15

Forensic Psychology
Lectures 7 to 16
Week 4
Learning Outcome Content

Define Forensic Psychology Application of psychological knowledge and theories to all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems,
including the processes and the people

Topics in Forensics Process: Criminal investigation, Pre-trial, Trial, Post-trial

People: victims, offenders, police, jurors, judges, eyewitness, expert witness

Historical Perspectives Classical criminology

- Freedom of choice → people freely choose wrongly
- Just desserts: proportionality of crime and punishment

Positivist criminology
- factors determining criminal behaviour rather than free will
- punishment should fit the criminal rather than the crime
- understand crime through scientific method and analysis of empirical method
- Theorists
- Lombroso: criminals are atavistic human beings → not mentally advanced for modern world
- Hooton: criminal profiling through characteristics

Modern Theories of Crime - Sociological

(Based off positivism) - Biological
- Psychological
- Socio-psychological

Sociological Explanations - Crime as a result of socio-cultural forces existing prior to criminal act
- Individual differences are deemphasised

Structural explanations
- Ppl differ in opportunities → some can’t employ their talents in socially legitimate ways
- Social arrangement prevents individuals from attaining goals legitimately
- Discrepancies between aspirations and means create strains that lead to crime

Subcultural explanations
- Cultural values in a group clash with conventional society
- Eg: gangs enforcing unique norms
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Cons:
- Crimes are often committed by people who have never been denied opportunities
- Applies only to certain offences
- Does not explain why certain people don't offend

Biological Theories - Genetic influences/abnormalities as factors leading to crime

- Also influenced by social and environment factors

Constitutional theories
- Sheldon: 3 somatotypes (body builds)
- Endomorph: obese, soft, rounded
- Ecto: tall and thin with well-developed brain
- Meso: muscular, athletic, strong (Exposed to wrong environment → commit more aggressive
crimes)
- Cons:
- Oversimplification: all-or-none categories
- Physique and behaviour Correlation ≠ causation

Genetic theories
- Adoption studies
- Genealogy, BUT does not tell us what the biological family transmits
- Cloninger et al., 1982:
- Criminal biological parents → 4x more likely to be criminals
- Adoptees with both criminal biological and adoptive parents → 14x more likely
- Eley, 1997: Genetic influence may be higher for aggressive than nonaggressive crimes
- Rhee & Waldman, 2002: Twin vs adoption studies
- moderate effects of genetic influences
- slightly larger effects of environmental influences on anti-social behaviour
- 5 possibilities about what is inherited
- Constitutional predisposition
- Neuropsychological abnormalities
- Autonomic nervous system differences
- Physiological differences
- Personality and temperament differences
- Cons:
- Attribution of crime to genetic neglects socio-environmental causes
- Inferiority of some indiv → sterilisation/genocide
- Extent of behavioural heritance cannot explain group differences
- Lack of clarity in what is inherited
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Psychological Theories Psychoanalytic Theories
- Psychoanalytic theories (Freud)
- Weak ego + superego → poor id restraint
- Sublimation: unmet desires → substitute gratification
- Thanatos: drive for self-destruction
- Inadequate identification by child with parents
- HOWEVER Cons: lack of research support

Personality Traits
- Eysenck
- Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism
- Criminals show high levels of PEN

Personality Disorder
- Antisocial personality disorder: disregard for others
- Psychopathy: Frequent criminal activity + Lack of remorse

Social-Psychological Theories - Environmentalism in sociology + individualism in biopsycho models

- Crime is learned (theories differ on how they are learnt)

Control theory
- People behave antisocially unless they learn from internal/external behaviour constraints
- Eg: (social norms/pressure)
- External containment weakens → control of crime must depend on internal restraint

Learning theory
- Operant learning: learns that consequence for behaviour Rft > punishment
- Social learning theory: modelling

Social labelling
- Deviance as result of society labelling individuals
- Stigma → Self fulfilling prophecy

History of Sentencing - 18th-19th century: emphasise deterrence through rational punishment

- 20th century: positivism → focus on rehabilitation
- Present: need to limit offenders’ potential for future harm by separating them from society
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Modern Sentencing Rationale Denunciation
(Denunciation, Retribution, Incapacitation, - Sentencing as a form of public disapproval → affirms moral boundaries in society
Deterrence, Rehabilitation,
- Goal: condemns unacceptable behaviour + affirms right and wrong
Reparation/Restoration)

