All posts; Tags Include "Forensic psychology"
- November 28, 2009
- 04:03 AM
- 293 views
When a police line-up with six one-eyed men is better than a line-up with none
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
You're mugged by a man with a patch over one eye. You describe him and his distinctive appearance to the police. They locate a one-eyed suspect and present him to you in a video line-up with five innocent "foils". If this suspect is the only person in the line-up with one eye, prior research shows you're highly likely to pick him out even if, in all other respects, he actually bears little resemblance to your mugger. So the challenge is: How to make police line-ups fairer for suspects who have a........ Read more »
Zarkadi T, Wade KA, & Stewart N. (2009) Creating Fair Lineups for Suspects With Distinctive Features. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS. PMID: 19883492
- November 4, 2009
- 04:53 AM
- 286 views
CCTV cameras don't reassure, they frighten
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
People are no more fearful of crossing a street with a young male skinhead in it than they are a street with a smartly dressed woman present, unless, that is, a CCTV camera is overhead. The new finding appears to undermine one of the key justifications for Britain's network of 4.2 million surveillance cameras: that they provide reassurance to the public. It seems that the sight of a CCTV camera can have the opposite effect, cueing the perception of a threat. Dave Williams and Jobuda Ahmed presen........ Read more »
Williams, D., & Ahmed, J. (2009) The relationship between antisocial stereotypes and public CCTV systems: exploring fear of crime in the modern surveillance society. Psychology, Crime , 15(8), 743-758. DOI: 10.1080/10683160802612882
- June 23, 2009
- 03:25 AM
- 496 views
Are shooting club members more aggressive than most?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
After the horror of a shooting spree, it sometimes emerges in the media that the killer was a member of a shooting club. Unsurprisingly, calls often then ensue for shooting club membership to be discouraged or even banned. Two assumptions underlie such calls: first, that shooting clubs attract aggressive people to their membership, and second, that contact with guns increases aggression. Now Maria Hagtegaal and colleagues have tested whether this is true, by comparing the self-reported aggressio........ Read more »
Nagtegaal, M., Rassin, E., & Muris, P. (2009) Do members of shooting associations display higher levels of aggression?. Psychology, Crime , 15(4), 313-325. DOI: 10.1080/10683160802241682
- June 15, 2009
- 04:56 AM
- 508 views
Driver stereotypes affect our memory of how fast a car was travelling
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When I see a car fast approaching in the rear-view mirror, I find I can't help but make assumptions about the personality of the driver based on the model of car they're driving. Now a new study suggests these kinds of stereotypes can affect our memory for how fast a car was travelling - a finding that could have important implications for the trustworthiness of eye witness statements.In an initial experiment, Graham Davies played ten-second video clips of a BMW and a (smaller, less powerful) Vo........ Read more »
Davies, G. (2009) Estimating the speed of vehicles: the influence of stereotypes. Psychology, Crime , 15(4), 293-312. DOI: 10.1080/10683160802203971
- March 19, 2009
- 01:32 PM
- 232 views
This Place is a Dump... Let's Trash It: Experimentally Testing the "Broken Window" Hypothesis
by Colin Clark in Mens Rea
Reviews an article on the effects of disordered environments on crime.... Read more »
Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S., & Steg, L. (2008) The Spreading of Disorder. Science, 322(5908), 1681-1685. DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405
- February 14, 2009
- 10:00 PM
- 238 views
Do you not get it, or do you just not care? Psychopaths and mirror neurons
by Colin Clark in Mens Rea
Links between psychopathy and the mirror neuron system... Read more »
FECTEAU, S., PASCUALLEONE, A., & THEORET, H. (2008) Psychopathy and the mirror neuron system: Preliminary findings from a non-psychiatric sample. Psychiatry Research, 160(2), 137-144. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2007.08.022
AGNEW, Z., BHAKOO, K., & PURI, B. (2007) The human mirror system: A motor resonance theory of mind-reading. Brain Research Reviews, 54(2), 286-293. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2007.04.003
- January 26, 2009
- 08:44 PM
- 230 views
Causes of violence: Take 2
by Colin Clark in Mens Rea
New findings and limits of the biological epidemiology of violent behavior.... Read more »
Lee, T., Chan, S., & Raine, A. (2008) Strong limbic and weak frontal activation to aggressive stimuli in spouse abusers. Molecular Psychiatry, 13(7), 655-656. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2008.46
Raine, A. (2008) From Genes to Brain to Antisocial Behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(5), 323-328. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00599.x
- January 12, 2009
- 11:17 PM
- 250 views
Youth Violence is Like a Rose... Wait, That's Not It
by Colin Clark in Mens Rea
Framing effects: how calling a problem by the "right" name can make a difference in solving it.... Read more »
Dodge, K. (2008) Framing public policy and prevention of chronic violence in American youths. American Psychologist, 63(7), 573-590. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.63.7.573
- January 6, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 506 views
Are the police any better than us at judging the accuracy of eye-witness statements?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Plenty of research has been conducted into the ability of people, including police officers, to judge whether people are lying: most of us are useless, while new research suggests the police may be better. However, little research has been conducted into whether, deliberate deception aside, people can judge the accuracy of eye-witness statements. This is an important issue given how unreliable eye-witnesses can be, even when they think they're telling the truth.Now Torun Lindholm has made a star........ Read more »
Torun Lindholm. (2008) Who can judge the accuracy of eyewitness statements? A comparison of professionals and lay-persons. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(9), 1301-1314. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1439
- November 24, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 453 views
Patients on secure wards are more likely to be aggressive towards staff of their own sex
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Secure ward managers may be able to reduce patient aggression by carefully monitoring the sex ratio of the staff relative to the patients. That's according to Susan Knowles and colleagues who've found that mental health patients held on a medium secure ward were more likely to exhibit physical or verbal aggression to staff of the same sex as themselves.The researchers analysed incident report records kept between 2004 and 2006 by two male-only and two female-only wards at a medium secure unit in........ Read more »
Susan Knowles, Sarah Coyne, & Stephen Brown. (2008) Sex differences in aggressive incidents towards staff in secure services. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry , 19(4), 620-631. DOI: 10.1080/14789940801962130
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