This book challenges the conventional view that disadvantage causes crime because it motivates people to offend. It argues that disadvantage causes crime because it disrupts the parenting process. The theory put forward in the book maintains that it takes a long time for disadvantage to increase the level of crime in a neighborhood. However, once the level of economic and social stress in a neighborhood reaches a critical level, it can set off an epidemic of juvenile offending.

While previous research explored much of what we know about the victim, a deeper explanation of the personality of the predator has been made possible through an intense review of her voices, which alter depending on how she uses self-reference. The case study covers the experiences of a commercial airline pilot, Robert, who was the victim of an elaborate scheme, which began when home use of the internet was still a new technology. Robert's experiences with Connie were made very complex due to her use of cyber-identities that helped create a facade of involvement of others. After conducting his own multi-year investigation without the assistance of law enforcement, Robert determined that Connie was the mastermind behind the fraud scheme. This expanded work includes a detailed presentation of Connie's inner personality as told through her own voices, divergent depending on purpose. The researcher interprets Connie's voices, but the reader is encouraged to consider alternative explanations.

Before giving evidence, witnesses have to swear to tell ’the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’. Given current knowledge about human perception and memory, it is unlikely that witnesses will be able to keep this promise. Many professionals within the criminal justice and legal system are involved in recording and assessing eyewitness testimony, sometimes with unrealistic expectations of the ability of eyewitnesses to provide accurate and objective testimony: they, and students of psychology, law and criminology, will welcome this up-to-date, accessible survey of the concepts and research which now inform our knowledge of this field. Peter Ainsworth, an experienced lecturer and researcher, has written this book in a style suitable for non-specialists, and focuses on how and why witnesses make mistakes, how psychologists can help, and how legal procedures can be improved (for instance, by reducing the pressure on witnesses to guess). The text is authoritative, backed by references to key research, and well illustrated by examples of how psychology and law are interlinked in the study of eyewitness behaviour.

"From some books you take new knowledge. Some books consolidate knowledge by clear writing. Occasionally, as in this book, you get both. Peter Ainsworth has done his readers a favour by presenting complex material simply yet succinctly. I hope the book enjoys the wide professional readership which it merits." Ken Pease, OBE, Professor of Criminology, University of Huddersfield, UK

Grendon Prison opened in 1962, originally intended to investigate and treat prisoners whose crimes had recognisable psychiatric causes. Thirty years later, its radical ideas of the rehabilitation of prisoners through psychological or psychotherapeutic treatment have been embraced by the Woolf Report, which clearly committed the Prison Service to a rehabilitation ambition. Based on interviews with prisoners and prison staff, this new study of a `model' prison will be of interest to criminologists, penologists, and prison staff everywhere.

Persistent thieves--criminals who resume committing crimes of burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, and ordinary theft despite previous attempts to stop--are a main focal point of American criminology and criminal justice. Cast as "career criminals," they are also one of the principal targets of the "war on crime" that American governments have waged for more than two decades.Building on a theoretical interpretation of crime as "choice, " crime-control policies and programs justified by notions of deterrence and incapacitation have proliferated. America's urban police departments now have "repeat offender units," and many of the new state sentencing codes mandate lengthy sentences for defendants with previous convictions."Great Pretenders" is based on the author's original studies and previously published research and on more than fifty autobiographies of persistent thieves. Shover uses a crime-as-choice framework and a life-course perspective to make sense of important decisions and changes in the lives of persistent thieves. He shows how the working-class origins of most persistent thieves produce both low legitimate and low criminal aspirations, even as those origins leave them ill equipped to exploit comparatively safe, lucrative, and newer forms of criminal opportunity.In this book Shover describes how many persistent thieves and hustlers identify with crime and pursue a lifestyle of "life as party" in which their choices alternately are made in contexts of drug-using hedonism or desperation. Their estimates of the likely payoffs from crime are severely distorted, and most give little thought to possible arrest. As they get older, however, persistent thieves make qualitative changes in the crimes they commit, and many eventually stop committing crimes altogether.The author highlights some unintended consequences of harsh crime control measures and raises critical questions about the one-size-fits-all approach to crime of recent decades.

Vor Gericht stellt sich haufig die Frage, ob man Zeugenaussagen Glauben schenken kann. Bei der Begutachtung kindlicher Zeugen soll die merkmalsorientierte Inhaltsanalyse zur Beantwortung dieser Frage beitragen. Nach einer kritischen Wurdigung des Verfahrens und bisheriger empirischer UEberprufungen weist die Autorin auf moegliche Schwachstellen hin und entwickelt Verbesserungsvorschlage. In einer methodisch sehr aufwendigen Simulationsstudie wird u.a. untersucht, inwieweit das Verfahren zur Wahrheitsfindung beitragen kann, wenn Falschaussagende nicht frei phantasieren, sondern auf ahnliche Erfahrungen zuruckgreifen koennen. Die Befunde stutzen die Brauchbarkeit der Methodik, verweisen jedoch auf Grenzen ihrer Anwendbarkeit und legen eine Modifizierung des traditionellen Merkmalssystems nahe.

