Key Studies and Vocabulary - CRIMINOLOGICAL Flashcards
why is Loftus and Palmer (1974) important to eyewitness testimony PEI?
Loftus and Palmer (1974) found that changing the word used to ask a witness about a car accident affected their estimate of the speed at which the vehicles were travelling. This showed that PEI could influence the way a witness recalls the target event.
why is Loftus et al. (1978) important to eyewitness testimony PEI?
Loftus et al. (1978) showed that misleading information given to witnesses after a delay has a greater effect on accuracy than PEI given immediately after the target event. This is because PEI has more of an effect once the details of the target event has had time to be forgotten
why is Sutherland and Haine (2001) important to eyewitness testimony PEI?
Sutherland and Haine (2001) showed that PEI has more of an effect on accuracy when it concerns things that are peripheral to the main action than when it concerns things that are central to the action. This is because witnesses are less likely to have encoded peripheral details, meaning that the PEI is used to fill in gaps in the witness’s memory.
why is Dodd and Bradshaw (1980) important to eyewitness testimony PEI?
Dodd and Bradshaw (1980) showed that witnesses were less affected by PEI from a source they did not trust because they were ‘on guard’ and therefore more likely to notice misleading PEI.
why is Greene et al. (1982) important to eyewitness testimony PEI?
Greene et al. (1982) showed that witnesses are less likely to be affected by PEI if they are warned that they might be misled, but only if they are warned before the PEI is presented
What research methods are used in eyewitness testimony PEI?
Laboratory experiments
Field experiments
define criminological psychologist
any psychologist working in the area of crime and justice
define forensic psychologist
a psychologist with a licence who is qualified to work within the police and criminal justice systems as a practitioner
define practitioner
a psychologist who is trained and qualified to assess and intervene with individuals to alter their behaviour. Practitioners can be forensic, clinical, sports, health, occupational and educational psychologists.
define researcher
a psychologist who investigates and explains behaviour but does not attempt to alter it deliberately. Psychologists are often either researchers or practitioners, but some are both.
define crime
an act that is contrary to the criminal law of the country in which it takes place.
define rule breaking
acts in which an individual understands a rule but chooses not to follow it. Not all crime is rule breaking, and not all rule breaking is crime. Because crime is a social construct it is hard to study scientifically, so most psychologists choose to study rule breaking instead.
what research methods are used in criminological psychology overall?
Experiments (lab and field)
Correlation
Observation
Self-reports (interviews and questionnaire surveys)
Qualitative methods inc. thematic analysis
define eyewitness testimony (EWT)
accounts of events given to the authorities based on the witness’s memory of what happened. EWT may be used by the police to guide their investigation and by the courts in deciding the guilt or innocence of a defendant.
define post-event information (PEI)
information about events an individual has witnessed, given after the event has occurred.
define target event
the event about which the witness is asked to retrieve information
define reconstructive error
inaccuracies in recall that happen when witnesses either unconsciously or consciously try to recall events in ways that are consistent with their schematic understanding.
define rationalisation
reconstructive errors that occur when the witness consciously tries to work out what actually happened.
define confabulation
reconstructive errors that occur when the witness unconsciously uses schemas or PEI to fill in the gaps in their memory.
define source monitoring error
inaccurate recall resulting from a witness’s inability to distinguish between different sources of information in their memory.
define weapon focus effect (WFE)
the tendency for witnesses to focus their attention on a weapon, thereby decreasing the amount of information they encode about other features of the crime
Why is Loftus et al. (1987) important to eyewitness testimony WF?
Loftus et al (1987) demonstrated the WFE by showing that participants had better recall of a man holding a chequebook than of a man holding a gun in a restaurant context
Why is Maass and Kohnken (1989) important to eyewitness testimony WF?
Maass and Kohnken (1989) showed that the WFE could also occur in field settings, using a staged event where participants were holding either a pen or a syringe (the ‘weapon’). Recall of the ‘nurse’ was better with the pen than the syringe. However, recall was not affected by the level of threat the participant was exposed to
Why is Erikson et al. (2014) important to eyewitness testimony WF?
Erikson et al (2014) showed that the WFE occurs because the weapon is unexpected, not because it is a threat. They found that recall of photographs of a man holding a weapon was poorer than a control condition, but recall was also poorer when the man was holding a rubber chicken.
