FP midterm 2 Flashcards
Recall memory
Reporting details of a previously witnessed event
Recognition memory
determining whether a previously seen item or person is the same as what is currently being viewed
Estimator variables
variables that are presented at the time of crime and that cannot be changed
System variables
variables that can be manipulated to increase (or decrease) eyewitness accuracy
Open-ended recall
witnesses are asked to either write or orally state all that they remember about the vent without the officer (or the experimenter) asking questions
- also known as free narrative
Direct question recall
witnesses are asked a series of specific questions about the crime of the perpetrator
Lineup
a set of people presented to the witness , who must state whether the perpetrator is present and, if so, which person it is
Memory Conformity
when what one witness reports influences what another witness reports
Misinformation effect
phenomenon where a witness who is presented with inaccurate information after an event will incorporate that misinformation into a subsequent recall task
- also known as post-event information effect
Misinformation acceptance hypothesis
explanation for the misinformation effect where the incorrect information id provided because the witness guesses what the officer or experimenter wants the response to be
Source misattribution hypothesis
explanation for misinformation effect where the witness has two memories, the original and the misinformation; however, the witness cannot remember where each memory originated or the source of each
Memory impairment hypothesis
explanation for the misinformation effect where the original memory is replaced with the new, incorrect information
Cognitive interview
interview procedure for use with eyewitness testimony based on principals of memory storage and retrieval
Enhanced Cognitive interview
interview procedure that includes various principals of social dynamics in additions to the memory retrieval principals used in the original cognitive interview
Suspect
a person the police “suspect” committed the crime, who may be guilty or innocent of the crime in question
Perpetrator
the guilty person who committed the crime
Foils
lineup members who are known to be innocent of the crime in question.
- Also known as distractors
Fair lineup
a lineup where the suspect does not stand out from the other lineup members
Target-present lineup
a lineup that contains the perpetrator
Target-absent lineup
a lineup that does not contain the perpetrator but rather an innocent suspect
Simultaneous lineup
a common lineup procedure that presents all lineup members at one time to the witness
Relative Judgement
witness compares lineup members to one another and the person who looks most like the perpetrator is identified
Sequential lineup
alternative lineup procedure where the lineup members are presented serially to the witness, and the witness must make a decision as to whether the lineup member is the perpetrator before seeing another member. Also a witness cannot ask to see previously seen photos and is unaware of the number of photos to be shown
Absolute judgement
witness compares each lineup member to his or her memory of the perpetrator to decide whether the lineup member is the perpetrator
Showups
identification procedure that shows one person to the witness: the suspect
Walk-by
identification procedure that occurs in a naturalistic environment. The police take the witness to a public location where the suspect is likely to be. Once the suspect is in view, the witness is asked whether he or she sees the perpetrator
Biased lineup
a lineup that “suggests” whom the police suspect and thereby whom the witness should identify
Cross-race effect
phenomenon of witness remembering own-race faces with greater accuracy than faces from other races. Also known as the other-race effect and the own-race bias
Weapon focus
term used to describe the phenomenon of a witness’s attention being focused on the perpetrador’s weapon rather than on the perpetrator
Interracial contact
this hypothesis states that the more contact you have had with other races, the better you will be able to identify them
Cue-utilization hypothesis
proposed by Easterbook (1959) to explain why a witness may focus on the weapon rather than other details. The hypothesis suggests that when emotional arousal increases, attentional capacity decreases
Juries Act
Provincial and territorial legislation that outlines the eligibility criteria for jury service and how prospective jurors must be selected
Jury Summons
A court order that states a time and place to go for jury duty
Representativeness
A jury composition that represents the community where the crime occurred
Impartiality
a characteristic of jurors who are unbiased
Change of venue
moving a trail to a community other than the one in which the crime occurred
Adjournment
delaying the trial until sometime in the future
Challenge for cause
an option to reject biased jurors
Jury Nullification
occurs when a jury ignores the law and the evidence, rendering a verdict based on some other criteria
Chaos Theory
the theory that when jurors are guided by their emotions and personal biases rather than by the law, chaos in judgements results
Deliberations
when jury members discuss the evidence privately among themselves to reach a verdict that is then provided to the court
Polarization
when individuals tend to become more extreme in their initial position following a group discussion
Leniency Bias
when jurors move toward greater leniency during deliberations
Hung jury
a jury that cannot reach a unanimous verdict
Racial bias
the disparate treatment of racial out-groups
Black sheep effect
when evidence is strong, similarity between defendant and jury leads to punitiveness
Fabricating
making false claims
Anatomically detailed dolls
a doll, sometimes like a rag doll, that is consistent with the male of female anatomy
Criterion-based content analysis
analysis that uses criteria to distinguish truthful from false statements made by children
Statement validity analysis
