JSB174 Final Exam Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

History of Forensic Psychology
Psychology Research & Criminal Profiling
Interviewing Suspects & Witnesses
Psychopathy & Crime
Expert Testimony
Dynamics of Domestic Violence
Consulting for Courts
Treatment of Offenders
Psychology in Prison & Community C...

Description

JSB174 Final Exam Notes Week 2: History of Forensic Psychology Lecture & textbook chapter 1 ‘intro to forensic psychology ’

Clinical forensic psychologist psychologists who are broadly concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental health issues as they pertain to the law or legal system o May specialise to just assessment/treatment or both o Have clients they assess/treat, often related to gauging/lowering risks o Mediate divorces/custody; provide expert testimony; personnel selection; critical incident debriefing; facilitate treatment programs Experimental forensic psychologist psychologists who are broadly concerned with the study of human behaviour as it relates to the law or legal system o The ‘clients’ used for research are the courts themselves, or their employers, the people studied are ‘participants’ o Conduct research: program evaluation; jury selection; eyewitness/line-up issues; tool evaluation; personnel selection Forensic psychiatry a field of medicine that deals with all aspects of human behaviour as it relates to the law or legal system (psychiatrists able to prescribe medication) Psychology is a social science Psychology AND the law the use of psychology to examine the operation of a legal system Psychology IN the law the use of psychology in the legal system as that system operates Psychology OF the law the use of psychology to examine the law itself Wilhelm Wundt Germany- founding father of the broader definition of psychology (experimental) James Cattel USA- eyewitness testimony- person’s confidence in testimony reflecting accuracy (experimental) Alfred Binet France- suggestibility of children’s testimony (experimental) William Stern Germany- eyewitness testimony with links to criminology- “weapons focus effect” (experimental) Schrenk-Notzing Germany- effect of publicity on memory (clinical) Varendonck child witnesses Munsterberg USA- false confessions- father of psychology (clinical) Expert witness a witness who provides the court with information (often as an opinion on a particular matter) that assists the court in understanding an issue of relevance to a case

General acceptance test a standard for accepting expert testimony, which states that expert testimony will be admissible in court if basis of testimony is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community Challenges providing effective testimony conflicts exist between psychology and law 1. Epistemology psychologists assume possibility of uncovering objective truths if appropriate experiments conducted. Truth in the law is defined subjectively- based on who provides most convincing story 2. Nature of law goal of psychology is to describe how and why people behave the way they do. Law is prescriptive- tells people how they should behave, provides means for punishment 3. Knowledge in psychology is based on empirical, group-based data collected via research. In law, comes from analysis of court and application of logic to establish facts 4. Methodology approaches in psychology are group-based and experimental- controlling variables and replicating results. Law operates on case-by-case basis- constructing compelling narratives 5. Criterion psychologists cautious in willingness to accept something as true. In law, guilt is determined using criteria established for a particular case 6. Principles psychologists take exploratory approach that considers multiple explanations of research findings. Law, more conservative approach- explanation for cased based on coherence with facts and precedent-setting cases 7. Latitude of courtroom behaviour behaviour of psychologists as expert witnesses is limited by court. Testimony restricted by rules of evidence. Law imposes fewer restrictions on lawyers Court phases of forensic psychologist involvement Investigation phase o Dealing with unknown offender for a known crime o FP assists: profiling (case linkage, motives, staging etc.); information from witnesses/victims (how IDs should be made, veracity of testimony, issues of memory, deception etc.); suspects (false confessions, deception, interrogation etc.); staff (tunnel vision, confirmation bias, interrogation/interviews etc.) Court phase o Dealing with known suspect for known crime o Expert testimony o Clinical- competence, responsibility, intent, mitigation etc. o Experimental- witness IDs, false confessions, investigative issues etc. o Court appointed (family law/assessments) o Consultant to advocates (jury selection, jury perceptions, courtroom fashion etc.) Reaction phase (dealing with crime) o Dealing with known offender for known crime, or future unknown crimes o Assistance: offenders in custody (risk assessment, treatment, management etc.); offenders in community (risk assessment, treatment, management etc.); crime prevention for various stakeholders (local governments, insurance companies)

