Forensic Psychology Textbook Notes PDF

PSY344 Textbook Notes Chapter 1: An Introduction to Forensic Psychology - Forensic psychology: a field of psychology that deals with human behavior and its relation to the law/legal system. Brief history of forensic psychology. - Early research on testimony and suggestibility:...

PSY344 Textbook Notes Chapter 1: An Introduction to Forensic Psychology - Forensic psychology: a field of psychology that deals with human behavior and its relation to the law/legal system. Brief history of forensic psychology. - Early research on testimony and suggestibility: o James Cattell experiment where he asked university students to recall simple events, even with high confidence, they were often inaccurate. o Binet’s experiment suggested that children’s testimony was highly susceptible to suggestive questioning techniques. Free recall testimony was most accurate. o Stern’s ‘reality experiment’ – showed Ps a staged situation, Ps recall. Ps testimony was often inaccurate, recall was worst for more exciting portions of the event. ▪ Concluded emotional arousal may have a negative impact on accuracy of testimony. - Court cases in Europe: o With the increase in research, psychologists began appearing as experts in court. ▪ Particularly testifying and providing insight into testimony accuracy. o One case was involving a physician testifying about the effect of pretrial publicity on memory: ▪ Described the term retroactive memory falsification: A process whereby people confuse actual memories of events with the events described by the media. o Another case of Varendonck highlighted how children’s memory was easily altered using suggestive questioning. ▪ Led to the release of a man falsely identified as a murder due to police suggestively questioning children. - Advocates for forensic psychology in North America: o Munsterberg contributed to multiple cases in the late 1800s and early 1900s where he judged true and false confessions, but his findings were disregarded in court. ▪ Both the legal community and the press were against him and his findings. o Following this, there was a lot of backlashes in the U.S. for forensic psychology but eventually caught up to European forensic psychology. - Landmark court cases in the United States: o State v Driver (1921): the first-time psychologists were involved in the judicial system. ▪ However, in this case the psychologist was deemed wrong and ignored. o People v Hawthorne (1940): a psychologist was permitted to provide an opinion about the mental state of the defendant at the time of offence. o Psychologists could provide an admissible opinion regarding defendant's mental health – further reinforced in Jenkins v United States (1962).  ▪ Psychologists argued the defendant was schizophrenic during the time of attack, this was tossed by the judge but appealed and overturned. o Now, it is common for psychologists to testify on matters such as fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility. ▪ Also risk assessment, treatment of traumatic brain injury, factors effecting eyewitness memory and jury decision making, the impact of hostile work environments, etc. - Progress in Canada: o Growing since the mid-1900s. o Less receptive to psychologists in some areas, compared to the U.S ▪ Possibly because you need doctoral level training to be a licensed psychologist in most U.S. states, but only a master’s degree in Canada. Biological, Sociological, and Psychological Theories of Crime: - Biological theories of crime: o Sheldon’s constitutional theory: crime is largely a product of an individual's body build, or somatotype, which is assumed to be linked to an individual's temperament. ▪ Obese (endomorphs) people are jolly, thin (ectomorphs) people are introverted, and muscular (mesomorphs) people are bold. Because of their aggressive nature, mesomorphs were most likely to become involved in crime. o Chromosomal theory: chromosomal irregularity is linked to criminal behavior. ▪ There were men with YY chromosomes, which they proposed were more aggressive, leading to increased chance of violent crime. o Nevin’s theory of lead exposure: discovered a link between childhood lead exposure and criminal behavior. ▪ Further research showed lead exposure may impact brain development, including regions responsible for emotional regulation and impulse control. This causes antisocial behavior. - Sociological theories of crime: o Merton’s strain theory: crime is largely a product of the strain felt by certain individuals in society, typically the lower class, who have restricted access to legit means of achieving valued goals of success. So, they go to illegitimate means. o Sutherland’s differential association theory: criminal behavior is learned through social interactions in which people are exposed to values that can be either favorable or unfavorable to violations of the law. o Beckers labelling theory: deviance (ASPD) is not inherent to an act, but a label attached to an act by society. Thus, a ‘criminal’ is a result of societal labeling. - Psychological theories of crime: o Biosocial theory of time: some individuals are born with nervous systems that influence their ability to learn from the consequences of their behavior, especially  the negative consequences experienced in childhood as part of the socialization and conscious-building process. o Social learning theory: crime is learned in the same way noncriminal behavior is learned. o General theory of crime: low self-control, internalized early in life, in the presence of criminal opportunities explains an individual’s propensity to commit crimes. Modern-Day Roles and Activities: - There’s a debate of what to define forensic psychology as. - Roles of a forensic psychologist: o Forensic psychologist as clinician: broadly concerned with mental health issues as they pertain to the legal system. ▪ Forensic psychiatrist: a field of medicine that deals with all aspects of human behavior as it relates to the law or legal system. o Forensic psychologist as researcher: ▪ Experimental forensic psychologists: psychologists who are