Psychology and Law Module (Psy 403

PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW MODULE (PSY 403

Course outline

Course Aim: This course has been designed to give an introduction to the ideas, methods and content of psychology and Law. It focuses on the study of the behavior of people within the legal system including offenders, witnesses, victims, police judges, magistrates, prisoners and prison staff. It is an important area because of the growing importance and involvement of of psychologists in forensic issues The course aims to explore the interface of psychology and law. Major focus will be on the psychological underpinning of legislation, common law and the administration of justice. Students will also gain an awareness of the ways in which the law functions to regulate the practice of psychology.

Course Objectives:

Students shall demonstrate:

 A comprehension of psychology and law as a content area.

 An understanding of major concepts and historical trends in psychology and law, and knowledge of the theoretical and empirical bases underpinning evidence and approaches to psychological intervention

 An understanding of the relationship between psychology and the law

 A command of the methods of psycho-legal research and writing

 Knowledge and explanation of how the field of psychology and Law is influenced by social, historical, cultural and ethical contexts

 A comprehension of the methods of psycho-legal problem analysis

 The ability to critically analyse and relate psych-legal theories to real life situations

TOPICS

Introduction and overview of Psychology and Law

 What is Psychology and Law

 Psychologists and the Legal system

 Differences between psychology and law

 Ethics vs Law

 Roles of psychologists working in psychology and law

1 Understanding the legal process and the administration of justice

 Legal systems in general

 The Zimbabwean situation

 Players in the Legal system

 The role of the executive branch in the administration of Justice; the police and the criminal justice system

Etiology of Crime

 Models of crime and crime prevention

 Theories of crime and deviance: biological, psychological and sociological

Violence and Aggression: Theories, typologies, and Risk Assessment

Violent and sexual offenders: Assessment Issues

Criminal Profiling, interviewing/interrogation, Entrapment, Eye-witness testimony

 Crime Investigation(Witnesses)

 Eye witness testimony

 Problems of memory

 Detecting deception

Legally sound Forensic interviewing and biopsychosocial evaluations

 Insanity Defense and competence to stand trial

 Expert witness testimony

 Forensic Assessment in criminal cases

Crime Intervention and treatment vs Rehabilitation

 Matching causal theories with the theories of intervention

 Punishment and sentencing

 The Zimbabwe prison system

Child Custody Evaluations, civil competency and disability; Forensic assessment in civil cases Special Role of the jury, Jury selection, Death qualified juries

Psychology of Victims and the Rights of special Groups

Wrightsman, L.S., Grene, E., Nietzel, M.T. and Fortune, W.H. (2002) Introduction to Forensic Psychology and the Legal system(5 th. Ed.) Woodworth, Belmont

Wrightsman, L. S. (2011) Forensic Psychology Thompson Learning

Fritzon, K. & Wilson, P. (2008) Forensic Psychology and Criminology: An Australian Perspective, Sidney, McGraw Hill

Hanson, R. K., Broom, I., and Stephenson, M. (2004) Evaluating community sex offender treatment programmes and 12 year follow-up of 724 Offenders. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 36(2) 87- 96

Chappel, D. Wilson, P. (2005) Issues in Australian Crime and Criminal Psychology, Sidney, Butterworth

Kapardis,A., 2003. Psychology and Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Howitt, D. (2006) Forensic and Criminal psychology, Sydney, Pearson and Prentice Hall

Arrrigo, B.A. (2000) Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Issues and Controversies in Crime and Justice, San Diego CA: Academic Press

McGuire,J. Mason,T. and O’Kane,A (eds) (2000). Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes: A Guide for Forensic Practitioners. Chichester: Wiley

Melton,G. B., Monahan,J. and Saks, M. J. (1987) Psychologists as Law Professors. American Psychologist, 42,502-9

3 Introduction

Traditionally psychology has been viewed as a rather simplistic and conservative contributor to our understanding of crime, mainly because of its emphasis on individual pathology., its reliance on positivism and an apparent neglect of possible social factors in the construction of criminal matters. Contemporary psychology has a lot to offer to the understanding of psychology and law in a practical sense: crime scene analysis and offender profiling to assist the police in crime detection: training police officers to interview witnesses; assessing the dangerousness of convicted offenders in order to determine the possibility of release; and the development of treatment programmes for targeted groups of offenders. Psychological views of crime have tended to focus more on individual factors at the expense of sociological factors. Psychological explanations of crime for example seem to concentrate on the individual, with an emphasis on the physical, physiological, and personality factors , all of which can lead to a pathological view of the causation of crime. On the contrary sociological explanations of crime have emphasized environmental and cultural factors eg. Poverty and deprivation, discriminatory police practices etc.

