February 2010 Archives

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dna/photos/eye/text_06.html

I found this article by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham in their book "Witness For the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory On Trial." It discusses everything we have been talking about in class the last 2 weeks: memory as evidence, witness misidentification, and wrongful conviction. It's kind of long, but it covers a lot of information, and provides cases and examples of the different topics discussed. The authors discuss how memory works, and how studies have shown that people have a hard time identifying objects they would see on a regular basis, such as: pennies, the letters that correspond to the numbers on a telephone, etc.

They also discuss how people can create memories from stories/information they are told.

 "...Child psychologist Jean Piaget, in his Plays, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood, related a personal story about the malleability of memory:

'...one of my first memories would date, if it were true, from my second year. I can still see, most clearly, the following scene, in which I believed until I was about fifteen. I was sitting in my pram, which my nurse was pushing in the Champs Elysees, when a men tried to kidnap me. I was held in by the strap fastened around me while my nurse bravely tried to stand between me and the thief. She received various scratches, and I can still see vaguely those on her face. Then a crowd gathered, a policeman with a short cloak and a white baton came up, and the man took to his heels. I can still see the whole scene, and can even place it near the tube station. When I was about fifteen, my parents received a letter from my former nurse saying that she had been converted to the Salvation Army. She wanted to confess her past faults, and in particular to return the watch she had been given as a reward on occasion. She had made up the whole story, faking the scratches. I, therefore, must have heard, as a child, the account of this story, which my parents believed, and projected into the past in the form of a visual memory.'..."

Another topic they discuss is what psychologists refer to as "event factors,"  defined as 'those factors inherent within a specific event that can alter perception and distort memory.' The case used as an example of this follows.

"Two men in their mid-twenties were hunting for bears in a rural area of Montana. They had been out all day and were exhausted, hungry, and ready to go home. Walking along a dirt trail in the middle of the woods, with the night falling fast, they were talking about bears and thinking about bears. They rounded a bend in the trail and approximately twenty-five yards ahead of them, just off the trail in the woods, was a large object that was moving and making noise. Both men thought it was a bear, and they lifted their rifles and fired. But the "bear" turned out to be a yellow tent, with a man and a woman making love inside. One of the bullets hit the woman and killed her. When the case was tried before a jury, the jurors had difficulty understanding the perceptual problems inherent in the event; they simply couldn't imagine how someone would look at a yellow tent and see a growling bear. The young man whose bullet killed the woman was convicted of negligent homicide. Two years later he committed suicide." 

The two hunters were in the woods all day, looking for bears, thinking about bears, wanting to see a bear. In the low light, they saw a large object moving and heard noises, they assumed it was a bear, and shot.

Loftus and Ketcham also discuss witness misidentification and wrongful conviction. They use the case of Jimmy Landano, an ex-convict who spent time in prison, who was wrongfully convicted by four eyewitnesses and three accomplices as the man that killed a police officer in 1976. Despite overwhelming evidence and an alibi proving his innocence, he is still in prison writing letters to lawyers and other wrongfully convicted people trying to prove his innocence.

 

 

 

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/st_bloodstains

Reading through the blog and just hearing things people say in everyday life has made me realize just how stigmatized we have made mental illnesses.  Everyone is guilty of this, including myself, but I think we would all do ourselves a favor if we were more aware of what we are really saying and how this may have an effect on the lives of those people who suffer from mental illness. 

People with mental illness are immediately labeled.  Upon arrival at a psychologist or psychiatrists office, most people are given a term for their condition: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, antisocial personality disorder, etc., etc., etc.  We cannot help this particular label, but what we can do, is help support those with mental illness by not stigmatizing them any further.

One thing I always try to do when talking about people with a mental disorder is referring to them as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar disorder instead of calling them paranoid schizophrenics or bipolar.  Just as I try to not refer to people with schizophrenics, they should try to eliminate labeling themselves schizophrenics as well.

Calling people "messed up," a "mental case," "psycho," or "crazy" does not in any way help them deal with their illness.  People who suffer mental illness are more than likely having a difficult time dealing with the issues they are facing, let alone knowing that other people think they are "freaks."  Often times, many people who need treatment neglect seeking it because they do not want to be viewed negatively by their peers, spouses, boyfriends, family, etc.
 
Neglecting to seek treatment could have serious repercussions, and in terms of this class, create troubles with the law.  For example, as we all know, committing murder is very common among people who suffer from various mental illnesses.  Many may feel rejected by their families and peers (all of which could be effected by the negative stigmas we give their illness) and feel their only other option is killing innocent people.  Instances like this anger us all, but ask yourself - what may you have done to contribute to this?  Did you unknowingly say something to the person who committed this crime that may have effected the negative emotions they are already experiencing?  Was it you that said the one thing to them that pushed them over the edge?

People with mental illness may experience the self-fulfilling prophecy.  If they are continually given cues, subtle or blatant, that we fear them, they will eventually pick up behaviors that really do instill fear in us.  For example, I would not hesitate to assume that many people are afraid of individuals who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia because in some cases, people with paranoid schizophrenia have become violent (Mark Becker for example).  To what extent does our constructed idea that people with paranoid schizophrenia are violent really affect and cause those with paranoid schizophrenia who are not violent turn violent?      

It is no surprise that everybody needs social support and people who will always be there for them, but people facing mental illness need more of this support than those who are not suffering from a mental illness.  Instead of looking down upon them and avoiding their "disease," we should be a little more compassionate and understanding.  In my opinion, a little less judging and stereotyping on all of our parts has the potential to really help and support those in need and may help stop the instances we all cringe about and cause us to fear those with mental illness.  If nothing is ever done, this seemingly endless cycle will continue.

I know it is really hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but I truly believe that society could only benefit if we all start to be more self-conscious and aware of what we say regarding mental illness.

Almost everyday we hear about the effects of being positive on our health and social relationships.  However, current research suggests that bad, negative moods can also be useful especially at improving one's memory. 

Researchers found that people in bad moods were less susceptible to believing urban legends and rumors as well as being less prone to stereotype others or have a racial bias.  The study found that those in a negative mood were better at remembering what they had seen and had more effective communication styles.  Joseph Forgas, the study author wrote "....people in a negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages." 

Better yet, the study suggests that being mad be very beneficial when something bad happens to you by bettering your ability to remember and identify the perpetrator.  Because of this, it is more likely that law enforcement will be able to catch the perpetrator and hopefully lessen the likelihood of falsely accusing others. 

According to this research, maybe law enforcement should consider deliberately making eyewitnesses mad in order to yield better results from their recollections of the crime.  Anything that helps law enforcement catch whoever is responsible is good right?...but would intentionally making eyewitnesses who may already be emotionally distraught mad be ethical?        

 

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/17H5wt/www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php%253Fterm%253Dpto-20070320-000001%2526page%253D1

The above linke is an article regarding those people are are incredibly introverted.  Although they are commonly stigmatized as being awkward, weird, crazy, or creepy many introverts are quite content in their lifestyle choice and are not secretly plotting a murder spree, or complex seriel killing, but simply enjoy being alone. 

The article claims that nearly three quarters of the population are extroverts, and if true this may help account for why introverts would be viewed as more deviant than they probably are, minorities are always less well understood and are thus more often the objects of fear, prejudice and discrimination. 

One of the most common responses made to introverts from their friends and family is to let loose and "Have a little fun!"  But some research with introverted and extroverted children playing a game where you have to hit a button to win money, demonstrated that introverts experienced a significantly higher amount of activity in areas of the brain associated with rewards.  Should these results be widely accepted, something I can't gather from this article, it would indicate that introverts do experience the world in a much different way than do extraverts. 

Introversion as a personality trait has also been linked with creativity, originality, and amongst lay people with general intelligence.  These studies may begin to indicate why we see this correlations.  The article mentions that introverts tend to have a much greater attention to detail, and a better ability to recognize (I assume more quickly and accurately) novelty in situations. 

I wonder if research on eye-witness testimony, memory evidence, facial recognition, and other research discussed in class has made a categorical distinction between introverts and extraverts?  Given that a minority of people are introverts it would seem that just enough people would be introverted as to skew data?  Or perhaps important data is left out entirely as introverts would be far less likely to participate in research programs?  Then again they may also be less likely to be invovled in crimes due to their more sedentary, solitary lifestyles.

Recently I've seen that Johnny Depp has taken interest in the trial of the West Memphis Three.  If you don't know who the Memphis Three are here's a brief overview
   The West Memphis Three are three teenagers who were tried and convicted of the murders of three children in the West Memphis Arkansas in 1993.  One was sentenced to death, another to life with out parole and the third to life in prison plus 40 years.  One of the boys (Misskelley) was questioned for 12 hours without counsel or parental consent, and was mentally disabled confessed back to the police what he was told to say.  There was no physical evidence, no weapons, and no connection to the victims.  The prosecution said it was because these boys were involved in a satanic cult.  I've found a couple of really good websites to look at as far as other celebrities being involved in this case and just basic information on the case.

http://www.wm3.org/Updates
http://freewestmemphis3.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=62&28e5bbf660cb545fc854f5c048c7be7c=baacd10c92e1a750bd13df143f510787

http://www.polipsych.com/category/moral-psychology/

This site is a culmination of many of thie things I have been looking at lately. It has considerable information on psychology of lawmakers, moral psychology, and aspects of the war. There is actually a conference poster made on peace psychology which I had never heard of. It also has pots which include some TED videos which I have posted on before, this is really a great platform to find out about all kinds of contemporary issues from a psychological perspective.

I have never seen something like this, and it is very interesting to me, many of the posts are backed with real empirical data. Moral psychology a topic also discussed in philosophy. Some of the main topics of the field are moral judgment, moral reasoning, moral responsibility, moral development, moral character (especially as related to virtue ethics), altruism, psychological egoism, moral luck, and moral disagreement. This site has an abundance of new information, and interesting intellectual debates.

This is actually a smart way for an Officer to get trained on how to recognize a drunk driver.  This type of training envolves police officers getting drunk inside a controlled environment while the police officers that are sober examine the intoxicated police officers motor skills and speech.  Not only that but it will also come in handy when an intoxicated person is brought into court.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/02/25/dnt.cops.get.drunk.wdtn 

Last week for my activity I watched the movie I am Sam.  One of the witnesses for the defendant, Sam, is his neighbor Annie.  Annie is an agoraphobic who makes the trip to the courthouse with great difficulty.  The movie is of course a drama and this event added to the drama but it caused me to think about that type of situation.  I wonder how attorneys question witnesses who are agoraphobics or shut-ins.  However difficult that may have been in the past, it is now easy with our current technology.  One could easily set up a video chat with the person and question in the courtroom while the person stays within their home.  But that resolution only pertains to agoraphobics, it might not work with people who have paranoid personality disorder.  People who have certain mental disorders have been discredited for years.  While they may have a disorder having to do with one aspect of their life, it does not mean they can not properly testify for the trial.  I found this article on mind.org which discusses this matter with more depth than I have, but describes these occurrences as discriminatory.  A person was quoted as saying, "If I'd had a broken leg or cancer this would not have been brought up to use against me..."  This entire site is dedicated to fighting for equality for people with mental disorders.  As psychologists, we could advocate for persons with mental disorders within a case.  This could be a case within itself to find a way to prove to the courts that a person is a credible source.  It seems as though this topic is an insanity plea in reverse, a plot not seen in movies.

http://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Design-Novel-Jeff-Lindsay/dp/0385518366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267130550&sr=8-1

 

I recently just finished the latest of Jeff Lindsey's books about everyone's favorite serial killer; Dexter by Design. This book is the fourth in the Dexter Series, of which the Showtime Show Dexter is loosely based off of. Most people are aware of the show but few people are aware of the fact that the show actually started off as a book series by crime writer Jeff Lindsey. In the fourth installment of the series, the character Dexter faces a very unique kind of criminal: a performance artist murderer. Someone is leaving a trail of very decorative bodies scattered around Miami and it is up to Dexter and his sister Deborah to find out who exactly would want to hallow out a human stomach and fill it with a tropical fruit basket for all of Miami to see. But things are not what they seem. I really enjoyed this book because it put a lot of twists on what exactly motivates one to kill. Without giving away too much of the book, the main suspects intentions seemed to be motivated by art as the killer tries to capture human emotion and anguish in a permanent canvas. I am very excited to read Lindsey's next novel (due to come out sometime this year). Rumor has it that Dexter will meet a cannibal in this fifth novel and I eagerly wait to see how Lindsey will incorporate this into the series. For those who follow the show, the Dexter books do NOT follow along with the show. They are very similar but they contain very different plotlines and character twists. I highly recommend reading this series if anyone is interested in this type of literature. Though a lot of what takes place in these types of stories can be sort of laughed at by what we learn in class, they are very interesting and highly entertaining books which give sort of a different spin on what we learn about in class. I highly recommend looking into them if you love to read a good mystery book.

During the past two weeks of class, we've been discussing both the power of eyewitness testimonies, but also how unreliable memories can be. People do not realize how difficult it is to accurately identify someone even when a witness may be paying close attention to their surroundings.

This activity allows you to play the part of an eyewitness and accurately "describe" the person. Although incredibly over simplified, it illustrates that it's not as easy as it may seem. I did the exercise a few times, varying the amount of time I looked at the top picture to mimic a situation in which I only saw the perp for a few seconds. I may have a horrible memory, but I didn't do well at all. To have this kind of evidence be taken as absolute truth in a court of law with no other supporting evidence would be tragic and unfair.

http://www.quickflashgames.com/games/eye-witness/

In my Psych and Gender class we watched a video about a set of twins. As the twins were being circumsized (mind you, they're both boys) one of the nurses accidently burned off one of the boys penis's. The doctor told the parents of the boys to raise the boy who got his penis burnt off as a girl. The doctor was doing an experiment of Nature v. Nuture. This relates to this class because the doctor reported that the experiment was a success, when it really wasn't. They tried to sue, but they couldn't prove anything. It ended up that both of the twins committed suicide later on in life. Here's the sight....
http://www.rightcelebrity.com/?p=4426

Recently, a New Jersey man was charged with kidnapping and endangerment after locking and abandoning his 20-month-old daughter in a restroom of a gas station in Delaware.  The child seems to be okay and is currently in a foster home.  The thing I find interesting about the case is that it is linked (although officials aren't saying how right now) to another recent crime in New York.  A young woman was killed and burned in a parking lot.  It is speculated that the young woman is the child's mother, although that information hasn't been released. 

What could possibly make someone do this? Now, I'm not a parent, but I'm pretty sure most parents wouldn't kidnap and abandon their children.  Especially a 20-month-old. 

Here are some links to the stories I read:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/100225029/N.J.-man-charged-with-kidnapping-girl-abandoned-in-Del.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/toddler-abandoned-gas-station-bathroom-police-investigating-mother/story?id=9937791

 This is one of the all time worst stories I have heard about teachers doing this stuff , mostly because the child was not only 14 he was also special ed. The teacher has even more power over these children since they are more vulnerable. The 27 year old married teacher claimed she was "sexting" him to help him improve in school , maybe she has been watching Billy Madison one to many times. This whole new era of sexting is getting ridiculous especially with children doing it. If children get caught they can be put on the sex offender registry and be charged with making/possesing child pornography and will have to live with that forever. I think there needs to be some kind of mental evaluation for teachers and people who work with children. It such a horrible thing because thery are in an authority position and children have always been taught to follow it.here is a link about her and other cases   http://www.aolnews.com/story/female-teachers-charged-with-sex-abuse/634372 and  http://www.examiner.com/x-1393-Education-Examiner~y2009m12d11-Female-teacher-sentenced-to-90-days-for-sexting-special-education-student for case specifics  or google Michelle Simpson for more

 

As we all know Parkersburg, Iowa and the whole state of Iowa suffered a tremendous loss, Ed Thomas. Mr. Thomas was the high school football coach, track coach, teacher, driving instructor, and most of all a father, husband, and grandfather.

The trial for Mark Becker is in some of its last states. The jury has been in deliberation for over 8 hours now. They will either find of him guilty of 1st degree murder with life in prison without parole, or they will find him guilty, but categorize him as insane and Becker will undergo dramatic psychiatric evaluations.

This is a trial that is using the Insanity Plea, which is very unheard of for today. It is hard to prove someone legally insane, because you have to prove to everyone that before the crime, the time of the crime, and after the crime, that Mark Becker had no idea what was going on and it was out of his control. I want to make it clear that insanity is a legal term when used in law, not a medical term. Insanity is when they try to see if Mark Becker knew what he was doing, and if he knew right from wrong throughout the whole process of the crime.

This is going to be a hard case to defend based on the facts. Mark Becker did plan out this murder. He dressed so that he could hide a gun in his clothing. He drove himself to the high school and admitted to being scared that he would be pulled over with a loaded gun on him. These are just a few things that push away from the insanity plea.

Below is the Des Moines Register, which has been following the trial very closely. On the left side bar is over 15 blogs that take you through the trial, even a blog just recently posted about the juror's deliberation. In the middle of the web page will a section also taking you through the trial in detail.

I urge everyone to go through theses blogs and really see what it is like for the people of the court system. They have an expert witness, a Psychiatrist that the prosecution hired and his diagnosis and thoughts are very interesting to read.

http://dmjuice.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/2250354/1001/NEWS

While looking for good things to make my post about, I found an article talking about a man who interviewed and wrote a book on executioners. Ivan Solotaroff was interested in knowing why these men choose this job. He discovered that there were a few motives. Some said that they liked the machinery of death. Some felt that they just need to do what society wants - get rid of the unwanted. Some executioners are distanced from the process, suggesting that they are denying the reality of the situation and rationalizing it to make it sound better. Solotaroff found only one man who quit his job of an executioner after it took an inmate 15 minutes to die of lethal injection. I thought this article was interesting because you never really think about the personality of an executioner. Their job suggest that they would most likely be authoritarian and like to have power (Solotaroff points out). I think it would be useful in the field of psychology to research more into this. Below is the article where I read about this information.

http://college.cengage.com/psychology/resources/students/shelves/shelves_20020504.html

I haven't been paying much attention to the Mark Becker trial, but I was talking with my secretary and this trial is very important to her because her son knew Mark Becker and was coached by Ed Thomas. I've started paying a little bit more attention towards the end of the trial and I really wanted to have a report on the verdict but it doesn't look as if the jury will have reached a conclusion by 3:15.
Mark Becker has been accused of killing teacher and coach Ed Thomas in a weight room last year.

