Deindividuation is an explanation. Brown analysed data from crime reports using three UK towns – Kings Lynn, Newcastle and Birmingham. He found a significant reduction in offending patterns when CCTV was installed for each one, with burglarly down 56% in Newcastle. This suggests that when people feel they cannot be identified through a crowd, they are more likely to show criminal behaviour.
Explanations of criminal behaviour – June 08
Describe one theory of criminal behaviour (6)
The biological theory suggests that criminal behaviour is caused by the physical make up of the body. Therefore, it is pre-determind if we become criminal or not. The theory states that criminals have an extra Y chromosome, increasing levels of testosterone and causing aggression. Raine studied brain activity in 41 NGRI murderers, and found a difference in brain activity particularly in the amyglada and sub cortical areas. This research supports the biological theory.
Crime-Victim Interaction – Jan 07
Outline the effects of becoming a victim of crime (6)
Older people are more likely to be greatly affected when becoming a victim of crime. Donaldson looked at old people living in sheltered accommodation who had been victims of crime. He found that more older people had died and become dependent on other family members than a control group of those unaffected by crime. Joseph et al found that victims of crime are more likely to develop PTSD, with rape having the highest rate of 75%.
Offender Profiling – June 06
Describe one case study of offender profiling (6)
John Duffy was the “railway rapist” who terrorised North London. Some attempt was made by him to clean the scene of his crime, although small traces of semen and footprints were often found. After a domestic violence incident with his wife, Duffy was arrested but put far down the list of railway rapist suspects. They looked at the offenders behaviour during each case and fed it into a computer, eventually matching the characteristics of John Duffy and he was later convicted.
Offender Profiling – June 04
Outline one technique used to produce and offender profile (6)
A technique used is the British Approach – the “Bottom up approach” which looks for consistencies in offenders behaviour during the crime and forms psychological theories based on these which show how and why the behaviour occurred. The five factor model is based on five aspects of interaction between the victim and offender (Canter)
Interpersonal Coherence
Criminal characteristics
Criminal career
Forensic awareness
Significance of time and place
Psychology of testimony
BP1
METHODS USED TO INVESTIGATE CONGITIVE PROCESSES
One method used to investigate cognitive processes are lab experiments, which can be low in ecological validity due to showing P’s events that are not real and asking questions about them.
Loftus and Palmer showed P’s films of car accidents in a lab before asking them questions including a critical question. This suggests that due to the situation of crime being artificial, tells us little about what factors will affect us in a real case therefore less useful.
BP1
RELIABILITY OF CONGITIVE PROCESSES AND TESTIMONY
Reliability is when the research can be replicated and more information on cognitive processes gathered each time it is repeated due to factors affecting processing being manipulated. Therefore, controls will be an issue.
Loftus et al study was high in controls as they showed participants two different films, one with a person in a restaurant holding a cheque and another holding a gun. This suggests for a study to be high in reliability, high controls will be needed meaning that ecological validity will also be low.
BP3
USEFULNESS OF IDENTITKITS AND ID PARADES
Usefulness is how behaviour can be understood to create solutions for more accurate identification of suspects.
Reliability is an issue as it must be high so that the research can be replicated to give similar results, so it is easier to understand behaviour.
Christie and Ellis aimed to compare the effectiveness of recall of faces with photofit techniques. They found that verbal recall is more accurate than photofit images.
This means that identikits are not effective in identifying suspects as people tend to see the face as a whole, so results will be more varied and reducing the usefulness of identikits.
Ecological validity is an issue when examining usefulness as it would allow us to predict how useful recall and recognition is in everyday situations.
Fisher’s study is high in ecological validity as it involved tasks that the detectives would conduct in their everyday jobs.
High eco val means that we can predict how useful identikits and identity parades are in real life, and use any findings to improve their usage.
BP2 - Evaluate the usefulness of research into factors affecting identification of a suspect or event (10)
Usefulness is when the research into memory of an event or suspect can be used to help our understanding of the subject and what methods can be used to help increase our memory.
Generalisability is an issue when examining the usefulness as the sample needs to be representative of the target population in order for the results to be useful.
Loftus and Palmer only uses 45 P’s, who are all students. This is low in generalisabilty as the sample is not representative of all the people that witness car accidents.
This means that it is low in usefulness as the sample is not representative, meaning that the results cannot be generalised to everyone who is a witness to a car accident.
Validity is when the research measures how memory of an event or suspect is affected by different factors, so altering how it demonstrates problems with identification.
Confounding variables are an issue when looking at validity as variables affecting suspect identification and memory outside of our controls making research less likely to be what you set out to measure.
In Pickel’s study of weapons focus, confounding variables such as other distractions in the room whilst watching the videotape, may lead to distortion of memory and queries whether the weapon was the true distraction. This means that confounding variables affect eyewitness testimony which could have implications, lowering the validity of the study.
Reliability is an issue when examining validity as research into eyewitness testimony as the research needs to be reliable so that the same results can be found each time with similar outcomes so that EWT are accurate in the courtroom to aid investigations and prevent innocent people from being wrongly convicted.
Loftus et al showed participants two different films, P’s only saw either the gun or cheque which makes it easy to compare the effect of weapons on testimony and makes the study easy to repeat.
This means that different factors affect our memory, which may become distorted so reliability reduced.