Retribution
- Taking revenge upon criminal perp, felt need for vengeance
- Goal: satisfaction
- Past: punishment more severe than crime
- Present: just desserts → proportionality

Incapacitation
- Reduce likelihood of reoffending
- Protect society from harmful offenders
- Goal: protect innocent
- Past: use of mutilation
- Present: restraint not punishment + biomedical intervention

Deterrence
- Crime sentencing that deter others from committing similar crimes
- Goal: Crime prevention
- Specific deterrence: prevent particular offender from recidivism
- General deterrence: make example of person sentenced

Rehabilitation
- Reform → change fundamental behaviour of offenders
- Goal: reduce future crime
- Past
- 1930s: Freud, structured rehabilitation through therapeutic intervention
- 1970s: nothing works philosophy → rehab didn’t work
- Present
- More methodologically sound studies + optimism (HOWEVER) Effect sizes of treatment are small
- CBT
- Used with groups rather than individual
- Thoughts influence feelings+behaviour → change problematic behaviour patterns
- ABC model

Reparation/Restoration
- Make victim “whole again”
- Restitution payments offenders are ordered to make to victims
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Risk Assessment Prediction
● Components of risk assessment - Risk of offending: likelihood of occurrence
Types of prediction outcomes
●
- Dangerousness: consequences of offending
● Approaches to the assessment of risk
● Risk Factors - Look out for High risk and high dangerousness → more likely to continue & preventative detention orders
● Protective factors - conducting risk assessment @ major decision points (Pretrial, Sentencing, Release)

Types of Prediction Outcomes

- Maximise true +ve and -ve, Minimise false -ve and +ve
- Two types of errors are dependent on each other
- Low base rates → more likely to have false negative
- Each outcome has different consequences for offender or society

Types of Assessment

1. Unstructured clinical judgement

- Subjective → Decisions through professional discretion and lack of guidelines
- No specific risk factors
- No rules of how risk decisions are made
- Cons
- Assessment of risks are poor
- Clark 1999: clinical assessment considered weak/ineffective
- Failure to predict individual’s future violence despite their known recidivism

2. Statistical or Actuarial assessment/prediction

- Risk factors based on empirical and statistical evidence
- Calculates risk by comparing an individual's characteristics to known behavioural patterns of others
- Evidence from actuarial assessments > unstructured clinical judgement

3. Structured professional judgement

- Guidelines provided to help clinical decision making
- Guided by predetermined list of research-based risk factors
- Risk level based on professional judgement
- Eg: Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist Revised

Types of Predictors
- Risk factor: measurable feature of individual that predicts behaviour
- Static risk factors: unchangeable historical factors
- Dynamic risk factors: changeable factors
- Acute DRF: factors variable and can change quickly → manage short-term risks
- Stable DRF: enduring factors→ modified over time with targeted interventions
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Risk Factors

1. Dispositional
- Demographics
- Personality characteristics
2. Historical
- Past antisocial behaviour
- Childhood history of maltreatment
- Institution maladjustment
3. Clinical
- Substance use
- Mental disorder
- threat/control override: psychotic symptoms overriding a person’s self-control or threatens their safety
4. Contextual
- Lack of social support in day-to-day
- Accessibility to victims and weapons

Protective factors
- reduces/mitigates likelihood of violence
- Can explain high risk but non-violent individuals

In youth
- Prosocial involvement
- Strong social support
- Positive social orientation (school, work)
- Strong attachment (except with antisocial other)
- Intelligence

In adults
- Employment stability (for high-risk)
- Strong family connections (for low-risk males)
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Week 5: Criminal offenders (aboriginal population, violent offenders, sex offenders)
Learning Outcome Content

Reasons for the Offending rates reducing but imprisonment rates going up
overrepresentation of Aboriginal - the way law enforcement agencies detect and prosecute crime (police discretionary powers)
and Torres Strait Islander peoples - More frequent bail refusal
in prisons - Higher rates of convictions
- Greater likelihood of prison sentences for convictions
- More severe sentences
- Greater focus on compliance with bail, parole and community orders
- Wrongful convictions

Ways to reduce Aboriginal National Agreement on Closing the Gap → need for Aboriginal leadership, expertise and participation in strategies
incarceration rates to reduce incarceration
- Consultation with aboriginal people
- Reforms for socio-economic disparities → help address police contact and reoffending