The prosecution has explained a timeline of events in their opening statements saying Becker broke into his parents' gun cabinet and practiced shooting a 22-caliber gun at a bird house.

The prosecution says Becker then went to the school and asked the junior high assistant principal where Coach Thomas was so they could talk about the Tornado Relief Fund. According to the prosecution, Becker went into the weight room, shot Thomas multiple times, then began kicking Thomas and swearing at him.

The prosecution says even if Becker suffered from a mental illness, it does not mean he was insane at the time of the crime.

The defense argued during their opening statement that Becker suffered from mental illness that kept him from distinguishing right from wrong. The defense says Becker had delusions the night before the murder and believed Thomas was Satan and was turning people into fish.

The defense has brought in four medical experts that all diagnosed Becker as having paranoid schizophrenia. In light of this, I believe that Becker was insane at the time of the murder, and while he should be held fully responsible for his actions, he should not be sent to prison.

I say this because I believe that he will only get worse in prison. He needs to be sent to a place where he can receive proper care and support. He should be sent to an asylum where he can receive proper medical care and rehabilitation. If he is sent to a prison, he will degenerate and likely cause more harm to himself and others, and he will not be rehabilitated, and if he is eventually paroled or released, he will be much worse off than he is now.

I know that many people disagree with my thoughts on this trial, and I would love to have people politely explain their views in the comments to this post.

To learn more about the trial and to learn what the jury decides, visit www.kwwl.com

Reading this case that was brought before the Supreme Court in 2006 made me think about the insanity defense. In a short sentence at the end of the article it is pointed out that the insanity defense is used in less the 1% of all cases and is successful less the a quarter of the time it is tried. One of the key points of the defendants argument is that state laws unfairly shifts the burden of proof from the State to the Defendant which runs counter to almost everything else in the legal system. As much as I think that people should pay for their crimes it seems wrong to not only hold someone who entire deck short of a deck of cards responsible for their actions, but to force them to prove that they are insane. This is further complicated when you consider Justice Souters question "What if he knew right from wrong, and knew it was wrong to kill aliens?" how do you handle people who are clearly nuts but are doing something wrong even within the standards set by their delusion. I honestly don't have an answer for this. 

I'm not an investigator or remotely close to being labeled one, but something tells me a case with 2 or 3 suspects doesn't seem near as bad as having to deal with 26. How would you even begin? Where would you begin?! The news story I chose deals with the murder or Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Investigators had it "narrowed down" to eleven suspects when Dubai police announced that they had 15 new suspects. Investigators now have the daunting challenge of narrowing down this huge list of suspects. Police in Dubai, India suspect that secretive Israeli foreign intelligence unit is behind the attacks. Not only is the amount of suspects an issue to deal with, but also the fact that these suspects are carrying passports from various point around the world (passports from Australia, France, Ireland, Great Britain). Countries that are helping out with the investigation also noted that those passports were created in a legal manner - what a shocker.

Check out this story - there are videos along the left side you can view for further information.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/24/uae.murder.plot/index.html

I personally wanted to find out more about the topic of repressed memory when we discussed the topic in class. I wanted to know generally more about it. I found this website that tells what a repressed memory is also, the history of where it really started to be studied and the debate over the topic as well. It's a pretty easy website to follow and read.

http://www.guidetopsychology.com/repressn.htm

 

I found this article that I thought was pretty good. It explains repressed memory or as the clinical term dissociative amnesia. This article explains the controversy over the topic and how it is used in court cases especially in child abuse cases where the child remembers years later. This article is from the Harvard Magazine by one of the writers there. It was pretty interesting. It also discusses what some researchers have found on the topic as well.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/01/repressed-memory.html

 

 

This article is about a pediatrician from Delaware who has been accused of sexually abusing 103 children.  This article stood out to me because it shows how people can be so messed up that they will use their job to satisfy their sick obsessions.  The article said that there has been video tapes found so the man is going to be charged without a doubt.  It also said that the man's mental health will be questioned to see how he is charged. I understand that people can suffer from serious mental illnesses but i just don't see how they can blame all 103 cases on this man's mental health.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/22/delaware.pediatrician/index.html

In class we have been talking a lot about the different procedures that law officials go through from the first 911 call to the end of the trial. Recently, we have talked about the importance of memory and eyewitness identification and all the implications these two forms of evidence can have. Below is a link to an article written by Gary Wells, Mark Small, Steven Penrod, Roy Malpass, Soloman Fulero and C. A. E. Brimacombe, (1998). This article is often times referred to as the "white paper". This article is meant to be an eye opener to people, and for them to realize the many implications in conducting lineups. Also, it goes into great detail explaining the many ways our legal system can avoid contaminating memory evidence and limit the amount of false witness identifications. (This is kind of long, but is worth your read if you are interested in this sort of topic).

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/academics/colloquium/Gary%20Wells/Gary%20Wells%202.pdf

Wells, G., Small, M., Penrod, S. Malpass, R., Fulero, S., & Brimacombe, C. (1998).       Eyewitness identification procedures: Recommendations for lineups and photospreads. Law and Human Behavior, 22

After our discussion in class on Tuesday about how the brain can fabricate false memories, I decided to look up more about this topic.  I came across an interesting website from pbs.org that showcases the show "Don't Forget!"  This series covers such topics as short term memory loss, the role of the hippocampus in remembering and identifying faces, new potential treatments for Alzheimer's and how to evade memory loss, why emotional memories are more easily recalled, and how our memories are sometimes subject to suggestions.

I watched a short clip about how memory lies.  In this clip, researcher Elizabeth Loftus from the University of California, Irvine is trying to get Alan to believe that a certain event happened in his childhood that he does not recall.  It turns out she was just making up the event; however, Alan's mind was partially influenced by her suggestive memory.  Loftus is trying show that there is an increased confidence in a memory that is suggested to a person but was completely made up.  Sometimes you can get people to change how they behave based on those false memories.  I thought that this clip related to the story that Dr. Maclin told in class about the two girls who accused their grandfather of taking pornographic videos of them when they were younger because of leading questions by interviewers. 

Just as this clip and Dr. Maclin's story suggest, misleading and misguided suggestions can often lead witnesses to wrongfully accuse and prosecute innocent people because of their false memories.  I think the clip of Loftus trying to trick Alan gives us a good perspective on how are brains can create AND believe false memories.  Something as little as a suggestive or persuasive comment from even a stranger can cause us to second guess ourselves.  We saw this example between adults, imagine the effects of implementing a false memory could have on a young child whose brain is still developing and maturing.  If our own brain lacks confidence in little scenarios such as turning off the stove before leaving or using a blinker at that last turn, it is only plausible that other people who are persistent and persuasive in their suggestions could have a profound impact on our "memory." 

"Ex-Priest Questions Repressed Memories"

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/priest-challenges-repressed-memory-assault-victim/story?id=8552686&page=1

 (from abcnews.com) 

The article above is about a 27 year old man, who sues his ex-priest after coming into contact with a repressed memory from when he was 6. The memory was said to come about after the 27 year old say reports on the news of other men accusing the priest of sexually assaulting them. The main point of this article is in the question of this memory being real or not. That then leads to questioning if repressed memories in general are real.

I have somewhat of an interesting experience that I always thought may have fallen along the lines of a "repressed memory". When I was 7 I first tried waterskiing. I used beginner skies that were connected to the boat by a rope, because my arms weren't big enough to pull myself up. So basically I was attached to the boat. My mom was in the boat holding on to the rope connected to my feet. After I got up on the water, I wiped out. My mom, not realizing that I was connected to the boat, kept holding on to the rope and looking for me to pop up somewhere as my grandpa kept driving. I was drug under water for quite a while and when my mom finally realized they were dragging me underwater behind the boat, I was hardly breathing when they fished me out of the water. My mom tells me I was okay once they got me back to the lake house but I continued to bawl the rest of the day. She said she was worried how upset I was. It wasn't until I was 12 when my family took my brothers and I out to learn to water ski that I remembered anything about it. I was out on the water putting on my skies when I remembered being drug underwater behind a boat before. I asked my mom if I'd ever skiied before and she told me how she had nearly drowned me when I was 7. (I still give her crap about it today for being a "bad mom" haha). I feel like I was old enough to remember something like this happening, but still only remember faintly being dragged behind a boat. Nothing really about that whole day of getting ready to ski, or bawling afterwards. I might be way off in saying that I may have repressed that memory, but I feel like it makes me more of a believer that repressed memories are indeed real.

 

Everyone knows about the insanity plea, how hard it is for someone to plea this way and how justice isn't always served when they do. The origin of the insanity plea begins with one of three cases, Queen v. Daniel McNaughton, along with Hadfield, and Oxford before the McNaughton case. All three cases set the basis for the insanity rule and all three were very similar in their plea for the insanity defense. Claiming they were mentally ill or had a mental disease. McNaughton was indicted for murder and had four doctors analyze him to determine the condition he had. He shot the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummon, in the back once. The police came and stopped him before he could get a second shot off. He claimed he was seeing delusions of persecution by what he called "the Tories". He said "I was driven to desperation by persecution".The jury, eventually without retiring, duly returned a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity. Through his trial, he has given the legal test of criminal insanity the name of M'Naghten Rules or McNaughton rules. The rule says To establish a defence on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved, that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.

More on the case can be found at this website.

http://books.google.com/books?id=jNgsrjZxBh4C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=McNaughton+case&source=bl&ots=We92MHSIMF&sig=NQdRciC3MdPpOQoofC4KIxDvvO4&hl=en&ei=i-OFS_HfOI_uM9e9tMUM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=McNaughton%20case&f=false

Most of us have heard about the devastations that the community of Aplington-Parkersburg has gone through in the last few years. The first devastation that the community went through was the tornado that went through Parkersburg and destroyed many houses. The Community rebuilt and didn't let the horrific experience dampen there community pride. One of the main advocates for rebuilding the Community was the long time Football Coach Ed Thomas. Ed was seen as a key supporter in the community and everyone knew who he was and what he has done to better the community.  The second devastation that happened was on June 24^th of 2009 when Coach Ed Thomas was shot by Mark Becker. Becker has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Both the prosecution and defense do agree that Becker has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, so his mental state is playing a huge factor in whether he will be convicted or not for the murder.  Living in Cedar Falls for most of my life and having friends who went to Aplington-Parkersburg it hit close to home to me. I remember something on the news about how the previous day Becker had been detained by Cedar Falls police for breaking and entering a house in Cedar Falls. He was taken to Allen Hospital and was suppose to stay for a 48hr psych evaluation. However something went wrong and he was released that day. Which led to the next day's proceedings to Occur.  One question that comes to mind to me is, is our legal system at fault as well because the procedure wasn't followed through. Also some say that he didn't know what he was doing but I wouldn't think you would be able to put bullets in a gun and drive to the school and shoot your former coach. I think this is a very big controversy in the Cedar Valley. Below is just one of the latest articles about the case.

"Jury Deliberating Becker's case"

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=4941821

http://www.deathreference.com/Py-Se/Serial-Killers.html

            This is a neat little site that gives background to what serial killers are and what they do. There is many different topics covered, such as criminal profiling, phases the killers go through, and different factors that may attribute to the development of these types of criminals. This website is good background which may help understand what drives, and causes these criminals.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1h3Ypm/www.brainmysteries.com/research/Recognition_of_facial_expressions_is_not_universal.asp

While we were talking about memory and recalling memories from a crime I began thinking about how people tend to remember facial features differently.  This lead me to the question of how do different races affect the recognition of facial expressions?  Do people of different races really notice different facial features on a perpetrator that may lead them to the conviction of an innocent person? 

 I stumbled upon this article that discusses the recognition of facial expressions between Caucasians and Asians. Research showed that both races looked at different facial features when examining facial expressions.  Caucasians tend to look at the shape of the eyes and mouth, while Asians tend to focus only on the shape of the nose. This article gives an insight on what features people focus on when looking at a person.  I believe this will definitely impact their judgment on who committed a crime when looking at a lineup of suspects. 

I was on the WCF Courier website when I came across an article about a school shooting in Colorado.  The shooting occurred Tuesday February 23 at 3:30 PM.  This shooting occurred just a few miles from the Columbine high school shooting.  Only two students were shot, Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu.  Both victims were taken to the hospital and both had surgery Tuesday evening.  Reagan and Matt are both expected to be fine. After shooting these two students the gun-man went to reload his high-powered rifle, at that time a math teacher from the school, David Benke, tackled the suspect and prevented him from firing anymore shots.  The gunman was identified as Bruco Eastwood.  They have no motive for the shooting.  Mr. Eastwood had been in the school on different occasion and had been inside the building shortly being the shooting occurred.  One student stated that he heard Mr. Eastwood ask two students if they went to school here.  When the students answered yes, he shot them.

It is sad that school shooting happen.  I'm just happy that no one was killed and the suspect was taken down before more damage could be done.  It was very brave of David Benke to tackle the suspect, but his actions probably saved many lives.  I wonder why this guy decided to shoot kids at this middle school.  Authorities have not released Mr. Eastwood connection to the school if there is one.  The way the shooting took place is just kind of random.  What if those kids said that they didn't go to the school would he have let them go and not shoot them?  I have many questions about this case and I hope that they release more information soon.  What is also scary is that this shooting occurred so closely to the Columbine shooting, which I'm sure, everyone has heard about.

Here is a website from the Courier:

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_b964f0a0-212b-11df-9587-001cc4c03286.html

 

Often people forget that psychology is used to evaluate someone before they are hired for a job.  For example, before becoming a police officer a person must pass a psychological exam.  I found a website that was created by a person who performs these psychological exams.  Dr. Susan Clifford is a licensed psychologist who has psychologically evaluated potential workers throughout a number of public safety agencies.  Her goal for this website is to provide helpful information for any type of person who has questions related to psychology.  What caught my eye was the section on the site labeled Policework Info.  Under this heading you can find tips on how to deal with anger, what the risks are when a tired police officer is on duty, and even the psychological aspects that are relevant for police officers that have a K9 as a partner.  Also, there is a lot of helpful information in the Q&A section.  Check this website out, because it dives deep into the times and situations where psychology is seen and experienced.  Police psychology is growing in popularity, and this site will help explain what police psychology really is.

http://www.policepsych.com/

 

While on the topic of eyewitness identification and memory in general I want to show this video that I saw quite some time ago that Elizabeth Loftus did on 60 minutes about false memories involving Disney World and Bugs Bunny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RLvSGYxDIs 

This other clip is also about being able to suggest memories that never happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQr_IJvYzbA

I believe because of cases like this that it is very hard for me to believe memories that have been brought up in therapy to be used as evidence in court.  It just goes to show that with memory anything is possible and if it never happened that's not a problem because one can suggest a picture so vivid that in your mind you can see it happen even though it never did.

 

 

http://www.ktvu.com/bartshooting/22640521/detail.html

In California, a woman was arrested because she confessed that she committed 38 counts of financial embezzelment from a 83 year old woman in her care. She confessed to the police that she did take the money and she is now in the county jail on a $1.2 million bond.

Financial elder abuse is one of the main forms of elder abuse and it happens way too often. This is when someone that the elder person trusts takes their money that they are supposed to live on, forces them to get rid of possessions, or steals their money. The person that does the financial fraud is usually someone that the elder person knows very well like a child or a grandchild. This is a website that talks about the signs of financial elder abuse and how to report it if you see it. Elder abuse is a crime and can be stopped if the person is caught and put in jail.

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/MajorPerson/elder_abuse.htm

I was doing research for another class about how people with mental disabilities were being treated after committing a crime. I actually came across a very sad story of a mentally disabled woman tortured to death by people she thought were her friends. This is a very eye opening story and thanks to the new law passed by President Obama, prohibiting hate crimes against those who are mentally disabled, her so called "friends" will be punished as they should be.

She was not only murdered, but tortured prior to her death. Her "friends" did things to her such as making here drink urine and chemicals and writing a suicide note to go along with the idea that is was her who wanted to die. She was also physically abused. She was hit with various objects and her body was stuffed into a garbage can. I actually think that after someone commits these acts towards another person the real question is who really has a mental disability? Jennifer may not have been at the same learning level as her "friends", but she is not the one who felt the need to torture another human being. If I were evaluating the case I would say that her attackers had a serious mental problem that needed to be taken care of.

Here is a link to just one of the sites on the case and at the bottom of the site there are links to other information on the case. I think everyone who believes people with mental disabilities are not positive parts of society should read this article. It is not right for someone to be treated differently because they are different than you.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/17/crimesider/entry6216214.shtml 

On November 1st, 2007 Meredith Kercher was found dead on the bedroom floor partly naked with stab wounds on her neck, many bruises, and signs of being sexually assaulted.  At the time, Meredith was a foreign exchange student in Perugia, Italy along with Amanda Knox, an American foreign exchange student.  Five days after interrogation, Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested and later convicted with murder, sexual violence, as well as other charges (Knox was sentenced to 26 years while Sollecito was sentenced for 25 years).  DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene both inside and around Meredith's body pointed to another man, Rudy Hermann Guede.  Guede was later arrested, tried, and was also convicted of murder an sexual assault.  Guede was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison but appealed his sentence which was then reduced to 16 years. 

I had never heard of this case before but I happened to turn on Oprah today and caught the tail end of the story. I got the sense that it was a pretty well known case and I found this to be true when I was searching online and I did end up finding a lot of information about it.  Here is the link to the Wikipedia article which I think does a great job summarizing the case and is a good place to start if you haven't heard of the case before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MurderofMeredith_Kercher

There seems to be quite a bit of controversy going on about the differences in the criminal justice system and culture of Italy compared to that of the United States when dealing with this case.  I haven't looked into this issue very extensively, but what I have gathered is that many people feel that if Amanda was tried in the United States rather than Italy, she would have never been convicted.

Regardless of this controversy, it became apparent to me while watching the rest of the Oprah show and reading and watching the videos online (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Amanda-Knoxs-Family-Speak-Out/7), being wrongfully convicted has substantial consequences not only for the person wrongfully convicted, but for their family as well. 

First of all, being wrongfully convicted puts a huge financial burden on the person who is desperately fighting for their freedom.  The book I am reading for this class (Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter) also touches on the tremendous debts one can be in when fighting their conviction.  Thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent, not only by Carter himself, but by his supporters.  Amanda's case seems to be no different.  When searching through sites online, I came across her official site where you could donate money to contribute to her defense fund which will hopefully someday free her.

