Criminal Psychology

1
Criminal Psychology

• Chapter 10
• Eyewitness Testimony
• Talbot
• Kellogg Community College

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The Importance of Eyewitnesses

• What makes it important?
• What makes a good witness?
• Race
• Gender
• Age
• Availability to testify
• Ability to testify
• Witnesses assertion of good memory

Of virtually no importance.
Of the highest importance.
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Problems in Eyewitness Testimony(Visual Memory)

• Memory
• Memory Consolidation
• Priming/ Redintegration
• Constructive Processing
• Misinformation Effect

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The case of Ronald Cotton, Jennifer Thompson
Bobby Poole.
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The role of the Psychologist

• Applied Researcher/ Expert witness
• System variables Procedures and processes used
  by the police and other members of the criminal
  justice system which could negatively affect the
  accuracy of the accounts of witnesses.
• Estimator variables Environmental factors and
  internal characteristics of the person which
  could affect the nature and accuracy of their
  memory.
• Trainer/ Educator to the Criminal Justice System
• Police Consultant

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Problematic Systemic Procedures

• Asking poorly constructed questions.
• Allowing one eyewitness to overhear the response
  of other eyewitnesses.
• Taking spotty notes of witnesses answers.
• Failing to use any theory of a proper memory
  interview (i.e. cognitive interview).
• Using interviewers who have little training or
  little understanding in the nature of memory.

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Questioning Witnesses (Information Generation)

• Problems
• Limited Training
• Overuse of close-ended questions v. Open-ended
  questions.
• Interrupting the witness.
• Little or no assistance to enhance memory.
• Leading questions.
• Unconscious transference.
• Demand characteristics.
• The Goals of Law-enforcement.

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How to Improve Memory

• Slow down the rate of questioning.
• Utilize the cognitive interview.
• Tailor questions to the individual witness.
• Witness-centered rather than Interviewer-centered
  interview.
• Be sensitive to the distinction between correct
  and incorrect responses.
• Do not form premature conclusions.

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Use of Lineups/ Photo arrays

• Suspect identification
• Identity Parade
• Photo Spread
• Benefits of Identity Parade
• Information such as gate and behaviors.
• Benefits of the Photo Spread
• Availability
• No counsel required

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Common Errors

• Implies the criminal is present.
• Demand Characteristic Make a choice.
• Asking the eyewitness specifically about the
  suspect and not the foils (confirmation bias).
• Encouraging loose recognition.
• Leaking a hunch.
• Providing feedback to the witness to increase
  confidence.
• Relative Judgment Process.

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Proper Procedural Rules

• Double - Blind
• Witnesses should be told that it is possible that
  the true perpetrator may not be present and that
  the officer does not know who the suspect might
  be.
• The suspect should not stand out.
• A clear statement should be taken from the
  witness at the time of the identification.
• Provide views of different suspects sequentially
  rather than simultaneously.

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Expert Witness What is reliable enough to
testify about?

• Box 10-4

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Steps in the evaluative process

• FBIs Facial Identification Catalogue
• Identikit 1896
• Dr. Alphonse Bertellin
• Component Approach
• Holistic Process face recognition in which one
  considers the relationship of features and
  general appearance v. a piecemeal or component
  analysis.

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Richard Speck

• 1966
• Chicago
• Mass Murderer
• 8 nursing students

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Steps in the evaluative process

• FBIs Facial Identification Catalogue
• Identikit 1896
• Dr. Alphonse Bertelllin
• Holistic Process face recognition in which one
  considers the relationship of features and
  general appearance v. a piecemeal or component
  analysis.
• http//stuffucanuse.com/j_mugshot1.htm

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Fingerprinting
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The Crime

• On the 11 March 2004 thirteen bombs were loaded
  onto commuter trains at Alcala de Henares
  station, 40km outside Madrid. Not long after, ten
  of them exploded killing 191 people and wounding
  more than 1,700. Using a fingerprint found on a
  plastic bag filled with detonators, the FBI, with
  automated computer matching and experienced
  experts, obtained and confirmed a positive
  identification with a US citizen, Brandon
  Mayfield. Mayfield, a recent convert to Islam,
  appeared to fit the bill perfectly and he was
  immediately arrested and imprisoned.

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Punishment?

• Nevertheless, two weeks later, Mayfield was
  released after Spanish police announced they had
  caught the real owner of the fingerprint.
  Mayfield was completely innocent, having simply
  been the victim of two misfortunes firstly to
  have a fingerprint similar to the bomber and
  secondly to already be in the US fingerprint
  database (currently totalling around 10 million
  entries).

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Outcome

• FBI promises to review practicesThe FBI
  apologizes to Mr. Mayfield and his family for the
  hardships that this matter has caused, the
  bureau said in a statement. The agency also said
  it would review its practices on fingerprint
  analyses.

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How does fingerprinting work?

• Complete prints are rare.
• Partial prints are more common.
• Partial prints are compared to suspects prints
  (by the human eye and via technology).
• Top Down Processing.
• Percentage of accuracy is then determined.

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Research

• Initially, Dror, Peron, Hind Charlton (2005)
  examined contextual effects in a student
  population. It was found that participants cued
  with emotionally charged contextual information,
  such as gruesome crime scene photos, were more
  likely to indicate a match between ambiguous
  fingerprints than uncued control participants.

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• Dror Charlton (2006) actually re-presented
  experienced fingerprint experts with cases in
  which, five years previously, they had confirmed
  positive matches. This was carried out covertly
  so the experts themselves were in their normal
  work environment, and were unaware they were
  examining prints they had previously analyzed.
  Contextual information was then provided to the
  experts in order to attempt to replicate the
  findings of the earlier study in a naturalistic
  setting. In an admittedly small sample size
  (n6), two-thirds of the experts made decisions
  inconsistent with their own previous judgments.

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Is fingerprinting flawed?

• Dr. Itiel Dror Clearly no.
• Fingerprinting is a necessity and is clearly more
  accurate than even eye-witness testimony.
• Changes need to be made in application and
  training.
• Context should be removed from the experts
  evaluation.
• The application of points of match or rates of
  probable match should be identified.