Others Flashcards
Crib Sheet - Question B Evaluation – PEEC
(13 things you can talk about)
Nature/nurture – biological, innate vs environmental, learnt
Freewill/determinism – choice and responsibility vs controlled by external and internal forces
Reductionism/holism – simple component part vs whole picture
Individual/situational – personality vs impacted by the immediate social setting
Usefulness – who will find it useful? Public, professionals, policy makers
Ethical considerations – INSIDE the research RTW, PFH, IC, debrief, confidentiality
Socially sensitive – research creates stigma, harm, political consequences on people OUTSIDE of the research
Science – HMC SQUIDFORCE
Ethnocentric – based on one culture – stay focused on culture or race; are the P’s themselves ethnically diverse?
Validity – internal vs external – population, ecological
Reliability – internal (do all P’s experience the study the same) or external (can it be replicated again outside of the study)
Sample bias – gender, age, population, cognitive
Methodological issues – method, data, ethics, reliability, validity, sample bias, ethnocentric
Example Questions
There will be three types of questions and the marks will always be allocated in the following ways:
A) – 10 marks 5 AO1 and 5 AO2
B) – 15 marks 2 AO1 and 13 AO3
C) – 10 marks 10 AO2
A QUESTIONS
B Questions
Tips
C Question - What it focuses on
C Question Types
A) Using the research by Raine, outline how criminal behaviour could be explained through physiological factors (10 marks) EXAMPLAR
5 marks AO1
Identified:
Aim
Sample
Procedure
Results
5 marks AO2
Results x2 linked to the specific question
b) Discuss methodological issues involved when researching what makes a criminal (15 marks)
You need 3 clear PEEC paragraphs here – you don’t have to just use Raine - think about the 4 pieces of research we have used:
You can also use Dabbs, Gesch, Farrington and West think about their methodological issues
Point – methodological issue
One methodological issue is the sample which is often androcentric
Explain – what does the issue mean – give an example
This means that the samples used to study criminals are often just based on males and therefore cannot be generalised back to the population as a whole
Evidence – use one of the pieces of research to back this point up
This is evidence through Dabbs research into male prisoners and testosterone levels. There were 692 males in the study who had committed both violent and property crimes. This means that the study can only be applied to males
Contrast – in contrast is there another study that doesn’t do this?
However the sample is large and can therefore be considered to have good generalisability to male offenders. Moreover the majority of people in prison are males (96% of the prison population) so it makes sense to study just males
Do this 2 more times
Scarlett is worried about her son Josh and his friends. They are often involved in fights at school and she thinks Josh might have started stealing. Josh’s dad was always aggressive and is in prison for theft. Scarlett is wondering what might be causing Josh’s behaviour. Discuss how a criminal psychologist might apply their knowledge of two different explanations of criminal behaviour to help Scarlett to understand possible causes of Josh’s behaviour. [10]
2 different explanations – can come from both physiological and non-physiological
Hormones
Genes
Nutrition
Social explanations
AO2 = application so you have to apply the explanation to Josh and his friends
1 or 2 strategies
Has to be biological
Chemical castration
Omega 3
Link this back to how this can biologically reduce offending
Exemplar
b) Assess the usefulness of research into the collection and processing of forensic evidence [15]
3XPEEC
Yes it is useful – practical advice for forensic psychology and to influence training programmes and to be aware of cognitive biases – Dror’s research shows us how we can be biased by emotional context – however this study was done on students not professional
Not useful – Hall and Player – not useful as it showed that professionals aren’t influenced by cognitive bias – however this was a lab experiment and not a real case – in real life the analysists could have been motivated by other factors such as closing the case as quick as possible
Yes it is useful – Hall and Player was done on experienced Met police officers – they were biased but other less trained/experienced officers may be so the research into is still useful
Exemplar next
Research into bias in the collection and processing of forensic evidence is useful in a number of ways. Firstly, it is important that the legal system can rely on forensic evidence so that fair judgements can be made in cases using techniques like fingerprint analysis or other subjective techniques. Studies like Hall and Player indicate that details about the case may influence the decisions scientists make about forensic evidence, especially where there is an emotional context, for example where a violent crime has been committed. This is useful as it identifies possible bias in this type of evidence which judges should be aware of. However, in this study the emotional context had no effect on the accuracy of the identification, so it could be argued that although the forensic scientists felt that they had been influenced by the emotional nature of the crime, the results suggest that it did not affect their forensic analysis. This is useful as it may actually support the professional standing of forensic scientists.
