Midterm One Flashcards
Hugo Mustenberg
- On the Witness Stand - published in 1908
○ Eyewitness accuracy, confessions, suggestibility, hypnosis, crime detection, prevention of crime- But a less-than-ideal figure head
○ Arrogant, combative, self important
§ Inflated claims about validity of his science
○ Vain and loquacious
Influential in applied psychology
- But a less-than-ideal figure head
The M’Naughten Rule
Every man is to be presumed to be sane and… that to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason from, disease of mind and not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if her did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong
Influential Canadian Cases
- R. vs. Hubbert (1975)
- Wenden v. Trikha (1991)
- R. vs. Oickle (2000)
- Impartiality of jurors (limitations on the press)
- Duty to warn for mental health professionals
- SSC rules police interrogation techniques acceptable and confession made with such as admissible
PSYCHOLOGY and LAW
Psychology emphasizes innovation and counterintuitive thinking
Law uses the stare decisis model and a conservative stance
Psychology is empirically based
Law has an authoritarian epistemology
Experimentally methodology
Adversarial process
Descriptive (what is)
Prescriptive (what ought to be)
Nonothetic focus
Ideographic focus
Probabilistic and tentative conclusions
Emphasis on certainty and irrevocable conclusions
Academic and Abstract orientation
Pragmatic and applied orientation
Proactive orientation
Reactive orientation
R. vs. Mohan (1994); 4 criteria (Mohan Criteria)
- Relevance
- Necessity
- Absence of any exclusionary rule
- Qualification of the expert
Police Selection Process
- Stage One
Job analysis stage
Define the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) of a good police officer - Stage Two
Construction and validation
Find/develop measures for assessing KSAs
Job Analysis
- Determining KSAs
Surveys
Observation - Who to ask
Different characteristics listed by different individuals - Stable over time?
Success at training vs. success “on the job”
Patrol officer vs. police manager
Constructing & Validating Selection Instruments
- Goal is high predicative validity
- Measure of future performance… but when?
Graduating from training academy? Academy exam scores? Number of complaints against offer?
Early in career or later? - Issues with restriction of range of candidates
The Selection Interview
- Most common selection instrument
Typically semi-structured interview to assess KSAs - Relatively little literature on the predictive validity of police interview
Mixed results
More structured interviews -> higher predictive validity - Low inter-rater reliability
- Positive self presentation in face-to-face interviews
Increased risk for false positives but no reduction in false negatives
Cognitive ability tests
- Verbal, mathematical, memory and reasoning abilities
- E.g. RCMP Police Aptitude Test (RPAT)
- Better at predicting successful completion of police training than on-the-job performance
But still some predictive validity for job performance
Personality tests
- Most common are MMPI, CPI, and IPI
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Little predictive validity for on-the-job performance
Some association with “problematic” behaviours
High L score associated with poor judgment in the field (under stress) - California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
More consistent relationship with on-the-job performance than police academy performance
“problematic” officers score lower on socialization self-control and sense of well-being - Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI)
Developed as law enforcement screening device
Better predictive validity than the MMPI
For supervisor ratings, citizen complaints, absences from work
Especially good predicting problematic/negative behaviours
Situational Tests
- Placing applicant in a simulated police situation
Evoke samples of behaviours
E.g. role playing exercises depicting common tasks like having to intervene in a dispute between a husband and wife
Have intuitive appeal, but have not been demonstrated to be superior to psychological tests
Plus, time-consuming and expensive
Use of Police Discretion
- The ability that allows (officers) to differentiate and discriminate between circumstances that require absolute adherence to the letter of the law and those occasions when a degree of latitude is justified based on the officers knowledge experience or instinct
Officers can-not/do-not/should-not enforce all laws all the time