Why is Fawcett et al. (2013) important to eyewitness testimony WF?
Fawcett et al. (2013) reviewed police and court records of crimes where weapons had and had not been used. They found no evidence to suggest that witnesses testimony was poorer in weapons cases. This might suggest that the findings of laboratory studies are the result of a lack of ecological or task validity.
What research methods are used in eyewitness testimony WF?
Laboratory experiments
Field experiments
define experiment
a study in which an independent variable is manipulated systematically to create two or more conditions and a dependent variable is measured under the different conditions to see if the IV has an effect. Other variables are controlled across the conditions so they do not affect the DV.
define laboratory experiment
an experiment carried out in an environment that is designed specifically for conducting research.
define field experiment
an experiment carried out in a setting that is a natural environment for the participants.
define generalisability
the extent to which a finding can be applied to samples and settings other than those used in the study.
define replicability
the extent to which it is possible to repeat the procedure of a study exactly.
define reliability
the extent to which replicating a study leads to the same results.
define validity
the extent to which the study measured what it intended to measure (rather than e.g. the effect of a confounding variable).
Why is Loftus and Palmer (1974) important to research methods that are used to assess eyewitness effectiveness?
Loftus and Palmer (1974) established the experimental paradigm for studying EWT. L & P found that the verb used in the question affected the estimates the PPs gave. Strengths of L & P’s research include: (1) all PPs were exposed to the same target event, so the ‘base reality’ of the event was clear, and no differences in estimates could be attributed to PPs being exposed to different target events or different viewing conditions; (2) the questioning of the PPs was standardised, so differences in estimates could only be due to the change in verb. A weakness of the study is that L & P used a video for their stimulus, which reduces mundane realism - real witnesses and there ‘in real life’ and may experience strong emotions which affect how they encode and recall the target event.
Why is Maass & Kohnken (1989) important to research methods that are used to assess eyewitness effectiveness?
Maass & Kohnken (1989) adapted the L & P paradigm in a field experiment on the WFE. They used a simulated event with unsuspecting PPs. This allowed them to increase mundane realism and ecological validity but still retain a good degree of control. Their study raises ethical issues, as PPs were required to be deceived, and were put under stress.
Why is Fawcett et al (2013) and Yuille and Cutshall (1986) important to research methods that are used to assess eyewitness effectiveness?
Fawcett et al (2013) and Yuille and Cutshall (1986) studied real witnesses to violent crimes and found little evidence for the WFE or the influence of PIE, respectively. They suggest that the experience of being directly involved means that the variables studied in the lab have relatively little effect on real witness memory.
What research methods are used to assess eyewitness effectiveness?
Lab / Field experiments
define standard police interview
the way police interview witnesses without psychological training.
define cognitive interview
a way of interviewing witnesses to maximise accurate recall, using knowledge of how memory works.
define context reinstatement
asking the witness to imagine themselves back at the scene of the target event. The aim is to increase the availability of retrieval cues.
define retrieval cues
elements of the environment or the witnesses internal state that were encoded along with details of the target event at the time it happened. They can be used as a route to retrieving information about the target event. Usually, the witness is asked to imagine themselves back at the scene of the event and prompted to think about what was happening and how they were feeling.
define free recall
where the witness is asked to describe as much as they can about the target event, without the interviewer interrupting them.
Why is Geiselman et al. (1986) important to cognitive interviewing?
Geiselman et al. (1986) found that a cognitive interview led to a 30% increase in correct statements, with no increase in errors. This showed that it was superior to both standard police interviews and interviews under hypnosis.
Why is Fisher et al. (1987) important to cognitive interviewing?
Fisher et al. (1987) found that, compared to a standard interview, CI led to an increase in correct statements but also an increase in errors. This raises questions about the benefits of CI.
Why is Memon et al. (2010) important to cognitive interviewing?
Memon et al. (2010) reviewed the available literature (65 experiments) and did a meta analysis. They found that CI substantially increased the production of correct information but also produced a small but significant increase in errors compared to the standard interview. They suggests that errors could be reduced if the witness is clearly told not to guess if they don’t know something and it is stressed that it is OK to say ‘I don’t know’ if they can’t recall something.
It is important to note that most of the studies reviewed by Memon et al. were laboratory experiments using staged events or videos. There is relatively little research using real witnesses in real contexts, partly because police have been slow to adopt CI on a systematic way. Even where police have been trained in CI, they tend not to use it effectively in practice.
