ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X79663

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

When attempting to identify an offender whom they saw commit a crime, eyewitnesses are frequently asked to indicate their confidence in their memories. Confidence judgments may be expressed prior to seeing a line‐up, after making an identification decision or in the courtroom. Such judgments can exert an important influence on decision making within the criminal justice system. Here, I examine theory and evidence that bear on the likely usefulness of such confidence judgments for diagnosing the accuracy of the associated identification. Contrary to often expressed views, I argue that confidence recorded immediately after the identification test is informative about the identity of the offender. Confidence expressions obtained at other times are likely to be misleading. Important directions for future confidence research are identifie

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X79672

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Adults' (N= 239) and children's (N= 177, age range 8–13 years) identification abilities were examined when a culprit underwent a change in appearance following the commission of a crime. Simultaneous and elimination lineup procedures were compared to determine the reliability of each under ‘change in appearance’ conditions. Participants viewed a staged, videotaped theft and then examined a target‐present or ‐absent lineup. Correct identifications (target‐present lineups) decreased following a change in appearance regardless of age of witness and lineup procedure. Children's correct rejection rates (target‐absent lineups) were lower than those of adults. The elimination procedure compared with the simultaneous procedure was more effective at increasing correct rejections when the lineup members matched the culprit's appearance for children and adults. When lineup members did not match the culprit's appearance, correct rejection rates were similar across the two identification procedures for bot

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X52626

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.This research provided a detailed analysis of the types of questions and verbal strategies used by police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities about events.Method.Twenty eight children aged 9 to 13 years with a mild or moderate intellectual disability participated in a staged event at their school. Each child was then interviewed on separate occasions by the child's primary caregiver and by a police officer who was authorized to conduct investigative interviews with children.Results.While the approach used by the police officers was broadly consistent with best‐practice recommendations (i.e. their interviews contained few leading, coercive or negative strategies), they frequently interrupted the child's account and used relatively few minimal encouragers and other strategies designed to keep the child talking. The caregivers used a high proportion of direct, leading and coercive strategies to elicit information from their children. Even when caregivers used open‐ended questions, their children provided less event‐related information than they did to the police interviewers.Conclusion.The quality of evidence obtained from children with intellectual disabilities is likely to be dependent (albeit in part) on the degree to which police interviewers adhere to best‐practice guidelines, as well as the children's general experience with an open‐ended style of comm

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X68494

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.Recently courts in several Common Law jurisdictions have been faced with the daunting task of adjudicating criminal complaints of child sexual assault that are alleged to have occurred in the distant past (historic child sexual abuse; HCSA). In the present data set, alleged offences ended between 2 and 48 years before the trial. These cases, which involve claims of repressed memory and continuous memory for the offence, raise many issues that hitherto had only rarely been faced by criminal courts and that are within the realm of issues studied by social scientists. In this paper we explore variables that predict the presence of a social science expert, called by the prosecution or the defence or an expert called by both sides.Methods.A total of 2,064 actual criminal cases involving HCSA were coded on a variety of variables that were then used to predict the presence of an expert at trial and to predict the presence of an expert to evaluate the perpetrator for sentencing.Results.Six variables predicted the presence of an expert at trial: offence description, frequency of abuse, complainant/accused relationship, complainant age, presence of repression, and complainant gender. Seven variables predicted the presence of an expert at sentencing: offence description, frequency of abuse, length of delay to trial, presence of threat, trial date, plea, and age difference between complainant and accused.Conclusions.We use these archival data to generate hypotheses concerning the observed predictors of the use of expert testimony by courts in HCSA cases. The objective is to encourage more controlled studies of the particular case characteristics about which courts seek guidance from social scientists.

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X50312

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential effects of pro and anti rape myth bias in judges' summing up statements on verdicts given by individuals.Method.A convenience sample of 90 male and 90 female students from a British university completed the Rape myth acceptance (RMA) scale (Burt, 1980). A scenario depicting a date rape was read, ending with guidance that was either pro or anti rape myth, or neutral.Results.Rape myth supporting guidance was associated with innocent verdicts, and anti rape myth guidance with guilty verdicts, regardless of degree of rape myth acceptance. Level of rape myth acceptance and gender were also found to predict verdict.Conclusion.Rape myth biased guidance may influence verdicts in a rape scenario in which the attribution of blame to the man and woman depicted could be perceived as being ambiguous.

