Strategies for Criminal Psychology Flashcards
Plastic Surgery for Prisoners
One strategy that a psychologist could suggest is to advise prisoners who have facial defects that seem criminal or less evolved to have plastic surgery. The psychologist could suggest to promotes plastic surgery within prisons which have high recidivism rates, allowing any inmates who have facial defects to have corrective surgery. They could invite plastic surgeons and a previous inmate to the prisons to talk the prisoners about what the procedure entails, the benefits of the surgery, the recovery time and how it makes the prisoner feel afterwards to allow prisoners to make a fully informed decision. They could include evidence from Lewison in his promotion showing that it can lead to improved confidence and that people are more likely to engage in a trade. They could send doctors into the prisons to promote the safety of such procedures and allow prisoners to sign up if they want to. Research such as Lewison’s shows that plastic surgery can be effective in preventing future crimes; he observed the impact of plastic surgery on inmates in a British Columbian prison over a 10-year period and found the recidivism rates of the prison had reduced from 75% for the general prison population to 42% for those who had surgery, thus demonstrating that you could reduce reoffending by introducing plastic surgery into prisons.
Dietary Intervention
One biological strategy the psychologist could suggest is to improve the diets of prisoners/other people and encourage them to live a healthier and more cognitively stimulating lifestyle. For example, they could introduce health schemes which encourage the prisoners/people to regularly eat omega 3 fish oil and incorporate this and other healthy foods such as vegetables into their diet. They could set up weekly diet plans or a food chart to ensure they take a spoonful of fish oil every morning. The psychologist could explain that fish oil improves brain function and structure, and could work towards repairing any damage to the pre-frontal cortex. This could be combined with regular exercise each week and cognitive stimulation to improve the people’s brain activity e.g. through reading groups/encouraging them to achieve qualifications in prison/brain training exercises. Research conducted by Raine with 231 young English prisoners showed that taking omega-3 fatty acids-containing nutritional supplements, for at least 2 weeks, was associated with a 35% reduction in offences after 5 months, which will therefore reduce the risk of people engaging in criminal behaviour in the future.
Health Programmes for Pregnant Women
One strategy a psychologist could suggest is that for any pregnant women in families they could promote the importance of health schemes for these women to avoid pre-disposing their child to aggressive behaviour. They could run weekly sessions with pregnant women at local GPs or mothers’ groups, educating them on risk factors to their child e.g smoking and drinking during pregnancy and the impact this has on brain development of their baby. They could give strategies to nurture early development through antenatal classes where women can learn how to stay healthy during pregnancy. Such early maternal care could be offered to families where their children are more at risk and they could monitor attendance of families. This suggestion is based on Raine’s research where he found a range of biosocial risk factors for anti-social and criminal behaviour: Children of mothers that smoke during pregnancy have a three-fold risk of becoming violent offenders, this means that this suggestion would be highly effective for families to reduce future criminal activity in any new born children.
Sequential Unmasking
Falsification Techniques
Training in ACE-V Methodology
Effective Training in Cognitive Interview
Encouragement of the Context Reinstatement Stage
Improvement to Interrogation Techniques (the Reid Technique)
Improvement to Interrogation Techniques (PEACE method)
Impression Management
Witness familiarisation
Defensible spaces
Increase CCTV
Increase risk of detection
Controlled access
Restorative Justice System
Anger Management
Employment focused programmes