Secondly, it is useful for forensic scientists to be aware of cognitive bias so that they can incorporate controls into their procedures to minimise or eliminate these factors. This could involve the use of “blind” analysis where no details regarding the nature of a case are passed onto the forensic scientists. The use of a line-up has also been shown to reduce misidentification, this is where the suspect’s evidence is provided along with several others. Miller used this in a study using hair comparison experts. When just one “innocent” sample was provided for comparison it was wrongly identified as a match 30% of the time. However, when five “innocent” samples were given in a line-up the error rate was 4%. This research is very useful as it clearly identifies a superior method that could be used in the processing of forensic evidence.
Finally, some psychologists have discussed the “CSI effect”; this is where the inaccurate portrayal of forensic evidence procedures in crime shows creates an impression that fingerprint analysis and other techniques are 100% accurate. This means that jurors never tend to question this sort of evidence in a trial as they feel it is based on valid and reliable procedures, or that they believe it is superior to other sources of evidence. Publicising research which indicates that there may be bias in these procedures may help to reduce the CSI effect and create more critical consideration of evidence used in trials. Therefore, research into bias in the processing of forensic evidence is useful to society generally, as trials may be conducted more fairly for defendants, leading to less wrongful convictions.
In conclusion research into the collection and processing of forensic evidence is useful in that it should improve the validity and reliability in the processing of forensic evidence.
Mark/Level: 13 marks - Level 4
c) A series of high profile serious violent crimes have been committed in a small village over the last year. Experts are working on the case but it remains unsolved. There are a number of potential suspects including one who has a previous conviction for assault.
Discuss how motivating factors might impact the collection and processing of forensic evidence in this case. [10] Exempla
There are a number of motivating factors which might affect the collection and processing of forensic evidence in this case. Firstly, the fact that the crimes are violent will have an emotional impact. The forensic scientists may be motivated to capture the offender due to the serious nature of the crimes.
Secondly, as the crimes here are high profile there would be a lot of media and public pressure upon the Police to solve the crimes. This again is a motivating factor as this could increase the need for a suspect to be linked to the crime.
Another factor is that there is a suspect who has a previous conviction for assault. If this information reaches the forensic scientists this could create an expectation bias, this is where the forensic scientists are expecting a particular outcome and are therefore likely to see what they expect, a match. This could also create a confirmation bias, which is where we seek out evidence in order to support our hypothesis, and ignore evidence which contradicts it. In this case the scientist (or the Police who they work with) may believe that this suspect is the murderer and this may increase the risk of an incorrect identification being made. Also suspects who have no previous criminal history may be ignored, the Police may believe that the criminal who committed these crimes must have a previous criminal record and this could influence the collection of forensic evidence.
All of these factors might impact the processing of the evidence as many forensic procedures involve the analysis of visual stimuli (e.g. fingerprint comparison, hair & fibre comparison, footprints, blood spatter analysis) and research has shown that visual perception is open to many types of cognitive bias.
Mark/Level: 9 Marks - Level 4
a) Using research by Memon and Higham, describe what we have learnt about the cognitive interview. (10 marks) exemplar
Memon and Higham was a review article of the cognitive interview, and the aim was to assess whether the cognitive interview (CI) would elicit more correct information than the standard interview used by the police. The cognitive interview includes 4 main stages; context reinstatement - involving the witnesses trying to put themselves back into the internal (eg. emotions) and external (temperature, location) environment that they were in during the crime, recall everything - this involved the witnesses recalling every tiny detail that they could remember about the crime without interruptions, even if they believed it to be irrelevant, changing order - this involved the witness recalling the crime in a different order, such as recalling the crime back to front, and finally changing perspective - this involved the witnesses recalling the crime from the view as someone else, such as another witness or the victim.
Memon and Higham reviewed research into the effectiveness of the different components of the CI, the component which appeared most effective was the Context Reinstatement component. They describe a study by Milne where participants recall for an event was compared using all the separate components. Context reinstatement was the most effective and participants recalled as much in that one component than as in the whole Cognitive Interview. They also looked at the comparison interviews that were used to judge the effectiveness of the cognitive interview. They concluded that the best technique to compare the cognitive interview with is the structured interview. The structured interview technique involves building a rapport with the witness, just like the cognitive interview, and they avoid repetitive/leading questions. This makes the Structured Interview and Cognitive Interview appropriate to compare and so we can see how cognitive techniques can improve witness recall, as the only difference between the two techniques is that the Cognitive Interview uses cognitive techniques and the Structured Interview doesn’t. Memon & Higham also looked at the training of interviewers in the research studies and they argued that they should be trained for at least 2 days in the use of the cognitive interview and ideally by a senior officer as they would be more likely to engage with the CI training.
Memon & Higham’s overall conclusion was that due to the methodological flaws in the research that they could not definitively say that the cognitive interview was more effective than other methods and that further research was required.
a) Using Wilson and Kelling’s article, discuss how crime can be prevented by the features of a neighbourhood (10 marks)
Exemplar
