1. Criminological Psychology Revision Unit 3

2. Criminological Psychology ~ Overview Explanations of Crime Studies in Eyewitness Testimony & Crime Treatment of Offenders – Token Economy & Anger Management. Key Issue: EWT

3. Key Terms Crime –An act committed in violation of a law for which punishment is imposed upon conviction. Recidivism –When criminal behaviour is repeated, usually by a convicted offender (re-offending). Anti-social Behaviour –Any behaviour that affects other people negatively, usually related to criminal/ deviant behaviour. Stereotyping –Making generalisations of individuals or groups based on misconceptions defined by society. What the majority of people are like Modelling –People may copy anti-social behaviour of others through mimicking the behaviour known as modelling/an individual may copy stealing by mimicking the stealing which is known as modelling Eyewitness testimony –An eye witness is anyone who has witnessed an event (usually a crime). Testimony is a statement given by the witness as an account of what happened.

4. Additional terms… Recorded Crime – recorded crime rates by the police. Reported Crime – crime reoprted to the police (given crime reference number). Victimisation Figures – determined by agencies such as the British Crime Survey (BCS).

5. Methodology ~ Describe research methods used to assess witness effectiveness Laboratory experiment artificial / manipulation of the IV and measures the DV / EWT recall is measured, experience manipulated / high level of control meaning that cause and effect can be investigated Field experiment IV still manipulates and DV measured / in the p’s natural environment/setting / still deliberately manipulating IV / some control / cause and effect can still be investigated

6. Evaluate the methods with relation to relative strengths and weaknesses, their use in criminological psychology, reliability, validity and ethical issues Ethics In Lab experiments …. …. the eye witness knows there are no real consequences faced by people because of evidence they give. However, real life eyewitnesses know their evidence can affect others lives. It would be unethical to allow participants to think their testimony would actually be used in court. It is therefore really difficult to test EWT in a field experiment

7. Ethics Field experiments are usually seen to be relatively less ethical than lab experiments for a number of reasons: 1.Participants are not usually given the opportunity to give fully informed consent (Hofling) although sometimes they are as in the Yuille &Cutshall study. 2.Deception is a regular feature of many field experiments and is often necessary to test the I.V. – true of Hoffling and Yuille & Cutshall Reminding people of their right to withdraw is also a problem because sometimes they are being observed without them knowing as part of the D.V. (Hofling) Also some field experiments such as Yuille & Cutshall, require participants to recall events that may well have been extremely distressing. This could have an affect a persons mental and physical wellbeing

8. Reliability Field experiments usually controlled to some extent and all procedures are clearly written up giving a full explanation of everything that is done. This means that sometimes they are repeatable so that reliability can be checked. However…this is not always the case. Yuille and Cutshall used a real robbery for the field study and another case would be unlikely to be similar enough to repeat and compare for reliability. There are, when necessary internal reliability measures taken to ensure that all observers / interviewers / experimenters follow the exact same procedures. And so Internal reliability should be good. There are very few field experiments in EWT research and so there is not a large body of evidence showing reliability amongst field experiments in general unlike laboratory experiments where there is reliability/corroboration amongst very similar research.

9. Validity Field experiments It is conducted in a real life natural situation, therefore ecological validity is usually high. Factors such as arousal levels or use of the senses which are a problem to emulate in lab experiments are far more true to life in this type of study. However the experimenter may still be manipulating the independent variable and in doing so is likely to add an artificial element that may impact the results and reduce validity

10. Describe and evaluate two explanations of criminal/anti-social behaviour 1.social learning theory and the possible role of the media Behaviour comes from observing role models Role models are who we identify with in some way Tend to imitate them of same gender, slightly older, seen as powerful, celebrities etc. – Bandura et al People commit crimes due to association with others Possible to be reinforced for crime >>> positive / negative reinforcement Modelling – attention, retention, reproduction, motivation

11. Evidence for SLT Bandura et al (1963) ~ Aggression can be learnt through imitation, by observing aggressive models Anderson and Dill (2000) ~ playing a violent video game increases aggression probably by encouraging aggressive thoughts. Suggests that long term exposure might alter, making them more likely to have more aggressive thoughts and feelings and behave aggressively Charlton (2000) ~ See later on Any more?! Williams, Park et al, Eron….

