Midterm

Question 1

What is forensic psych? What are the two sections of forensic psych?

Answer 1

Forensic psych represents research at the intersection of psych and the law.
All aspect of the legal system can be studied under the forensic psych umbrella
Clinical: professional practice of psych within both civil and criminal law
Experimental: research that examines aspects of human behavior directly related to the legal process

Question 2

Discipline in which one examines bones of deceased victims to determine key facts about them (Dr. Kathy Reichs). How sound is it?

Answer 2

Forensic Anthropology
A sound science

Question 3

Discipline in which one examines the spoken or written word (e.g. analysis of a suicide note to determine authenticity) How sound is it?

Answer 3

Forensic Linguistic
Looks at speech patterns, serious threats
As a field, it is debated because it is really hard for two people to come to the same conclusion. more art than science Up to a judge to decide if it will be let into the court

Question 4

Discipline in which one studies dental aspects such as bite marks or use dental records to identify victims. How sound is it?

Answer 4

Forensic Odontology
Scientific evidence for bite mark evidence is horrid; garbage science

Question 5

Discipline in which one studies how insects can assist in crime scene investigations. How sound is it?

Answer 5

Forensic entomology
Quite sound and scientific, still prone to bias but at the end of the day decisions are made by humans

Question 6

Discipline in which one performs autopsies to determine cause of death in sudden or unexpected death (Dr. G show) and its accuracy. How sound is it?

Answer 6

Forensic Pathology
Medical doctor, determines cause of death
Good example of where personal bias influences what should be scientific decisions

Question 7

Discipline in which one analyzes hair samples, paint chips, blood stains, and other materials. How sound is it?

Answer 7

Forensic Chem
Can be done properly

Question 8

Major Eras of Forensic psych

Answer 8

First Era: The Birth of legal psych (1890-1930) - applied psych that also happened to look at the law
Second Era: The dormant years (1930-1960) - Psych. was still establishing itself as a discipline
Third Era: Birth of the modern era (1960-1990) - important books describing the field

Question 9

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 9

Basic principles of psych (memory, perception, sensation) and how it applied to business, education, law, etc.

Question 10

Cattell - 1895

Answer 10

First experiments in ‘psychology of testimony’
Asked students about things they have witnessed in their everyday life
Proved that memory, especially long term, is vastly inaccurate and malleable

Question 11

Binet (1900)

Answer 11

Proved suggestibility in children & mentally disabled persons
Showed that depending on how you ask a child questions, they will tell you different answers
You get the most accurate information in open or direct questions

Question 12

Stem (1901)

Answer 12

Demonstrated a weapon effect; after the weapon is pulled, the information becomes a lot less accurate because the attention focuses to the weapon

Question 13

Hugo Munsterbeg (1908)

Answer 13

Father of forensic psych
Wrote on the Witness Stand in which he said psychologists had all the answers and lawyers were too stupid to realize

Question 14

Wigmore (1909)

Answer 14

Wrote a critique of Munsterberg

Question 15

R. v. Mohan (1994)

Answer 15

Case in which Supreme Court of Canada layed out rules on if evidence can be used in the court
1) Evidence must be relevant
2) Evidence must be necessary
3) Evidence must not violate other rules of exclusion (prejudice vs. probative value)
4) Presented by qualified expert
5) (Added by this case) expert s must be independent and impartial

Question 16

Three levels of policing in Canda

Answer 16

Federal: RCMP - Royal Canada’s Mounted Police; Enforces criminal code of Canada (CCC)
Provincial/territories: RCMP EXCEPT: Ontario Provincial Police, Surete du Quebec, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
Municipal: RCMP - Smaller cities, larger cities have their own, First Nations police services

Question 17

Police discretion

Answer 17

The freedom that a police officer often has not deciding what should be done in any given situation
You cannot take discretion out of policing but because you provide the police with so much freedom, it gives room for personalities and biases come through

Question 18

Beaudry v. The Queen (2007)

Answer 18

Court laid out rules for boundaries surrounding police discretion
Can’t let somebody go just because they are your friend
Must show that they thought they were doing something right
Must be:
Subjective and Objective
Exercised in the public interest
Very vague processes - up to the RCMP to choice to continue with actions

Question 19

Racial Profiling

Answer 19

The initiation of police action (e.g. traffic pullovers) based on the race of an individuals rather than any evidence of wrongdoing
A very serious problem in Canada, not immune to racism, often thought as just in US

Question 20

Carding

Answer 20

Carding - just randomly stopped people, who were doing nothing wrong and record the answers and identifications. Police collect and document information in non-criminal encounters with the public.
Card - form - report - database
Toronto star showed after a long legal battle that there was a large amount of racial profiling in this process
Police can no longer ask you for personal information without suspecting you of a crime - is mostly illegal in Canada

Question 21

Street checks

Answer 21

A voluntary interaction with the public, initiated by the police officer, where the police officer makes a request for personal identifying information for a law enforcement purpose
Cannot be random or arbitrary
Significant evidence of racial profiling in the initiation of street
Street checks banned in Nova Scotia in 2019
2021 - ‘suspicious activity’ replaced with ‘reasonable suspicion’

Question 22

Use-of-Force

Answer 22

Anything more serious than soft-handed physical control techniques
Not use of force:
Handcuffing - normally
Leading you
Pushing your head into the car - gentle