Ways of reducing
- Increase age of criminal responsibility
- Increase from 10 to 14
- Youths more susceptible to recidivism
- Find an alternative response to suspension in schools
- Prevent development of anti-social behaviours
- Recreation programmes
- Prosocial role models
- Stop being tough on crime
- Police accountability
- Access to Justice → Better culturally appropriate legal representation
- Community Corrections Orders
- Diversion of low/med risk offenders
- Redirect to supervised activity that addresses their crime
- Justice Reinvestment (JR)
- Self-determination: Empowering communities to help themselves
- Circle sentencing: culturally responsive, more successful that traditional sentencing
- Better care and rehabilitation in prison
- Better care after release from prison
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Why people with mental illness are Mental impairment: mental illness”, an “intellectual disability” or a “specific neurological condition”
overrepresented in prisons People with mental illness are non violent
- Arrested at disproportionately high rates.
- Less adept at committing crime and therefore more likely to get caught.
- More likely to plead guilty ← inability to be well-represented

Define the defence of mental Defence of mental impairment

impairment and fitness for trial - insanity
- Mental state at time of offence
Fitness to stand trial
- competency to stand trial or enter a plea
- State of mind at time of offence is irrelevant
Mens rea
- Intent to carry out crime
- Necessary to establish guilty plea
- If person is unaware → not criminally responsible

misconceptions that people have - Large number use insanity defence

about mental illness and crime - NGRI defence is usually successful
- If found NGRI → offender walks free
- NGRI are dangerous

how fitness for trial is assessed If there is doubt if they can

and discuss what happens if - understand the charge
someone is deemed unfit to stand - understand the evidence can follow the proceedings
trial - can make a defence

Competence screening test

- Less than 20 = incompetent
- Fakers get abnormally low score → treated with suspicion

If deemed unfit
- Proceeding adjourned → separate enquiry into fitness
- Mental health review tribunal
- Specific hearing to determine guilty

importance of treating dangerous - Pose risk of serious harm

offenders - More likely to reoffend
- Rates of reoffending higher
- 40% for violent offences, 11-14% for sexual offences
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Definition of offenders Violent offenders
- instrumental/expressive (goal oriented/reactive)
- Victim relationship (IPV)
- Seriousness (danger/frequency)

Sex offenders
- Child Sexual Offenders
- Exclusive (pedophilic, hebephilic)
- Non-exclusive (aroused by youths/adults but sexually abuse children)
- Rapists
- Sexually motivated (compensatory, sadistic)
- Non sexually motivated (anger, retaliation, power control, antisocial)

Treatment frameworks for violent Violent offenders

and sex offenders
Anger management
- Violence consequence of anger
- Diffuse anger arousal and strengthen anger control
- 10-20 two hour classes
- Cons: Violence not always caused by anger
Cognitive skills programs
- offending linked to inadequate thinking skills
- Change maladaptive thought patterns (E.g., problem solving, moral reasoning)
- 36 two hour classes
- Cons: May be ineffective for entrenched antisocial thinking
Interpersonal violence programs
- Men who assault partners different from other violent men
- Teach sexual respect and relationship skills
- Communication and stress management skills
- 10-20 two hour classes
- Cons: May ignore diversity (women assaulting men, LGBTQ+
Multimodal approaches Violent Offender Therapeutic Program (VOTP)
- Serious violent behaviour and high risk of recidivism
- Multidisciplinary team
- Psychologists, custodial staff, education and program staff
- Group and individual therapy
- High Intensity (but risk exposure to other antisocial peers)
- At least 12 months, over 800 hours
- Cons: generally expensive
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Evaluation of Treatment Frameworks
- Measurement
- Program differences
- Eligibility criteria
- USE OF META ANALYSIS

Sex offenders
Physical treatments (castration, hormone treatment)
- Cruel and unusual
- Not good if done on wrongfully accused
Psychotherapeutic approaches
- Victim empathy
- taking responsibility
- No research to show that this is effective
Cognitive behaviour therapy
- Most effective
- Cognitive component, behaviour component, relapse component

Importance of correct Risk, Need Violent offender needs

and Responsivity assessment for - Non-criminogenic: changing does not influence reoffending
treatment - Criminogenic: related to offence, can make difference in recidivism

Risk Need Responsivity (RNR)