12. Evaluation for SLT + Experimental evidence (e.g. Bandura Ross & Ross, Anderson & Dill) showing behaviour is imitated + The SLT explanation has a practical application – useful to help rehabilitate offenders as appropriate behaviours can be learned through observation of role models and use of reinforcements - SLT explanation does not take account of individual differences e.g. biological explanations are not considered. Solely nurture. - Does not take account of opportunistic criminal behaviour that has not been observed first - Does not account for all crimes e.g. murder/rape, better at accounting for stealing or aggression.

13. Labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a prediction about another comes true simply because of the expectation (Flanagan, 2000) Labelling and SFP go together as an explanation of crime and anti-social behaviour – process of the prophecy is that someone is first labelled and then ‘becomes’ the label. LABELLING involves a majority group considering a minority group as inferior & using inferior terms when talking about them e.g. hoodie, thief. STEREOTYPING thinking a whole group share certain characteristics. It is based on a generalised and simplified view e.g. young offender = hoodie-wearing youth who challenges authority and makes trouble SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY concept from social psychology that refers to the process of something coming true because it was predicted to happen.

14. Evidence of Labelling and SFP Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) ~ the students in each class who had been identified as late bloomers showed significantly higher gains in their IQ scores than the other children, and the teachers’ expectations had become a reality Madon (2003) ~ 52% of the relationship between the mother's expectations and the child’s alcohol use (18 months later) was down to accurate expectations by the mother. 48% was down to self-fulfilling effects. Also found children with high self esteem were more susceptible to positive SFPs than those with low self esteem.

15. Evaluation of Labelling and SFP + Studies suggest that relationship (e.g. teacher-child, parent- child or peer-to-peer) affects the course of the prophecy + This suggests that expectations about former criminals (those with the label applied to them in the local community) will lead to SFP in some cases – application - Much of the research has been in field of education – teacher/pupil relationship and other relationships may not have this effect - Few studies have been conducted into labelling and self- fulfilling prophecy because finding a false belief (e.g. ‘about to bloom’) is difficult

16. Studies in Criminological Describe and evaluate the following studies:- Loftus & Palmer (1974) – lab study Yuille & Cutshall (1986) – field study Pickel (1998) – lab study Charlton et al (2000) – natural study

17. Loftus & Palmer (1974) A ~ what the effect of leading questions were on eyewitnesses’ ability to recall information P ~ Experiment 1: 45 students shown seven short films involving car accidents. After each film given a questionnaire, critical question being the estimation of the speed that the cars were travelling at. Five different conditions, differed only by the phrasing of the critical question, ‘hit’ ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘bumped’ and ‘contacted’. Average estimation was taken for each participant group. Four of the films were staged crashes, so the researchers knew the actual speeds of those cars but the other three films showed real car crashes where the speed was not certain. R ~ ‘smashed’ gave an average estimate of 40.8mph, ‘collided’ gave an average estimate of 39.3mph, ‘bumped’ gave an average estimate of 38.1mph, ‘hit’ gave an average estimate of 34.0mph, ‘contacted’ gave an average estimate of 31.8mph C ~ phrasing of the questions had a clear effect on witnesses’ answers, and therefore that leading questions can affect the way that eyewitnesses respond in a real situation

18. Loftus & Palmer (1974) A ~ what the effect of leading questions were on eyewitnesses’ ability to recall information P ~ Experiment 2: 150 student participants were shown a four seconds long clip of a car collision different to those used in the first experiment. There was no broken glass as a result of the crash in the clip. The participants were then asked questions about the brief video they had seen. The participants were divided into three condition groups - groups 1 and 2 same critical question, either smashed or hit” - The third group not asked about speed. One week later, the participants were given a second questionnaire to fill in. This included the same critical question about speed that they were given before (i.e. ‘smashed’, ‘hit’) and group three not asked the critical question. All groups, though, were asked “did you see any broken glass?” R ~ ‘smashed’ ‘hit’ control total yes 16 7 6 29 no 34 43 44 121 C ~ memory is fed by the event and by external information also provided afterwards.