Police discretion and youth crime
- In the United States -30-40% of youth crime handled informally
- In Canada discretion is actively encouraged when dealing with youths
Informal or formal warnings; involving parents and or social workers; arresting but releasing; referrals to community based programs
- In Canada discretion is actively encouraged when dealing with youths
Police discretion and offenders with mental illnesses
- Training to help identify if individual poses risk to self or others
- Options available:
○ Transport; arrest; informal resolution
○ Cdn studies: those with mental illness were arrested/charged more often than those with no known mental illness
Unclear which is the better option
- Options available:
Police discretion and domestic violence
- Historical trends
- Modern policies
○ E.g. B.C.’s violence Against Women in Relationships Policy - Arrest rates range from 12 to 40% of cases
○ Other responses include mediation, community, referrals and separation
Some studies suggest separation is used as often (or more often) than arrest
- Modern policies
Use of Force
- Police are allowed by force to use “as much” force as is necessary when acting on reasonable grounds to enforce the law
Reasonable grounds and as is necessary are ambiguous
The Case of Rodney King
- March 1991 in Los Angeles
- King pulled over for speeding
○ Later determined he was 2x over the legal limit
King taken to hospital due to his injuries
- King pulled over for speeding
Use of Force in Canada
- Police use of force in Canada is relatively rare but still shows some concerning trends
- Fatal encounters/deadly use of use
○ Increasing over the past 20 years, notable in the past 4 yeas
○ Black and indigenous people more likely victims
○ Mental health and substance abuse issues present in majority of cases
Black people also over-represented in lower levels of use of force
- Fatal encounters/deadly use of use
Departmental Policies
- Limiting the use of police force
- Used for many years and found to be effective
○ E.g. RCMP policy for use of tasers… only when individuals demonstrate “active resistance”
BUT… effectiveness is limited if not endorsed/enforced by all member of department
- Used for many years and found to be effective
Use-of-force continuum
- Train officers to assess and evaluate potential use-of-force situations
Teach officer to use force one step above suspect
Police body cameras
- Perceptions of body-warn cameras
○ More positive for the general public than for police officers- Impact on use of force complaints and incidents
○ Positive impacts
No impact or negative… increased force may be associated with officer discretion turning on/off BWC
- Impact on use of force complaints and incidents
Fitness-For-Duty Evaluations
- … a formal specialized examination of an employee that results from (1) objective evidence that the employee may be unable to safely of effectively perform a defined job and (2) a reasonable basis for believing that the cause may be attributable to a psychological condition or impairment. The central purpose of an FFDE is to determine whether the employee is able to safely and effectively perform his or her essential job functions
- Must be performed by qualified psychologists or psychiatrists
- Evaluator familiar with testing & evaluation in police psychology
- Interview, battery or psychological tests interview with supervisor, coworkers, family and past psychological and medical evaluations
Unfit for duty, unfit but treatable, no psychological diagnosis, invalid evaluations
Police Stress
- High stress job
○ For both officers and their families- Source of stress
○ On the job dangers?- Organizational stressors
- Occupational stressors
- Criminal justice stressors
Public stressors
- Source of stress
Suicide by Cop (SbC)
- Deliberatly provokes a lethal response from law enforcement
- Parent (1996)
○ 46% of officer-involved shootings are “victim-precipitated homicides” - Mohandie, Meloy, & Collins (2009)
○ 36% of North American officer-involved shootings are SbC - Bohl (1999)
○ SbC resulted in symptoms of PTSD (but symptoms mild and relatively short-lived)
- Parent (1996)
Managing Police Stress
- Most agencies have formal programs to combat police stress
○ Informal support networks
○ Physical fitness programs
○ Professional counseling services
○ Family assistance programs
○ Special assessments (FFDEs)- Are they effective?
○ Very few studies, small N-size, low quality trials, minimal data
Concluded we need more research
- Are they effective?