- Risk Principle: Match the treatment to the offender's risk to reoffend
- Need Principle: find factors that related to risk → target in treatment
- Responsivity Principle: treatment tailored to ability of offender

Sex offenders Risk Need Responsivity (RNR)

- Risk Principle: prioritise high risk
- Need Principle: criminogenic needs
- Responsivity Principle: tailor treatment

Trauma Informed Care - Consider person’s history → understand the impact on aspects of functioning
- Safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration
- Strength and skills building
- How early trauma impacted offence related thoughts and behaviours
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Week 6: Eyewitness memory and credibility, Detecting deception
Learning Outcome Content

Differences between physical and Physical evidence

eyewitness evidence - collecting, preserving and interpreting evidence largely dictated by forensic scientists
- Protocols use scientific foundation → ways to avoid contamination
- Physical evidence is often ‘‘circumstantial’

Eyewitness Memory Evidence

- collected by non-specialists in human memory
- Limited extent of incorporating scientific psychological research in eyewitness evidence
- Often directly links suspect to crime
- Least reliable form of evidence

Misinformation effect Definition: exposure to wrong info after event happened → people incorporate wrong info into their memories
- Leading questions
- Hearing about event from media
- Hearing event from other witnesses directly/indirectly

Study: Co-Witness Discussion (Harris, Paterson, & Kemp 2008))

- Participants report misinformation that was previously stated by a co-witness during discussion
- Social contagion of memory
- Memory conformity

Main theories explaining the misinformation effect:

1. Social and demand factors (McCloskey & Zaragoza, 1985)

2. Modification of the memory
- Alteration theories
- Original information does not exist
- Vacant slot explanation: failure to encode original info → use misinformation instead
- Overwriting explanation: postevent into overwrites original memory
- Blend explanation: encode both misinformation and original information together → blended info
- Coexistence theories
- Original memory less accessible than misleading info
- Recency effect
- retroactive interference
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Effects of delay on eyewitness
memory

Repeated event Definition: same type of event that is experienced on multiple occasions
- Need to particularise one sentence of abuse (specific time, place, content)
- Slavery
- Domestic violence
- Child sexual abuse

- Compare memory for a single event to memory for an instance of a repeated event
- Tend to report fewer correct details
- Internal instructions: Can identify what happened, but problems identifying when it happened
- External intrusions: less likely to fabricate details

Empirical research and theory on memory for repeated events victims

- Fuzzy-Trace Theory (Reyna & Brainerd, 1995)
- Gist: pattern and meanings
- Verbatim: episode specific details
- Everytime an event happens, gist memory gets stronger → harder to recall specific verbatim theory
- Script Theory
- Source monitoring theory: memory from event separate from where we learnt it from
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Perceived credibility of REW
- The Two-Factor Model of Perceived Credibility (Ross, Jurden, Lindsay and Keeney, 2003)
- Cognitive competence + honesty
- Perceived accuracy vs actual accuracy
- Jurors most likely believe confident witnesses
- BUT confidence ≠ accuracy
- Truthfully recalled repeated event → rated poorly
- less credible, honest, cognitively competent compared to single and fabricated events
- Causes
- REW more uncertain, less confident → lower perceived credibility
- Uses more hedge words (i think/guess/maybe)

Improving accounts/perceptions for witnesses

- Some instances easier to particularise than others (Dilevski, 2021)
- first instance → recall occurs after long delay
- Last instance → recall occurs soon after event
- Using self-generated cue instead of temporal cue
- Expert testimony/witnesses (Deck & Paterson, 2021b)
- can raise the perceived honesty and cognitive competence of REW
- Enhancing credibility of REW
- Immediate recall tool → increase quality and accuracy of information
- Done within 24h
- Minimises memory decay
- Maintains accuracy
- Protects against memory contamination
- Writing down your memory immediately after experiencing an episode
- confabulate less (fewer external intrusion errors) → more accurate overall

Define deception Deliberate attempt to create in another a belief which the communicator considers to be untrue

Types of lies - Outright lies

(DePaulo et al., 1996) - Exaggerations
- Subtle lies

Reasons to lie - To gain personal advantage

- To avoid punishment
- To make a positive impression on others
- To protect themselves from embarrassment/ disapproval
- For the sake of social relationships
- Self-oriented vs. other-oriented
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Frequency of lying dependent on 1. The personality and gender of the liar
- Extroverts lie more than introverts
- Frequency of lies similar between men and women
- BUT Women tell more social lies
2. The situation in which the lie is told
- 90% lie to prospective date
- 83% lie to get a job
3. People to whom the lie is told
- Lowest rate of lying with spouses (1/10 interactions, mostly subtle)
- Highest rate of lying with strangers

