Psychology, Crime and Law

Previous studies suggest that the process of becoming desistant from crime is accompanied by a shift from criminal to law-abiding identity and by the development of self-efficacy for law-abiding behavior. Utilizing direct (self-report) and indirect (Implicit Association Test; IAT) measures of both variables we predicted that a) a stronger law-abiding relative to criminal identity and a stronger/weaker self-efficacy for law-abiding/criminal behavior will correlate with less previous criminal involvement at T1 and b) will prospectively explain variance in desistance two to three years later at T2. Results from a sample of late adolescent and adult offenders on probation largely confirmed cross-sectional associations with previous criminal involvement at T1 (N = 325). Univariately, self-reported and latency-based measured identity for law-abiding relative to criminal behavior explained variance in (survival time until) recidivism at T2 as opposed to self-efficacy for law-abiding or criminal behavior. Multivariately, self-reported law-abiding relative to criminal identity explained variance in survival time until recidivism over and beyond actuarial risk factors at T2. Further analyses showed that actuarial risk factors increasingly overestimated the risk to reoffend as the strength of law-abiding relative to criminal identity increased. The findings indicate that the strength of law-abiding relative to criminal identity plays a role in persisting in or desisting from criminal behavior. Yet, further research is necessary to identify the causal psychological mechanisms of identity change in the process towards desistance from crime.

The perceived acceptability of implicit threats, as a function of messenger type, was examined. Across two experiments, participants (79 undergraduates and 160 community members) read a news article about how a police officer or gang member used an implicit threat to obtain an admission of wrongdoing from a store owner. Participants then provided their opinions about the implied messages, the messenger, and the admissibility of the confession evidence, and were asked to render a verdict. Results showed that the implied threats were viewed more negatively when uttered by a gang member. Ratings of admissibility of the confession evidence were high in both groups and varied little between the groups. Our findings are indicative of a double standard in the justice system whereby the same implicit message is viewed differently depending on who utters the message. The potential implications of these findings on legal decision-making and future research are discussed.

Understanding why some individuals are more susceptible to becoming victims of fraud is crucial for developing effective anti-fraud strategies. This study employs a machine learning approach to explore the impact of individual psychological and socio-demographic characteristics on susceptibility to fraud. The random forest (RF) models reveal that psychological factors are more influential in determining an individual's vulnerability to fraud than demographic factors. Within the RF models, feature importance analyses highlight that subdimensions of critical thinking—such as truth-seeking, open-mindedness, and cognitive maturity—along with susceptibility to persuasion, perceived benefits on risk, and self-control, are pivotal in influencing an individual’s susceptibility to fraud. These insights are critical for informing targeted interventions and enhancing the effectiveness of anti-fraud measures.

This study examined the preliminary results of a 25-session individual intervention program designed for individuals who sexually offended against children (ISOCs) in Portugal, whether in prison or the community setting. A randomized controlled pilot study was conducted, where eighteen ISOCs were randomly assigned to receive the INSIGHT intervention plus treatment as usual (TAU) or only TAU. ISOCs in the treatment condition demonstrated significant reductions in cognitive distortions related to child sexual abuse, some early maladaptive schemas, psychopathology, interpersonal problems, and risk of sexual violence, along with increases in self-esteem, empathy, and empathy towards victims, all with larger effect sizes. Most of these improvements were sustained at the 3-month follow-up. The intervention shows a potential promise in reducing the risk of sexual violence by addressing risk-relevant factors. Further evaluation with a larger sample is needed for more robust conclusions.

Late disclosure of evidence within investigative interviews with guilty suspects has been shown to increase statement-evidence and within-statement inconsistencies, which are indicators of deception. We experimentally tested whether such inconsistencies were influenced by the timing of evidence disclosure and strength of the evidence. We also tested whether evidence disclosure timing or strength had any effect on the provision of novel investigative information, or the rapport and trust between interviewer and interviewee. We employed a 2(Evidence disclosure timing: Early vs Late) x 2(Evidence strength: Weak vs Strong) between-participants design. Participants (N = 101) role-played a suspect guilty of theft and were interviewed via videoconference. Participants were instructed to convince the interviewer that they were innocent. Late disclosure of evidence led to more statement-evidence inconsistencies and within-statement inconsistencies than early evidence disclosure. Evidence disclosure timing did not affect rapport or the provision of novel investigative information. There were no clear indications of the impact of evidence strength, however, we observed that the manipulations of evidence proximity and reliability did not consistently impact perceptions of the evidence’s strength.

The present research examined how contextual/coaching information and interview format influenced adults' ability to detect children's lies. Participants viewed a series of child interview videos where children provided either a truthful report or a deceptive report to conceal a co-transgression; participants reported if they thought each child was lying or telling the truth. In Study 1 (N = 400), participants were assigned to one of the following conditions that varied in the type of interview shown and if context about the event in question was provided: full interview + context, recall questions + context, recognition questions + context, or full interview only (no context). Providing context (information about the potential co-transgression and coaching) significantly enhanced overall and lie accuracy, but this served the greatest benefit when provided with the recall interview, and participants held a lie bias. In Study 2 (N = 100), participants watched the full interview with simplified coaching information. Detection accuracy was reduced slightly but remained well above chance and the lie bias was eliminated. Thus, detection performance is improved when participants are given a child's free-recall interview along with background information on the event and potential coaching, though providing specific coaching details introduces a lie bias.

This paper presents a prospective evaluation of the predictive validity of three risk assessment instruments in a sample of Australian women identified by police as intimate partner abuse (IPA) perpetrators. Using a subsample from Spivak et al. (2020), 410 female IPA perpetrators were screened using the Victoria Police Screening Assessment for Family Violence Risk (VP-SAFvR) and evaluated alongside two samples of 60 and 229 female IPA perpetrators assessed using the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER) and a modified version of the Lethality Screen respectively. Of the three instruments, the VPSAFvR possessed indicators of effective discrimination (i.e. sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve) and predictive validity (i.e. positive predictive value, negative predictive value) on general IPA recidivism and its intended outcome of family or intimate partner abuse. The B-SAFER risk judgement similarly predicted its intended outcome of physical IPA recidivism, with notable indicators of discrimination and predictive validity. The results of the Modified Lethality Screen were conversely mixed on measures of discrimination and prediction for its intended outcome of severe IPA. The current findings suggest that these instruments function consistently for women and men who are identified by police as perpetrating family or intimate partner abuse.

Characterizations of offenders as 'evil' appear in popular entertainment, political rhetoric, and scholarship and may be rooted in widely endorsed cultural narratives. Integrating psychological and criminological literatures, we argue that endorsement of good-and-evil myths may be associated with criminal justice policy support via stigmatizing attitudes about those who engage in crime. We partially tested these hypotheses in a preliminary study using an online convenience sample (recruited using Amazon MTurk in 2015), then tested the full theoretical model using more comprehensive measures in a survey of American adults conducted via Qualtrics Panel in 2021 (N = 1,162). We found that both belief in evil (i.e. belief in evil forces) and belief in redemptive violence (i.e. belief in a clash between good and evil) were positively associated with punitive policy support, and stigmatizing attitudes partially mediated the effects of both. While belief in redemptive violence was negatively associated with rehabilitative policy support and stigmatizing attitudes mediated that relationship, belief in evil was not associated with support for rehabilitation. We consider the implications of our findings for mitigating the harms of public stigma and punitive criminal justice policy.