Criminal Psychology: Understanding Criminal Behaviour

2.1 Introduction
Many might derive their understanding of what being a criminal psychologist
involves from popular TV series and crime thrillers, such as the Netflix series
Mindhunter, which is based on a true-crime book with the same title, written by
John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. It follows two FBI Agents, Holden Ford and
Bill Tench, as they interview a plethora of serial killers who were serving life
sentences to gain insights into what caused them to commit such heinous crimes.
While these depictions in media do portray some aspects of the work done by a
criminal psychologist correctly, nevertheless, it also fails to represent the diverse
variety of other roles that a criminal psychologist can perform. A criminal
psychologist’s work profile is not merely limited to interviewing witnesses or
suspects of crimes, it also involves planning and working towards rehabilitation of
the offenders, serving as expert witnesses in the courtroom, and conducting
research on emerging topics in criminal psychology.

2.1.1 What Classifies as a Crime?

To understand the scope of criminal psychology, it is necessary to first define the
concept of crime. In legal terms, crime can be defined as an act or omission
punishable by law (Mclaughlin &Munice, 2001). But the definition of crime is
dynamic—what qualifies as a crime depends on the place and time of committing
the act, and the prevalent societal norms of that particular place (Newburn, 2013).
For example, the usage of various drugs such as marijuana, homosexuality,
prostitution, and marital rape is legal in some countries, but a criminal act in
others.
This variance in classifying crime gives rise to the dilemma of providing
psychological explanations for criminal behaviour. As Wortley contemplates, if
someone can be called a criminal today for an act, but not tomorrow, then nothing
meaningful can be said about the criminal nature. Robert Agnew tried to address
this ambiguity in his definition of crime. He proposes that crime should be defined
as ‘acts that cause blameworthy harm, is condemned by the public, and/or are not
sanctioned by the state’. This definition shifted the load away from the deeds that
are currently prohibited by the law to a wider array of destructive human actions
(Durrant, 2018).
Our ideas about the criminal world are formed through multiple sources—media,
social media, the government, and personal experiences of the general population.
Although all these sources seem to influence each other, media—with its
widespread reach—particularly dominates in influencing people’s perception of
crime. Media coverage majorly focuses on the sensationalization of events rather
than a realistic coverage of crime phenomena, such as property crime or theft that
are often underrepresented in the newspapers. On the other hand, violent crimes
such as homicide and rape are overtly reported in the news (Howitt, 2006).
It is important for practicing criminal psychologists to be familiar with the recent
trends in crime, both globally as well as within their own regions (Howitt, 2006).
This can be estimated via different methods such as general population and
offender surveys, surveys involving victims of crime, police records or reports of
crime, prison statistics of members imprisoned, and court statistics of convicted
crimes. Interpretation of the information correctly requires expertise and
experience as each source of information has to be considered mindful of particular
characteristics and influencing factors.