19. Evaluation of L & P Strengths Both parts of Loftus and Palmer (1974) are laboratory experiments with strong, scientific controls (for example, they all watched the same film and were asked identical questions – except for the verb change), which means the study is replicable and can be repeated to test for reliability The use of estimates of speed in both experiments and the ‘yes’/’no’ question of the second experiment yielded quantitative data which meant there was no subjective interpretation of the data – therefore it can be said that the experiments have objectivity Weaknesses The validity of the task is questionable, as the student participants are not likely to have been under the same emotional strain a real eyewitness of a horrific accident would have been, likewise they only watched video clips of the car crashes and did not witness them first-person, which may have affected their responses Students were used only, so the findings of the experiments may not be necessarily generalisable to the population as a whole until repeated on other groups The student participants may have figured out what the purpose of the study was and tried to amend their answers to help out the researchers accordingly, there may have been demand characteristics

20. Yuille & Cutshall (1986) A ~ investigate the accuracy in recall of eyewitnesses to a real crime, in response to leading questions and over time. In this study, the crime was a real gun shooting P ~ 21 eyewitnesses interviewed by the police. Twenty were contacted four-to-five months after the event. Of those 20, thirteen agreed to participate, aged 15-32 and only three were female, ten were male. The victim was not asked to participate as he did not wish to relive the trauma. The interviews were recorded and transcribed using the same interviewing procedure as the police had used – allowing them to give their account first and then asking them questions. Two leading questions were used. Half the group were asked if they saw a broken headlight, and the other half if they saw the broken headlight (no broken headlight in the thief’s car). Half of the participants were asked about a yellow panel on the car, and the others about the yellow panel, (quarter panel was really blue) Also asked to rate the stress they had felt at the time of the incident, using a tailored seven-point scale. A scoring procedure was used to turn the qualitative data into quantitative data, using ‘action details’ and ‘description details’ as well as object and people descriptions. R~ obtained more details than the police had - found over 1000 details in total compared to the 650 on average found by the police Eyewitnesses are not inaccurate flashbulb C ~ Eyewitnesses are not inaccurate in their accounts. Y&C suggest they may have investigated what could be called flashbulb memories

21. Evaluation of Y & C Strengths + Field study looking at a real incident with real witnesses. Has ECOLOGICAL validity lacking in lab experiments. + Researchers took great care with counting details from real incident to make sure that witness testimonies did not alter what ‘really’ happened. This makes finding ‘reliable’ Weaknesses - Problems in generalising from a unique and specific incident. Could be a flashbulb memory, so may be unfair to use these findings to criticise lab experiments. - Problems with the scoring (previously discussed). However, as the accounts were found to be largely accurate, emphasising inaccuracies would not have affected the findings in this case. Turning qualitative into quantitative data can always lead to bias and inaccuracy

22. A ~ P ~ R ~ Exp1 - recall of the woman was very similar across all conditions – recall of the man did differ sig between experimental conditions. Hand gun and chicken = poorest recall of the man. Wallet and scissors less effect. Exp 2- similar findings… doughboy and butchers knife = poor recall C ~ Weapon focus weakens the detail of the eyewitnesses testimony Pickle (1998)

23. Evaluation of P Strengths + high level of control due to it being a lab based experiment. Situational variables controlled, all participants saw the same footage for the same period of time without distractions + good reliability as able to be replicated due to above points + no bias or interpretation of researcher as scoring was conducted by independent researchers Weaknesses -Lab = artificial so hard to generalise outside the lab – lacks ecological validity. A real witness would not have given the event so much attention -Real witnesses would be effected by emotion and other distractions -Wanted to check unusualness and threat – it is unlikely the participants felt this from watching a video so lacks validity -Demand characteristics