This is subjective
We actually don’t know how many use of force incidents happen - police report it individually

This is not a common thing <.1% of encounters

These are rare but how they use the power should be investigated

Question 23

Mekawi and Bresin (2015)

Answer 23

42 studies of racial bias in simulated shooter scenarios
Showed:
Participants faster to shoot armed Black target vs. armed White targets
Participants slower to not shoot unarmed Black targets vs. unarmed White targets
Worse in states with more permissive gun laws

Question 24

Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDS)

Answer 24

A fatal condition
Created after the fact, I HAD to just excessive force, they were out of their mind, so strong
Symptoms:
Extreme agitation/delirium
Aggression
Increased pain tolerance
Extreme physical strength and endurance
Hyperthermia
Risk Factors for death by ExDS = restraint-related asphyxia; being overweight & use of stimulants
NOT a recognized condition (not in DSM or ICD)

Question 25

Does Body Worn Cameras (BWC) deter bad behavior from police and encourage positive interactions with citizens?

Answer 25

No significant difference in officer use of force, positive reduction of citizen complaints

Question 26

Does Body Worn Cameras deter officers from exercising their discretion because the decision can be reviewed (i.e. stop them from policing)?

Answer 26

No significant difference in citations and arrests; does not stop them from policing

Question 27

How do officers feel about Body Worn Cameras?

Answer 27

Officers feel positive, could be positive impression management

Question 28

Does Body Worn Cameras deter bad behavior from citizens?

Answer 28

No doesn’t deter bad behavior, doesn’t impact how citizens responses to police
No civilizing effect

Question 29

What are the benefits and problems of Body Worn Cameras?

Answer 29

Perceived Benefits:
Increased Transparency and citizen views of police legitimacy (??)
Civilizing effect on police officers
Expedites resolution of police/citizen encounters
Helps in police trainings (??)
Viewing the footage helps to put perspective on the situation that transcripts and facts cannot give

Perceived Problems:
Not a lot of evidence/studies
Tons of money
Citizen privacy concerns (??) - issues of confidentiality; intermittent vs. continuous records
Where to position the camera
Investment in terms of training and policy development - how to use property? Downloading and storing footage?
Increased commitment of finances, resources, and logistics - how should it be used in court?
Technology limitations - hearing it, seeing with the positioning, no night mode, gun drawn right in front of the camera

Question 30

When can police stop you?

Answer 30

1) If they suspect you have committed a crime
2) if they see you commit a crime
3) if you’re driving

Question 31

What are your rights upon arrest?

Answer 31

Provide the reason for your arrest
Right to silence (has been determined in courts not legislation, not legally required): Police are allowed to continue question
Right to counsel: Do not have the right to counsel present during the interrogation, single conversation (phone call, etc.) and if new charges are added/changed
Request for more counsel is not protected

Question 32

What are police interrogations and what are the types?

Answer 32

Definition: Interpersonal process whereby a police officer asks a suspect questions about their involvement in a crime

Two types:
Custodial: Person has been detained or arrested; typically occurs at the police station; must be told about rights
Non-custodial: Suspect is interviewed but has not been detained or arrested; outside of police station (e.g. Mr. Big); rights not required; you don’t know you’re being interrogated and police have no legal obligation to tell you your rights

Question 33

What is the Reid Technique?

Answer 33

From John Reid
A process whereby the police interview a suspect for the purpose of gathering evidence and obtaining a confession

Goes into this interview with the guilt bias
Could go on for hours
Not based on any sort of research/evidence it worked

Question 34

Stages of the Reid Technique

Answer 34

Stage 1: Gather Evidence, interview witnesses and victims
Stage 2: Non-accusatorial interview of the suspect, assess any evidence of deception, trying to see if the person is lying
Stage 3: Accusatorial interrogation of the suspect (9 steps), primary objective is to secure a confession

Question 35

Problems with the Reid Technique

Answer 35

It can be very lengthy
Can lead to higher false confessions
Not looking for the truth, only a confession
* You’re going to cherry-pick evidence
* Going to impact the techniques in the room
Already assume guilt

Question 36

Stage 2 of Reid Technique

Answer 36

Assessing Deception
Stage 3 only happens IF the police officer believes the suspect is lying and is therefore guilty
There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that police, trained or not, can distinguish truths and lies simply by observing person’s interview behavior
Gives police a false sense of accuracy/power trip
Builds their guilt bias

Question 37

According to the Reid Technique, how do you tell someone is lying?

Answer 37

Fidgety
Trying to retell the story
Self-soothing behavior
Language slips
‘I don’t know’ ‘I don’t remember’
Changing their stories

Question 38

What are the types of techniques in stage 3 of the Reid Technique?

Answer 38

Minimization technique: ‘we can help you’; good cop
Maximization technique: ‘its going to get worse if you don’t help us’; bad cop

Question 39

What are the 9 steps in stage 3 of the Reid Technique?

Answer 39

Confrontation - confront with their guilt

Theme development - start to create reasons for why they did this

Denials prevented - interrupt their denials; ‘we’re just here to know how’

Objections to themes - them saying they wouldn’t do this for reasons the police made up, now you let them talk

Keeping suspect’s attention - close physical space, etc.