Explanation of criminal behaviour

The Social Learning theory
Description:
 This explanation is based on the fact that we learn criminal behaviours from
others. It looks at reinforcement, modelling and role models. It comes from the
learning approach.
 Criminals learn criminal behaviours by observing other people, usually role
models. People tend to observe and imitate those they identify with (role models).
Therefore, if the role model of someone does criminal behaviours, the person could
learn these behaviours, converting himself into a criminal. The theory states that
crime can be a learnt behaviour.
 Bandura Ross and Ross (1961) children observed aggressive behaviours and
copied it. Males were more likely to imitate a physical aggression, especially after
watching a male role model.
 The modeling process:
o Attention- modelled behaviour has to be noticed
Father hits mother. Child sees this.
o Retention- behaviour has to be remembered.
Father hits mother many times and the child is present. Mother scared of father and
always obeys (father has power).
o Reproduction- the observer has to be able to reproduce the behaviour.
Child grows and has a relationship. He hits his partner.
o Motivation- the person has to want to repeat the behaviour.
Obtains the power his father had over his mother. His partner obeys him and she’s
scared of him.
 Offenders could also learn criminal behaviours through reinforcements. For
example, they could learn to continue a criminal behaviour by positive
reinforcement (hitting someone and gaining respect and approval of peers), or by
negative reinforcement (stealing something and removing financial difficulty) or
by vicarious reinforcements (seeing other thieves with good lives).
 Role of media is also important when learning criminal behaviours.
o Violence, crime + aggression are seen in the media.
o 70/80% of programmes contain aggression.
o Crime and aggressiveness is usually rewarded and real consequences are not
shown.
o Videogames also have been shown to influence violent behaviour.
o People can become desensitized by seen violence in the media.
Evaluation:
 Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) found out that boys were more likely to be
aggressive after observing a male aggressive role model than after observing a
non-aggressive role model.
However, this study may lack of ecological validity as the children were not in
their natural environment.
 Barlett et. al (2007) found out that with the videogame Mortal Combat: Deathly
alliance, more blood led to more aggressive thoughts. In other words, that the
videogame did affect the aggressive behaviour of Ps.
 Applicable- the theory is applicable as it can be used for rehabilitation of
criminals. Role models displaying the wanted behaviour and reinforcements when
appropriate behaviour could be used to make offenders learn nonaggressive
behaviours and to extinguish the criminal behaviour they previously had.
 There is also everyday evidence which confirms the theory. Although not many
crimes have been linked to violence in media, through children play we can see
how they imitate their favourite characters in TV series.
 However, the theory doesn’t consider that maybe it’s not non-violent people
who watch violent media and turn violent but it is violent people who seek violent
media. Is this was the case, criminals would not be offenders because of media,
they would be criminals because of their nature.
 Also, the theory does not take in account if the crime has been unplanned or if it
passionate and has never been seen before. E.g. A woman killing his husband after
seeing he has an affair with another woman. The explanation looks more at crimes
such as stealing which are quite common, rather than murders, so we can say it is
reductionist.
 Charlton et. al (2000) found out that the introduction of TV did not have a
negative impact on children’s behaviour, and that there was actually an increase in
prosocial behaviour. This contradicts most lab research.
It was later shown that popular aggressive shows were not shown on the island, so
the natural experiment may lack validity.

