Evaluating the credibility of statements given by persons with intellectual disability

El objetivo del presente trabajo consistió en analizar las características diferenciales de los relatos emitidos por víctimas reales y simuladas con discapacidad intelectual ligera y moderada mediante el procedimiento de análisis de credibilidad de Control de la Realidad (RM). Dos evaluadores entrenados en los procedimientos de análisis de credibilidad mediante criterios de contenido evaluaron 13 relatos verdaderos y 16 relatos falsos. Los resultados encontrados muestran que existen pocas diferencias entre los dos tipos de relatos. Los únicos criterios que resultan significativos para discriminar entre los dos tipos de relatos son la cantidad de detalles y la longitud de las declaraciones espontáneas obtenidas mediante recuerdo libre. Ninguna de las características fenomenológicas examinadas resultó significativa para discriminar entre víctimas reales y simuladas. La representación gráfica mediante visualización hiperdimensional (HDV) considerando conjuntamente todos los criterios muestra una gran heterogeneidad entre relatos. Un análisis de conglomerados permitió clasificar los dos tipos de relatos con una probabilidad de acierto del 68.75 por ciento

Psychosocial needs in refugees and asylum seekers (NPR)

Questionnaire to assess psychosocial needs in refugees and asylum seekers

Características de los casos de delito sexual contra personas especialmente vulnerables peritados desde la práctica privada

Por lo general los estudios sobre las características de los casos de delitos sexuales en víctimas especialmente vulnerables se realizan a partir de las denuncias policiales (Vara, Quintana, Escorial y Manzanero, 2019) o de las intervenciones periciales de los equipos técnicos de los juzgados (Suárez y González, 2003). Sin embargo, existen escasos datos sobre las características de los casos que se peritan desde la práctica privada. Datos sobre estos últimos podrían contribuir a completar el mapa de las características de ese tipo de delitos. Se analizaron 265 casos en España y Chile en los que se intervino desde 1990 hasta 2019 con el objetivo de valorar pericialmente la credibilidad del testimonio en casos de delitos sexuales contra personas vulnerables (ancianos, menores y personas con discapacidad intelectual). Cada caso fue analizado a partir de la documentación recogida en los expedientes judiciales y policiales. Los resultados muestran que las características de los casos de delitos sexuales que llegan a los peritos en la práctica privada dependen de múltiples factores, no siendo iguales en distintos países ni en función del tipo de víctima

Edad y experiencia en el reconocimiento y la descripción de personas

En el presente estudio se analizó el papel de la experiencia y la edad sobre la capacidad para describir y reconocer personas. Dos grupos de sujetos con diferente experiencia en tareas de descripción y reconocimiento (civiles y policías) y con dos niveles de edad (jóvenes y adultos) describieron y trataron de reconocer a un hombre y una mujer en sendas ruedas fotográficas de reconocimiento. Los resultados mostraron que los jóvenes policías, con escasa experiencia profesional, y los civiles jóvenes rindieron igual en las dos tareas; mientras que los policías de mayor edad y experiencia profesional mantuvieron su rendimiento en comparación con los civiles de mayor edad que aportaban menos rasgos descriptivos y rindieron peor que los civiles jóvenes en las tareas de reconocimiento. Las estrategias de codificación mixtas, holísticas y por rasgos, en los policías de más experiencia podría servir para minimizar el efecto negativo de la edad sobre la identificación de personas.[ABSTRACT] The present study analyzed the effect of experience and age on the ability to describe and recognize people. Two groups of subjects with different levels of experience on recognition and description tasks (civilians and policemen) and two levels of age (younger and older) described and tried to recognize a man and a woman in two identification trials. Results showed that young policemen, with little professional experience, and young civilians performed equally in the two tasks, while the old experienced policemen maintained their performance compared to older civilians which contributing less descriptive features and performed worse than young civilians in recognition task. The used of mixed coded strategies, holistic and by features, in the most experienced policemen, could serve to minimize the negative effect of age on the identification of persons

Evaluación de capacidades para testificar en víctimas con discapacidad intelectual

ResumenLas habilidades para testificar de las víctimas con discapacidad intelectual (DI) suelen ser consideradas de acuerdo con estereotipos más que con su realidad, teniendo en cuenta que se observa una gran heterogeneidad en este colectivo. Por ello es necesario un procedimiento que permita conocer específicamente las características cognitivas de cada víctima con DI con el fin último de adaptar los procedimientos policiales y judiciales a sus capacidades y evaluar adecuadamente la información que aportan en sus testimonios. Con este objetivo se desarrolló el protocolo de entrevista CAPALIST, que evalúa las capacidades cognitivas que intervendrían en la aportación de testimonio. En el presente trabajo se describe la herramienta y se aportan datos sobre su aplicación a cuatro víctimas reales de abuso sexual con DI. Los resultados muestran mínimas diferencias en los acuerdos interjueces. Se concluye que el CAPALIST podría ser de utilidad en la evaluación de las habilidades para testificar en víctimas con DI.AbstractThe ability to testify in victims with intellectual disabilities is commonly based on stereotypes, rather than on its reality–there is a big heterogeneity within this collective. This is the reason why there is a need for a procedure that allows us to specifically know the cognitive characteristics of ID victims with the aim to adapt the police and judicial procedures to their capacities and properly evaluate the information given in their testimonies. CAPALIST, an interview protocol, was developed with the goal of evaluating the cognitive capacities that would intervene in testimony. In this paper, this tool is described and specific data is given about its use with four victims of sexual abuse. The results show small differences in between-judges resolution. In conclusion, CAPALIST could be a useful tool in the evaluation of testimony in victims with intellectual disabilities