Being wrongfully convicted also takes a emotional toll on the person who has been wrongfully convicted as well as their family.  On Oprah's website, you can watch a short video of an interview of Amanda's three sisters.  The oldest of the three talks about her new responsibility of being the older sister since Amanda is away and how she struggles at being a good example for her younger sisters.  Amanda's youngest sister talk about how she feels like she doesn't have a family because she describes a family as everyone being there, which is not the case.  Her younger sister struggles with her emotions and her need to stay strong for Amanda and her parents.  My book focuses a lot on Carter's emotional struggles to keep his identity while in prison and the shame he feels, which inevitable causes him to distance himself from his former wife and children.  Carter's family was torn apart by his wrongful conviction, but Amanda's has come together.  Her parents divorced when she was three, but since her conviction, they have combined forces in attempt to free their daughter.  Every Saturday her family gets together for the weekly phone call from Amanda. 

Being wrongfully convicted has tremendous repercussions for the individuals and their families.  Stories like these really make me understand the importance that psychology plays in the law.  I'm not sure how heavily eyewitnesses played in Amanda's conviction, but eyewitness evidence was the only thing used to convict Carter of his sentence of triple-murder.  In order to keep the innocent out of prison, it is evident that a better understanding and acceptance of faulty eyewitness testimonies is necessary, but I'm afraid that no matter how hard we try, there will always be people who are wrongfully convicted.  Even if our criminal justice system improves on keeping the innocent out of jail from now on, there are currently many innocent people in prison, most of which are more than likely desperately trying to free themselves.
 

In 2001 Rusty Yates received a call from his very calm, cool, and collected wife Andrea telling him that he needed to come home the children were dead. That day Andrea's plan that had been in progress finally happened. Andrea had been suffering for years from post-pardum depression and schizophrenia. She had been on medication for her illnesses and seeing a therapist, until recently when she just stopped helping herself all together. Her family attended church regularly and she, as a woman, was drilled with her being a bad mother. She heard it from her husband and her preacher, and the voice of the devil she heard in her head. She was told that since she was a bad mother her children would be eternally damned, and who wants that to be the fate of her children. So the devil agreed to help her solve her problem. If she killed her children- she was guaranteeing there way in to heaven instead of eternal damnation. So she planned for months the murder of her 5 children ranging from ages 6 months- 7 years. Finally the day came for her to execute her plan. SO she filled the bathtub full of water and drowned each one starting with the 2, 3, and 5 year olds followed by the baby and then her oldest son who actually managed to get free and run- where she chased him down and listened heartlessly to him crying and telling her he was sorry! She then called her husband and the police. She knew what she was doing was wrong, knew she was going to get punished, and was totally alright with what she'd done.

The following site leads to a full case run-down of the Andrea Yates trial: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/andrea_yates/5.html 

      In a previous post I wrote about a girl who was abducted during the super bowl and later found dead after authorities delayed releasing an Amber Alert. This idea brought about many questions regarding who is allowed to release amber alerts and what is the criteria? Interestingly enough, today while I was driving back to Cedar Falls an important announcement interrupted the song playing on the radio. This announcement came from the Iowa Police issuing an Amber Alert for 14 year old, Janakaye Marie Lee, of Council Bluffs stating she had been abducted earlier today and seems to be in danger. Interestingly enough later in the day when I was on the internet trying to find more information regarding the Amber Alert  I found it had been cancelled; however the girl is still missing. The police felt this situation was important enough to issue an amber alert, yet later retracted the alert because they felt she was not longer in danger. Yet if you read on the girl is still missing, and the person who is suspected to have taken her left a suicide note. I felt this article/situation was interesting not only does it deal with law enforcement and the procedures they go through when looking at a case (more specifically an abduction case) but it also is taking place here in Iowa. From the information given we know the amber alert was released because Lee was in danger, and we know it was retracted because Lee is not said to be in danger anymore. I would be interested to know what ideas and pieces to this puzzle made police retract the amber alert. Also, for those of you who have read my post on the super bowl killing I want to highlight that for the young girl taken in that situation an Amber Alert was not issued until 18 hours later.

 

Below are some links referred to in this post:

News Report of Janakaye Marie Lee's abduction (KCCI, Des Moines)

http://www.kcci.com/news/22634757/detail.html

Cancelled Amber Alert for Lee:

This website shows the cancelled alert; however, you can still see the type of information police obtained and used in creating the Amber Alert.

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/app.php?pgname=alertdetails&id=6

Iowa Amber Alert Website

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/

Super bowl Killing Link:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html

 

For my criminology class I had to read an article about the personality traits of a criminal, and if those traits make certain people more prone to criminal activity.

The article is called "Personality and Crime: Are Some People Crime Prone?" The article was researched and written by many criminologists and psychologists, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, Phil Silva, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, Robert Krueger, and Pamela Schmutte. The article stated that the researchers found that it's not just genetic factors that lead people to become criminals, but it's genetic factors influenced by environmental factors.

The researchers conducted a study in New Zealand where they did a longitudinal study of kids from birth to age 18. At 18, the kids were given a self-report personality inventory. The researches studied these self-report inventories along with official data sources concerning each individual's delinquency record.

The researchers used a modified version of the Multidimensional Personality Questionaire (MPQ). The MPQ is designed to assess individual differences in affective and behavioral style. "The 177-item version of the MPQ yields 10 different personality scales...The 10 scales constituting the MPQ can be viewed at the higher-order level as defining three superfactors: Constraint, Negative Emotionality, and Positive Emotionality (Tellegen, 1985;Tellegen and Waller, press)..."

People high on the constraint factor usually have conventional social norms, avoid thrills, and act cautiously, and tend to have a restrained manner. People ranking high on negative emotionality have a low threshold for negative emotions (fear, anxiety, anger, etc.), and usually break down under stress. People ranking high on positive emotionality scale have a low threshold for positive interaction in work and social environments, and have a positive outlook on life.

The research shows that "..positive emotionality was not associated significantly with delinquent behavior.." and "...persons involved in serious criminal behavior scored significantly lower on MPQ Constraint and significantly higher on Negative Emotionality..." (Caspi et al, 1994)

The second study the researchers conducted was in Pittsburgh, and they were studying inner-city youths 12-13 years of age of caucasion and African-American races to see if racial or ecological factors influence delinquency. This study used the California Child Q-sort (CCQ), which is a common language personality assessment given to the caregivers (parents, teachers, and self-reports) of the inner-city youths. The results showed that "Across all three data sources, Constraint and Negative Emotionality emerged as robust correlates of delinquency among both black and white adolescents....The negative correlations with Constraint suggested that delinquent adolescents were likely to be impulsive, danger-seeking, and rejecting of conventional values. Positive Emotionality was not associated robustly with delinquent behavior..."

This article also mentions that a low level of serotonin in the brain produces impulsivity and greater negative affectivity. Inmates in prison have been tested, and inmates who had a history of violence and impulsivity had low levels of serotonin. The effects of low serotonin levels can be linked to low constraint which "generates in turn a vulnerability to criminal behavior." (Caspi et al, 1994)

Unfortunately, you have to sign in to read the full article, but here is the link to get you to the page with the authors' information and an abstract about the article, feel free to sign in if you are interested in reading the full article.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119264723/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

 

Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Krueger, R. F., & Schmutte, P. S. 

     (1994, May). Personality and Crime: Are Some People Crime Prone? Criminology, 32(2), 163-196. 

 

 

 

With all the talk about eyewitness in class last Tuesday, it reminded me perfectly of a Dr. Phil episode I watched a couple of weeks ago.  Dr. Phil talked about how often false eyewitness identifications are made, and he made his audience participate in an eyewitness account.  He showed them a short clip of a crime, I can't remember exactly what it was, and then he put a lineup of possible offenders, and had the audience key in which person they thought committed the crime.  Results showed that a high percentage was towards one of the suspects, when in reality, the offender wasn't even in that line up.  He went into more detail of explaining how often this happens. 

After this brief introduction, he brings in a woman, Loretta, who was brutally raped at age 15.  The man convicted was Dean, who was 29 at the time.  He was in prison for 14 years, until DNA evidence proved he was not Loretta's rapist.

To this day, Loretta still believes than Dean is the man who raped her.  She can't believe that they let him out of prison, and despite all the DNA evidence proving it wasn't him, she still believes it was.  Dr. Phil has an emotional interview with her, explaining all the DNA evidence is correct, and that Dean is innocent.  In turn, Dr. Phil also has Dean come on the show, and he interviews him as well.  He feels horrible for this woman, but at the same time, he lost 14 years of his life in prison for being falsely accused.

I couldn't find the full episodes for this anywhere, so I put a clip of Dean and Loretta's meeting for the first time. It's the link entitled "See Loretta and Dean's first encounter since she helped put him in prison in 1994."

Also, you can click around on this website as well and watch other little clips from the show.  It's a really interesting story.

 

 

 

BBC host confesses to murder on air.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/16/bbc-presenter-ray-gosling_n_463626.html

He's later arrested.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/17/ray-gosling-arrested-bbc_n_466204.html

Search by name for most any Iowa court action. Yep, you can do a background check for free on anyone charged with anything in Iowa (some juvenile records do not show).

http://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us/ESAWebApp/DefaultFrame

I have been struggling with this question for the last year or so.  Is it just me or is alcohol use increasing?  am I feeling this just because I'm in college?  One thing is for sure: college aged students are drinking more than ever before.  Binge drinking is seen as a normal college experience and not a sign of alcoholism that it is.  I talked about this with some my mother and some of her friends one day over lunch, and they consented that they feel even their age group, and the world over seem to be more dependent on alcohol.  Now, this can quite seemingly be associated with the growing number of people under severe stress and with anxiety problems.  About 10% of American citizens are on anti-depressants, according to a USA Today article in August.  What I want to know, is how this increase in alcohol use is affecting our criminal system.  Are more petty crimes being committed?  Is there perhaps an increase in more serious crimes like the Curtis Fry incident in 2008?  On his 21st birthday he blacked out and ended up being held responsible for the death of an elderly man.  The problems are never ending, earlier this year there was an article in the Daily Iowan describing the effects of alcohol on the downtown district in Iowa and ambulance calls.  They've need to add more help because of the increase in problems.  They've found that binge drinking has increased.  There are more fights downtown.  There is a constant battle between the city, the university, and the students on making all bars 21 and older.  Bars are often receiving fines or losing their liquor licenses from serving underaged persons.  Now, they are even considering putting cameras downtown to be able to reference when a crime is committing in that area.  Something needs to be done.  Many people have tried, but it is essential to stopping more alcohol related crimes from occuring.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-interrogation-on-film,0,1131791.story

I think that this is a great idea for the exact reasons that the ABA states: it will reduce the allegations by suspects that the detectives coerced them into a confession and it will help detect false confessions when they occur. I don't agree with the DEA that the videotapes will teach the criminals the detectives' techniques because from what I understand, these tapes won't be open to the public, and certainly not to  criminals.

The part that I like best is that it will prevent suspects and their attorneys to portray the police as abusive. I have full confidence that the "roughing up" that you sometimes see in TV shows rarely if ever occurs.

To touch on the innocence project, this could be another method to prove someone's innocence - by reviewing the interrogation tapes to see if they were in any way coerced to confess or if they seem mentally ill.

In class, we have been talking about memory and how witness identification is a key role in many cases. I came across this website, which has a couple face recognition tests. It was really interesting to see that my memory isn't as good as I thought it was. Memory, as defined in class is the ability to recover information and keep it stored safely. These tests mostly focus on short term memory. Try one of the three tests, its shocking to see how good, or bad your memory is!

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php

 

Often times, we think of criminal sentencing as either going to jail or paying a fine. Another avenue of punishment is community service. This type of punishment is more rare, and is usually reserved for first time offenders, petty crimes, and other circumstances. Although it has its criticisms, the goals of community service programs are to reintroduce good behavior and promote accountability of a person to his or her community. Instead of taking away a community's resources to fund a jail, the community is benefiting from the efforts of these petty criminals.

Although some people may think that most criminals should be punished by jailtime, I disagree. Assuming, of course, that the court is able to accurately judge the potential of future criminal activities by a convicted criminal, I think that community service is a viable option for many. Again, this would require the discretion of the courts.

I found a very interesting article that talks about community service in China. Other countries are seeing the benefits of our system and implementing it abroad:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/13/content_281363.htm

A 12 year old student at a New York middle school was arrested for writing "I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)" on her desk in class.  Instead of getting a detention or a slap on the wrist, the principle called the police to arrest the 12 year old girl.  The police then proceeded to handcuff the girl in front of all her class mates and took her to the police station. The reason for the for the arrest was b/c the principle was following the zero tolerance rule.

This is an example of how the zero tolerance rule is taking way out of context in many schools these days.  The affects that this can have on this young girl can be huge.  She can be more likely to rebel because this is so ridiculous.  she can develop some psychological disorders from the embarrassment that she faced in front of her friends and community.  I just think that people need to think before they start arresting kids for no reason because it can come with some big consequences.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html

I've always been interested in statistics, and this website provides stats about school related crimes. I find it interesting that people have the potential of getting seriously injured while they're at school. This blows my mind because I was from a TINY school (graduated with 40 people) and I always felt totally safe while at school. I can't imagine fearing the possibilities of getting beat up at school on top of having to learn. Pressures as a teen are hard enough, it's ridiculous that some teens have to fear their life on a day to day basis. I understand that schools are doing a lot to help this issue, but I feel as though there should be SOMETHING different they can do to ensure safety in the school settings. Not even that, but I wouldn't want to be a teacher in that setting. In one split second if you piss a kid off you could be shot. It's nuts!
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2000/educ.htm

I have came across this article in which a british tv program host has been arrested for murder after he had admitted that he assisted in the death of a former lover that was diagnoses with aids.  Euthanasia is a topic that has been debated in the past. Euthanasia or "mercy killing" is when someone helps a terminally ill person commit suicide to "stop the suffering" I wrote a research paper on this topic at the community college I attended. I think that it is a interesting topic to discuss. Many people will hopefully never experience a loved one being diagnosed with a terminal illness so it is hard to be put into that position just by imaginating it. I am not sure if this should be accepted or not. A person that is terminally ill and is experiencing extreme pain and suffering and there is nothing that the medical field is able to do for that person, and that person is wanting the pain to stop. Should the euthanasia process be able to be carried out legally if it can be done in a "humane" way? I dont know.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/17/bbc.presenter.arrest/index.html 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1 

 

A relatively new story that happened just this morning that involved a man that burned his house down and then ran his plane into an IRS building but left behind a disgruntled suicide note.  In the note there were evident signs of a rage against the IRS, but it is still not yet clear if it was a terrorist motive or just one man taking action against the IRS. A possible psychological aspect to the story could be a mental disorder of a manic episode that caused the man to take such extreme action.

 

Veritaserum... Fact or Fiction?

After reading other people's posts this afternoon about lie detection, I started looking for real life chemicals that might make someone spill their secrets. Most of what I found led me to believe that truth serums are better left for pages in a science-fiction novel but I did find one article interesting, on Wikipedia of all places.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_serum

Granted, Wikipedia's reliability isn't the greatest but generally speaking they are good for some stuff so I am going to take their word for it for arguments sake. According to this article, there are certain chemicals that can induce people to tell the truth. These chemicals have been deemed unethical under the grounds of torture in international law however they can be used for psychiatry purposes. The reliability of these drugs are called to question in this article as it states that the drugs do not actually cause people to tell the truth, it is the fact that the people the drugs are being administered to BELIEVE that they cannot tell a lie under the influence of the drug. It also states that the drugs causes people to talk more frequently thereby releasing more information and maybe telling more truths.

I found this information very interesting especially the part about it being illegal in international law. Now I am just as much for civil liberties as the next person but I do not feel that this should fall under the guidelines as torture from an international legal standard. I suppose one could argue that in a very contrived scenario where someone is administering truth serum on a governmental figure to obtain information (let's say codes to our nuclear weapons arsenal) then YES maybe then you can view truth serum as torture (although if someone wants access to our nukes then they probably don't care about international law anyway). What do you think? Is a truth serum unethical? If so why or why not?

 

(For those that didn't get the title reference, Veritaserum is a fictional truth serum)

 

We've all heard the stories of the girl who reported she was raped- when she wasn't, or those who were kidnapped, but weren't really. False reports happen everyday in the United States and now the law is cracking down.

I called 9-1-1 once when I was little, to see if it worked. It did and I ended up getting a visit from a very nice police officer who sat me down and explained to me how calling for no reason was wrong. Followed by a capital punishment made by the judge/ jury/ executioner: my mom. Being six or seven though- i was merely curious- and the things i learned that day have stuck with me since.

But is there really a differance between a harmless 7 year old calling to see if 9-1-1 was real and a maliscious woman who just wanted to ruin the lives of others? Either way we both took precious time that could be used really saving someone in danger, we both made the choice to call, and we both got punished in the end.

https://secure.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/FalseReporting.pdf

this website shows in minor detail the punishment for all the states where false crimes are reported.

This case is from my hometown and is suprising to me because I personally know this kid and my brother was good friends with him. Bryce Gully was being charged with first degree murder and robbery after supossibly shooting a man during a drug deal and bragged about it and sent pic messages with a gun and money. There are cameras in place in "crack ave."  in pleasent valley (down the street from where i live) that the police were using for surveillance on the drugs. It went to court and he was going to be charged as an adult at 15, but was found not guilty. T he reason for this was a combination of things. They had a bunch of  kids from the neighborhood come in and say so an so  did it and there was no clear descritption between all of them but there was a concensus from the people who were in the car with matt huffman when he was shot. This kid had a long string of criminal charges prior and they found him hiding under a bed. The second reason he was not convicted was because they had a minor error in the evidence and gully kept pushing for a trial since you can never be tried for the same crime twice. He bragged about being unstoppable afterwards until  he was later charged with an unrelated crime a felony for stabbing another kid. Hmmm.. I'm pretty sure he has a patern going on here    here are some of the links you can find info. on http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-gully-trial-051209,0,4798942.story http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11920122 or just google his name . So why do some guilty people go free is it because of other variables such as age etc.. The victims family even forgave him and the jury said they didn't want to possibly put an innocent kid behind bars?

