Recently in Victims Category

Nearly 3 million people who are crime victims every year in the United States are severely mental ill.

This article is published in the Psychiatric News, published on September 2, 2005. 
Volume 40 number 17 page 16.

This is a very fascinating article on mental illness and how they are more apt to be victims of crime rather than the perpetrators of crimes.

Click here to read the article.

On April 29, a 40 year old man came into a preschool classroom and injured 5 preschoolers with a hammer. Right after this, he set himself on fire, killing himself. Officials think this is a copycat attack because there have been several similar attacks on young children. The previous day, a man went into a kindergarten classroom and stabbed 29 students. The day before this incident, a man injured 18 children in a different primary school. Luckily, no one died.  Last month, a former doctor, Zheng Minsheng, went into a classroom and stabbed 8 children to death and wounded 5 others. He was executed on April 27. Why would these men want to harm innocent children? Before Minsheng was executed, he said that he committed these murders because of his "failures in his romantic life and in society". It seems that he had some psychologically issues to take out his failures on young children. The other men who carried out similar attacks most likely had some psychological issues as well. They may have had depression or at worst, antisocial personality disorder, or something similar.

The trauma that students, parents, and children had to go through will need some counseling. The article states that schools have brought in people to help with these issues. The students will definitely suffer from some psychological problems but hopefully they can be resolved early on to prohibit further issues.

Here is the article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/30/china.school.attack/index.html?iref=allsearch

When I was in a social psychology class, we learned about the bystander effect. This is simply the fact that when with others, individuals act differently than they would alone. A huge case involving the bystander effect is the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Kitty was 21 years old living in New York City. She managed a bar close to her apartment. One night, she was walking home late from work. Right outside her apartment, she was attacked and stabbed twice. She screamed but no one came to help her. The perpetrator left but returned 10 or so minutes later to find Kitty lying, barely conscious, by the back door. He continued to stab her, rape her, steal her money, and then leave. One man saw the first attack on Kitty and didn't call the police. Quite a few of the other tenants in the apartment building heard Kitty's screams but did not call the police either. This is the reason why this case is so well known. Many of the apartment tenants said they didn't want to get involved.

Four years after the murder, two psychologists did a study to try and figure out what the effect of bystanders had on people. They placed people in one room and were to speak through a microphone to the person in another room. The person on the other side, the confederate of the experiment, started to pretend he was having a seizure and even mumbled the words about dying. The psychologists found that the more people that were present, the longer it took for someone to act for respond to the person having the seizure. The people who didn't report the seizure said that the reason they didn't report it was because they wanted to abide by the rules of the experiment by staying in the other room apart from the confederate.

I think the bystander effect relates a lot to psychology and law. If someone is witnessing a crime, it's way less likely they'll report it if other people are present. It makes me wonder though if the bystanders being strangers has an affect on if people act or not. If I was surrounded by my friends, I think I would almost always react to someone getting murdered or having a seizure. People care a lot about what others think and sadly, this can have some negative effects.

This website is where I read about the bystander effect.

"April 10, 2010-A letter from 1985 shows Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- the future Pope Benedict XVI -- actively delayed in defrocking a priest who had been charged with molesting several young boys. One reason, according to the letter, which is signed by Ratzinger, is that the Vatican needed to "consider the good of the Universal Church."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125803561



     Imagine you occupy a high-ranking position within the Roman Catholic church, and it is your duty to address allegations of pedophilia involving Catholic priests.  In recent years, odds are you'd be hard pressed to make time for a vacation.

     In the last few weeks, documents have surfaced that seem to indicate prior to his appointment as the Holy Father, then Cardinal Ratzinger delayed the defrocking of a priest charged with molesting boys.  Should we be outraged?  Doesn't Pope Benedict deserve some sort of reprimand, or owe someone an apology?  I submit no, he does not. 

     Consider what we have been exposed to throughout this course, which I believe can be surmised in one word: DOUBT. 

     I remain in some sort of psychological Purgatory on my position or regard for the criminal justice system.  Things that I thought could be trusted, have been demonstrated to be untrustworthy.  Protocol and procedures I believed to be reliable and valid have been shown to be unreliable and false.  Issues that I previously thought to be "cut and dry" have been observed to be "loosey goosey". 

     In short, the "good guys" don't seem as good, and the "bad guys" don't seem as bad anymore.  There is always more to every story than anyone could ever know. 

     Back to the issue at hand, I submit the following scenarios, and plan to circle back to the Holy See.

SCENARIO #1: 
     Father Kiesle manipulates and endangers 6 young boys, molests them, gets caught, and pleads no contest to the charges.  This scenario is essentially what is presented in the article linked above.  "Bad guy" is caught, justice is served. 