What is Psychology and Law Anyway?

Some people will use forensic psychology and psychology and Law interchangeably. Brigham (1999), in an article covered in the periodical, Law and Human Behaviour, Vol. 23 Number 3,givesthe following view of forensic psychology that he borrows from the Committee on Ethical Guidelines of the American Psychology – Law Society:

The field that covers all forms of professional conduct when acting, with definable knowledge, as a psychological experton explicitly psychological issues in direct assistance to courts, parties to legal proceedings, correctional and forensic mental health facilities, and administrative, judicial, and legislative agencies acting in a judicial capacity” (1991, P.657)

The American Board of Forensic Psychology on its website in 1968 define it as “the application of science and profession of law to to questions and issues relating to psychology and the legal system”

Bartol and Bartol (1987, P.3) state,

“we view forensic psychology broadly as both i) the research endeavour that examines aspects of human behavior directly related to the legal process…. and ii) the professional practice of psychology within, or in consultation with, a legal system that embraces both civil and criminal law”

Some will simply view forensic psychology as a clinical practice within the legal system. Psychologists seem to differ on what exactly this field should deal with, for example psychologists in prisons or correctional services may view forensic psychology in terms of rehabilitation psychology, clinical psychologists in terms of pathology of crime, educational psychologists mat treat it an a way of educating people to prevent crimes and also in terms of the various forms of assessments needed for forensic purposes while occupational and academic psychologists might view it in a totally different way. However it should be borne in mind that all types of psychology contribute to the practice of forensic psychology.

Howard and Blackburn’s conception of Forensic Psychology

Howard (1981) viewed forensic psychology as the branch of applied psychology which is concerned with the collection, evaluation and presentation of evidence for judicial purposes

Blackburn (1996) contends that forensic psychology is all about “ the provision of psychological information for the purpose of facilitating a legal decision”

Conlusion

In essence forensic psychology refers to the application of psychology within a legal context. The debate as to what is and what is not forensic psychology relates to the nature of this legal application and the level at which it is applied. And this debate raises a number of questions:

 What are the boundaries of forensic psychology?

 What are the actual roles of a forensic psychologist?

 What is the credibility of forensic psychology as a discipline of study and practice?

Forensic psychology involves the study of the behavior of people within the legal system, including offenders, witnesses, victims, police, judges, negotiators, prisoners and prison staff. It is an important area because of the growing importance of and involvement of psychologists in forensic issues such as theories of crime, and deliquency, the role of drugs, penal theories and practices and techniques for intervention and prevention.

Related Terms

Legal Psychology: The application of psychology’s methodologies and knowledge to the study of jurisprudence, substantive law, legal processes and law breking (Farrington et al, 1979)

Forensic: Application of psychological knowledge to the procedures of courts of law and issues related to the police investigations eg. Police interrogations, assessment of evidence by witnesses (Bartol and Bartol, (1997).

Criminology: The study of laws, which define crimes and the means by which society seeks to control and prevent them (Blackburn, 1997)

Criminological Psychology- The study of the psychological concepts of criminal behavior and the application of psychological principles and methods to interventions with the offenders

5 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW

The Marriage between psychology and law is widely accepted in most developed countries and it is beginning to be appreciated in the developing world.

Scholars in the psycho-legal world suggest the following similarities between psychology and law:

1. Focus on human behavior at an individual level eg. What motivates certain behaviours is a concern and what are the consequences of certain behaviours is a mutual concern (Carson, 1995)

2. Both psychology and law are concerned with explaining, predicting and controlling human behavior (Yarney, 1979)

3. The disciplines all agree that human behavior is not random nor accidental – there are reasons for people to behave in particular ways

Differences

1. View of Man’s Behaviour

Psychology believes that behaviouris influenced and determined by a number of factors

 Conscious factors

 Unconscious motives

 Uncontrollable factors beyond our reach

Law on the other hand view individuals as directly responsible for their behavior and as such individuals must be held accountable for their actions (free will concept)

2. Source of Information

Psychology’s source of information tend to be more scientific and based on empirical research ( explanations, replication, observations ans statistical inferences). Sources of information in law are clinical, diagnostic processes based on common sense.