Effects of preparation on recalls of imagined and perceived events

Johnson and Raye (1981) proposed a model of a process to differentiate between self-generated and perceptual memories, which is based on the distinctive qualities of representations of both memories. Descriptions of self-generated memories are usually longer and have more references to cognitive operations and, in general, more idiosyncratic information. These descriptions of self-generated memories, also, have less sensorial and contextual details than the descriptions of perceptual memories. These differences have been also found between real memory descriptions and those generated by misleading information (Schooler et al., 1986, 1988), lies (Alonso-Quecuty, 1992) or self-suggested information based on previous knowledge (Diges, 1992). On the other hand, it has been investigated how several factors influence the differential features of both types of memory descriptions. Suengas (1991) point out five variables with an influence in reality monitoring process: age, information subject matter, delay, thinking or talking about memory contents, perceptive resemblance and the cutting down in the cognitive mechanisms. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of preparation on the characteristics of imagined and perceptual memory descriptions. Following recent research (Alonso-Quecuty, 1992; Suengas and Johnson, 1988) it was hypothesized that real memories of subjects in the preparation condition would contain more sensorial and contextual details and more internal characteristics (in terms of the Johnson and Raye, 1981, reality monitoring) than subjects in the no-preparation condition. Also, descriptions of subjects asked to prepare a report of an imagined event should contain more external characteristics than the imagined memories of subjects who do not receive instructions about preparing their reports. A 2x2 factorial design was used, which included the between-subjects manipulation of two variables: the origin of the memory (perceived vs. imagined) and the preparation of reports (prepared vs. not-prepared). And, the free recall measures included: accuracy variables (sensorial and contextual details and distortions) and qualitative variables (explanations, length of the narrative, changes in the narrative order, reference to cognitive processes, dubitative expressions, impossible information and spontaneous corrections). Half of the subjects were asked to remember a filmed traffic accident (27 secs. duration). The rest of the subjects were presented with verbal description of the accident and were asked to imagine it. Half of each group were instructed to prepare the reports before give it them; the other half were not instructed to do this. Then, the reports were typed and analysed by two independent trained judges in terms of the presence or absence of the quantitative and qualitative variables. The scoring sys-tem used to analyse the statements was developed and validated in previous studies (e.g., Diges et al., 1990). Previous analysis showed that imagined and perceptual descriptions cannot be directly compared because of the imagined instructions. Thus, the preparation effects on perceptual and on imagined descriptions were analysed separately. On the external memories, the results showed that preparation significantly increased the number of sensorial and contextual details (t(28)=1.6l8; p<.05) and dubitative expressions (t(28)=2.687; p<.01). This effect of preparation could have been caused not only by the information organization determined by the preparation process, but also by a greater effort to recall involved in this process. These results are in agreement with the findings of Alonzo-Quecuty (1992) who observed that delayed reports had more sensorial and contextual information and more idiosyncratic features. Our results also coincided with the obtained by Suengas and Johnson (1988) who found that delay (associated to thinking and talking about the stored information) did not affect the contextual information but influence the idiosyncratic information contained in the reports of real events. This effect was observed mainly when subjective and affective connotations were the main characteristics of them. In summary, when the reports of previously experienced events are prepared, these reports exhibit more internal characteristics (idiosyncratic information) and more sensorial and contextual details than when they are not prepared. With respect to descriptions of memories for imagined events the results showed that the effects of preparation on the number of sensorial and contextual details (t(32)= 1.867; p<.05) and explanations (t(32)= 1.688; p<.05) were significant. Prepared reports of an imagined event had less idiosyncratic information, in the sense that they had less explanations than the non-prepared ones. And also, subjects under the prepared conditions recalled more details than in the non-prepared condition, as it happened in the real memory case. These results are also in agreement with Alonso-Quecuty's (1992) findings. She found that the delayed false declarations had less idiosyncratic information and more sensorial and contextual details than the immediate ones. Thus, preparation provoked internal narratives become more external. How could we explain this preparation effect on imagined and real memories? When presented with the real events subjects perceived, coded, and stored the selective information about the events. When subjects were asked to prepare their memory descriptions they retrieved the memory traces and reconstructed the information. When they talked about the event they spoke not about the perceived event but about the interpreted, coded, reorganised, stored, recalled and reconstructed event. This is the recall of a «trace» of memory (perhaps, it could be defined as a re-representation in terms of Johnson and Raye, 1981). As a result of this reconstructive process the memories of the external event acquire more internal characteristics because of a greater implication of cognitive pro-cesses. On the other hand, preparation produces an enrichment of the memories of the imagined events resulting in memory descriptions with more external characteristics (more sensorial and contextual details) and less internal ones. Here we have the recall about a memory trace of an internally experienced event. Finally, the significanes of these results for theoretical explanations about retrieval and discrimination processes is examined