SCENARIO#2: 
     During one of the "darker" times in the history of Psychology as a discipline, the creation of false memories of previous abuse were not that uncommon.  Dr. Samuel Saint, a young, aspiring, and charismatic school psychologist reads an article in the Times about a Catholic priest facing sexual abuse charges.  Samuel knows that many of the children in his school attend catechism classes at Our Lady of the Rosary parish, where Father Kiesle is a priest.
     Over the next few weeks, Samuel starts to pay close attention to the boys who frequently attend classes at Our Lady of the Rosary parish, and notices one of the boys, Nathan, is very quiet and distant, almost melancholy.  He asks Nathan's teacher, Mrs. Beckett about his performance in classes.  Mrs. Beckett tells Samuel "Nathan used to be one of my best students, always engaged in classwork, very eager to learn" she explained.  "In the last few months though, Nathan's performance has plummeted.  I've sent a few letters to his parents, asking about his situation at home, and offering extra help, but I've never received a response". 
     "Hmmm, something seems wrong here" Samuel thinks to himself, stirring a cup of stale Maxwell House in the teachers lounge.  Samuel writes a quick note to Mrs. Beckett, and drops it in her mailbox, asking her if she would mind sending Nathan to his office for a few minutes Thursday at first recess.
     In the days leading up to his meeting with Nathan, Samuel spends hours investigating pedophilia.  He reads accounts about the ways children are manipulated, and told to keep quiet.  He trudges through transcripts taken from interviews with convicted sex offenders, that reveal in tragic detail how these offenders touched, molested, and abused their victims.  In a phone call to his mother, Samuel remembers saying "If I find out one of my students has EVER been abused like this, I'm going to find the son of a b----- who did it, and make them pay". 
     Thursday morning, Mrs. Beckett peeks through the mini-blinds covering Samuels' office door, and Samuel motions her in.  "Nathan is here to see you Dr. Saint".  Nathan was wearing a red and yellow checkered shirt with what appeared to be a grape jelly stain on the sleeve.
     "Hi Nathan, I'm Sam, thanks for coming to see me" Samuel says in an upbeat voice.  "I've been speaking with Mrs. Beckett, and she tells me you're usually a great student, but lately you haven't been doing as well as she thinks you can.  My job here at the school is to talk to students, find out how they're doing, and see if there is anything we can help with" he explained.  "Has anything out of the ordinary happened that may be affecting your schoolwork?" 
     "No, everything is fine" Nathan replied quickly.  "Oh, well that's good to hear" said Samuel.  "You go to Our Lady of the Rosary right?" he asked Nathan.  "I used to, but I don't go anymore".  Samuel could feel his pulse through his shirt, "Why don't you go anymore Nathan?".  "Can I go to recess now?" Nathan asked.  "Sure, but would you mind meeting with me again next week?  I'd like to get to know you a little better, and if you come back you can have anything you want out of my candy jar" Samuel said quickly.  "Yeah, okay" replied Nathan.
     As Nathan walked to the playground, he wished that his Dad had never lost his job.  He wished that his Mom hadn't run out on them.  He wished that his Dad would start taking him to church again, as he missed his time with the kind and welcoming staff who worked there. 
     As soon as Nathan had left the office, Samuel picked up the phone and dialed.  "Our Lady of the Rosary parish, how can I help you" said the voice on the other end. "Yes, I'd like to talk to Father Kiesle please"....

     Now, I don't claim that this scenario is what happens every time.  I don't mean to exonerate every allegation against a priest.  And I certainly don't mean to negate or lessen or overlook those that have experienced such damaging and hurtful things as abuse. 
     But its possible that SCENARIO#2 could happen.  Maybe Father Kiesle was counseled by his superior, and was told "Hey, this is a ticking time bomb Father Kiesle.  If you plead guilty, we'll relocate you somewhere, and this will be behind you forever.  This guy, Dr. Samuel Saint is on some sort of crusade against us.  You just need to sign here and...."
    
     Now you're Pope Benedict, and you get a report about this situation on your desk.  You see the predicament?  As we have seen in the case with Michael Peterson, things may not always be what they seem.  So what do you do?  Maybe you will "consider the good of the Universal Church", while also considering the good of Father Kiesle. 

I remain, in "psychological purgatory" uncertain of who's right, who's wrong, who to believe, who to disregard, and looking for effective ways to address a science that shall ever be imperfect.   

For my book report for this course I am reading Mind Hunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker.  In the book, Douglas describes his interviews with criminals in the prison system in order to develop profiles for serial killers as part of a huge research project.  This was part of an effort to develop a Psychological Profiling Program, to make it easier for investigators, police, and the FBI to catch criminals faster and easier, by being able to "get inside their heads" and track their next moves. This got me interested in criminal and psychological profiling so I decided to google it.  I came across digital physiognomy software and free downloads.

 

 

Digital Physiognomy was developed as entertaining software, allowing people to create a portrait of a person and then provide a description of the person's character, traits, preferences, likes and dislikes, etc. You can choose different facial features and put them together, similar to the composite software that we can borrow from Dr. Maclin for our projects and what police use to make sketches of suspects. 

Testing out digital physiognomy or composite software gives us a real life account of creating a "picture" of a suspect.  I checked out the composite software from Dr. Maclin and found it difficult to do.  Difficult for the "witness" to come up with a description and difficult for me to choose accurate features from the extensive list.  Of course composites are biased to either the witness's perception or memory and the composite creator's training and expertise; however, both are useful in coming up with a tangible idea of the suspect. 

