criminal Flashcards
topic 1, what makes a criminal? studies
Raine et al, brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by PET
Palmer and Hollin, moral reasoning
Jahoda, self fulfilling prophecy
Raine, Mauritius study
smoking in pregnancy and testosterone
Raine sample
opportunistic sample of 41 people, charged with murder or manslaughter
39 men and 2 women
mean age 34.3
all pleading not guilty by reason of insanity
brain damage, schizophrenic
compared against someone the same age and gender as them, but not accused of anything
Raine procedure
1) each participant was injected with a glucose tracer
2) were then monitored for 32 minute period while completing a performance task which involved them indicating each time the number 0 appeared on the screen
the numbers degraded each time to require more effort of the prefrontal cortex
3) PET scan
Raine results
murderers pleading NGRI do have different patterns of brain metabolism
-reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex resulting in impulsivities, loss of self control
-less activity in left side of amygdala, experienced a lack of fear
-less activity in the corpus callosum
can’t be generalised, cannot show violence is determined by biology alone
Palmer and Hollin points
compared 126 male offenders aged 13-21 to 332 non offenders (more female than male)
compared using 2 methods
sociomoral reflection measure - 11 questions about life property and law and legal justice
self reported delinquency checklist - used to see if 2 groups showed different levels of delinquent behaviour
most of the male offenders
were at a lower level of moral reasoning compared to the control group
Jahoda points
Western Africa
boys born on a Wednesday, with Kwaku as part of their name, commit 22% of violence
boys born on a Monday, with Kwadwo as part of their name, commit only 6.9%
day of the week determines character
Jahoda believes with everyone knowing what day of the week a person was born on people were treated differently and Wednesday boys lived up to their expectations (self fulfilling prophecy)
Raine points
1795 3 year old children, 100 children were given intervention
nutrition - milk fruit and fish or chicken
physical exercise - gym, free play
cognitive stimulation - a multimodal curriculum based on toys and art
at age 11 - children had increased arousal in their brains and better attention
age 17 - less cruel, less likely to pick a fight
fish oil improves attention, reduces aggression and delinquency
smoking in pregnancy and testosterone points
smoking cigarettes during pregnancy can result in the foetus experiencing higher pre-natal exposure to testosterone. the length of a child’s ring finger
(compared to their index finger) will indicate how much testosterone they were exposed to as a foetus, and relatively long (male-like) ring fingers are associated with being dominant, and having
personalities linked to aggression, anti-social behaviour, hyperactivity, and a lack of empathy.
topic 2, the collection and processing of forensic evidence, studies
Hall and Player - emotional context affecting finger print matching
Dror - top down biases
Dror et al - seriousness of crime affecting judgement
LSU - Linear Sequential Unmasking
Miller - six pack idea
Hall and Player aim
will the introduction of emotional context affect finger print analysis and decision making?
Hall and Player sample
70 volunteer fingerprint experts
Metropolitan Police fingerprint bureau
experience less than 3 months - 30 years
Hall and Player procedure
each participant given 1 fingerprint on a 50 pound note to compare to suspect print and the crime scene report
analysed the print as part of their normal working day with standard equipment
high emotional context - report was allegation of murder
low emotional context - forgery
they had to say if the fingerprint was a match, not a match or insufficient detail
Hall and Player results
57/70 read report and 52% said it influenced their judgement in HEC compared to 6% in LEC
a chi squared analysis showed there was no significant difference between high and low emotional context groups, showing expert fingerprint analysts are less affected by top down cognitive biases
Dror top down biases points
Bottom up approach – refers to making judgements about the identity of a fingerprint based only on the physical features of the fingerprint
Top down – where a fingerprint is smudged or degraded, the analyst will use his or her judgements based on prior experience to make a judgement about a likely match
This can lead to biases such as:
Needs determination perception – feeling pressure to make a match due to the seriousness of the crime
Observer/expectancy bias – where information about the suspect is given to the analyst so they expect a match, so this impacts their judgement
Conformity effect – when asked to validate the decision of another expert or superior, there may be a bias to agree with their colleague
Dror et al points
27 university students were given 96 pairs of fingerprints to judge if they matched or not. Half were clear and unambiguous, the other 48 were unclear
Low emotional context: burglary
High emotional context: murder
Shown photos to reinforce context and in some cases shown a subliminal message saying ‘same’ or ‘guilty’ on the screen – had to respond by pressing a button that
said same or different.
