Insight into the Psychology of Criminals and Eyewitness †Samples

Question: Discuss about the Insight into the Psychology of Criminals and Eyewitness. Answer: Insight into the psychology of criminals and eye witness Crime is a word, which possesses flexibility to destroy the order and harmony of the society. However, delving deep into the word crime, it involves the mentality, which brings noticeable transformation in the personality traits of the individuals. In-depth knowledge about this mentality is provided by the field of criminology. Viewing from the other perspective, placement of the word justice besides the word criminal reduces the intensity of the crime (Gronlund et al., 2015). The word system can be considered as the approach of the law officials to support the victims for restoring the lost glory and honor. The previous sentence brings the words system and criminal in the same alignment. Countering this, the word system can also be the attempt of the government officials to alter the predicament of the culprits into a good human being. Within the verdicts of crime, eye witnesses play an important role. As a matter of specification, eye witnesses are crucial in terms of deciding the fate of the victims and culprit. Herein lays the correlation with the phrase impact of and on as proposed in the subject matter of the report. Sometimes the verdicts given by the eye witness are incorrect (Dysart Lindsay, 2014). This is due to the lack of understanding regarding the appropriate actions. This lack of understanding attaches an interrogative parameter to the plight of the culprit and the victim, who are battling for justice. In other circumstances, the eye witnesses are dominated by the influential people for not suppressing the instance that they witnessed. This kind of orders and instructions contradicts with the true essence and functionality of eye witnesses. Hence it can be said that in the criminal justice system or the legal system the consequences of identification error is extremely deep because it adversely affec t life of both the innocent as well as the criminal. Because false identification may lead to false conviction ultimately spoiling the life of an innocent person, on the other hand non-identification of criminal may set him free to commit more crimes (Gronlund et al., 2015). In both the cases it can be seen that how important is the role of eye witness in the criminal justice system as it affects the social peace and order. Attachment of the word testimony with eye witness makes the report a philosophical one. In-depth knowledge can be achieved through theoretical perspective. As a matter of specification, behavioral theory is appropriate in this context. Bad companion compels an individual to indulge into wrong actions, which makes them deviate from the targeted goals. Selection of friends depends on the likes and dislikes of the individual (O'barr, 2014). These likes and dislikes portray the whole individual. This selection is one of the traits of the individual. Lack of control over the performance of activities alters the personality of the individuals. This alteration possesses positive as well as negative connotations. However, most of the times, it is the negative connotation, which dominates the good one. The dominance of the bad one relates with the criminal psychology. Although in legal system eye witnesses are considered as reliable source of information to pronounce justice. The role of eye witness is very crucial, so huge research has been done in this area to study the behavioral patterns of eye witness. The research has found that there are many psychological factors which affect eye witness testimony like- anxiety/stress, reconstructive memory, weapon focus and leading questions. According to the researcher the eye witnesses are more likely to remember to remember a real life anxious and more stressful event, even after passage of few months. Famous British psychologist Bartlett has developed a theory on reconstructive memory, which is also known as Bartletts theory of reconstructive memory. Through this theory he evaluated the reliability of testimonies of eye witness; according to him memory plays an important role and it is not just the factual record of the incident that has occurred but it is subject to personal interpretation of the eye witness- including his norms, values, culture and the way he perceived the world. Again weapon focus is a situation in which the eye witness focuses more on the weapon rather than other details of the crime. Many of the time it has been noticed that, the eye witness remembers description of weapon more accurately than the physical feature of the person committing crime. Other psychologists Loftus and Palmer particularly focus of misleading information that could be visual or imagery as well as misleading questions in relation to testimony of eye witness. As per their research finding memory of an event is highly flexible, if new information is incorporated between the interval of actual happening of the incident and recalling it, this new information may influence the original memory up to the level of modifying, changing or supplementing it O'barr, 2014). Deep research on eye witness testimony, it can be considered as an experiment with the psyche and memory of the eye witnesses. Mostly, the derived results prove to be true, as under such circumstance, the eye witnesses speak out the truth. This is to defend himself from the harsh punishments. Countering this, the eye witnesses undergo psychological turmoil and obscurity regarding the doable in this condition (Sah, Robertson Baughman, 2015). This obscurity sometimes paves new avenues before them. In other times, these circumstances adversely affect the psyche of the individuals, acting as an obstacle in the performance of the basic tasks. Therefore, under such circumstances, the verdicts produced by the eye witness are considered to be reliable. There are certain factors, which deviate the eye witness from their focus regarding the narration of the instances that they viewed. Asking provocative and leading questions are one of the typical examples of this factor. This makes them anxi ous about the verdict, which they would produce before the court (Smalarz Wells, 2015). The judge is a high ranking official, outpouring the answer before him is equal to experiencing a spine chilling effect upon watching a horror movie. This experience relates to the climactic stage of Yerkes Dodson curve. The provocative and leading questions leads the eye witness to this climax. These questions bear resemblance with point of waking and optimal level. Here the level is very high in contrast to the restless memory. Viewing from the other perspective, refraining from asking provocative questions would straighten the curve. This might be a distortion of the structure of the curve; however, it projects the straight forward focus of the eye witness in terms of giving his verdict regarding the visual experience of the incident. Applying the concept of horror movie scenes in this context, the horrifying scenes alarm the individuals regarding their present status (Smalarz Wells, 2015). The previous sentence projects the significance of waking point, which takes the individuals