Textbook concepts Exam 1 Flashcards
What was one of the earliest examples of police selection testing by psychologists?
LLewis Terman used the Stanford Binet intelligence test to assist with police selection in California, this led him to recommend a minimum IQ score of 80 for future applicants.
What kinds of selection procedures do police agencies typically use?
Background checks, medical exams, selection interviews, personality tests, drug testing, physical agility tests, polygraph tests, recommendation letters, cognitive ability tests
What is part of the RCMP selection process?
Meet job requirements- Canadian citizen, 19 years old, valid drivers license, prepared to carry a firearm as well as relocate. No prior criminal convictions that have not been pardoned. Vision and hearing assessments Online submission Entrance Exam Forms package Pre-employment polygraph Health assessment Field investigation and security clearence Cadet training
How do we develop police selection instruments?
1) Job analysis stage: knowledge skills and abilities of a good police officer must be identified and defined
Construction and validation stage: Instrument must be developed for measuring the extent to which individuals possess a relevant KSA. Also must look at how the instruments generalize to actual on the job performance.
Which KSA’s are considered essential for policing?
Honesty, reliability, sensitivity to others, good communication skills, high motivation, problem-solving skills, and being a team player.
What is predictive validity?
Tells us if there is a relationship between scores obtained from a selection instrument and measures oactual job performance.
What is the most common selective instruments use by the police in the US and Canada?
Selction interview- semi structured. Has been shown to have moderate predictive ability.
When are interviews most likely to result in useful information for selection purposes?
When they consist of a standard, predetermined list of questions that are asked of all applicants.
Which scale on the MMPI has been shown to be a significant predictor of problematic police behaviour?
The Lie scale
What is an assessment centre?
A facility where the behaviour of police applicants can be observed in a number of different ways by multiple observers (uses the situational test)
What is police discretion?
The freedom that a police officer often has for deciding what should be done in any given situation
What are some important reasons for police discretion?
Police officers cannot attempt to enforce all laws all the time- they would be in court constantly and would be of little use for serious problems
Some laws do not need to be strictly enforced all the time
Some laws are vague and up for intepretation
Most law violations are minor in nature
Full enforcement of laws all the time would alienate the public and overwhelm the CJS
Limited resources with lots to do
What justifies police discretion in court?
Discretion must have been exercised honestly and transparently on the basis of valid reasonable grounds, as well as must be proportionate to the seriousness of the conduct and must be exercised in public interest.
What is one of the primary reasons police have to deal with the mentally ill more often now?
Due to the move towards deinstitutionalization
What are the 3 options available to police when encountering an individual with a mental illness?
1) Transport the person to a psychiatric institution
2) Arrest the person and take them to jail
3) Resolve the matter informally
What are the 5 main sources of police stress?
1) Intra-organizational stressors- excessive paperwork
2) Inter-organizational stress- jurisdictional isolationism
3) Occupational stressors- human suffering
4) Criminal justice system stressors- unfavourable court decisions
5) Public stressors- distorted press accounts
What stressors more strongly affect officers according to research?
Organizational stressors- especially intra-organizational stressors (the public would believe it’s occupational)
What are some of the consequences of stress?
Health issues, psychological and personal problems, job performance problems
What is resiliency training?
Training delivered to police officers to improve their ability to effectively adapt to stress and adversity- training has been shown to improve job performance in critical incident situations and improve stress reactions.
What are psychological debriefings?
A psychologically oriented intervention given to police officers following exposure to an event that resulted in psychological distress and an impairment of normal functioning. Research is conflicting depending on the type of debriefing that has taken place.
What are some of the key investigative tasks that psychology plays a role in?
Evaluation of investigative information (information obtained through interrogation), investigative decision making- esp ones that require an in depth understanding of criminal behaviour
What is the Mr. Big technique?
Noncustodial procedure that happens outside the interrogation room- involves undercover police officers posing as members of criminal organizations who attempt to lure the suspect into a gang. Suspect is made to commit minor crimes for which he may be rewarded, and then is interviewed for a higher level job. However, before he can seal the deal with the Big BOSS, he must confess to a serious crime (the one under investigation).
How effective is the Mr. Big technique?
75% success rate, and a 95% conviction rate.
What are the nine steps in the REID procedure?
1) Suspect is confronted with their guilt- can imply evidence exists even if it doesn’t
2) Psychological themes developed that allow the suspect to rationalize or excuse the crime
3) Interrogator interrupts statements of denial
4) Interrogator overcomes suspects objections to charges
5) Ensure that they have the suspects attention by moving closer to the suspect
6) Interrogator exhibits sympathy and understanding, suspect urged to come clean (appeal to sense of decency)
7) Suspect offered explanations for the crime
8) Once suspect accepts responsibility, interrogator develops this admission into a full confession (they usually agree to the alternate options in Q7)
9) Write and sign full confession
What is the REID model of interrogation based on?