Week 3: Psychology Research & Criminal Profiling Lecture & textbook chapter 3 ‘th e psychology of police investigations’ Information provided in a profile is arrived at analytically and logically

Profiling definitions o Educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who would have committed a certain crime o Inferring distinctive personality characteristics of individuals through their crime scene, crime scene behaviours and offence behaviours o Projection of person in general or person at time crime was committed o Class evidence not individuating Class evidence not unique to a particular object but places the particular evidence into a group of objects (eg. Type of gun used; blood recovered from crime scenes) Individuating narrow down object to single, individual source (eg. Fingerprints and DNA; fracture or tear patterns) Inductive profiling: profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on what we know about other solved cased o Inductive logic conclusions are made probable by premises o Statement is inductive when it may be true given available evidence o Can’t tell if correct until after the fact- suspect caught and proven guilty Inductive profiles o Offer characteristics based on previous offenders and behaviours o Combine research of crime type into report o May assume research valid or representative of crime o Offer characteristics which are probable o Use qualifiers o Not concrete or specific Deductive profiling: profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on evidence left at the crime scenes by that particular offender o Deductive logic conclusions are made certain by premises o Statement is deductive when it must be true (if information or evidence which it is based is true) o Conclusions follow logically o Extension of the scientific method (falsification key) Deductive profiles o Discuss behaviours in crime, regardless of other offenders/offences o Try to outline/account for available physical evidence o Establish victimology and crime scene characteristics to deduce offender based on available evidence, not research o Limiting and limited to what can be inferred from physical evidence  Time consuming, disregards good research, involves multiple experts Organised-Disorganised Model a profiling model used by FBI that assumes the crime scenes and background of serial offenders can be categorised as organised or disorganised

Geographic profiling an investigative technique that uses crime scene locations to predict the most likely area where an offender resides Geographic profiling systems computer systems that use mathematical models of offender spatial behaviour to make predictions about where unknown serial offenders are likely to reside Classic trait model a model of personality that assumes the primary determinants of behaviour are stable, internal traits Police interrogations a process whereby the police interview a suspect for the purpose of gathering evidence and obtaining a confession Confession evidence viewed as prosecutor’s ‘most potent weapon’ and police officers will go to great lengths to obtain it Psychological coercion interrogation techniques (eg. Lying about evidence, promising lenient treatment & implying threats) police view as necessary evil in obtaining confessions from guilty people who are uncooperative REID Interrogation Model 9 step model of interrogation used in North America to extract confessions from suspects 1. Suspect confronted with his/her guilt (if no evidence against suspect, interrogator can hide this fact and imply evidence exists) 2. Psychological themes are developed that allow suspect to rationalise/excuse crime (eg. Interrogation understands why he/she committed the crime) 3. Interrogator interrupt statements of denial so suspect doesn’t gain upper hand 4. Interrogator overcomes suspect’s objections to charges 5. If the suspect becomes withdrawn, interrogator ensures he/she has suspect’s attentionreducing psychological distance 6. Interrogator exhibits sympathy and understanding, suspect urged to come clean 7. Suspect is offered explanations of the crime- making self-incrimination easier (eg. May suggest crime was accidental) 8. Once suspect accepts responsibility for crime, interrogator develops into full confessions 9. Suspect writes and signs full confession Problems with REID Technique o Deception detection: detecting when someone is being deceptive o Investigator bias: bias that can result when police officers enter an interrogation setting already believing suspect is guilty Minimisation techniques soft sell tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to lull suspect into false sense of security Maximisation techniques scare tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to intimidate suspect believed to be guilty False confession a confession that is either intentionally fabricated or is not based on actual knowledge of the facts that form its content Retracted confession a confession that the confessor later declares to be false Disputed confession a confession that is later disputed at trial