Labelling and the Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Description:
 From the Social approach.
 The theory states that when someone is labelled in a determined way, the tagged
person will believe this label and act accordingly to the expectative
people have on them.
 Labels come mainly from stereotyping (making assumptions about one person
and generalizing to a group of people).
 E.g. A son of a thief is regarded by many as ‘thief’, the boy could believe this
label and start stealing.
 SFP states that if people expect someone to behave in a certain way, that person
starts to behave in the way others expect.
 There are 4 stages of SFP:
1. Labelling a person (thief)
2. Treatment of that person based on the label (discrimination, calling names about
family, people ignoring him and not wanting him)
3. Reaction to the expectations of the label by behaving accordingly to the label
(stealing)
4. Behaviour fulfils the expectations of the label and the behaviour continues (the
boy starts stealing more and more and becomes a thief).
 Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) experimented with this theory. They divided
randomly a class in two groups and told teachers that one group were “bloomers”
and the other wasn’t. The researchers reported an increase in IQ in those students
who were classified as bloomers, so teacher’s expectations on the students did
affect their progress.
Evaluation
 Madon et al (2003)- found that a mother’s expectation of their child’s alcohol
consumption correlated to the actual alcohol use a 48% of the time. In addition,
they found that positive expectations had a greater impact on the child than
negative ones. This study suggests that labels given to criminals could lead, in
some cases, to criminal behaviour.
A valid study of support as the mother’s expectations were naturally occurring (it
was a natural study).
 Application- as Madon’s study showed, positive labels can conduct behaviour.
Therefore we could use these labels as part of a treatment for offenders in prisons,
by labelling with positive expectations to shape a pro-social behaviour.
E.g. labelling someone as non-violent.
 Reductionist- the theory doesn’t take in account many other factors which could
lead to crime such as economic or biological traits of offenders.
 Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) showed that children would display aggression
after watching a role model displaying aggression. This study shows that violence
could be learnt and it states that criminal behaviour could be learnt.
Says it’s not a result of SFP.
 It is difficult to test SFP in crime as it is unethical to put expectations of
criminality in place and to encourage people to break the law and become
offenders.
 Generalization to crime is difficult. Most of the research done is about
education, not crime. Between a pupil and a teacher exists a special relationship, as
teachers normally put many expectations on their pupils, more than they would put
on any other person. Maybe in this relationship there are more expectations than in
a normal relationship, and maybe this is the cause that pupils get affected by labels.
If this is so, SFP would not work in crime and in normal relationships.
The biological explanation of crime
Description:
 Eysenck states that people are introvert or extrovert and that extrovert may
commit crime because they seek excitement and arousal.
 Eysenck believes that this personality trait is biological.
 Psychopaths may also be criminal because they have a low anxiety level which
means their behaviour is less controlled.
Treating offenders
Token economy program
Description:
 It is a form of behaviour modification based on operant conditioning. It is more
of a way of controlling behaviour in prisons rather than a solution for crime.
 It is useful in prisons as it provides a legitimate way of gaining privileges e.g.
cigarettes. It also promotes positive social interaction between prison staff and
offenders.
 Use of generalization- if a reinforced behaviour is obtained in prison, then it
should be generalized to other situations (outside the institution) and other similar
behaviours.
 Offenders are rewarded with secondary reinforcers (tokens) when they show
appropriate behaviour (e.g. non-aggressive behaviour such as politeness). This
tokens can then be exchanged for something the offender really desires, e.g.
cigarettes. The treatment will only work if the offender really wants to have the
reward.
 Punishment can be given when an undesired behaviour, such as an aggressive
behaviour (fighting with someone, insulting) is shown.
 Usually tokens which are exchanged frequently for rewards are more successful.
As the program develops, time between tokens and rewards becomes longer
(shadowing real life).
 The prison has to decide which are the appropriate behaviours (politeness,
cleaning jail, being friendly with other offenders) that will be rewarded and which
are the behaviours (insulting, fighting, refusing to eat) will be punished.
Also how the tokens will be exchanged for rewards.
Evaluation:
 Token economy programmes have clear rules. The programme states exactly
when staff should reward offenders with a token and it also states which
behaviours are acceptable. The programme is really easy to administer by trained
staff.
 Field et al (2004) found out that if you applied special TEP with more rewards
and tokens it would work for people with behavioural problems that hadn’t
responded to other treatments.
 One of the weaknesses of this programme is that it may be difficult for offenders
to generalise the learnt behaviours to the outer world. For example, an antisocial
girl may learn in a correctional, through rewards, to be polite.
When she get out, rewards for politeness will not be so obvious as in the
institution, so maybe she would stop the desired behaviour and star antisocial
behaviours again.
 TEP can make prisoners dependent on staff. Prisoners may feel they have no
choice than to do the desired behaviour, rather than doing it because they want the
reward. There is also the question if TEP are ethical, as they can be seen as very
patronising for adults.
 TEP need staff to be trained to as the system is opened to abuse. Is staff is not
trained correctly, they could deliver tokens in an incorrect way and violate the
offender’s rights. This training could be too expensive or too time-consuming for
the prison.
 Pearson et al (2002) carried out a meta-analysis and found out that cognitive-
behavioural therapies worked out better when looking at reducing recidivism.
Maybe is it necessary to change the prisoner’s way of thinking too, as behaviours
can be easily forgotten.
 Cause-effect relationship- TEP help improve relationships between staff and
prisoners ( ). But maybe, what it actually makes prisoners to adopt nonaggressive
behaviours is the improvement in this relationships, rather than the TEP and the
rewards ( ).
 Another weakness of TEP is that it needs careful monitoring or a system of
contraband could be formed between prisoners. Rewards should be motivating
enough so there’s no exchange or contraband between the prisoners (if this occurs,
the treatment would be ineffective)
Anger management programmes
Description:
 It is a cognitive behavioural technique. It tries to change the way offenders think
by teaching them ways to control their aggressiveness. Its aim is to reduce anger in
prisoners and therefore prevent crimes delivered from violence occurring.
 This programme studies what triggers aggression and how to control those
triggers.
 3 main steps:
1) Cognitive preparation- recognition of situations that trigger anger e.g. when they
see their partner talking to someone they are jealous of.
2) Skill acquisition- offenders are showed ways of controlling their anger e.g.
counting up to 10, walking away, relaxation techniques.
3) Application practice- offenders role play situations in which they would get
angry and put in practice the skills learnt at step 2.
 E.g.
o Anger because of being shouted at by boss
o Anger because of being unjustly shouted
o Man feels hot, and eyes go blurry
o Man must count up to 10 and wash his face with fresh water
o Man leaves room.
 CALM programme= controlling anger and learning to manage
o Teaches prisoners to understand emotions so they can prevent undesired
behaviour (hitting someone)
o 1st- prisoners are motivated so they want to change behaviour and they identify
physical changes when they get angry
o 2nd- learn techniques of relaxation + learn skills to decrease strength, frequency
and duration of anger.
o 3rd- practice these skills in new situations which can make them angry.
Evaluation:
 Long-term techniques are given so there should be long-term benefits. Also the
fact that the treatment changes the way you think will mean it is more lasting than
other therapies which only change your behaviour.
 Ireland (2000) studied 50 young offenders. According to self-report data, there
was a reduction in anger after the AMP.
Validity- the data was self-reported. Offenders may have said they felt less anger
so they would be out the correctional.
 Towl and Dexter (1994) looked at 9 ATM. Gave questionnaires to prisoners
before ATM + after. 50 prisoners had a reduction of anger and in 6 cases the drop
was extreme.
 Not generalisable to all crime- Not all violence is a result of anger. Violence can
be used on purpose to intimidate and control. AMT would not work in this case.
E.g. robbing from a bank.
 Loza and Loza-Fanous (1999) found no link between anger and violent and
nonviolent offenders.
 Physical aggression can turn to verbal or emotional.
 Problems with self-reported data (experimenter effects, demand characteristics,
the fact that if they say they still feel anger they will remain in prison for longer)
 Reductionist-recidivism is not considered by studies
 There is no consideration to the victim’s viewpoint. A consideration could make
the prisoner’s more aware of the consequences of their action + make AMT more
successful.
Methodology
Lab experiments
 They happen in a controlled environment and experimenters as much as they can
the situation. Not a natural place for Ps
 Experimenters manipulate the IV to see the effects on the DV. As the
environment is controlled, they can draw firm cause-effect relationships.
 Experimenter is usually present and Ps know they are taking part in an
experiment.
Field experiments
 They take place in natural environment of Ps
 Experimenters control IV to see the effects on the DV
 There are more extraneous variables than in the lab experiment because not so
many controls can be put in place (it’s not in a lab, not a controlled situation)