The idea that people make choices that they think will maximize their wellbeing given the constraints they face (attempt to downplay consequences of confession and increase anxiety associated with deception)
What are some of the most common REID techniques used by interrogators?
Isolating suspects from friends and family, trying to establish rapport
What are some other common but less frequently used REID techniques?
Confronting suspects with guilt, appealing self to self interest, providing justifications for the crime, implying or pretending to have evidence.
What are some of the rarest REID techniques?
Threatening the suspect with consequences for not cooperating and physically intimidating them.
What are the 3 main issues with the REID technique?
1) The ability of investigators to detect deception
2) Biases that may result when an interrogator believes that the suspect is guilty
3) Coercive or suggestive nature of interrogative practices.
What are Miranda rights?
Rights to silence and legal counsel- only when suspects knowingly and voluntarily waive these rights can their statements be used against them.
What is the 4 point framework that the Supreme Court uses to determine whether a confession should be deemed voluntary?
1) Court must consider whether police made any threats or promises
2) The court must look for an atmosphere of opression (unjust or inhumane treatment)
3) The court must consider whether the suspect had an operating mind
4) The court must consider the degree of police trickery that was used to extract the confession (degree cannot shock the community
What is the primary goal of the PEACE model?
To obtain complete and accurate information about the crime in question in order to conduct a more efficient and effective investigation.
What is the definition of a false confession according to Ofshe?
A confession is false if it is elicited in response to a demand for a confession and is iether intentionally fabricated or not based on actual knowledge of the facts that form its content.
What is a retracted confession?
A confession that the confessor later declares to be false
What are disputed confessions?
A confession that is later disputed at trial0 due to legal technicalities or due to the suspect disputing that it was ever made.
According to Gudjonsson, why do people voluntarily falsely confess?
1) A morbid desire for notoriety
2) Inability to distinguish fact from fantasy
3) The need to make up for pathological feelings of guilt by receiving punishment
4) A desire to protect somebody else from harm (prevalent among juveniles)
What is compliance?
A tendency to go along with demands made by people who seem to be in authority positions even though the person may not agree with them
What is internalization?
The acceptance of guilt for an act, even if the person did not commit the act.
What is confabulation?
The reporting of events that never actually occurred.
What is criminal profiling?
A technique for identifying major personality and behavioural characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes he or she has committed. Most commonly used in violent serial crimes.
What is criminal profiling used for?
Narrowing down lists of suspects, providing new lines of inquiry, set traps to flush out offender, determine whether a threatening note should be taken seriously, advice on best interrogative techniques, informs prosecutors on how to break down defendants in cross examination
What information is typically included in a criminal profile?
Offenders sex, age, race, level of intelligence, educational history, hobbies, family background, residential location, criminal history, employment status, psychosexual development and post-offence behaviour.
What is deductive criminal profiling?
Involves the prediction of an offenders background characteristics generated from a thorough analysis of the evidence left at crime scenes.
What is inductive criminal profiling?
Involves the prediction of an offenders background characteristics generated from a comparison of that particular offenders crimes with similar crimes committed by other known offenders.
What is the organized-disorganized model?
They rely on previously solved cases to develop a framework for background characteristics, places more emphasis on rigorously testing the validity of the categories that are proposed as we as the degree of linkage between crime scene behaviours and background characteristics.
What are 2 assumptions made by criminal profilers?
1) The offenders behave in a stable fashion across the crimes they commit
2) That reliable relationships exist between the way in which offenders commit their crimes and their background characteristics.
What is geographic profiling?
Uses crime scene locations to predict the most likely area where the offender resides. More helpful to police than criminal profiling.
What are polygraph disclosure tests?
Tests used to uncover information about an offenders past behaviour.
What is the comparison question test?
Examiner conducts a non-accusatory pre-test interview, and then uses this interview to develop comparison questions.
What is the typical question series used in CQT
1) Gathering information
22) Pre interview
3) Attach sensors and conduct acquiantance test
4) Testing phase
5) Scoring phase
6) Post-test interview
What is the concealed information test? (guilty knowledge test)
Does not assess deception, instead seeks to determine whether the suspect knows details about a crime that only the person who committed the crime would know.
What is the general form of the CIT?
Series of questions in multiple choice format- each has one correct options and others are foils that could fit the crime but are incorrect.
What physiological response is the guilty suspec assumed to display under the CIT?
Larger physiological response to the correct options than to the incorrect ones.
hy is CIT used less than CQT?
Polygraph examiners believe in the accuracy of CQT and aren’t quick to change their methods. For law enforcement to use this method, salient features of the crime must be known only to the perpetrator.
What is the idea of ground truth?
he main advantage of laboratory studies- the experimenter knows who is truly guilty or innocent
