Suspicious Behaviour Flashcards
How do we define suspicious behaviour?
• Suspicious behaviour may be verbal or nonverbal.
• But is usually referring to actions or demeanour rather than words.
• There are many things that could be taken to be suspicious.
• And they may be indicators of a range of things: concealment of intent, aggression, nervousness, etc.
• Or they may not…
• How can we define what is actually suspicious behaviour?
• Often it is a subjective judgement based on
A) appearances and
B) the judge’s preconceptions/knowledge
How can we define base rates of ‘normal’ behaviour?
Make statements on what is expected behaviour - ie sitting while a plane is taxing, sterile zones etc
Observational trials to understand how poeple move in crowds, what they pack to go on holiday etc. then identify ways of seeing when these ‘norms’ are being breached
How do we decide what is unusual for a setting?
Punk gig vs classical recital
Is unusual necessarily suspicious or is there more to it?
no, could be a indicator of someone with mental health issues - autism, ADD, or faulty scripting reverting them to a different course of action
What is the biggest issue with detecting anomalous behaviour?
has a big problem with false positives.
What is the relationship between suspicious, deceptive and nervous behaviour?
they overlap, in some situations and circumstances, quite significantly
How are terrorist attacks foiled?
Surveillance and
significant proportion form public tip offs
Why are suspicious things not necessarily reported
Not seen as suspicious
Not wanting to cause undue disruption to self or others
Seen as wasting police time
Not wanting to talk to other passengers to clarify whether a bag is abandoned (parsons green bombing)
How can we get more reporting on suspicious events?
Education - adverts on public transport highlighting some things that might need reporting eg abandoned bags
Easy reporting mechanism - crimestoppers, 101 etc
Downsides for increased awareness?
encourage fear? some political parties may see this as a feature not a bug, allows more authoritarian polices/legislation, playing down terrorism and attack occurs - they are naieve, play up threat and nothing happens, their polices are working
What is the bystander effect?
the hypothesis that the more people present, the less likely anyone will help.
Is the bystander effect important?
If it exists yes, but there is significant critical literature building that it does not exist, particularly in the way it was originally hypothesised as being people reluctant to help someone being murdered.
Most experiments require confederates who are instructed to ignore emergency situations (eg smoke), so you are testing whether someone is going to ignore danger indicators when all around are doing the same. This is potentially not a real world test of peoples behaviours.
How can the bystander effect be overcome?
increasing social responsibility
reminding people of the social norms
eg nudge theory and tax returns
3 Types of ‘anomalous’ behaviour
suspicious
nervous
deceptive
How can you generate rules for behaviour?
use expert knowledge - Tsung-Yuan et al 2009 - boat navigation to identify behaviours of suspicion
Experimental - but can only test simple conditions, cannot replicate emergencies etc
observation - good for real world data, but difficult to get information about what was happening with suspicious behaviour if any is observed