broadly concerned with the study of human behavior as it relates to the law or legal system. o Forensic anthropologist: examine the remains of deceased individuals to help determine their identity and cause of death. o Forensic biologist: apply their knowledge of the life sciences to legal investigations. o Forensic odontology: study the dental aspects of criminal activity. o Forensic pathology: medical doctors who examine injuries or the remains of dead bodies to determine time and cause of death. o Forensic toxicology: study the effects of drugs and other chemicals on people within the context of the law. - Activities undertaken by forensic psychologists: o Psychology and the law: the use of psychology to examine the operation of the legal system. o Psychology in the law: the use of psychology in the legal system as that system operates. o Psychology of the law: the use of psychology to examine the law itself. Psychological experts in court: - The function of the expert witness: o Expert witness: a witness who provides the court with information (often an opinion on a particular matter) that assists the court in understanding an issue of relevance to a case. - The challenges of providing expert testimony: o Epistemology: psychologists assume it is possible to uncover hidden objective truth but truth in law is defined subjectively by jury.  o Nature of law: psychology aims to observe and explain why people behave they do but the law tells people how to behave and punish people who don’t conform. o Knowledge: in psychology, knowledge is based on empirical evidence but in the law, it is the application of logic and connection to precedent. o Methodology: in psychology, it is based on experiments and replicating results but in the law, it is case-by-case. o Criterion: psychologists are continuous in terms of willingness to accept something as true (with stats) but in law guilt is determined by criteria on a case- by-case basis (beyond reasonable doubt). o Principles: psychologists look at multiple approaches and explanations for findings and use statistics to choose one, but the law is more conservative and looks for coherence with fact and previous precedents. o Latitude of courtroom behavior: psychologist behavior is restricted by the court (i.e., testimony is limited to evidence) but lawyers have fewer restrictions and can present their case however they see fit. - Criteria for accepting expert testimony: o General acceptance test: a standard for accepting expert testimony, which states that expert testimony will be admissible in court if the basis of the testimony is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community. ▪ A criticism of this is that, how do we know what is generally accepted. At times, there is a lot of disagreement between experts in any field. o Daubert criteria: an American standard for accepting expert testimony, which states that scientific evidence is valid if the research on which it is based as been: ▪ 1) Peer reviewed. ▪ 2) Is testable. ▪ 3) Has recognized rate of error. ▪ 4) Adheres to professional standards. o Mohan Criteria: A Canadian standard for accepting expert testimony, which states that expert testimony will be admissible in court of the testimony is: ▪ 1) Relevant ▪ 2) Necessary for assisting the trier of fact (must be about something beyond common sense). ▪ 3) Does not violate any exclusionary rules. ▪ 4) Provided by qualified expert. ▪ 5) Experts must be independent and impartial. Chapter 11: Psychopaths - Psychopathy: a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioral characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors. o Different descriptions exist in different cultures: ▪ Inuit use term kunlangeta to describe a man who lies and cheats and steals when other men go out – they push him off the ice. Assessment of Psychopathy: - Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R): most popular rater-based method for assessing psychopathy in adults. o A 20-item rating scale using semi-structured interview and assesses interpersonal (i.e., manipulativeness), affective (i.e., lack of remorse), and behavioral features (i.e., impulsivity) of psychopathy. ▪ 3-point scale: 2, 1, 0. o Consisted of 2 correlated factors: ▪ Factor 1: reflects the combination of interpersonal and affective traits. More strongly related to instrumental violence, emotional- processing deficits, dropping out of treatment, and poor treatment response. ▪ Factor 2: combination of unstable and socially deviant traits. More strongly related to reoffending, substance abuse, lack of education, and poor family background. o Some researchers argue for a 3-factor model: ▪ 1) Arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style. ▪ 2) Deficient affective experience. ▪ 3) Impulsive and irresponsible behavioral style. o Most recent factor analysis has 4: ▪ 4) Antisocial. - Self-report measures: o Advantages: ▪ Able to measure those attitudes and emotions that are not easily observed by others. ▪ Easy to administer, quick to score, and relatively inexpensive. ▪ It is not necessary to worry about interrater reliability since only the individual is completing the score. ▪ Some questionaries include measures of response styles to detect faking good or bad. o Challenges: ▪ Psychopaths often lie for what’s in their self-interest.  ▪ Psychopaths may not have sufficient insight to accurately assess their traits. It will most likely be difficult for psychopaths to report on specific emotions if they have not experienced these emotions. o Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised (PPI-R): designed to measure psychopathic traits in offender and community samples. o Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP): designed to assess psychopathic traits in community samples. - Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder: o Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD): a personality disorder characterized by a history of behavior in which the rights of others are violated. ▪ Psychopathy is related to ASDP, but ASDP places more emphasis on antisocial behaviors than the PCL-R. ▪ High prevalence in prisoners. ▪ Nearly all psychopathic offenders meet diagnostic criteria for ASDP, but most offenders with ASPD are not psychopaths. o Sociopathy: a label used to describe a person whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors. ▪ Whereas psychopaths are genetically predisposed to a temperament that makes it difficult to socialize. Psychopaths in the Community - Most community research has used self-reports or the PCL: screening version (takes less time to administer and places less emphasis on criminal behavior). - Psychopathy has a very rare prevalence in the community. o Not all psychopaths are violent, nor do they all end up in prison. o Psychopathy is prevalent in corporate jobs – it gives an advantage in some cases as people who were higher on the psychopathy scale were more creative, engaged in more strategic thinking, and had stronger communication styles. ▪ However, they also were less likely team players, poorer time management skills, and poorer performance appraisals. o Across the globe, it is more prevalent in males, but there are cultural factors that play a role. - There is a lack of education of what a psychopath is. o In a survey, 75% of people stated their idea of a psychopath stems from movies and tv shows. ▪ Although they were able to identify key traits of psychopaths (like self- focused, low empathy), they also had many incorrect traits like psychosis. - Psychopathy and law enforcement: o Psychopaths pose a big challenge for law enforcement. ▪ Psychopaths can be charming and manipulative, which makes it easier to approach victims. o Psychopathy makes victim interrogation difficult:  ▪ When interrogating ‘normal’ people, you can play into their empathy, however in psychopaths, this is not possible. Instead, you must play into their grandiosity and need for status. - Forensic use of psychopathy: o Psychopathy has played a role in many cases, with most testimony regarding psychopathy being associated with an increased severity of deposition. o Diagnosis of psychopathy, sociopathy, and ASPD impacts court ruling as it speaks to likelihood of recidivism and a lack of treatment responsivity in dangerous offender hearings. ▪ So they may be imprisoned for longer. o Insanity defense: ▪ Psychopathy fulfills disease of the mind requirement, but it has never fulfilled the second part of not appreciating the nature or quality of the act or knowing it was wrong. o Adversarial allegiance: the tendency for forensic experts to be biased toward the side (defense or prosecution) that hired them. ▪ PCL-R scores provided by prosecution experts are higher compared to those provided by defense experts. Psychopathy and Violence: - Characteristics that define psychopathy are compatible with a criminal lifestyle and a lack of concern for societal norms. o Characteristics that ordinarily help to inhibit aggression and violence, such as empathy, close emotional bonds, and internal inhibitions, are lacking or relatively ineffective in psychopaths. - This makes psychopathy significant because of its association with criminal behaviors in general and violence in particular. - Psychopaths commit more crime and begin at earlier age compared to non-psychopaths. o But do not commit more homicides. o Also, their violence is more goal-driven and empathy-void and they target people more randomly (attack family/friends less). - Psychopaths could also detect victims simply by the way they walked. - Psychopathy and sexual violence: o Psychopathy is associated with violent offences; however, it’s not strongly associated with sexual offences. ▪ One possible explanation is that there is a high rate of sexual offending found in child molesters, who tend to not have many psychopathic traits. o Sexual sadism: people who are sexually aroused by fantasies, urges, or acts of inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on another person. Psychopathy and Treatment: - Most clinicians and researchers are pessimistic of psychopaths being treatable, but some are optimistic.  - A study was conducted to treat psychopaths: o The treatment was associated with a reduction in violent recidivism among non- psychopaths but an INCREASE in violent recidivism among psychopaths. o Because of this study, many clinicians concluded treatment makes it worse. o It could also me plausible there is another treatment option, and the one tried didn’t work. - Another study was conducted: o Psychopathic sex offenders who stayed in treatment were less likely to reoffend than the ones who dropped out of treatment. - The most effective treatment programs for offenders with psychopathic traits are those that are intensive, target the criminogenic needs of the offender (risk factors that are related to why an offender engages in criminal behavior), and use a cognitive behavioral approach. Psychopathy in Youth: - The assumption is that psychopathy does no suddenly appear in adulthood but instead gradually develops from various environmental and biological antecedents. o 2 assessment instruments adapted from the PCL-R: ▪ Antisocial process screening device (APSD): observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children. Has a 3-dimensional structure consisting of a callous-unemotional factor, an impulsivity factor, and a narcissism factor. ▪ Hare psychopathy checklist: you version PCL: YV – rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents. o A concern of labeling a child a psychopath is that there’s negative connotations for the public and for mental health and criminal justice professionals. - What is the potential stigma? o A study was conducted and found that mock jurors gave more severe sentencing to defendants who were described as psychopathic. ▪ Similarly, a study was done and found similar results for adolescents. This one was based on descriptive traits (described psychotic or kind). - How stable are psychopathic traits? o Psychopathy in adults is associated with violence, is assumed to be a stable trait, and is resistant to intervention attempts. o Several studies indicate moderate stability of psychopathic traits in youth into adulthood. o Psychopathic traits in youth may be more responsive to interventions. ▪ A study compared youth who received intensive treatment had a lower chance of reoffending, compared to youth who received correctional treatment.  