Forensic

Forensic

1. Turning to Crime

   • Upbringing
     • Disrupted Families - Farrington
       • Delinquency rates in boys living in permanently disrupted families No mother-higher delinquency rate
     • Learning from Others - Akers
       • Self-report on adolescent drinking/drug behaviour Peer influence - provide social reinforcement for behaviour
     • Poverty & Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods - Wikstom & Tajfel
       • DESIGN: A cross-sectional study
         • SAMPLE: Nearly 2000 Year 10 students
           • METHODOLOGY: Interview & data collection
             • FINDINGS: 44.8% of males and 30.6% of females committed at least one of the studied crimes Offenders of violent crime likely to be victim of violent crime KEY FACTORS ARE - weak family, poor parental monitoring and truancy poor self-control and weak morality
               • CONCLUSIONS: 1-Propensity-Induced, its a personality or characteristic 2-Lifestyle-dependent, peer centered activities high alcohol and drug uses 3-Situationaly-limited, well adjusted but offend if high levels of risk
   • Biological
     • Brain Dysfunction - Raine
       • Criminals has less activity in pre-frontal cortex-impulsive behaviour, and in amygdala-emotional response i.e. fear
     • Genes & Serotonin - Brunner
       • Extreme violence in a family. Mutated MAOA breaks down dopamine, serotonin & noradrenalin=increased aggressive behaviour
     • Gender - Daly & Wilson
       • Evolutionary - Male risk taking to impress female mate- survival value
   • Cognitive
     • Criminal Thinking Patters - Yochelson & Samenow
       • Longitudial study. Series of interviews carried out. behaviours- restless, lack empathy, want life of excitement poor at decision making
     • Moral Development - Kohlberg
       • Moral development in children. Suggests that criminals have lesser developed morals - that's why they commit crime
     • Social Cognition - Gudjohnsson
       • Attribution of blame. External-behaviour blamed on social factors. Mental-behavoiur blamed on mental disposition at the time. Remorse- shows guilt/remorse about the behaviour

2. Reaching a verdict

   • Persuading a Jury
     • Order of testimony - Pennington & Hastie
     • Evidence being ruled inadmissable - Pickel
     • Persuasion - Cutler
   • Reaching a Verdict
     • Minority Influence - Moscovici
       • minorities can influence a majority if they are consistent
     • Majority Influence - Asch
     • Stages & Influences - Hastie
   • Witness Apeall
     • Atractiveness of Defendant - Castellow
     • Video or screen for child - Ross et al
     • Wintess Confidence - Penrod & Cutler

3. Making a case

   • Offender profiling
     • Topdown Approach - Canter
       • Identifying behavioural pattern from similarities between offences. It can lead to understanding of how offenders behaviour can change
     • John Duffy - Canter
       • First attempt to use behavioural characteristic
     • Bottoms up - Hazelwood & Douglas
       • Organised and disorganised ofenders
   • Interviewing witness
     • Weapon Focus - Loftus
       • 36 American uni students. Effect of presence of a weapon when recognising face. 38.9% correct (no weapon) 11.1% correct (weapon)
         • second experiment carried out supported these findings
     • Recognising Faces - Bruce et al
       • 48 Uni students Compared internal and external features when trying to remember
     • Cognitive Interview - Fisher
       • 16 detectives from Florida trained in cognitive interview techniques 47% more info than before training
   • Interviewing Suspect
     • Interrogation Techniques - Inbau
       • Presenting a mass on damaging facts to persuade criminals they have no choice but to confess
     • False Confessions - Gudjonsson
       • Case study of false confession of a youth whom was susceptible to interrogative pressure
     • Detecting Lies - Mann at al
       • 99 Kent police officers. Asked to judge truthfulness of suspects in 54 police videos