criminal psychology

what makes a criminal ?

criminal psychology

specification and exam

some reading

interesting TED talk on neuroscience and restorative justice - a possible rehabilitation

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_reisel_the_neuroscience_of_restorative_justice

background

application

key research

exam info :

Section B - aplied options

must answer TWO

Ao3 questions = "Compare"

Ao1 and Ao3 = "Discuss"

Ao1 , Ao2 and Ao3 = "Assess"

18 elements

link to OCR key studies summary

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/290501-criminal-psychology-key-research-guide.pdf

Psychology and the courtroom

each question will have an applied part

reading

Collection of evidence ( from wittnesses and suspects - cognitive)

Questions can be on any element of the topic

e.g "background" of what makes a criminal

"Assess the usefulness of researcher into the social causes of crime " ( 15 marks)

or more than one element !

any question can be linked to one of the debates in psychology

background

application

background

KEY BACKGROUND STUDIES :

key research

Seggie (1983) investigated the effects of three local accents

Pfeifer and Ogloff, (1991), in a mock trial experiment found that white students rated black defendants as more guilty

Stewart J E 1985 investigated attractvivness of defantdant and severity of punishmetn in 60 tiral in Pennsylvania 8 white obsevers) - less attractive as judged by observers - the more severe the punishment was

Stewart (1980) found that in actual trials in the USA that black defendants received longer sentences than white defendants for the same offence

Gordon (1993) found that Black defendants who were accused of assault were evaluated as guiltier than White defendants who were similarly accused.

news article on attractvness of defendants:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-443754/Ugly-defendants-likely-guilty-attractive-ones.html

application

what are juries ?

activity - research the "Halo Effect" - waht does Psychology research show about how this may effect the decion making of juries ?

case study :

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/02/16/cocaine-case-raises-questions-about-how-well-jurors-understand-their-job.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232451231_Beautiful_but_Dangerous_Effects_of_Offender_Attractiveness_and_Nature_of_the_Crime_on_Juridic_Judgment

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/judge-orders-court-staff-onto-streets-to-find-extra-juror-under/

https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/scrap-jury-system.html

key research

the use of eyewittnesses (you can link this to Loftus & Palmer)

Accents of guilt? Effects of regional accent, race, and crime type on attributions of guilt Dixon, J.A., Mahoney, B., Cocks, R. (2002)

also you could research persuasive communication - for example the Yale Model

https://revisepsychology.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/1-persuasion-and-attitude-change/

KEY ISSUES

Ecological validity

Research design

Sampling methods

social psycholgy

situational and dispositional explantions

attrubutions (cognitive)

Link to OCR Key content summary :

http://ocr.org.uk/Images/290501-criminal-psychology-key-research-guide.pdf

the effect of imprisonment

some reading

background

application

The collection and processing of forensic evidence

key research

Research this example of misdentification

key issues

Brandon Mayfield - the Madrid train bombings 2004

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield

forensic scene investigation

EXAMPLE EXAM QUESTION

uk example :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16181875

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/apr/18/ukcrime.features11

-Reliability

-inter-observer reliability

-Validity

-Psychology as a

science

-cognitive bias

-emotional context

-attention and visual processing

application

Crime Prevention

background

key research

In the United Kingdom the training of a fingerprint expert involves a structured programme of formal courses, which tutor and assess a series

of competencies, including the scientific theories of foetal fingerprint development and the factors that give rise to their observed individuality;

methods for the recovery of latent finger marks; applied examination techniques, utilizing Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation and Verification

(ACE-V) methodology. The practitioner then utilizes these competencies through practical work experience. During their progression to ‘‘expert’’

status the practitioner’s work is constantly peer reviewed and assessed. The training process requires the achievement and demonstration

of competence before a practitioner is deemed proficient to give fingerprint evidence in a court of law. It is accepted that an expert in any

discipline, as opposed to a novice, is able to demonstrate their increased competencies and cognitive processing skills, which have been

enhanced with extensive training and practice.

Dorr et al., 2005, gave university research students either good quality or incomplete, poor quality fingerprints to study. They were also given

emotional stimuli deemed low level (case details pertaining to a theft) or high level (case details pertaining to a murder). The latter was

accompanied by disturbing photographic images of the victim. Some volunteers were also subjected to subliminal messages stating ‘‘guilty’’ or

the ‘‘same’’, during their initial analysis. The results showed that the volunteers were affected by the emotional context and this interfered with

their decisions, making them more likely to make matches or identifications when analysing poor quality or ambiguous pairs of fingerprints.

The protocol employed by the Metropolitan Police Service for the identification of fingerprints involves providing the fingerprint examiner

with a copy of the crime scene examination report, which details the nature of the crime but it does not provide any photographic images of

the crime scene. Hall and Player thought it was important to ascertain if the normal working practices employed by the Metropolitan Police

Fingerprint Bureau introduce an emotional bias. They therefore designed an experiment to test the effect of context on fingerprint identification

by fingerprint experts

background

key debates :

reading

Will the introduction of an emotional context affect fingerprint analysis and decision-making?

Hall, L. J. & Player, E. (2008),

key issues :

reliablity

validity (of crime statistics)

Quantitiative data

ethics and socially sensitive research

usefulness

free will

situational and individual

4)

uses of zero-tollerance policing :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14536173

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14531650

key terms :

fingerprints

fingermark or latent mark

forensic scene evidence

comparison print

ridge details ( of prints)

what is a fingerprint ?

The independent variable (IV) was whether the participant was allocated to the low-context or the high-context group and the dependent

variables (DVs) were (a) whether the participant read the crime scene examination report prior to examining the fingerprint; (b) whether the

participant considered the finger mark was (i) identification – a match, (ii) not an identification – not a match, (iii) insufficient – not enough

detail to undertake a comparison, (iv) insufficient detail to establish identity, some detail in agreement but not enough to individualise; (c)

whether the participant would be confident to present the fingerprint as evidence at court.

• The experiment used an independent measures design.

3) Crime Prevention through environmental design / Wilson and Kelling - Broken Windows

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention_through_environmental_design

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/_atlantic_monthly-broken_windows.pdf

2) Newman - defensibe space

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensible_space_theory

http://psychyogi.org/hall-player-2008-fingerprint-analysis/

are fingerprints reliable ?

activities

1)read study on line or in text book

2) Relay acvivity ( delivery gudie pg 13)

1) traditional p0licing and foot patrols

http://www.policefoundation.co/content/newark-foot-patrol-experiment

take class fingerprints :- http://www.instructables.com/id/Get-your-fingerprint/

application

"safe and clean neighbourhood" program - 28 USA cities 1970s)

key research

Brown 1995 - CCTV and Surveillance in uk cities

The police and neighbourhood safety: Broken windows Wilson, J. Q. & Kelling, G. L. (1982

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/home-and-neighborhood-safety

links :

http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/

|Gladwell interviewed by Jon Ronson - discusses his more recent thoughts on zero tollerance :

criticism

http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/broken.pdf