3. Bases of Evidence/Proof

For psychology evidence should be based on empirical research data. However for law evidence or proof is based on close subjective scrutiny that establishes regularity of patterns

4. View of the Nature of Man Psychology believes that human beings are by nature good and nice and are driven into committing crimes by their individual circumstances. Lawon the contrary hasa cynical view of human nature

Other Differences Raised by Karpadis (2003)

 Law stresses conservatism while psychology stresses creativity

 Law is authoritative while psychology is empirical

 Law relies on adversarial processes and psychology relies more on explainations

 Law is prescriptive whereas psychology is descriptive

 Law is idiographic while psychology is nomothetic

 Law emphasizes certainty and psychology is probabilistic

 Law is reactive as psychology is proactive

 Law is operational while psychology is academic

 The law seeks justice contrary to psychology that seeks scientific truth

The Future of the Relationship between psychology and Law

 The marriage between psychology and law is a shaky one and needs strengthening

 Conflicts, misunderstandings, accusations and counteraccusations are likely to develop

 Improved communication is much needed if both parties are to derive any benefits from the relationship. According to Farrington, (1979) the two fields must try and share information at the following critical levels; premises, methods, and values. Efforts to bridge the gap between the two can be better achieved selling psychological findings to the legal profession.

 Carson suggests that the way forward should be “ collaboration focused upon change”

WHAT ARE FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS INVOLVED IN?

Among others forensic psychologists are involved in the following:

 Psychological evaluation

7  Neuropsychological testing

 Expert witness testimony during criminal, family, juvenile and court proceedings

 Applied and clinical facets of psychology and law

 Assist the jury or judges in deciding over custody issues of children

 Evaluation of victims of accidents to determine if they sustained any psychological or neurological damage

 Evaluation of a defendant’s or complainant’s competence to stand trial

 Counseling of inmates or probationers or victims of crime

 Help the above groups to cope with emotional distress and resume their normal activities

 Helping people in preparation to testify before a court of law

 Management of risk or danger

 Work with life sentenced prisoners

 Develop and deliver staff training and offender rehabilitation programmes

 Conduct research and analysis of data

Skills Needed by Forensic Psychologists

 Ability to analyse details and write technical documents

 Ability to interpret research

 Ability to observe and analyse

 Strong interpersonal communication skills and sensitivity to others

 Ability to mediate and contribute policy or programme guidelines

 Report-writing skills

 Ability to maintain the highest ethical standards

 Liaison with other professionals and paraprofessionals

Professional Careers for people with Psychology and Law Qualifications

Those with PhDs or DPhil. Qualifications can work in:  Psychology departments

 Laws chools

 Research organizations

 Community mental health agencies

 Courts

 Other conventional settings

 Others work in private practice

Those with MSc. Or MA. Qualificationsmay work in:

 In prisons

 Correctional institutions

 Probation Departments

 Forensic units of mental institutions

 Law enforcement agencies

 Community-based programmes that assist victims

Potentially Highering Organisations

 Adoption/Childcare agencies

 Churches or religious groups

 Clinics or hospitals

 Colleges or universities

 Community organizations

 Courts or correctional institutions

 Nursing homes

 Orphanages

 Personnel departments

 Prisons

9  Research firms

 Social Service Agencies

 Educational periodicals

 Govt agencies

 Medical Schools

 Mental Health Associations

 Test Development corporations

 Volunteer Agencies

 Youth Organisations

The History of Psychology and Law

The study of psychology and Law is a curious mix of the various disciplines of psychology (social psychology, clinical psychology, personality psychology, experimental psychology, educational psychology, developmental psychology etc.) and law. Discourse about the causes of crime and the link with human nature has existed for centuries but it is only during the mid twentieth century that the discipline of psychology and Law began to develop on its own.

Early Developments

In terms of a tangible landmark in the history of forensic psychology the most significant development was the founding of the first psychological laboratory in 1979 by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig Germany. Wiihelm Wundt championed and refined the experimental method within psychology. This rigorous methodology provided the framework for a whole host of applied psychological investigations, among them certain legal issues. For example in 1895 Cattell conducted experiments into the nature of of testimony and in doing so highlighted the effects of situational and individual differences; which incidentally are being examined today.

Hugo Munsternberg

At the turn of the century debate ensued about the relevance of psychology to law. Psychologists from various fields were eager to demonstrate how their new research findings could be applied to the to the practice of law. In 1908 Munstenrberg published his treatise, On the Witness Stand in which he called upon lawyers to appreciate the relevancy of experimental psychology to their profession. Musternberg was particularly interested in improving the performance of witnesses in terms of recall. Unfortunately his ideas remained unheeded and lawyers appeared to close ranks and dismissed the ideas of psychologists as imprecise. Munsternberg ‘s ideas were not taken seriously and were largely ignored for about 6 or so decades – much to his obvious annoyance.