Past Techniques were coercive
- Whipping suspects, using a stun gun, prolonged periods of questioning with no sleep
Overt acts of coercion replaced with more subtle, psychologically-based interrogation techniques
The Reid Model of Interrogation
- 3-part process
1. Gather evidence & interview witnesses and victims
i. Fact analysis
2. Conduct non-accusatory interview with suspect
i. Also know as behavioural analysis interview (BAI)
ii. Assess deception
3. Conduct accusatory interview with suspect
9-step procedure
Accusatory Interview
- Confront suspect with quilt
○ Present evidence (even if it does not exist)
○ Talk in simplified terms (i.e. fires rather than arson- Allow suspect to justify, rationalize or excuse the crime (theme development)
○ Interrogator may even sympathize with suspect, say the victim was asking for it
○ Shift blame
○ *** be careful not to imply lowered moral responsibility equals lowered legal responsibility or lowered punishment - Interrupt any denials by suspect (handling denials)
○ Do not allow suspect to gain upper hand - Overcome suspect’s objections until they become quiet and withdrawn
○ Continue developing the themes - Reduce psychological and physical distance between interrogator and suspect
○ Make sure suspect doesn’t “tune out”
○ Insure they are receptive to the interview - Exhibit sympathy and understanding, urge suspect to “come clean”
- Offer “face saving” explanations for the crime
○ Self-incrimination easier
○ Presenting an alternative question - When suspect accepts responsibility for crime develop admission into a full confession
Have suspect write up and sign confession
- Allow suspect to justify, rationalize or excuse the crime (theme development)
Use minimization and maximization (Good/Bad cop)
Use minimization and maximization (Good/Bad cop)
Police Cautions
- Different wordings in different countries
- The right to not self-incriminate
○ Anything said before warning may not be admissible in court
§ But only if individual is “in custody” (under arrest) - But do people really understand these cautions?
○ Not fully understood, especially when presented verbally
○ Particularly problematic for “vulnerable populations”
§ Young offenders, those with impaired intellectual capacity - Some also minimize the warning
“I don’t think this is really necessary here…you’ve probably heard this on TV before, you could probably recite it to me, so just as a precaution…”
- The right to not self-incriminate
Potential Problems with Reid Model
- Relies on interrogator’s ability to detect deception in BAI
○ But deception detection is not very good- Investigator biases
○ Confirmation bias
§ Seek evidence of guilt, ignore/fail to note inconsistent evidence
Coercive nature of some interrogation practices
- Investigator biases
Coercive Interrogation Practices
- To be admissible, must satisfy 2 conditions:
○ confession made voluntarily
○ suspect competent when s/he made the confession- Confessions
○ Excluded if elicited by brute force, prolonged isolation, deprivation of food or sleep, promises of immunity or leniency, or if suspect not informed of constitutional rights (although there are exceptions to this one)
But subtle forms of coercion are allowed
- Confessions
Mr. Big Technique (AKA the Canadian Technique)
- R. vs Oickle (2000)
○ Another Canadian case
○ Oickle confessed to 7 counts of arson
○ Police interrogation included questionable practices
§ Exaggerating infallibility of polygraph
§ Implying psychiatric help would be provided
§ Minimizing seriousness of the crimes
Suggesting a confession would spare his girlfriend from a stressful interrogation
False Confessions
- Elicited in response to a demand for confession and is either intentionally fabricated or is not based on actual knowledge of the facts that form its content
○ Retracted confessions
§ Individual declares confession is false (whether or not is actually is)
○ Disputed confessions
§ Confessions disputed at trial; legal technicalities or suspect says confession was never made
○ Voluntary false confessions
§ Made without elicitation by police
§ E.g. John Mark Karr
§ May be due to:
Desire for notoriety or attention
John Mark Karr
- Arrested for pornography in 2001
○ Fled US- Arrested in Thailand in 2006
○ Confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey
○ But DNA did not match evidence found at the murder scene - Coerced-compliant false confessions
○ Suspect knows s/he did not commit the crime
○ Most common type of false confession
○ Often a result of coercive interrogation techniques - Coerced-internalized false confession
○ Individual ends up believing s/he committed the crime
○ Often results from highly suggestive questioning
○ Associated with:
§ History of substance abuse
§ Inability to detect discrepancies between reality and what has been suggested
Severe anxiety, confusion or feelings of guilt
- Arrested in Thailand in 2006
Paul Ingram
- Law enforcement officer, active member of fundamentalist church
- Accused by his two daughters of rape and satanic ritualistic abuse
Confessed following highly suggestive interview techniques
- Accused by his two daughters of rape and satanic ritualistic abuse
The Process of Internalization
- Kassin (2007)
○ Vulnerable to manipulation
§ Due to dispositional characteristics (IQ) or low transient factors
○ Police confront individual with false evidence
Reconciles lack of memory by presuming s/he has blacked out, dissociated, or repressed the event
Ethical Constraints
Unethical to try and convince individual s/he guilty of horrible crime
How ecologically valid are the lab paradigms?
