C3: Criminal Psychology Flashcards
What are the 8 thinking styles, in which are stated in the PICTS scale?
- Mollification
- Cut off
- Entitlement
- Power Orientation
- Sentimentality
- Super optimism
- Cognitive indolence
- Doscontinuity
What is the definition of mollification?
High scores reflect a tendency to externalise the blame and make excuses for actions
What is the definition of a cut off?
High scores indicate low frustration tolerance
What is the definition of entitlement?
High scores indicate an attitude towards believing one is entitled to things and an inability to distinguish between wants and needs
What is the definition of power orientation?
High scores denote a need for control and authority over others
What is the definition of sentimentality?
High scores indicate an unrealistic belief in self as a ‘good person’ despite criminal actions
What is the definition of super optimism?
High scores indicate an unrealistic belief that one can avoid negative consequences of criminal behaviour
What is the definition of cognitive indolence?
High scores reflect poor critical reasoning and tendency to seek easy answers
What is the definition of discontinuity?
High scores denote inconsistency in thinking and behaviour
Non physiological explanations of criminal behaviour (nurture debate)?
- Tests have shown links between factors in lives and backgrounds of offenders and non-offenders
- Risk of becoming an offender suggests that is more than just down to chance
- Underlying causes may be present, some can be seen as indicators/symptoms of the anti-social tendency
Social explanations of criminal behaviour: risk factors
- This can be both symptoms and causes
- Cluster of factors together that interact with the lives of some children when protective factors are absent
- Individual children and their surrounding environments
Social explanations of criminal behaviour: upbringing
- Farrington conducted a longitudinal study on a group of males aged 8-32 testing the hypothesis that problem families produce problem children
- Found that it is likely that crime is transmitted from one generation to the next
Cognitive explanations of criminal behaviour: criminal thinking patterns
- People may turn to crime due to the way people think
- Psychologists use the term ‘cognition’ in relation to mental processes that determine our actions, feelings and beliefs
- Basic assumption is that there must be a difference between the way a law-abiding person thinks and the way a criminal thinks
McCoy et al (2006)
Examined the relation of self-reported criminal-thinking styles and self reported criminal behaviour among college students. It was shown males who committed violent crimes against people endorsed significantly higher levels of distorted criminal-thinking patterns on all scaled than the control-status offences, and drug crime groups
Physiological explanations of criminal behaviour (Nature debate)?
These explanations of criminal behaviour focus on three biological factors, genes, brain dysfunction (damage) and biochemistry of the brain
Historical explanation of criminal behaviour: lambrosso
- Developed a theory or born criminals and found some biological traits of criminals
- He developed a new theory in which is split into 3 (born criminal, abnormal criminal, occasional criminal)
- This tells us that the environment has no impact and criminal behaviour and in fact is to do with your biology and characteristics.
Raine: aim
To study the brain activity in murderers and non-murderers using PET to find out whether there are differences in areas thought to be involved in violent behaviour
Raine: hypothesis
That violent offenders will have relatively localised brain dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and the corpus callosum
Raine: research method
Quasi experiment
Raine: independent variable
Naturally occurring, whether a non murderer taking no medication and with no history of psychiatric illness or current significant mental illness
Raine: dependent variable
Whether the participant showed evidence of brain dysfunction in their prefrontal cortex and other areas such as the angular gyrus, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and the corpus collosum
Raine: participants
41 participants tried in the state of California (39 men and 2 women) with a mean age of 34.3 years
Raine: how were they matched?
Matched with control group for sex, age, and diagnosis of schizophrenia (41 participants, 39 men and 2 women). No participants took medication for at least 2 weeks prior to testing
Raine: procedure
- After practice trials, all participants were ejected with a tracer substance that was taken up by the brain to show the location of brain metabolism
- PET scan was immediately given to show the relative brain activity for 6 main cortex areas and 8 sub cortex areas
- All participants gave informed consent
Raine: qualitative results
- Murderers had loer activity in the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, amygdala and the hippocampus than controls
- Murders her higher activity on right side of the thalamus
Raine: conclusions
- Murderers pleading NGRI have significant difference in the metabolism of glucose in a number of brain areas compared to non-murderers
- Reduced activity in prefrontal cortex areas explain impulsive behaviour, a loss of self control, evidence of immaturity, altered emotionality and the inability to modify behaviour which might contribute to criminal behaviour
Crime prevention: how do features of neighbourhoods and zero tolerance policies influence crime?