to the optimal level and finally to the climax, where they are aroused. The eye witnesses also undergo the same predicament, when the culprits exert force upon them to safeguard themselves. Critical reflection of sources The article entitled, Handbook of eye witness testimony provides a basic insight into the concept of eye witness testimony. The subtitle, Memory for people seems inappropriate with the main heading of the article. The preposition for seems to be a guidance for the people regarding the memory that they need to possess (Lindsay et al., 2013). This perspective can be correlated with the dominance, which the opposition parties exert on the perturbed soul of the eye witness. Under such situation, the memory of the eye witnesses are so entrapped that they hesitate to voice out the things that they perceived. Attention needs to be given on the word testimony, which finds its applicability in the cases, where the eye witness is incapable of giving a verbal statement of the incident, which he has visualized. The previous sentence contradicts the proposed statement. Countering this, psychological research, like the counseling, therapies brings out the inaccuracies within the verdict produced b y the eye witness. Plurality of the word they portrays a class of eye witnesses undergoing the same predicament. Herein lays the appropriate correlation of the word contamination as mentioned in the name of the article, Contamination of eye witness self reports and mistaken identification. The action of self-reporting reflects the attempts of the eye witnesses to narrate the incidents with their exactness (Smalarz Wells, 2015). However, the word mistaken adds vagueness to these attempts, which adversely affects the individuality of the eye witnesses. There are several key factors which result into contamination of eye witness and mistaken identification in which the most important one are- Witness Age (identification accuracy is closely related to age of the witness); Witness Intoxication (mostly leading to false identification); Perpetrator Appearance (distinctive faces are more accurately identified); Perpetrators Race (high accuracy of identification when perpetrator and eye witness are from same r ace); Distance and Exposure Duration (distance is inversely proportional to identification accuracy on the other hand duration of exposure is directly proportional to the identification accuracy); Stress and Fear (will also influence witness identification performance) (Smalarz Wells, 2015). Crime is a stately matter. Taking the charge of law into ones own responsibility aggravates the complexities. On the contrary, taking the assistance of law officials mitigates the intensity of the crimes. Along with this, it also helps the eye witnesses to voice out what they have seen, without the fear and hesitation of the opposition parties. Considering the example of China in this context might be a deviation from the requirements of the discussion; however, it expands the scope and arena of the report to develop a comparative study of the criminal justice systems of Australia and China. Herein lays the correlation with the article entitled One country two cultures: Are Hong Kong mock jurors mainlandized by the predominant Chinese criminal justice concept of confession? Duality evident in the cultures portrays the dominance of Western countries on the memory of the Chinese people. The word mainlandized can be said to secure the psyche of the eye witness (Hui Lo, 2015). The placem ent of the word mock before the role of the jury adds insecurity to the secured plight of the eye witness, the result of which is the confession. This result might be the yearning of the eye witness in terms of progressing towards the closure of the legal procedures. The article Eye witness confidence and the confidence accuracy relationship in memory for people soothe the perturbed mind and psyche of the eye witness. Herein lays the appropriateness of the word confidence. Accuracy in the legal procedures preserves the stability in the relationship between the eye witness, culprit and the victims. Countering this, culprits cannot be placed in the same alignment with the eye witness and the victims. This is due to the dominant threats, pressures and forces, which they have exerted on the victim party and the eye witness. The preposition for dictates their actions, destroying their individuality (Leippe Eisenstadt, 2014). Herein lays the correlation between the articles Handbook of eye witness testimony: Volume 2 Memory for people and Eye witness confidence and confidence accuracy relationship in memory for people. The conjunction between both the articles excavates confidence as one of the greatest strengths for eye witness in terms of overcoming the dominance of the criminals. Committing crimes projects the animalistic trait of the criminals. Maintenance of consistency in this direction restricts the exposure of positive traits. In order to maintain this positivity, rehabs, trainings, counseling and therapies of the criminals are needed. Strictness of the managers and government officials for these trainings, counseling and therapies would alter the perspective of the criminals. Along with this, involving them in various and wide ranging extracurricular activities would broaden their perspectives (Beaudry et al., 2015). References Beaudry, J. L., Lindsay, R. C., Leach, A. M., Mansour, J. K., Bertrand, M. I., Kalmet, N. (2015). The effect of evidence type, identification accuracy, line?up presentation, and line?up administration on observers' perceptions of eyewitnesses.Legal and Criminological Psychology,20(2), 343-364. Dysart, J. E., Lindsay, R. C. L. (2014). The effects of delay on eyewitness identification accuracy: Should we be concerned?.Handbook Of Eyewitness Psychology 2 Volume Set, 361. Gronlund, S. D., Mickes, L., Wixted, J. T., Clark, S. E. (2015). Chapter One-Conducting an Eyewitness Lineup: How the Research Got It Wrong.Psychology of Learning and Motivation,63, 1-43. Leippe, M. R., Eisenstadt, D. (2014).Eyewitness confidence and the confidence-accuracy relationship in memory for people.The handbook of eyewitness psychology,2, 377-425. Liang, B., He, N. P., Lu, H. (2014). The deep divide in Chinas criminal justice system: contrasting perceptions of lawyers and the iron triangle.Crime, Law and Social Change,62(5), 585-601. Lindsay, R. C., Ross, D. F., Read, J. D., Toglia, M. P. (Eds.). (2013).The handbook of eyewitness psychology: volume ii: memory for people(Vol. 2). Psychology Press. O'barr, W. M. (2014).Linguistic evidence: Language, power, and strategy in the courtroom. Elsevier. Sah, S., Robertson, C. T., Baughman, S. B. (2015).Blinding prosecutors to defendants' race: A policy proposal to reduce unconscious bias in the criminal justice system.Behavioral Science Policy,1(2), 69-76. Smalarz, L., Wells, G. L. (2015). Contamination of eyewitness self-reports and the mistaken-identification problem.Current Directions in Psychological Science,24(2), 120-124. Hui, C. Y., Lo, T. W. (2015). One country, two cultures: Are Hong Kong mock jurors mainlandized by the predominant Chinese criminal justice concept of confession?.International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology,59(10), 1104-1124.