24/07/2019

POLICE INTERROGATION
2 ASPECTS
1. Process of Interrogation- Understood as any psychological interview or questioning
session with the perspective of eliciting a confession from a suspect. Interrogation is to
obtain a valuable information which can lead to a conviction (not always of the person
concerned but of someone else). Interrogation and confession are related notions.
Confessions are the most damaging piece of evidence that can be entered in a criminal
trial or a court of law against the person and thus confessions becomes an important area
of psycho legal study.
(The false confessions given by individuals might actually be at times believed to
be true by the person itself. So the person who has not committed the crime at times may
confess to committing that particular crime and at the time of giving the confession the
person might be believing that he has actually committed the crime when he has not
actually committed it.)
As far as interrogation or the process of interrogation is concerned there are multi-
faceted issues. Issues to do with specific procedures which are followed during the
interrogation like the conditions which are created at the time of interrogation to facilitate
a confession in an individual, the validity of the waiver to the rights which are given by
the suspects, the warnings given to the suspects (this has to do with the rights of the
suspects- right to remain silent, right to an attorney), the validity of the confession itself.
An underlying aspect, for which all of these conditions can be used and have implications
for is to do with the notion of Psychological Coercion (is abroad term and any technique
used in order to build a pressure on a suspect or in order to influence the responses of the
suspect specifically facilitating a confession on the part of suspect which are non-physical
in nature is qualified to be a part of psychological tactic and if it is extreme then it is
psychological coercion).
The notion of Physical Notion is widely accepted in the field of law. There are many
cases where courts have rejected evidence from an interrogation which have been
physically coercive. Confession through prolonged physical violence, through beatings or
the use of any physically coercive technique is considered to be an absolute no in the
field of law. Even western cases (prior to the 1950s) there are trend where the courts have
consistently rejected invalidated confessions which have been elicited by the use of
physical coercion. But the Psychological Coercion is a concept which has found
acknowledgement post the 1950s. Looking at the evolution of the acceptance of
psychological coercion, gradually there was an increased acceptance and then there was a
decline. So there is still acceptance but over a period of time the specific techniques
which the courts have used to limit the use of psychological coercion has declined over
time.

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 *The courts have now recognized the psychological tactics are inherent in the process
of interrogation but the extent to which they are used needs to be restricted in order to
ensure that they do not have manipulative impact on the responses of the suspect.
To what extent the psychological pressure building tactics are ok and when do
they qualify to be psychological coercion and they need to be stopped. Although
there is no single defining line but it’s still very fluid.

SAUL KASSIN (American Forensic Psychologist) in 1997 gave a list of 6 specific

categories, which according to him were qualified to be coerced confessions.
1. Use of Physical Abuse- specifically the use of grouped force and confession resulting
from it would essentially be a coerced confession.
The other 5 do have a physical element to it because a person is involved and there is
some amount of physical discomfort and have an underlying physical element to it but do not
qualify to the use of physical violence/abuse/force.
2. Any confession elicited out of prolonged isolation- Individual isolated for a very
long time and the response or confession given by the individual post that.
3. Prolonged deprivation of sleep and food- Individual who has not been allowed to
sleep for a long time and hasn’t been given food for a long time. It can be argued that
not giving food to an individual is a physiological aspect and not allowing a person to
sleep is again physical in nature to a certain extent but only so much and beyond that
sleep deprivation can have a psychological impact on the decision making of the
person as well.
4. Use of promises of leniency or immunity- Here there is manipulation through
promising leniency and thus the person ends up confessing falsely with the
expectation that he might be left and thus chooses to end up the interrogative process
by confessing falsely and is involuntary.
5. Use of threat of punishment or harm- Is clearly a psychological technique with no
underlying physical aspect and the interrogator is trying to obtain a certain kind of
response by using threats of harm.
These responses may or may not be true but either which ways these are involuntarily (individual
is promised something in response to a confession then it is involuntary because a manipulative
factor was used here) given. Had the confessions been made voluntarily then are admissible in
the court of law.
6. Barring exceptional circumstances without giving the warnings with regards to
the rights of the suspect- *Miranda Warnings. Miranda v Arizona- Miranda rights
speak of a few specific rights and is to do with informing the suspect of his rights
(highlighted in the case)- right to remain silent, telling the person that anything said
by him could be used against him, right to an attorney and if the person cannot
arrange for an attorney then the State would do it for the person.