What research methods are used in cognitive interviewing?
Lab experiments
define ethical interviewing
a set of police interviewing techniques intended to establish the truth about what happened, induce suspects to confess if guilty but avoid unethical practices.
define coercion
the use of pressure, force or the threat of force to make someone do something.
define confession
an admission by a suspect that they are guilty of the crime of which they have been accused.
define false confession
an admission of guilt that is untrue. This can happen (1) because the individual wants deliberately to mislead the police; (2) because they have been coerced to confess e.g. using torture or threats; or (3) because they genuinely believe they are guilty even though they are not e.g. as a result of a psychotic delusion.
define miscarriage of justice
a situation where the judicial process of a criminal trial has produced a provably incorrect outcome. This term most often applies where a person has been wrongly convicted of an offence and punished (and, consequently, a guilty person has gone unpunished).
define thrown out
if evidence is thrown out of court, then either the prosecution or the defence has been forbidden from using it in their case
Why is Kebbell et al. (2010) important to ethical interviewing?
Kebbell et al. (2010) found that offenders reported being more likely to confess when police used (1) presenting evidence of the offence; (2) ethical interviewing; and (3) displays of humanity. They reported being less likely to confess when police used displays of dominance
Why is Roberts (2011) important to ethical interviewing?
Roberts (2011) found that the use of aggressive interviewing strategies is likely to result in unreliable information and can be detrimental to police-community relations.
Why is Walsh & Milne (2010) important to ethical interviewing?
Walsh & Milne (2010) found that PEACE-training resulted in more detailed testimony and better adherence to legal requirements of interviewing. However, PEACE training did not result in better planning of interviews or better rapport with suspects
What research methods are used with ethical interviewing?
Content analysis of police interviews
Observations of police interview
define defendant
a person who has been charged with a crime and is being tried in court.
define jury
a group of people, chosen to represent the general public, who decide collectively whether the prosecution has proven that the defendant is guilty.
define bias
a tendency to favour one side in an argument or when making a judgement.
define stereotype
a type of schema that causes the individual to judge people on their membership of a specific social group and to treat all members of that group as similar.
define halo effect
the tendency to stereotype physically attractive people as possessing other positive characteristics e.g. honesty, friendliness etc.
define benevolent sexism
the tendency to treat women more leniently than men accused of the same crime.
define double deviance
the tendency to treat women more harshly than men if they violate gender role expectations.
define ingroup
any group to which the individual judges themselves as belonging to. According to social identity theory, people are motivated to look favourably on in-group members.
define outgroup
any group where the individual judges themselves to belong to a corresponding in-group
Why is Taylor and Butcher (2007) important to jury decisions when thinking of defendant characteristics?
Taylor & Butcher (2007) found that, in a scenario where a male defendant was accused of a ‘mugging’ (robbery), that unattractive defendants were more likely to be judged guilty than attractive ones. However, they did not find that black defendants were more likely to be judged guilty than white ones.
Why is Castellow et al. (1990) important to jury decisions when thinking of defendant characteristics?
Castellow et al. (1990) found that, where a man was accused of sexually harassing a woman, that PPs were twice as likely (83%) to convict the defendant when he was unattractive and the complainant was attractive as when the defendant was attractive and the complainant unattractive (41%)
Why is Wiest and Duffy (2013) important to jury decisions when thinking of defendant characteristics?
Wiest and Duffy (2013) found that, in real criminal cases, women and men tend to be treated differently, with women more likely to be judged guilty of manslaughter and men of murder. However, the treatment of women depended somewhat on how closely they fit the ‘traditional’ female gender role
Why is Mitchell et al. (2005) important to jury decisions when thinking of defendant characteristics?
Mitchell et al. (2005) did a meta-analysis of studies of the effect of ethnicity on jury verdicts. They found that jurors of various ethnicities were slightly more likely to judge a defendant guilty if they came from one of their ethnic outgroups
What are the research methods used in jury decisions when thinking of defendant characteristics?
Laboratory experiments using mock-jury situations are a common way of investigating this area
define pretrial publicity (PTP)
information about a criminal case that is known to the jurors before the trial begins. It usually comes from news media, but might also be things like local gossip about the case.