Sam is a mentally challenged man that seems to have an obsessive compulsive disorder who had barely became a father of a young baby girl and he is also a mentally challenged man.  The mom is normal but ditches the father along with the daughter.  So Sam is left alone to raise his daughter and with help from his neighbor he learns that babies need to be fed every two hours.  I am guessing that mentally challenged people have to have a set schedule and if it is changed it has to be changed gradually or else panic or a sense of anxiety will hit them.  His little girl is unbelievably smart; she and her father have a close relationship.  There comes a point where his daughter makes him realize that he is different from the other daddies and where she becomes the adult at a young age.  Sam's friends help them both a lot, "it takes a village to raise a child."  Lucy teaches him to read and finds it difficult at times to make her classmates understand the way he is.  Unfortunately he did not know that he was talking to a prostitute one night, so he got arrested and then they found out that he had a child.  A child can only learn or expand their mind so much depending on the environment that they are exposed to.  At times it will be easy for the child to rebel but discipline can still be added.  As all children they grow embarrassed of their parents so it gets harder for Lucy to deal with her father's special needs.  Because he is special, he could not control his emotions, since the social worker was there, a bit of it was exaggerated, that he poses as a danger to his daughter and other children.  The lawyer that he is trying to talk to is a bit of a snob but he tries, he can't afford her but he tries to impress his boss so he can get a promotion to pay for the lawyer.  His lawyer is a very selfish woman that will only do his case for free because of peer pressure; she is very miserable and treats the people around her like crap.  Lucy convinces her father to runaway with her so they can be together.  Finally Annie shows up even though she has something against the outside world to help testify in court for Sam's sake.  In the end Lucy's adopted family set up a schedule for Sam to spend time with Lucy, so at the same time Lucy may grow up normally.  So are there certain tests that by law a person who is considered to be mentally challege should take just to see if they are a fit parent or not, there are tons of unfit parents that abuse there children and still have them all because they are able to comprehend things the way society wants them to, or makes it seem like they do.  Another thing in real life if the father, even if he is mentally challenged, were to be tricked by his daughter to run away, I am pretty sure he would have been charged with kidnapping.

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/84641587.html

This is a link to the trial of Mark Becker, the man who murdered Ed Thomas, former high school football coach at Aplington Parkersburg. Besides that this case is relatively local, it is interesting because of the psychological problems which Becker is suffering from. The Defense is going to try to use this to reduce his sentence, it will be interesting to see how this plays out with a local Iowa jury.

I found a website that talks about how to prevent juveniles from becoming delinquents. This website has many different things to click on to tell you about what the consequences are for doing each crime and how to prevent someone, especailly juveniles, from doing these crimes.

http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/juvenile-law/prevention/

One of the things I found really interesting was the education classes that kids can take to become aware of their surroundings. These classes can teach children about the effects of drugs, alcohol and crime. They also teach children that their actions have consequences, because that is usually the last thing on a child's mind when it comes to doing something they shouldn't. There are also a lot of things that kids can do after school that keeps them off the streets and out of trouble, like going to a karate class or playing sports with friends. One of the places that is there for boys and girls to go to is the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. There is a club in downtown Waterloo that a lot of kids go to so they can stay away from trouble. The club does a lot of fun things like doing art projects, playing sports and taking trips to the community pool during the summer. Within the club, there are also more activities that are called Specialized Programs. These consist of Club Tech, which teaches children to become familiar with computers and other forms of technology, Teen Initiative, which has different options for older children, and many other programs for children. Here is the website for the Boys and Girls Club:

http://www.bgca.org/

A high school in Pennsylvania recently issued laptops to its students.  This was to ensure that every student had an opportunity to access school resources after school is out.  However, one student was disciplined by an assistant principal at the school for "improper behavior" that took place while he was at home.  At the time, the assistant principal cited a picture that was taken of the student by the webcam on the laptop.

When the school issued the laptops, they were aware that they had the ability to view and capture images using the webcam by remotely accessing and activating the webcam.  They can do this whenever the students' laptop is on.  Parents and students, however, were not notified that the school has the capability to do such things when being issued the laptop.

The angry parents of the student who was disciplined for "improper behavior" are filing a class-action lawsuit against the district.

The article can be found here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/school-under-fire-for-spying-on-kid-via-webcam-at-home.ars 

The death penalty is a great debate that has being going on for many years. When you enlist in the military you wave all your civilian rights and live under only certain parts of the constitution. In a way you become property of the Federal Government and not a citizen. This is a very noble action and those who are willing to give their lives for our country should be admired by all. One thing that happens when you join is that you can now be sentenced with the death penalty. Here is a link to some facts about the death penalty in relation to the Military. It is very interesting to read about the thought behind decisions resulting in the death penalty. I am pro death penalty, but I do question whether the government should be allowed to take the life of someone who is willing to give their life in the name of their country.

 

 

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/us-military-death-penalty

When many people, myself included, think of zero tolerance policies in schools we think weapons. Clearly bringing a weapon to school is not something that should be handled by a stern talking to and a don't do it again. However, a 12-year old girl was arrested, as in handcuffs taken to the station the works, for doodling on her desk. Yeah. The was not any profanity or death threats it wasn't even scratched into the desk just written in green marker. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some punishment for this but this is something that should be handled by say making her clean it up and missing recess not a public arrest in front of her classmates and a three day suspension. In the article I read this in there are several more stories of schools engaging in what I can only call disproportionate retribution the punishments unleashed on these students hardly fits the crime. I have great faith in the people who become police officers but it is things like this that remind me why it is best that there be rules in place to keep the police on there leash. You can read the whole story here

 

            When I think of lie detection I think of the movie Meet the Parents when the dad hooks the daughter's boyfriend up to the lie detection test in his secret room in the den. However, everyone knows that lie detection tests are not always accurate, and there are some ways of tricking the test to make it appear like you are telling the truth. This got me thinking about other ways, besides a test, that people give off the impression that they are lying. I came upon a website that lays out four different categories in which Police and other people such as managers and employer go about determining if someone is lying. The four categories include deception, emotional gestures, interactions/reactions, and verbal. Each of these categories provided many interesting tests that give away that a person is most likely lying. However there were a couple that stood out.  For example; people that are lying are more likely to not use contractions. If someone accuses you of stealing money out of his wallet, if the person is telling the trust they are more likely to respond by saying "I didn't steal money out of your wallet" vs. "I did not steal money out of your wallet."  Also, another way in which you can test to see if someone is lying is to change the subject. Ironically if you are the person lying and your confronter changes the subject you most likely think you got a way with the lie; however, this is the catch. If you are telling the truth you would be thrown off by this subject change and want to revisit the discussion on lying because you want to make sure the person realizes that you were telling the truth. There are many more examples of how you can tell people are lying so if you are interested I would check out the website!

 

 

 

http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies.php

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/politics/article_51982555-5faa-540a-9608-b61fee165caf.html

This is an article from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. In March of 2009 there was a law passed that allowed families to ask for protection not only themselves from their abusers but also for the family pets.  The threat of a family pet being harmed is seen as an issue in abuse case. I personally wouldn't want any of my animals harmed so i think its only human nature that we want to protect of animals from abuse.

Keith Hunter Jesperson:

Not many people know about the Happy Face Killer. I didn't know much about him either until I was watching Oprah and his daughter was on the show talking about her book about being the daughter of a serial killer entitled, Shattered Silence. She heard odd comments from her dad when he got home from being on the road because he was a truck driver, such as "I know how to kill someone without being caught." He would give her real accounts of the victims that he killed.

He got the name "happy face killer" because in his letters to the media he would sign with a happy face. He was convicted with at least 8 murders but he claims to have had 160 murders but many of those recanted. He was a truck driver and killed through several states. He was eventually found when he murdered his girlfriend, and he only admitted to the other murders because of the confession letter he sent to his brother.

Here are some links to read more about the murders he committed and what led to the capture of the killer. Also, I have a link to the book that his daughter wrote about what she went through as a child and teenager being a child of the serial killer. I wasn't able to make it through all the chapters on the trutv link but what I did read was good and informative on him.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/jesperson/murder_1.html

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/12/happy_face_killer_keith_hunter.php

http://www.shatteredsilencebook.com/

 

 

http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/53e20d44-fbf6-11de-9716-001cc4c002e0.html

Iowa is trying to pass a law to stop the sending of explicit images through a phone known as sexting. Teenagers tend to forget the consequences and just get up in the moment of sending images like that to the ones they like or want. Under the state's current laws, a teenager engaged in sexting could face an aggravated misdemeanor or a felony charge typically meant for child pornography cases. The proposal would give prosecutors the option of charging teenagers with a simple misdemeanor if they disseminated sexually explicit material to another teen. Many teens can even be put on the sex offenders list if they were to be caught with pictures of underage teens on their phones. A boy who was 17 at the time, was sent many naked pictures from his girlfriend who was a year younger than him. When he was 18 and she was 17, they had an argument and around 3 in the morning he woke up and sent those naked pictures of her to everyone she knew, friends, family, parents, grandparents, over 70 contacts saw them. The boy was arrested and put on the sex offenders list. He has to get counseling as if he was the owner and viewer of child pornography, he can't get a job, can't live with his parents because they live next to a school. His life was ruined by the push of a button.

Most of you probably heard about the woman who was assaulted Wednesday on campus between the Presidents house and Maucker Union.  She reported that she used pepper spray to get away from her attacker.  This report made the local news and newspapers.  What some of you might not have heard about is that this woman lied about being attacked.  She went into the police station and told police that she had made up the whole story about being attacked.  UNI police said that they were suspicious about her report.  She reported that she was leaving the library heading to her car parked on Wisconsin Street.  She said that no one else was around when she was attacked.  The police found this strange that no one would be around, because the library had just closed and a lot of students park their cars on Wisconsin Street.  Also a police dog was not able to pick up any scent of pepper spray at the scene.  Even though the police thought that the story could be false they investigated it like they would any other report or case.  The UNI police said that most people make false reports because they want the attention or they have some type of metal disorder.  They do not know the reason why this woman lied about her attack.  This woman was arrested and charged with making a false report. 

I am glad that she admitted that she lied about the attack.  If she had kept quite the UNI and Cedar Falls police would have put time and effort into finding her attacker.  If they had found a guy that matched her description, it could have possibly have lead to him being charged with a crime he didn't commit.

Below is the website to the Courier's website that talks about the case:

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_955e5b94-17e2-11df-a929-001cc4c03286.html

 

 

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/td/academy/bsu/bsu.htm

"Behavioral science is all about better understanding criminals and terrorists--who they are, how they think, why they do what they do--as a means to help solve crimes and prevent attacks."

"Caucasians and Asians don't examine faces in the same way, according to new research. PhD student Caroline Blais, of the Université de Montréal Department of Psychology, has published two studies on the subject: one in Current Biology and the other in PLoS One."

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1h3Ypm/www.brainmysteries.com/research/Recognition_of_facial_expressions_is_not_universal.asp 

  Above is a great, albeit quick, example of research being done on facial recognition, and featural processing strategies.  The article suggests that the common assumption that all facial recognition follows a bottom-up approach, in that various individual parts of a persons face are combined and an overall impression is then formed, may be accurate for causasions, but not other races. 

  Using eye-tracking technology the research demonstrated that causasions spend most time shifting between both eyes and the mouth forming a recognizable "triangle" pattern.  However, Asians were demonstrated to spend time focusing on the nose and using a wholistic or top-down approach.  The research went on to demonstrate that Asians also had a difficulty distinguishing between various negative emotions which included subtle facial distinctions (e.g. variations in mouth positioning). 

   I'm interested to know some of the implications of this research to witness identification.  The article suggests that neither bottom-up nor top-down processing is better per se, only that they function differently in various contexts.  It would seem that bottom-up processing should take longer yet be more detailed, however I guess research does not suggest this to be the case.  And what reasons are there for this distinction between Asian and Caucasians facial processing techniques? 

  

   

The ever so popular TV show, The First 48 on AE.TV is one that you can count on for truth and facts. The first 48 is a show about homicide detectives that respond to a crime and try and solve it within the first 48 hours. These are real cases with the real people...no actors or replaying of a scene. What you see is what you get!
This show focuses mostly on people that go from suspicion to suspect, eye witnesses, and the interrogation, or interviewing. This really helps you see what a detective does from the moment they get that call.
You can also get a sense of how they figure out what happened and who was involved. They start with the facts that they have off hand and work their way down from there. The one thing that I have started to notice sense we have talked about it in class is the interrogations done by the detectives. In class we learned that a detective will tell you anything you want to hear. They will exhaust you mentally and physically, they will lie to you. Basically they will do anything to get you to confess or turn on anyone. If you notices, in most shows, the detective will either try and play friend, or yell and scream and lie to get them to crack. I find it interesting to watch, now that you really know what is going on.
I have posted the link to the First 48 TV shows. The one on the link I am posting is about a homeless man who is murdered, and a 911 call that has gun shots firing in the background. I urge you to watch the whole show and really pay close attention to the detail that goes into being a detective, especially the ones that do the interviews.
If you are interested after watching this show, you can watch many other episodes with different stories. They get very interesting!

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048

http://www.aetv.com/the_first_48/video/index.jsp?paidlink=1&vid=AETV_SEM_Search&keywords=first%2B48&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=first%2540&utm_term=first%2048 

"The main complaints are that photo enforcement is an invasion of privacy, that it's unfair, inaccurate -- even illegal -- and that Redflex is just in it to get its cut. The company makes about $30 per paid ticket. But Redflex spokesman Jay Heiler says a law enforcement officer looks at every violation before it goes out."

This article made me absolutely sick!  A man from Sioux City was charged with punching his puppy to death.  The worst part was, he was found guilty of animal torture and was only sentenced to jail for year, which he will only spend a month of there, since he was credited for previous time spent there.  The judge wanted to keep in mind that he didn't kill an actual person, but how is it ok that an innocent puppy was murdered and in an awful way.   Since this man didn't have a history of domestic violence the judge was even more lenient.  Along with his Jail time Loggins is to pay a $625 fine, $300 to the Iowa Department of Corrections and he will have to reimburse the Woodbury County Jail $50 for each day he is there. He's also required to undergo substance abuse counseling and a psychological evaluation.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_e8246bac-1896-11df-b181-001cc4c002e0.html

I know Dr. Maclin presented this story a little bit in class yesterday, but I decided to look up more details and websites for my post this week.

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/female-shooter-kills-university-alabama-huntsville/story?id=9823728

A biology professor, Dr. Amy Bishop, at the University of Alabama was denied tenure in upcoming April, and decided to go on a killing spree during a faculty meeting last Friday, Feb. 12. Bishop was arrested and charged with killing 3 professors and wounding three others. Killed, according to the Associated Press were, Maria Davis, Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and faculty member Adriel Johnson. The injured were identified as biology department members Luis Cruz-Vera and Joseph Leahy and university staff member Stephanie Monticello.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/alabama-university-shooting-suspect-amy-bishops-husband-idea/story?id=9839348

Bishop's husband is still in disbelief of his wife's outrage and said he has know idea why she did it or where she got the gun.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/professors-rampage-violent-past-9839637

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/3-dead-in-shooting-at-university-of-alabama-huntsville/19356792

Investigation into the case and the past of Bishop brings up suspiciousness of a violent past for the professor. 17 years ago, Bishop was a suspect in the 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor. Bishop was also accused of killing her brother in 1986, although the case was never completely solved. The shooting was ruled accidental and Bishop was never charged.  

 

I think Bishop has to have some mental instability to commit such an act on the basis of being denied tenure.  She appears to have an aggressive past and problems controlling her angry outbursts.  I think that investigators should reopen the case of the death Bishop's brother to see if there was any evidence that they may have missed that ties Bishop to the crime.  If a verdict had been reached that found Bishop responsible for her brother's death, this killing spree at UAH may have never occured.  It is hard to say "what if" but I think this case demonstrates how colleges and universities should do a thorough background check on their professors and faculty before hiring them and trusting them with today's students. 

Today in class we were talking about eyewitness testimonies and how we need to keep them from being contaminated.  I found this very interesting along with the various ways our memories work.  So, I looked up eyewitness testimonies and the effects of contamination and came upon this video.

I found this video of an experiment at Brooklyn Law School.  This experiment is a blind experiment, the perpetrator and teacher are in on the experiment, the students on the other hand do not know anything. 

The video starts out with a Professor teaching in front of her students on a normal day of class, so they thought.  Everything is going well until a guy walks into the room and steals the Professors' purse.  Once this happens all of the students become witnesses to this experimental crime. The Professor plants evidence by stating that the perpetrator had a weird nose, and she could not remember anything else.

The next day, 29 students were interviewed to see if anyone could help with identifying the perpetrator.  All of the students said something about the perpetrator having a weird looking nose while everything else varies.

So, contamination of an eyewitness testimony can happen within seconds.  These seconds can make an innocent person into a criminal and in real life there are people serving time in prison because of from this contamination.

When you watch this video just ask yourself these questions:
  1.  What impact did the professor have on her students?
  2.  How credible are eyewitness testimonies after all?
  3.  How does this experiment relate to real life crimes?
  4.  What can we do to decrease the impact of false information on eyewitnesses?

Click here to watch the video

With all of this talk about missing people and the Smiley Face murders, I thought it might be a good idea to post a link on how to protect yourself from crime.  On the second page of this article from WebMD, it gives a list on things you can do to make yourself less of a target for potential attackers, although the other information is useful as well! I've gotten tons of emails and heard lots of talks on how to protect myself, but it never hurts to refresh your memory:) Using these strategies, you can make yourself less of a target, and decrease your chances of becoming a victim.

 

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/how-protect-yourself-against-crime

This is a very interesting article about how the point of a finger gave a man a 50 year prison sentence on a rape charge.

Three days after the rape, Detective Gauldin called the rape victim Jennifer Thompson in to do a photo lineup. He lay six pictures down on the table, said the perpetrator may or may not be one of them, and told her to take her time.

Thompson did not immediately identify a photo, taking her time to study each picture.

"I can remember almost feeling like I was at an SAT test. You know, where you start narrowing down your choices. You can discount A and B," Thompson said.
.