In order to reduce crime Newman suggests that we need to sub-divide large portions of public spaces and assigning them to individuals and small groups to use and control as their own private areas. This means that the criminal becomes isolated, because their ‘turf’ has been removed and even those criminals who live in a community or housing development will find their movement restricted.
Crime prevention: defensible space theory definition
A residential environment whose physical characteristics- building layout and site plan- function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security
Crime prevention: zone of territorial influence
There should be markers to show that the area is private rather than public, such as fences or hedges
Crime prevention: opportunities for surveillance
The physical layout of the building should mean that intruders are easily spotted
Crime prevention: image
Individuality should be emphasised as it suggets privacy is linked to the zone of territoriality
Crime prevention: milieu
Adjust the surroundings of the building or setting and to reduce vandalism building should be organised around more personal spaces such as courtyards
Crime prevention: Wilson and Kelling
Broken windows theory
Crime prevention: broken windows theory
Disorderly neighbourhoods lead to serious crimes which occurs because disorderly behaviour tends to trigger fear in residents, as they see that serious crime is on the rise so fear of crime increases.
Crime prevention: zero tolerance policy
Increase the crackdown on seemingly minor offences such as fare dodging and begging. It is theorised that this would lead to the reduction in serious crime
Wilson and Kelling: aim
To describe if neighbourhoods that can be lined to high incidence of crime and developments in policing strategies and changes in the concept of policing initiated in an attempt to reduce crime rates, focussing on the usefulness of foot patrols
Wilson and Kelling: hypothesis
Increasing foot patrols and challenging minor behaviour will lead to a reduction in serious criminal behaviour
Wilson and Kelling: participants
Communities of Newark, USA which were predominantly black
Wilson and Kelling: procedure
Kelling spend many hours walking with foot patrols
Wilson and Kelling: qualitative results
- Urban decay occurs and this has two distinct features (i) mobility has become easy for all but the very poor or those blocked from moving because of racial prejudice (ii) the police no longer help to reassert law and order by acting on behalf of the community.
- Urban decay occurs and this has two distinct features (i) mobility has become easy for all but the very poor or those blocked from moving because of racial prejudice (ii) the police no longer help to reassert law and order by acting on behalf of the community
- ‘Untended’ behaviour also leads to the breakdown of community controls. A stable, law-abiding community can easily change. If a property is abandoned, it will become derelict and windows get smashed. The behaviour of some inhabitants deteriorates, so ‘nice’ families move out of the area and unattached adults move in, until eventually the area is invaded with serious crimes..
Wilson and Kelling: conclusions
- Features of neighbourhoods influences crime rates
- Role of the police has changed over recent years and policing strategies are continually changing
- Foot patrols enhance community feelings of safety
Hall and Player: aim
To ascertain if the normal working practices used by the Metropolitan Police Fingerprint Bureau introduce an emotional bias and to test the effect of context on fingerprint identification by fingerprint experts
Hall and Player: research questions
1) Does the written report of a crime, as routinely supplied with fingerprint evidence, affect a fingerprint expert’s interpretation of a poor quality mark?
