Paper 3 - Criminal 2 - collection and processing of fingerprints Flashcards
Describe Charlton’s study on emotional motivation in finger print analysis
They used qualitative data approach using individual semi structured interviews which 13 experienced fingerprint experts from a variety of law enforcement agencies. They asked questions such as how did you feel about succeeding in matching the prints. The results showed that there are 5 main themes associated with emotion and fingerprint analysis..
1. reward of job satisfaction - pride in using their skill
2. Satisfaction with catching criminals
3. Satisfaction with working on serious, long running cases
4. emotional feelings associated with the need for closure
5, emotions linked to making mistakes and finding identification matches
He concluded that fingerprint experts are not only emotionally motivated to achieve results for themselves, police and society but are also influences by psychological factors that may lead to wrong conclusions being made.
Describe Dror’s research on influence of crime type on emotions
manipulated high and low emotional contexts by using pictures and stories from a violent or non violent crime scene with 27 student volunteers. pps were given the information and had to match fingerprints that were wither unambiguous or ambiguous. results showed that where a match between fingerprints was ambiguous, pps were influences by the contextual information in the emotional circumstances of the case
what was the aim of Hall and Player’s study on fingerprint analysis
designed to test the effect of context on fingerprint identification by fingerprint experts.
1. does the written report of a crime affect a fingerprint expert’s interpretation of a poor quality match
2. Are the fingerprint experts emotionally affected by the circumstances of the case
what is the method of Hall and Player’s research ?
field experiment
independent measures design with random allocation to groups
iv= whether pps experiences low or high emotional content
dv = if pps said fingerprint was a match or not, whether they had referred to crime scene report prior to their assessment of prints, and if they felt the information affected their analysis
what was the sample in Hall and Player’s study
self selected sample of 70 fingerprint experts working for the metropolitan police fingerprint bureau.
what was the procedure of Hall and Player’s study
They were asked to work in a typical fingerprint examination room.
No time limit
Assigned to 1 of 2 groups, low or high emotional context.
The low emotional context group was given an examination report referring to an allegation of forgery of money.
The high emotional context group was given an examination report referring to an allegation of murder involving shooting.
Pps were given an envelope containing a fingerprint of a right forefinger and asked to consider whether it was a match with any fingerprints given to them on a standard 10 print fingerprint form (suspect’s)
They were given a feedback sheet that asked if they referred to the crime scene report prior and if they felt that this affected their analysis.
What were the results of Hall and Player’s study
57/70 pps said they had read the crime scene report prior to analysing.
30 of them were in the high emotional context group
52% of these 30 felt they were affected by the information they read.
6% of people in the low emotional context group said they were affected
Final decisions made by pps were similar regardless of emotional context - although some experts are affected, it does not affect their fingerprint identification
what are the conclusions of Hall and Player’s study
even if experts think that a serious crime type has influences their analysis, the final outcome is not affected
Hall and player believe that the experiences fingerprint experts were less affected than the non experts used by Dror.
A likely explanation of this is the high level of training they are given. Training experts means that recognise that contextual information exists but it does not cloud their judgement, therefore, fingerprint experts should attend regular training sessions to reduce the effects of motivating factors on cognitive bias
Evaluate the validity of this topic
- In hall and player’s study Internal validity may be questioned because fingerprint experts knew that they were not dealing with a live case and that it was an experiment, this could cause demand characteristics.
- in Dror’s research there is low population validity as 27 student volunteers, they’re only students so have not gone through extensive training like experts so cannot be generalised.
- In Charlton’s study high external validity as from a variety of law enforcement agencies who all get different training so it is representative of all experts.
Evaluate the reliability of this topic
- Hall and Player - a standardised copy of the right forefinger print was made using a canon laser 1000 printer which would mean that each copy is consistent.
The way which the information was gathered from the experts was standardised- the feedback sheet. - Dror - the same pictures and stories for each crime, standardised.
- Charlton - semi structured interviews are different for each person, not repeatable, unreliable.
evaluate the sampling bias of this topic
- Hall and Player -the pps were all experiences experts from the Metrapolitan police fingerprint bureau as all the experts came from well funded trained fingerprint bureau in london the effects of motivating factors and cognitive bias may be more pronounced amongst less well trained fingerprint experts.
- Dror - 27 student volunteers, no extensive training, small sample
- Charlton - from a variety of law enforcement agencies, representative of majority of experts.
Evaluate the ethnocentrism in this topic
- Hall and Player - used pps from a collectivist culture, other people in individualist cultures are less influenced by cultural expectations than people from more collectivist cultures so they may have had different results.
- Dror - 27 student volunteers from uk
- Charlton - from a variety of law enforcement agencies, representative of different areas in uk
how does this topic relate to the freewill/determinism debate
- Dror - environmental determinism - the type of context provided for fingerprint experts such as examination reports and pictures in highly emotional contexts may determine their final decision.
2.Hall and Player - freewill - no difference in the final decision of the experts when comparing the groups. experts have free will in deciding whether there is a fingerprint match. - Charlton - determinism - fingerprint experts’s matches are determined by emotional motivation to achieve results for themselves and the police and wider society
Evaluate the usefulness of this topic
- Hall and player - it increases our understanding that knowledge of crime type can lead to experts to believe their fingerprint identifications may be influenced. This leads to developing training programmes to reduce the possible effects of cognitive bias in fingerprint identification.
- Dror - shows that students have significant bias and there training needs to be stricter
- Charlton - shows all the motivational factors which can affect experts. intervention can be put in place to reduce the effect of these factors
Evaluate the ethical considerations of this topic
- Hall and Player - the experts carried out the identifications as they would on a typical day at work and without any time pressure so it is unlikely that they were placed under any stress
- Dror - socially sensitive as it can lead to conclusions that fingerprint experts are making wrong conclusions, leading to discrimination, also could lead to extensive training which will be expensive.
- Charlton - psychological harm may be caused as experts become aware of the effect of motivational factors on their work, this may cause stress in there future decisions at work