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X68250

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.The fact that abused children often talk about their experiences before entering the legal system is a neglected factor in terms of the validation of different reliability assessment techniques. Hence, the present study investigated the extent to which the scores of the reality monitoring technique (RM) and the criteria‐based content analysis technique (CBCA) were affected by the number of times children recalled an experienced or an imagined event.Method.Children (aged 12–13 years,N– 80) participated in an experiment where half the sample experienced a real event (an interaction with a stranger outside his car) and then recalled it either one or four times (over a period of 14 days), and the other half imagined the same event and thereafter recalled it either one or four times. The statements given at the final (or only) recall session were analysed with both CBCA and RM.Results.The results revealed that, on a multivariate level, both the CBCA and RM sets of criteria discriminated between truthful and fabricated statements. The total RM score (but not the total CBCA score) discriminated reliably between truthful and fabricated statements. Furthermore, RM (but not CBCA) were sensitive to the number of times the experienced or imagined event was recalled: increased presence of criteria after repeated recall.Conclusions.The results were rather promising for the RM and less so for the CBCA. Furthermore, we found that the number of recalls moderated the effectiveness of the techniques. Hence, when assessing the reliability of a child's memory, it is crucial to learn about the history of the first documented stat

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X49620

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives.This experiment investigates the impact of informing participants about verbal and non‐verbal cues to deception on their verbal and non‐verbal responses. Based on the fact that people are more practised in their verbal behaviour than in their non‐verbal behaviour, we predicted that giving participants information about verbal cues would positively affect their verbal accounts resulting in them giving an account that appeared more credible. In contrast, we predicted that informing participants about non‐verbal cues would have no noticeable effect on credibility. We also predicted that focusing on verbal behaviours would impair non‐verbal performance and that, vice versa, concentrating on non‐verbal behaviours would impair verbal performance, particularly in liars.Method.A total of 128 participants either told the truth or lied about the possession of an object. Prior to these interviews, participants were or were not informed about verbal cues to deception and were or were not informed about non‐verbal cues of deception (these two factors were systematically manipulated).Results.As predicted, participants were able to adapt their verbal behaviour but were not able to change their non‐verbal behaviour. However, focusing on one aspect (either verbal or non‐verbal behaviour) did not occur at the expense of the other behaviour (either non‐verbal or verbal).Conclusion.Verbal countermeasures may well be easier to apply than non‐v

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X49936

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Background.Previous reports on the outcome of services for offenders with developmental disabilities have found recidivism rates of between 40% and 70% with an elevated prevalence of sex offending, fire‐raising, and aggression. Studies have also reported that female offending rates in the intellectual disability population are broadly similar to those found in mainstream populations. All reports have been conducted on in‐patient or prison samples. The present report is of a community forensic intellectual disability service.Method.Two male cohorts of sex offenders (N= 121) and other types of offenders (N= 105) and female offenders (N= 21) are studied and compared. Data is reported on characteristics of the cohort, problems identified at referral, criminal justice disposal trends, index offences at time of referral, reoffending rates of up to 12 years after index offence, patterns of referral in the first 6 and second 6 years of the study period and the extent of harm reduction.Results.There were no differences between the groups on IQ and the sex offender cohort tended to be older. Female offenders had higher rates of mental illness although rates for the male cohorts were generally high at around 32%. The sex offending cohort had fewer problems with anger and aggression and alcohol abuse but a higher level of daily living problems and relationship problems. Female offenders had high rates of all problems studied except daily living problems. Unlike certain previous studies, sex offences predominated in the sex offender cohort while other types of offences predominated in the other two cohorts. Average age was lower for more recent referrals. Among recidivists only, a considerable amount of harm reduction was recorded.Conclusions.Fire raising and offences against children are not overly represented when compared with mainstream offenders. When compared with previous studies, it appears that a community forensic intellectual disability service may have an impact in reducing the number of offences committed over a 12 year follow up per

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X55669

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.British neurologist Henry Miller (1961; Miller&Cartlidge, 1972) provoked controversy by asserting late post‐concussion syndrome (LPCS) is explained by simulation. The present study examines Miller's inverse dose‐response assertion; the more minor the compensable injury, the greater the likelihood of deficit simulation.Method.We examined the prevalence of three types of simulation (memory, motor, and psychiatric) in two archival cohorts of compensation seekers (N= 391 and 368) representing a broad range of cranio‐cervical injury severity. A moderate‐severe brain injured group provided two sets of performance floors to establish ‘possible’ or ‘probable’ pseudoabnormalities. Instruments included the Rey word recognition list, the Smedley dynamometer, the Test of Memory Malingering, and the MMPI‐2 infrequency scale.Results.Chronic whiplash and minor head‐injury litigants produced more invalid signs than severely injured persons on measures of simulated memory and motor deficits irrespective of definitional stringency. ANOVA revealed striking inverse linear trends as a function of severity. Under a ‘possible’ rule, at least one pseudoabnormality was present in 80% of LPCS claimants. Memory and motor pseudoabnormalities were more common than psychotic ones.Conclusions.These findings support Miller and Cartlidge's (1972) observations that embellishment rises as injury severity decreases in a compensable context. Simulating litigants may ‘tailor’ performance to fit aetiological expectations, as we found a low prevale

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532505X49828

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2006

数据来源: WILEY