2) Are fingerprint experts emotionally affected by the circumstances of the case
Hall and Player: research method
Lab experiment
Hall and Player: independent variable
Whether the participant ws allocated to the low context or high context group
Hall and Player: experimental design
Independent measures
Hall and Player: dependent variables
- Whether the participant read the crime scene examination report prior to examining the fingerprint
- How the participant classed the fingerprint
- Whether the participant would be confident enough too present the fingerprint as evidence in court
Hall and Player: participants
Group of 70 fingerprint practitioners working for the Metropolitan Police Fingerprint Bureau who responded to a request for volunteers
Hall and Player: materials
- Fingerprint from a voluntary source used
- Fingerprint scanned onto a computer ad super-opposed onto a £50 note with ridge detail but obscured background
- Magnifying glass and a Russell comparator
Hall and Player: procedure
- Participants given an envelope containing the test fingerprint mark, the 10-print form, the relevant examiners examination report and a sheet of paper advising of the contents and a statement that the mark was made by the right forefinger
- Low context group given examination report referring to an allegation of forgery
- High context group was given an examination report referring to an allegation to murder
- Then asked to consider whether the mark was identification/not an identification/insufficient or sufficient detail
Hall and Player: qualitative results
- 81.4% indicated that they had read the crime scene examination report prior to examining the prints. 52.6% were from the high context group and 47.4% from the low context group.
- 52% of those from the high context group that read the report felt they had been affected by the information they had read, compared to 6% of those that reported reading the information in the low context group
Hall and Player: high context results
Identification = 6
Insufficient not suitable for comparison = 15
Some detail by agreement by not sufficient to identify = 13
No identification = 1
Hall and Player: low context results
Identification = 7
Insufficient not suitable for comparison = 12
Some detail by agreement by not sufficient to identify = 16
No identification = 0
Hall and Player: conclusions
- Emotional context affect fingerprint expert’s analysis but this does not have any actual effect on their final decisions
- The severity of a case affects a fingerprint expert’s analysis but this is not have any actual effect on their final decisions
- Details of an individual crime provided with finger marks may be considered surplus to requirements
Memon and Higham: aim
To review the cognitive interview offering a critique covering four themes:
- How effective each of the components of the cognitive interview are
- Comparison with other interview methods (guided interview, standard police interview, structured interview)
- How to measure memory performance
- How training quality influences interviewer performance
Memon and Higham: mental context reinstatement
Milne (1997) showed that context reinstatement used alone obtains as much information from witnesses as the complete CI procedure, although other psychological research into the effectiveness of context has produced mixed results
Memon and Higham: recall from a variety of perspectives
A problem is noted with this is that there is the possibility that this may lead the witness to fabricating data, or that it might confuse the witness. Milne (1997) some evidence that this can produce as much accurate information as the other CI techniques, but does not increase the amount of information recalled compared with other CI techniques
Memon and Higham: recall in differen orders
Geiselman & Callot (1990) found it was more effective to recall in forward order once followed by reverse order rather than to make two attempts at recall from the beginning. Other researchers however have failed to prove that this technique yields more information than a second retrieval attempt when used in the context of a cognitive interview
Memon and Higham: comparison interviews
- Valid research should show it leads to enhanced memory performance in comparison with other police interviewing techniques
- Guided memory interview draws upon principles of contextual reinstatement as does cognitive interview and by encouraging the witness to mentally reinstate context guides their memory
- The structured interview technique can also provide a good comparison as it is much like the ECI (Enhanced Cognitive Interview) just without the cognitive components for enhancing memory performance.
Memon and Higham: measures of memory
The research is experimental has used fairly simplistic measures of memory performance including the percentage of correct interview statements. This ignored the amount/nature of the reported information. It does not allow for an effective measure of how memory operates
Memon and Higham: quality or training
The quality and quantity of the training is particularly important with the ECI. In addition to the quality of training the motivation and prior experience if the officers being trained play a big role in determining the results. It is advised that 2 day CI training programme is used.
