Week 13 - Children, Stalking, Homicide

Question 1

Factors that lead to a renewed interest in child witnesses (Ceci & Bruck, 1993)

Answer 1

• Expert psychological testimony was becoming more acceptable in the courtroom
• Social scientists were interested in research that could be applied to real-world problems
• Studies on adult eyewitness testimonies were increasing
• The legal community became interested in behavioural science research regarding child witnesses

Question 2

Preschool children as witnesses

Answer 2

believed to be incompetent witnesses because of concerns over their memory limitations, linguistic immaturity, and conceptual underdevelopment

Question 3

General guidelines for interviewing preschool children (Tang, 2006)

Answer 3

• Child needs to be able to engage in verbal conversations
• Child may need to be older than 3 years old
• The crime must have occurred after the child is 2 years or older

Question 4

Memory development

Answer 4

Childhood amnesia in children (Fivush et al, 1996)
- Young children are often able to recall events from earlier years of their life over a long period of time
- the youngest was coherent, and results showed coherence increased with age

Visual retrieval aids for preschoolers (Macklin, 1994)
- Benefit from help like visual retrieval age – still in the process of developing pneumonic strategies

Question 5

Language development

Answer 5

Language development
- Verbal report of an event is frozen in time (Simcock & Haynes, 2003)

Question format
- Yes/No: wont realise they have the option to say idk
- Better to use what, where, who, when, questions

Question 6

Conceptual development

Answer 6

Recognition task: tend to be as good as older children
Recall question: tend to remember items that are part of their script
- Ornstein: exclude medical procedure that is routine (child knows the script): 42% will recall the omitted step

Question 7

Recall for events

Answer 7

Free narrative approach tends to be better than direct questioning
- Downside: children tend to report very little with a free narrative approach
- Older children are more resistant to leading questions than younger ones

Question 8

Two factors influencing suggestibility in children

Answer 8

• Social compliance: they want to help and provide info, good intention
• Changes to the cognitive system: might misattribute an overheard event as their own memories

Question 9

Recall for people (Leichtman & Ceci,1995)

Answer 9

• Children told someone will be present when the story is being told (SAM)
• Four groups: control, stereotype, suggestion, s&s
• The control was group was the most accurate about Sam
• Stereotype & suggestion group was most biased

Question 10

Main interview techniques used with children

Answer 10

• Anatomically detailed dolls: for difficulty with verbalization
• Criterion-based content analysis: criteria to distinguish truthful from false statements
• Step-wise interview: designed to start the interview with the least leading and directive type of questioning to more specific forms of questioning
• Narrative elaboration: learn to organize their story into relevant categories – participants, settings, actions, conversation/affective states, and consequences

Question 11

Children’s abilities in lineup procedures

Answer 11

-Target-present lineup: equivalent success rate as adults
- Target absent lineup: more likely to choose a target than to say its no one (seen in children up to 14) - same reasoning as yes/no questions

Question 12

Elimination-lineup (Pozzulo et al., 1999)

Answer 12

• All lineup photos are presented to the child and the child is asked to select the lineup member who looks the most like the culprit (relative judgment)
• Different than adults (told to choose the one that looks the MOST similar)
• The goal is to eliminate options before the absolute judgement
• The child is asked to compare his or her memory of the culprit with the most-similar photo selected in the first stage and decide if the photo is of the culprit (absolute judgment)

Question 13

Courtroom accommodations for children

Answer 13

• A shield/screen to separate the child and defendant’s face
• Allowed to provide testimony via a closed-circuit television monitor
• Support person present
  -May be video-recorder while being interviewed about the details of the crime
• Statements made by the child during initial disclosure of the abuse may be allowed as evidence (in cases of sexual abuse)
• Courtroom may be closed to the public and/or media
• Publication ban may be granted

Question 14

Stalking

Answer 14

• A course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated physical or visual proximity, non-consensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats sufficient to cause fear in a reasonable person
• Considered to be a crime of intimidation
• The longest in duration, the greater the potential damage to the victim (regardless of the intrusiveness or violence of behaviours)

Question 15

Findings from the “Stalking in America” survey (Tjaden & Thoeness, 1998)

Answer 15

• Victims: 8% women and 2% men
• Duration: less than 1 year in most instances, but 11% of victims reported having been stalked for more than 5 years
• Stalker: 87% male, 80% white, 50% between the ages of 18 and 35, above-average annual income
• About 50% of the female victims were stalked by their current or a former partner, and about 80% of these women had been physically assaulted by that partner during the relationship, during the stalking episode, or during both

Question 16

(a) Simple obsession stalkers

Answer 16

• The most common accounting for about 60% of stalkers
• Behaviour that is a continuation of previous pattern of domestic violence and psychological abuse in an intimate relationship
• Victim is usually a former spouse and offenders usually male
• Prompted by feelings low self-esteem, helplessness
• Might take drastic steps if they feel the victim is escaping
• The type that leads to murder most often

Question 17

(a) Love obsession stalkers

Answer 17

• Most often, stalker and victim and casual acquaintances
• Also includes celebrity stalking
• Primary motivation is to establish a personal relationship with victim
• Self-esteem and helplessness
• Victim displays exceptional qualities, high status = will help the stalker increase their worth

Question 18

(a) Erotomania stalking

Answer 18

• Offender is often plagued by serious mental disorders, most often schizophrenia; highly delusional
• Believe that the relationship with their victim already exists
• Usually, the least dangerous
• Unpredictable

Question 19

(a) Vengeance stalkers

Answer 19

• They do not seek a personal relationship with their targeted victim, but rather try to elicit a particular response from their victim
• Vengeance is the prime motive

Question 20

When does stalking usually stop?