Handling suspect’s passive mood - that’s when you go in for the kill, take what they were saying during the objections to themes

The alternate question - did you do this because of this (your theory) or this (objection to theory)?

Verbal account - if they answer, why don’t you tell us that (leading questions)

Written confession - written down after the verbal account

Question 40

What are the limitations of the Reid technique?

Answer 40

We do know body language (e.g. they are nervous), we don’t know when someone is lying super accurately
If you already think a person is guilty, you will ignore things that don’t confirm this. Not going in trying to force this, but that the ends justifies the means
More false confessions, no evidence of more confessions
Investigator bias + coercive; enter an interrogation already believing the suspect is guilty
NO evidence that it works; no evidence it leads to more confessions than other techniques

Question 41

What did Kassin et al. (2003) show?

Answer 41

Showed that interrogators with guilty expectations selected more leading questions and were more likely to use the ‘Reid’ interrogation techniques
Led to more guilty rulings

Question 42

What is the UK: peace model and what are the steps?

Answer 42

A new technique in the Uk to stop false confessions
Goal: to get as much information as possible NOT a confession

Planning and preparation - preparing information, getting everything they can so they are well prepared

Engage and explain - explain why they’re there, give them all the information they have, then they ask if they are ready to proceed and if they are comfortable, not confrontation

Account - can you tell me what you know? Uninterrupted, then you give them questions of the wrong information

Closure - give them what you’ve written down, let them change things, give them questions/resources, then thank them

Evaluation - thinking about the interview what could they do and how to more forward

Question 43

What are the benefits of the PEACE model?

Answer 43

No coercion = less chance of inadmissible statements
Results in the same number of confessions without any limitations associated with Reid Model
Use of cognitive interview techniques = evidence-based memory enhancement + accurate information
Makes use of evidence based memory models for more information
Wants to get the most amount of accurate information possible

Question 44

What type of Interview model is used in Canada and what does it look like?

Answer 44

After 2017, Sgt. Darren Carr implemented the Phased Interview Plan (RIM). RIM is a hybrid approach of non-accusatory and accusatory based interviews. This was done because of reluctance to adopt the full PEACE model

Question 45

What are the phases of PIM and which ones are based on the PEACE model and the REID model?

Answer 45

There are 6 phases:
1) Review, preparation, and planning
2) Introduction and legal obligations
3) Dialogue
4) Version challenge
5) Accusation and persuasion
6) Post-interview
1-3 are based off the PEACE model, allowing for open dialogue and trying to get as much information as possible
4-6 are based off the REID model, being accusatory, allowing minimization, testimonial ploys, including lying, and leading questions, all to receive a confession

Question 46

What is the Mr. Big technique?

Answer 46

The Mr. Big technique is a Canadian investigative ploy in which a police officer plans an undercover friendship in order to make a suspect confess. This is a non-custodial interview and often used as a last resort or Hail Mary in cases that have no physical evidence but a strong suspect. It is banned in many Countries because of the coercive nature. This was shown in class by the Heart case

Question 47

What are the steps to Mr. Big? What happens during a Mr. Big investigation?

Answer 47

Includes a four-stage process: intelligence probe, introduction, relationship/credibility =-building and evidence gathering
Police befriend the suspect, through information from investigation, give them something
Suspect is introduced to crime organization, is asked to engage in what they think is illegal activities, usually drug running
You’re doing so well, you should meet Mr. Big
Mr Big then offers to let them into the organization if they confess to a serious crime - If you can’t tell me something that you did, something really bad, then I can’t trust you and you can’t join - I can’t trust you if you don’t tell the truth

Question 48

What are the differences in your rights between a Mr. Big investigation and a custodial investigation?

Answer 48

In a Mr. Big opperation:
a situation is not clearly a police interrogation
the suspect is not warned of rights to remain silent/right to legal counsel
suspect is given direct inducements to confess
suspect is explicitly threatened
Suspect is involved in criminal activity

Both have:
Use of isolation, minimum and maximum techniques
Deceived about evidence
Don’t have to be recorded, although it is a norm for custodial

Question 49

What was the R. v. Hart case? What happened and what were the legal outcomes?

Answer 49

In 2002, Nelson Hart’s 3-year-old twin daughters drown. He tells the story of having a seizure and seeing his daughter in the water and going to get his wife for help. It is suspected that he, rather, drowned his daughters. In 2004, a Mr. Big operation happened and after 4 months, he confesses to drowning his children. In 2007, he is convicted of 2-counts of second degree murder. However, this is overturned in 2014, where the courts found the confession not admissible. This placed new limits on Mr. Big operations, stating the probative value of Mr. Big confession must outweigh their prejudicial effect, i.e.It has to be more likely the truth then the prejudices you went into it with, lawyers cannot use the acts they committed in the Mr. big to judge their character, and admitting that there was a big risk of eliciting an unreliable confession.

Question 50

What is a false confession? What technique is more likely to lead to false confessions

Answer 50

A confession that is either intentionally fabricated or is not based on actual knowledge of the facts that form its content. Coercive techniques are more likely to lead to false confessions

Question 51

What are the 3 types of false confessions and why do they happen?

