Are legal experts better decision makers than jurors? A psychological evaluation of the role of juries in the 21st century
Lee Curley, Till Neuhaus Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The Scottish Government hope to pilot judge only rape trials to increase the woefully low rape conviction rates in Scotland. The reasoning is that by removing jurors, the court will be attenuating the role that rape myths and other cognitive and social biases have on conviction rates. However, a plethora of research from cognitive and social psychology, legal literature and decision-making science has shown that experts, including judges and other legal professionals, may be no less biased than laypeople. This paper aims...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - April 23, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Lee Curley Till Neuhaus Source Type: research
Perceptions of the freezing response of male and female rape victims, and the moderating role of rape myth beliefs
This study was a cross-sectional, vignette survey study with a 2 × 2 between-participants experimental design. Participants read a mock police report describing an alleged rape with a female or male victim who either resisted or froze, while perpetrator gender was adjusted heteronormatively.Freezing and male victims were blamed more than resisting and female victims. Perpetrators were blamed more when the victim resisted, but male and female perpetrators were blamed equally. Seriousness of the crime was higher for male perpetrators and when the victim resisted. Female, but not male, rape myth acceptance moderated the rela...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - April 11, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Judith Christiane Ostermann Steven James Watson Source Type: research
Examining traumatic brain injury as a risk factor for violent offending: testing for cognitive and affective mediation
This study aims to address these gaps in the extant literature by examining TBI as a predictor of violent offending and test for mediation effects through cognitive constructs of dual systems imbalance and hostility among a sample of justice-involved youth (JIY).The Pathways to Desistance data were analyzed. The first three waves of this data set comprising the responses of 1,354 JIY were analyzed. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to test for direct and indirect effects of interest. A bootstrap resampling process was used to compute unbiased standard errors for determining the statistical significance of m...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - April 8, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Thomas Wojciechowski Source Type: research
A systematic review of evidence capturing efficacy of community and school-based approaches to knife crime intervention and prevention programs
Dean Wilkinson, Isha Chopra, Sophie Badger Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- Knife crime and serious violent crime (SVC) among youth has been growing at an alarming rate in the UK (Harding and Allen, 2021). Community and school-based intervention and prevention services to tackle knife crime are being developed with some evaluation; however, these are independent and of varied quality and rigour. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to record the approaches being developed and synthesise existing evidence of the impact and effectiveness of programmes to reduce knife crime. In...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - March 27, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Dean Wilkinson Isha Chopra Sophie Badger Source Type: research
Book review: sexual history evidence and the rape trial
Charlotte Herriott Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp.213-215 (Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology)
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - March 23, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Charlotte Herriott Source Type: research
Editorial: “Make out that the fellow is insane”: reflections on mental illness and terrorism
Andrew Silke Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp.97-98 (Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology)
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - March 21, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Andrew Silke Source Type: research
Exploring the perceived importance of neuroscientific research on addictions in legal contexts: a survey of US criminal justice students and German legal professionals
This study complements prior work on US defense attorney’s understandings of addiction by investigating two further perspectives: the potential “next generation” of legal professionals in the USA (criminal justice undergraduates) and legal professionals from another system (Germany). This paper aims to assess their views on the brain disease model of addiction, dominance and relevance of this model, the responsibility of affected persons and preferred sources of information.Views of 74 US criminal justice undergraduate students and 74 German legal professionals were assessed using Likert scales and open-ended quest...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - February 22, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: Doris Ochterbeck Colleen M. Berryessa Sarah Forberger Source Type: research
Job stress and burnout among prison staff: a systematic literature review
Vítor Costa, Samuel Monteiro, Ana Isabel Cunha, Henrique Pereira, Graça Esgalhado Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The purpose of this study is to systematically review the recent empirical literature on job stress and burnout among prison staff with a focus on predictors, outcomes of stress and burnout and the mediating role that stress and burnout can play between its predictors and outcomes.The authors followed systematic literature review (SLR) protocols for the social sciences, and searches were done on two large research databases: SCOPUS and Web of Science. Articles in...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - January 2, 2024 Category: Criminology Authors: V ítor Costa Samuel Monteiro Ana Isabel Cunha Henrique Pereira Gra ça Esgalhado Source Type: research