2.1.2 What is Criminal Psychology?

Criminology involves the study of crime, criminal behaviour, and responses to
crime (Newburn, 2013), whereas criminal psychology involves an influx of both
criminology and psychology to explain the causes of criminal behaviour. The term
‘criminal psychology’ has been defined in many ways. One definition from
Gudjonsson and Haward (1998) reads as ‘that branch of applied psychology which
is concerned with the collection, examination, and presentation of evidence for
judicial purposes’.
This explanation reflects that criminal psychology is concerned with investigative
and judicial processes. However, for years, the involvement of criminal
psychologists has also been in the assessment and rehabilitation of criminal
offenders following their sentencing. A more comprehensive definition was
proffered by an American psychologist,Wrightsman (2001), who described
criminal psychology as any application of psychological knowledge or methods to
a task faced by the legal system.
Criminal psychologists can deal in all areas of the criminal justice system, even
post-sentence, and thus, an elaborate definition is needed to encompass all the roles
which a criminal psychologist can perform. There is, as yet, a lack of consensus on
the meaning of criminal psychology.
Some other terms are frequently used interchangeably with criminal psychology—
such as forensic psychology or legal psychology. However, these disciplines are
totally different from the field of criminal psychology. Forensic psychology deals
with the psychological aspects of legal processes, including applying theory to
criminal investigations, understanding psychological problems associated with
criminal behaviour, and the treatment of criminals (Bull et al., 2009). Forensic
Psychology usually involves professional practice by any psychologist working
within any Sub-discipline of psychology such ad clinical psychology,
developmental psychology, social or cognitive psychology. The psychologist
involved applies his/her subject knowledge to the lawwhile addressing legal and
administrative matters (Vaya, 2015).
Both forensic and criminal psychology are quite similar in scope, but criminal
psychology focuses more on the offender. However, criminality is not solely a
characteristic of an individual; it is contingent on the social context of crime and
the criminal justice system which also includes the wider aspects of the criminal’s
experience, i.e. in courts or while imprisoned. In this way it can be said that the
role of both criminal and forensic psychologists are quite overlapping. The major
difference between the two is that forensic psychology finds its application in both
criminal and civil law.