Behavioural indicators of 1. Observe their verbal and nonverbal behaviour*

deception - Paul Ekman’s emotional approach
- Deception results in different emotions: guilt, fear, excitement (duping delight)
- Strength of emotion depends on personality of liar and circumstances of lie
- Emotions may influence liar’s nonverbal behaviour
- Sporer & Schwandt Meta Analysis (2006; 2007)
- Verbal cues
- Higher pitch of voice
- Increased response latency
- Increased errors in speech
- Shorter length of description
- Nonverbal Cues
- Decreased nodding
- Decreased foot and leg movements
- Decreased hand movement
- Micro Expressions
- fleeting facial expression discordant → suppressed within 1/5 to 1/25 of a second
- Negative emotions were more difficult to falsify than happiness

2. Content complexity
- Analyse the content of what they say
- Lying is a difficult cognitive task
- People engaged in cognitively complex tasks exhibit different nonverbal behaviours

3. Attempted behavioural control

- Examine their physiological responses
- Sometimes overcontrol → behaviour looks rehearsed/rigid
- Liars do not seem to show signs of nervousness such as gaze aversion & fidgeting
- Nonverbal behaviour harder to control than verbal behaviour
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Content indicators of deception Statement Validity Assessment (SVA)
- Semi-structured interview
- Criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) of transcribed version of statement given during the interview
- Undeutsch hypothesis: content and quality from actual memory differs from fabrication
- 19 criteria → more criterions met = more likely to be based on genuine experience
- Evaluation of the CBCA outcome via validity check-list
- Psychological characteristics (age, verbal and social skills)
- Interview characteristics (types of questioning)
- Motivation to report
- Investigative questions (consistency with other evidence)

Research on SVA (Vrij 2005)

- 92% of experimental studies, truth tellers received higher CBCA scores than liars
- Truth bias: CBCA is “truth verifying method” not “lie-detection technique”
- Absence of criteria ≠ statement fabricated

SVA concerns
- No formal decision rules, profiles for truth or deception, or cut points
- Criteria should be given different weight
- Different kinds of lying → different characteristics
- SVA assessments are subjective, inter-rater reliability low

Whole Approach to Detecting - higher accuracy rates by combining nonverbal and CBCA
Deception - DePaulo et al. (2003)
- Liars are less forthcoming
- Liars tell less compelling tales
- Liars are less positive and pleasant
- Liars are more tense
- Liars include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual details

Why it is difficult to detect - Lie detection has no give-away cue

deception - Othello Error: Truth tellers may show similar behaviour to liars
- The Brokaw hazard: failing to take into account individual differences
- Adequate comparisons between truth-telling and lie-telling are not made
- Different types of lies (e.g., subtle) may be harder to detect than others (e.g., outright)
- Observers have incorrect beliefs of liars → being taught incorrect cues
- Liars can use countermeasures (learn techniques to lie undetected)
- Individual differences in ability to control, natural vs trained liars
- Certain event (of crime) circumstances may make lies more difficult to detect
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Week 7: Child witnesses, Police Psychology, Victims of Crime
Learning Outcome Content

Development of memory ability Memory processes involved:

- Attending to information
- Encoding
- Storing
- Retrieval

Problems
- Stored info can decay
- Memory is reconstructive

Memory limitations in Children

- Less efficient attention and encoding
- More disorganised storage
- More rapid decay
- Poor retrieval strategies: limited knowledge of appropriate strategies → need to be prompted to use them
- Selective retrieval: not aware of relevant/irrelevant info
- Knowledge limitations: can hinder initial storage/retrieval

Prompting Children’s Memories

- Free recall
- “Tell me everything you rmb”
- produces minimal info and few errors
- General directed open ended qns
- “Tell me what the man looked like”
- more info, also have errors
- Specific qns
- forced MCQs are prone to errors (eg black or white, yes or no)
- maximal info, BUT many errors

Development of language ability - expressive language: Vocabulary, Grammar, Using language in social contexts
- Receptive language: Can children monitor their understanding of adults’ questions?