Answer 51

Voluntary: A false confession that is provided without any elicitation from the police. The person can actually believe that they committed the crime. This happens because of person being unable to distinguish fact form fantasy, a morbid desire for notoriety, the need to make up for pathological feelings of guilt by receiving punishment, a desire to protect somebody else from harm (especially for juveniles)

Coerced-compliant: A confession that results from a desire to escape a coercive interrogation environment or gain a benefit promised by the police. This person does not believe they did the crime. This happens to escape further interrogation, gain a promised benefit - from police, avoid a threatened punishment - by someone from the outside

Coerced-internalized: A confession that results from suggestive interrogation techniques, whereby the confessor actually comes to believe he or she committed the crime. This happens because of a history of substance use or other interference with brain function,, an inability of people to see difference between what they observe and what is erroneously suggested to them, and factors associated with mental state (e.g. anxiety, confusion, or feelings of guilt). Younger people are more at risk for this.

Question 52

What are the consequences of false confessions?

Answer 52

Waste of time and money
Innocent person serves a guilty sentence
Real perp is still out there
Very difficult for juries to disprove a false confession
The idea that nobody would ever do this unless they were guilty, is so hard to get over, for judge, jury, and police
The forms and content of a false and true confession are very similar

Question 53

What are some ways to reduce the chance of false confessions that the police could do today?

Answer 53

Stop using coercive methods, implement the PEACE model/stop using the Reid technique

Record all interrogations and add the right to have a lawyer present in the charter

Don’t allow children to be interviewed alone

Do not allow for them to lie about the amount of evidence/type of evidence they have

Training them about false confessions, factors to false confessions, and limitations of the Reid method

Not ending the investigations after the confessions, keep going to continue to prove the guilt of the person

Question 54

When are confessions admissible in court? What Supreme Court cases established them?

Answer 54

If they are given VOLUNTARILY
by a COMPETENT individual

Overtly coercive tactics are not acceptable, established by R. v. Hoilett and R. v. Chapple
However subtle forms of coercion acceptable, R. v. Pickle

Question 55

What are the 3 steps that the Supreme Court of Canada said that judges should look at to evaluate a potential false confession?

Answer 55

1) Operating mind (person understands what is happening)
2) What interrogation methods used? i.e. implied threats/promises are okay and trickery is okay, within reason but an oppressive environment isn’t
3) Analyze the confession itself, is there independent knowledge or new evidence?

Question 56

What is offender profiling?

Answer 56

Profiling is an investigative technique. Technique for identifying the personality and behavioral features of an offender based on an analysis of the crimes they have committed

Question 57

What are things a good profiler would have?

Answer 57

They would be experienced in criminal investigation, common sense, intuition, and ability to isolate feelings about the crime

Question 58

What are the goals of profiling?

Answer 58

Suspect prioritization
New lines of enquiry
Interview strategies
Flush out offender

Question 59

What types of crimes does profiling work on?

Answer 59

Homicide; sexual homicide
Sexual assault
Arson
Burglary

Question 60

What do profilers try to predict?

Answer 60

The offenders behavior/what they will do next
Connections to different crimes
If the offender would commit another crime or a more serious crime

Question 61

What are the 4 types of profiling?

Answer 61

Clinical approach
Statistically-oriented approach
Case linkage analysis
Geographical Profling

Question 62

What is the clinical approach in profiling?

Answer 62

A case-by-case investigation, conducted by a trained profiler, methods vary depending on who is doing it. It is a deductive method, i.e. profiling an offender from evidence relating to that offender

Question 63

What is statistically-oriented approach to profiling?

Answer 63

Profiling using more systematic and consistent psychological theories to build statistical models of offending. It is inductive, you profile an offender from what is known about other offenders

Question 64

What is case linkage analysis?

Answer 64

Determining whether different crimes were committed by the same person based on evidence and crime behaviors

Question 65

What is geographical profiling?

Answer 65

Determining where the offender lives based on where they commit their crimes

Question 66

What is the FBI’s Organized-Disorganized model?

Answer 66

It is a dichotomous classification (splitting them into two groups)
It is based on the idea that crime scene behavior is said to reflect one’s background characteristics (i.e. if they planned it, organized if they leave evidence, disorganized)

Question 67

What are the 4 criticisms of clinical profiling?

Answer 67

1: Faulty assumptions; there are some assumptions that are made that are not always accurate
such as
the trait theory: offender’s crime scene behaviors are indicative of their stable personality traits (i.e. if they use restraints) but this is not always accurate
Behavioral consistency: serial offenders will behave in similar wars across their offenses, but there are reasons for why they would change their behaviors
Behavioral differentiation: one offender’s crime scene behaviors are different from the behaviors exhibited by other offenders, but the offenders may have similar crime scene behaviors, meaning it may be hard to draw similarities every time

2: Prevalence of ‘mixed’ crimes scenes; crime scenes are really exclusively ‘organized’ or ‘disorganized’ which leads to problems with classification

3: Ambiguous Advice; many profiles are ambiguous leading to the Barnum effect (finding personal meaning in vague statements that could apply to many people)

4: Are profilers ‘experts’; a comparison of 5 groups found that there is a small different between groups on total accuracy on profiling but that profilers aren’t always correct and aren’t significantly more correct then other groups

Question 68

What are the limitations of geographic profiling?