2.1.3 History and Evolution of Criminal Psychology

The origin of criminal psychology as a discipline is rooted in the allied fields,
especially psychology, sociology, and criminology. The history of criminal
psychology can be traced back to the era of Charles Darwin where writings about
lie detection based on hidden emotional cues can be found. He offered that an
angry person can regulate or manipulate their body movements, but not the facial
muscles which are not under voluntary control. These ideas were reflected in the
approach followed by Paul Eckman to detect lies through facial micro-expressions.
In the UK, the origin of forensic and criminal psychology could be found when Sir
Francis Galton devised a word association test that would assist in the lie detection
procedure. In this, the assessor would say a word linked to the crime and will
subsequently study the suspect’s response to it closely (Matte, 2007). The
establishment of the psychological laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt in 1875 also
serves as an important keystone in the development of forensic and criminal
psychology, as many students and coworkers of Wundt were instrumental in
developing the field of criminal psychology. In 1985, James McKeen Cattell,
former student of Wundt, used structured and controlled laboratory experiments
into human memory to investigate the quality of eyewitness testimony. He
investigated the individual differences in situational influence on eyewitness
accuracy. Alfred Binet in France and William Stern in Germany also researched on
similar lines. Around 1905, in Germany, Carl Gustav Jung also experimented on a
criminal suspect using word association test.
Then came Hugo Münsterberg, an applied psychologist, who worked as a pioneer
in applying psychological principles to the legal field. In his book, On the Witness
Stand (1908), he debated the role of psychological research in legal proceedings
and how psychologists can provide objective data to support evidence and
testimony.
He did this at a time when psychology was a relatively new science and was not
perceived to have a legitimate role in the judicial proceedings in the court.
In the United Kingdom, Lionel Haward from University of Surrey began to
advocate for the psychologist to play a role in legal proceedings, especially in
defense. He conducted a study testing the accuracy of a police officer’s claim that
he recorded the license plate of a speeding motorcycle correctly. About a hundred
trained observers participated this experiment, but none of them, surprisingly, was
able to correctly identify the license numbers.
Studies in criminal psychology were on a steady rise at the end of World War
II. In 1960, Hans Eysenck proposed a general theory of crime. Through the 1970s
and 1980s, forensic and criminal psychology not only developed extensively as a
discipline but also developed in its institutional basis. Royo, in 1996, suggested
that the discipline can be further consolidated by the formation of associations, the
creation of specialized books and journals, the official institutionalization of the
discipline as part of the criminal justice process, and the creation of university
courses devoted to the subject. Some of these institutional happenings include.
Formation of Associations: Meetings and associations of like-minded researchers
are important for the development of a field because it helps to form research
relationships between universities and other organizations, both nationally and
internationally.
With this purpose, The American Psychology-Law Association was established in
1969 and was instrumental in the creation of the Psychology and Law division
(division 41) of the American Psychological Association (APA),with which it
finally merged in 1981. The association began publishing the highly influential
journal Behavioral Sciences and the Law in 1977.
The Division of Criminological and Legal Psychology was established by the
British Psychological Society in 1977 but renamed the Division of Forensic
Psychology in 1999. The division publishes the journal Legal. The Australia and
New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law was founded in 1972
and in 1993, respectively, publishes its first issue of the journal Psychiatry,
Psychology and Law.
The European Association of Psychology and Law initially began with small
meetings until their first European conference on psychology and law was held in
Maastricht, Netherlands, in 1988. This led to a second larger congregation in
Nuremberg, Germany, which led to the founding of the European Association of
Psychology and Law. The Nordic Network for Research on Psychology and Law
began in Sweden in 2004 (VandenBos, 2007).
Professional Education: Postgraduate psychology and law programs are to be
found in many countries. There are over thirty courses in the USA, around twenty
in the UK, nine in Australia, four in Germany, four in Spain, three in Russia, three
in Canada, and one in Sweden. Around seven colleges in India offer postgraduate
diplomas or degrees in criminal psychology in India. Structured and accessible
education contributes greatly to the future of any discipline.
Publications: There are many journals that publish articles in the field of
psychology and the law, including important mainstream journals such as
Psychological Bulletin. There are also some specialized journals catering solely to
research in forensic/criminal/legal psychology. It was observed that the top 68
most frequently cited journals that accounted for only 47% of the total number of
citations, contained 15 journals specific to legal psychology (Howitt, 2006).

