MODULE #1 Flashcards
What issue or concern does Bartol (1996) express about common definitions of ‘police psychology’?
That they fail to include other law enforcement agents such as deputy sheriffs, marshals, or constables.
When did police psychology begin?
2
(1) It was reported police departments in Germany were using psychologists in a variety of capacities as early as 1919.
(2) In 1966, The Munich police were employing a full-time, in-house psychologist to train officers to deal with various patrol problems.
Selecting-in procedures
2
(1) intended to identify those attributes that distinguish one candidate over another as being a potentially more effective officer.
(2) Assumes there are traits, habits, reactions, and attitudes that distinguish an outstanding cop from a satisfactory one.
Screening-out procedures
Try to eliminate those applicants who demonstrate significant signs of psychopathy or emotional instability, or lack the basic mental acuity to perform the job in a safe and responsible manner.
According to Bartol (1996), in what activities do contemporary police psychologists engage?
(4)
- Pre-employment screening consumed the largest percentage of their time
- In – house psychologists work directly with the officers in such services as counselling and treatment.
- Full-time consultants are involved in providing various services to the family members of police personnel and more engaged in fitness-for–duty evaluations
- Criminal or psychological profiling of offenders
What challenges in the profession did Bartol (1996) predict?
8
CHALLENGES:
- Psychologists should address issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and discrimination.
- Police psychology depends greatly on political, economic, and social pressures, ultimately reflected in executive, legislative and, to a lesser extent, judicial decision-making.
- Media has played a prominent role with televised events focussing public attention on police behaviour.
- Area needing far more attention is the rural and semi rural community. Police psychologists have typically studied and consulted with large, metropolitan police departments and neglected small town and rural law enforcement which make up the majority of police agencies.
- Women going into law-enforcement still encounter sexual harassment and attitudinal resistance, primarily from their male superiors.
- The growing array of available psychological services has not been integrated systematically into law enforcement.
- Police psychologists need to become better and more skilful researchers and evaluators of programs, including their own.
- Traditional graduate programs are too narrow and circumscribed for training police psychologists. A more broad-based graduate program in police psychology that encompasses not only clinical areas is needed.
What changes in the profession did Bartol (1996) predict? To what extent was he correct?
(14)
- In an attempt to control police deviance, preemployment screening (of the screening-out variety) will continue to be an important service provided by police psychologists.
- Pre-employment screening will be affected by legislation and judicial decision-making. The California court of appeals ultimately ruled that invasive psychological tests violated both the constitutional right to privacy and statutory prohibitions against improper inquiries into a person’s sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
- The MMPI-2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor and addresses many of the legal concerns about standardization and item Content. However, screening instruments including the MMPI-2, will continue to be tested in the courts on validation issues.
- Psychologists will seek to expand their contributions beyond traditional screening, therapy, training, etc. and be drawn to the current flavour of community policing as it attempts to form a coalition between the community and the police to solve community problems. The current interest in community policing may shift some attention to small-town and rural policing.
- The composition of police forces will continue to change significantly in the future which will affect the nature of police psychology. There will be a growing influx of women in policing and an increase in minorities, especially in large metropolitan areas.
- Women will comprise at least 25% of the police forces within the next two decades. This will produce significant changes in police training and the prioritization of services.
- The composition of police psychology will change which will include more from minority groups.
- There will be a shift from the counseling/clinical orientation to more non-mental health-oriented psychological services
- Problem-solving strategies and strategic decision-making models are likely to predominate in the near future.
- Industrial/organization, community, and social psychology will be called upon to make many major theoretical and practical contributions to police psychology.
- Psychological research on how to deal effectively with turnover rates, personnel dissatisfaction, and lowered morale in reactions to budget cuts and cycles of hiring blitzes and freezes will become critical.
- Police psychology increasingly will become international in scope, with psychologists across the globe sharing ideas, research, and programs.
- Police psychology will have graduate programs exclusively devoted to the field.
- There will be anticipated growth in police psychology due to more support in relation to community policing which will welcome the skills and knowledge of police psychologists.
psychology
3
(1) the scientific study of behaviour and mind.
(2) looks at how environment, thinking, emotions, and behaviour are all interconnected.
(3) Like many scientific disciplines, psychology is comprised of different areas of study, or streams.
major areas of psychology
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- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Experimental Psychology
- Personality Psychology
- Psychophysiological Psychology
- Psychometrics
- Social Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
study mental process such as attitudes, decision-making, information-processing, logic, and memory process.
Developmental Psychology
studies changes in cognitions, personality, perception, etc., over the entire life course.