Answer 68

Geographic profiling works because serial offenders typically travel short distances to commit most of their crimes but do not work in traveling offenders and often need multiple crimes

Question 69

What are the categories of deception cues, with examples?

Answer 69

1. Extralinguistic (Verbal); speech rate, voice pitch
2. Nonverbal; facial expressions, fidgeting
3. Psychophysiological; skin conductance, heart rate
4. Content of statements; quality of details, contextual embedding

Question 70

are extralinguistic and nonverbal cues good indicators of deception

Answer 70

Not very good, people aren’t reliable. We have been told so often of these myths and we rely on them so often even though they aren’t good detections

Question 71

What are examples of extralinguistic and nonverbal cues and are they bad cues or better cues (but still not good)?

Answer 71

Fidgeting - bad
Voice pitch (higher) - better
Faze aversion - bad
Less direct, relevant, and clear - better
Speech disturbances (um) - bad
Fewer details - better
Rate of speaking - bad
Nervous, overall - better

Question 72

What is the cognitive approach to (non-) verbal lie detection

Answer 72

Because lying increases cognitive load (more mentally taxing), interviews can be structured to increase it even more so the lying is easier to detect.
Theory is that if you increase cognitive load, the cues will show more
They do this by:
1) Imposing cognitive load
2) Encouraging interviewees to provide more detail; ask them to start at the middle or end to mess up the sequence of events
3) Asking unexpected questions
This has been shown to increase accuracy on if a person is lying but still falls below 80%

Question 73

Is it true that people are uncooperative in interviews?

Answer 73

No, research shows vast majority of people talk and cooperate

Question 74

Is it true that tough techniques get people to talk?

Answer 74

No, empathetic techniques are better, gives more information and you can highlight the discrepancies by making them talk more

Question 75

Describe Brain Fingerprinting and if it works in a court of law.

Answer 75

Brain Fingerprinting uses the idea that by placing an EEG cap on a person you can detect the ERP. If the person is shown images and they recognize them, then the ERP would be P300 and if not then it would fall under that. This was used in the Harrington v US (2000) case but was not let into court because there was no evidence it worked and no research

Question 76

What analysis is used to determine content of statements in the courts?

Answer 76

Criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) measures the quality of the statement by 19 criteria. A score is made from this list (level of detail, links to other events, elaborate descriptions, changing perspectives, etc.) and it is compared to a database of liar’s scores to see how it compares. Experiencing this list makes it a higher quality statement.
It is admissible in a court of law and is the most commonly used tool

Question 77

What’s Brinke’s Theory on lie detection? Is there evidence?

Answer 77

His theory is evolutionary, lie detection would have been critical to human survival in ancestral times so we must have a dual-process perspective in which less-conscious parts of our mind retain our ability to detect lies but our conscious biases interrupt this ability. We rely on bad cues and stereotypes rather than our gut.
There is evidence that indirect association was significantly more accurate (faces flashing and word association) then directly stating if a person was lying

Question 78

What is malingering?

Answer 78

Malingering is formally a factitious mental disorder in which the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms in order to achieve an external goal, such as getting a lesser sentence. It is not a mental disorder nor is it is the DSM-5 because it is motivated by external goals

Question 79

How does the justice system tell judge if someone is serious about their mental illness?

Answer 79

They have a structured interview of reported symptoms, which has 172 questions that tap into a bunch of scales of mental illness. This is used to catch them by asking them something that they don’t know how to answer because they’re going off stereotypes.

Question 80

What are the 8 SIRS: scales and what are the possible outcomes on each scale?

Answer 80

Scales:
Rare symptoms: symptoms that are very infrequent in genuine patients
Symptom combinations: symptoms that rarely occur together
Absurd symptoms: Bizarre symptoms that are almost never seen in genuine patients
Blatant symptoms: obvious symptoms of mental illness
Subtle symptoms: symptoms untrained individuals would not consider signs of a mental illness
Selectivity of symptoms: endorse all symptoms asked about
Severity of symptoms: report extreme or unbearable symptom severity
Reported vs. Observed: discrepancy between what they say and what is observed
Outcomes: Honest; Indeterminate: probable malingering, definite malingering

Question 81

What are the ranges for SIRS outcomes and how they relate to malingering?

Answer 81

If there are 2 scales in probable range - 82% are malingering
If there are 3 scales in probable range - 98% are malingering
If there are 4 or more scales in probable range - 100% are malingering

Question 82

How do you study malingering? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each?

Answer 82

There are two ways to study:
Simulation design:
People are put into 1 of four groups:
Nonclinical-experimental: group of people who don’t have the disorder but you tell them to lie
Nonclinical-control: they don’t have the disorder but they tell the truth
Clinical-experimental: they do have disorder and you ask them to fake it
Clinical-control: they have the disorder and answer it honestly
positive: control over study; experimental
negative: simulation design, the motivation is different
Known groups design: comparing genuine patient and malingerers attempting to fake the disorder the patients have
you must do two steps: establish criterion groups and analyze similarities and differences
Positive: generalizability to the real work, in the actual law system, motivation is there
Negative: it is hard to determine the groups and there is an error rate for the system so they might not be accurate

Question 83

What was the polygraph example we did in class?