Forensic psychiatry and psychology involve specialized practice with unique patients, including children, the incarcerated, and involuntary clients, presenting practitioners with specific ethics challenges. In this volume, Ezra E. H. Griffith offers a selection of engaging essays that guide practicing forensic specialists through particular situations that often result in ethics dilemmas. In chapters covering topics such as forensic practice and critical feminist theory, neuroethics in court, work with asylum applicants, and ethics problems presented by the internet, the contributors demonstrate methods to help practitioners resolve problems that they are likely to encounter in forensic practice. The concentrated focus on thinking through ethics quandaries encourages forensic practitioners to reflect regularly on the ethics dimensions of their work and provides them with the tools to create ethics-based solutions that are transparent and understandable and best serve their clients. This essential book provides a roadmap for specialists in these evolving fields to recognize dilemmas through reflection and consideration, thoughtfully articulate the problems, and create solutions.

Confessions are generally motivated by a desire to reduce fear and minimize consequences. Sometimes "hard techniques" designed to intimidate or threaten a person may result in an unreliable or fabricated confession. Providing a person with justification for his/her guilty wrongdoing is the key to getting a confession. The paradigm shift in gaining intelligence involves motivating the person to provide information by developing a relationship, bond or attachment with the interviewer. The use of "soft techniques" can often yield more information. In his book "Liar: The Art of Detecting Deception and Eliciting Responses," Mr. McManus offers readers tried and true methods of effective interrogation techniques. From the early history of deception through modern deception practices, Mr. McManus provides a solid foundation on which the reader can build his/her effective deception detection skills. A must read for those in law enforcement, intelligence and security communities.

When universities began in the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IX described them as "wisdom's special workshop." He could not have foreseen how far these institutions would travel and develop. Tracing the eight-hundred-year evolution of the elite research university from its roots in medieval Europe to its remarkable incarnation today, Wisdom's Workshop places this durable institution in sweeping historical perspective. In particular, James Axtell focuses on the ways that the best American universities took on Continental influences, developing into the finest expressions of the modern university and enviable models for kindred institutions worldwide. Despite hand-wringing reports to the contrary, the venerable university continues to renew itself, becoming ever more indispensable to society in the United States and beyond. Born in Europe, the university did not mature in America until the late nineteenth century. Once its heirs proliferated from coast to coast, their national role expanded greatly during World War II and the Cold War. Axtell links the legacies of European universities and Tudor-Stuart Oxbridge to nine colonial and hundreds of pre-Civil War colleges, and delves into how U.S. universities were shaped by Americans who studied in German universities and adapted their discoveries to domestic conditions and goals. The graduate school, the PhD, and the research imperative became and remain the hallmarks of the American university system and higher education institutions around the globe. A rich exploration of the historical lineage of today's research universities, Wisdom's Workshop explains the reasons for their ascendancy in America and their continued international preeminence.

With the world's prison population continuing to grow and the number of inpatient beds in psychiatric hospitals on the rise, establishing valid and reliable methods of identifying individuals who will commit violent acts is an important global health and public safety issue. One approach to identifying future offenders is through the use of risk assessment-unstructured and structured methods of predicting the likelihood of antisocial behavior. Although much has been written on the performance of risk assessment in research settings, little is known about current standards of practice and relevant public policy across the globe. International Perspectives on Violence Risk Assessment includes chapters by leading risk assessment scholars in more than 15 countries and explores the topic from a truly international outlook. Using findings from the seminal International Risk Survey (IRiS), the largest qualitative study in the history of the field, current assessment, management, and monitoring practices on six continents are explored. Authors identify and describe the most commonly used risk assessment tools, examine risk communication preferences, and provide recommendations for mental health practitioners, criminal justice professionals, and legal professionals. Finally, authors review the seminal research studies, current practice guidelines, and relevant legal statutes of their jurisdictions. This volume serves as an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in this rapidly evolving field.

The question of 'why' and 'how' certain individuals are drawn towards behaving in a way that contravenes the 'Law of the Land' is not an easy one to address. Researchers from various different fields have nevertheless attempted to develop theoretical explanations for the existence of different types of crime and why some individuals commit such acts. Crime and Criminality draws on criminology, sociology, psychology and neuroscience to offer a balanced perspective of crime, the criminal and criminality. Coverage includes: a comprehensive discussion of theoretical approaches to criminal behaviour, including biological, social and 'rational choice' approaches; an analysis of legal and social definitions of crime and how these definitions influence the way specific behaviours are labelled as criminal; an examination of different types of crime and criminals, from delinquents to 'psychopaths' and sex offenders; an exploration of different ways in which crime is predicted, including risk assessment and offender profiling and an overview of investigative techniques. Addressing a broad range of topics and offering a synthesis of competing theoretical explanations of criminality, this book is essential reading for students taking courses in criminology, criminal psychology, criminal behaviour, forensic psychology and psychological criminology.