o Parent-child interaction therapy: an intervention that focuses on increasing the parent-child relationship using positive reinforcements and teaching positive parenting strategies. ▪ Shown to decrease child conduct problems and increase empathy. Psychopathy: Nature vs. Nurture? - Studies measure this using identical twins who were not raised together, compared to those who were. o Measure the effect of genetics vs environment. o Also, can compare biological siblings with adopted siblings. - Several twin studies have been done and all have yielded similar findings in children, adolescents, and adults. o Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins in completing the PPI. ▪ Showing genes influences it. o So, genes influence the psychopathic traits, but can environmental factors, like adverse family background, influence how these traits are expressed? - Does family matter? o This is done using prospective longitudinal study: ▪ Study a group of young children and follow into adulthood. ▪ Only a few studies have followed this design. o Retrospective designs (assessing callous-unemotional traits in youth or psychopathy in adults and asking them about childhood experiences) have shown that psychopathic individuals report lower levels of parental care. o No single variable or combination of family background variables is responsible for the development of psychopathy. ▪ Current research is consistent with the view that there are multiple developmental pathways to the development of psychopathy, some of which involve family background and others in which psychopathy emerges irrespective of family background. What makes them tick? Cognitive and Affective Models of Psychopathy: - Response modulation deficit theory suggests that psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behavior. o If psychopaths are engaging in specific rewarded behavior; they will not pay attention to information that might inhibit their behavior. o Used to explain why psychopaths fail to learn to avoid punishment. - Cognitive theory proposes that psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behavior and inhibit deviance. o Lexical-decision task: measures how fast people classify stimuli as words or nonwords. For psychopathy, the words are emotional or non-emotional. ▪ When the word was emotional, non-psychopaths were able to do this task faster than if the word was neutral.  However, psychopaths failed to show the normal, faster reaction time to emotional words. Also, psychopaths’ brainwave activity did NOT differentiate between emotional and neutral words. o Similarly, in a blinking task experiment, psychopaths’ blinking did not differentiate between positive, negative, and neutral images. ▪ Although, non-psychopaths sped up blinking at negative. - Amygdala dysfunction theory: o Amygdala: part of the limbic center of the brain, which regulates the expression of emotion and emotional memory. Chapter 2: Police Psychology The police selection procedure: - A set of procedures used by the police to either screen out undesirable candidates or select in desirable candidates. - A brief history of police selection: o Psychologists have been involved in police selection since the early 20th century. o By the mid-1950s, psychological and psychiatric screening procedures of police applicants became a standard part of the selection process in several major police forced in the U.S. - Developing police selection instruments: o 2 separate stages involved with the development of police selection instruments: ▪ Stage one – job analysis: the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of a ‘good’ police officer must be identified and carefully defined. Can be complicated – KSAs of a good cop aren’t stable over time, different police jobs have different KSAs, and individuals may disagree which KSAs are more/less important. Typically, essential KSAs: o Honesty, reliability, sensitivity to others, communication skills, high motivation, problem solving, & team player. ▪ Stage two – construction and validation stage: an instrument must be developed for measuring the extent to which applicants possess relevant KSA(s). An attempt must also be made to determine the instrument’s validity, or the extent to which the scores on the instrument relate to measures of actual, on-the-job police performance. Validity measure most interested in is predictive validity: o The extent to which scores on a test predict scores on some other measure (i.e., job performance). From +1.0 to -1.0. Challenges: how is performance measured (which is better/worse), picture of performance can change depending on measure used, and different raters can contradict each other. Police selection instruments and their validity: - The selection interview: used to determine the extent to which an applicant possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities deemed important for the job. o Surprising little research examining the predictive validity of the selection interview in the policing context. ▪ Existing research indicates it can sometimes predict job performance, but not always. - Psychological tests: o Some of these measure cognitive abilities, whereas others assess applicant personality.  ▪ Cognitive ability tests: procedure for measuring verbal, mathematical, memory, and reasoning abilities. Research shows these tests tend to be better at predicting performance during police academy training compared to future on-the-job performance. ▪ Personality tests: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: assessment instrument for identifying people with psychopathological problems. o Used widely across the U.S. and somewhat in Canada. o Relatively low validity, little power in predicting academy performance or on-the-job police behavior. o Wasn’t developed specifically for policing. Inwald Personality Inventory: assessment instrument used to identify police applicants who are suitable for police work by measuring their personality attributes and behavior patterns. o Developed for law enforcement, slightly better at predicting police performance. o Assessment centers: facilities in which the behavior of police applicants can be observed in several situations by multiple observers. ▪ Primarily uses situation tests: a stimulation of a real-world policing task. Research shows they have modest predictive validity. Police discretion: the freedom that a police officer often has for deciding what should be done in any given situation. - Why is police discretion necessary? o It is impossible to establish laws or policies that adequately encompass all the possible situations an officer can encounter and, therefore, a degree of discretion is inevitable. - Areas where police discretion is used: o 4 domains: ▪ How the police interact with young offenders. ▪ How they intervene in cases of domestic violence. ▪ Individuals with mental illness: The primary reason this is increasing is due to movement toward deinstitutionalization mentally ill people. 3 options when dealing with mentally ill: o Take them to psych institution, arrest them and take them to jail, or resolve it informally. Higher chance to be charged and arrested if mentally ill. ▪ Use-of-force situations: Police are granted the right to use force to protect public and themselves when necessary.  o They have discretion of when and how much force. - Controlling police discretion: o The Charter of Rights and Freedoms can, in sense, be seen as a guideline to control police discretion because it makes clear that all people should be treated fairly and equally. ▪ But specific codes of conduct for police officers have also been developed that help to control use of discretion. o Departmental policies: meant to control the use of force by police. ▪ Research shows they work. o Use-of-force models: may indirectly control force by increasing the likelihood that officers carefully assess and evaluate potential use-of-force situations when deciding upon the most appropriate course of action. Police Stress: - Sources of police stress: o Occupational stressors: in policing, stressors related to the job itself. o Organizational stressors: in policing, stressors related to organizational issues. ▪ Research indicates these more strongly affect officers. - Consequences of police stress: o Acute stress (potentially life-threatening situations) can have long-term consequences. o Similarly, chronic stress (like organizational stress) can also have long-term consequences. o Physical health problems: constant exposure to stressful events can result in the chronic activation of the body’s stress response systems to a point where physiological breakdown occurs. ▪ Police are more likely to experience various diseases and illness. o Psychological and personal problems: include depression, PTSD, substance abuse, marital problems, and suicide; can emerge when exposed to stressful situations. ▪ However, there’s many contradictory studies in this field. o Job performance problems: often a direct result of physical and psychological problems. Preventing and Managing Police Stress: - Resiliency training: improve police officer’s ability to effectively adapt to stress and adversity. o Done by facilitating mental preparedness – through psychoeducation about the psychological and physiological aspects of extreme stress and potential trauma. - Psychological debriefing: psychologically oriented intervention delivered to police officers following exposure to an event that resulted in psychological distress and an impairment of normal functioning. o Revolve around a group or individual meeting aimed at mitigating emotional distress and preventing long-term psychopathology. o Key elements involve social support and venting of emotions through discussion, while facilitators educate participants about stress responses and coping mechanisms in an attempt to restore adaptive functioning. Chapter 3: Psychology of Police Investigations Police Interrogations: - Police interrogation: a process whereby the police interview a suspect for the purpose of gathering evidence and obtaining a confession. o Previously, this would be physical (like beating and torture) but now is more psychological (like lying about evidence, threatening loved ones, etc.). - The Reid Model of Interrogation: a 9-step model of interrogation used frequently in N.A. to extract confessions from suspects. o Has 3 phases: ▪ First – gather evidence and interview witnesses/victims. ▪ Next – conduct a non-accusatorial interview of the suspect to assess any evidence of deception. ▪ Lastly – conduct a 9-step accusatorial interrogation of the suspect: 1) Confront suspect of their guilt if you have evidence (otherwise hide it and imply there is evidence). 2) Psychological themes are developed to allow the suspect to rationalize or excuse the crime (interrogators say they understand why). 3) Interrogator interrupts any statement of denial to ensure suspect doesn’t gain upper hand in interrogation. 4) Interrogator overcomes the suspect’s objections to the charges. 5) If suspect becomes withdrawn, interrogator ensures that they have the suspect’s attention, and they don’t tune out of interrogation. 6) Interrogator exhibits sympathy and urges suspect to come clean. 7) Suspect is offered explanations for the crime to make self- incrimination easier. 8) After suspect accepts responsibility, interrogator develops admission into full confession. 9) Finally, interrogator gets suspect to write and sign full confession. o Based on the idea that “people make choices that they think will maximize their well-being given the constraints they face.” o Goal is to make the consequences of confessing more desirable than the anxiety related to deception. o Interrogation techniques can be broken down into 2 general caregories: ▪ Minimization techniques: soft sell tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to lull the suspect into a false sense of security. ▪ Maximization techniques: scare tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to intimidate a suspect believed to be guilty. - Use of the Reid Method in actual interrogations: o Study showed that this and other methods were used in interrogations at varying frequency.  - Potential problems with the Reid Model of interrogation: o Detecting deception: decision to commence a full-blown police interrogation relies on the accurate assessment of whether the suspect is being deceptive when they claim to be innocent. ▪ There is very little evidence to support the view that police officers – or anyone else – can detect deception with any degree of accuracy. Even with training. ▪ The decision to interrogate a suspect when using the Reid model of interrogation could be based on an incorrect determination that the suspect is guilty. o Investigator bias: bias that can result when police officers enter an interrogation setting already believing the suspect is guilty. ▪ This causes people to unknowingly seek out and interpret information that verifies initial belief, and disregard information challenging it. ▪ Investigative biases led to coercive interrogation that causes suspects to appear guiltier to both interrogator and neutral observers. o Coercive interrogation results in false confession (more on this later). - Interrogation practices and the courts: o Decision to admit confession evidence into court rests on the shoulders of the trial judge. ▪ They need to consider if the confession was provided voluntarily and whether the defendant was competent when it was provided. Involuntary confessions and non-competent tend to be unreliable and are deemed inadmissible. - An alternative to the Reid model: o Some courts have restricted the Reid method due to problems arising from coercive interrogation tactics. ▪ England and Wales use the PEACE method: Planning and preparation, engage and explain, account, closure, and evaluation. False confessions: - False confessions: a confession that is either intentionally fabricated or is not based on actual knowledge of the facts that form its content. o 2 other terms confused with false confessions: ▪ Retracted confession: a confession that the confessor later declares to be false – doesn’t necessarily mean its false or not. ▪ Disputed confession: a confession that is later disputed in trial – doesn’t necessarily mean its false or not. - The frequency of false confessions: o No one knows how frequently they’re made – difficult to determine whether its false (coerced doesn’t mean false). Need to look at wrongful convictions to estimate. But, there is enough to state that it’s a problem. - Different types of false confessions: o Voluntary false confessions: occur when someone voluntarily confesses to a crime they did not commit without any elicitation from the police. ▪ Can be because of (1) notoriety, (2) person cannot tell difference between fact and fantasy, (3) need to make up for pathological feelings of guilt by receiving punishment, or (4) desire to protect someone from harm. o Coerced-compliant false confession: the suspect confesses to a crime, even though the suspect is fully aware they didn’t commit it. The most common ▪ These confessions are caused using coercive interrogation tactics on part of the police: (1) to escape further interrogation, (2) gain a promised benefit, or (3) avoid punishment. o Coerced-internalized false confessions: individuals recall and confess to a crime they did not commit, usually after they are exposed to highly suggestible questions. These individuals end up believing they committed the crime. ▪ Vulnerability factors associated with this type of false confession: (1) a history of substance abuse or interference with brain functioning, (2) inability to detect difference in observed and what is suggested to them, and (3) factors associated with mental state (anxiety, guild, confusion, etc.) - Studying false confessions in the lab: o Difficult to study because of ethical constraints. o One study attempted to study underlying processes that may cause false confessions. ▪ Study: typing task where they purposely crashed a computer (which the Ps were told would crash if they press ALT key). They then accused the Ps of hitting the key, even if they didn’t. 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 o Made people sign confession of hitting ALT key – many people signed even though they didn’t press it. Internalization: the acceptance of guilt for an act, even if the person did not actually commit the act. o Measured by recording Ps comments outside the lab when asked by a co-conspirator. They internalized if they say they pressed the key. Confabulation: the reporting of events that never actually happened. o Asked the Ps to reconstruct what happened, they confabulated and pressed it in reconstruction. ▪ Unsure if this can be applied police interrogations because (1) real suspects have a lot to lose, (2) not all suspects in real interrogations are innocent, and (3) real suspects typically aren’t confused about involvement in the crime.  - The consequences of falsely confessing: o Presence of confession increases conviction rates – even if the confession was coerced in high-pressure environment. o Genuine false confessions are likely to be viewed as evidence of guilt. ▪ Because of common sense, deception detection, and specific visual and auditory details. o False confession taints other evidence presented in trials. o False confession wastes police time following false leads. Criminal Profiling: - What is criminal profiling? o Criminal profiling: an investigative technique for identifying the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes they have committed. - Origins of criminal profiling: o Early attempts at criminal profiling: ▪ Jack the Ripper case – attempted to use crime scene reconstruction and describing the wound pattern to get clues of the behavior and personality of the killer. Didn’t help finding the killer though. ▪ Mad Bomber case – forensic psychiatrist Brussel developed a profile by examining the actions of the bomber. Included age, sex, etc. This