Witnesses Of Crime Research Articles

Invisible Victims: Recorded Crime and Children in the UK

While violence against children is a common occurrence only a minority of incidents come to the attention of the authorities. Low reporting rates notwithstanding, official data such as child protection referrals and recorded crime statistics provide valuable information on the numbers of children experiencing harm which come to the attention of professionals in any given year. In the UK, there has been a strong tendency to focus on child protection statistics while children as victims of crime remain largely invisible in annual crime reports and associated compendia. This is despite the implementation of a raft of policies aimed at improving the system response to victims and witnesses of crime across the UK. This paper demonstrates the utility of a more detailed analysis of crime statistics in providing information on the patterns of crime against children and examining case outcomes. Based on data made available by the Police Service for Northern Ireland, it highlights how violent crime differentially impacts on older children and how detection rates vary depending on case characteristics. It makes an argument for developing recorded crime practice to make child victims of crime more visible and to facilitate assessment of the effectiveness of current initiatives and policy developments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘Children as victims of crime remain largely invisible in annual crime reports and associated compendia’Key Practitioner Messages UK recorded crime is not routinely disaggregated by age and there is limited consideration of the changing patterns of crime against children. Practitioners working to reduce offending against children and to support victims through the criminal justice system are not being provided with the appropriate data to measure throughput through the system. Lack of information on the reasons why cases remain undetected means that strategies to reduce case attrition are essentially ‘flying blind’.‘The criminal justice system are not being provided with the appropriate data to measure throughput through the system’

Eyewitness Testimony in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is estimated to affect around 1% of the population, and is characterised by impairments in social interaction, communication, and behavioural flexibility. A number of risk factors indicate that individuals with ASD may become victims or witnesses of crimes. In addition to their social and communication deficits, people with ASD also have very specific memory problems, which impacts on their abilities to recall eyewitnessed events. We begin this review with an overview of the memory difficulties that are experienced by individuals with ASD, before discussing the studies that have specifically examined eyewitness testimony in this group and the implications for investigative practice. Finally, we outline related areas that would be particularly fruitful for future research to explore.

Telephoning Fish: An Examination of the Creative Deviance Used by Wildlife Violators in the United States

Wildlife poachers throughout the world have developed innovative techniques to commit their crimes and evade arrest by law enforcement. By taking advantage of technological advances as well as legitimate wildlife management practices, the poachers are able to participate in what Cohen and Machalek (1988, 1995) refer to as expropriative crime strategies. This paper documents specific non-conventional poaching techniques used as reported by 22 self-reported poachers, 14 wildlife law enforcement agents and 2 non-poaching hunters who were wildlife crime witnesses. The data, collected in semi-formal interviews, also present the different perceptions of poaching frequency and methods by both criminals and law enforcement officers.

The predicaments of child victims of crime seeking justice in Ethiopia: a double victimization by the justice process

This article presents an account of a legal system that has fundamentally failed Ethiopia’s young and vulnerable citizens. The Ethiopian justice process has permitted the subjection of child victims to cycles of traumatisation during investigation, prosecution and trial phases of cases in which they are involved. Ethiopia does not have laws that require the special treatment of children who are victims or witnesses of crime. It has neither rules of criminal procedure nor evidence that direct the conduct of criminal proceedings involving child victims. This article will show that although the Ethiopian Constitution incorporates principles such as the consideration of the best interests of the child', the realization of this principle for the Ethiopian child victim of crime remains illusory due to the absence of detailed rules that guide and compel the justice process to that effect. Based on empirical data, the article argues further that although ad hoc initiatives to introduce victims to a child-friendly justice process exist in a limited number of urban areas, these initiatives do not reach the vast majority of child victims around the country who continue to be further victimized by the justice process.