- How realistic is the situation? The threat?
- Are people more or less likely to falsely confess when there is less at stake? When the punishments are less severe? When they are less anxious about the situation?
Is profiling are/craft or science?
Is it based on “tacit knowledge” or “intuition”?
Criminal Profiling
- A technique for identifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of an individual based on the crime(s) committed
○ John Douglas et al., (1986)- Most often used in serial rape and/or homicide cases
○ Cases involving more extreme forms of psychopathology
○ “motiveless” crimes - Also known as
○ Offender profiling
○ Investigative psychology
○ Criminal investigative analysis
○ Behavioural investigative advice - Profiling typically includes:
○ Offender’s age
○ Sex race
○ Level of intelligence
○ Educational background, hobbies
○ Family background, marital status, employment status
○ Residential location
○ Criminal history - Profiling are investigative tools
Do not amount to probative evidence that can be used in court to establish guilt
- Most often used in serial rape and/or homicide cases
PEACE Model
- Non-confrontational (inquisitorial) interviewing model - UK since 1993
- PEACE
○ Preparation and planning
○ Engage and explain
○ Account and clarification
○ Closure
○ Evaluation - Focus is on fairness, openness, accountability, and fact finding… rather than securing a confession
Lying, manipulation and heavy pressure are avoided
- PEACE
Inductive criminal profiling
- Prediction of offender characteristics via comparison to other known offenders of similar crimes
But sampling issues
Deductive criminal profiling
- Predicting criminal’s characteristics from analysis of evidence at crime scene
- Relies on logical reasoning
But this can be flawed
- Relies on logical reasoning
Crime Scene Analysis (CSA)
- Developed by the Behavioural Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI
- 6 stage process
- Profiling inputs
i. Collection of information relevant to the crime - Decision process models
i. Assess type od and style of crime - Crime assessment
i. Reconstruct the crime, from perspective of victim and offender - Criminal profile
i. Use the above information to create a profile - Investigation
Apprehension
- Profiling inputs
- 6 stage process
The Organized-Disorganized Model
- Developed by the FBI in the 1980s
- Classify the crime scene as organized or disorganized then makes inferences about the criminal
- But…
○ Many/most crime scenes contain both
§ Importance of situational characteristics in influencing the crime
Many argue against the validity and usefulness of such typologies
Holmes & Holmes (1998) classification of serial killers
- Visionary
○ Ransacking; belongings & clothing scattered; bludgeoned; weapon of opportunity; weapon left in victim- Mission
○ Bludgeoning; firearm; murder weapon missing; throat cut - Lust
○ Multiple crime scenes, multiple sex acts; torture; overkill - Thrill
○ Multiple crime scenes; restraints; torture; gagging; alive during sex acts - Power/control
Multiple crime scenes; restraints; torture; alive during sex acts; tease cuts; dismemberment
- Mission
Investigative Psychology (IP)
- Originated in Britain with David Cantor
- A collection of related theories and hypotheses
○ Crime viewed as an interpersonal transaction
1. Salience
○ Need to establish which crime charcteristics are behaviourally important
2. Consistency
○ Are these salient charcteristics consistent?
§ Across time? Across situations?
3. Differentiation
○ Can the characteristics be used to differentiate/distinguish between offender types?
§ Rare behavioural patterns may be the most useful to differentiate between offences and offenders
4. Linking serial offenses
○ How can we link crimes
§ What aspects of modus operandi (m.o) are important and consistent
5. Inferences
Models for making inferences about the offender based on the nature of the crime
- A collection of related theories and hypotheses
Radex Model for Serial Killer’s Actions
Criticisms of Profiling
- Typologies
○ Trying to fit people into a box… particularly problematic if it is a very broad box- Questioning about whether personality traits are stable and strongly/consistently predict behaviour
○ What about the situation?
○ Bennell & Cantor (2002)
§ Low consistency for items stolen & entry methods; high consistency for crime site choices - Concerns about homology
○ Strong link between offender characteristics & offense behaviour?