Answer 20

• Finding of a new love interest
• Law enforcement intervention, with the exception of more formal intervention such as arrest
• Relocation of the victim

Question 21

Stalking related to violence

Answer 21

• Prior level of intimacy between stalker and victim
• Violent threats and drug abuse
• Juvenile stalkers (more dangerous/direct)

Question 22

First-degree murder

Answer 22

• All murder that is planned and deliberate
• Murder of a law enforcement officer or correctional staff member
• Murder occurring during the commission of another violent offence

Question 23

Second-degree murder

Answer 23

All murder not considered first-degree murder

Question 24

Manslaughter

Answer 24

• Unintentional murder that occurs during the “heat of passion” (anger, provocation, etc) - (intention to harm but not necessarily to kill)
• Criminal negligence

Question 25

Infanticide

Answer 25

• When a woman kills her newborn due to a mental disorder arising from the effect of childbirth (within 1st year of life)
• Maximum sentence of 5 years in prison
• Controversial: if due to mental illness, why not NCRMD

Question 26

Bimodal classification of aggression and homicide (Kingsbury et al., 1997)

Answer 26

• Reactive homicide (reactive or affective aggression)
• Violence that is unplanned, immediate, driven by negative emotions, and occurring in response to some perceived provocation (most homicides)
• Instrumental homicide (instrumental or predatory aggression)
• Violence that is premeditated, calculated, motivated by some goal

Question 27

(Miethe et Drass, 1999)

Answer 27

• Strangers: account for 17% of homicides - 52% were reactive
• Acquaintances: 55% - usually reactive (80%)
• Family/intimate partners: 28% - almost all reactive

Question 28

(Woodworth et Porter, 2002)

Answer 28

12.8% of homicides = reactive
23.2% = reactive-instrumental,
20% = instrumental-reactive
36% = purely instrumental

Question 29

Familiy Homicide Terminology

Answer 29

• Uxoricide/feminicide: killing one’s wife
• Matricide/androcide: killing one’s husband
• Neonaticide: Killing a newborn (first 24h)
• Filicide: parent killing one’s child
• Familicide: multiple victim (a spouse and at least one child)
• Parricide: killing a parent
• Fratricide/Sororicide: killing one’s brother/sister

Question 30

Characteristics of mothers who kill

Answer 30

• Neonaticide: usually young, unmarried, no mental illness, not suicidal, usually concealed pregnancy (fear of rejection/lack of support)
• Battering mothers: kill child impulsively in respond to child behaviors, high level of family stress, financial issues
• Mental illness: tend to be older, married, likely kill older children, multiple victims, diagnosed with psychosis or depression, most likely to attempt suicide after homicides

Question 31

Fathers who kill

Answer 31

• Usually fatal child abuse (went too far)
• Lower rates of mental illness
• Higher rates of alcoholism or past criminality

Question 32

Youth who kill

Answer 32

• 1/10 of total homicides
• tend to report amnesia (not because they’re faking)
• parricide: more likely to have been abused, witness parents abuse

Question 33

Spouses who kill

Answer 33

• usually husbands
• married women 9x more likely to be killed by partner than stranger
• men more likely to commit suicide after
• usually about estrangement from partner or jealousy from perceived infidelity

Question 34

Serial murderers

Answer 34

• Defined as a minimum 3 murders over time
• Time interval varies – usually a longer cooling off period between murder 1 and 2 (1st is like practice)
• Locations change

Question 35

Mass murderers

Answer 35

• 3+ murders, 1 point in time, same location, no cooling of period
• More likely to not survive – will try to get killed (lack of data on them)
• Usually depressed, perceive themselves unsuccessful in life, anti social behavior
• Crime planned, will display warning signs

Question 36

Spree murderers

Answer 36

• 3+ murders, 2+ locations, no cooling off period
• More likely to commit suicide

Question 37

Characteristics of serial murderer (Hickey, 2006)

Answer 37

• Most serial murderers are male (83% male and 17% female)
• Most serial murderers operate on their own
• Most serial murderers are Caucasian
• Victims of serial murderers are usually young females who are not related to the murderer

Question 38

Four main categories of serial murderers (Holmes & Holmes, 1998)

Answer 38

• Visionary serial murderer: kills in response to voices or visions telling him or her to kill
• Mission-oriented serial murderer: targets individuals from a group that he or she considers undesirable
• Hedonistic serial murderer: motivated by self-gratification – three subtypes
• Power/Control serial murderer: motivated by wanting to have absolute dominance over the victim

Question 39

Hedonistic serial murderer sub-types

Answer 39

• Lust serial murderer: motivated by sexual gratification - the process is sexually stimulating (usually includes rape)
• Thrill serial murderer: motivated by the excitement associated with the act of killing - Pleasure seeing other in pain (?)
• Comfort serial murderer: motivated by material or financial gain