The predicaments of child victims of crime seeking justice in Ethiopia: a double victimization by the justice process

This article presents an account of a legal system that has fundamentally failed Ethiopia ́s young and vulnerable citizens. The Ethiopian justice process has permitted the subjection of child victims to cycles of traumatisation during investigation, prosecution and trial phases of cases in which they are involved. Ethiopia does not have laws that require the special treatment of children who are victims or witnesses of crime. It has neither rules of criminal procedure nor evidence that direct the conduct of criminal proceedings involving child victims. This article will show that although the Ethiopian Constitution incorporates principles such as the consideration of ‘the best interests of the child’, the realization of this principle for the Ethiopian child victim of crime remains illusory due to the absence of detailed rules that guide and compel the justice process to that effect. Based on empirical data, the article argues further that although ad hoc initiatives to introduce victims to a child-friendly justice process exist in a limited number of urban areas, these initiatives do not reach the vast majority of child victims around the country who continue to be further victimized by the justice process. Key words: Ethiopia, child victims, justice process, court, double victimization

Weapon focus effect on eyewitness testimony

Weapon focus refers to a phenomenon that occurs when a crime witness focuses on the weapon and as a result experiences a reduced ability to remember the other details of the crime. The purpose of this study was to examineunusualnessas a possible explanation for the weapon focus effect. In this experiment this phenomenon was examined by playing videotapes that depicted an event in a classroom or a kitchen. In the videotapes a male target held a knife while nearing a female person (control. It is considered usual for a person to hold a knife in the kitchen (usual condition but it is unusual for a person to hold a knife in the classroom (unusual condition. In the test session participants attempt to describe the male target and the control persons features. Results showed that the viewers memory of the male target was poorer than their memory of the control person only when they viewed the event in an unusual condition. This result indicates that the weapon focus eff ect is caused by the usualness of the weapon.

Great Expectations: Relations of Trust and Confidence in Police Interviews with Witnesses of Crime

In investigating crime, police rely upon information obtained from witness interviews. Witnesses and police frequently come to an interview with different expectations based upon their respective, sometimes competing, needs. Witnesses are often focused upon procedural justice considerations with some uncertainty about the interview process. Police are often operationally focused on the evidence they require and may need information quickly to apprehend an offender. The manner in which witness interviews are conducted can have a significant bearing upon the quality and quantity of information obtained and its usefulness to the criminal justice system. In addition, should the procedural justice expectations of a witness go unmet, this can have significant implications upon perceptions of police legitimacy and ultimately cooperation with the police. This paper discusses witness interviews from the perspective of the protagonists' expectations and explores how police interview behaviour might impact upon public perceptions of and cooperation with police. Language: en

To Serve Some and Protect Fewer: The Toronto Police Services' Policy on Non-Status Victims and Witnesses of Crimes

To Serve Some and Protect Fewer: The Toronto Police Services' Policy on Non-Status Victims and Witnesses of Crimes

Eyewitness identification under stress in the London Dungeon

AbstractEyewitness experiments do not induce the stress experienced by victims of crime. It is important to understand the effect of stress if results of laboratory studies are to be generalised to victims and witnesses of real crimes, but previous research has shown a mixed picture. The ability of visitors to the London Dungeon to describe and identify somebody encountered in the Horror Labyrinth was investigated, as a function of their state anxiety. To validate the measure of state anxiety, participants wore a wireless heart rate monitor whilst in the labyrinth. High state anxiety was associated with a higher heart rate. Subsequently, visitors completed measures of their state anxiety experienced whilst in the labyrinth and a measure of trait anxiety. High state anxiety was associated with reporting fewer correct descriptors of the target person, more incorrect details and making fewer correct identifications from a lineup. There was no effect of trait anxiety on eyewitness memory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An evaluation of US systems for facial composite production

Witness and victims of serious crime are normally requested to construct a facial composite of a suspect's face. While modern systems for constructing composites have been evaluated extensively in the UK, this is not the case in the US. In the current work, two popular computerized systems in the US, FACES and Identikit 2000, were evaluated against a ‘reference’ system, PRO-fit, where performance is established. In experiment 1, witnesses constructed a composite with both PRO-fit and FACES using a realistic procedure. The resulting composites were very poorly named, but the PRO-fit emerged best in ‘cued’ naming and two supplementary measures: composite sorting; and likeness ratings. In experiment 2, PRO-fit was compared with Identikit 2000, a sketch-like feature system. Spontaneous naming was again very poor, but both cued naming and sorting suggested that the systems were similar. The results support previous findings that modern systems do not produce identifiable composites.

