Lessons Learned from Crime Caught on Camera

Objectives: The widespread use of camera surveillance in public places offers criminologists the opportunity to systematically and unobtrusively observe crime, their main subject matter. The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of current developments in research on crimes caught on camera. Methods: We address the importance of direct observation of behavior and review criminological studies that used observational methods, with and without cameras, including the ones published in this issue. We also discuss the uses of camera recordings in other social sciences and in biology. Results: We formulate six key insights that emerge from the literature and make recommendations for future research. Conclusions: Camera recordings of real-life crime are likely to become part of the criminological tool kit that will help us better understand the situational and interactional elements of crime. Like any source, it has limitations that are best addressed by triangulation with other sources

Weapons, Body Postures, and the Quest for Dominance in Robberies:A Qualitative Analysis of Video Footage

Objective: A small-scale exploration of the use of video analysis to study robberies. We analyze the use of weapons as part of the body posturing of robbers as they attempt to attain dominance. Methods: Qualitative analyses of video footage of 23 shop robberies. We used Observer XT software (version 12) for fine-grained multimodal coding, capturing diverse bodily behavior by various actors simultaneously. We also constructed story lines to understand the robberies as hermeneutic whole cases. Results: Robbers attain dominance by using weapons that afford aggrandizing posturing and forward movements. Guns rather than knives seemed to fit more easily with such posturing. Also, victims were more likely to show minimizing postures when confronted with guns. Thus, guns, as part of aggrandizing posturing, offer more support to robbers’ claims to dominance in addition to their more lethal power. In the cases where resistance occurred, robbers either expressed insecure body movements or minimizing postures and related weapon usage or they failed to impose a robbery frame as the victims did not seem to comprehend the situation initially. Conclusions: Video analysis opens up a new perspective of how violent crime unfolds as sequences of bodily movements. We provide methodological recommendations and suggest a larger scale comparative project

AT LEVE MED VOLD: Om seksualitet og vold blandt unge i Cape Town

The focus of the article is upon the relation between gender and violence as an aspect of everyday practice. It is suggested that strategies for living with violence inform gender perceptions. The article is based on research in Cape Town, South Africa and consentrates on how adolescents there speak about violence and strategies for safety. South Africa is renowned for high levels of violence such as rape or death by gunfire. Rather than focus on these violent acts from the perspective of either the victim or perpetrator, the focus lies in the implications for the witnesses, who live with the threat of violence in their daily lives. Narratives related to violence and strategies for safety show how violence manifests itself. The authors argue that women and men are discursively informed to respond to and perceive violence differently. Men are agents of violence as protectors and perpetrators, and women are pacified and potential victims. Furthermore the study emphasises that violence maintains patriarchal gender roles and thereby becomes a major barrier to rethinking gender perceptions and gender equality. &nbsp

Andrija Tomašek, Slavko Zlatić - kronika života i rada, Narodno sveučilište Poreč - Centar za kulturu, Poreč 1985 ,69 str.

Post-aggression consolation is assumed to occur in humans as well as in chimpanzees. While consolation following peer aggression has been observed in children, systematic evidence of consolation in human adults is rare. We used surveillance camera footage of the immediate aftermath of nonfatal robberies to observe the behaviors and characteristics of victims and bystanders. Consistent with empathy explanations, we found that consolation was linked to social closeness rather than physical closeness. While females were more likely to console than males, males and females were equally likely to be consoled. Furthermore, we show that high levels of threat during the robbery increased the likelihood of receiving consolation afterwards. These patterns resemble post-aggression consolation in chimpanzees and suggest that emotions of empathic concern are involved in consolation across humans and chimpanzees

Cross-National CCTV Footage Shows Low Victimization Risk for Bystander Interveners in Public Conflicts

Objective: Accumulating evidence shows that bystanders witnessing public disputes frequently intervene to help. However, little is known regarding the risks entailed for those bystanders who enter the fray to stop conflicts. This study systematically examined the prevalence of bystander victimizations and the associated risk factors. Method: Data were a cross-national sample of 93 surveillance camera recordings of real-life public disputes, capturing the potential victimizations of 417 intervening and 636 nonintervening bystanders. Results: Data showed that interveners were rarely physically harmed-at a rate of 3.6%-and noninterveners were virtually never victimized. Confirmatory regression results showed that conflict party affiliation was a moderately robust predictor of bystander victimization. The gender of the intervener was a highly fragile risk factor. More severe conflicts were not associated with a higher victimization likelihood. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the value of naturalistic observation for bystander research and emphasize the need for evidence-based bystander intervention recommendations. Data, materials, and postprint are available at osf.io/vyutj

Would I be helped?:Cross-national CCTV footage shows that intervention is the norm in public conflicts

Half a century of research on bystander behavior concludes that individuals are less likely to intervene during an emergency when in the presence of others than when alone. By contrast, little is known regarding the aggregated likelihood that at least someone present at an emergency will do something to help. The importance of establishing this aggregated intervention baseline is not only of scholarly interest but is also the most pressing question for actual public victims—will I receive help if needed? The current article describes the largest systematic study of real-life bystander intervention in actual public conflicts captured by surveillance cameras. Using a unique cross-national video dataset from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa (N = 219), we show that in 9 of 10 public conflicts, at least 1 bystander, but typically several, will do something to help. We record similar likelihoods of intervention across the 3 national contexts, which differ greatly in levels of perceived public safety. Finally, we find that increased bystander presence is related to a greater likelihood that someone will intervene. Taken together these findings allay the widespread fear that bystanders rarely intervene to help. We argue that it is time for psychology to change the narrative away from an absence of help and toward a new understanding of what makes intervention successful or unsuccessful