○ Again, many point to the importance of the situation - Ambiguity in profiles
○ Earlier research showed -24% of profiles were ambiguous
○ More recent research suggests this is declining - Accuracy
○ Mixed results in the literature
○ Kocsis’ research - Usefulness of profiles
○ Suggested very few profiles assisted in the identification of the suspect - Concerns about suspect-based profiling
○ Looking for characteristics of someone who is likely to commit a certain crime
§ May lead to racial/ethnic profiling
§ E.g. driving while black
○ Is it effective?
§ E.g. Colleen LaRose aka Jihad Jane
○ Not allowed in Canada
Violation of Charter of rights
- Questioning about whether personality traits are stable and strongly/consistently predict behaviour
Geographic Profiling
- Most serial offenders do not travel far from home to offend
○ And may get closer to home as number of crimes increases- Used most often to prioritize potential suspects
○ But also to:
§ Prioritize tips
§ Determine which regions to canvas more heavily
§ Determine level of police patrols - Several computerized geographical profiling systems
- One of the first created in Vancouver by Dr. Kim Rossmo
- Location is one characteristic that is relatively stable
- But…
Do you need an expensive computer program to figure out location?
- Used most often to prioritize potential suspects
Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)
- Computer analysis system for linking related crimes
○ Developed in Canada in the 1990s by the RCMP
○ Vast database of violent crimes- Centers in all Cdn provinces
○ Except PEI - Other counties have purchased the system
15,000$ Cdn
- Centers in all Cdn provinces
The Comparison Question Test (CQT)
- Aka the Control Question Test
- Pretest interview
○ Develop control questions
○ Convince suspect of accuracy of polygraph
○ Questions while measuring physiological response
§ Yes/no format
§ Irrelevant questions
□ Baseline
§ Relevant
□ About the crime under investigation
§ Control
□ Probable-lie comparison questions; emotionally arousing
Post-test interview
- Pretest interview
The Concealed Information Test (CIT)
- Originally called the Guilty Knowledge Test
- Assesses whether the suspect is aware of aspects of crime known only to the perpetrator
- Series of multiple choice questions
○ Correct answer = critical option - Typically measures palmer sweating
○ But others have investigated response time, eye blinks and pupil diameter
Not used frequently in the US or Canada
Criticisms of the Polygraph
- Both CQT and CIT do not actually reflect lying
○ Rather measure shifts in emotional reactivity & make inferences about lying- Testing and scoring procedures not always standardized
○ Visual inspection of data/output - Suspect often misled about accuracy of test
- Potential violations of subjects privacy
I.e. asking about sexuality or religious beliefs
- Testing and scoring procedures not always standardized
CQT vs. CIT?
- CIT good at identifying innocent suspect, not as effective at identifying guilty suspect
○ Vulnerable to false negative errors- CQT good at identifying guilty suspects, but not innocent suspects
○ Vulnerable to false positive errors - Which type of error is more problematic?
From the view of the suspect? From the view of the police officer?
- CQT good at identifying guilty suspects, but not innocent suspects
Beating the Polygraph
- Honts, Raskin, & Kircher (1994)
○ Instructions on how the CQT works allowed people to “beat the polygraph”
§ Physical countermeasures
§ Mental countermeasures
○ Patrick & lacona (1989)
§ Guilty psychopaths detected as easily a non-psychopaths
But innocent suspects identified with only 56% accuracy
National Research Council (NRC, 2003)
- Theoretically weak basis for differentiating fear, arousal and other emotional states
- Lab studies likely overestimate accuracy in field practice
- Very few quality field studies to validate use of polygraph
Little empirical backing for use of polygraph
How is the Polygraph Used?