Delivering effective multi-agency work for victims and witnesses of crime

This article explores recent changes within the field of victim and witness services, and uses this to provide a background to the work of the Victims and Witnesses Action Group (VWAG) in the English city of Leicester. Issues raised included the difficulties of partnership working in terms of breakdowns in communication, competition for funding and what happens when dedicated staff leave. Suggestions will be made regarding the work of multi-agency services to victims and witnesses in the future, such as setting out clear aims that are achievable within the resources available and having a clear link person in place to aid communication. This article will explore recent changes within the field of victim and witness services, and will use this to provide a background to the work of the Victims and Witnesses Action Group in Leicester. It will go on to look at the increase in the use of partnership working within the field of social care and regeneration, and how the benefits and drawbacks of this method of working may have had an impact on VWAG, as found by the evaluation of VWAG carried out in 2005. Suggestions will be made regarding the provision of multi-agency services to victims and witnesses in the future.

Implementing Holistic Dimensions for a Facial Composite System

Facial composites are pictures of human faces. These are normally constructed by victims and witnesses of crime who describe a suspect's face and then select individual facial features. Unfortunately, research has shown that composites constructed in this way are not often recognised. In contrast, we are quite good at recognizing complete faces, even if the face is unfamiliar and only seen briefly. This more natural way of processing faces is at the heart of a new composite system called EvoFIT. With this computer program, witnesses are presented with sets of complete faces for selection and a composite is 'evolved' over time. The current work augments EvoFIT by developing a set of psychologically useful scales - such as facial weight, masculinity, and age - that allow EvoFIT faces to be manipulated. These holistic dimensions were implemented by increasing the size and variability of the underlying face model and by obtaining perceptual ratings so that the space could be suitably vectorised. The result of three evaluations suggested that the new dimensions were operating appropriately. Index Terms—facial composite, holistic, witness, crime, EvoFIT

Developmentally Sensitive Forensic Interviewing of Preschool Children: Some Guidelines Drawn From Basic Psychological Research

Interviewing preschool children who are victims or witnesses of crime to ensure accuracy and completeness of their recall is no easy task. Rising up to the challenge, a large number of empirical psychological studies related to interviewing young children have been conducted in the past decades. Most of these studies were applied research, simulating circumstances of real forensic interviews. It is believed, however, that more basic research could also be informative. The present article thus selectively reviews more basic psychological research in the areas of memory development, language development, and conceptual development as they relate to the forensic interviewing of preschool children. Based on characteristics of preschool children’s development in these areas, some useful guidelines are generated for forensic interviewers. Recommendations for future research are also made.

Older Adults as Crime Victims, Perpetrators, Witnesses, and Complainants: A Population-Based Study of Police Interactions

ABSTRACTBackground: Little is known about the nature of community police interactions with older adults. This is a major gap in our knowledge as police are potential “first responders” to a variety of emergent criminal, legal, social, and medical problems faced by this population, yet previous studies have focused primarily on domestic elder abuse.Specific Aims: To estimate the prevalence of police department contact in an observational cohort of community dwelling older people and to determine the role of the older person in such contact. Secondary aims were to determine the distribution of crime types experienced by cohort members and to identify factors at cohort inception that were associated with police contact.Subjects: Members of the New Haven EPESE cohort (Established Population for Epidemiologic Studies in the Elderly) who were alive in 1985 (n = 2,321), an observational cohort of community-dwelling older adults who had regular standardized evaluations of medical, functional, and psychosocial health.Type of Study: Observational CohortMethods: Police records in same catchment area of the cohort were searched to determine if cohort members had any interaction with police over the follow-up period 1985–1995; those cohort members who had such interactions had detailed abstraction of police records to determine the nature of the event(s) which were then linked to cohort records so that health and criminal justice records could be analyzed concordantly.Results: The sampling adjusted prevalence of police contact was 29% over an eleven year follow-up period with 684 members of the 2,321 subject cohort experiencing a total of 1,651 separate contacts. The most common context in which cohort members interacted with police was solely as a victim of an alleged crime (57.5 of subjects, sampling adjusted, 62.1% of contacts), but subjects also had substantial interactions with police as complainants, witnesses, and perpetrators of crime. Violent crimes accounted for 21% of the contacts in which subjects were victims. Three factors at cohort inception were independently associated with victimization status over the follow-up period in multivariable analysis: being ADL dependent (OR .42,95% CI .22–.80), being African American (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.01–2.18), and being a younger cohort member (OR for age .94 per year, 95% CI .91–1.02). Gender was not significantly associated with victimization.Conclusions: Older adults have substantial interaction with community police in a variety of contexts, but primarily as victims of crime. ADL impairment and older age actually conferred a decreased risk of victimization in this study, defying the stereotype of victimized elders as the frail “oldest old.” However, the extremely high prevalence of police interaction with older adults suggests that health and criminal justice policy makers need to consider this population in law enforcement manpower planning and training.