2.2 Roles of a Criminal Psychologist

The roles that psychologists perform when they become professionally involved in
criminal proceedings were first listed by Professor Lionel Haward, one of the
founding fathers of criminal psychology in the UK. These are as follows:
Clinical: Here, the psychologist usually assesses the individual to provide a
clinical judgement, using interviews, various psychometric tests, and other
assessment tools, to inform the police, jurors, and probation services about the
psychological functioning of the individual. A psychologist may be asked to assess
individuals to determine whether the suspect is fit to stand the trial or not, whether
the person under the trial will be able to understand the court proceedings or not, or
to rule whether the persons under trial are suffering from any mental illness. These
assessments will aid and influence the functioning of the criminal justice system
and how the trials will proceed.
Experimental: In this role, the expert is involved in research to provide objective
evidence for the case in hand. This involves carrying out assessments using
psychological tools to opine on a question or to provide further information to
assist the courts’ decision-making process (e.g. how likely it is that someone can
correctly identify an individual driving on the highway, from a distance, in the
dark). Alternatively, it can also involve psychologists providing the summary to
the court of current research findings that are relevant to the case in question.
Actuarial: This role involves the use of statistics to provide information to the
court relating to the probability of an event occurring, such as, how likely is it for
an offender to reoffend. In such a case, a psychologist could be called upon to
weigh in on the pre- or post-sentence report to the court.
Advisory: In this role, the psychologist may help the police in issues guiding an
investigation. An offender’s profile delivered by a criminal psychologist could help
inform the investigation, or a criminal psychologist’s advice could assist in
interviewing a particular suspect or cross-examining witnesses in court. In this
role, a psychologist advises the police, courts, prison, and probation services.
The above-stated roles of psychologists describe the array of different
circumstances within the criminal justice system where inputs from psychologists
are needed. Among all the roles performed by a criminal psychologist, the most
important is the assistance they provide towards a criminal investigation. Professor
Laurence Alison of the University of Liverpool advocated the ways the expertise
provided by a psychologist can support the police in the work they do. From
assistance in profiling offenders to suggesting measures to improve techniques of
interviewing victims, offenders, and witnesses, criminal psychologists can also
help in increasing the accuracy of methods of collecting, collating, and analysing
the obtained data. They can also aid in the development of empirically based
suspect prioritization systems. Thus, from this description, it is apparent that the
role of a criminal psychologist in assisting police is essential and widespread
(Durrant, 2018).