24. Charlton (2000) A ~ To investigate the effects of television on children’s behaviour P ~ Researchers studied the playground behaviour of 3-8 yr old children before and after the introduction of TV. Video recorders were set up in 2 schools for 4 months in 95 and again 5 yrs later. The children’s free play was recorded for a 2 week period Findings were compared to establish if behaviour had changed Behaviour was categorised as Social play and Anti-social play Inter-rater reliability was carried out and a tally was made of the behaviours. Only agreed tallied behaviours were recorded in the results. R ~ Contradictory ~ 2 measures showed decreases in anti-social behaviour amongst boys. 5 measures showed increases in pro-social behaviour in boys and girls. 2 measures showed decreases in pro-social behaviour in boys. Boys displayed less hitting and pushing after TV was introduced. Boys were also less willing to help or show affection. Both boys and girls showed significant increases in pro-social behaviour overall The vast majority of the measures used to assess pro- and anti-social behaviour showed no differences in either pro or anti-social behaviour after the introduction of television. Those measures that did show a difference were fairly equally split between positive and negative changes. Five of these showed decreases in pro-social behaviour in boys and girls, but two showed increases (boys only). There were only two significant changes in anti-social behaviour scores – both of which were lower after the introduction of television. C~ The introduction of TV had no negative effect on children’s behaviour (quite the opposite). This contradicts most laboratory research

25. Evaluation of C Strengths + Validity was good because the study looked at how actual TV programmes had an effect on a real culture which had never experienced TV before. +Use of videos means recorded behaviours can be checked and verified by independent observers. + Children were observed in their natural setting of a playground where they would normally engage in social behaviour and not constrained by rules. + Very objective, Inter-rater reliability eliminates subjective interpretation and avoids bias + It was a natural experiment. The television was going to be introduced anyway. The usual ethical considerations will have been observed Weaknesses - The fact that ST Helena is a unique community with its own culture means that it is more difficult to generalise the results to more urbanised and modern cultures in which we live. - It is difficult to say if changes in behaviour was an affect of watching TV. This is because there were lots of uncontrolled extraneous variables. - St Helens is a close-knit community with a culture of close supervision and parental control which could have been an inhibiting factor. - Television viewed was not similar to mainland TV programmes. Popular children’s programmes involving aggression were not broadcast, this reduces the validity of the findings.

26. Describe and evaluate two ways of treating offenders including: - the token economy programme and one other (Anger management) The criminal justice system has many punishments at its disposal. It can sentence offenders to a period of imprisonment or it can use more lenient deterrents such as a suspended sentence, a period of probation, community service or a fine. Once offenders are imprisoned, some of them will be part of a treatment programme aimed at improving heir immediate behaviour and reducing their chances of reoffending. Behaviour modification in the form of token economies and anger management are the 2 that you will need describe and assess.

27. Anger management Offenders can be treated using anger management programmes, which focus on people with aggressive behaviour that needs to be controlled. Anger management in general uses strategies such as identifying what triggers anger and learning to control those triggers (cognitive based) Proper eating regimes are suggested as well as relaxation techniques. Learning to cope with different opinions from others is also important in the programme Anger is considered a normal healthy response, but if it develops into rage that takes a person over, it is not healthy but puts a strain on the body. The theory of anger as an outburst links to Freud’s ideas of negative emotions being locked away in the unconscious, only to burst out later. Freud believed sport and other energetic activities could release such emotions Anger can trigger aggressive outbursts which may lead to harming someone else. Some offenders are put on anger management programmes as part of their treatment, because of the nature of the offence or because of personal characteristics Currently there is more focus on what triggers the outburst of anger or aggression and how that trigger, often based on thought processes, can be changed. Such anger is thought of as inappropriate thought patterns and reactions rather than outbursts NOVACO’s NOVACO’s three steps approach: 1) cognitive preparation, 2) skill acquisition, 3) application practice CALM model CALM model: focus on monitoring and understanding own emotions so that problematic behaviours can be prevent. Learn new skills necessary to reduce frequency, intensity and duration of anger