At some point he contemplated:

‘The lawyer and the judge and the juryman are sure that they do not need the experimental psychologist. They do not wish to see that in this field preeminently applied experimental psychology has made strong strides, led by Binet, Stern,Lippmann, Jung, Weitheimer, Gross, Sommer, Aschaffenburg, and other scholars. They go on thinking that their legal instinct and their common sense supplies them with all that is needed and somewhat more: and if the time is ever to come when even the jurist is to show some concession to the spirit of modern psychology, public opinion will have to exert some pressure. Just in the line of the law it therefore seems necessary not to rely simply on the technical statements of scholarly treatises, but to carry the discussion in the most popular form possible before the wider tribunal of the general reader.

With this aim in mind while working at a treatise on “Applied Psychology” which is to cover the whole ground with technical detail I have written the following popular sketches, which select only a few problems in which psychology and law come in contact. They deal essentially with the mind of the witness on the witness stand; only the last, on the prevention of crime, takes another direction. I have not touched so far the psychology of the attorney, of the judge, of the jury problems which lend themselves to very interesting experimental treatment. Even the psychology of the witness is treated in no way exhaustively; my only purpose is to turn the attention of serious men to an absurdly neglected field which demands the full attention of the social community’

Completely undeterred by the apparent lack of interest in what he had to say, Munsternberg set about promoting and advancing the field of forensic psychology. Among other things he conducted research into witness memory, false confessions and the role of hypnosis in court.

Fallow Period

A fallow period then occurred where work in the field of psychology as applied to law was rather irregular, though with some notable exceptions eg. Cyril Burt’s work on The young Deliquent in 1925, several analytic studies on young delinquents and the work of John Bowlby on juvenile delinquency which led to the development of Bowlby’s theory on maternal deprivation as a key causal factor in offending behavior.

Psychometric Assessment: In 1889 Alfred Binet co-founded the first psychological laboratory in France. Having studied medicine and law he was interested in how psychology could br applied within the legal system, particularly in relation to witness testimony. However it was Benet’s work into intellectual assessment that was to have the greatest forensic impact. Working alonsie Theodore Simon, he developed the first psychometric test of intelligence, the principles of which proved to be the basis for later forensic assessment .

11 For instance, in the USA, the Wishcler Intelligence scale for children was regularly employed as part of the proceedings within juvenile courts. Group testing became extremely popular, particularly within the armed services as a way of selecting recruits and before long objective tests were being employed across a host of professions and for a variety of purposes as a means of measuring behavioral traits, skills, attitudes et..

Significantly for the practice of forensic psychology, this included the judiciary who began to allow test results to be presented by evidence in court. In the USA the interface between psychology and law improved in the 1960s to 1970s. For example, social psychologists assisted courts in jury decision making processes. Cognitive psychologists helped on issues pertaining to eye-witness testimony and clinical psychologists came in on issues of insanity defense.

Formal interactions between psychology and law began in Zimbabwe in the mid 1990s with the introduction of victim friendly courts. Psychologists and psychiatrists are often consulted on issues relating to child abuse and child custody. In many universities in Zimbabwe the teaching of psychology and Law have been introduced, for example at the University of Zimbabwe, the Midlands State university and the Zimbabwe Open University such courses have been introduced.

Recent History

In the last 30 years or so a number of high profile legal issues have been addressed by psychologists and these include issues of recovered memories in child abuse cases, disputed confessions and posttraumatic stress disorder. More recently it has been the development of interviewing techniques such as the cognitive interview that underlies the application of psychology.

Forensic Psychology Recognised

Almost sixty years later Munsternberg’s findings were included as part of the preparation for the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald to help address the question of how many shorts had been fired during the assassination of President Kennedy of the USA. CRIME: THE BASICS

What is a crime?

WILLIAMS(1978) defines a crime as a legal wrong , which can be followed by institutionalized criminal proceedings and may possibly result in punishment

Crimes vs Torts

A tort is a civil wrong committed against an individual. In a tort, the remedy for the wrong is pursued by , and at the discretion of the wronged individual or his or her representative

Crime: Is an offense against the public, even though one person might have been injured/wronged. In a crime the wrong doer is prosecuted by the state for the purpose of punishment

NB* Still a civil proceeding may be instituted after a criminal one.

