Serial murder is a genre of crime that has received a great deal of media and academic attention, yet, serial murder committed by women has only begun to garner a portion of this attention within the last 15 years. This study examines the reliability of Kelleher and Kelleher's classification rubric, the only classification system developed for female serial murderers, as well as considering Hickey's classification of serial offenders by location. Other variables associated with homicide research have also been examined to determine their roles in both these crimes and classifying offenders. The current research will demonstrate that offender motivation is not an ideal basis for the classification of female serial murderers, who tend to defy simple or singular classification within existing typologies. The other variables analysed indicate that victim–offender relationship and victim approach are important to understanding these female offenders and their crimes, as well as the possible development of more accurate classification systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

During the course of a criminal investigation witness vetting, a detective's process of determining the credibility and weight of witness information, can lead to errors in an investigation that can go virtually unchallenged. Witness confidence, opportunity to view, and type of information proffered were examined in relation to detective inferences about witness reliability, accuracy, and probable cause to arrest. Experiment 1 involved 39 sworn law enforcement officers, and experiment 2 involved 43 sworn law enforcement officers and 86 mock detectives. Participants viewed a digital recording depicting a witness describing a gas station robbery (Experiment 1) or a campus mugging (Experiment 2). Witness confidence and detectives' inferences about culprit information influenced the vetting process and lent credibility to a confident witness whose accuracy was objectively unknown. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that sworn law enforcement are comparable with untrained observers in their use of social inference cues (i.e. confidence) in determining witness credibility; however, social inference can be assuaged by the rational, rule-governed, decision framework established for witness vetting. Social inference processes inherent in the detective-witness dyad is influenced by legal procedures in vetting witness information. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In recent years, detective competence and particularly investigative decision making have been subject to serious criticism and a number of high-profile reviews. Concerns around investigative competence do not just focus around decisions made on the ground but police attitudes to certain crimes. This paper examines police decision making in the context of missing people and sexual violence and identifies challenges in the development of investigative competence in the context of police budget cuts and substantial reform. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

There has been much debate about the use of certain public order policing tactics in Britain in response to the disorder seen in recent years. This paper explored the use of an indiscriminate public order tactic that has received comparatively less attention, that of crowd dispersal techniques. More specifically, the use of police charges (either by mounted police or on foot) and subsequent collective flight was investigated. An interview study was conducted with 20 participants who experienced such charges at protests in English cities. Thematic analysis of the data found that although participants reported fear and initial crowd scattering, these instinctive responses were quickly replaced by more socialised reactions, such as co-operation with others and an increased sense of collective unity. Furthermore, participants reported greater determination to resist what were considered as illegitimate attacks by the police. This increased collective unity was explained in terms of a shared sense of experience that was similar to that found in previous crowd behaviour research. It was concluded that rather than fragmenting crowds, the tactic of crowd dispersal can unite previously heterogeneous groups to resist further police charges and so may be counter-productive as a public order policing strategy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An interview study explored criminal detectives' views of critical factors related to decision making in homicide investigations. Experienced homicide investigators in Norway (n = 15) and the UK (n = 20) were asked to identify decisional ‘tipping points’—decisions that put detectives in a mindset focused on verifying the guilt of a suspect—and situational or individual factors that relate to these decisions. Two types of decisions were identified as typical and potentially critical tipping points: (1) decisions to name, arrest, or charge a suspect, and (2) decisions on main strategies and lines of inquiry in the case. Moreover, 10 individual factors (e.g. experience) and 14 situational factors (e.g. information availability) were reported as related to the likelihood of a mindset shift, most of which correspond well with findings in previous decision-making research. The consensus between British and Norwegian detectives was very high, and the findings indicate that experienced detectives are aware of many of the risk factors and obstacles to optimal decision making that exist in criminal investigations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The paper introduces the basic logic and assumptions underlying the most widespread polygraph technique, the Comparison Question Test. It then indicates that two of these assumptions encounter difficulties in cases involving victims of violence, which could increase the danger of error on the test. To handle this problem, it is required to take a few decisions related to specific professional procedures as well as to implement a special policy. Another line of problems stems from ethical considerations. The main point in this respect is that being polygraphed is quite an unpleasant experience. This is more so when the examinee is an authentic victim of violence whose complaint is under investigation. Polygraphing such a person adds to the suffering of the victim. The ethical question becomes a practical one, namely how to determine the situations in which