Section B Flashcards
Define, in no more than two sentences in each case, each of the following terms:
Over-confidence effect:
A bias in which a person’s subjective confidence in his or her judgements is
reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those judgements
Noble cause corruption
The use unethical or illegal means to attain desirable goals, to achieve aresult which appears to benefit the greater good
Prosecutor’s fallacy
An assumption that the probability that a piece of evidence would implicate a randomly chosen member of the population is equal to the probability that it would implicate the defendant
Context effect
The influence of environmental factors on one’s perception of a stimulus. Interpretation of information in relation to the context in which that information was presented to you
Tunnel vision
The tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited objective or view
Define the Daubert Principle
- Whether the technique can be, and has been, tested
- Whether the technique has been subjected to peer review and publication
- Whether the rate of error of the technique has been reliably estimated or clearly
determined - Widespread acceptance of the technique is an important factor in determining its
admissibility in court
A young man was found dead on a railroad track. He had clearly been run over by a train. List four
separate and distinct pieces of evidence obtained from the body that might alert you to the possibility that the death was a “hidden homicide”
- Injuries inconsistent with death due to being run over by a train (eg stab wounds/gunshot wounds)
- Defence injuries (eg incised wound on hands)
- Signs of a struggle (eg broken fingernails)
- Restraint injuries (eg evidence of being tied by wrists or ankles)
- Evidence of strangulation (fractured hyoid bone/thyroid cartilage/ligature marks on throat)
When asked to focus on a particular task we often don’t notice other co-incident events
(a) What name is given to this phenomenon?
(b) Why does this happen?
(a) Selective attention and in-attentional blindness
(b) Due to sensory overload we focus on what we consider to be important information and block out
that we consider to be unimportant
Five fingerprint examiners were each given a fingerprint pair that they had studied five years earlier in real cases and had judged them to “match.” They were asked to re-examine the prints, but were led to believe that they were the pair of prints that had been erroneously matched by the FBI in a high-profile case. Although they were instructed to ignore this information, four out of five examiners no longer judged the prints to “match.”
How do you explain this “about face” in cognitive terms?
Context effect
Anchoring effect caused by the current information leading to an expectation that the prints do not match.
Confirmation bias due to the expectation they were given
Suggest how, in the future, fingerprint comparison might be converted from a subjective comparative method to an objective comparative method
Making use of scanning/medical imaging technology to mathematically compare a latent print with that of a POI
Provide two reasons why human bite marks made by the same assailant on the skin of a victim can be very different in appearance such that quite different conclusions about the origin of the bite could be drawn
Skin elasticity causing distortion
Angle of impact causing variability
Briefly describe the evolution of risk prediction
1st generation - clinical
2nd generation - statistical using static variables
3rd generation - statistical using dynamic variables 4th generation - case management
There are the two fundamental assumptions in offender profiling. Briefly describe these and indicate if they are supported by available research
a. Consistency: variations of behaviour of an offender must be less than the variations in behaviour of all offenders
Research indicates relative consistency in offender behaviour
b. Homology: people who commit crimes in a similar style will have similar characteristics This has limited support
Describe 4 characteristics of an organised offender
a. Reasonably intelligent to high intelligence
b. Socially competent
c. Sexually competent
d. Underachiever (now dropped)
e. Commonly he is termed a full blown sociopath
What are the 5 major approaches/principles of investigative psychology
a. Interpersonal coherence
b. Time and place
c. Criminal Characteristics
d. Criminal career
e. Forensic awareness
(4 marks)
(4 marks)