Types of Crime

13 Crimes can be classified according to their nature

i) Crimes mala in se

Comprises those acts that are thought to be immoral or naturally evil such as murder, rape, arson, burglary etc.

ii) Crimes mala prohibita

These comprise those acts that that are thought to be immoral or wrong and are prohibited because they infringe upon the rights of others eg. Walking in prohibited areas or parking in especially designated areas.

Some Specific Types of Crime

Homicide: Killing of one person by another

Crimes against Persons: There are a wide range of crimes in this respect and these may involve intimidation or bodily harm

Sex Crimes: Both consensual and non- consensual sexual contact may constitute a crime

Crimes against children: Abuse or exploitation of children

Fraud and Financial Crimmes: Theft of money or property through deceit or abuse of trust

Drug charges: Manufacturing, possession or trafficking of drugs

Property Crimes: Damage to or misappropriation of property

Cyber crimes: The coming in of computers nd the internet has resulted in a new wave of crimes that occur online.

Attempt or conspiracy crimes: Occur when an individual seeks to or prepares to commit a crime

Alcohol-Related Crimes:

Crimes against the Justice System: eg. Contempt of court

Public Safety violation Elements of a Crime

There are two elements of a crime that a criminal justice system normally looks at:

i) actus reus: refers to the behavior which is voluntarily entered into by an individual. It should be clear that no circumstance or person forced him into that particular behavior

ii) mens rea: refers to the guilt mind, criminal or criminal intent eg. For murder, the intention must beto kill. The following elements must be evident:

 acting purposefully

 acting knowingly

 acting recklessly

 acting negligently

NB* The criminal act and the mens rea have to coincide at the same point in time to satisfy a criminal conviction

For a person to be held responsible for a crime, there must be the following elements:

 Causal responsibility

 Role responsibility

 Capacity responsibility

 Liability responsibility

MORALITY AND CRIME

Morals are beliefs and values that are shared by a society or a section of society and are the means by which we judge what is right and what is wrong. Essentially morals are defined by a socociety. The morals held by asociety have a considerable influence on what is classified as criminal, but immorality and criminality are not the same thing. Not everything that is considered morally wrong is criminal or illegal. Foe example there is no law against telling lies. By the same vein we cannot say that everything illegal is necessarily immoral; it is not immoral to park on a double yellow line but it is illegal).

There are two problems in using the legal system to punish immoral behavior:

i) There is no general consensus as to what constitutes an immoral act as such decisions are based on value judgements and who is making the decision

15 ii) even if there were agreements over what is moral or immoral, as long as no harm is done to others , why should such behavior be criminal

The relationship between law and morality is a complex one and is constantly being reviewed as new issues arise.

THE JUSTICE AND LEGAL SYSTEM IN ZIMBABWE

Introduction

To understand the nature of psychology and law, one needs to understand the structure of the justice legal system in most countries. The Zimbabwe justice and legal set-up can shed some light on this aspect as it shares a number of similarities with the structures in most countries. Zimbabwe has a hybrid or plural legal system. Part of the law was brought about by the colonial settlers and part of it is customary law. Zimbabwe’s legal system consists of the common law (non-statutory or unwritten law), legislation case law, and customary law. The constitution of Zimbabwe is the supreme law of the country.

The following are sources of law in Zimbabwe:

 Legislation/Legislature

 Precedent/Case law/court decisions

 Customary law

 Common law

 Authoritative texts

NB* All laws are initiated through the legislature

The Executive: The office of the President, Prime Minister and cabinet ministers form the executive. The executive implements policies and laws of the country and in Zimbabwe the ministries of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the ministry of Home Affairs which houses the Police, become critical in the justice legal system.

The Legislature: Responsible for the formulation of national laws in the form of Acts OF Parliament. They make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the country.

The Justice System/ Judiciary: The Justice system comprises of the following:

 The Supreme Court

 The High Court

 The Administrative Court

 The Magistrate Court

 The Office of the Attorney General and associated public prosecutors

In reality the Judiciary consists of;

 The Chief Justice

 Judges of the supreme court

 The Judge President and other judges of the High Court

17  Persons presiding over the courts

Administration of Courts

This is done by the registrar of the relevant court and messengers of Court and sheriffs are responsible for serving court processes and enforcing court orders

The Attorney General: will represent state cases and institute legal action

The Legal Profession: (Lawyers)

The majority of Lawyers in Zimbabwe are represented by the ZimbabweLaw Society which haswel ovwer100 lawyers on its register

Specialist Courts: These make things easier

 The Labour Court

 Administrative Court

 The Fiscal Appeal Court

 Small Claims Court

 The Electo Court & ZEC

 The Children’s Court (formerly called the Juvenile Court)