polygraph examination on an alleged victim is, nevertheless, justifiable and differentiate them from other situations. A conceptual cost–benefit analysis is presented in this regard, and the need for taking specific decisions by the polygraph examiner, the criminal investigator, and the commanding officer, when facing the option of using the polygraph for investigating complaints about violence, is pointed out, together with a recommended policy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Little is known about the decision-making processes of homicide detectives; this study is a first step towards understanding the inferential processes they engage in during the initial stages of an investigation. A card sorting exercise consisting of 20 crime scene photographs showing homicide victims in situ was designed to examine how detectives categorise and conceptualise homicide crime scenes. Forty homicide detectives were asked to ‘think aloud’ whilst categorising the crime scenes. Qualitative content analysis of the ‘think aloud’ accounts revealed detectives' intuitive ability to automatically make detailed inferences regarding the circumstances surrounding each homicide on the basis of available crime scene information (victim's sex, location, and method of death). A cycle of cognition was evident whereby detectives drew upon the contextual information available to generate hypotheses regarding homicide type (domestic, male brawl, and crime-related) and derive inferences about victim–offender relationship, offender behaviour, motive, and whether the offence was spontaneous or planned. The detectives made 594 inferences of which 67% (N = 398) were accurate. The sorting exercise proved to be ecologically valid, with detectives reporting that they assessed and interpreted the homicide crime scenes, as they would in an actual investigation. The implications for police training and ‘offender profiling’ research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Police decision making in rape cases is poorly understood, despite high levels of attrition for rape and sexual assault cases, with up to 75% lost at the investigation stage. A qualitative analysis was undertaken of the comments of 22 British detectives as they conducted a ‘virtual investigation’ of an allegation of attempted rape of an adult woman. Material was ‘drip fed’ to detectives in a simulation exercise, and officers were asked to express their thoughts as they processed each document in the ‘investigation’ to evaluate detective decision making. It was anticipated that this method would shed light both on the dynamic nature of detectives' thinking during an investigation and on variations in perception of the same material by different officers. It was found that the alleged rape victim was perceived primarily as a source of information to progress enquiries, with her welfare needs taking second place. Although some police officers revealed sceptical attitudes to rape allegations, the investigative approach that all took was professional and pragmatic, ‘investigating’ the report as true and focusing on corroborating the victim's account. The balance between the needs of the victim and the needs of the investigation is discussed, with implications for rape survivor support. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rapport often appears in training and discussions regarding investigative interviewing, yet very little empirical research has examined rapport systematically in law enforcement or intelligence settings. Using a model of rapport developed from therapeutic settings, we address in this paper the components of rapport and their relevance to investigative interviewing. Rapport can play a facilitating role in supporting the goals of an investigative interview, to include developing a working alliance between interviewer and source, exercising social influence, and educing information from a source. A better understanding of how rapport develops in these contexts and its impact on interview outcomes would enhance the effectiveness of investigative interviewing. Research on rapport in the investigative interview would enhance our understanding of the interpersonal dynamics in these situations. We identify several gaps that such research should address, including the relationship between rapport and social influence and the development of rapport in multiparty interactions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When relying on crime scene behaviours to link serial crimes, linking accuracy may be influenced by the measure used to assess across-crime similarity and the types of behaviours included in the analysis. To examine these issues, the present study compared the level of linking accuracy achieved by using the simple matching index (S) to that of the commonly used Jaccard's coefficient (J) across themes of arson behaviour. The data consisted of 42 crime scene behaviours, separated into three behavioural themes, which were exhibited by 37 offenders across 114 solved arsons. The results of logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analysis indicate that, with the exception of one theme where S was more effective than J at discriminating between linked and unlinked crimes, no significant differences emerged between the two similarity measures. In addition, our results suggest that thematically unrelated behaviours can be used to link crimes with the same degree of accuracy as thematically related behaviours, potentially calling into the question the importance of theme-based approaches to behavioural linkage analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The empirical support for linkage analysis is steadily increasing, but the question remains as to what method of linking is the most effective. We compared a more theory-based, dimensional behavioural approach with a rather pragmatic, multivariate behavioural approach with regard to their accuracy in linking serial sexual assaults in a UK sample of serial sexual assaults (n = 90) and one-off sexual assaults (n = 129). Their respective linkage accuracy was assessed by (1) using seven dimensions derived by non-parametric Mokken scale analysis (MSA) as predictors in discriminant function analysis (DFA) and (2) 46 crime scene characteristics simultaneously in a naive Bayesian classifier (NBC). The dimensional scales predicted 28.9% of the series correctly, whereas the NBC correctly identified 34.5% of the series. However, a subsequent inclusion of non-serial offences in the target group decreased the amount of correct links in the dimensional approach (MSA–DFA: 8.9%; NBC: 32.2%). Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used as a more objective comparison of the two methods under both conditions, confirming that each achieved good accuracies (AUCs = .74–.89), but the NBC performed significantly better than the dimensional approach. The consequences for the practical implementation in behavioural case linkage are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The major aim was to examine the effect of the perpetrator's tone of voice and time delay on voice recognition. In addition, the effect of two types of voice description interviews intended to strengthen voice encoding was tested. Both 11- to 13-year-olds (n = 160) and adults (n = 148) heard an unfamiliar voice for 40 s. The perpetrator either spoke in a normal tone at encoding and in the lineup (congruent), or in an angry tone at encoding and a normal tone in the lineup (incongruent). Witnesses were then interviewed about the voice with global questions or by rating voice characteristics. Half of the witnesses were presented with a lineup shortly after the interview (immediate) and the others after 2 weeks (delayed). Children tested immediately made significantly more correct identifications. This was not the case for adults. (In)congruency between tone of voice and interview type did not significantly affect voice recognition. Witnesses in the congruent–immediate condition performed the best. However, only 25% of the children and 19% of the adults made correct identifications. Poor identification accuracy and the fact that the majority of witnesses believed they would recognise the voice later are reasons for treating voice identification evidence with great caution. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The current study seeks to advance the faceted multidimensional scaling (termed FMDS) procedure used in much of the investigative psychology research. To this end, recent research on street robbery by Goodwill and colleagues will be utilised to illustrate the effectiveness of a facet scale method for offender profiling. Four FMDS themes of street robbery (Con, Blitz, Confrontation and Snatch) were revealed by the crossing of two underlying axial facets: the offenders' level of violence and interaction with the victim. The facet scale method, utilising offenders' axial facet scores, was compared to previous count, proportional and centroid classification methods in the prediction of offender criminal histories. Utilising logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses, the axial facet scale method was found to significantly outperform the qualitatively based dominant theme classification methods that typically employ angular and radial facets for FMDS interpretation. Implications for the use of axial facet scales within FMDS analysis for offender profiling research are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In an empirical study of 179 white-collar criminals, we identify a subset of 28 who may be called having a ‘heroic’ status, having received official recognition for contributions to society and fame prior to their being exposed and convicted as white-collar criminals. We argue that these people are close to the classical picture of the white-collar criminal, which implies that they are more likely not to be suspected of crimes. They are older, richer, and more powerful than the regular criminals. They also commit crimes assuming the roles of leaders in the crime. Most importantly, it seems as if the combination of heroic status and executive positions induces people to commit large-scale opportunistic crimes late in their lives. The apparent onset of criminal behaviour late in life may be triggered by latent narcissistic traits. Our study contributes to a differentiated view on the profile of white-collar criminals and derailed leadership. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To examine whether exposing people to false events using instructions taken from the cognitive interview creates false beliefs and false memories, we conducted an experiment where participants took part in two sessions. First, they rated how confident they were that they had experienced certain childhood events and their memories of those events; they also rated how plausible they thought the events were. Second, 2 weeks later, participants were exposed to two of three false target events: one high, one moderate, and one low plausibility. For the first event, participants were instructed to either report everything or mentally reinstate the event context. For the second event, participants received both instructions. The third event was the control event about which participants received no instructions. Finally, participants rated their confidence and memories the second time. The results showed that the cognitive interview instructions had little to no effect on the development of false beliefs and false memories. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The present experimental study adds to the emerging line of psycholegal research focusing on true and false intentions. It is the first to examine mock suspects' (N = 120) counter-interrogation strategies in investigative interviews in which they anticipate questions on their intentions. As planning is an inherent part of many intentions, mock suspects were, in addition to questions on their intentions, asked a set of questions that pertained to the planning phase in which they formed their intentions. Besides ratings of the anticipation and difficulty of the questions, participants were asked to provide their principal strategy for being perceived as truthful. Both truth tellers and liars perceived the questions on the planning phase as significantly more unanticipated than the questions on their intentions. Furthermore, liars perceived the questions on the planning phase as more difficult to answer than did truth tellers. Liars and truth tellers differed with respect to their principal strategy employed for being perceived as truthful. Liars' most commonly used strategy was to stick to the cover story, whereas truth tellers' most common strategy was to be honest. The results are discussed in relation to the unanticipated questions approach and psychological concepts such as the illusion of transparency. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.