PERCEPTION OF CRIMINALS: WHAT STEREOTYPES HOLD FUTURE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2016vol1.1520Keywords:
criminal stereotypes, law enforcement, studentAbstract
The main reasons for why stereotypes of police officers about criminals are dangerous and affecting the legal system are: firstly, having stereotypes and misconceptions about typical criminals is damaging witness's ability to correctly identify and/or remember the offender’s features; secondly, stereotypes determine the peculiarities of interrogations; thirdly having stereotypes hinders the identification of individuals who actually commit crimes. 270 university students of Law and Police Activity program participated in the study and gave their opinion on the portrait and likely activities of a potential perpetrator. The Criminal Stereotype Questionnaire-Revised (Sparks & MacLin, 2011) was used to evaluate students’ judgment concerning the potential perpetrator’s socially desirable/undesirable personality traits, early years of family life history and childhood and adolescence activities. The results of this study revealed that future law and public security officers refer to delinquent activities during childhood and adolescence as well to adverse parental family life circumstances when predicting criminal behavior rather than personality traits. Furthermore, they have some preconceptions about gender, race and criminal behavior in advance.
References
Akehurst, L., Köhnken, G., Vrij, A., Bull, R. (1996). Lay persons’ and police officers’ beliefs regarding deceptive behavior. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 461–471.
Allison, M., Sweeney, L., Jung, S. (2013). A Comparison of Canadian and American Offender Stereotypes. North American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 589–607.
Beilock, S. L., Jellison, W. A., Rydell, R. J., McConnell, A. R., Carr, T. H. (2006). On the causal mechanisms of stereotype threat: Can skills that don’t rely heavily on working memory still be threatened? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1059–1071.
Beilock, S. L., Rydell, R. J., McConnell, A. R. (2007). Stereotype threat and working memory: Mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 256–276.
Church, W. T., Wakeman, E. E., Miller, S. L., Clements, C. B., Sun, F. (2008). The community attitudes toward sex offenders scale: The development of a psychometric assessment instrument. Research on Social Work Practice, 18, 251–259.
Colwell, L. H., Miller, H. A., Lyons, P. M., Jr., Miller, R. S. (2006). The training of law enforcement officers in detecting deception: A survey of current practices and suggestions for improving accuracy. Police Quarterly, 9, 275–290.
Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., Wittenbrink, B., Sadler, M. S., Keesee, T. (2007). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1006–1023.
Flowe, H. D., Humphries, J. E. (2011). An examination of criminal face bias in a random sample of police lineups. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25 (2), 265-273.
Gilbert, D. T., Hixon, J.G. (1991). The Trouble of Thinking Activation and Application of Stereotypic Beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, by the American Psychological Association, 60 (4), 509–517
Harper, C. A., Hogue, T. E. (2015). Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale. Psychology, Crime & Law, 21 (5), 452–470.
Jones, C. S., Kaplan, M. F. (2003). The effects of racially stereotypical crimes on juror decision-making and information-processing strategies. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25 (1), 1–13.
Lewis, A. L., Sommervold, S.L. (2015). Death, but is it murder? The role of stereotypes and cultural perceptions in the wrongful convictions of women. Albany Law Review, 78 (3), 1035–1058.
Republic of Lithuania, the 2011 Population and Housing Census Results (2013). Lithuanian Department of Statistics [Data file]. Retrieved from https://osp.stat.gov.lt/documents/10180/217110/Gyv_kalba_tikyba.pdf/1d9dac9a-3d45-4798-93f5-941fed00503f.
MacLin, M. K., Herrera, V. (2006). The criminal stereotype. North American Journal of Psychology, 8 (2), 197–208.
MacLin, O.H., MacLin, M.K. (2004). The effect of criminality on face attractiveness, typicality, memorability, and recognition. North American Journal of Psychology, 6, 145–154.
Macrae, N.C., Milne, A.B., Bodenhausen, G.V. (1994) Stereotypes as energy-saving devices: A peek inside the cognitive toolbox. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66 (1), 37–47
Madriz, E.I. (1997). Images of criminals and victims: A study on women’s fear and social control. Gender and Society, 11, 342–256.
Najdowski, C. J. (2011). Stereotype threat in criminal interrogations: Why innocent Black suspects are at risk for confessing falsely. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 17(4), 562–591.
Sanghara, K., Wilson, C. (2006). Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 11, 229–244.
Schaller, M., Conway, L.G. (2011). From cognition to culture: the origins of stereotypes that really matters. In: Moskowitz, G.B. (Ed.) Cognitive Social Psychology: the Princeton Symposium on Legacy and Future of Social Cognition. (p.p.177-190). Taylor & Fransis e-Library.
Schneider, D. J. (2005). The psychology of stereotyping. NY: Guilford Press.
Sekaquaptewa, D., Espinoza,P. (2004). Biased processing of stereotype – incongruence is greater for low than high status groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 128–135.
Sherman, J.W. (2011) The dynamic relationship between stereotype efficiency and mental representation. In: Moskowitz G.B. (Ed.) Cognitive Social Psychology: the Princeton Symposium on Legacy and Future of Social Cognition. (p.p. 163-176). Taylor & Fransis e-Library.
Sparks, A. M., MacLin, M. (2011). "Criminal Stereotypes Questionnaire-Revised". Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychology - Law Society (2011-03-02). 4th International Congress of Psychology and Law, Hyatt Regency Miami, Miami, FL.
Welch, K. (2007). Black criminal stereotypes and racial profiling. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 23, 276-288.
Yarmey, D.A. (1993), Stereotypes and recognition memory for faces and voiced of good guys and bad guys. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 419–431.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
How to Cite