False confessions lead to wrongful convictions Voluntary false confession a false confession that is provided without any elicitation from police o Morbid desire for notoriety o Person being unable to distinguish fact from fantasy o Need to make up for pathological feelings of guilt by receiving punishment o Desire to protect someone else from harm Coerced-compliant false confession a confession that results from a desire to escape a coercive interrogation environment or gain a benefit promised by police Coerced-internalised false confession a confession that results from suggestive interrogation techniques, whereby confessor actually comes to believe he/she committed the crime Compliance a tendency to go along with demands made by people perceived to be in authority, even though the person may not agree with them Internalisation the acceptance of guilt for an act, even if the person did not actually commit act Confabulation the reporting of events that never actually occurred

Week 5: Interviewing Suspects & Witnesses Lecture & textbook chapters 4 ‘deception’ & 5 ‘eyewitness testimony ’

Interviewing suspects Polygraph a device for recording an individual’s autonomic nervous system responses o Lie detector o Assumes lying is accompanied by physiological activity within body and tries to detect these signs o Lack of standardisation  Scoring subjective  Questions differ between tests o Countermeasures may be used by suspects  Physical: tongue biting and pressing toes to floor  Mental: counting backwards from 100 and imagining calming/arousing scene Non-verbal communication when verbal and non-verbal don’t match- non-verbal better indication o Automatic links between verbal and non-verbal behaviours o People unaware of what non-verbal behaviour is and not practiced in controlling it o Depends on the type of lie as to how easy it is to detect deceit- “fabrication” harder to detect Factors influencing deceptive behaviour o Stakes high stakes result in nervous behaviour o Motivations highly motivated liars behave differently (i.e. fewer movements, slower speech, higher pitch voice, more disturbances) o Planning planned lairs behave differently from spontaneous liars (i.e. fewer arm/head movements, shorter responses, latencies and faster speech)

Truth-bias the tendency of people to judge more messages as truthful that deceptive Micro-expressions o Founded by Paul Ekman o Revealing facial movements o Works across different cultures of people o Micro-Expression Training Tool (METT) trained to identify micro-expressions o More training improves skill Interviewing witnesses Eyewitness testimony contributes to a high rate of convictions Eyewitness accuracy major cause of wrongful conviction is faulty eyewitness testimony System variables variables that can be manipulated to increase eyewitness accuracy o Justice system controls these (eg. Influence of line-up structure) Estimator variables variables that are present at the time of crime and that cannot be changed o Beyond control of justice system o Can only influence the effect on a witness; not control it o Identification accuracy poorer if:  Target less salient- didn’t given attention at time  Short exposure duration- seen for short amount of time  Weapon focus witness’s attention being focused on weapon rather than perpetrator  Crime ‘less’ serious- less attention  Perpetrator opposite gender to witness  Cross-race effect witnesses remembering own race faces with greater accuracy that from other races  Arousal Event memory memory for critical event Identification memory ability to select perpetrator from a line-up Open-ended recall witnesses are asked to either write or orally state all they remember about the even without the officer asking questions (AKA free narrative) Direct question recall witnesses are asked a series of specific questions about the crime or the perpetrator Memory conformity when what one witness reports influences what another witness reports Misinformation effect phenomenon where a witness who is presented with inaccurate info after an event will incorporate that misinformation into subsequent recall task (AKA post-event information effect) Process of memory o Acquisition/encoding when you perceive and pay attention to details in your environment (effected by not paying enough attention)

o o

Retention/storage information is transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory (effected by decay, forgetting, past-even feedback) Retrieval/recall info can be accessed as necessary (effected by forgetting, failure to communicate important items)

