Making a Case

Making a case cards

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  • Created by: Alice
  • Created on: 22-05-12 21:00

Making a Case - Interviewing Witnesses

Bruce - Making a Case (Interviewing Witnesses)

Bruce suggested we have two different sets of cues, internal cues such as eyes and mouth and then external cues such as ears and hair. Bruce used a lab experiment with 30 staff and students from Stirling University. Researchers used 10 celebrity photos and created 40 facial composites. The IV was external or internal composites. Participants were asked to match the composite to the original photo and the DV was the number of successful matches. There was a 35% success for the external and a 19.5% success for internal. Then 48 volunteer students had to match external or internal composites to the right celebrity.  Results showed 42% for external and 24% for internal.

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Making a Case - Interviewing Witnesses

Loftus - Making a Case (Interviewing Witnesses)

Loftus carried out an experiment to show the focus might be on the weapon. It was a laboratory experiment with 36 students. The students watched 18 slides of a scene in a fast food restaurant. The control group were showed the second customer paying by cheque. Whereas the experimental group saw the second customer pull out a gun. Their eye movement was measured by EOG. They then answered 20 multiple choice questions and picked out which customer they thought it was and rated the confidence of their choice. They guess the weapon customer right 8.5% of the time and the cheque customer right 38.9% of the time. This therefore suggests that the focus of a witness often is on the weapon.

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Making a Case - Interviewing Witnesses

Fisher - Making a Case (Interviewing Witnesses)

Fisher tested the CI in the field with the help of Miami police. 16 experienced officers from the robbery division assisted. Researchers recorded detectives carrying out their standard for four months. They then split them into a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group were trained in CI techniques. They had 4, 1 hours sessions and 7 detectives completed. Over the next 7 months more interviews were recorded for both groups and analysed by a blind team. CI detectives helped the witness recall with 47% more information than before their training and 63% more than the untrained detectives. They also found that CI's did take slightly longer to conduct interviews.

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Making a Case - Interviewing Suspects

Mann - Making a Case (Interviewing Suspects)

Mann carried out a field experiment testing 99 Kent police officers. There were 24 females and 75 males. The majority (78) were detectives. Officers filled out questionnaires about experience of detecting lies. Offices then watched 54 video clips of 14 suspects. After each clip participants had to say whether they were lying or not, how confident of their judgement were they and what cues made them reach this decision. Officers spotted lies on average 66% both of these are therefore higher than chance. There was a positive correlation between how many years of experience as an officer and their scores for detecting lies.

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Making a Case - Interviewing Suspects

Inbau - Making a Case (Interviewing Suspects)

9 Steps to Interrogation

1. Direct positive confrontation

2. Theme development

3. Handling denials

4. Overcoming objections

5. Gaining the suspects attention

6. Presenting the alternatives

7. Handling the suspects passive mood

8. Oral confession

9. Written confession

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Making a Case - Interviewing Suspects

Gudjohnsson - Making a Case (Interviewing Suspects)

Gudjohnsson carried out a case into a 17 year old man who was accused of 2 murders. He was of average intelligence and had no mental illness. After his arrest he was not allowed access to a solicitor and was interviewed for 14 hours. At the end of the interview he confessed, then when with his solicitor he retracted his statement but then the police questioned his relationships with women again and he confessed again. Finally someone else pleaded guilty to the murder and he was released. Gudjohnsson concluded that it was a case of "coerced compliance" false confession. He caved in and confessed due to intense pressure and therefore confessed to escape the situation.  

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Making a Case - Offender Profiling

Bottom Up - Making a Case (Offender Profiling)

The bottom up approach is the British method of offender profiling. It is based on psychological theory and methodology. They begin by collecting evidence from the scene of the crime which then gets entered into a database which matches the crime with other crimes. This helps police to develop a list of suspects but relies on the criminal already being in the database. Matches occur frequently because many criminals start a criminal career with less serious crimes and then get worse. The bottom up approach to offender profiling assumes interpersonal coherence so behaviour at the crime scene reflects normal behaviour making suspects easier to identify. This however does not solve crimes but just narrows down the suspects.

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Making a Case - Offender Profiling

Top Down - Making a Case (Offender Profiling)

The top down approach is the American method to offender profiling. It starts with certain theories and principals about criminal behaviour and looks at evidence in light of these theories. For example a theory may state only people with a particular sexual deviance commit a certain type of crime. Therefore police look for that type of person when that type of crime is committed. However profiling is only suitable for specific, and generally unusual types of crime. There is also a problem with this method as organised deviant criminals can make it look unplanned. An example of a criminal profile created through the top down approach is the case of John Duffy by Canter et al... 

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Making a Case - Offender Profiling

John Duffy - Making a Case (Offender Profiling)

An example of a criminal profile created through the top down approach is the case of John Duffy by Canter et al. Canter drew up a preliminary profile for John Duffy containing information such as residence, appearance, occupation, character, sexual activity and criminal record. This profile represents the first attempt to use behavioural characteristics to search for a criminal instead of purely forensic evidence from the crime scene. In November 2000 Duffy who was serving life confessed that he was responsible. The profile fitted much of the criteria.  

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