Memon and Higham: conclusions
- Research into the CI technique needs to establish a suitable control group depending on the aim of the study and how the CI relates to other techniques could inform the choice of control group
- Other problems to address in both research into CI and training of officers needs to take into account interviewer variability in terms of attitude, prior interview experience, performance and motivation
- Solutions to some of these problems will improve our understanding of the conditions under which the CI technique may be most useful as a forensic tool
Collection and evidence from suspects: Reid’s nine steps of interrogation
- Confrontation
- Theme development
- Stopping denials
- Overcoming objections
- Getting the suspect’s attention
- The suspect loses resolve
- Alternatives
- Bringing the suspect into the conversation
- The confession
Dixon et al: aim
To investigate the influence of an English regional accent, the “Brummie” accent on listeners attributions of guilt toward a criminal suspect and to see whether race or type of crime would make any difference to how the “Brummie” or standard speaking suspect was judged
Dixon et al: hypothesis
That a “Brummie” accented suspect would receive a higher rating of guilt than a suspect with a standard accent
Dixon et al: research method
Lab experiment
Dixon et al: experimental design
Independent measures
Dixon et al: independent variables
Accent type (Brummie/standard) Race of suspect (black or white) Crime type (blue/white collar)
Dixon et al: dependent variable
The participants attributions of guilt
Dixon et al: participants
119 white undergraduate students from the department of Psychology and the University of Worcester(24 men and 95 women with a mean age of 25.2 years)
Dixon et al: procedure
- Participants randomly assigned to one of the 8 conditions and they listened to a 2 minute recorded interrogation between a police officer and a man who has been accused of a crime
- Both independent variables were manipulated here (white/black and the type of crime)
- Once allocated recording, completed 2 sets of rating scales
Dixon et al: qualitative results
On examination of the influence on each of the independent variables on the SEI found only one significant result. The three was ANOVAs found a main effect for type of speaker on Superiority ratings (p<0.01) and further analysis showed that the “Brummie” suspect was rated lower in terms of Superiority with a mean of 3.83 compared to 5.24 with the standard accent.
- When looking at the guilt ratings again only one significant result was found. Finding that type of accent did have an influence on the guilt ratings given by participants.
Dixon et al: conclusions
- Attributions of guilty may be affected by accent in a British context
- Non standard speakers are perceived as guiltier than standard speakers
- Speakers speaking with a ‘Brummie’ accent are more likely to be perceived as guilty
- Suspects accused of a blue collar crime, who are black and speak with a Brummie accent re likely to be perceived as guilty
Jury decision making: what affects jury to make their decision
- Story order
- Witness order
- Vivid testimony theory
Effects of imprisonment: four reasons to imprison people when found guilty of a crime
1) Deterrence
2) Incapacitation
3) Reform
4) Retribution
Haney et al: aim
Aim of Zimbardo’s study was to investigate the psychological effects of being assigned to the role of either a prison guard or prisoner and being put in a simulated prison environment
Haney et al: hypothesis
That the results will support a situational hypothesis so that the social structure and conditions of a prison cause the behaviour of prisoners and guards alike
Haney et al: research method
Lab experiment designed to be as naturalistic as possible
Haney et al: independent variable
The condition the participant was randomly allocated to
Haney et al: dependent variable
Resulting behaviour observed during their time in the prison situation
Haney et al: participants
75 respondents to a newspaper advertisement asking for male volunteers to participate in a psychological study of ‘prison life’ in return for $15 per day for up to two weeks, 24 were judged to be most physically and mentally stable
Haney et al: procedure
- 21 participants completed a range of psychological tests but these were not analysed until after the study to avoid bias
- Prisoner participants unexpectedly arrested from their homes
- At the police station, fingerprints and photograph taken and were put into a detention cell
- Each prisoner blindfolded and driven to mock prison by experimenter and guard
- Each prisoner was stripped, sprayed with a delousing preparation and made to stand alone and naked in the ‘yard’, prisoners then have their ID photo and put into a cell
Haney et al: qualitative results
- Behaviour of the ‘normal students’ was affected by the role they had been assigned (guards became physically and verbally aggressive whilst the prisoners become increasingly depersonalised and several experienced extreme emotion depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety)
- Experiment stopped after 6 days instead of 14 due to the psychological reactions of participants
- 5 prisoners were released earlier due to extreme emotional depression
Haney et al: conclusions
Zimbardo believed that the study demonstrated the powerful effect roles can have on people’s behaviour. Basically, the participant were playing the role that they thought was expected of, either a prisoner or a guard
Why do people reoffend?
- Unemployment
- Poor skills
- Low income
- Living in a high crime area/falling back with the same crowd
- Family difficulties
- Unable to cope without the structure of prison life