Working towards a seamless service for victims and witnesses of crime in Leicester

This article explores the background to the creation of the Victims and Witnesses Action Group in Leicester. It lays out the aims of this group and how researchers sought to help meet them by carrying out research amongst the communities and agencies of Leicester. The findings highlighted gaps in service provision and led to calls for more multi‐agency working. This article goes on to set out proposals to tackling these gaps in provision through the idea of a federation. This brings together agencies working with victims and witnesses of crime, with a view to offering appropriate and accessible services within Leicester.

Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: Towards the Human Rights of Victims and Vulnerable Witnesses?

This article argues that victims of crime and vulnerable witnesses already have identifiable human rights stemming from the positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Since these rights do exist, albeit in partial form, it is suggested that the focus of current reform proposals should be on upholding and extending these rights rather than simply creating guidelines, codes of practice and ombudsmen.

The hidden war: crime and the tragedy of public housing in Chicago

Focusing on three developments, this study chronicles the many failed efforts of the Chicago Housing Authority to combat crime and improve its high-rise developments. The authors reveal the dilemmas facing women and children who are often victims or witnesses of violent crime.

‘It was a Serious Kitchen Knife’: Witnessing and Reporting Horror Crime

News reports of major crime can be linked to popular fiction genres. This linkage extends to the role of the crime witness and to the reporter as witness of crime and its aftermaths. It is argued that audience identification with witnesses and witnessing creates a ‘breathing space’ for reconsideration and reassessment of the crime. To illustrate how this might work in the reporting of horror and atrocity crimes, some newspaper ‘horror’ stories, and their relationship with horror fiction conventions, are discussed along with the television ‘eyewitness' reporting of international atrocity stories.

Assessing the capacity of people with intellectual disabilities to be witnesses in court.

People with intellectual disabilities who have been victims or other witnesses of crime have had limited access to the criminal justice system, often on the basis of assumptions about their incapacity to be interviewed by the police and to give evidence in court. The aim of this study was to assess their capacity to be witnesses in court. Forty-nine men and women with intellectual disabilities, all of whom were potential witnesses of ill-treatment, were assessed in order to provide advice, initially to the police, about their capacity to be interviewed for judicial purposes. The assessments included evaluations of each person's intellectual ability, memory, acquiescence, suggestibility, and their ability to explain concepts relating to the oath. Only 37 (76%) were able to complete the assessments. Most of those with a Full Scale IQ score of > or = 60 had a basic understanding of the oath, compared with only a third of those with IQ scores between 50 and 59, and none of those with IQ scores < 50. Nevertheless, some of the people who were unable to demonstrate an understanding of the oath did understand the words 'truth' and 'lie', especially when asked about these concepts in relation to concrete examples. While intellectual ability appears to be the best overall predictor of the capacity of people with intellectual disabilities to act as witnesses, confining witnesses to those who could explain the meaning of the oath would mean that a number of persons who might be interviewed by the police and subsequently appear in court could be excluded from the judicial process.

Interviewing victims and witnesses of crime.

Despite the importance of eyewitness information in criminal investigation, police receive inadequate training to interview cooperative witnesses. They make avoidable mistakes that minimize the amount of eyewitness information elicited and contribute to inaccurate recollections. Interviewing techniq