a comprehensive protocol to distinguish truthful or false statements made by children containing three parts (1) a structured interview of the child witness (2) a systematic analysis of the verbal consent of the child’s statements (criterion-based content analysis) (3) the application of the statement validity checklist
step-wise interview
interview protocol with a series of “steps” designed to start the interview with the least leading and directive type of questioning, and then proceed to more specific forms of questioning, as necessary
Narrative elaboration
an interview procedure whereby children learn to organize their story into relevant categories : participants, settings, actions, conversation/affective states, and consequences
Criminal profiling
an investigative technique for identifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes
he or she has committed
- most commonly used in cases involving violent serial crimes
Purposes of criminal profiling
- to help set traps to flush out an offender
- to determine whether a threatening not should be taken seriously
- to give advice on how best to interrogate a suspect
- to tell prosecutors how to break down defendants in cross-examination
information contained within criminal profile
- personality characteristics
- behavioural characteristics
- demographic characteristics
to help profilers determine the offenders: - sex
- age
- race
- level of intelligence
- educational history
- hobbies
- family background
- criminal history
- employment status
history of criminal profiling
development of criminal profiling program at the FBI in the 1970s - first time that training was provided in how to construct criminal profiles
investigative psychology
- founder: David Canter
- the origins of this field can be traced back to Canter’s involvement in the John Duffy (a.k.a railway rapist) rape/murder case. Drew on knowledge of human behaviour that he had gained as an academic psychologist, especially in the area of environmental psychology - spend the last 20 years developing the field of profiling into a scientific practice.
Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)
was developed by the RCMP to collect and analyze information on serious crimes across Canada
- one of the RCMPS most significant advances
- developed in part, to prevent linkage blindness
- an electronic booklet that police officers fill out , question supposed to capture critical information on crimes of serious nature (homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons) booklet contains more than 100 questions about the offender’s behaviour, the victim and any available forensic information
Linkage blindness
An inability on the part of the police to link geographically dispersed serial crimes committed by the same offender because of the lack of information sharing among police agencies
Deductive Criminal profiling
profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on evidence left at the crime scene by that particular offender
- this method relies largely on logical reasoning
Inductive criminal profiling
profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on what we know about other solved cases
- this method is based on the premise that “if certain crimes committed by different people are similar, then the offenders must also share some common personality traits.”
Organized disorganized model
a profiling model used by the FBI that assumes the crime scenes and backgrounds of serial offenders can be categorized as organized and disorganized
organized crime scene behaviours
reflect a well planned and controlled crime
disorganized behaviours
- low intelligence
- unskilled occupation
- sexually inadequate
- lives alone
- geographically stable
- lives and works close to crimes
- little interest in media
- does not maintain residence and vehicle
Organized background characteristics
- high intelligence
- skilled occupation
- sexually adequate
- lives with partner
- geographically mobile
- lives and works far away from crimes
- follows crimes in media
- maintains residence and vehicle
disorganized crime scene behaviours
reflect an impulsive crime which is chaotic in nature
validity of criminal profiling
- majority of Canadian police they survived felt that profiling is a valuable investigative tool that can help to solve cases and further an investigator’s understanding of the case. however these officers also recognized the limitations of profiling, indicating that it shouldn’t be used as evidence in court for all types of crime, and that it does have the potential to seriously mislead an investigation
geographical profiling
an investigative technique that uses crime scene locations to predict the most likely area where an offender resides
- basic assumption is that most serial killers do not travel far from home to commit their crimes and therefore it should be possible to make a reasonably accurate prediction about where an offender lives
yorkshire ripper in England
- one of the first cases in which geographic profiling techniques were used
- team constructed a geographic profile , they plotted the 17 murders onto a map and calculated the centre of gravity for the points. centre of gravity fall near where the suspects was eventually found
geographic profiling systems
computer system that use the mathematical models of offender spatial behaviour to make predictions about where unknown serial offenders are likely to reside
criticisms of criminal profiling
- major criticism centres on the lack of a strong theoretical base underlying the approach
- second criticism relates to the lack of empirical support for certain profiling assumptions
- third is that profiles may contain ambiguous information, thus leading to issues when police are asked to interpret the profile
- a forth criticism is that professionally trained profiler may be no better than any other individual at constructing accurate profiles
elimination lineup
lineup procedure for children that first asks them to pick out the person who looks most like the culprit from the photos displayed. next, children are asked whether the most similar person selected is in fact the culprit