Answer 83

Three students were chosen, they picked from cards to establish who would be guilty and take the money. They then were polygraphed. Most of the class correctly guessed that Grace was guilty

Question 84

What were the origins of Modern polygraph

Answer 84

A blood pressure cuff was created by William Marston in 1915 this was then added to by John A. Larson, the same man who made the Reid technique, in 1921. He added blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration to the polygraph and conducted early research

Question 85

What is the Comparison Question Test (CQT)?

Answer 85

This is a line of questioning used in the polygraph process in most countries. The underlying theoretical rationale is that lying would create emotions like fear and stress which would create a physiological response that can be measured. It contains 3 types of questions: Neutral, comparison, and relevant

Question 86

What are limitations to the CQT method?

Answer 86

Can apply to different emotions: hard to tell the difference between happiness and fear
Doesn’t account for high blood pressure people
Doesn’t account for low responders - Someone who just doesn’t spike
Certain personality traits don’t react: Psychopathy, Because they don’t feel anxiety or fear, take pleasure in lying
Assumption that the questions you ask will be able to get the response
there is an assumption that the questions you ask will be able to get an emotional response

Question 87

What are the steps to the CQT method?

Answer 87

Gather information
Pre-interview
Attaches sensor and conduct acquaintance test - convincing people the test is accurate so they’ll be more nervous
testing phase
scoring phase
post test interview

Question 88

What are countermeasures of the CQT method and how accurate is it?

Answer 88

Countermeasures:
* Spiking your comparison measure
* Putting a pin in your shoe to spike the other ones so the lies are less spiking
* Mental breaks - disassociating
Accuracy - pretty accurate for guilty suspects - 80-90% accurate, innocent suspects it falls below 50%, false positive

Question 89

What is the concealed information test (CIT)

Answer 89

A polygraph method mostly used in Japan since the 1980s in which they are looking for orienting response i.e. for familiarity rather than emotions. They are looking for novel/sig stimuli, recognition, cognitive, rather then emotional, and encoding

Question 90

What are the limitations to CIT and how accurate is it?

Answer 90

Limitations:
coming up with unrecognizable questions is very difficult with the news cycle today
doesn’t fit with reid technique as well

Accuracy: Has the opposite problem from CQT, very good at identifying innocent persons but not guilty persons so there is a lot of false negatives

Question 91

True or False? Once you have experienced an event and formed a memory of it, that memory does not change

Answer 91

False, although 48% of people surveyed believe that this is true, so there is too much confidence in eyewitness evidence and too much confidence in your own memory

Question 92

What are the stages of memory and examples?

Answer 92

Perception/Attention stage - see an unfamiliar male. Notice he has a round face and bushy eyebrows
Encoding stage - male, round face, bushy eyebrows
Short-term memory - male, full eyebrows
Have to keep thinking about it/rehearse it to make it to long term
Long-term memory - male, full eyebrows
Retrieval stage - police ask what did he look like? you recall he had full eyebrows

Question 93

What is a flashball memory?

Answer 93

A flash of an important memory, where you were when 9/11 happened, when covid happened, your first day of school, etc.
These can be influenced by outside, seeing your first day of school photo, hearing about everyone else’s stories, etc.

Question 94

What is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide?

Answer 94

Eyewitness misidentification 69% of the innocence projects first 325 exonerated cases

Question 95

What was the Robert Baltovich Case?

Answer 95

On June 19th, 1990 Elizabeth Bian disappeared, her car is found days later with her blood in the back seat. Her boyfriend, Robert Baltovich was arrested and charged November 1990 based on eye witness testimony.
Marriane Perez said that she saw Elizabeth and Robert talking on a park bench the day she disappeared, although her memory was fuzzy and she was only confident after seeing the newspaper with his face on it, talking to Elizabeth’s family and undergoing hypnosis
David Dibben said he saw Robert driving Elizabeth’s car days after she went missing only after he was interviewed over and over was he certain that it was him driving and her car. In the appeal, it was ruled that hypnosis evidence should not be allowed and thus the case was thrown out. Since this was the only evidence it was not retried and her case is still unsolved

Question 96

Are witnesses lying when they falsely remember something?

Answer 96

No, they usually are trusting the police and system that they are in to give good evidence

Question 97

What is recall memory?

Answer 97

Recall memory is producing information from your memory. Reporting details of previously witnessed event/person
it is a free narrative/open-ended questions
direct questions
This is part of the police interaction

Question 98

What is recognition?

Answer 98

what you are being asked to take what you remember and compare it to something else. Reporting whether what is currently being viewed/heard is the same as the previously witnessed person/event of interested
happens in lineups and police interactions

Question 99

Do witnesses of real crimes remember more or fewer details than witnesses of staged crimes?

Answer 99

They remember less details than staged crimes

Question 100

What are the 5 most often reported descriptions of perpetrators and how accurate are they?

Answer 100

1) sex, most accurate
2) ethnicity, within one’s ethnicity it is more accurate, not good outside of one’s race
3) clothing, not very accurate, this can change
4) Height, 52% inaccurate
5) Age, very hard to predict age

Question 101

What are the two variables when studying eyewitness testimony?

Answer 101

System variables and estimator variables

Question 102

What is a system variable?