A free demo version is available at http://www.uniphiz.com/.  I did not have a chance to download it or see if it works, but I encourage people to check it out and see what it is all about!

 

 

Hope Steffey called the police as a victim of assault and endured even more when the police took her into custody.  It all started when Steffey's cousin called the police over Hope being assaulted, when the police arrived and asked for her license she accidentally gave them her deceased sisters, which she kept as a memento.   When the police refused to return it to her Steffey began to panic and beg for it to be returned.  They eventually arrested her for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.  Once she arrived at the police station Steffey was denied her phone call and was then taken into a cell, handcuffed to the ground and stripped searched.  Not only was she forcibly strip searched by female police officers but also by men, which is against policy.  I've posted some information on the case and the video of the search, so be ware it's a bit graphic.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=82447

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Oqa-oHoOo

I was reading this news story and found it rather comical. There was a man who was trying to burglarize a woman at 2am. He tried to unlock the door with keys, but when that didn't work he just kicked the door down. Turns out the champ of a woman was prepared. She was waiting by the door with a knife. She stabbed the man in the shoulder, and then the man took off running. The victim chased after the man (suspect) with the knife. The cops then said that they had to 'save the suspect from the victim'. I bet the thief didn't know what he had in store for him that night!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2010100041_burglar_rescued_by_police_afte.html

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 

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  

Can you imagine having your 2 year old go missing and not even bothering to look for her???  Well read the article about little Caylee Anthony who was reported missing 31 days AFTER her disappearance and how her remains were found near her home.  Read the articles and decide who you think did it....but the mom is looking pretty guilty with her string of lies and how she did not even bother to report that her daughter was missing (Caylee's grandmother filed the report).

http://investigation.discovery.com/blogs/criminal-report/casey_anthony_full_coverage/caylee_anthony.html

Photo from: http://www.blisstree.com/files/35/2008/08/caylee-anthony-nc.jpg 

  In October 2008, Michelle Kehoe drove herself and her two boys, Seth (age 2) and Sean (age 7) to Hook-n-Liner Pond near Littleton, IA. She then tied both of her boys up, duct taped their eyes, nose, and mouths, and slashed their throats leaving little Seth dead and seriously injuring Sean. She then proceeded to the edge of the pond and attempted suicide by slashing her own throat. When she did not succeed with her suicide attempt, Kehoe went to a nearby house and claimed that a man kidnapped them and killed her children. Unbeknown to Kehoe, her son Sean had survived the attack and was able to tell authorities in the hospital later that day what truly happened.
 In November 2009, Kehoe stood trial for the murder of her son Seth and plead insanity. She was later found guilty of 1st Degree Murder, Attempted Murder, and Child Endangerment. In December 2009, she was sentence to life without the possibility of parole for the murder, 25 years for attempted murder, and 10 years for the child endangerment charged.
 
 Click here for the article about the trial. This also has short video clips of the trial including testimony from both psychologists, the recorded statement from Kehoe's surviving son, and the Kwik Star surveillance video of the family shortly before the horrific crime.
 Click here for the article about the sentencing hearing and how Kehoe's husband asked for leniency but the judge denied it. (Please note that the dates written in the article are wrong. Kehoe committed the crime in 2008 and the trial was held in 2009)

 For me, this case hit extremely close to home, in more ways than one. First off, there is the physical aspects of the crime. Kehoe stopped with her boys at the Kwik Star in Jesup, Iowa (which is where I live) and the store clerk who testified is a person that I know.
 After leaving Kwik Star, Kehoe drove down the road and stopped to let her boys play at the playground in front of St. Athanasius School. This playground is located directly behind my house (all that separates my yard from the playground is a single row of trees) and my oldest son plays there often. At this point in the time line, Kehoe purposely left her cell phone so that nobody could call for help.
 From the park, Kehoe drove a few miles further to Hook-n-Liner Pond. This happens to be my husband's and my fishing spot (since this happened though, we have decided to find a new spot). It is located in an extremely secluded location so a person would have to be familiar with the area to find it. Kehoe was originally from this area. In fact, the house down the road from it used to be owned by one of her relatives.

In a program series called Discovering Psychology, Philip Zimbardo narrates a particular program called Applying Psychology in Life.
 In the program, Research Psychologist Stephen Ceci is interviewed about child witness testimony. He discusses how investigators can inadvertently alter a child's memory by asking leading questions. His research has also laid down groundwork for interviewing children in many jurisdictions.
 This segment was extremely interesting to me and I encourage you all to watch it. It's roughly 7 minutes long but it is filled with a lot of  useful and interesting information.

http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1521
*Please note, this video link is for the entire show. You may need to download Media Player 11 to watch it. To get to Ceci's segment, pull the video's progress bar to 12 minutes and 40 seconds into the video. Also, directly following the segment is a different segment about conflict management that begins with images from the Columbine incident (this begins around 19 minutes and 20 seconds). Please note that this segment is entirely different and strictly pertaining to conflict management among youth and not the judicial system.