Person Perception Aspects of Judgments of Truthfulness in Public Appeals

Although detection of deception accuracy rate has been researched extensively, the person perception components that are the basis for these judgments remain unclear. To explore this, 30 academics' person perceptions, as well as truthfulness judgment, of the individual presenting a televised appeal were measured using a 14-item scale. Twelve appeals (6 genuine and 6 false) for information regarding the whereabouts of a missing relative, or for information to apprehend the person who murdered their relative, were used. The person perception scale consisted of (1) global, abstract judgments (open, deceptive, genuine, trustworthy, and emotional) and (2) behavioural indices (facial pleasantness, facial animation, arousal, tension, involvement, verbal; consistency, plausibility and directness, and vocal certainty). Multiple regression identified person perceptions of openness, (non)deceptiveness, genuineness, trustworthiness, and verbal plausibility as significant predictors of truthfulness judgments. Future research should now explore the relationship of these person perception components of truth judgments to the accuracy

Towards a measure of kindness: An Exploration of a Neglected Interpersonal Trait

Although a growing number of studies indicate the psychological benefits of Kindness no clear definition or distinct measure of Kindness is available. A framework for considering kindness was therefore developed and a 40 item self-report questionnaire (the kindness measure) produced from it. This was completed by a sample of 165 people differing in age, gender and occupation. Responses varied enough to indicate the measure is discriminating between people. Multivariate analysis indicated three distinct aspects of kindness: Benign Tolerance (BT), Empathetic Responsivity (ER), and Principled Proaction (PP). Central to these, a more fundamental form of Kindness was also identified, that we propose to call Core Kindness (CK), that contrasts with Psychopathy, as an important aspect of personality. Differences between men and women and younger and older people lend external validity to the kindness scales and bode well for future more detailed studies. Directions for future research are proposed

Offenders' Crime Narratives across Different Types of Crimes

The current study explores the roles offenders see themselves playing during an offence and their relationship to different crime types. One hundred and twenty incarcerated offenders indicated the narrative roles they acted out whilst committing a specific crime they remembered well. The data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and four themes were identified: Hero, Professional, Revenger and Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for Narrative Offence Roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). Further analysis showed that different subsets of crimes were more like to be associated with different narrative offence roles. Hero and Professional were found to be associated with property offences (theft, burglary and shoplifting), drug offences and robbery and Revenger and Victim were found to be associated with violence, sexual offences and murder. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of offenders' narrative roles as well as practical implications are discussed

Criminal narrative experience: relating emotions to offence narrative roles during crime commission

A neglected area of research within criminality has been that of the experience of the offence for the offender. The present study investigates the emotions and narrative roles that are experienced by an offender while committing a broad range of crimes and proposes a model of Criminal Narrative Experience (CNE). Hypotheses were derived from the Circumplex of Emotions (Russell, 1997), Frye (1957), Narrative Theory (McAdams, 1988) and its link with Investigative Psychology (Canter, 1994). The analysis was based on 120 cases. Convicted for a variety of crimes, incarcerated criminals were interviewed and the data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA). Four themes of Criminal Narrative Experience (CNE) were identified: Elated Hero, Calm Professional, Distressed Revenger and Depressed Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for Narrative Offence Roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of the Criminal Narrative Experience (CNE) as well as practical implications are discussed

Expressive and Instrumental Offending: Reconciling the Paradox of Specialisation and Versatility

Although previous research into specialisation has been dominated by the debate over the existence of specialisation versus versatility, it is suggested that research needs to move beyond the restrictions of this dispute. The current study explores the criminal careers of 200 offenders based on their criminal records, obtained from a police database in the North West of England, aiming to understand the patterns and nature of specialisation by determining the presence of differentiation within their general offending behaviours and examining whether the framework of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles can account for any specialised tendencies that emerge. Fifty-eight offences were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis. Results revealed that a model of criminal differentiation could be identified and that any specialisation is represented in terms of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles

A model of client-related violence against female street sex workers.

Although a plethora of studies provide evidence of the extent and severity of violence that street workers experience from clients, there is little consensus across the explanations that have been advanced to account for this. To explore this, the present study examines in detail the nature of the attacks suffered by 65 street-workers. A Multidimensional Scaling analysis, (Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I)) of 17 violent behaviours derived from a content analysis of interviews with street-workers drew attention to three distinct forms of attack. These could be interpreted in terms of Canter's (1994) Victim Role modes that have been the basis for differentiating offending styles in other violent interpersonal offences. The three Victim as Object, Victim as Vehicle and Victim as Person modes identified are consistent with different theoretical explanations for the attacks, providing a framework for integrating the diverse aetiological perspectives on violence against street sex- workers

Offenders' crime narratives as revealed by the narrative roles questionnaire

The study of narrative processes as part of the immediate factors that shape criminal action is limited by the lack of a methodology for differentiating the narrative themes that characterise specific crime events. The current study explores how the roles offenders see themselves as playing during an offence encapsulate their underlying crime narratives and thus provide the basis for a quantitative methodology. To test this possibility, a 33-item Narrative Roles Questionnaire (NRQ) was developed from intensive interviews with offenders about their experience of committing a recent offence. A multidimensional analysis of the NRQ completed by 71 convicted offenders revealed life narrative themes similar to those identified in fiction by Frye and with noncriminals by McAdams, labelled The Professional, Victim, Hero, and Revenger offence roles. The NRQ thus is a first step in opening up the possibility of empirical studies of the narrative aetiological perspective in criminology