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These verdicts specifically were put forth in context of recognition of psychological coercion and
the logic behind them was that an individual who is aware of certain basic rights and that he has
the right to remain silent and if cannot afford an attorney, shall be given legal assistance; the
knowledge of these rights will form a psychological protective measure where the person feels
relatively secured and safe.
In the 6 categories given by Kassin, the physical force dwindles towards the end. He said that
these are broad categories and are indicative rather than an exhaustive list. Also, psychological
coercion can go beyond these categories and thus only indicative.
From a legal standpoint, what is the acceptability of the notion of psychological coercion in
the legal set up and how have courts accepted and acknowledged the existence of
psychological coercion?
Prior to the 1950s in most cases where confessions have been involved there is an
acknowledgement of violence if excessive violence was used in those cases.

 BROWN V MISSISSIPPI (1936)

This case talks only of the use of physical abuse. The suspect was whipped for a prolonged
period of time and eventually resulted in the person confessing to a murder. The court rejected
the confession and stated that such a confession would be inadmissible in a court of law because
it has resulted from the use of physical coercion.
*Toward 1950s, there was a shift towards acknowledging psychological coercion as more
important than physical coercion.

 ASHCRAFT V TENNESSE (1944)

A landmark case from the perspective of psychology because it was the first time that a court
acknowledged the existence of psychological coercion and this term came into existence. Here in
this case there was a murder confession. The suspect was not allowed to sleep for 3 days and
thus sleep deprivation for 36 hours straight and the court acknowledged that any interrogative
technique which uses such kinds of psychologically coercive methods would not result in a
voluntary confession and would be an involuntary one which then would be inadmissible in a
court of law.
Both the cases resulted in convictions but the confessions were not the basis of conviction. There
is no particular law that prohibits the usage of psychological coercion but the courts do have
recognized this aspect.

 ESCABEDO V ILLINOIS (1964)

Important from the perspective- to get a more nuanced understanding of what the psychological
coercion is. Here a confession was obtained through the use of certain interrogative techniques.
Specifically two aspects that were highlighted in the case

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FIRST, the confession was obtained after the individual had repeatedly asked for a
lawyer/attorney, but was denied the request. (At this time the notion of Miranda Rights or the
notion that an individual must be appointed an attorney if he hasn’t waived the right, was not
acknowledged much).
SECOND, when an individual is emotionally upset it is likely to lead to inhibition of the
rationale appraisal/judgment/decision making of the person.
The court rejected the confession as inadmissible stating that the confession is involuntarily
obtained specifically because the person repeatedly asked for an attorney but was not provided
one. Also, the techniques of interrogation that were used were so psychologically coercive that
they resulted in emotionally upsetting the individual which in turn resulted in adversely affecting
the rationale judgment or decision making of the individual. The court particularly said that in
order to do away with injustice of such sort it shall be ensured that the individual is allowed the
presence of attorney at the time of interrogation. Such a presence is likely to give a sense of
psychological security to the individual and also psychological coercion can be avoided.
Any technique which has the potential of emotionally upsetting the individual will then be
qualified as a technique which uses psychological coercion because emotionality is likely to have
a negative impact on the reasonability of the person.
While studying ethics it was said that the presence of third party during interview is likely to
have an adverse effect on the process of interviewing. So is this right of an attorney in
contradiction to that? So, in the Estelle v Smith case the courts clearly mentioned that the
presence of an attorney is not required and if the person hasn’t waived the right to an attorney
then the attorney must be intimated about the interviewing but the presence is not mandatory in
this case.
Differentiating between Interviewing V Interrogation
THE REID METHOD OF INTERROGATION- This method is followed in the US and is also
critiqued. Begins with a calm phase where purpose is information gathering and once enough
information is collected to accuse the person then the focus shifts from an investigative focus to
an accusatory focus. It differentiates between the 2 phases of the interrogation-
1st Stage- Investigative Interviewing- The focus of the stage is simply information gathering with
respect to the case. The interviewer in congenial towards the interviewee and a warm
environment is maintained. The aim is to persuade the interviewee to give relevant information
that could possibly lead to accusation. Focus here is information gathering.
2nd Stage- Interrogation- Accusatory in nature. Focus here is to accuse the individual. The
interrogator in this stage is more pitted against the suspect. A high stress environment is
maintained and the aim is to obtain a confession.
Essentially in this case the court highlighted the existence of 2 different kinds of interviewing
techniques- Investigative v Interrogative. And highlighted that it is okay to not allow the attorney
to be present physically when the interviewing is done with the focus of gathering information.

