Offender-Centric Policing in Cases of Rape

2021 ◽  
pp. 002201832110274
Author(s):  
Philip NS Rumney ◽  
Duncan McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Predatory Behaviour ◽  
Investigative Tool ◽  
Care And Support ◽  
History Of

The article explores the idea of ‘offender-centric’ policing in cases of rape, with its focus on suspect and offender admissions and behaviours. It features discussion of 11 cases, illustrating offender-centric pathways to charge or conviction, the challenges facing complainants, suspects and police officers, along with missed opportunities to focus on a suspect’s behaviour. The importance of victim care and support is discussed, and it is argued that victim care should accompany an offender-centric approach to rape investigation. It is also argued that there are potential dangers with offender-centric tactics, specifically, that without due care it may become a self-confirming investigative tool influenced by confirmation bias which may lead to flawed decision-making. The article concludes by arguing that offender-centric policing has benefits in those cases with suspects who engage in predatory behaviour, have a history of previously undisclosed sexual offending and domestic violence and other problematic behaviours. It also has value in focusing the attention of investigators on what steps were taken by a suspect to ascertain the complainant’s consent. While the offender-centric approach cannot address all investigative challenges in rape cases, it is a useful addition to existing strategies.

A Focal Concerns Perspective on Prosecutorial Decision Making in Cases of Intimate Partner Stalking

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 733-748
Author(s):  
Patrick Q. Brady ◽  
Bradford W. Reyns
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Additional Insight ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
Stalking Victims

Despite millions of stalking victims contacting the police each year, suspects are rarely arrested or prosecuted. While prosecutors are ultimately the gatekeepers to holding defendants accountable, few studies have examined the factors influencing charging decisions in stalking cases. Using the focal concerns perspective, this study analyzed 5 years of domestic violence and stalking case outcomes in Rhode Island. Findings indicated that prosecutors were more likely to prosecute stalking cases when defendants evoked fear in the victim and pursued victims in public. The decision to prosecute stalking versus other domestic violence–related charges was motivated by the location of the offense and the defendant’s history of physical abuse toward the victim. Neither extralegal factors nor characteristics of blameworthiness or suspect culpability influenced prosecutorial decision making. Findings underscore the legal complexities of stalking and suggest the need for additional insight on prosecutorial perspectives and strategies to articulate the fear standard in stalking cases.

Confirmation Bias in Simulated Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Interviews: Abuse Assumption Influences Interviewing and Decision-making Processes

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yikang Zhang ◽  
Aleksandr Segal ◽  
Francesco Pompedda ◽  
Shumpei Haginoya ◽  
Pekka Santtila
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Preliminary Information ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Correct Conclusion ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Series Of Experiments

PurposeResearch has shown that confirmation bias plays a role in legal and forensic decision-making processes. However, to our knowledge, no study has examined how it manifests itself when interviewing an allegedly abused child. MethodIn the present study, we used data from a series of experiments in which participants interviewed child avatars to examine how an assumption of abuse based on preliminary information influenced decision-making and interviewing style. Interview training data from eight studies with students, psychologists and police officers were included in the analyses.ResultsWe found that interviewers’ preliminary assumption of sexual abuse having taken place predicted 1) a conclusion of abuse by the interviewers after the interview; 2) higher confidence in their judgment; 3) more frequent use of not recommended question types and 4) a decreased likelihood of reaching a correct conclusion given the same number of available relevant details. ConclusionThe importance of considering how preliminary assumptions of abuse affect interview behaviour and outcomes and the implications for the training of investigative interviewers were discussed.