Comprehension monitoring involves:

- Identifying the problem
- Selecting appropriate strategy
- Social emotional skills
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Children’s language limitations, avoid:
- complex language
- Use simple vocabulary and grammar → don't use sentences with embedded clauses/phrases
- ambiguous
- Double negatives

Truth and Lies

- Bussey (1992)
- preschoolers can judge by intention if salient
- evaluation of goodness/naughtiness of truth vs lies is still shaky
- Don’t understand the legal implications of not telling truth
- Level of understanding doesn’t predict truth telling!
- Can children be encouraged to tell the truth?
- Conditions: Oath to not lie VS Reassured won't get in trouble VS No instructions
- Reassurance ineffective
- Oath helpful for free recall but less helpful when highly suggestible questions
- Lecturing children about truth doesn’t increase truth telling
- Making children promise to tell the truth more effective

Social & emotional development Children don’t recall BUT guess

- Perceived expectations
- Failure to comprehend reason for questions
Children may recall info BUT fail to report
- Embarrassment, self blame
- Pressure not to disclose, threats
- Perceived (lack of) supportive context
- Reluctant to say “I don’t’ know/don't understand”

Suggestibility in child testimony Explicit or implicit pressure

- Direct suggestion/leading questions
- Assumptions/preconceptions embedded in conversations/interviews

Source Monitoring (Principe et al., 2006)

- Children have poorer source monitoring ability
- “Did you see that with your own eyes?”
- Ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality
- Four different sources of memories (witnessed, overhearing teachers, classmates overhearing teachers,
control group)
- LEAST elaborate accounts were given by actual witnesses
- Classmates of those who overheard gave MORE elaborate accounts than witnesses or those who
overheard, especially if they believed that had seen it with their own eyes
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Contamination by adult’s preconceptions
- Adults can
- impose negative stereotypes
- match information to their preconceptions and ignore other info
- ask qns that reflect the adult’s preconceptions
- Preventing suggestibility
- Be aware of preconceptions
- Allow child to contradict the interviewer
- Test alternative versions of events
- Review child’s testimony and allow child to revise it
- Check source monitoring esp with older children

False Memories
- 3-6 year olds (Ceci et al., 1994)
- interviewed weekly over 7-10 weeks about real and fake events
- younger children accepted the event earlier in the sequence of interviews than the older children
- Children often elaborated in detail
- 7-8 and 11-12 year olds (Otgaar et al., 2009)
- UFO abduction story, Context reinstatement and guided imagery if necessary
- First interview: 7-8yo more prone to false memory than 11-12yo
- Second interview: 7-8yo became more confident in memory but 11-12yo were less confident
- Verbatim memory:

Cross examination
- Suggestibility can unintentionally happen in cross examination when interviewers
- Challenge child’s certainty
- Express disbelief and provide alternative
- Are confrontational, accusatory, questioning motives
- Prepare children by training to resist suggestion (Righarts et al., 2013)
- Make children more confident in their answers given to adults
- fewer changes to account overall
- fewer changes to initially correct responses
- Modifying cross examination: Child Sexual Offence Evidence Program
- Specialist judges
- Reduced delays
- Intermediaries advise child’s communication and emotional needs
- Initial police interview is recorded and played at trial
- Pre-trial cross-examination and any additional evidence is recorded, with judge and lawyers
present (no jury or accused)
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Solutions: how to question children Set ground rules to address compliance and guessing
- promise to tell truth
- Give child the permission to correct interviewer
- Assure it’s okay to not know, don’t guess
- Encourage child to report that they can’t understand

Solutions NICHD protocol

1. Set ground rules
2. Start with free recall
- Obtain as much information as possible without contaminating evidence, avoid suggestibility
- Aims to discourage selective reporting
3. Give broad, directive prompts: general, open-ended question
- Aim to support children’s limited strategy use
- Provide cues to trigger recall
- Only ask what is relevant
- Organise recall into conceptual group
- Assist systematic search of memory
4. Pick up on things the child mentions
- Use open-ended follow-up questions to clarify previously mentioned details
5. Specific questions if absolutely necessary at the end
- Use closed questions only if critical information is still needed → follow with an open-ended
question
6. AVOID Leading questions or yes/no questions
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Week 8: police psychology, victims of crime
Learning Outcome Content

