Jamie’s Big F a t Crime Revision

Definitions

• Crime – something against the law or violates social norms.

• Anti-social behaviour – likely to cause alarm or distress.

• Recidivism – repeat offending / offender. • Stereotyping – standardised and simplified

concepts of a groups behaviour. • Modelling – a way of learning through imitation. • Eyewitness Testimony – giving an account of an

incident that you have witnessed.

Social Learning Theory

• Modelling will occur when the observer pays attention, retains the information and reproduces what they have observed and when they are motivated to do so.

• This motivation is affected by vicarious learning, external motivation and self-reinforcement.

• Bandura’s (1961) study of children supports this theory.

Social Learning Theory

Strengths Supporting evidence = credible explanation

Useful applications = can create interventions

Weaknesses Reductionist (simplistic) = better explanations

Refuting Evidence = not credible (Charlton 2000 – TV aggression)

Labelling and SFP

• The person is first labelled and then becomes the label.

• There are four stages of the SFP:– Labelling – Treating the person according to the label – The person reacts by acting according to the label– The person’s behaviour fulfils the expectations which

confirm the label – a SFP has occurred.• Jahoda (1954) supports this – names of children.

Labelling and SFP

Strengths Supporting evidence = credible explanation

Useful applications = can create interventions

Weaknesses Reductionist (simplistic) = better explanations

Determinism (vs. freewill)= individual differences

You also need to be able to compare and contrast the two theories.

SID: Loftus & Palmer (1974) E1

Participants45 students from University of Washington

Independent VariableVerb Used

Dependent VariableEstimate of speed

About how fast were the cars going when they _______ each other?

SmashedCollidedBumpedHitContacted

Verb Mean estimate of speed

SmashedCollidedBumped

HitContacted

40.839.338.134.031.8

Distortion of Memory?The memory of how fast the cars were traveling couldhave been distorted by the verbal label.

Response-Bias?The participant is not sure of the exact speed and therefore adjusts his or her estimate to fit in with theexpectations of the questioner.

SID: Loftus & Palmer (1974) E2

Participants150 students from University of Washington

Independent VariableWording of question

Dependent VariableAwareness of glass

How fast were the cars going when they hit / smashed each other?

Hit

Smashed

Control Condition

Smashed Hit Control

YesNo

1634

743

644

What really happened

Factors after the event

Reconstructive Hypothesis

SID: Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

One spring afternoon in Vancouver, Canada, a thief entered a gun shop, tied up the owner and stole some money and guns. The owner freed himself and picked up a revolver. He went outside to take the car registration number but the thief had not got into the car and he fired two shots at the store owner from a distance of about 6 feet. The owner, after a short pause, fired all 6 shots from his revolver. The thief was killed but the store owner recovered from serious injury. Witnesses viewed the scene from different locations – passing cars, buildings or in the street.

SID: Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

Aim: To record and evaluate witness accounts.To examine issues raised by laboratory researchTo look at witness verbatim accounts – their accuracy and the kind of errors made.Procedure: 21 witnesses interviewed by police.13 agreed to take part in the research interviews (two had moved from the area, five declined and the other was the victim, who did not want the relive the trauma).

SID: Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

Four – to – five months later … • 13 witnesses interviewed by the researchers –

audio taped and transcribed.• Research interviews used the same format as

police interviews (own account then questions).

• But TWO misleading questions:1. “a busted headlight” Vs “the busted headlight”. (There

was no broken headlight)2. “the yellow quarter panel” Vs “a yellow quarter panel”.

(Quarter panel was blue)

SID: Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

Results: In the police interviews 84.56% of the central witnesses were accurate, compared with 70.31% of the peripheral group. The accuracy remained similar and high for most of the witnesses even after 4 – 5 months and errors were relatively rare.Conclusions: • Eyewitnesses are not inaccurate in their accounts.• Y&C suggest they may have investigated flashbulb

memories. The fact that those directly involved in the event remembered more might support this and explain the difference in findings from lab studies.

Charlton et al (2000) – St. Helena

St. Helena, a British Colony in the South Atlantic Ocean, which received television for the first time in 1995.

SID: Charlton et al (2000)

Aim: To investigate the effects of television on children’s behaviour.Procedure: • 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 4 months in

Mar 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.

