male romantic partners may be to blame for girls’ delinquency in adolescence.”

The adverse effects of peer relationships and romantic entanglements might be reduced through peer mentorship programs offered through schools Greiner says. 

Society’s greater challenge is how to prevent girls who have dropped out of school from following a bad boyfriend into a life of crime.

“Family dogs (companion dogs) without special training provide numerous benefits to families with children who have autism,” says Coltea.

In 2008, Coltea and his supervisor, Shelley Parlow, confirmed that children with ASD can and do bond with their companion dogs and that the children who were more attached to their dogs also displayed better language skills.

This year, Coltea conducted the first study to investigate how companion dogs fit in families with children with ASD and those without. He conducted qualitative interviews with 20 families that included 19 mothers, seven fathers and five children. These families owned a total of 25 dogs.

Cosmin Coltea

“I found that the dogs offered similar physical, social and emotional supports, including companionship, to both autistic and non-autistic children,” says Coltea. “Unlike non-autistic children, my research showed that in some cases children with ASD learned about the world through their dogs. The kids were able to relate more quickly to their pets than to people, and dogs sometimes acted as a replacement for human friends.”

For parents, Coltea found that the companion dogs also had a number of positive effects that ranged from increased socialization to preparation for being parents. However, the dogs could also disrupt daily schedules, provide stress due to misbehaviour and become a financial burden.

For families, Coltea discovered that the pet dogs could act as “glue,” especially for families split by divorce. “They seemed to increase the well-being of families by increasing quality time between parents and children, mediating family conflicts and, for families with autistic children, decrease stress and act as a learning tool.”

Coltea says his research points to a new theoretical model for the interaction between companion animals and people, based on the interactions and characteristics of each person and the companion dog. This fall in collaboration with the City of Ottawa, he started a unique program for children with ASD and their companion dogs. The course involves learning about dog communication, behavior, grooming, obedience exercises, tricks, as well as teamwork between children.

Coltea says he is delighted at news that Ontario has pledged $25 million to expand services for families with autism. “I am hopeful that, in the near future, services that incorporate companion animals will be considered for funding as my research shows there are strong benefits for these families and it would be great to offer them this service.”

During her undergraduate studies, Renee Malcom focused on the relationship between sexual arousal and attitudes towards rape.  Since then she has begun delving into the impact of prison sentences on future crime.

Now an MA student in the Department of Psychology, Malcom has recently examined the correlation between length of time served in prison and the likelihood of reoffending upon release.  Specifically, she was looking at a variety of criminals who had committed sexual offences.

“We are looking at the relationship between incarceration length, age and recidivism. In other words, do longer prison sentences make a criminal offend more or less in the future and does sentence length have the same affect on recidivism for all offenders or is it influenced by age?” explained Malcom.

That is, does a long prison sentence act as a deterrent, or does serving time with hardened inmates further school an offender for future crime.  Malcom also examined whether or not a 19 year old was more likely to be affected by the length of his sentence than a 40 year old might be.

The research was a follow up to her professor, Kevin Nunes’s earlier research on sex offenders.  The data they examined included research conducted 19 years earlier by other forensic psychologists. 

Nunes and Malcom compared those original cases to files pertaining to their current criminal records to see what types of offences they had been reconvicted for since their original prison sentence and how long they had spent in prison during the follow-up time. 

“The one thing we have found is that we are seeing a relationship between incarceration length and recidivism for the highest risk offenders,” said Malcom. “We will be continuing to do a more in depth analysis of the data to determine if age, offence type and other factors are playing into this relationship.”

École Polytechnique, Columbine, Dawson College, Virginia Tech and now Marinette High school share two things in common. They educate youth and they became hunting grounds for school shooters.

In each case, early warning signs were missed. In response to these tragedies, an Ontario-based school board decided to take action to head off the possibility that any of their schools join the list.

Lesleigh Pullman, a fourth-year psychology student, recently conducted research to assist the school board in the analysis of an assessment protocol – the Community Threat Assessment Protocol (CTAP).

The CTAP is designed to identify youth at risk for severe forms of violence and general delinquency. The protocol is unique because information is gathered collaboratively from school officials and community members like the police.

The goal of the protocol is to identify and provide at risk youth with an integrated intervention strategy that incorporates school and community-based services.

Implemented in 2008, the protocol provides school officials with a tool to identify and intervene with students at risk for engaging in delinquency and violence.

Under the direction of her forensic psychology professor, Shelley Brown, Pullman began sifting through the data in May 2010.

She found that 70 percent of the incidents – which can include verbal or physical threats of violence toward teachers or peers, took place on school property by youth with a history of criminal
behaviour. These incidents prompted the initial CTAP assessment.

“These assessments are an effective way to identify youth who may need extra support within the school system to ensure that they don’t reach the criminal justice system,” said Pullman.