I find it so interesting that the flaws of eyewitness identification can be so obvious. When taking a multiple choice test you being narrowing down the answers. When you come down to the bottom two you seem to make an educated guess. When dealing with 50 years in prison, I would hope the question only has one obvious answer, and isn't multiple choice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/06/60minutes/main4848039_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Throughout this class we have dealt with many aspect of witness identification. Through the construct a line up project I was amazed at how many people actually guessed the suspect right. So not only is this whole process biased in that a person basically picks as a multiple choice guess sometimes, but also that a line up can be very biased. Many line ups are made with an obvious answer to be picked. Many of think us probably think, so what! That person is probably guilty. However, in this above case we see that a man was wrongly picked from a line up and the consequence was major jail time. When picking out of a line up the person is basically choosing the course for the person. We also learned in class that eye witnesses are of HUGE impact to a jury. This can also lead to false testifying which can easily sway a jury. It starts to make you really reflect upon our justice system and the ways that eye witnesses, juries, and even line ups can be extremely biased.

One subject that has always been intriguing to me was the lie detector.  After googling the subject many websites came up on how to beat a lie detector, which was surprising to me after learning and reading that it is very difficult to do.  I did come upon a valuable website that explains how the entire lie detection process works and who is involved with detecting lies.  First, it must be understood that lies are not ever detected but the physiological responses that appear when someone may be lying is what is detected.  It is obvious to many that lie detectors are used sometimes when someone is a suspect of a crime committed.  During a lie detecting session the person being tested is alone with the polygraph examiner, who now prefers to be called a forensic psychophysiologist.  It depends on the state, but most examiners must have prior training and education on how to use the computerized polygraph.  This is where psychology becomes involved.  One example of a polygraph examiner school is the Axciton International Academy.  At this school one thing that must be satisfied by students is that they pass a 10-week course that teaches psychology, physiology, ethics, history, question construction, psychological analysis of speech, and chart analysis and test-data analysis. The fact that psychology is involved in their education makes perfect sense.  Psychology could help explain why people lie and what their motives are. On the legal side of things, there is a low chance that a person's polygraph results will be used in court.  The only state in the U.S. that allows for open showing of polygraph results is New Mexico.  All the other states need to first meet requirements that allow for the results to be shown.  During a legal case both the prosecutor and defender must agree to show the results in court.  Lie detection seems to be portrayed differently in the media and I think that is where most people get their opinions and information about lie detection.  Personally, I think polygraphs are overused in law shows because in real life lie detectors are not the first route a prosecutor uses.  This website offers much more information; check it out if this topic interests you.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/lie-detector4.htm

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/10/new.york.teen.rape.case/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021404062.html

"The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day was read his Miranda rights nine hours after his arrest, according to a detailed chronology released Sunday by senior administration officials. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2010-02-15/5.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hamedah-hasan/a-letter-from-behind-bars_b_458718.html

"As we celebrate President's Day, one prisoner asks President Obama to exercise his clemency power to commute the remaining 10 years of her 27-year sentence, which she received for a first time, non-violent drug offense."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-reluctant-jurors15-2010feb15,0,824472.story

"As more people seek dismissal for financial hardship, their claims face much tighter scrutiny. In one case the jury pool was so rebellious and 'scary' that both sides agreed to let the judge decide."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/14/israel.polygamy.charges/index.html

"Jerusalem (CNN) -- An Israeli man accused of having 23 wives and fathering 59 children was charged Sunday in a Tel Aviv court with multiple counts of sexual assault, rape, sodomy and enslavement..."

Goel Ratzon was arrested last month on the above mentioned charges against some of his numerous daughters. He convinced these women that he was "omnipotent" and that he could perform miraculous acts.

"...He persuaded the women that he had the power to heal and curse, through which he gained "complete control of their lives, desires, thoughts, emotions and actions," the court papers say...."

 They served him, and used their own finances to pay for everything he wanted and needed. The wives and children all lived in a compound together, obeying him in every way.

The Israeli government had known about his cult for about a decade, but it wasn't until about 6 months ago that they convinced one of the women to press charges.

If you have taken abnormal psychology, you may have heard of the Tarasoff case.  If you have not, I will summarize the case for you below.

Prosenjit Poddar met Tatiana Tarasoff at a folk dancing class in the fall of 1968 at the University of California, Berkeley.  That New Year's Eve, Tarasoff rang in the new year by giving Poddar a kiss.  Since kissing at midnight is the norm on New Year's Eve, many of us do not take them too seriously.  Poddar did, however.  The kiss to him symbolized the beginning of a serious relationship between Tarasoff and himself.  Poddar was crushed to learn that Tarasoff was not interested in him and was involved with other men which caused Poddar to enter into a state of depression.  After much convincing, Poddar sought help from a psychologist on campus, Dr. Lawrence Moore.  During one of Poddar's sessions, he told Dr. Moore that he planned to kill Tarasoff when she returned from her summer vacation.  Dr. Moore thought that Poddar was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, both acute and severe.  Dr. Moore suggested that the campus police civilly commit Poddar, which was done, but was shortly released because the police felt he had changed his mind about killing Tarasoff.  Dr. Moore's supervisor, Dr. Harvey Powelson felt that Poddar was rational and instructed no further need for treatment.

The next October, Poddar stabbed Tarasoff to death with a kitchen knife at her house.  Neither Tarasoff or her parents received a warning of Poddar's intentions.

This particular case had an impact on the law, especially when talking about patient-psychotherapist confidentiality.  After this incident, the California Supreme Court ruled that mental health professionals have the duty to not only the patient, but also to anyone who is being threatened.  Many states and even some places outside of the country have adopted this rule stating that mental health professionals have a duty to protect those who are threatened by one of their patients. Psychotherapists are now obligated to warn the potential victim in any way possible to prevent cases such as this.

After we talked about this in my abnormal class last semester, I asked my professor if this law also made it an obligation for therapists to warn potential victims about any physical harm that is threatened to them (i.e. any harm other than murder), and he told me that he is pretty sure that it only applies to threats of one's life.  I thought this was kind of interesting, but I suppose that if therapists had to report every harmful incident brought up by a patient, they would be filing reports left and right.  

(The above summary was based not only on information I learned in class, but also Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California)

If you are interested in this case, there is a TON of information out there online about it.  Feel free to post links to more information! 



   

 

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2AZSl8/www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/Documents/Docs/Doc20.html

Above is the link to an incredibly large listing of common vocabulary terms used in the forensic sciences. I've found it useful when reading journal articles, or adding in relevant terms ot a blog posting, etc. 

            For example, criminals get more and more upset and emotionally frustrated when thinking about jail-time, in particular a longer jail sentence.  This is known as inmate reactance, which is the increased negativity experienced when an inmate has his personal freedom threatened.   Serial killers often have call signs, or specific rituals, or behaviors that they emit at each crime scene indicating that they are the ones responsible.  This is often highlighted in movies about serial killers like Seven, Silence of the Lambs, etc.  We could say that each of these serial killers has a unique personation which indicates they are responsible; personation is the term for these ritualistic behaviors such as "body positioning (of the victim), mutilation, or other symbolic gestures."

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mlyount/MySites/ForensicPsychology/Vocab.html

This is another site which has vocabulary more specific to forensic psychology.  This website has longer descriptions for each word which can be helpful.  Although many of the words are basic psychology terms that don't always have a direct relevance to forensics.

            Some more highlights include:

Ecomania-       pathological attitude directed towards one's family

Familicide-      when an individual kills his/her spouse and one or more children

Frottage-         sexual gratification achieved by rubbing against the clothing of a member of the                            opposite sex in a crowd.

Learn something new every day, I thought that last one was known as "creepy."

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/21/smiley.face.killer/index.html

I came across this theory while watching the evening news tonight. The disappearance of an ISU student has grabbed the hearts of Iowans and has had many people speculating. With lack of evidence police are might be turning to theory. Speculation surrounding the case has hinted that the disappearance might be related to a series of deaths that have been plaguing the Midwest for almost 2 decades. The Smiley Face Killer Theory is a working police theory that links over 40 different accidental drownings to a serial killer or group of killers. The circumstances of the cases are all similar. All the victims were 20 to 23 year old males who were popular and were in great academic standing. The autopsies of the victims show no sign of foul play but they do indicate that the victims were intoxicated at the time of their drowning. A series of smiley faces placed near where some the bodies were found lead many to speculate that the drowning were not by accident. In Lacrosse Wisconsin alone there has been a total of 9 different drown-victims and several more in the states of Iowa and Minneapolis. Speculation around this theory has grown so much that they have even made an official website for the theory.

http://sfkillers.com/?page_id=2.    

FBI has made an official statement on the subject that they do not believe these deaths are linking in any way and they are still ruling these drownings as accidental. There is still no word on ISU student that is still missing but the police have not ruled anything out yet.

Playing devil's advocate here, I am going to go along with the theory and pose some hypothetical scenarios. Firstly, regardless of if the recent disappearance of an ISU student is linked in any way to this theory, the deaths of nearly 40 other male college students is more than enough to raise an eyebrow at. The circumstances of the case might lead us to make some initial investigatory inferences. First, all the victims were male, college age, in good academic standing (deans list or above), and all were described as being popular. From that we could make some inferences that if a killer exists they might be someone who would have a grudge against these types of bright and popular males. Also all of the alleged drownings took place in the Midwest and northern U.S. States indicating that the killer or potential killers may live in the Midwest. This theory opens the doors for many different theories; could this be the work of copy cats? Could it be one killer or some sort of cult across several organizations on various campuses?

As I said above the FBI has made their official statement that there is no evidence to believe that these deaths are in any way related so I do not intend to stir up any feelings of paranoia, just merely playing devil's advocate.   

This article caught my eye while I was browsing CNN.  It is about a how a 16 year old, named Ricky Blackman, in Iowa had sex with a 13 year old because he was told the girl was 15.  The girl ran away from home and the cops came to the young mans house looking for her.  This is when he found out she was actually only 13.  He then admitted to have sex with her and was arrested.  He was put on the sex offenders list in Iowa and was told that if completed the treatment, his name would be taken off the list.  His family then moved to Oklahoma to start a new life.  Ricky completed his treatment and was taken off the list in Iowa but he did not come off the list in Oklahoma. 

Rick had a red stripe that said he was a sex offender on his drivers license.  Whenever he went places to buy things that needed an ID to be shown, he would not be served.  He could not even get jobs at Wal-mart and McDonald's.  He was not allowed to go to school and finish high school or get his GED. 

Eventually Oklahoma took the red strip off of Ricky's license but the affects of his poor treatment still take a tull on his everyday life.  He is nervous around children and women because he doesn't want to be looked at like he is doing something wrong.  He doesn't go to his brothers football games because he doesn't want to make people upset that he is there even though he is off the list.

The are so many psychological problems that he could have developed just from not being able to hangout with people his own age and getting treated like crap from everyone in his community.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/11/oklahoma.teen.sex.offender/index.html

I'm sure all of you know who Charles Manson is.  In my AP Psych class in high school, I watched a documentary about Manson and I've been interested in the story ever since.  The thing that I find interesting about his case is that Manson never killed anybody himself, yet he is in prison for first degree murder.  

"Hundreds of inmates from county jails have been set free in the past two weeks, but it's not at all clear they are eligible for release under the law..."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123567044
    

     Grab your toothbrush and yer underwear boys and girls, yer gettin' cut loose!  While we have all heard about the economic woes surrounding the state of California (autographed squad car anyone?  It reads: "I'll be back! Love, T-1000"), according to the link listed above from npr.org, federal legislation required California's penal system to change the way inmates earn "good behavior credit", setting them on a fast track to freedom. 

     As we have seen many times before, our good friend "discretion" poked his head round' the corner to show us a new trick.  Unfortunately this time, his tricks resulted in a traumatic experience for one unlucky Californian.  Before 22 year-old Kevin Peterson was out of the slammer for a full 24 hours, he was arrested for attempted rape.  Though he had served only half of his 4 month sentence, Peterson managed to find his way BACK into the system faster than I can bake a cake. 

     Some might say Peterson belongs behind bars.  It seems to me that an extra two months in California jails wouldn't have done Peterson much good.  Still others may say that the California penal system did not have adequate time to rehabilitate Peterson.  While I am no criminology expert, it seems quite obvious that the system is in dire need of reorganization.  With over 170,000 inmates, California's financial burden from this volume of prisoners is staggering, and if recidivism is indicated by this clown Peterson, California officials need to do a better job of getting this guy and others like him back to work, back to paying taxes, and staying out of trouble.  Setting criminals free that aren't prepared to re enter society is not the way to save money.

Penny for your thoughts?
 

This article is about a guy that was a convicted sex offender in Iowa that moved to Oklahoma to get away from the harassments he was encountering in Des Moines. When he received a new drivers license in Oklahoma it had "sex offender" in red writing under his picture. Even though he was no longer registered as a sex offender in Iowa, he was forced to live with this stigma in Oklahoma. He was not able to go to the mall, library, or his little brothers football games. His mother fought the legislature to change the law so that expunged sex offenders do not need to be labeled as sex offenders in the state of Oklahoma. He is no longer stigmatized by this label. Sex offender registries are in my opinion kind of a controversial issue. In some instances I agree that people should have to register and should not be permitted around children, but in this guys case he was 16 and he thought the girl was 15 but turns out she was 13. Even thought a lot of people say that is too young to be particiapating in these activities, that is not the point in this case. Im not sure this guys needs to be stigmatized for the rest of his life for his crime in this case.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/11/oklahoma.teen.sex.offender/index.html 

I found this game kind of interesting. At first you are asked to pick a case that you want to participate in, then it gives a short description of what is going on, then you pick if you want to be the prosecutor or the defense. The game then has a list of 20 jurors and gives some information about each one. You select which 12 of the 20 you would think would benefit your case the most. After you do this you are given a score and it also gives you the reasons why or why not each juror you selected would be beneficial to the case. I thought the game was interesting because it shows you to a certain extent what both sides go through in the juror selection process.

 

http://www.texaslre.org/jury_game.html 

As many of us come into our choice of major such as Psychology, Family Services, Social Work etc. we will be forced to come across disturbing subjects like Sexual Child Abuse. It takes a special person and state of mind to work with these children and really understand what they go through psychologically and physically.

This is an article in great detail about the psychological effects on Children who are sexually abused. It takes you though their minds and what children who have been abused tend to think and act. This article will briefly expand on the long term effects of sexual abuse and take you through two Syndromes associated with sexual child abuse: The Stockholm Syndrome & The Child Abuse Accommodation Syndrome.

These children also go through depression and the emotions tied with depression. They have fear, anger, hopelessness, betrayal, sadness, and every other emotion. A person working with these children really has to understand what those emotions feel like to the child. This article better helps explain these emotions.

It also has a section on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD. This is a memory or fear that springs up at any given time due to a traumatic event that has happened in your life. It is something most children live with once they are the victim of sexual abuse.

I hope this easy read article helps some of you going into a career that handles cases like this.

http://www.secasa.com.au/index.php/family/11/54 

 

Witness Protection Program, what is it? There's a lot of information that I didn't know about it, so I decided to write my blog on it. Turns out about 9,500 people are in the program, that's so many! I think that it would be so weird to be in the program and up and leave everyone and everything you know, however it's all to save your life. The witness protection program has an 88% success rate, meaning that only 12% of the people who go into this program get caught by the people they're hiding from....crazy. I think it's nuts that we've developed such a program that can completely erase your real life and replace it with a 'fake' one. I think that if I was in the program I'd get confused myself and not remember what my 'fake' name was.
Here is a website I found that has some questions and the answers about the Witness Protection Program
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/inplainsight/theshow/witsecfaq.html

I always believed that hate always came from ignorance, anger, and of course fear.  I also believe that it first starts off with ignorance, then fear, and eventually that fear becomes anger.  This web page explains clearly the start of it and the solution of it, but is it really possible to eleminate this type of hate after the world has been exposed to it for years now?  Are people willing to give up such stupidity?  What if they are not ignorant, what if they know better but yet their view remains colorless?  These are just some of the questions I hope you will keep in mind when you read this web page.

http://www.cahro.org/html/hate_crimes.html 

I am writing this blog as a response to Waterloo Teacher Arrested.

Many of you have probably heard about this story at least once on the news or online. After Haiti was faced with a tragic earthquake, 10 American missionaries were arrested and detained after allegedly kidnapping 33 Haitian children. The Americans supposedly tried to take these children out of the country into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation, and were turned back. According to CNN.com, the judge of this case has up to 3 months to decide whether or not he wants to prosecute these individuals. Many people have completely differing views on this case and their are arguments for both sides. Here are a couple links that are following this case as it is just starting to get underway.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/04/haiti.arrests/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/world/americas/10prisoners.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0211/Haiti-kidnapping-case-Americans-could-be-released-today

 

 

Rene wants to become a star, she puts her trust in this one man who makes her think that he will make her a star but he doesn't so she breaks down kills the guy, tricks her husband to take the blame for the murder but he then figures out that she and the guy that she murdered were having intercourse, so he confessed that she did it, and then she confessed and ended up in prison.  In reality her husband and then her future ex-husband should have been charged with being an accomplice.  In prison she sees Catherine who was committed of a double homicide and meets big mama who is a corrupt warden in that prison.  A group of women in prison start gabbing about how the one they loved or cared about had it common except for one, she did not murder her lover but was still in imprisoned by mistake.  Rene is being used by Richard in order for her to get out of prison but since Catharine told her that Richard is always on the spot light René tries to make the spot on her.  The more fame the better, more money and better title for the lawyer and better for the victim/defendant.  This new murder comes and manages to start stealing the entire spotlight until Rene reveals to the newspaper that she is pregnant.  What happens in real life was shown in the movie, an innocent woman was executed.  What lawyers might do at times in order to win, they might lead the client, meaning that they might help them out in the court by giving them hints on what to say so it would make them look good.  During court hearings sometimes surprise witnesses do pop out and objects are used as evidence to help against or for the defendant, but if evidence is being used it has to be within a search warrant and cannot invade anyone's privacy.  After the case whether they are guilty or not some murderers or non murderers can become addicted to the fame that came with the trial.  There have been cases were people end up idolizing and at times committing the same crime that some famous murder or ex-convict just because they wanted the same attention, these people have issues when it comes to being social with the world around them, most of the time I believe that these behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people, which of course leads to social psychology.People like Rene and Catherine's character need psychological treatment.  I am pretty sure that if they were to go to one they would be diagnosed with some time of severe disorder, murdering and then lying and being obsessed with the fame is definitely an abnormal behavior.