Experimental Psychology
design and conduct research studies to test the theoretical propositions found in all of the areas of psychology
Personality Psychology
2
- examines the identification of groupings traits that produce consistent and differentiating behaviour among individuals.
- A large area of personality psychology is focused on the assessment and measurement of these personality traits.
Psychophysiological Psychology
involves the study of the role of biological factors (genetics, neurochemistry, brain functioning) influence our behaviour, personality, and thoughts.
Psychometrics
involves the measurement of behaviour, thought processes, and personality through the development of psychological tests.
Social Psychology
interested in factors that influence interpersonal interactions and focuses on topics such as attitude formation and change, prejudice, attraction and love, aggression, or conformity.
In general, we can organize ‘what psychologists do’ into three major categories.
(1) Clinical Psychologist
(2) Applied Psychologist
(3) Research Psychologist
clinical psychologist
is a professional psychologist who specializes in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological problems.
applied psychologist
2
(1) a professional psychologist who extends the theoretical and empirical methodologies of psychology to other occupations or everyday settings.
(2) A school psychologist, for instance, would incorporate aspects of all the major fields of psychology in the assessment and counselling of students. Similarly, an industrial/organizational psychologist would employ psychometrics in designed tests to assess job and personality fit or assess threats to workplace safety.
research psychologist
designs and conducts experiments (or other types of research) to test and advance theoretical knowledge in the discipline.
It is most accurate to think of forensic psychology as what?
As what a psychologist does in a professional setting.
forensic psychology can be defined as:
the application of psychological research, theory, and clinical practice to areas of concern in the criminal justice system.
According to Bartol and Bartol (2008), forensic psychology has five main areas of focus.
- Police psychology
- Psychology of crime
- Victimology and victim service
- Legal psychology
- Correctional psychology
psychology of crime, as a subfield of interest in forensic psychology, involves:
(2)
- the application of psychological theory to the study of crime and criminality.
- In this area, you might study how information-processing and other cognitive processes are related to aggressive behaviour.
legal psychology
involves the application of psychological theory and research practices to the study of criminal justice and legal processes.
differences between Psychology and the law
2
- psychology is rooted in theory and empirical research, whereas the criminal justice system focuses on individual cases and precedents.
- Psychology is a descriptive field that focuses on observing and describing patterns of naturally-occurring behaviour while the law is prescriptive in nature, setting out what people can and cannot do.
3 Relationships between Psychology and Law
- Psychology and Law
- Psychology in the law
- Psychology of Law
Psychology in the Law
2
- Psychology in the law refers to the use of psychology research and theory by lawyers, law enforcement, and other criminal justice personnel.
- This represents the most common use of psychology in the law wherein psychologists adapt their knowledge to address to specific criminal justice issues such as competency or NCRMD assessments.
Psychology and law
2
- refers to the use of psychology research and theory to evaluate the justice system.
- eyewitness line-ups and memory research would be one illustration.
Psychology of law
refers to the psychological study of the origins and role of law, as well as the psychological reasons why people obey the law.
the largest areas of research in forensic psychology is:
Eyewitness identification and memory
simultaneous lineup procedures
where all potential suspects and foils are presented to the eyewitness at once produce higher rates of identification errors
sequential lineups
present suspects serially or one at a time to an eyewitness.
relative judgment
they select a suspect who looks most like the perpetrator relative to other suspects in the lineup
absolute judgment
during sequential police lineup – when presented with one suspect at a time, they compare and determine whether each specific suspect matches or does not match the perpetrator
factors that can affect memory (3)
- Acquisition
- Storage
- Retrieval
Acquisition (3)
- Research indicates that there may be problems associated with a person’s ability to accurately perceive, and thereby “acquire”, all of the details of an event when they experience it.
- For example, memory might be impacted at one extreme by a person’s state of heightened physiological arousal in a threatening situation or, at the other extreme, by his or her failure to even notice that a crime was occurring (e.g., a teller cashing a forged check).
- Other examples include the viewing conditions at the time of the event, the eyesight of the witness, and possibly the race of the witness compared to that of the offender.
Storage (2)
- Even assuming that some of the details from the initial event are perceived correctly, those details face competition in the person’s memory from other information the person is exposed to after the event.
- This situation may culminate in “memory interference” from a number of potential sources (e.g., other witnesses and media reports).
Retrieval (3)
- even if the accurately perceived information remains intact in memory until its retrieval is requested in a prompt investigative interview or a line-up, inappropriate retrieval strategies may still lead to an incomplete statement or an inaccurate description of the offender.
- In some cases, retrieval may be negatively impacted by insufficient effort being requested from and/or exerted by a witness to exhaustively search their memory for all available information.