description was accurate then the bomber was caught. o The FBI and beyond: ▪ Criminal profiling program at the FBI was first time profiles were produced in a systematic way and training was provided. ▪ Various other units for profiling opened around the world. o Investigative psychology: ▪ Using knowledge of human psychology to understand offenders. - How is a criminal profile constructed: o Deductive criminal profiling: profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on evidence left at the crime scenes by that offender. ▪ Largely relies on logical reasoning – which can be a disadvantage when wrong. o Inductive criminal profiling: profiling the background characteristics of an unknown offender based on what we know about other solved cases. ▪ Relies largely on a determination of how likely it is that an offender possesses certain background characteristics given the prevalence of these characteristics among known offenders who have committed similar crimes. o Organized-disorganized model: a profiling model used by the FBI that assumes the crime scenes and backgrounds of serial offenders can be categorized as organized (planned out behavior) or disorganized (impulsive crime).  ▪ When encountering disorganized scene/criminal, use characteristics of disorganized offender and vise vera for organized. o Investigative psychology approaches to profiling: ▪ Also rely on previously solved cases to develop a framework for relating categories of crime scene behaviors to categories of background characteristics. However, investigative psychologists tend to place more emphasis on rigorously testing the validity of the categories that are proposed and the degree of linkage between crime scene behaviors and the background characteristics. - The validity of criminal profiling: o Several criticisms of profiling: ▪ Does profiling have a strong theoretical base? Classical trait model: a model of personality that assumes the primary determinants of behavior are stable, internal traits. There is disagreement on the use of this because scenes can be unstable – i.e., based on victim resistance. ▪ Is there empirical support for profiling assumptions? Two assumptions have been tested by researchers: o (1) that offenders behave in a stable fashion across the crimes they commit and… ▪ This has moderate consistency. o (2) that reliable relationships exist between the way in which offenders commit their crimes and their background characteristics. ▪ This has less consistency. ▪ What is the impact of ambiguous profiles? Ambiguous profiles can in fact be interpreted to fit more than one suspect, even when those suspects are quite different form each other. ▪ How accurate are professional profilers? Some evidence suggests profilers are SLIGHTLY better than non- profilers but not by much. Geographical profiling: an investigative technique that uses crime scene locations to predict the most likely area where an offender resides. - Used primarily for prioritizing potential suspects – so the ones who live closest to predicted location are focused on first. - Basic assumption behind it is that most serial offenders do not travel far from home to commit their crimes and, therefore, it should be possible to make a reasonably accurate prediction about where an offender lives. o Serial offenders tend to be consistent in their crime site selection choices, often committing their crimes close to where they live. - Not useful for travelling offenders. - Geographic profiling systems: computer systems that use mathematical models of offender spatial behavior to make predictions about where unknown serial offenders are likely to reside. Chapter 13: Intimate Partner Violence - Domestic violence: any violence occurring between family members. - Intimate Partner Violence: any violence occurring between intimate partners who are living together or separated. Types of Violence and Measurement: - Violence against partners is varied in terms of types and severity and includes physical, sexual, financial, and emotional abuse. - Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2): measures intimate partner assault. o Females are more likely to engage in minor physical aggression (i.e., slapping, kicking, etc.), whereas men are more likely to beat up or choke their partners. o Criticism of this scale: ▪ It doesn’t include all potential violent acts. ▪ Doesn’t account the different contexts or consequences of the same act for men and women. I.e., punch by men vs. women isn’t same thing. ▪ Does not assess motive for violence. - Intimate partners: a risky relationship o Less than 1/5 cases of abuse were reported to police. o Prevalence of intimate partner violence in Indigenous populations: ▪ Indigenous respondents reported more than 2x the amount of intimate partner violence compared to non-Indigenous respondents. Also more likely to be victimized. o Prevalence of dating violence in university students: ▪ Female students were less likely perpetrators of serious assaults and sexual coercion. ▪ Canadian physical violence was in bottom half of countries, but sexual coercion was higher. Theories of Intimate Violence: - Patriarchy: a broad set of cultural beliefs and values that support the male dominance of women. - Social learning theory: 3 main components – origins of aggression, instigators of aggression, and regulators of aggression. o One way people acquire new behaviors is via observational learning: learning behaviors by watching others perform these behaviors. ▪ Through family of origin, subculture, and televised violence. ▪ For a person to acquire a behavior, it must be rewarding. o Acquired behaviors are manifested only if an appropriate event in the environment acts as a stimulus for the behavior (instigators). ▪ Two types of instigators in partner assault: Aversive instigators: produce emotional arousal – how a person labels that emotional arousal will influence how they respond.  