Emotional context significantly impacted judgements for the ambiguous prints – Low emotional context = 49%;
High = 58%; subliminal message = 66%
LSU points
Analyse the crime scene print on its own while looking for unique features and whether there is enough detail to make a comparison – without any information from the crime scene
Further information may be given later in order of importance to the case, such as where the print was found, what type of crime it was, how complex the crime was
At each stage the analyst can add to his/her
earlier judgement but cannot make changes or delete these earlier interpretations. They can also
make judgements about how confident they are in their analysis
Miller points
Suggested that the same idea of a line-up for eyewitnesses could also be used to reduce the chance of bias for analysing forensic evidence.
Experts are given the evidence from the crime scene (such as a hair sample) along with 5 samples to compare it against (from 5 different suspects). This should reduce
bias and make them check more carefully if the evidence matches.
Student hair analysts tested this approach compared to the 1 to 1 matching approach and found that the group using the 6-pack method made fewer errors.
topic 3, collection of evidence, studies
Memon and Higham, a review of cognitive interview
Reid, nine steps of interrogation
Gudjonsson, false confessions
Mann et al, lie detection techniques
the PEACE model of interviewing
Memon and Higham aim
review the effectiveness of the cognitive interview technique
four key components of cognitive interview
mental reinstatement of context – this means asking the witness to mentally take themselves back to the scene of the crime and imagine the noise, the smells, whether it was dark or light etc, in terms of the effectiveness of this part of the CI technique, Milne showed that
context reinstatement used alone obtains as much information from witnesses as the
complete cognitive interview procedure
report everything – this means asking witnesses to report everything they can recall from the event, the hope is that it will lead to a richer and more accurate recollection of the
events
recall from a variety of different perspectives – this means asking witnesses to describe the event as
others present may have seen it
-there is a possibility that this may lead to the witness fabricating data
in practice, police interviewers tend not to use this element, and some express concern about it misleading the witness
-Milne showed that there is some evidence that this technique can produce as much accurate information as the other CI techniques but doesn’t increase info
recall in different temporal orders – this means asking witnesses to recall events in different orders
is hoped that doing this will cue in recollection of other events and help to prevent schemas or scripts from distorting their testimony
Geiselman and Callot found that 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
what do Memon and Higham suggest about cognitive interview training
training should be done by police sergeants rather than university academics
-baseline measures should be taken of the attitudes, motivation and prior experience of officers being
trained
-officers trained in the CI should be given feedback on their performance (to stop them slipping back
into bad habits)
-officers need to be given a chance to practice the CI technique
-Memon and Higham strongly advise that officers be given two days of training in the CI technique
Reid nine steps of interrogation notes
step 2 - theme development to try and create a situation where the suspect will admit they done it, all themes imply guilt
step 5 - procurement and retention of suspect’s attention, like keeping good eye contact, using their [first] name,
and drawing closer to them physically
step 7 - presenting an alternative question, ask suspect question which leads them to admitting their guilt
‘Did you steal the money to get back at your boss or did you steal it to pay the bills’
Gudjonsson false confessions
the defendant – false confessions are more
likely from the very young, the very old, those
with low IQs, and those with mental disorders
the arrest – false confessions are more likely
from those arrested suddenly, violently or in the
middle of the night, and also from those
interrogated for long periods at night
-mental/physical state – false confessions are
more likely if the suspect is stressed, anxious, ill
or intoxicated
-the interrogation – false confessions can be
made more likely by the use of coercive, biased
or leading interview tactics
the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS) can help
to identify if a suspect is susceptible to a coerced compliant confession
Mann et al lie detection techniques notes
99 police officers from Kent were shown 54
video clips from real-life police interviews, they had to
judge if the suspects being interviewed were lying or telling
the truth, it found that, rather than relying on body language the best lie detectors rely more on story cues (specifically, contradictions in what suspects are saying).
mann et al’s study would suggest as strategies for police
interviews the following:
- training – police officers should be trained to
focus during interviews on listening out for
contradictions in suspects’ stories (rather than
being distracted by body language)
- environment – the police could consider setting up
interviews in such a way that they effectively
require interviewers to put the emphasis on
listening to what suspects are saying e.g using phones