Answer 102

Features of the legal system that can alter the reliability of eyewitness testimony and can be controlled.
Ex. the way police question someone, the questions police use, how they’re getting that recall

Question 103

What is an estimator variable?

Answer 103

Situational and personal characteristics inherent in an event, its witnesses, and its consequences, but over which we have no control.
Have to estimate their impact
Ex. time of day, if they were wearing glasses, degree of stress, if there was a weapon (weapon focus)

Question 104

What is the misinformation effect and who studied it?

Answer 104

Elizabeth Loftus, it occurs when a witness is provided with inaccurate information about an event after it is witnessed and incorporates the ‘misinformation’ in their later recall

Question 105

What was the study Loftus & Palmer and what did it show?

Answer 105

It was study intended to show the misinformation effect in which students watched the same video of a car accident and where then asked “how fast were the cars going when they smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contracted each other”. These words influenced their recall and affected the speed they thought the cars were going. A week later, the students were asked his there was glass in the video, those who said smashed and thus higher speeds, implanted a false memory of having glass break.

Question 106

What are the two of ways to elicit information and influence people based on how you question them and give examples?

Answer 106

Explicit presentation of erroneous detail - assuming a detail (Did the man carrying the hammer run or walk out of the store? in fact, there was no hammer)
Linguistically implicit - implies something thereby influencing them to say yes (did you see the gun vs. did you see a gun)

Question 107

What was Loftus et. al and what did it show?

Answer 107

It was a 30 slide presentation of a car accident where one saw either a stop or yield sign. They were asked if they saw another car pass the red Datsun while it was stopped at either the yield/stop sign? (the incorrect sign in video)
Then they were asked which sign they did see.
75% of people selected the sign that they did not see so if given misleading information 75% will be wrong and implanted with a false memory

Question 108

What was Morgan et. al and what did it show?

Answer 108

It was a test to see if one can be trained to not be influenced by misinformation and if stress impacts it. They used US Navvy survival school and a mock prisoner of war camp to see if they could identify their interrogator even after being given misinformation and leading questions. Found that these highly trained individuals were not able to correctly identity their interrogator accurately with or without false information and were subjective to leading questions. Therefore, training and stress both negatively impact your memory

Question 109

What are 3 hypothesis for the Misinformation effect and describe them?

Answer 109

Misinformation Acceptance Hypothesis - the person doesn’t believe the information, they just go along with the interviewer
Source misattribution hypothesis - you end up with two memories, what happened and the misinformation and are unsure where the real source of your memory is
Memory impairment hypothesis - has the most evidence, the misinformation is added into your memory where you cannot tell the difference as it gets incorporated into your original memory

Question 110

What is the standard police interview for eye witnesses like? What did Fisher et. al. show?

Answer 110

Fisher collected a small sample of eye witness interviews which showed that police really just do the Reid technique to the eyewitnesses. They have open-ended questions followed by direct questions where they interrupt an eyewitness’ recall. they use very short specific questions and an inappropriate sequencing of questions with leading questions.

Question 111

What are methods used in the investigative process to aid eyewitness recall?

Answer 111

Hypnosis
Cognitive interview
Enhanced Cognitive interview

Question 112

What was the significance of the Chowchilla case?

Answer 112

It showed that hypothesis was useful in the court of law because the bus driver was able to recall a partial plate, which led to the kidnappers being found, referencing the use of hypnosis

Question 113

How does hypnosis elicit information? Does it work?

Answer 113

In a hypnotic state, people are very suggestible, it is not just a junk science. They are more likely to be able to recall a lot of details, but also inaccurate information. Hypnosis has some support as a toll to help management of clinical symptoms (pain, PTSD, irritable bowel) but not to remember memories accurately

Question 114

What is the significance of R vs. Trochym? What happened?

Answer 114

Dona hunter was murdered on Tuesday in 1992, witness says they saw a man coming out on Thursday, the ME told them that the body must have been moved on Wednesday, witness said under hypnosis that it was actually Wednesday, Trochym was found guilty, appealed, was brought to SCC and hypnosis no longer allowed. Trochym was found guilty on other evidence. This case led to a total ban on admissibility of evidence obtained under hypnosis

Question 115

What is a cognitive interview?

Answer 115

It is a process based on memory retrieval techniques and sounds like the PEACE model. The person reinstatements of the context (places them in the same environment where it is likely to retrieve information, they report everything they remember, then are asked to recall events in different orders and change their perspective
It is meant to be a supportive, stress free environment and increases amount of accurate information

Question 116

What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 116

It is a less clinical version of the cognitive interview, where they include social/interpersonal features and want to make interviewee fully comfortable so they: build rapport, have supportive behavior, transfer control, allowing them to be in the drivers seat and use witness-compatible questioning (chaining how their taking to them based on who they’re talking to)

Question 117

What are concerns about expert testimony on eyewitness research being admissible in court?

Answer 117

Experts are overconfident
Lack of theory
Lack of real-world application
○ Use undergrads
○ Short exposure time (6 secs)
Canada: case by case decision

Question 118

What are the different ways of knowing?