The Children’s court is of interest to psychologists as it deals with cases of minors in this case, children. This court is guided by the Children’s Act Chap. 5:06. The issues dealt with by this court include, custody, guardianship, sexual abuse of minors, minors detained for immoral purposes, child welfare and ill- treatment of children

Important Parties to the Justice Legal System

The Police

 Investigate crimes

 Interrogate suspects

 False confessions and witness accounts are a major challenge

AttorneyGeneral’s Office  Considers evidence supplied by the police

 Decides whether or not to prosecute

 May refer cases back to the police for further investigations

 Where ther are chances for a conviction the case is taken to court

The Court

 Hears and weighs the evidence

 Determine cases/ decides whether suspect is guilt or not

 Decides on suitable sentence( eg. Fine, community service or jail sentence)

Prisons

 Incarcerate people who are convicted

 Cause to implement punishment imposed by the courts

 Rehabilitate those who have been convicted

Steps in a Criminal Case

1 Investigation Stage

2. Initial appearance

3. Hearing Stage: Court

4 Determination of Case

5 Conviction and Sentence

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF Crime

Psychologically-based criminologists explain criminal behavior as the consequence of individual factors, such as negative early childhood experiences, and inadequate socialization which results in criminal thinking patterns and/or incomplete cognitive development

An Overview of Psychological Theories

19  First, theories have focused on failures in psychological development … an overbearing or weak conscience, inner conflict, insufficient moral development, and maternal deprivation with its consomitant failure of attachment

 Second they have investigated the ways in which aggression and violence are learned through modeling and direct experience

 Third, they have investigated the personality characteristics of criminals and found that criminals do tend to be more impulsive, intolerant and irresponsible than non criminals.

 Fourth, psychologists have investigated e relation of criminality to such mental disorders as psychosis and psychopathy

Psychological Theory and the Criminal Justice System

The field of psychology has influenced community corrections in s number of important areas:

 The classification of offenders risk and needs

 The development of case management plans and offender supervision strategies,

 The techniques used to interview, assess, and counsel offenders, and

 The strategies used to foster compliance with the basic rules of community supervision

Psychoanalytic Theories

Psychoanalytic theorists such as Sigmund Freud (1956-1939) explain criminal behaviour as follows:

 The actions and behavior of an adult are understood in terms of childhood development

 Behaviour and unconscious motives are interwined, and their interaction must be unraveled if we are to understand criminality

 Criminality is essentially a representation of psychological conflict

Implications of Psychoanalytic Theory for Theory and Practice

 Advocates of psychoanalytic explanations would emphasise the need for both short and long- term individual and family counseling by trained therapists

 a wide range of treatment models are based (in whole or in part) on these theoretical assumptions (eg. individual therapy, group therapy, reality therapy, guided group interaction). Research Testing Psychoanalytic Theory

 Case studies by Freud have been challenged for a number of reasons.

 One reason is obvious: Freud focused on only a subgroup of the general population

 Psychoanalytic theory is difficult to evaluate using traditional research methods

Social Learning Theories

 Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association

 Ron Akers Social Learning Theory

 Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street

 Lonnie Athens Violentization Theory

What is Social Learning Theory?

 Adherence of social learning theory make a common-sense claim: Behaviour is learned when it is reinforced, and not learned when it is not reinforced

 Key Terminology: differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement, imitation

Differential Association

 Criminal behavior is learned

 criminal behavior is learned in Interactions with other persons in a process of communication

 The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups

 The learning includes techniques of crime commission, and the motives, drives rationalizations and attitudes

 The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal code as favourable or unfavourable

 A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law

 Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity

Evaluation of Sutherland’s Theory

21  One of the most important contribution made by Sutherland’s theory aws to draw attention to the fact that by no means all crimes are committed by deviant psychopathic individuals from poverty stricken backgrounds

 Sutherland also contended that there are white-collar crimes committed by people from the middle classes and in middle class circles such crimes were widely accepted as a way ofdoing business

 Other theories just more emphasis into abnormality, feeblemindedness and deteriorating family living conditions as causes of crime

 On the negative side, this theory would find it more difficult to explain

crimes of passion and other impulsive offenses by people who have not been raised under difficult circumstances( those of deviant values)

 Theory is vague and untestable eg. Does not specify exactly how learning takes place conditionally otr by modeling or rewards

 It is not easy to measure the number of differential associations by individuals

 Theory says nothing about the susceptibility of different individuals to committing crime

Cognitive Development Theory

Cognitive development theories wee initially developed by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and then refined by Lawrence Kolberg and his colleagues, essentially argue that offenders have failed to develop their moral judgement capacity beyond the pre-conventional level

Stages of Cognitive Development

 In stage 1 the pre-conventional stage, children(age9-11) think, ‘If I still what are the chances of getting caught and punished?’

