Lecture 3 - Investigative Techniques and Eyewitness Identification

How is criminal profiling defined in the lecture?

The use of crime scene information, such as the location of a body or type of wounds, to predict an unknown perpetrator's demographic and personality characteristics.

Who was the 'Mad Bomber' and who was the psychiatrist that profiled him?

The 'Mad Bomber' was George Metesky, and he was profiled by Dr. James Brussel.

Which two FBI agents are credited with making criminal profiling famous?

John Douglas and Robert Ressler.

In classic trait theory, what does the term 'homology' refer to?

The idea that offenders who commit similar crimes share similar characteristics.

What is the assumption of 'behavioural consistency' in profiling?

The suggestion that serial offenders behave the same across their crimes.

Define 'behavioural differentiation' as it relates to classic trait theory.

The concept that one offender's crime scene behaviours are distinct from those of other offenders.

What is the 'interactionist perspective' regarding criminal behaviour?

The view that characteristics are relatively stable but interact with the environment or situation to predict behaviour.

What is Step 1 of the criminal profiling process?

Information Gathering: Evidence from the crime scene, photographs, and victim/witness statements are given to the profiler.

What occurs during Step 2 (Profiler Review & Evaluation) of the profiling process?

Evidence is evaluated for patterns and insights that may reveal information about the perpetrator.

How is the criminal profiling process completed in Step 3?

Profile Delivery: The profiler provides the profile to police, often as a written report with recommendations.

What is Clinical Deductive profiling?

An approach used by FBI and forensic profilers that relies on education, training, knowledge of behaviour, and interview experience to make predictions.

What is Statistical Inductive profiling?

An approach used by social scientists that uses data on the characteristics of offenders who commit different crimes to make predictions.

Which three Canadian police organizations primarily use criminal profiling?

The RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Quebec Provincial Police.

What are three aspects of criminal profiling that lack standardization?

Definition (what constitutes profiling), Credentials (who can be a profiler), and Application (what cases require it).

What is the organized/disorganized dichotomy?

A profiling process assuming violent offenders behave in either an organized or disorganized fashion, which carries over into other life aspects.

Why is criminal profiling sometimes considered a pseudoscience?

It contains the Barnum effect (vague statements), relies on unsubstantiated claims, and shows an inability to identify 'bogus' profiles in studies.

Explain the 'Counting Hits, Dismissing Misses' error in profiling messages.

Media messaging overemphasizes correct inferences while minimizing or failing to report incorrect inferences.

What is geographic profiling?

Analyzing a series of crime locations to predict the geographic area where the offender is likely to live.

Who is the Canadian professor that created geographic profiling?

Dr. Kim Rossmo.

What is the name of the software used for geographic profiling?

Rigel.

What two measures are used to test the accuracy of geographic profiling?

Hit percentage and error distance.

What is comparative case analysis (crime linkage analysis)?

Determining whether two or more crimes were committed by the same offender based on physical evidence or behavioural patterns.

What does the acronym ViCLAS stand for?

Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System.

What is 'linkage blindness'?

The failure of analysts to identify links between crimes, often due to limitations in systems like ViCLAS.

What is Equivocal death analysis?

The process of trying to predict the manner of death based on personality and lifestyle when the cause of death is unknown.

What is a psychological autopsy?

The process of determining the mental state or motivations of a person who is already deceased.

Which individuals were involved in a famous eyewitness misidentification case in $1984$?

Jennifer Thompson (victim), Ronald Cotton (wrongfully convicted), and Bobby Poole (actual perpetrator).

What type of memories are investigators most interested in retrieving from eyewitnesses?

Episodic memories (experienced events).

Explain the 'encoding specificity principle'.

The principle that recall is improved when sensory cues from the time of encoding are available during retrieval.

What is the 'multiple components principle' of memory?

The idea that memory is multi-faceted and retrieval is better if multiple different retrieval cues are used.

Define 'recall' and 'recognition' in the context of memory retrieval.

Recall is reconstructing previously witnessed information; Recognition is the ability to identify previously encountered information.

What are the three core stages of memory processes?

Encoding (coding and putting into memory), Storage (maintaining in memory), and Retrieval (recovering from memory).

What is the cognitive interview?

A science-based interviewing protocol that uses evidence-based memory-enhancing techniques to gather information from witnesses.

What is the 'report everything' technique in cognitive interviewing?

Asking the witness to tell everything they remember, even if they think a detail is unimportant or they cannot remember fully.

How is 'mental reinstatement of context' performed during an interview?

The witness is asked to put themselves back at the scene, visualize it, and think about how they felt at the time.

Why is the 'eye closure' or 'gaze aversion' technique used?

Research shows it helps reduce distractions, which improves memory retrieval.

What are probing questions?

High-quality questions that start with what, who, when, where, why, or how.

What is meant by 'misinformation' in the context of witness interviewing?

Information that was not actually present during an event, often introduced via leading questions.

Which personality traits are associated with officers who implement cognitive interviews more effectively?

Agreeableness (flexible, patient), Extraversion (sociable), and Open-mindedness (creative, inquisitive).

What did Macdonald, Snook, et al. ($2017$) find regarding police training and interviewing?

Two-week training increased rapport building and open-ended questions, but the overall number of open-ended questions remained low.

What are KGB warnings?

Written statements outlining criminal charges for fabricating evidence, intended to ensure witnesses tell the truth.

At what age can children reliably recall events if interviewed correctly?

As young as $4$ years old.

What is the recommended ratio of open invitations to directive questions when interviewing children?

$80\%$ open invitations and $20\%$ directive questions.

What are 'estimator variables'?