Answer 118

Experience: Gaining knowledge by direct observation or personal sensory experience. Easy, direct way to answer questions
Example: Being a victim of a violent crime might result in the belief that it is a common occurrence
Problems: Confound - not aware of other influences, third variables you cannot account for. You don’t have a comparison group
Intuition: Accepting ideas as valid because they ‘feel’ true/right, you have a ‘gut’ feeling
Problem: Cognitive heuristics, mental short cuts
Availability heuristic:
*What’s more dangerous, being a police officer or being a logger
* A mental shortcut that can lead to mistakes
Representativeness heuristic:
* Do you ever make assumptions based on what people look like?
* Sometimes we have a bias perception based on what people look like and what they’d act like
* Cherry-picking evidence
* Asking biased questions (confirmation bias)
* Being overconfident
* Humans don’t like being wrong
Authority: Accepting ideas because they came from a respected source. Authorities can be a good source of information but be cautious
Problems with authority: They don’t know everything

Question 119

What are foils? What should they be?

Answer 119

Foils are people who the police know did not commit the crime that they put in a lineup; same thing as fillers but they have to be people that you know are innocent. They should look similar to the suspect/the description of the perp and should not stand out.

Question 120

What are the two strategies for selecting foils? What should they accomplish?

Answer 120

1. Similarity-to suspect strategy: matches lineup members to the suspect’s appearance
2. Match-to-description strategy: matches items that witness provided in description
   At the end of the day, you need a lineup where the suspect doesn’t stick out from the others

Question 121

What are the types of biases we see in lineups?

Answer 121

1. Foil bias; Your suspect does stand out - when your foils don’t look like your suspect
2. Clothing bias; Where you’ve given a description about the clothes and then don’t match the foil’s clothes but match the suspects
3. instruction bias; the instructions give something away/hint at who the person is
4. Yes bias; if the police doesn’t tell the person that there’s a chance that the suspect isn’t there, the person is more likely to just pick one

Question 122

What are the types of identification procedures? what type of judgement do they use?

Answer 122

Walk-by: take witness to a public location where the suspect might be and make them look for them. Absolute judgement
Show-up: show one person to witness, the suspect. Absolute Judgement
Simultaneous lineup: show all members all at once, in person or in photos. Relative judgement, can do a comparison
Sequential lineup: show members one at a time, either in photos or in person without telling them how many more they will be shown. Absolute judgement.

Question 123

What type of identification procedure is used most often?

Answer 123

Sequential lineups, typically with photos

Question 124

Why are photo lineups used most often by police?

Answer 124

Advantages:
No element of human behavior - Static
A lot quicker for the people, more convenient
A lot easier to just find the photos rather then people
You can see people’s faces close up
‘safer’ for the witness
Very portable

Question 125

Why isn’t video surveillance the end all to witnesses?

Answer 125

Incredibly limited:
Quality of footage
Lighting
Angle
Disguises

Question 126

What are the decision types you can make in a lineup?

Answer 126

Correct identification: pick the suspect
False rejection: say perp. Is not there - incorrectly
Foil identification: identifies a foil
Correct rejection: says perp. Is not there - correctly
False identification: picks a foil when the suspect isn’t there, same as a foil identification

In the real world, false identification is different then foil identification because it cannot be known

Question 127

What did Steblay et al. show?

Answer 127

It was a meta-analysis of line accuracy. It shows that when the target is present, simultaneous lineups are more accurate. However, when the target is absent, sequential lineups are much better at not identifying anyone. The risk of false identification is too high for simultaneous, so we use sequential

Question 128

How does age affect lineup accuracy?

Answer 128

How accurate are children:
* Not
* Yes bias

Older adults (60 years):
Correct rejections go down
Correct id’s go down

Age is a standard curve

Question 129

How does race effect lineup accuracy?

Answer 129

Identification of different race:
Correct rejections go down
Correct ids go down

Familiarity help with this:
NBA fans who have more familiarity with black faces, were more accurate when identifying a black person

Question 130

How does the decision speed affect lineup accuracy?

Answer 130

The longer you take:
Correct rejections go down
Correct id’s go down

The longer you take the more likely you are to make a bad choice

Question 131

How do weapons affect lineup accuracy?

Answer 131

When a weapon is present
Correct rejections go down
Correct id’s go down
If police officers are holding a weapon, we don’t get the same effect

Unexpected person is holding the effect, your focus goes to that

Question 132

What did Carlson & Carlson show?

Answer 132

They showed that you can reverse the weapons effect by drawing someone’s focus to the face, like placing a sticker on it.
This stops police from writing off witnesses entirely and makes them aware of the things that effect accuracy

Question 133

What are the recommendations for police lineups?

Answer 133

Double bind administration - officers should not know who the suspect is when they are administering the test
Lineup composition - foils should resemble eyewitness description
sequential presentation
instructions - the perp. may or may not be present
provide no feedback - to not increase their confidence unnecessarily
Videotape all lineup procedures

Question 134

How accurate is voice identification? How does it increase/decrease?

Answer 134

Not very common, not very accurate
Increases when: there are longer voice samples and no accent
Decreases when: there is whispering or emotion in the voice, more foils, and the target voice occurs later in the lineup

Question 135

What is the circle hypothesis?

Answer 135

if a circle is drawn around all the linked crimes then the offender will live somewhere in that circle

Question 137

What is the distance decay hypothesis?

Answer 137

It is the idea that offenders tend to commit crimes close to their home than far away