- In addition, recall may also be impacted by employing a description-eliciting technique that asks for a level of detail that is inconsistent with the overall impression the witness might have of the offender’s appearance.
two global eyewitness evidence categories
system variables and estimator variables.
estimator variables
3
- are factors which the police and the justice system have relatively little control over and, as such, their actual effects can only be estimated–as opposed to controlled.
- Some common examples (e.g., the amount of attention paid by the witness at the time of the event, the quality of the viewing conditions, the length of time between the event and the taking of a statement).
- In addition to these primarily memory-based problems, there are other estimator variables such as witnesses’ expectations of what they are supposed to do, inferences they might make about the identity of the offender, and possibly their over-zealousness to either cooperate or to intentionally stonewall an investigation.
system variables
2
- those factors over which the police and the justice system have at least some degree of control.
- e.g., whether or not witnesses are separated before they have the opportunity to exchange information with one another and the techniques used by an investigator to elicit a description from a witness
Eyewitness Memory As Trace-Evidence (2)
- It is argued that, like physical trace evidence, eyewitness evidence is something that the perpetrator leaves behind at the scene of the crime
- an eyewitness observed the perpetrator commit a crime, then a trace exists inside the witness’ head and this trace can be a key to establishing the identity of the perpetrator.
Like many forms of physical evidence, memory traces can be
delicate, and thus easily destroyed or damaged by mishandling
memory-as-trace-evidence comparison is especially useful due to:
(4)
- the clear parallels between physical trace evidence and memory trace evidence.
- Like many forms of physical evidence, memory traces can be delicate, and thus easily destroyed or damaged by mishandling.
- For example, eyewitness memories can be cross-contaminated (e.g., witnesses interacting and sharing information) just as physical traces can be cross-contaminated (e.g., blood from one area of the crime scene mixed with blood from another area during collection) and memories, like some types of physical evidence, can decay over time.
- In addition, the way in which eyewitness memory is tested (e.g., the protocol for conducting a line-up) can influence the reliability of the results in the same way that tests on physical evidence (e.g., a DNA protocol) can affect the reliability of physical trace evidence.
Optimal Procedures for Eyewitness Identification of Suspects (5)
(1) managing witnesses at the crime scene,
(2) eliciting a description of the offender by searching mug shots or creating a composite likeness,
(3) follow-up investigative interviews,
(4) field identifications, and
(5) line-up identifications.
Composing Line-ups (11)
- Include only one suspect in each identification procedure. In cases involving multiple perpetrators and multiple suspects, construct separate line-ups for each suspect.
- Include an appropriate minimum number of fillers or foils (non-suspects) per identification procedure. Various terms for these additional line-up members are used across police services, including foils, fillers, distracters, stand-ins, shills, and others - the term filler will be used here.
- Select fillers that generally fit the witness’ description of the perpetrator. When there is a limited description of the perpetrator, or when the description of the perpetrator differs significantly from the suspect, fillers should resemble the suspect in significant features. By definition, any specific feature mentioned by the witness is significant. As such, if the description accurately states that the suspect had a mole, the inclusion of a filler photograph without a mole that otherwise closely resembles the suspect is not acceptable. If the suspect does not have a mole (but the witness described a mole) then no line-up member should have a mole. If the original description is particularly vague, common sense should prevail. Thus, if the witness failed to indicate race or sex, these obviously must be matched to the suspect anyway.
- If multiple photographs of the suspect are reasonably available to the investigator, select a photograph that resembles the suspect’s description or appearance at the time of the incident.
- Consider that complete uniformity of features is not required. Avoid using fillers that so closely resemble the suspect that even a person familiar with the suspect might find it difficult to distinguish the suspect from the fillers.
- Create a consistent appearance between the suspect and fillers with respect to any unique or unusual feature (e.g., scars, tattoos) used to describe the perpetrator, by artificially adding or concealing that feature.
- Place suspects in different positions in each line-up, both across cases and with multiple witnesses in the same case. Alternatively, the suspect or his representative could be allowed to choose his position in the line-up.
- When showing a new suspect, avoid reusing fillers in line-ups shown previously to the same witness.
- Ensure that no information concerning previous arrest(s) will be visible to the witness.
- View the line-up to ensure that the suspect does not unduly stand out, either because of a highly distinctive feature absent from other line-up members, or as a better fit to the description than other line-up members (including clothing), or due to differences in pose, background of the photograph, lighting differences, etc.
- Preserve the presentation order of the photograph line-up. In addition, the photographs themselves should be preserved in their original condition.