 Stage 2 is the conventional level, when adolescents thinj,’It is illegal to steal and therefore I should not steal, under any circumstances.’

 Stage 3 is the post-conventional level (adults over 20 years old), when individuals critically examine customs and social rules according to their own sense of universal human rights, moral principles and duties

Cognitive Development and Criminal Thinking

 Kolberg observed that we learn morality from those people we interact with on a regular basis – our family, friends, and others in the community

 It appears that a subgroup of our population has criminal thinking tendencies  There is a thin line between teaching morality in a cognitive development treatment programme and practicing religion.

Research Testing Cognitive Development Theory

 Treatment programmes based on this theory are among the most effective in the field according to the most recent evidence-based review

 However, these programmes may need to be redesigned to address the need for gender specific, culture-specific, and age-specific programming

Criminal Personality Theories

 A number of prominent criminologists have argued that ‘the root causes of crime are not…. Social issues ( high unemployment, bad schools) but deeply ingrained features of the human personality and its early experiences.

 Low intelligence, an impulsive personality and a lack of empathy for other people are among the leading individual characteristics of people at risk for becoming offenders

 Hans Eyesnck has completed numerous studies on the impact of personality characteristics on criminality. He theorises that criminal behavior may be a function of both personality differences ( i.e. offenders are more likely to be neurotic and extroverted) and conditioning, in that some individuals are simply more difficult to condition than others Since we dvelop a conscience through conditioning it is not surprising that antisocial behavior is more likely when this process breaks down for some reason

 Eyesnck argues that there are two source for poor conditioning:

 1) Personality types – extroverts are more difficult to condition and

 2) Physiological factors – in particular low cortical arousal. See Eyesnc k

1977,1989), or the summary of his research included in Siegel (2007) and Hogan (2002).

Policy and Practice Implications of Criminal Personality Theories

 Since “criminal personality” theory is based on the assumption that offenders have erroneous thinking patterns, it seems certain that intensive, individual therpy would be required to address this problem

 Based on this theory, a range of correctional interventions involving direct confrontation of thinking errors and behavior modification techniques can be envisioned

23 OFFENDER PROFILING

Introduction

Offender profiling is a term coined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Dwyer(2001) says profiling entails providing a description of the offender based on an analysis of the crime scene, the victim and any other available evidence. For turco(1993) profiling refers to:

“the preparation of a biographical sketch gathered from information taken at a crime scene, from the personal history and habits of a victim and intergrating this with known psychological theory”

The resulting sketch could be used by police officers to reduce their lists of suspects or to offer a new line of inquiry

The Goals of Profiling (Holmes and Holmes 1996)

1 Social and Psychological Assessments: basic information about the offender’s personality, age, race, sex, type of employment, religion, marital status and level of education. The personality aspects of the profilemay help the police to predict possible future attacks.

2 Psychological evaluation of belongings: Once a main suspect has been identified the profile should guide on any possession that the offender might be having. These will link him to the crime and may include crime souvenirs, photos or items of pornograph. Such physical items should be listed on a search warrant

3 Interviewing Suggestions and Strategies: A good profile can provide the police with effective interviewing or questioning strategies for any particular offender

NB* Offender profiles do not solve crimes, they only provide away of narrowing down on the range of potential suspects by proving information about the possible characteristics of the perpetrator of the crime

Approaches to profiling:

1 The Amercan Method (A top-down approach)

This is the approach that is used by the FBI. The basis of their approach is that crime scenes and the offenders modus operandi will reveal indicators of individual pathology, which may fit into a pattern alreadt observed from case studies of incarcerated offenders. According to Holmes (1989), the aims of this profiling is to:

 To reduce the scope of an investigation

 To allow some prediction of future offenses and their location

 To provide a psychological evaluation of belongings

 To provide strategies for interviewing offenders

2 The British Approach: A bottom-up approach

In the United Kingdom offender proofing has been dominated by the work of David Canter, a psychologist who was asked by the metropolitan police in 1985 to assist in crime investigations. Canter’s approach to profiling is more rooted in psychological principles unlike the FBI system. Canter believes that criminals act consistently across settings and their actions have some coherence across places, An analysis of their behavior will reveal a pattern which can offer clues to their lifestyle during the non- offending part of their lives. Canter also believes that people operate in a social context, hence there is often a relationship between an offender and a victim. He says, “criminals are performing actions that are direct reflections of the sorts of transactions they have with other people” (Canter, 1989. P.13)