'This book's excellent discussion of the theories and concepts involved in profiling terrorists, including those who are incarcerated, is a major contribution to the academic discipline on these issues.'Perspectives on TerrorismTerrorist Minds: From Social-Psychological Profiling to Assessing the Risk explores the process of terrorist behavioural analysis, from the social-psychological profiling of terrorists to the development of risk assessment tools. Most of the research for this book was conducted in cooperation with the Intelligence Department of the Israeli Prison Service via qualitative, in-depth interviews with leaders of terrorist organisations in Israeli prisons. Once social-psychological profiles were established, terrorist risk assessment tools were developed to allow for better observation and practical management of associated problems.This book fills the gaps in existing literature on the psychology of imprisoned terrorist group leaders through the analysis of individuals' social, professional and personal lives, as well as their attitudes and perceptions. The book also covers the practical aspects of risk assessment based on social-psychological profiling, and discusses relevant tools that have been developed in recent years. It aims to better inform counter-terrorism initiatives and policymaking, as well as improve methods of communication, counter-terrorism, and conflict resolution.

In Madelein Rust se sewende misdaadroman veg ’n forensiese sielkundige teen ’n demoon-uitdrywer maar ook teen haar eie demone. Sy word van ’n las verlig maar nie sonder dat sy verloor wat vir haar dierbaar was nie.

Erfurt, Columbine, Emsdetten - diese Orte sind zum Inbegriff fur "School Shootings," also Amoklaufe beziehungsweise schwere Gewalttaten durch Jugendliche an Schulen geworden. Was haben diese Gewalttaten gemeinsam? Wer sind die Tater? Welche Rolle spielen die Medien und das gesellschaftliche Umfeld? Wie entwickeln die Tater ihre todlichen Phantasien? Frank J. Robertz und Ruben Wickenhauser vom Berliner Institut fur Gewaltpravention und angewandte Kriminologie (IGaK) tragen in diesem anwendungsorientierten Fachbuch zum Thema die unterschiedlichen Aspekte anhand bekannter Falle zusammen: Praventionsmoglichkeiten, Einschatzung von Bedrohungen, Krisenintervention, Umgang mit traumatisierten Schulgemeinschaften und auffalligen Jugendlichen, Hilfestellungen fur Lehrer, Polizisten und Eltern. Ziel ist stets die realistische Gefahreneinschatzung und -vorbeugung. Inklusive Arbeitsmaterialien fur Schulpsychologen, Krisenteams und Lehrerkollegien mit Checklisten fur die Vorbereitung des Ernstfalls.

American Evil deals with the 'sordid' world of serial killers, their calculating methods and distorted thinking, based around the author's ground-breaking work as a prison psychologist, government advisor and consultant to three TV series including Voice of a Serial Killer. The book describes how the author was 'so profoundly moved' by his inescapable conclusions about how serial killers are 'made' that he was compelled to set out his findings. Bemoaning the serial killer 'growth industry', 'unhealthy interest' and ill-informed comment he sets the record straight. Serial killers are made not born. But his central polemic is that serial killers are one of several malign human by-products of a dysfunctional modern permissive society, overwhelmingly American, brought about by modern-day culture in the USA, lax moral standards as also reflected in other countries to the extent that they pursue a comparable way of life. From the Introduction: 'The simple fact upon which much of my argument is based is that the USA has only 4.25% of the world's population yet over two-thirds of all the world's known serial killers to date. I believe this is a direct result of the environment in which they are raised.'

The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders reviews and advances this innovative and increasingly popular scheme for diagnosing and evaluating personality disorders. The authors identify the multiple clinical, theoretical, and research paradigms that co-exist in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) and show how the model can aid the practicing mental health professional in evaluating and treating patients as well as its importance in stimulating research and theoretical understanding of this domain. This work explores and summarizes methods of personality assessment and psychiatric evaluation, research findings, and clinical applications of the AMPD, highlighting its usefulness to clinical teaching and supervision, forensic application, and current research. It is a go-to reference for experienced professionals and researchers, those who wish to learn this new diagnostic system, and for clinicians in training.

This is the story of the world’s biggest unprosecuted fraud. A fraud that in today’s terms amounts to R26 billion.