In my effort to find an article about the psychology of interrogation I stumbled upon this article from 2006. A group of psychologists and former interrogators came to the conclusion that torture is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst. The group stated that in an effort to stop the pain of torture an innocent would make something up and someone trained to resist torture would twist the facts leaving you with false information to act on. Further they pointed out that the "Ticking Time Bomb" scenario in which a terrorist who knows the location of a bomb is tortured to get that information in time. The group points out that the terrorist only has to resist until the bomb goes off and further they state "Moreover, the torture would offer the terrorist a prime opportunity to deceive interrogators by falsely naming bomb locations of difficult access." The entire article can be found here. http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=20647

Bernhard Schlink's novel, The Reader, is one of my all favorite novels because it not only deals with law and psychology but it also is a piece of Holocaust literature. The novel follows narrator, Michael Berg, as he retells his past in three epic parts. The novel begins in West Germany in 1958, almost 13 years after WWII. When Michael was a teenager, he had an affair with a 36 year old train conductress named Hanna. Their relationship was mostly sexual but Michael began to grow strong feelings for Hanna. Hanna was very "down to business" with Michael and very closed off about her past. One of her favorite things to do with Michael was to have him read to her after they had made love. There affair lasts several months until one day Hanna disappeared. Part II of the novel opens several years later with Michael beginning law school. As one of his assignments for law school, Michael observes a war crime trial that attempts to interrogate and punish those who committed war crimes in the Holocaust. On trial is a group of middle-aged women who were active SS officers during WWII and helped guard one of the concentration camps. Michael is shocked and surprised to find out that Hanna was amongst those who were accused.

I do not want to spoil what happens for those who wish to read this book and/or watch the movie, but Part III deals with Michael's life after the trial and what has became of him and Hanna. In Part III several questions are raised that have to do with both the legal world and psychology. One of the main questions that are raised is what are the second generation suppose to do with their Nazi past. In an interview, Schlink has said that one of his favorite professors in school had a visible swastika tattoo. How are the children of the perpetrators suppose to deal with the guilt of their parents as the events of the Holocaust become common knowledge in the 1950s and 1960s? And who can we persecute legally for those who were involved with what had happened in the Holocaust? Surely those who committed murders, but weren't those who committed the murders in fact just following the governments orders? Who can we hold responsible for their actions and where the perpetrators just victims themselves? These are all the things that the book deals with. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Holocaust, history, or international law.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Reader-Bernhard-Schlink/dp/0753801728/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265914414&sr=8-6 

 

The above photo is from a website I found that uses time-lapse imaging to track brain maturation from ages 5 to 20.  The images are constructed from MRI scans of health children.  Red indicates more gray matter, blue indicates less gray matter.  Gray matter wanes in a back to front wave as the brain matures and neural connections are pruned.  Areas performing more basic functions mature earlier; areas for higher-order functions (emotion, self-control) mature later.  This information is interesting in the examination of juvenile offenders, because it may explain why some juveniles commit crimes.  If emotional and self-control maturation does not occur until later, some juveniles may not have enough self-control to understand the consequences of their crimes nor even the action of committing a crime itself.

I came across this website as I was researching the case of Roper v. Simmons, in which a 17 year old boy is being convicted of first-degree murder and charged with death.  The court reviewed this case, in conjunction with public opinion, and determined that the death penalty violated the 18th amendment because it constituted as "cruel and unusual" punishment for persons under the age of 18. 

I think this information is relevant to the field of developmental psychology and how our brains evolve.  As mentioned above, brain maturation affects emotions and self-control, which could provide valid arguments when assessing the maturation of juvenile criminals and whether to try them in a juvenile court or adult court.  Based on the severity of the crime I think some juveniles should be tried in adult courts; however, if they show a deficit in brain maturation and self-control, I think there is room to argue that child's drive to commit a criminal act.

Below is the link to the website that displays human cortical development up to early adulthood. It also has other interesting images that show the brain maturing as it turns from red to blue (more gray matter to less):

http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/DEVEL/dynamic.html

 

After going through some of the older blogs, I remembered an event that happened in my hometown of Dubuque, Iowa. At Hempstead High School, the assistant principle, Shane Oswald, is accused of having sex with a 17 year old student and also giving her prescription drugs (hydrocodone) and alcohol. When word of this got out, Oswald fled and ran away to Florida, where he was arrested. Oswald plead not guilty to these accusations but the 17 year old girl was able to draw diagrams of the inside of his home. His $50,000 bail was posted last week by his father. His trial is set to start April 15. Since I live in Dubuque, I've heard many stories about this case such as Oswald would sneak the girl into his basement while his family was upstairs to have sex with her. I've also heard that Oswald would give the girl hydrocodone before she went to school. I find this whole situation rather disturbing and it really makes me wonder why and how some people do the things they do.

The website below has several articles on the case.

http://interceder.net/news/shane-oswald

The article below has a very detailed description of what has been accused of Oswald.

http://www.kwwl.com/global/story.asp?s=11888266  

In 2004 Carlie Brucia was reported missing by her mother after she never made didn't arrive home from her fiends house (a 15-20 min walk). Carlie was abducted in a car wash parking lot the night of the super bowl in 2004 and later that night was brutally murdered. The interesting thing about this case was not that she was abducted an murdered but it was how the manatee sheriffs department responded to her mothers request for an amber alert. Since the mother reported her daughter missing after approximately 10 min of her being abducted the police department had to inclination that a crime had been committed. It wasn't until 18 hours later when the police saw the video tape of her abductor via the car wash security camera was an amber alter released. Many people came forward stating they new who the guy in the video was; Joe Smith, cocaine addict. In the article below you read about Smiths addiction to cocaine, how he went into relapse and how the night of the super bowl his intentions were not to kill Carlie but to kill himself. The article takes you through the entire case from her abduction, her murder, and into the trial. In the end Smith is sentenced to execution.  It is apparent that if the manatee sheriffs department would have issued an amber alert sooner maybe she would be alive today.

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/10/pennsylvania.young.murder.defendant/?hpt=C1

This website is about a young boy who is accused for shooting his future step-mother in the head and killing her. She was also 8 months pregnant with a baby boy and had 2 other daughters already who were 4 and 7. This boy, at the time of the crime, was only 11. Now 12, the boy has been in a juvenile detention center for almost a year. If he is convicted of this murder, he will go to prison for life without parole. Investigators are still trying to find out if this boy was the murderer, since the only witness was the oldest daughter of the victim, who only heard a loud boom.

This article reminds me of a comment I made on someone else's blog about the 'murder gene' and how so many people have this gene and do not even know it. It makes me wonder if the investigators will test this boy to see if he has the gene or not. If he did, then I think this case could have more proof that he was the murderer. Children, like this boy, do not have to grow up in situations that are violent to be violent themselves. They can have a normal life and still have violent tendencies due to having this 'murder gene.'

This is an interesting article I had to read for a Criminology class regarding the discussion of the Uniform Crime Report, and what police chiefs did in order to make their cities seem safer then they were. To do this they downgraded a lot of fleonies to misdemeanors and other crimes they simply just didnt report. Since then those official have obvioulsy been releaved of their duties and one new official told his community that when he enters office the crime rate will be a lot higher but at least it will be the correct one that they can work hard at to minimize. I guess the take home point of this type of article is to bring awarness in the dependece of statistics because they can be very misleading and in some cases just made up.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/03/us/as-crime-falls-pressure-rises-to-alter-data.html?scp=3&sq=senior police officials around the nation&st=cse

After reading the custody battle between Sean's parents and the legal system it started me to think about how often such situations occur. On this website they say that over 200,000 kids are kidnapped by family members. I knew that there were a lot of cases but did not expect it to be that high.
 
Along with this this goes what happens when a custody battle takes place and what are the different types of custody a parent/guardian can have over a child.
The website below talks about the different types of custody's a parent will petition for when dealing with a divorce. It also informs you of what happens after a custody battle with dealing with visitation rights and everything else that goes along with it.

http://www.divorce-lawyer-source.com/html/custody/battles.html

Juries of six or twelve people are selected from a jury pool.  Depending on the case, six jurors or 12 jurors can be used.  Usually twelve people from the jury pool are called in by the court clerk; they are then asked if there is any reason why they can't serve.  After this the judge and lawyers are able to ask the people questions about whether they have any knowledge of the case or if they have personal experiences that might bias their judgment in this case.  After the questioning a lawyer can ask the judge to dismiss a juror because of bias toward the case.  The judge makes the final decision about dismissing the juror or not.  When both lawyers agree on a jury, the jurors are sworn in and then the trial starts.  Jurors are supposed to listen to evidence during a trial and decide if the person on trial is guilty or not.  This website is very informative.  Besides how a jury is selected the website has links to all the different parts of a trial.  Some of these links include motions, bringing charges, plea bargaining, opening statements, evidence, mistrials, jury deliberation and appeals.  I learned a lot about the court system through this website.

Here is the website:

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/courts/juryselect.html

 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/B8C51385D26FD1ED862576BF00131FFA?OpenDocument

Loren Ramsey was convicted of financial crimes when he pleaded guilty to a single count of structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements. He deposited $843,547 into his account from 2005 to 2008. The money belonged to Michael R. Harper who was a major marijuana supplier and the financier of pot purchases by associates. Harper took a friend Bradley C. Clubb hostage and eventually shot him and killed himself then after setting fire to his own place. Loren who is 71 took the money from Harper and was eventually caught and had a few assets seized and they are currently going for a vehicle and some more money. More on the article can be found at the link above.

Wow...try to do a search on "blood splatter analysis training" and you will get just about nothing that your looking for.  After we discussed crime scene investigation last week (and watching a season of Dexter), I started to wonder where individuals could go for training on blood spatter analysis.  I did however find 2 sources that gave a decent amount of information.  The only thing that I really found out was that you need a strong background in biology, chemistry, physics, math, and it wouldn't hurt to have a background in criminology.  The link below is to the wikipedia page that I found on Blood Spatter Analysis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodstain_pattern_analysis 

This link below is to the home page of the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts:

http://iabpa.org/

Enjoy!

http://www.drugabuse.gov/ResearchReports/default.html

The government's National Institute of Drug Abuse published a significant amount of research that is available on-line. These reports are a great source of information for anyone looking for a lot of general information about composition, typical users, addiction, and side effects.   They are available in both standard webpage and printable .PDF file. This link takes you to all of their reports. I will be focusing on the MDMA/Ecstasy Report.

For those of you that don't know MDMA, ecstasy or 3,4-Methylendioxymethamphetamine is a DEA schedule 1 substance.  Schedule 1 means drugs under this category have no medical use and a high potential for abuse. It is classified as a psychoactive amphetamine, meaning it has both psychedelic and stimulant like effects. Known for its relationship with Intimacy, it also diminishes feelings of anxiety, fear and depression. The positive effects include mental stimulation, emotional warmth, empathy towards others, and a general sense of wellbeing.

 Before being made a schedule 1 controlled substance, ecstasy was actually used in psychotherapy, couples therapy and to treat anxiety disorders as well as clinical depression. Though there were no formal, documented clinical trials or FDA approval.  Therapists called it "penicillin for the soul" saying it allowed the user to communicate insight about their problems.  Though DEA still deemed it schedule 1 eventually, in late 2000 FDA actually approved MDMA for 2 sessions of psychotherapy for those experiencing PTSD.  Ecstasy was actually criminalized in all members of the United Nations in a UN agreement; this is for manufacture, sale or production of the drug. There are limited exceptions for scientific/medical research.

MDMA first broke out in the club scene, mostly at long extended dance parties called raves. It was mostly used by adolescents and young adults, but this typical profile has been changing. There is now widespread use outside of the club scene. Recent research has also shown the drug is moving from predominately white users to minority users. It also appears to be a rising trend in the "urban gay male" scene. This is a rising concern because of the existing high level of sexual activity in gay males; it causes an increase in high risk behavior that may lead to many sexually transmitted diseases.

Though it is not side effect free, many users have the assumption that it is and since it a drug used almost exclusively in social contexts, it proves difficult for many users to say no. I would be interested to find out, whether the drug is simply used for pleasure or to escape? Also since it has been used for therapy and the FDA and UN is allowing certain amounts to be distributed again is it possible we will see a re-emergence in therapy?  Is it such a topic of debate that its full therapeutic potential will never be realized?  Is it a conflict of interest that while use is increasing that stiffer penalties have been enforced yet more scientists and therapists are getting permissions to use the drug? All of these points would be very interesting research questions.

http://www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/autopsy/flash.htm

Above is a link to an interactive game called, "Autopsy of a Murder."

After a little introduction to the crime, you will be given 5 pieces of evidence to click on.  Once you click on a piece of evidence, you will be asked to click the answer to which you think is the best accessory to analyze the evidence.  You are given 5 choices: photograph, measurements and diagram of the crime scene, polilight, revealing prints, taking samples.  Once you choose one, it will tell you if it is relevant or not, and if it is, give you more information about your choice.

You will also be given the option of 4 labs (genetics, chemistry, ballistics, or fingerprint) to test your evidence in.  Once you have chosen the correct lab, it will give you a little background information before entering the lab.  If you scroll over the name of the lab, it will give you details as to why each lab is important.  You will then click on all equipment available and learn about it (some equipment have animations, so be on the look out for those).  You can also click on the person in each lab and learn about them (training required, their role, as well as what they do).  If you so chose, there is a the pioneer file where you will learn about a person from history who held that position and read a short snippet about a famous case they worked on.

Though it is not the most exciting game ever, I felt it was very informative and I read a lot about information I hadn't previously known.

 

As one of my co-workers is absent from work today because she was part of a jury pool, I became curious to the specific process of selecting a juror.  During a trial, the jury holds most of the power in their hands to decide the outcome of the person who is being defended.  As a citizen I have been asked multiple times to be on a jury, but I was to busy with school.  Although there may come a day when I will serve on a jury so I wanted to know specifically what to expect.  After browsing the internet I found a very informative website that gives step by step what a trial lawyer should do when choosing a juror.  The website even goes into detail what the goals of a lawyer are when picking a jury member and how to attain those goals.  One thing I learned from this site was that the ways in which a juror is questioned during the selection process have changed over the years.  Jurors used to be hounded on the fact that they should be fair and follow the law to the best of their ability.  Now potential jurors can join in open discussion with other potential jurors about their life experiences and what they personally feel about the case at hand.  Anyone who is thinking about becoming a lawyer will definitely find this website very intriguing.  There are many hints on how to question potential jurors to the best of the lawyers advantage.  Although it would be anyone's advantage to understand the jury selection process.

http://www.caught.net/prose/advtt/hbjury.htm

 

 

How does a person become a serial killer? A terrorist? A gang member? An outlaw? Were they forced into it because of their surroundings? Or had they been wired since birth? If they are "wired" that way, are they at fault for their actions? Could we identify these individuals earlier in hopes of preventing future actions?

These are just some of the questions psychologists are trying to answer. This article looks at some characteristics that can be seen in early childhood that can lead to psychopathy.

http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/early_signs_of_antisocial_personal

Since I found that website very interesting, I wanted to know if there were any physical differences in psychopathy. This article examines the difference between brain scans of psychopaths:

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html

I read a book called Soul by Tobsha Learner about the search for a genetic trait that allows some people to kill and feel no remorse. It's like 2 books in 1, half the book is about Lavinia Huntington a 20-year-old girl in England in the 1860's, and the other is about her great-great-great granddaughter of Lavinia, Julia Huntington. Julia is a genetisist working for the US Defense Department trying to find the genetic trait mentioned above.

Lavinia is accused of murdering her husband and executed. Julia killed a man while working in Afghanistan but only told a couple people, she feels no remorse for killing the man-it was an automatic response.

"Soul is the story of two women, across two eras, and their struggle with obsessive love and revenge. Part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, part commentary on genetics and human behaviour, sexual jealousy and betrayal, it is both provocative and unputdownable."

 http://privateramblings.blogspot.com/2007/04/soul-tobsha-learner.html

 

You are required to write a book report for this course. The book report is worth 100 points.  The report should be 2000 words long, typed, and in APA style (1 inch margins, double spaced, citations where appropriate, cover page, reference page).  You will be submitting your book report to www.turnitin.com where I will verify that your work has not been plagiarized. You will also turn in an identical hard copy to me on the day that it is due.

Here are some guidelines for your book report.

Buy your book early. Don't wait to find out that it will take 10 days to get to you through the mail.

Read your book.

Your next step will be to organize what you are going to say about it in your report. Writing the basic elements down in an outline format can help you to organize your thoughts. Your report should focus on the psychological factors related to the legal system. Don't just try to write this off the top of your head, but rather, from your focused effort in applying the principles from your readings and lecture to the book you read. You should only very briefly summarize your book (e.g., less than one page). The remainder of your paper should be focused on the relevant psychological factors inherent in the story or content of your chosen book. Questions? See me.

The Final Paper

1. Spell check your paper.

2. Have a friend read and review your paper.

3. Read your paper out loud.

4. Make any changes that your friend and you have pointed out.

5. Spell check again.

Grading:

10pts for APA style cover page

10pts for APA style reference page

10pts for APA style throughout the paper

10pts for appropriate length of paper

25pts for accurate and effective presentation of psychological principles/concepts

25pts for writing style

10pts for spelling/grammar

 

A portfolio documents work products and the effort engaged in doing that work.

A portfolio can take many forms (hard copy or digital). A hard copy portfolio will be in a binder with a table of contents and tabs. A digital portfolio is a website or blog.

A portfolio should impress and persuade.

A portfolio should showcase your skills and knowledge.

A portfolio can show growth and development (in other words it makes sense, and is okay, if work done later in the semester is 'better' than work done earlier in the semester). However, in our class where you get to choose what goes into your portfolio, it of course makes sense to choose your best work.

A portfolio is purposeful and organized.

You must include in your portfolio the required elements: 15 blog comments, 15 blog posts, your book report, and 13 projects.  You may also want to include a section that has other blog posts and comments that you did (beyond the 15 required, each). You may include *anything* that you believe displays your effort, skills, and knowledge in the course.

 

Have a question about the class? About the technology? About an article, concept, theory, or methodology? Post it here and your fellow students (and I) will monitor this and answer questions.