Critique

Offender profiling has undoubted potential if used properly by trained professionals. Gerberth (1983)

However views profiling as of little value and warned of the danger of over relying on the so called expert profiling with giving due recognition to work by experienced police officers. In a study by Holmes (1989) ONLY 17% OF THE 192 CASES PROFILED LED TO ARRESTS. In the UK in a survey of 184 cases, Copson and Holloway (1997) found that proofing helped in the identification of anoffender in only 2.7% of the cases and had helped to solve16% of the cases.

The potential of offender profiling is thus extremely challenging but it needs more research before it is hailed as a solution to criminal investigation.

THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

There is considerable evidence to indicate that the standard police interview procedure, consisting of a list of questions is not a very effective technique for eliciting accurate witness recall. The questions are

25 not always appropriate well worded or properly sequenced and there are constant interruptions when the witness is speaking. Fisher et al. (1987).

The cognitive interview technique developed by Geiselman and Fisher(1984) is a very different procedure based on psychological principles of memory.Theoriginal CI did a lot to improve memory but the revised and later version achieved much more.

The Original CI Procedure

There are several principles of memory that underpin the ideas of CI

 There is better recall when we are in the same place, same emotional state, and tha same context as that in which we were when encoding took place (Encoding specificity Hypothesis, Tulving and Thompson,1973)

 Memories form a network in our minds, so there may be several cues to retrieving a particular one – if at first one cue doesn’t succeed, use aothr one

 We organize information in terms of schemas and scripts. Sometimes our recall is inaccurate because we fill in the gaps to match the existing schema. Information that is inconsistent with our schema is lost or filtered out.

CI Procedures

 Context Reinstatement

The interviewee is asked to recreate mentally the context in line with the Encoding Specificity Hypothesis. One is asked to imagine the scene including physical environment, the smells sound weather clothes etc.

 Report everything

The interviewee is asked to recall everything no matter how trivial or incomplete, since memory is a network

 Change the Perspective

The interviewees are asked to report as if there were another person or witness in order to reduce the effects of personal schemas on in producing false recall. This may be difficult for young children to do but adults can

 Change the order

Finally the witness is asked to start recal from at various points during the event, including perhaps the most memorable. This procedure is based on schema theory. Geiselman and Callot (1990) found that more information was obtained if witnesses were asked to recall events once forward and once backwards than if they were to recall twice starting from the beginning to the end of the event.

The Enhanced Version of the CI

The following techniques were later introduced to increase social skills and communication strategies:

 At the outset the interviewee is made to relax and to be unhurried or not tomblike he is on trial. The interviewer keeps the number of questions to a minimum. The interviewee therefore takes a more active role

 The interviewer helps maximize recall by using focused memory techniques eg. Palvio demonstrated that the use of imagery increases recall. The interviewee may be asked to picture the suspect, focus on his face etc.

 The questions asked by the interviewer should be guided by the witness, a technique called witness compatible questioning.

 The interviewer should create a relaxed atmosphere be supportive and interested in in the responses and listen carefully without interrupting.

Psychology and Law (PSY 403) Semester II 2012

Individual assignment question A great deal of psychological research points to the shortcomings in the reliability and validity of eye witness and confessional evidence. Discuss.

Tutorial questions

1. What comparison can been drawn on the reliability of children and adults eye-witness accounts.

Juliet, Talent and Lorraine

2. Juvenile and adult offenders should be treated alike. Discuss

Alice, Rutendo and Alphious

27 3. Examine the various meaning of competence in the justice legal system. What issues underly the assessment of competence for psychologists working with the justice legal system?

Prosper,Buhle and Sandra

4. Discuss the challenges faced by psychologists in giving expert witness testimony

Jerry, Nodumo, Rumbi

5. Rehabilitation is better than incarceration of offenders. Discuss

Bridgette, Alice, Linda

6. What does the psychology of victims entail? Explain some important rights of victims and special groups. Elina, Edna and Gwaze

7. Examine any five important factors that affect eyewitness testimony.

Vannessa,Sanga, and Rosemary

8. Using psychological evidence, discuss any three characteristics of defendants that may influence jurors in their decision making.

Trymore, Charles and Khupukile

Presentations on 04/10/12 and 11/04/12