Factors impacting lineup accuracy that are outside the control of the police, such as the eyewitness's eyesight or the time of day.

What are 'system variables'?

Factors affecting lineup accuracy that are within the control of the police, such as lineup procedures.

Compare sequential and simultaneous lineups.

Sequential lineups present photos one at a time, while simultaneous lineups present them all at once.

What is a 'double-blind procedure' in a police lineup?

A procedure where neither the administrator nor the witness knows who the suspect is in the lineup.

What is the recommendation for choosing lineup fillers to prevent the suspect from standing out?

Match-to-description.

When should a confidence rating be obtained from an eyewitness?

Immediately following the identification, as it is most related to accuracy at that time.

What is a 'showup' and what is the recommendation regarding its use?

A biased procedure where only one photo is presented; the recommendation is to say no to showups.

Criminal profiling involves using __________ information to predict an unknown perpetrator's demographic and personality characteristics.

crime scene

Dr. James Brussel provided a famous profile for the __________, whose real name was George Metesky.

Mad Bomber

Criminal profiling was made famous by FBI agents John Douglas and __________.

Robert Ressler

The theory suggesting that individuals behave the same across different situations because internal traits determine behaviour is __________ trait theory.

classic

The assumption that offenders who commit similar crimes share similar characteristics is known as __________.

Homology

The idea that serial offenders behave the same across their crimes is called behavioural __________.

consistency

Behavioural __________ suggests that one offender's crime scene behaviours are different from those of other offenders.

differentiation

The __________ perspective suggests that characteristics are relatively stable but interact with the environment in predicting behaviour.

interactionist

Step $1$ of the criminal profiling process is __________ Gathering.

Information

In Step $3$ of the profiling process, the profiler provides a written report with __________ to aid the investigation.

recommendations

Clinical (or __________) profiling uses education and training to make predictions about an offender.

deductive

Statistical (or __________) profiling uses data on the characteristics of past offenders to make predictions.

inductive

Between $1996$ and $2006$, a series of burglaries and murders occurred across __________, prompting the development of behavioural profiles.

British Columbia

Most serial rapists are males aged __________ to __________ according to statistical data.

$20$ to $35$

In Canada, criminal profiles are mostly used by the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the __________ Provincial Police.

Quebec

The __________ dichotomy assumes that violent offenders behave in either a structured or unstructured fashion that carries into their life.

organized/disorganized

Criminal profiling is criticized for the __________ effect, where profiles contain overly vague statements that could fit any suspect.

Barnum

The cognitive processing error where people search for effectiveness after-the-fact to detect patterns is called __________-seeking.

Pattern

Media messaging often overemphasizes profiling "hits" and fails to report "__________," or incorrect inferences.

misses

__________ profiling analyzes a series of crime locations to predict where an offender is likely to live.

Geographic

Geographic profiling was created by Canadian professor __________.

Dr. Kim Rossmo

A systemic process of interviewing residents in the area where a crime occurred is called __________ efforts.

canvassing

__________ is a type of software that applies a distance decay function around crime locations to create a colour-coded map.

Rigel

Tests of geographic profiling accuracy use two measures: __________ percentage and error distance.

hit

Determining whether two or more crimes were committed by the same offender is known as __________ case analysis.

comparative

Canada uses a system called __________ to assist in linking violent crimes through a database of solved and unsolved cases.

ViCLAS

A limitation of ViCLAS is that information entered shows low __________ reliability.

inter-rater

Analysts may suffer from __________ blindness, which is the inability to accurately identify links between crimes.

linkage

__________ death analysis is the process of trying to predict the manner of death in cases where the cause is unknown.

Equivocal

A __________ autopsy is the process of determining the mental state of someone who is already deceased.

psychological

Forensic __________ is an investigative technique that uses handwriting samples to infer an offender's personality.

graphology

Eyewitness misidentification is a leading cause of __________ convictions.

wrongful

In $1984$, Jennifer Thompson misidentified __________ as her attacker after viewed a photo and live lineup.

Ronald Cotton

The __________ specificity principle states that recall is improved when sensory cues from the event are available during retrieval.

encoding

The __________ components principle suggests that memory retrieval is better if multiple different retrieval cues are used.

multiple

Reconstructing previously witnessed information is known as __________, which is influenced by attitudes and expectations.

recall

__________ is the ability to identify previously encountered info, such as a perpetrator in a police lineup.

Recognition

The __________ interview is a science-based protocol used to enhance the memory of eyewitnesses.

cognitive

The cognitive interview technique "Report __________" asks the witness to recount all details even if they seem unimportant.

everything

The technique where a witness mentally recreates the scene and their feelings at the time is called mental __________ of context.

reinstatement

Asking a witness to tell what happened backwards is an example of the technique: Changing __________ of recall.

order

Asking a witness to describe an event from another person's viewpoint is known as changing __________.

perspectives

In the cognitive interview, __________ questions (starting with who, what, where, etc.) are preferred over yes/no questions.

probing

__________ questions can lead to the introduction of misinformation that was not present during the event.

Leading

A study by Macdonald, Snook, et al. in the year __________ found that two-week training improved rapport building and questioning techniques.

$$2017$$

__________ warnings are written statements that warn witnesses of the criminal charges for fabricating evidence.

KGB

The __________ protocol is a structured interview process used for child witnesses.

NICHD

__________ variables, such as eyesight or time of day, are outside the control of the police during an identification.

Estimator

AP-LS recommends using __________ lineups, where photos are presented one at a time, instead of simultaneous lineups.

sequential

A biased lineup procedure where only $1$ photo is presented for identification is called a __________.

showup