Measuring criminal thinking among convicts imprisoned in Punjab prisons of Pakistan
This study aims to differentiate crime-related characteristics (such as the number of cases filed against current convictions and criminal history) based on the criminal thinking prevailing among convicts. However, because of the low reliability of subscales and poor structural validity of indigenous and translated versions of international instruments, a new instrument criminal attitude measure (CAM) was extracted to measure criminal thinking patterns among convicts incarcerated in central prisons of Punjab.A cross-sectional research design was used. Data was collected from 1,949 male convicts (extracting mutually exclusi...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - December 26, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Nimrah Ishfaq Anila Kamal Source Type: research
Forensic mental health assessments of juvenile misdemeanor cases involving demoralization (status offenses) and delinquency
Danuta Rode, Joanna Kabzińska, Magdalena Rode, Ewa Habzda-Siwek, Daniel Boduszek Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The role of evidence-based psychological knowledge in cases of juvenile offending is essential to make appropriate decisions relating to youth who violate legal or social norms, as it carries implications for treatment, intervention and practice. Psychological expert opinions therefore need to meet high formal and methodological requirements while maintaining ethical standards. The purpose of this study is to investigate psychological expert opinions in cases of ju...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - December 20, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Danuta Rode Joanna Kabzi ńska Magdalena Rode Ewa Habzda-Siwek Daniel Boduszek Source Type: research
The age of extremism: a crime script analysis of violent and nonviolent extremists according to age of first extremist act
This study applied a temporal approach (“crime script analysis” or CSA) to identify, map and compare the sequential stages (or “scenes”) in the life histories of violent and non-violent extremists who have committed acts of extremism across different age groups. Crime scripts comprising mainly qualitative data for 40 male extremists (20 violent, 20 non-violent “cases”) were developed, and CSA was conducted according to the age at which they committed their first extremist offence.Results demonstrated key temporal, developmental differences between the pathways of extremists who commit their first offence at dif...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - December 7, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Sarah Knight Abbie Maro ño David Keatley Source Type: research
The lived experiences of women who discovered their partner perpetrated a sexual offence
This study aims to explore the experiences of non-offending partners (NOPs) of men who perpetrated contact and non-contact sexual offences.In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight women and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.Findings yielded two superordinate themes, eight subordinate themes and an overarching theme. The first superordinate theme “Paying for their Husband’s Transgressions” captured many ways in which the women’s lives were impacted by their husbands offending. The second superordinate theme “Navigating the Darkness” encompassed the women’s experienc...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - December 5, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Eileen Conmy Garry Prentice Barbara Hannigan Timothy James Trimble Source Type: research
Trauma-Informed Forensic Practice
Geraldine Akerman Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.261-264 (Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology)
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - November 24, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Geraldine Akerman Source Type: research
What happened that day? Recall for events of a day that later became important
Madison B. Harvey, Heather L. Price, Kirk Luther Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- The purpose of this study was to explore potential witnesses' memories for a day that was experienced an unremarkable. There may be instances in an investigation in which all leads have been exhausted, and investigators use a broad appeal for witnesses who may have witnessed something important. Investigators can benefit from knowing the types of information that may be recalled in such circumstances, as well as identifying specific methods that are effective in eliciting useful information.The pr...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - November 2, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Madison B. Harvey Heather L. Price Kirk Luther Source Type: research
Does a conduct disorder factor increment the capacity of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short to predict criminal recidivism?
Pedro Pechorro, Paula Gomide, Matt DeLisi, Mário Simões Journal of Criminal Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- Recent developments in the psychometric assessment of youth psychopathic traits suggest that the inclusion of a conduct disorder (CD) factor to the traditional three factors of the psychopathy construct may improve the incremental validity of these measures. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether the addition of a CD factor incrementally improves the ability of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory Short version (YPI-S) to predict criminal recidivism.A longitudinal quant...
Source: Journal of Criminal Psychology - October 26, 2023 Category: Criminology Authors: Pedro Pechorro Paula Gomide Matt DeLisi M ário Simões Source Type: research