Instructions to a Witness Prior to Viewing the Line-up (6)
- Instruct the witness that he or she will be asked to view a set of photographs.
- Instruct the witness that it is just as important to clear innocent persons from suspicion as to identify guilty parties.
- Instruct the witness that individuals depicted in line-up photographs may not appear exactly as they did on the date of the incident because features such as head and facial hair are subject to change.
- Instruct the witness that the person who committed the crime may or may not be in the set of photographs being presented.
- Assure the witness that regardless of whether or not an identification is made, the police will continue to investigate the incident.
- Instruct the witness that the procedure requires the investigator to ask the witness to state, in his or her own words, how certain he or she is of any identification.
Blind, Sequential Photograph Line-up
- Blind” refers to the fact that the officer conducting the identification procedure is either: (a) unaware of which line-up member is the suspect, or (b) not able to see which picture the witness is viewing at any given time (more on these alternatives follows below).
police officers are often quick to react to the recommendations for the Procedure for a Blind, Sequential Photograph Line-ups because they believe it assumes they are intentionally trying to influence the procedure and its outcome
Recommendations of this sort merely recognize the human element in this procedure - that is, the most well-intentioned individual can unintentionally convey information and expectations to the witness that can lead him or her to make a particular decision. This is not a “psychic” phenomenon, but rather a mundane part of human nature
The sequential technique requires a combination of several simple procedures:
(5)
(a) each line-up member or photograph is presented individually,
(b) witnesses are not told how many people are in the line-up, and
(c) witnesses are informed that they may take as long as they wish looking at each person but that once they have decided, their decision is final–that is, they will not be allowed to go back over the line-up again.
(4) As each person or photograph is presented, the witness is required to make a decision of whether or not it is the perpetrator.
(5) A rapidly growing body of research indicates that sequential line-up presentation makes it extremely difficult to use a relative judgment strategy. As a result, false identifications by eyewitnesses occur at a dramatically reduced rate
The other important element of the “blind, sequential” line-up has to do with how the photographs are actually presented to the witness. The traditional procedure is to present all of the photographs at once, or “simultaneously”, in an array of 6 to 12 photographs. What problem can this result in?
(2)
- such a procedure can encourage the witness to use the “relative-judgment” strategy in the context of the pre-line-up instruction (i.e., informing the witness that the actual offender may or may not be in the photographs).
- Again, common sense, research results, and officers’ actual experience all indicate that it is not uncommon for a witness to explicitly employ a “process of elimination” approach, whereby the person who looks most like the offender is identified
step-by-step procedural recommendations for conducting a blind, sequential line-up
(8)
- Provide viewing instructions to the witness as outlined to a Witness Prior to Viewing the Line-up in as well as the following:
a. Individual photographs should be viewed one at a time.
b. The photographs are presented in random order.
c. Either the officer presenting the pictures does not know which person is the suspect or, the officer does not know which position the suspect’s photograph is in and should not be able to see which photograph the witness is viewing.
d. Instruct witnesses to take as much time as needed in making a decision about each photograph before moving on to the next one. Remind witnesses that a clear decision must be made and stated before the next photograph is shown to them.
e. Inform witnesses that it is departmental policy to show all photographs, even if identification is made.
2. Confirm that the witness understands the nature of the sequential procedure.
3. Begin with all photographs out of the view of the witness.
4. Instruct all those present at the line-up not to suggest in any way the position or identity of the suspect in the line-up.
5. Avoid saying anything to the witness that may influence the witness’s selection.
6. Present each photograph to the witness separately, removing the one previously seen before the next photograph is shown.
7. Ensure that a clear decision is made indicating whether or not the witness believes the person being examined is the offender before exposing the witness to the next line-up member.
8. If identification is made, avoid reporting to the witness any information regarding the individual he or she has selected prior to obtaining the witness’ statement of certainty.
Recording Identification Results (7)
- Record both identification and non-identification results in writing, including the witness’ own words regarding how sure he or she is and any additional spontaneous comments.
- Ensure results are signed and dated by the witness.
- Ensure that no materials indicating previous identification results are visible to the witness.
- Ensure that the witness does not write on or mark any materials that will be used in other identification procedures.
- Document in writing the photograph line-up procedures, including:
a. Identification information and sources of all photographs used.
b. Names of all persons present at the photograph line-up.
c. Date and time of the identification procedure. - Preserve a copy of the line-up by photograph or video. This documentation should be of a quality that represents the line-up clearly and fairly. Photographic documentation can be either of the group or of each individual.
- Instruct the witness not to discuss the identification procedure or its results with other witnesses involved in the case and discourage contact with the media.