Correlates of Chinese Police Officer Decision-Making in Cases of Domestic Violence

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (11) ◽  
pp. 1556-1578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinting Wang ◽  
Brittany E. Hayes ◽  
Hongwei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Extralegal Factors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Chinese Police

The purpose of the current study is to uncover whether extralegal factors play a significant role in Chinese police officers’ decision-making in response to a hypothetical incident of domestic violence (DV). Data were collected from a sample of Chinese police officers located in southwestern China. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the attitudes and beliefs of police officers and their decision-making in DV (i.e., recommend putting suspect into custody, victim into custody, and mediation; N = 514). The results suggest extralegal factors associated with culture do exert a significant effect on police officers’ decision-making in cases of DV, but the extent may be minimal. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Estimating Lifetime and Residual Risk for Individuals Who Remain Sexual Offense Free in the Community: Practical Applications

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 107906321987157 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Thornton ◽  
R. Karl Hanson ◽  
Sharon M. Kelley ◽  
James C. Mundt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Empirical Method ◽  
Sexual Offense ◽  
Sexual Recidivism ◽  
Recidivism Rates ◽  
Sexual Crime ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Periods

Although individuals with a history of sexual crime are often viewed as a lifelong risk, recent research has drawn attention to consistent declines in recidivism risk for those who remain offense free in the community. Because these declines are predictable, this article demonstrates how evaluators can use the amount of time individuals have remained offense free to (a) extrapolate to lifetime recidivism rates from rates observed for shorter time periods, (b) estimate the risk of sexual recidivism for individuals whose current offense is nonsexual but who have a history of sexual offending, and (c) calculate yearly reductions in risk for individuals who remain offense free in the community. In addition to their practical utility for case-specific decision making, these estimates also provide researchers an objective, empirical method of quantifying the extent to which individuals have desisted from sexual crime.

Confirmation Bias and Auditor Risk Assessments: Archival Evidence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory A. Cassell ◽  
Stuart Dearden ◽  
David Rosser ◽  
Jonathan Shipman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Risk Increase ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Auditor Judgments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Increase In Risk

Judgment and decision making research suggests that auditors’ judgments are negatively affected by the use of heuristics. However, there is little research investigating whether such biases survive the quality control processes that regulators and audit firms implement to mitigate them. We investigate this by identifying a setting where one such bias – confirmation bias – is likely to manifest. Consistent with confirmation bias influencing observable audit outcomes, we find that auditors with previous experience auditing a client with a history of low risk followed by an increase in risk do not adequately respond to the higher level of risk. This effect is mitigated when the risk increase is likely large enough to violate auditors’ reasonableness constraint and when the client is highly visible or has strong external monitors. Our study complements prior experimental research by providing archival evidence that auditors’ use of heuristics has a significant effect on auditor judgments.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

Minimizing Missed Opportunities: Modeling Relationships between the State and Business in Russia

2009 ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
A. Oleynik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Power Domination ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Optimal Outcomes

Power involves a number of models of choice: maximizing, satisficing, coercion, and minimizing missed opportunities. The latter is explored in detail and linked to a particular type of power, domination by virtue of a constellation of interests. It is shown that domination by virtue of a constellation of interests calls for justification through references to a common good, i.e. a rent to be shared between Principal and Agent. Two sources of sub-optimal outcomes are compared: individual decision-making and interactions. Interactions organized in the form of power relationships lead to sub-optimal outcomes for at least one side, Agent. Some empirical evidence from Russia is provided for illustrative purposes.

Islands of Stability: Engaging Emergence from Cellular Automata to the Occupy Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

"Instead of considering »being with« in terms of non-problematic, machine-like places, where reliable entities assemble in stable relationships, STS conjures up a world where the achievement of chancy stabilisations and synchronisations is local.We have to analyse how and where a certain regularity and predictability in the intersection of scientists and their instruments, say, or of human individuals and groups, is produced.The paper reviews models of emergence drawn from the history of cybernetics—the canonical »black box,« homeostats, and cellular automata—to enrich our imagination of the stabilisation process, and discusses the concept of »variety« as a way of clarifying its difficulty, with the antiuniversities of the 1960s and the Occupy movement as examples. Failures of »being with« are expectable. In conclusion, the paper reviews approaches to collective decision-making that reduce variety without imposing a neoliberal hierarchy. "

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