SID: Charlton et al (2000)

Results:• 2 Showed decreases in anti-social behaviour amongst boys• 5 showed increases in pro-social behaviour in boys and girls• 2 showed decreases in pro-social behaviour in boys• Boys displayed less hitting and pushing after TV was introduced• Boys less willing to help or show affection• Both boys and girls showed significant increases in pro-social

behaviour overall

SID: Charlton et al (2000)

Conclusion: The introduction of TV had no negative effect on children’s behaviour (quite the opposite) which contradicts most laboratory research.

Yarmey (2004)Aim: To study the effect of different situational variables on the reliability of EWT. Procedure: involved studying 215 male participants and 375 female participants aged between 18 and 70. They were randomly assigned into one of many different conditions listed below:

1. Whether the target was wearing a disguise (sunglasses and baseball cap) or not.

2. Whether the witness (participant) was male or female.3. Whether the participant was interviewed straight after being approached

or four hours later.4. Whether the participant was prepared (told they were going to be an

eyewitness) or not.5. Whether cognitive interview techniques were used or not.6. Whether the photo of the target was present in the photo line-up or not.

Yarmey (2004)

Participants approached in public by young woman who

asked them either to help look for jewellery OR for directions. After this the participants were

approached by a female researcher who asked them if

they would take part in a study.

If the target agreed the researcher asked

them questions either there and then OR 4

hours later.

Participants were then given a questionnaire about the

targets appearance and then asked to identify her in

a photo line up – she was either IN the photo line up

or NOT IN the photo line up.

Yarmey (2004) Variation Actual Findings Student Prediction

Identified the target when present in the photographs

49% 63%

Realised the target was not present in the photographs

62% 47%

The students who were prepared for being a witness were better at recall overall, but were no better at photo identification.

Conclusion: Eyewitnesses are likely to identify a target correctly 50% of the time and so EWT is equally likely to be inaccurate. The study overall casts doubt on whether jurors should accept EWT statements simply because they were present at a crime.

Token Economy

• Rewards and these can be periodically exchanged for something that the individual wants (the economy part of the name).

• These tokens have no intrinsic value and are called secondary reinforcers.

• Tokens may be exchanged for primary reinforcers such as phone cards, cigarettes, leisure time or extra visits.

• Generalisation is part of learning theory principles and is important when talking about token economies.

• The idea is that desired behaviour, once reinforced and established in an institution, would be generalised to outside the institution so that appropriate behaviour would be established.

Token Economy

It is very important that there are clear definitions of: - what is a desired behaviour- what is a token- how tokens are allocated- what is a reward- how there will be gradual changing of the giving of tokens to shape the behaviour- how many tokens there are for each reward- how the reward will be removed once the behaviour is achieved

TES - Hobs and Holt (1976)• A token economy designed to modify the behaviour of 125

adolescent males committed to a state correctional institution was implemented to boys’ cottages, focusing on social behaviour (peer interaction), rule following and task completion.

• The program was introduced to three cottages and a fourth cottage served as a comparison.

• Data was collected over 14 months and the 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.

• In cottage A appropriate behaviour increased from a baseline mean of 66% to a treatment mean of 91.6%. In cottage B from a baseline mean of 46.7% to 80.8% and for cottage C 73.2% to 94.2%.

AM - Ireland (2000)• Ireland (2000) investigated if anger management work actually

works. Ireland made two comparisons; pre and post test scores for a ‘treatment’ (experimental) group, and scores between the experimental and control group.

• In the experimental group there were 50 prisoners completing an anger management course. In the control group there were 37 prisoners awaiting the start of an anger management course. They were matched for age, offence and levels of angry behaviours.

• Ireland assessed self-reported angry behaviours, and observations collected by prison officers of angry behaviours. The results showed significant reductions in the angry behaviours of the experimental group (92% of prisoners showed improvement). There was no change in the angry behaviours of the control group

Anger Management

• Anger management is a cognitive-behavioural approach, developed in the mid 1970’s and is based mainly on the work of a psychologist named Novaco (1975).

• Anger management programmes do not stop the individual experiencing anger but teaches them to deal with their angry reactions more effectively.

• Anger management programmes are usually performed in groups and involve three distinct stages:– Cognitive preparation– Skill acquisition– Application Practice