L1 Introduction to Forensics

Question 1

What are the applied components of forensic psychology?

Answer 1

Clinical psychology
Prison psychology

Question 2

What are the academic components of forensic pscyhology?

Answer 2

Biological psychology
Developmental psychology
Cognitive psychology
Social psychology
Evaluations

Question 3

What are the purposes of using police-recorded crime statistics?

Answer 3

Understanding where crime is most prevalent
Understanding changes in crime rates over time
Understanding the cause of crime
Risk factors and vulnerabilities of offenders

Question 4

What are the stages of processing a crime?

Answer 4

Does the victim notice
Will the victim report the crime
Will the police record the crime
Will the offender be caught
Will the offender be charged
Will the offender be prosecuted
Will the offender be guilty
Will the offender receive appropriate repercussions
Will the offender offend again

Question 5

What is the main issue with using recorded police crime rates for research?

Answer 5

Crime statistics are only used from reported crimes
Victims might not report a lot of crimes
Resulting in not a full picture and certain demographics and crimes fall through these gaps

Question 6

What is the investigative process for investigating a crime?

Answer 6

Crime reported to the police - victims and witnesses make statements
Suspects interviewed under caution

Question 7

What is the process of investigating a suspect related to a crime?

Answer 7

Keep in custody and pass evidence to prosecution services
Release suspect / with a caution or penalty / prosecute suspect

Question 8

What is the process of going through court?

Answer 8

Preparing for court - review evidence, decide if it should go ahead
Go to court - most in magistrates court, serious cases go to crown court
Sentencing - if guilty, magistrates and judge use sentencing guidelines (fine, community service, prison, discharge)

Question 9

What is the magistrates court in UK?

Answer 9

95% head in magistrates
Least serious offences
Serious offences start here and go to Crown Court
Higher conviction rate than the crown court
No formal training is needed to be a magistrate

Question 10

What is the Crown Court in UK?

Answer 10

Most serious offences
Prosecution and defence have a debate
Jury deliberate in private
Judge makes decision on sentencing
Judge needs serious training

Question 11

What are the types of sentencing and the prevalence of them?

Answer 11

Discharge - 8%
Fine - 71%
Community sentence - 13%
Prison - 7%
Suspended sentence

Question 12

What did the Research from the Innocence project 2020 find about eyewitness misidentification?

Answer 12

70% of eyewitness identifications were misidentified

Question 13

What did Talarico and Rubin 2003 find about eyewitness testimony?

Answer 13

Confidence and accuracy of evidence were different
Eye witness inherently unreliable
Courts should disregard confidence ratings

Question 14

What is Yerkes-Dodson Law 1908 theory relating arousal and memory for eyewitness testimony?

Answer 14

Curvilinear relationship
There is an optimal performance but too aroused or not enough aroused then memory will not be optimal

Question 15

What was Morgan 2004 research into eyewitness inaccuracy?

Answer 15

Face memory in students undergoing military survival school training
2 x realistic interrogation (one high stress and one low stress)
Tested memory 24 hours later
Correct identification = 68% low stress, 29% high stress

Question 16

What is the weapon focus effect, researched by Loftus 1987?

Answer 16

There is reduced eyewitness identification where a weapon is present
- looking more at the weapon rather than face

Question 17

What is the effect of post-event misinformation, researched by Loftus and Palmer 1974?

Answer 17

The use of specific words can make people misremember them
e.g. how fast was the car going when it smashed/crashed/hit/collided
Greater speed when a more aggressive word is used

Question 18

Are certain people more susceptible to misinformation?

Answer 18

Tomes and Katz 1997
People with…
- poor memory
- high empathy score
- high imagery vividness

Question 19

What is Schooler and Engstler-Schooler 1990 research into verbal overshadowing?

Answer 19

If they gave a verbal description, performance was worse on later recognition face task
Is this because of contradictory processes???

Question 20

What was the historical approach to police questioning?

Answer 20

Interrogative
Interrupting may confuse and distort memory

Question 21

What did Geiselman 1985 decide police interviews should be like?

Answer 21

Appreciate that memories are complex
Retrieval clues may help

Question 22

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 22

Fisher and Geiselman 1992
- report everything
- recreate context
- change order
- change perspective

Question 23

How have psychologists evaluated the cognitive interview?

Answer 23

Fisher - used enhanced CI (matching body language, victim lead) and increased accuracy to 90%
Geiselman and Fisher 1997 - 40 lab and field studies 25% more correct information from CI
Groeger 1997 - using retrieval context does not aid recognition
Geiselman and Fisher 1997 - less effective over longer periods

Question 24

What are the most invaluable elements of the CI ?

Answer 24

Davis, McMahon and Greenwood 2005
Different perspective
Changing orders
These were removed in a developed version of the CI

Question 25

What percentage of people confessed when detained?

Answer 25

UK - 60%
US - 42-55%
Japan - 90%

Question 26

What percentage of people confess to something they did not do?

Answer 26

15-20%

Question 27

What is the reid technique to interrogation?

Answer 27

Isolate the suspect in a private room to increase anxiety
Establish and reiterate guilt
Offer confession to remove the negative experience
Not the best way for reliable information

Question 27

Why would someone falsely confess to a crime?

Answer 27

Personality (compliance, suggestibility)
Youth
Learning disability
Mental health problems
Police believe they are guilty
Naive

Question 28

What is the Duchenne smile?

Answer 28

Only some smiles are associated with happiness
Genuine smiles involve muscles in the eyes

Question 29

What are micrroexpressions?

Answer 29

Ekman 1985 argued that we have micro-expressions
When we lie we try to conceal these

Question 30

Does eye gaze aversion, fidgeting and speech disturbances indicate lying?

Answer 30

Vrij 2000, people who lie actually know about these and will appear very calm and act opposite to this
Mixed evidence from micro expressions

Question 31

What did Mann 2002 find out about lying suspects?

Answer 31

Suspects blink less and pause longer when lying
Large individual differences in deceptive behaviour

Question 32

What are some issues with Mann 2002 research into lying?

Answer 32

Small sample
Gender differences
No adult and child
Can’t generalise beyond those in police custody
Important comparison of falsely accused innocent suspects

Question 33

What are police induces false confessions?

Answer 33

Compliant false confession - induced by police
Internalised false confession - distrust own memory

Question 34

What is compliance?

Answer 34

Change behaviour for instrumental purposes
Milgram and Asch

Question 35

What is internalisation?

Answer 35

Private acceptance of beliefs
Moscovici 1985 minority influence studies