Incentive instigators: perceived rewards for engaging in aggression. o Assumes that behavior is regulated by its consequences (regulators). ▪ Two types of regulators: External punishment: person arrested for engaging in violence. Self-punishment: person feels remorse for actions. ▪ If the consequences outweigh the rewards for engaging in the behavior and if alternatives are provided to cope with instigator, the likelihood of violence should diminish. - Evolutionary psychology theory: o Evolutionary psychology: the scientific study of psychology that takes the evolutionary history of a species into account when understanding a psychological trait and what led to its origination, development, and maintenance. o Selective pressure: in evolutionary psychology, an environmental circumstance that presents an opportunity for new genes to develop that give a survival or reproductive o Some selective pressures facing humans in intimate partner relationships are: ▪ Losing access to resources form the relationship (i.e., sex). ▪ Events that threaten access to those resources (i.e., another person flirting with partner). o As a result, the opportunity for strategies that fight to maintain access to relationship resources and from preventing events that threaten access to those resources may have developed over evolution. Why do Battered Women Stay? - Decision to stay with, or leave, or to return to an abusive partner is complex, especially because the violence experienced is often not constant. - Walker proposed that there is a 3-phase cycle of abuse that occurs: o First, there is a tension-building phase occurring prior to the assault with increasing conflict and stress between partners. o Second, there is the rising acting-out phase when the batterer engages in intimate partner violence. o Third, there is a honeymoon phase, when the batterer apologizes and often promises not to engage in future violence. o Repeats itself, sometimes with the honeymoon phase disappearing. o Critics say this the cycle is not this predictable and many abusers don’t go through it. - Another reason why some women may remain in abusive relationships is learned helplessness – helps explain why women give up after thinking its unavoidable. - Most common reasons to return after leaving was for their children, to give another change, partner promised to change, or lack of money.  - Woman’s best friend: pet abuse and intimate violence. o There’s a link between animal maltreatment and violence against women. A Heterogeneous Population: Typologies of Batterers and Victims - Typologies of male and female batterers: o Male batterers: ▪ Family-order batterer: typically, not violent outside the home, does not show much psychopathology, and does not possess negative attitudes supportive of violence. Most common. ▪ Dysphoric/borderline: exhibits some violence outside the family, is depressed, has borderline personality traits, and has problems with jealousy. ▪ Generally violent/antisocial: violent outside the home, engages in other criminal acts, has drug and alcohol problems, has impulse-control problems, and possesses violence-supportive beliefs. o Female batterers: ▪ Partner-only group: believed to use reactive violence primarily out of fear and self-defense. ▪ Generally violent: more instrumental violence, reporter more traumatic symptoms, and experienced more physical abuse from their mothers compared to PO women. - Typology of battered women: o Level 1/short-term: a woman experiences short-term, less severe violence in a dating relationship. o Level 2/intermediate: a woman experiences violence while in a live-in intimate relationship of up to 2 years. o Level 3/intermittent long-term: a woman experiences severe intermittent violence while in a live-in intimate relationship that lasts many years. o Level 4/chronic: a woman experiences severe, repeated violence while in a live- in intimate relationship that lasts many years. o Level 5/homicidal: a woman experiences severe violence that escalates to death threats and ends with the woman killing her batterer. Criminal Justice Response: - Mandatory charging policies: policies that give police the authority to lay charges against a suspect where there are reasonable and probably grounds to believe a domestic assault has occurred. o Before this, women were required to bring charges against their partners. o Recidivism rates of arrested people was a lot higher than separation/mediation. ▪ But only for those who had something to lose. - Does treatment of male batterers work? o Two most common forms of intervention are feminist psychoeducational group therapy and cognitive behavioral group therapy.  ▪ Feminist psychoeducational therapy has not shown it works. It focuses on the issue of men, rather than it as a relationship. ▪ Studies show that there are varying improvements. Stalking: Definition, Prevalence, and Typologies - Criminal harassment: crime that involves repeatedly following, communicating with, watching, or threatening a person directly or indirectly. - Cyberstalking: crime that involves the use of electronic communication technologies to harass, intimidate, and cause fear and distress. - Prevalence of stalking is decreasing, women are more likely to be victims, most stalkers are likely to be male. - Effects of stalking on victims: o Most victims know their stalkers, most common is romantic relationship. o People with a personality disorder or history of substance abuse are highest chance of recidivism. o Stalking victims suffer stress, anxiety, sleep problems, and depression. o This study suggests that certain types of stalking behaviors are associated with increased risk of lethal violence, and stalking victims and police need to be aware of these risk factors. - Typologies of stalkers: o Intimate stalker: a stalker who has been in an intimate relationship with the victim. o Acquaintance stalker: a stalker who knows their victim but not in an intimate relationship. o Public figure stalker: a stalker who stalks public personalities with whom they have had no prior relationship. o Private figure stalker: a stalker who stalks someone who has no public personality and whom they had no prior relationship. - Who is vulnerable to stalking? o Politicians, doctors, and university faculty members.