2.2.1 Crime Analysis

Intelligence analysis draws heavily upon methods used in psychology. Criminal
psychologists are usually employed by the policing agencies to investigate and
examine crime data to aid police in their work. As a crime analyst, the most
common
task is linking crimes based on similarities found in the behaviour of the offender,
as recounted by the victim or inferred from the crime scene. For example, let us
examine the murder of a woman who was walking home alone in the night, on her
way back from work. Crime analysts could pick up some useful information in this
case—the fact that she had just left from office, that the perpetrator took some of
her
belongings away from the scene with him, and the way she was murdered, the
choice
of weapon—to check against pre-existing records of similar crimes to flag any
similarities
to past crimes. If matches are found—either the same kind of weapon was
used, similar items were taken by a murderer from the victims, or it was in a close
geographical location to another murder—then all this information can be used by
the police to consider the possibility that the same individual offender or a specific
group has committed both crimes. This allows more focused investigation and
avoids
wasting time and labour.
2.2.2 Offender Profiling
Usually, criminal profiling involves using information from the crime sites and
then combining it with testimony from eyewitnesses and victims, so that
meaningful
conclusions can be drawn about the person who committed the crime. Such a
profile answers various related questions, such as the gender and age of the
offender,
whether the crime was impulsive or planned, and others. This information assists
investigation agencies in arriving at a set of possible suspects. Offender profiling
by
criminal psychologists has grabbed a lot of media attention in recent years, both in
fiction and in real-life high-profile cases.While this may have popularized the
disciplinary
profile, yet the sensationalized portrayal has, to some extent, compromised
the science behind it for the general population.
2.2.3 Interviewing Victims and Suspects
The most crucial part of an investigation involves collecting reliable evidence to
understand what happened at the crime scene. Reliable information from witnesses
and victims requires good interviewing skills through which the investigators can
get
accurate information without biasing or coercing the testimony. The skills required
to interview suspects are very different than that needed for eyewitnesses. There is
empirical evidence that the recall of events by eyewitnesses is vulnerable to
manipulation
by the interviewer, intentionally or otherwise.Hence, themode of the interview
and the way it is conducted for different people involved in the case is extremely
important. Psychologists are instrumental in guiding and training police personnel
in techniques to interview suspects or witnesses. The investigative agencies can
also
utilize the expertise of psychologists to gain advice on interviewing particularly
difficult witnesses or suspects, for example, children or the elderly.
2.2.4 Expert Witness
Sometimes, court cases might involve complex issues of mental ability and
cognition
that might require the expertise of a criminal psychologist. Under such
circumstances,
expertwitnesses are called upon to give their opinion on the issue in question,
although this procedure may vary from one jurisdiction to another. For example, in
European countries, the court itself calls the expert witness to give an opinion or
provide information, when required. In the USA & UK, the experts are instructed
by
either the defence or prosecution to testify in support of their claims. In the past,
the
admissibility of a psychologist’s opinion often uses to be limited to issues related
to psychological functioning or intellectual impairment of an individual. Over the
recent years, the opinion by psychologists has been increasingly sought in a wide
number of issues, such as the influence of interviewing techniques, reliability of
eyewitness testimony, psychometric or clinical assessment of a suspect or witness,
or regarding profiling techniques used during the investigation.

2.2.5 Assessment and Rehabilitation of Offenders

In countries like Australia, Canada, and UK, criminal psychologists are
comprehensively
involved in activities concerning the assessment, rehabilitation, and management
of criminals, during the detention period and afterwards. Thisworkmight range
from working with offenders to reduce their tendency to reoffend to looking after
the psychological needs of offenders, such as counselling prisoners suffering from
depression due to the secluded environment in prisons or other stress such as
bullying
and trauma.
Pre- and post-sentence assessment of the offenders comprises assessing their risk
of reoffending, of harming themselves and/or others, and also assessing their
mental
health needs. These assessments can be further used in planning the release and
rehabilitation of the offenders. If an offender has been identified as posing a high
risk to the public, then psychologists provide input at an operational level to
monitor
his/her activity and also managerial and advisory support in delivering
interventions
to reduce the risk. Apart from this, criminal psychologists are involved in training
of
prison or probation staff, preparing reports elaborating the risk level for courts, and
emphasizing the needs of individual offenders for their welfare.

2.2.6 Academia and Research

With the growing interest in criminal psychology over the years, there has been a
rise in such courses, also an increase in the number of psychologists specializing
in various aspects of this discipline. Undergraduate and postgraduate studies
should
not only involve theory but also its practical application in understanding criminal
behaviour, in the courtroom, in the investigation, rehabilitation, and assessment of
offenders. Also, criminal psychologists in academia should be actively engaged in
researching emerging phenomena and lacunas in this discipline (Newburn, 2013).

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