Cognitive interview interview procedure for use with EW based on principles of memory storage and retrieval o Multiple pathways to memory what is not available through one may be through another  Context reinstatement physical/personal contexts at time of crime  Report anything includes (perceived to be) irrelevant detail  Change perspective place yourself in shoes of someone else at crime scene (could be wrong: hearsay, speculation etc.)  Reverse order recall from a variety of chronological orders Enhanced cognitive interview interview procedure that includes various principles of social dynamics in addition to the memory retrieval principles used in the original cognitive interview Identification memory (line-ups/photospreads) o Line-up should only contain one suspect plus several known-innocent people o Fillers carefully selected based on similarity  Should fit verbal description of perpetrator  Should not be too similar or too different Line-up instructions prior to viewing o Told perpetrator may/not be in line-up (otherwise eyewitness may believe someone who looks similar is perpetrator) Foils line-up members who are known to be innocent of the crime in question (AKA distractors) Biased line-up a line-up that ‘suggests’ whom the police suspect and thereby whom the witness should identify Sequential vs. Simultaneous Simultaneous o Fillers and suspect present at same time o Eyewitness tends to compare each person which closely resembles perpetrator o Unbiased instructions eliminate tendency to pick who most closely resembles perp Sequential o Eyewitness presented with one person at a time o Must decide if they are the perpetrator prior to viewing next person Confidence malleability o Identification between eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence important (it is assumed that a confident witness is accurate- judicial system endorses this) o Accuracy is a function of memory variables, whereas, confidence is a function of social variables o Mistaken EW told that another person agrees with them becomes more confident o Repeated questioning leads to greater confidence o Directing attention to decision process may reduce confidence Week 6: Psychopathology & Crime Lecture & textbook chapter 11 ‘psychopathy ’

Psychopathy a personality disorder defined by collection of interpersonal, affective and behavioural characteristics. Including: manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity and antisocial behaviours Abnormality behaviour that significantly differs from some consensually agreed upon norm and that is in some way harmful to the differently behaving person or to others Deviant behaviour that differs markedly from socially accepted standards of conduct (word has negative connotations) Different behaviour that varies significantly from accepted norm (does not imply negative connotations) Disordered lack of integration in behaviours; results may be impairment of a person’s ability to cope in various situations Bizarre behaviour that differs extremely from the norm (connotates inadequate coping patterns and disintegration of behavioural patterns) Mental disorder and criminality largely unrelated, associating the two can lead to stigmatisation of mentally ill as ‘dangerous’/’unpredictable’- less likely to seek help Etiology of psychopathy o Strong genetic links (identical twins and criminal parents) o Physical structures of brain (amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex indicated in morality and psychopathy) o Autonomic reactivity to sensory stimuli (psychopaths have lower galvanic skin responses in response to emotional stimuli) o Response modulation effect (psychopaths have poor passive avoidance) o Environmental causes (disrupted family environment, physical neglect during childhood) Psychopathy & violence o Small amount of population psychopaths o Psychopaths versatile offenders o Start criminal career at young age, persist longer, engage in more violence, more predatory and well-planned o Offenders who engage in instrumental violence higher measures of psychopathy than offenders engaging in reactive violence o Limited effective treatment Response modulation deficit theory: a theory that suggests that psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour 16 features of psychopathy o Positive good intelligence, social charm, absence of delusions o Affective-interpersonal lack of remorse, untruthfulness, unresponsiveness (in interpersonal relationships) o Behavioural inadequately motivate antisocial behaviour, unreliable, failure to follow life plan Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) used to asses psychopathy un adults o 20 item rating scale of file info to asses interpersonal, affective and behavioural features of psychopathy

Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) a self-report measure of psychopathic traits Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP) a self-report measure of psychopathic traits Sociopathy label used to describe someone whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors Antisocial personality disorder (APD) a personality disorder characterised by a history of behaviour in which the rights of others are violated Diagnostic criteria of (APD) essential features of a personality disorder are impairments in personality functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits A. Significant impairments in personality functioning manifest by1. Impairments in self-functioning a) Identity: egocentrism; self-esteem driven personal gain, power or pleasure b) Self-direction: goal setting based on personal grat...