Students who threaten or harm their peers, are usually suspended from the school for a cooling off period, and then once readmitted, required to check-in with school counselors. Additional interventions may also be implemented depending upon the unique needs of the youth.

“Check-in procedures vary depending on the student. It may be a simple meeting to ask students how they are  doing, if they are  having problems – to searching students’ backpacks and belongings, in cases where a weapon was brought to school in the past,” Pullman explains.

Successful implementation of CTAP will actually prevent researchers and school officials alike from confirming school shooters as they will have flagged escalating violence before it becomes lethal. Early intervention will ensure kids at risk never reach the point of pulling a trigger.

Pullman plans to pursue graduate studies, focusing on what causes rapists, child molesters and child pornography offenders to commit the crimes they do.

École Polytechnique, Columbine, Dawson College, Virginia Tech and now Marinette High school share two things in common. They educate youth and they became hunting grounds for school shooters.

In each case, early warning signs were missed. In response to these tragedies, an Ontario-based school board decided to take action to head off the possibility that any of their schools join the list.

Lesleigh Pullman, a fourth-year psychology student, recently conducted research to assist the school board in the analysis of an assessment protocol – the Community Threat Assessment Protocol (CTAP).

The CTAP is designed to identify youth at risk for severe forms of violence and general delinquency. The protocol is unique because information is gathered collaboratively from school officials and community members like the police.

The goal of the protocol is to identify and provide at risk youth with an integrated intervention strategy that incorporates school and community-based services.

Implemented in 2008, the protocol provides school officials with a tool to identify and intervene with students at risk for engaging in delinquency and violence.

Under the direction of her forensic psychology professor, Shelley Brown, Pullman began sifting through the data in May 2010.

She found that 70 percent of the incidents – which can include verbal or physical threats of violence toward teachers or peers, took place on school property by youth with a history of criminal
behaviour. These incidents prompted the initial CTAP assessment.

“These assessments are an effective way to identify youth who may need extra support within the school system to ensure that they don’t reach the criminal justice system,” said Pullman.

Students who threaten or harm their peers, are usually suspended from the school for a cooling off period, and then once readmitted, required to check-in with school counselors. Additional interventions may also be implemented depending upon the unique needs of the youth.

“Check-in procedures vary depending on the student. It may be a simple meeting to ask students how they are  doing, if they are  having problems – to searching students’ backpacks and belongings, in cases where a weapon was brought to school in the past,” Pullman explains.

Successful implementation of CTAP will actually prevent researchers and school officials alike from confirming school shooters as they will have flagged escalating violence before it becomes lethal. Early intervention will ensure kids at risk never reach the point of pulling a trigger.

Pullman plans to pursue graduate studies, focusing on what causes rapists, child molesters and child pornography offenders to commit the crimes they do.

École Polytechnique, Columbine, Dawson College, Virginia Tech and now Marinette High school share two things in common. They educate youth and they became hunting grounds for school shooters.

In each case, early warning signs were missed. In response to these tragedies, an Ontario-based school board decided to take action to head off the possibility that any of their schools join the list.

Lesleigh Pullman, a fourth-year psychology student, recently conducted research to assist the school board in the analysis of an assessment protocol – the Community Threat Assessment Protocol (CTAP).

The CTAP is designed to identify youth at risk for severe forms of violence and general delinquency. The protocol is unique because information is gathered collaboratively from school officials and community members like the police.

The goal of the protocol is to identify and provide at risk youth with an integrated intervention strategy that incorporates school and community-based services.

Implemented in 2008, the protocol provides school officials with a tool to identify and intervene with students at risk for engaging in delinquency and violence.

Under the direction of her forensic psychology professor, Shelley Brown, Pullman began sifting through the data in May 2010.

She found that 70 percent of the incidents – which can include verbal or physical threats of violence toward teachers or peers, took place on school property by youth with a history of criminal
behaviour. These incidents prompted the initial CTAP assessment.

“These assessments are an effective way to identify youth who may need extra support within the school system to ensure that they don’t reach the criminal justice system,” said Pullman.

Students who threaten or harm their peers, are usually suspended from the school for a cooling off period, and then once readmitted, required to check-in with school counselors. Additional interventions may also be implemented depending upon the unique needs of the youth.

“Check-in procedures vary depending on the student. It may be a simple meeting to ask students how they are  doing, if they are  having problems – to searching students’ backpacks and belongings, in cases where a weapon was brought to school in the past,” Pullman explains.

Successful implementation of CTAP will actually prevent researchers and school officials alike from confirming school shooters as they will have flagged escalating violence before it becomes lethal. Early intervention will ensure kids at risk never reach the point of pulling a trigger.

Pullman plans to pursue graduate studies, focusing on what causes rapists, child molesters and child pornography offenders to commit the crimes they do.