Just how much does t.v. really influence people?  Do people really commit crimes in order to be just like the character on the t.v. show? Well this is what I was wondering when i found this website about Andrew Conley of Rising Sun., Ind.  He was 17 years old when he killed his 10 year old brother, whose name is Conner.  He claimed that he did this to feel just like Dexter, who is a murderer in a TV show. 

Both brothers were just wrestling when thing turned bad.  Andrew placed Conner into a headlock and did not let go until he lost consciousness.  Then Andrew chocked Conner for 20 minutes and placed a plastic bag over Conner's head.  He then dragged Conner's dead body down to the basement to place it in the trunk of the car. 

Once Conner's body was in the trunk of the car, Andrew drove over to his girlfriends' house and stayed for a while.  He even seemed happier than ever before.  But his girlfriend did not know that Andrew's ten year old brother was dead in the trunk of his car at that time.  

On the website you will find out the sick reason to why Andrew killed his brother.  I think this website will allow anyone into the mind of a cold blooded killer.  It really left an impression on me and now when I have children, I will really think twice about what they watch.

Click here to see the full story.

Everyone has probably seen movies or television shows where a person is injected with something and magically they are unable to lie ,such as in the movie meet the Fockers and many more. If only it was that simple. This article explains it and guess what?! We have probably all experienced how it feels . Yes really , how could this be? Well, legally if youre 21 otherwise anytime you have been intoxicated that is the effect. And as everyone knows drunk people can lie and most of the time anything that comes out of there mouth is not only irrelavent but makes no sense. Hypothetically though I find it unethical that this could be practiced and it is currently banned.The psychology behind is probably more effective than the actual drug, like self fufilling prophecy (they think it will make them tell the truth so they may feel it like a placebo affect)  Here is the link it is very interesting and short http://www.damninteresting.com/the-truth-about-truth-serum 

After watchin the movie Gridiron Gang the other night I found myself fearing things like the chance of a gun man in the mall. When a person starts thinking about these kinds of things they sometimes start to consume my thoughts. I started thinking about our campus and the safety of it. I'm very thankful to go to a college the gives me a great sense of safety. I started to think about small towns. I grew up in one and found myself not worrying if I walked across town and not witnessing or ever hearing about crime in my small town hardly ever growing up. It makes me wonder if because of the fear of crime people in bigger cities would be more psychologically unstable when it came to fearing crime and what kind of impact this would have on depression rates in small towns and big cities. I also thought this article was neat because of the correlation between fearing crime and people's mental health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927164455.htm

I also wanted to look deeper into researching the presence of depression in the law system. I found shocking information relating to depression and lawyers. According to a study at Johns Hopkins, that when 28 occupations were studied, the one most likely to experience depression was the occupation of lawyer. Why is this? For one, it appears that the legal profession attracts people who are perfectionists. There also seems to be a large amount of pessimistic personality traits in people who are lawyers. Of another study at Johns Hopkins it showed that optimism out performed pessimism. However, there was one exception and that was people working in law school.

I am taking the class Psych of Personality. I wouldn't say that Psych of Law and that class are very compatible. However, personality does have a large effect on what professions people choose. This is something that affects the types of people who do indeed become lawyers. Psychology reaches so many different aspects of life, and this is clearly an example of that.

http://www.legalunderground.com/2005/03/lawyer_depressi.html

 

Iowa's legislature is in talks of passing a new bill that will, if passed, eliminate old criminal charges for drinking. 18, 19, and 20 year olds will be able to wipe aclohol-related offenses off their plate. This insures that Iowa students will still be able to find a job after college.

 http://kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_1938.shtml

 

What are some of the psychological implications that factor here? Will underage students drink MORE now knowing that their record could be erased? I personally feel that underage students will drink they same no matter what the law is. It does put some people's mind at ease knowing that they will be able to have the charge removed, insuring that it will not come back to haunt them later on in a job interview.  

Cult: a group of people who organize around a strong authority figure.

well that's not too bad. Anything could be classified as a cult then- Religion, households, classrooms, etc. So what makes Christianity differant from "The Family"?

Cults have always interested me. Not because of the leaders, but because of the followers. How can someone be brainwashed so completely that they forget about everything they once held dear. Granted, if you look at the time span of most cults, the 60's and 70's were largely the history base of these happenings. Now i'm not saying drugs was the only thing to do with it but.... you understand, it had a large part to play. As did having a leader who was a great speaker and very persuassive.

But what explains how 40 individuals can enter a death pact together- and all but one keep it? Or how a group of people can live thinking they are in a space ship- when really they're in an underground house?

Cult Psychology- its an interesting thing. You should look it up!

Cult Psychology: http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/cultdyn.htm

Manson Family Cult: http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_charl.htm

Top 10 Cults: http://listverse.com/2007/09/15/top-10-cults/

 

In my criminology class a couple of weeks ago, the issue of "furlough" was brought up. This is when a prisoner who has been convicted of a crime and who is in jail, is granted with the opportunity to go out in public, unsupervised, for a period of time. Willie Horton, who was granted furlough and who was also in prison for murder, never came back. Upon his escape, Horton killed a man and his fiance, on top of other crimes. The link below provides other examples of convicts who have gotten out on furlough, and committed numerous crimes while on this "prison vacation." What do you think about this policy?

 

http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0158_Dukakis__Willie_Hort.html

 Waterloo Teacher Arrested

I came across this article when I was looking up the news the other day. According to this article 52-year-old teacher Larry Twigg has been arrested for committing illegal acts with a 17-year-old boy. Twigg was a high school teacher at Waterloo West HIgh School He was charged for persuading or coercing the boy to disrobe in order to arouse the teacher. Twigg is now in jail on bond for $25,000. This comes to a surprise to a lot of the students in this area. One of my friends who graduated from this High School thought he was a great teacher. I was mainly curious if anyone in this class had known the teacher? I am also curious if more kids will come out and admit to similar things happening with the teacher? There are a lot of repercussions from this case for Mr. Twigg. Besides losing his job he will also not be allowed to live near a school to say the least. This is certainly a tragic case for a lot of people in the Waterloo community and the repercussions will leave a devastating effect on the school. It just shows another way how psychology spreads in such a wide way.

 

 

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_4792bd76-104c-11df-bddf-001cc4c03286.html

 

 

 

 

While reading another blog it reminded me of this case. It was an international fight between where Elian Gonzalez should go, back to his father in Cuba or stay in the states with his uncle. The case captured American hearts and I even remember watching it on the news. In the article it explains how the little boy's mother and about 12 other left for florida in a boat. Things went bad out to sea and his mother died. He was found and brought to the states where his uncle kept him because of his mother's sacrifice to get his there. The father of the boy didn't know he left Cuba and wanted him back where he belonged. This was a case of international law and where the boy should go. The article doens't go into great detail about all that happened but it does highlight the main parts.

http://www.examiner.com/x-10909-Charleston-History-Examiner~y2009m6d27-Elian-Gonzalez-was-returned-to-Cuba-with-his-family-in-2000

 

This is an article on the possibility of a murder gene, or at least genetic defects that could lead to people being more violent. This is something which still fascinates because may eventually lead to an explanation why some people become serial killers, and almost have this weird thirst to kill. I think anything about his topic is interesting, and also, quite horrifying.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004083-2,00.html

Law enforcement agencies are using a new technology that detects lies through voice stress.  However, it is banned in several states because there is no scientific evidence to validate it.  Those who advocate it though say that when people are threatened with it many often confess to avoid lying even more.  A big issue with these analyzer is that they are super expensive.  They run about $11,000 for the analyzer and 6 day training course. Many people compare this to the polygraph machine, but as some people point out it's not as reliable as the polygraph, it just helps sway the investigator in which direction to go.

I personally don't really see the point in this.  If your polygraph tests are coming up inconclusive the person is obviously a good liar.  I can see where threatening them with some "new" technology could make a bit of a difference, I don't see it being much more than a scare tactic to make them confess.  I did find the article very interesting though that they are trying to come up with better ways to catch criminals.

http://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/48102-Police-Using-Voice-Stress-Analysis-to-Detect-Lies/

In my Cognitive Psychology textbook, Cognition: Theory and Applications by Reed, there's a box that talks about why we have trouble distinguishing faces of people who are a different race from us.

People are notoriously awful at recognizing faces from other races. It's a human foible often explained by the notion that we have more experience looking at members of our own race and thus acquire "perceptual expertise" for characteristics of our own kind.
One influential version of that hypothesis argues that the so-called cross-race recognition deficit can be modeled by assuming that faces of other races are more psychologically similar than are faces of one's own race. But Daniel Level, PhD, a cognitive psychologist at Kent State University, has been unsatisfied with that argument.
"The perceptual expertise position is pretty intuitive, and it makes sense," he says. "But I'm arguing that it's not really the case. The problem is not that we can't code the details of cross-race faces - it's that we don't."
Instead, he says, people place inordinate emphasis on race categories - whether someone is white, black, or Asian - ignoring information that would help them recognize people as individuals. In recent research, Levin has shown that people can, in fact, perceive fine differences among faces of people from other races - as long as they're using those differences to make race classifications.
For example, Levin explains, "When a white person looks at another white person's nose, they're likely to think to themselves, 'That's John's nose.' When they look at a black person's nose, they're likely to think, "That's a black nose."
The results are important, Levin maintains, because they help explain the long-standing question of why people are poor at recognizing the faces of people who  belong to other racial groups. Such an understanding could be useful in a variety of settings, including training police and others in the justice system to identify faces more accurately.

Source: From "Why do 'they all look alike'?" by Siri Carpenter, Monitor on Psychology, December, 2000, p. 44.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2N0o2F/www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DKZeiSKnhOBc

            There are a large number of sites describing the so called "Monkey Experiment" where 5 or so monkeys are put in a room with a banana suspended at the top.  A ladder is introduced, and whenever a monkey approaches the ladder the rest are shot with cold water.  Naturally the monkeys quickly learn to associate this behavior with the negative stimulus of the water so it is said they beat on the other monkey that tries to go near the ladder.  One by one all the monkeys are replaced until the new monkeys all beat up monkey's who approach the ladder but none of them knows why.  Although I found these stories interesting I was unsure of their scientific merit since only one site made any reference to an actual research article (i.e. "possibly from a U.K. study).   In particular the link above makes an incredibly shallow analysis of how this "experiment" relates to politics at the very end, it's actually funny to me...

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BjUTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DfADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6825%2C8992713

Psychology, as a science, attempts to both explain and predict.  This post, as the title indicates is about predicting the dangerousness of criminals; and is a huge topic of discussion in forensic clinical psychology right now.  The following link is to a power-point demonstration by Dr. George Parker, a medical director and director of forensic psychiatry in Indiana.

http://www.in.gov/judiciary/center/education/library/social/predicting-dangerousnous/predicting-dangerousness.pdf

Amongst other things Dr. Parker lists a number of risk factors for various age groups that are strong, moderate, and weak predictors of dangerousness.  Substance abuse and prior history (especially if from gang activity) are strong predictors of violence in youths, however psychiatric problems and unstable family relationships (unless directly linked to substance abuse and prior history) both weak predictors of dangerousness.

The power point must be read critically since we do not have the benefit of Dr. Parker's explanations for various findings and arguments; but there is enough information there that you can work your way through the power point successfully.  The problems with predicting dangerousness can be understood, I believe, when it is applied to the seven principles which Hall (1947) set out for determining if a behavior is criminal or not.  I'm doing a project for my portfolio on this topic so will withold other comments for that discussion topic.

The life and story of the BTK killer, also known as Dennis Rader. This 53 page story takes you through everything! His life as the BTK killer in Wichita, Kansas and his life as Dennis Rader in Wichita, Kansas. This is a chilling story that gives you the complete facts, details, and photgraphs. It is worth reading!

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/btk/index_1.html 

 

"It was the largest smokestack in the country, and there were people in town who proudly proclaimed we live in a place with the largest smokestack," Jim Kelly says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122779177

In every country that you go to there will always be people that come from other countries that work with or without citizenship.  For some people being without citizenship means being taken advantage of.  Seems that most farms and factories in Calabria, Southern Italy, did exactly that and worst.

 

http://www.msf.org.uk/violence_exposes_neglect_italy_20100112.news

Perhaps on of the best know and worst school shootings in history, the Columbine school massacre has for years made people think bullying lead to all of the destruction.  With this news piece written a year ago is talks about another angle that after years of investigation has lead to show that the two responsible were actually not just two regular boys but two that would be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.  Basically saying they were psychopaths and there is more to the story then once told.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm 

 

A Florida man was found under a concrete slab behind a woman's home.  The man won the lottery in 2006 and his family said that people were always asking for money which made him not want the money anymore.  He then disappeared.  The women that owned the house, where the body was found, had recently transferred 2 million dollars from the victims bank account in to her own bank account.

This story caught my eye because it shows what people will do for money.  I think that money can change how people think.  It will make people hurt or kill other people, even if they are perfectly normal, just so they can get more money.  Money can also change the people that own it and make them do things that they wouldn't usually do but think since they have money, they can get away with anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/03brfs-MILLIONAIRES_BRF.html

While commenting on another post I googled, "What is the longest time a jury has stayed on a case?"  What I found was this article.  The length of this trial was over four years.  It started with 18 jurors and by the time of the article had 14 with alternates.  The jurors made friends and jokes about the length, including making a cake for each year's anniversary.  I had to wonder how psychology plays a role in this situation.  For example, is it prudent to continue making the jurors listen everyday to an argument that they have heard over four years?  

While looking around the internet for information to post I ran across a case file of a man known as the "Butcher of Plainfield." I had never heard of him or his crimes but after I read the article I was amazed yet sickened about the crimes that this man had committed. I thought movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hannibal Lectar were totally made up but this article says that the actions of this man influenced some of the events that took place in those movies. I would enjoy one day becoming a homicide detective but running into a man like Ed Gein would be especially hard for anyone to deal with he was definately insane!

 

http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/streiber/273/gein_cf.htm

For my Homicide class we had to read this book Profiles in Murder by Russell Vorpagel. I actually found the book to be really good. It is about a real life profiler for the FBI Behavior Science Unit and actually put the unit on the map and made a good name for it. He talks about real cases that he was involved in and what profiling did within those cases. In the book he is a professor teaching others to become profilers and who are generally interested in what it does for cases. He explains that if a profile is wrong it can through off the entire case and they could be searching for the completely wrong suspect. He goes on explaining that if you see a crime scene and it looks like an accident that being an investigator that every possiblility needs to be looked before murder or suicide can be ruled out.

This book was very good and if anyone is interested in learning about real and strange cases and how profiling was used then this would be a great book to read and it is a very quick read!

 

In many high profile cases, expert witnesses are called to the stand. They are usually questioned by both sides of the case (prosecution & defense). Many times their judgments are seen as a cut above the rest, and they are highly respected. However, the court room is not the only place where people can hear from expert witnesses. Michael Levine is a retired enforcement officer who has written several books, appeared on many TV shows, and now even has his own radio show. This radio show invites several guests that range from  retired law enforcement professionals, former and current military personnel, agents, political leaders, authors and many more. This website has several links to different archives of previous broadcast! It is a really interesting sight... to check it out, use the link below!

http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/

Well, neither does Brenda Spencer.  At least, that's what she said when asked why she opened fire on a schoolyard on January 29, 1979.  Brenda, who was 17 at the time, was given a rifle for Christmas by her father.  She ended up taking almost 11 lives, including a school janitor and the principal, during her 20 minute shooting spree.  This took place in San Diego at Cleveland Elementary School's playground- her home was across the street.  At the time, she said that "Mondays always get me down" and she had done it to cheer herself up.

At first, she plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and underwent two psychiatric exams.  Spencer ended up changing her plea to guilty and was convicted. 

There's more information here: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/female_mass_murderer/13.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/police_investigate_911_call_ma.html

Rev. Edward Hinds made a 911 call while supposedly being beaten up the man who would later murder him. A new look at the case says it is possible that when the 911 dispatcher called back the murderer answered and said there was no problem. After class on Tuesday I realized how important 911 calls are. Not only because it brings us emergency help, but in cases it can gives us important clues and leads.

I'm sure a lot of you will remember the case of JonBenet Ramsey.  This was a highly publicized case and is still unsolved.  For those of you who are not familiar with the case JonBenet, she was a six year old girl who was found dead in the basement of her Colorado home.  Most of the pictures that the media showed where pictures of her from beauty pageants.  The parents had went out to a party and had come home and up JonBenet to bed around 9:30 PM.  The next morning when the mother woke up she found a ransom note on the hallway floor.  The police were called and an investigation started.  The police who came to the house made a lot of mistakes.  They failed to rope off the house, they allowed friends to come in and out of the house, there was no proper search of the house and they did not collect or protect any forensic evidence. John Ramsey the father is actually the one who found JonBenet in the basement of their home.  The parents were the prime suspects, but there was no evidence to say that they committed the crime.  Seven years after JonBenet tragic death, a sample of blood that was found in her underpants was sent to the FBI.  The FBI are now running the sample through database to see if it matches any other crimes or criminals. 

This is a very tragic case.  The police that handled the case were inexperienced and made a lot of costly mistakes that maybe if had been avoided could have lead them to the killer.  This is still an open case and many people hope that JonBenet's killer will finally be identified and brought to justice.

Below is a website that has different chapters regarding the story.  This websites gives a very detailed description of the crime from the beginning to end and it also talks about new developments in the case.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/ramsey/index_1.html

Above is a picture of JonBenet.  She was described by the media as a painted baby.

Recently, I just started watching the show "Dexter" on TV.  It made me think of all the "greatest" serial killers of the world.  Did you notice that they were all people that just lived next door that you would have never imagined in that role?  Well watching the show has really made me interested in the topic.  Below is the "Dexter" website.  You should really check out the show if you haven't already.

http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/about.do 

I found an article about a man that has been in prison for 35 years for something he didn't do. He was released from prison on December 17, 2009 because they used DNA do find out that it wasn't him who raped a 9-year-old boy in 1974.

http://www.newser.com/story/76448/innocent-man-free-after-35-years.html

What I don't really understand is why hadn't they used the DNA testing before on this man? They always take the fingerprints of each criminal when they go to prison, and this case could have been prevented or at least reduced in the years that the man was in prison if they would have been able to do the testing. To answer my own question, I found another article about the history of DNA testing in criminal cases that is really interesting. DNA testing has only been used in criminal cases for about 24 years, so the case with the man in prison for 35 years makes sense. They were only able to do the testing after he was in prison for a while.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5285970_history-dna-testing-criminal-cases.html

In an article on CNN.com (found here) regarding the Drew Peterson murder case, a small portion of it makes mention of the fact that over a months worth of hearings have been held regarding the inclusion of hearsay evidence. While the article paid very little attention to it, mostly reporting it as a bit of background on what has happened in the case so far it got me thinking.