- Generally not acceptable as evidence in court of law
○ US supreme Court
§ Rejected admissibility
§ Allowed in some states under certain conditions
○ Not admissible in Canadian criminal courts
§ But some judges may allow it in civil or labour cases- For investigate purposes
○ RCMP Behavioural Sciences
○ But what is a suspect “passes” a polygraph
§ Case of Gary Ridgway
§ Will this lead investigation astray? Waste resources? - For pre-employment screening
○ RCMP, CSIS
§ But concerns about validity of technique & invasive/insulting questions - Monitoring sex offenders
○ To check for recidivism and adherence to probation/treatment requirements
- For investigate purposes
Verbal and Non-verbal Cues to Lying
- Same underlying idea as polygraph
○ Deception procedures physiological changes- Verbal cues
○ What is said
○ How it is siad - Non-verbal cues
○ Gaze aversion
○ Facial expressions, micro expressions
○ Body movements and manipulations
Posture
- Verbal cues
Arousal Approach
Lying is a novel situation that increase arousal
Emotional Approach
Guilt and fear of detection
Attempted control approach
Liars will attempt to control different communication channels to create a credible demeanor
Cognitive approach
Lying takes up resources, especially complex lies
Research - Non-verbal Cues
- DePaulo et al., (2003)
○ Meta-analysis of cues to deception studies
§ Eye contact, gaze aversion, eye shifts not associated with lying
§ Posture shifts, hand movements, foot/leg movement not associated with lying
§ Overall liars did fidget more than non-liars
□ But small effect size + no clear relationship between specific types of fidgeting and deception
§ Pupil dilation and pitch of voice associated with deception
§ Speech disturbances not associated with deception
“The look and sound of deceit are faint”
Research-Verbal Cues
- DePaulo et al. (2003)
○ Liars provide fewer details & stories less compelling
§ Less plausible, lack structure, have discrepancies
○ Truth tellers more likely to spontaneously correct stories & admit lack of memory- Sporer & Schwandt (2006)
○ Longer response latencies for liars
○ More errors in speech
Liars had shorter “stories”
- Sporer & Schwandt (2006)
Detecting Deception
- Aamondt & Custer (2006)
○ Police not more accurate in detecting lies than college students
○ Reliance on behaviours that lack predictive validity
§ i.e. avoiding eye contact, fidgeting
○ Truth bias
Tendency to judge more messages as truthful
Detecting Deception
- Ekman & O’Sullivan (1991)
○ Forensic psychiatrists, customs agents, FBI agents, judges at chance levels of detecting deception
○ Only US Secret Service agents performed above chance
§ Reliance on multiple cues to deception
○ Porter, Woodworth, & Birt (2000)
§ Parole officers performed below chance (40%)
But after attending deception detection workshop performance improved (70%)
Detecting Deception
- Vrij (2000)
○ Review of 40 studies
○ 67% accuracy for detecting truths, 44% accuracy for detecting lies
○ Most professionals not better than the average person
§ Even professional “lie catchers” display a truth bias
Rely on inappropriate cues
Detecting Deception
- However, some studies show accuracy rates for police go up during police interrogations
○ More ecological validity? Familiar situation? Criminals more motivated to lie?- Does training improve deception detection?
○ Hauch et al. (2016)
§ Meta-analysis involving 30 studies
§ Small to medium training effect for detecting deception, but not for truth accuracy
§ Larger improvements if training focused on verbal content cues
§ Training not effective if it only included a video or lecture and no written material
Longer training more effective than shorter
- Does training improve deception detection?
Strongest Markers of Deception/Truthfulness
- Deception
○ Higher voice pitch
○ More speech disturbances
○ Slower speech rate and more pauses
○ Fewer details- Truthfulness
○ Make spontaneous corrections
○ Admit to lack of memory
○ More detail, more words, longer
- Truthfulness
Malingering
- Psychological or physical symptoms clearly under voluntary control
- External motivations
- E.g. to avoid prosecution to obtain drugs or other medical treatments, disability or insurance claims etc
- Prevalence is high in forensic contexts
- External motivations
Detecting Malingering
- Malingerers tend to overact
○ Bizarre symptoms
○ Excess symptoms- Willing (eager) to discuss symptoms
- Report rare/atypical symptoms
- More likely to report positive symptoms of schizophrenia
○ Feigned hallucinations and delusions
○ Rarely negative symptoms like flat affect - Interview
○ E.g. structured interview of Reported symptoms (SIRS)
§ 172 items; 8 scales - Self-report Questionnaires
○ E.g. MMPI-2
§ Clinically oriented personality questionnaire
Includes subscales to detect “faking bad” or malingering
Deception is
FAR FROM PERFECT