28. Evaluation of AMP Loza and Loza –Fanous (1999) Loza and Loza –Fanous (1999) - 252 Canadian offenders. Found no sif link between anger and violent or non-violent offences. Based their results on the offences committed, the recidivism rates and anger scores. Ireland (2004) Ireland (2004) – 50 young offenders. Found a difference (a reduction) in the anger they felt after AMP. This was based on self report data Strengths + Studies show the success of anger management programmes from self report data, which are likely to be valid as they come from prisoners themselves. + The programmes focus on learning about triggers from angry episodes and give people the tools to control their anger in the future, so they should have long term benefits Weaknesses - The programmes do not include a discussion of morality or understanding from a victim’s point of view, which has been said to limit their success. - It has been claimed that they turn physical aggression into other ways of expressing aggression, such as verbal or emotional abuse. - Studies claiming success of the programmes use self report data, where prisoners might want to look good and say the groups were useful, or they might simply have enjoyed the sessions as a break from routine (social desirability) - Many studies do not look further into the future to predict recidivism rates.

29. Token economy programmes Token economy programmes are used to obtain desirable behaviour in closed institutions such as prisons, and they are used for juvenile and adult offenders. They are a form of behaviour modification. These programmes started in the 1960’s,given the success of the use of learning theories in changing behaviour A token economy programme involves a system of rewards being set up for desired behaviour, sometimes with punishments to discourage behaviour which is undesirable. Rewards are usually tokens or points, and these can be periodically exchanged for something that the individual wants. This is an important part of the programme as the rewards must genuinely reward the person Desirable behaviour such as co-operation and compliance is reinforced with the use of tokens. These tokens have no intrinsic value and are called secondary reinforcers. They can however be exchanged for primary reinforcers which are things that are wanted by the person. When used in prisons, many of the programmes also use negative reinforcement and punishment in order to reduce undesirable behaviour such as non compliance and aggression. Typical negative reinforcement would be removal of privileges, such as watching TV or going to the exercise yard, while a typical punishment may be isolation.

30. Evaluation of TEP Hobbs & Holt (1976) conducted a study which involved delinquent boys. Found token economy resulted in an increase in the mean percentage of appropriate (target) behaviours for each cottage with no noticeable improvement in the comparison cottage. Strengths Control behaviour in the short term making prison life (for example) more harmonious Staff and inmate interactions becomes more positive TEP’s are cost effect as no specialised training is needed to implement the programme, However, staff will need training so the system is not abused TEP’s give the prisoner a sense of control over their behaviour and rewards, This could however lead to learned helplessness where they feel they have no choice but to comply…. Is this a bad thing???!!! Weaknesses Tokens are used to manage not rehabilitate Staff must be vigilant otherwise it wont work – standardised tokens and reinforcers Tokens can be abused by staff if they think they have the authority to manipulate a prisoners behaviour In a prison setting, tokens could be used as contraband. Prisoners may also only agree to the programme due to the rewards Validity could be questioned – success could be due to the increase in staff / prisoners relationships Very hard to generalise outside the institution

31. Key Issue Describe one key issue in criminological psychology: Why does it matter if EWT is reliable? Relate this to applications in real life, discuss in context. Elaborate on research studies in this area. 1.leading questions, weapon focus, reconstructive memory 2.Ronald Cotton 3.How can EWT can be improved Cognitive Interview 4.what is CI - the stages, evaluation 5.Loftus & Palmer (1974) is the main study…. But also the other ones we have looked at can be applied

32. Practical is linked to the Key issue You have summarised two web based articles concerning the reliability of eyewitness testimony You need to be able to say: Where they came from How you selected them What they were about (the gist of them) You should then be able to draw conclusions from the findings, link these to concepts, theories and / or research from the topic of relevance, i.e. pickle, Yuille & Cutshall….