Police Ethics Explanations for unethical behaviour

- Shift away from “bad apples” view
- System supports corruption
- Policing as a “brotherhood” → Peer group reinforcement & encouragement of rule violations
- Demands of “results-style policing” compromise due process
- Much police work is unsupervised and discretionary

Australian research
- Vignette Study: Perceptions of Ethical Dilemmas
- Rated how serious each violation was for:
- Typical working officer
- Typical instructor
- The department
- Personal view
- Least to most serious: typical officers, personal views, instructor, department
- Recruits rated dilemmas most seriously, commissioned officers rated moderately, mid-ranking
officers ranked least serious
- Females thought the incidents were worse than men did + police officers and instructors were less
honest and fair
- Survey and Interview Findings
- 13%-28% of police acts involve breaches of ethics
- Jr officers thought ethics training was irrelevant/impractical
- Temptations for unethical behaviour
- Sr officers: opportunity and financial
- Jr officers: emotional and peer pressure for
- Resisting temptation
- Sr officers: getting caught and being punished for senior officers
- Jr officers: personal integrity

Police Discretion Areas of use

- Youth Crime
- 30-40% currently handled informally
- Belief that formal sanctions are not the most effective response
- community referrals, resolution conferences, and arrests
- Offenders with mental illness
- Informal resolution, escort to psychiatric facility, or arrest
- Often results in criminalization
- Domestic violence
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- Recent changes in policy encouraging arrest
- separation, community referral, and arrests
- Use of force
- received much attention but only accounts for a small number of police-citizen interactions
- Proportion of UOF on aboriginals increased

Factors influencing arrest decisions

- Seriousness of crime
- Strength of the evidence
- Whether victim supports arrest
- Relationship between victim and offender
- Degree of suspect resistance
- Race, gender, neighbourhood

Police Stress Sources of stressors

- Occupational stressors:
- E.g., Having to use a weapon
- Organisational stressors:
- Intra-organisational versus inter-organisational
- E.g., Paperwork, jurisdictional isolationism
- Criminal justice stressors:
- E.g., Frustration with court system
- Public stressors:
- E.g., Uncooperative witnesses

Consequences of stressors
- Physical
- increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and digestive disorders
- Police officers die younger than other city employees
- BUT hard to distinguish if the causes are stressors or lifestyle
- Psychological and personal
- Drinking and substance abuse
- Depression, anxiety
- Violence
- Job-related
- Leads to poor morale, absenteeism, reduction in effectiveness, turnover, and early retirement
- Consequence of physical, psychological, or personal consequences of stress

Prevention and management

- Physical fitness programs
- Professional counselling services
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- Family assistance programs
- Resiliency Training
- Critical Incident Stress Debriefing

Resiliency Training
- improve ability to effectively adapt to stress and adversity
- Educate police on psycho-physio symptoms of stress
- Stress management techniques
- can improve job performance, health, and officer well-being

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)

- members discuss the traumatic event in a controlled and rational environment
- BUT some argue that CISD have no positive effects on PTSD levels
- may have a negative effect on psychological well being
- people report misinformation that is mentioned during psychological debriefing

Problematic stages of CISD

- Fact Phase
- describe their memories of the event witnessed
- discussing facts may lead to memory conformity
- Reaction phase
- discuss their emotions as they remember experiencing them during the height of the trauma
- may have a negative effect on psychological well being
- Paterson, Whittle, & Kemp, 2015
- Debriefing Condition
- Emotion-focused debriefing
- Fact-focused debriefing
- No debriefing control
- Tested for memory and psychological reactions
- Found that
- No differences between conditions on correct Items recalled
- Fact-focused reported most misinformation + more intrusive thoughts
- Emotion-focused reported more confabulated items + intrusive thoughts but less severe

Who are the victims of crime Definition: suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering economic loss or substantial
impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws

- More female victims of sexual assault

- More male victims of homicide
- More male victims of robbery
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Victims’ Fear of Crime Highest risk ≠ most fear
- Elderly and women report highest fear
- Young males report least fear
- Most crime committed by non-strangers
- constant attention to signs of danger can increase fear and perceptions of risk

Reporting
- Nature of offence
- Bystanders encouraging victim to report
- Characteristics of victim are less important