The cast is stellar: top financial institutions, leading bankers, a world where every other player is a lawyer, a world where Brett Kebble was king. This is a world of outright denial and selective amnesia, of complex financial transactions designed to confuse, obfuscate and hide the spoils. This is a world of dirty dealings across the upper strata of the socio-political system.

Barry Sergeant, hard-hitting, bestselling author of Brett Kebble: The Inside Story, now tackles the murky world of shady financial dealings, post the Kebble murder. A frightening world, where whistle-blowers have to watch their backs. A world where so many major players are involved to such an extent that none of them can afford the cost of the truth. This is a major work that relies on painstaking details and many years of preparation. It is ultimately about unravelling one of the world’s biggest cover-ups.

Economic sanctions are court-imposed financial obligations aimed at punishing offenders (fines), funding the government (costs/fees, forfeitures), and compensating victims (restitution). These sanctions have been at the forefront of criminal justice reform in the past few years, and major legal and policy developments concerning such sanctions are under way across the country. Economic Sanctions in Criminal Justice provides an in-depth overview on how economic sanctions are currently being used in the United States to address the multiple goals of criminal sentencing. Featuring 15 empirical studies conducted in Pennsylvania by author R. Barry Ruback, the book investigates the societal, legal, and psychological impacts of economic sanctions in sentencing and corrections, including punishment, reintegration into the community, and the treatment of crime victims. The book analyzes judges' and probation officers' decision-making when imposing and monitoring economic sanctions, and it examines how paying these financial obligations relates to offenders' recidivism. These analyses are tied to the issues of poverty and its intersection with race, including the disproportionate burden of sanctions placed on minority groups. Ending with opportunities for future research and alternatives to monetary sanctions, Economic Sanctions in Criminal Justice is a go-to resource for researchers and professionals in the fields of legal psychology, criminal justice, and law advocating for what is fair and effective for victims, offenders, and society.

The potential of crime prevention, security and community safety is constrained by implementation failure. This book presents a carefully-designed system of good practice, the 5Is, which handles the complexities of real world prevention, this aims to improve the performance of prevention, and advance process evaluation.

As statistical prediction becomes ubiquitous in many areas of psychology, a comprehensive guide to navigating these tools is needed, one that covers topics pertinent to those in psychology and the social sciences. Prediction Statistics for Psychological Assessment, by R. Karl Hanson, is the first book to teach students and practitioners the nuts and bolts of prediction statistics, while illustrating the utility of prediction and prediction tools in applied psychological practice. This valuable resource uses real-world examples, helpful explanations and practice exercises to support the use of prediction tools in psychological assessment. Actuarial risk assessment evaluators need to know how prediction tools work, how to evaluate them, and how to interpret their results in applied assessments. Written in a clear and accessible manner, this user-friendly book helps readers understand how to evaluate and interpret different kinds of prediction tools, appreciate the numeric information used in risk communication, and utilize prediction tools to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Memory and Sexual Misconduct: Psychological Research for Criminal Justice investigates the veracity of memories of sexual misconduct and the factors that may influence accurate recall, and fundamentally assesses whether psychological science can help the criminal justice system in determining which accusations are likely to be accurate, and which are not. In recent years, the public has been inundated with announcements of sexual assault allegations, in particular against public figures like politicians, businessmen, movie moguls, and professional athletes. Many of these accusations concern events that occurred several years prior to their announcements and trials. Drawing upon a compilation of real-life sexual assault cases and psychological science on recall and sexual trauma, this book provides an analysis of memory reports of sexual misconduct, including inappropriate comments, behaviors, harassment, and assault. It compares these memories with other types of memory, such as flashbulb memories, co-witness conformity memory, and autobiographical memory. Memory and Sexual Misconduct helps readers interpret the role of emotion, the level of detail, and the possible distinction between someone remembering a past event and believing the past event occurred. By providing a thorough evaluation of the likelihood that misconduct memories are accurate and investigating factors that affect this accuracy, Memory and Sexual Misconduct is an invaluable text to both the criminal justice system and the general public, particularly as sexual misconduct allegations of past events continue to come to light.

The Behavioral Science of Firearms focuses on applying behavioral science principles and knowledge to inform and improve firearm-related policy, practice, and research. The authors provide comprehensive coverage of relevant case law and legal statutes, as well as issues pertaining to violence, suicide, and gun safety. Additional topics include civilian firearm ownership suitability; considerations for relevant professions (such as the military, law enforcement, and corrections); self-care; and more. Concepts are presented via a best-practices model that promotes empirically-supported decision-making. Drawing on a range of arenas such as psychology, sociology, criminal justice, and law, The Behavioral Science of Firearms is an essential resource for a wide readership, including practitioners, institutional and law enforcement personnel, legislators, and academicians and students in fields such as psychology, criminal justice, and public health.