It is fair to say that I am not the sort of person who would ignore evidence just because the defense felt it is unfair to them, but hearsay evidence is pushing it even by my standards. It seems to me that it is trying to convict someone over what some guy said at the bar. Certainly if this is brought up in conjunction with either physical or direct witness evidence then sure toss it in, but make sure that the jury knows it is nothing more then rumor and hearsay. However, if all you have is hearsay I'm inclined to think that you are just grabbing at straws and bringing someone to trial over that makes a mockery of the justice system.

Did you know that a majority of imprisoned murderers only spend 8 years, on average, in jail? Rediculous right? What is the worth of a human life, or 5, or 100? Where do we draw the line? September 18, 2004 the LA Times put out an article concerning MORE killers getting out on parole. The article discusses Governer Schwarzenagger letting out 48 murderers in only one years time! The most common release for murderers in prison is due to "good behavior" and a "clean prison record." How can someone who murdered a person, or numerous people, get out of prison for "good behavior" when what they are in there for deserves death itself? This cite leads to the LA Times cite housing the article about Schwarzennager: http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/18/local/me-parole18 

The following website delivers a few statistics based on granted paroles: http://www.citizensinc.org/parolestatistics.html 

I understand second chances-- and wrongful charges. But how does the victims family feel about all the goings on? The person who took the life of their loved ones being set free? I side with the victims in this one. The website: http://www.murdervictims.com/Parole.htm gives a little information regarding the victims rights and ways they can get a parole overturned.

The Parole process is a long one that does take victim's family and suspect into consideration. The process has to look at all sides because if they release a criminal and the criminal repeats the offense- or worse- it goes back to the board that chose to grant parole. So the board has to have put some heavy thought into their decision. The following website is a cite that describes the governing process of parole in the state of Connecticut: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/rpt/2009-R-0345.htm 

As you can see, parole sentences are governed by state and each state has its own set rules of who they are willing and not willing to let rome the streets among us. Each state has a public record of their procedures,etc. that determine parole sentences, some more strict than others. All sites are easily accessed through search for parole sentences in said states.

After class on Tuesday I got to thinking about crime scenes, then it dawned on me...who cleans that junk up? Turns out there's specialized people for that job, they're called CTS's. These people are generally from the medical background and take many precautions when doing there job. I personally think they're crazy, I mean who'd want to clean up a suicide and/or homicide for a living? I think it would be emotionally draining, and you'd get pretty messed up from it; but those are all just assumptions. Here's the link to it....check it out, it's pretty cool:)

http://science.howstuffworks.com/crime-scene-clean-up.htm

This is a great website with all sorts of interesting statistics about crimes, hate crimes, and law enforcement officers killed and assaulted. The stats date back to 1995, and they break it down pretty in depth.

Last year I took an honors course on Japan. While we never discussed or directly explored the Japanese court system, the professor slipped out a tidbit of information that always struck me as interesting. She said that in Japan, if you sincerely apologize for your actions, you will receive a greatly reduced sentence. I've had a hard time finding any information to back this up, but I did come across this article which seems to substantiate the claim. Sheila Johnson explains that this forgiveness after an apology occurs throughout the culture. Can you imagine if we let Blagovich or Spitzer off because they apologized? Johnson says that the difference in this regard between our two cultures is that we live in a "guilt" society and Japan lives in a "shame" society. When the Japanese apologize, they feel extremely shameful and believe that they have dishonored their family. And since, in Japanese culture, your family includes every family member who came before you and all of your descendants, this is a pretty big deal.

The importance and weight of an apology is also felt in their business world. If an employee acts unethically, their supervisor or the head of the company will often take the blame for them, sometimes even quitting or suspending themselves.

It's hard for me to imagine what our culture would be like if a murderer apologized and was sentenced to only 10 years in prison. We would have murderers and rapists out walking the streets, which frightens me. I greatly prefer our system, where you are punished for your crime, and your apology carries little weight.

After reading the post Ashley mad on "the Kehoe Case: Iowa Mother Guilty of Murdering her 2 Year old" it got me thinking. In the article it talked about how Michelle Kehoe had undergone 44 electric shock therapies (ECT). I'm sure if you have taken any Abnormal Psychology courses you have heard something about an ECT. ECT are usually associated with Major Depressive disorder. Some people think that it is against humanity to use this type of procedure on people and other see it as a great therapy. I do have my own opinions about whether or not it should be used but I would like for everyone else to see material about it and make their own judgment on whether or not is should be a form to treat people with depression and mood disorders.

 I found a website that someone who has had ECT personally has put up. This website give background information on the early years of the therapy.  It also gives the risk factors that are associated with the ECT.  Though this website is a little out of date I believe that the information is helpful and fairly accurate.

Here is the link to the website to look at the information http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm

Now to relate it back to psychology and law; can the ECT cause enough brain damage or sudden loss of memory to make a person commit a crime that they normally wouldn't have done? Is it possible that the effects are great enough to alter someone's mind to where they are unable to know right from wrong? I think these are some questions that may need to be researched to see if this could become a key factor in some trials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/world/europe/10iht-castrate.html

This may be a touchy subject to talk about, but it is one that would stir a good argument. Sex offenders and their sexual desires, is castration really the only option to help these sick men destroy the thoughts they are so tormented over that they have to take them out on young children and possibly kill them? Well the Czech Republic in Europe thinks so, and they have castrated 94 prisoners over the past decade successfully curing the men the procedure was performed on. The procedure is known as testicular pulpectomy, where over an one hour procedure the tissue on the male genitals that produces testosterone is removed. Thus, taking away any sexual urges that man will have in the future. Poland is the first country in the European Union to allow chemical castration on pedophiles that are convicted in the courtroom. There is much controversy in the U.S. but in countries where this is allowed, the offenders can be released if they go through with the procedure. Many protest, what about the rights of the offenders. What about them? What do we tell the little girl or boy who is only 5, were sorry that this happened, it could have been prevented if this previously convicted sex offender would have been castrated but were not concerned about the future of our children. Only about the rights of men who rape and kill them. There is a wide range of scenarios where this would qualify as an option and where it wouldn't. I believe for now we should at least give the option so the sex offender doesn't have the excuse, " I couldn't help myself, the sexual drive is too strong to control, I'm the victim."

More of this article is with the link attached giving the whole story on the situation.

Healthcare. The hot topic of 2009-2010. I don't think I have gone one day without hearing it in over a year. It is a very controversial topic, one people tend to be emotionally vested in. Everyone from the far right to the far left believes that the system needs reform, but the argument remains how. The current plan to reform healthcare is very unpopular with the American people, but the President along with Reid and Pelsoi are determined to make it work, with a "by any means necessary" approach.

With the gigantic hole the Medicare and social security programs have dug themselves into how is it people still trust the federal government not to compound our incredible debt even further?
Do their beliefs and emotions on the subject cloud their vision so much on the topic that they can't see the American People want meaningful reform that works and doesn't continue to rack up the deficit? Is their political ideology so strong that they aren't even willing to seek out reasonable compromise?

Regardless of either sides view's, one question still remains and is being echoed by many from both sides of the aisle. Is government healthcare even constitutional?
The Tenth amendment center has an article that touches on the issue briefly here.
The article dates back to Sept. 2009, but changes have been made to the bill since then, most of which people, and even some people in congress are unclear on.

Many people are saying that the government does not have the power to authorize control of the health care system. Though the Supreme Court has been tolerant of the welfare state under the commerce clause, even the most liberal justices believe that these are boundaries congress should not cross. It also violates substantive due process, which strikes down laws they deem to invade privacy and interfere with personal autonomy.

Roe. V. Wade was a landmark decision by the courts that struck down abortion laws that intruded on the Dr / Patient relationship. Government healthcare would go far beyond this, by not letting people keep their own doctors or make their own decisions about procedures (was debatable but confirmed to be "snuck in" said Obama on 1/29), not to mention the global budgeting and single payer system. These blatantly violate the court's due process rules.

So do people's ideologies exceed their own logic? The constitution can be interpreted in many ways, but government healthcare proponent's arguments especially with the commerce clause are not very strong. 

If the government can't proscribe to use another of the Supreme Court's frameworks (abortion) how can it proscribe access to other medical procedures, things like transplants, corrective or restorative surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, or the multitude of health services that individuals may need or desire?  Do charitable attitudes prevent people from saying no to the current plan on principal?

Partisan politics aside please, consider if you are pro government mandated you can still believe it can be deemed unconstitutional, but it would still be possible through a constitutional amendment.

This article is based off a true story, yet it is so unbelivable. What is so crazy about it, is that the cops didn't look into the situation because they had been told by the serial killer (Jeffrey Dahmer) that the boy was his lover, turning it in to a homosexual aspect. Could that have been why the cops were so eager to get rid of the kid? How can cops know who to believe when they're involved in a sistuation like this, The moral of the story relates to psychology because you can't necessairly place people in groups of innocent or not you have to use the law and procedures to come to the best choice. Here is the link the first page describes it and the following pages explain more in depth http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html 

While choosing which role I was going to do for one of our class projects, I starting thinking about subpoenas and what happens when people don't comply.  So for this post I decided to focus on subpoenas: What are they exactly?; Compliance v. non-compliance; and what to do once you have received one.

What exactly is a subpoena?

A subpoena is a legal order commanding a person or organization to give sworn testimony at a specified time and place about a matter concerned in an investigation or a legal proceeding.  A subpoena usually requires a person's presence at a trial or requires the presentation of tangible items in a specific legal setting.  Subpoenas are often sent to witnesses, commanding them to appear before a court and testify for the party named in the subpoena.  This subpoena is specifically called a subpoena ad testificandum. 

Non-compliance

If you do not comply with the subpoena or respond in the proper, timely manner to it, you can become in "contempt of court," which simply means that you have not complied with certain court orders regarding a court trial or hearing, and that possible punishments/sanctions may be imposed for not complying with the court.  The judge involved with the case has discretion to decide what is contempt and how to punish it.  Jail or prison time is a possible and likely sanction for being in contempt of court, depending on the severity of the person's role in the case/trial. 

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Contempt+of+Court

If you have received a subpoena...

You should contact your lawyer immediately or get a lawyer if you don't already have one.  You can contest a subpoena if you don't think it is valid or reasonable, but you must inform the court about your decision to challenge it.  If you decide to accept it, and comply, most transportation costs should be covered.  Costs and fees set according to the rules of the court should be named in the subpoena.  You should receive cash or check before you appear in a civil case.  You should receive an attendance fee and travel reimbursement after you testify in a criminal case. 

 

This is only a brief overview of subpoenas and your options if you receive one.  These are a few websites that were helpful in creating this post. 

http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/responding-subpoenas

http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s083.htm

 

 

I was going to use this case for project #7: wrongfully convicted, but it hasn't been proven yet so I just decided to write my blog about it because I found it very interesting. Under the subject of wrongfully convicted, I found a website from Alaska that works on freeing the wrongfully convicted. I found an update on this website about a man named Gregory Marino who was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1994 with no physical evidence supporting this conviction. The reason Marino's case was on this Alaskan website is because they are raising money to get the fingerprints found at the scene tested to prove Marino's innocence. Although Marino hasn't been proved innocent yet, I feel that he is. I found an article in the Anchorage Daily News from July 7, 1994. This article states that there is no physical evidence proving that Marino committed the crime, but that a 7 year old recalls seeing him commit the murder. I find this completely ridiculous! It really shows some of the problems with our legal system. Marino has been in jail for 16 years all due to a 7 year olds memory of a nighttime murder.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19940707&id=-c8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YL4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2576,2662787

The website above is one of the articles written in 1994 about Gregory Marino and the "evidence" the proves he was guilty.

In class this week, we talked a lot about the specifics about crime scenes and how they are investigated. I found this interactive game that shows you the crime scene, forensic evidence, information about people involved with the case and challenges you to solve the case. It's a great experience especially after learning the actual details about how crime scenes are really handled in real life. TruTV seems to be very accurate in the way they set up this game. It's not graphic or anything and was quite fun.

After playing the game, I definitely realized being a detective is not for me, but it certainly was very interesting trying to put the pieces together and understanding what some people do everyday for their job.

http://www.trutv.com/shows/forensic_files/games/burgledbonuses/index.html

I have been interested lately in a the matters of "jury of your peers" because when you start looking at how juries are, they aren't typically ones peers.  Recently President Obama was summoned for jury duty, but was excused due to the fact that, well he's running our country.  This got me wondering... should President Obama be held responsible to fulfill his duty of being a juror or be excused because he is the president?  What do you think...

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/A-Jury-Of-Your-Peers-Does-Not-Include-The-President-82586632.html

Ok. Here's your chance to post anything and everything you can find out about this case. If you have come here and you have not yet responded to the Prelminary Crime Scene Investigation post, STOP. Do that one and then come back :)

Tip: googling north carolina v. michael peterson will get you started....from there you are on your own :) See what you can find out!

 

 

What did you find most interesting or surprising about tuesday's discussion? What did you learn that you did not know before? Which of the roles that we covered that day (police, detective, sergeant, csi techs, etc) would you be most interested in? Why?

Next, assume that you are the detective. What are your first steps in the investigation? What questions do you initially have? How will you go about answering them? 

This article looks at the case of Maria Teresa Macias. Macias was killed by her husband Avelino Macias.  The Sonoma County Sheriffs Office were the ones dealing with this case. It was states that Maria had contacted the Sheriffs office on more that 22 different occasions leading up to her death.  In this documentation Macias family is suing the Sheriffs department for not acting properly to the act of domestic violence that lead up to the domestic homicide of Maria Teresa Macias. Maria's family claims that the Sheriffs Office neglected to take her case seriously becasue she was not only a women but a latino woman. In this case a expert witness, San Diego Police sergeant Anne O'Dell was brought in to review the case. In the link I provided below you can see the way in which O'Dell went about determining that the Sonoma County Sheriffs office did indeed neglect an attempt to prevent this homicide from happening . O'Dell states that in many case and situations the Sheriffs Office could have responded but simply brushed the numerous 911 phone calls away. Personally I think the article is very interesting. We hear a lot about expert witnesses in trials but I have never actually seen a case in which one has been used and ultimately determined the outcome. I am sure there are many cases out there where this has been the case (otherwise expert witnesses wouldn't be as important as they are).

 

 

http://www.justicewomen.com/witness.html

http://w3.uchastings.edu/plri/spr96tex/jurysiz.html

I found an article from the Public Law Research Institute written by Margo Hunter that discusses the debate over reducing jury size. The people that are in favor of reducing the size from 12 members to anything over 6, argue that money could be saved from the Judicial Budget. Those against the reduction argue that the smaller size wouldn't save a large enough amount of money to make it worth doing.

Those against the reduction also provide research saying that the decreased jury size doesn't give a fair representation of the community. The smaller jury size doesn't have a fair minority representation, either. They also say that the deliberation time for 6 and 12 member juries is about the same amount of time. Research by the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States report that, 

"Twelve person juries are more stable and deliberative.

Larger juries were more representative of the interests of minorities than six-person juries.

Although the monetary savings of using smaller juries were significant, these savings were small when compared to the overall judiciary budget.

The reduction in court time from using six-person juries was not that substantial.

As a result of these findings, the Committee concluded that the savings did not compensate for the decrease in stability and the affects on jury community representation."

 

I'm doing my book report on "Psychic Criminology" a book about the use of psychics in law enforcement.  My research brought me across the following article regarding the use of Remote Viewing by the CIA.

http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/refs/science/air/hyman.html

First a little background information.  Parapsychology is the branch of psychology studying various kinds of psychic phenomena, known to the scientific community at large as anomalous mental phenomena.  Parapsychology research encompasses various abilities including telepathy (communication between minds), clairvoyance (acquiring information without the use of the 5 known senses), Precognition (predicting something in the future), Dowsing (locating something, generally water or minerals with a dowsing rod or a pendulum), Psychometry (acquiring information about the history of an object by touching the object), and Remote viewing (the ability to describe very distant objects, really this is a form of clairvoyance).

 

During Christmas break I read a book entitled Nothing Lost.  At first I found the book very confusing because there is a very large number of characters, but after finishing it the entire plot all came together at the end.  This book was written by John Gregory Dunne and definitely applies to psychology and law.  After reading this book I became much more knowledgable on how attorneys, lawyers, judges, and politicians play a major role in the criminology field.  What I found most interesting was how much politics influenced court cases.  This is a ficticious book, but portrays the day to day worklife of prosecutors and defense attorneys in great detail.  Even when it comes to behind the scences love affairs and unlawful decisions based on the fact that one of the attorneys is married to a wannabe congressman.  The author loves to jump around from chapter to chapter, but the reader gains an appreciation of the law beginning at a crime and going through an investigation and finishing with a trial.  The twists in this book along with the dry humor make it an enjoyable read, plus a person interested in psychology and law has a lot to gain from reading it.

 

 

I was always very interested in this case, and thought how amazing it was that after 19 years of missing, they actually found her. I posted a link to the story below, for anyone else who is interested in it. On the last page, they also mention several other cases of kidnappings, that if you type their names into google, you can also read further into their stories as well.

Here's the link to the story:   http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8426124&page=1

 

(Image from http://xpigs.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/jaycee-dugard.jpg)

Here is a link to a real autopsy. Be warned, this is a close-up and graphic representation of physicians conducting an autopsy on a young woman. It is narrated so you know what is going on.

http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V3997

I am very interested in Serial killers and their psychological aspects and this website helped me understand more about serial killers. I was looking around and found this website about American Serial Killers.  This website has old and new information about serial killers.  The serial killers that are present on this website are: The Grim Sleeper, Andre Cuanan, Carl Eugene Watts, John Gacy, Ottis Toole, The Hillside Stranglers, Albert Fish,  The American Serial Cat Killer, etc. 

This website has many videos about the killers and their sentences.  This website tells the background of the killers and their heinous crimes.  It also allows you can look at the individual cases and search the website for more serial murders.

Click here and explore the website