Historical View of Victims - Early middle ages: Victims or their survivors played a central role in trial proceedings and sentencing
- Golden age of victim: ended with monarchs who declared that vengeance was theirs alone
- Crimes = hostile act against the state
- Victims had few rights in CJS
- 1960s-1970s: victims have little to no support from govt
- 1970s: victim blaming became popularised

Victim blaming
- Fundamental Attribution Error: underestimate impact of situation and overestimate impact of personal
disposition
- Just-World Hypothesis: world is fair and that people get what they deserve
- Blaming shapes our response towards victims
- people perceive victims are responsible for their own suffering → less obligation to help victims

Victims’ View of Criminal Justice Victims often dissatisfied with CJS → secondary victimisation
System - Courts are slow + waste time
- Offenders weren’t punished enough
- Overlook victims’ needs

Secondary victimisation
- Uncertainty as to their role in the criminal justice process
- Lack of knowledge on CJS procedures
- Trauma of testifying and cross-examination

Response to the Victims’ Growing influence of victims’ rights movement

Concerns - UN declaration of basic principles
- Emergence of victimology → studying process and consequences of victimisation + victim recovery

Response from legislators, prosecutors and court systems

- Compensation of the crime victims
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- Participation by victims in criminal proceedings
- Legislative changes protecting victims’ rights
- Reconciling victims and offenders

Compensation of the crime victims

- Restitution: Judge orders defendant to compensate victim for losses
- Pros
- Victim reimbursed
- Helps offenders understand how their crimes have hurt others
- Cons:
- Often there is no defendant because crime isn’t solved or a perpetrator may be acquitted
- Also, defendant is often financially unable to reimburse the victim

Participation by Victims in Crime Proceedings

- Victims have to a right to be notified and attend court proceedings
- Decisions made with victim’s input and knowledge
- Victim impact evidence: how the defendant has affected victim

Legislative Changes Protecting Victims’ Rights

- Charter of victim rights
- notified of offender’s release from custody
- To be freed from unreasonable delay in the proceedings
- To receive restitution from the convicted offender

Reconciling Victims and Offenders

- Restorative Justice
- Resolution conferences
- Only takes place if offender accepts responsibility
- Consent from offender and victim
- Offender to realise victim’s pain
- Victim to understand why offender committed the crime
- Accountability
- Competency development
- Community safety

Psychological Effects of - Stockholm Syndrome

Victimisation - Trauma
- Simple trauma: single event, short in duration
- Complex trauma: multiple events over period of time + close relationships
- Developmental: complex trauma happens during child’s development
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PTSD
- Acute stress disorder → after a month → PTSD
- Crime and PTSD
- belief that the victim’s life is in danger and that they have no control over the trauma increases risk
for PTSD
- 9% of noncriminal trauma victims develop PTSD symptoms
- 26% of women whose trauma was crime related developed PTSD
- Injury by trauma more likely to get PTSD
- Only some people develop PTSD
- ASD may not develop PTSD
- Receiving high levels of social support immediately after event
- Cognitive biases
- Perceive world as a dangerous place
- Blame themselves for the event
- View themselves as helpless when dealing with stressors
- Eliminating misconceptions can prevent PTSD
- Stress vs trauma symptoms
- Stress: arousal returns to baseline VS Trauma: level of arousal sensitised, doesn’t return to
baseline
- Stress: necessary for normal development VS Trauma: detrimental impact on development
- Stress challenges your capacity to cope
- Trauma overwhelms your capacity to cope

Psychological Help for Victims Foa, Zoellner & Feeny (2006)

- Brief Cognitive Behavioural Intervention (B-CBT)
- Educate victim that their responses are normal
- Trained victim’s coping skills
- Imaginal exposure → diffuse fears of trauma
- Cognitive restructuring
- B-CBT group had greater decrease in PTSD than counselling group
- 3months after: BCBT has lower anxiety and PTSD
- 9 months after: no difference
- B-CBT can accelerate recovery

Guay, Beaulieu-Prévost, Sader & Marchand 2019

- CBT is the most promising early intervention for the prevention of PTSD
- No proof of psychological debriefing (PD) efficacy
- CBT is better than PD for early intervention with victims of violent crime
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Principles to trauma informed care - Safety: physical, emotional, environmental, cultural, systemic
- Trust: clarity, consistency, interpersonal boundaries
- Collaboration: Sharing power
- Choice: Maximising client choice and control
- Empowerment: Prioritising empowerment and skills
- Respect for Diversity: Respect diversity in all its forms