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But once the focus of the interviewing shifts from investigative to accusatory one then the
attorney should be allowed to be present physically and is essential from the perspective of
preventing any kind of psychological coercion or misuse of any psychological tactics. One of the
underlying reasons- the presence of an attorney will itself guarantee some kind of psychological
security to the suspect who is being interrogated and attorney oversees that psychological
pressure is not built.

 MIRANDA V ARIZONA (1966)

The court in this case specifically came up with rights of the suspect during the interrogation and
the warnings to be given to the suspect prior the interrogation. The court acknowledged that
psychological pressure tactics are used explicitly during interrogative processes and these tactics
can have a forceful impact on the responses of the suspect and resulting in manipulation. The
courts also stated that- psychological coercion is actually more widely used then physical
coercion. Physical coercion is used in order to ensure psychological coercion.
Courts stated-‘The blood of the suspect is not the hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisition’
meaning only if the individual is physically abused does not imply that it would result in an
unconstitutional confession. Even without blood/physical abuse the confession can be
unconstitutional if it is psychologically abused.
In this context the court said that there should be certain rights of the suspect and the person
before beginning with the interrogation the suspect shall be informed of the existence of these
rights and any confession taken without informing of such rights or without the person
voluntarily signing the waiver of these rights would be inadmissible in the court.
4 RIGHTS GIVEN IN THE CASE-
1. Right to remain silent
2. A warning which comes along with the right to remain silent that anything said by
the suspect can be used against him.
3. Right to an attorney
4. Right to get a state appointed attorney (if the person cannot afford an attorney).
These rights were brought in as a safeguard against psychological coercion and would give a
sense of security and would go on to alleviate to certain extent the psychological coercion which
would take place during the interrogative process.
Looking at the evolution of acceptance of psychological coercion in the field of law, initially
there was a strong position that was taken by courts when the acknowledged the existence of
psychological coercion but gradually it dwindled off and faded away. So initially not only in the
case of direct interrogation but also in a functional equivalent of interrogation (any process
which the court decided was a functional equivalent of an interrogative process) had to use the
Miranda rights prior to getting any information from the suspect.

 BREWER V WILLIAMS (1977)

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 In this case the suspect who was known to be a very religious person had murdered a 10
year old girl and he had hidden away the body. Murder happened close to Christmas. He
was arrested and while his way to the police facility the policemen who were travelling
with him started discussing the murder and went into the conversation with the man and
highlighted how if the case wasn’t solved until Christmas and if the body wasn’t
discovered until Christmas it would be extremely sad if the girl would not receive a
Christmas burial. For the religious ideology that the man had the Christmas burial was
very important. And in the process of the conversation the person in a way admitted to
have killed the girl and told the police where the body was hidden.
The court in this case rejected the confession given by the suspect and inadmissible in
the court and highlighted that the Miranda warnings were not given to the person prior to
gathering any information from him. Although it wasn’t exactly an interrogative set
up/process but it was a functional equivalent of interrogation. There was a direct
exchange of dialogue between the law enforcement personnel and the suspect. The
personnel knowing of the suspect’s religious convictions manipulated him into giving a
confession and disclosing where the body was. The court ruled that even though it
wasn’t typically an interrogation but it was a functional equivalent. INVALID
CONFESSION. There was conviction and the person was convicted of murder because
the body was discovered and there were a lot ancillary supportive evidences.
And court labelled the discovery of body as an ‘inevitable discovery exception’. So
although the confession itself does not lead to conviction but information obtained
without giving the Miranda warnings has in a way indirectly led to the conviction which
is in essence contradictory to Miranda verdict in itself but it was Inevitable that the
evidence was there. The exceptions associated with Miranda warnings have grown with
the period of time.

 RHODE ISLAND V INNIS (1988)

The person was arrested for robbing a taxi driver and the robbery happened very close to a
school and the weapon used by the robber went missing. And was suspected that the weapon was
lost somewhere closer to the school. Here in this case too, on his way to the police facility the
police officials were discussing amongst themselves how the robbery had happened close to a
school and the weapon was somewhere there and being close to school the children were at
threat. The suspect heard the conversation and ended up telling them where the weapon was and
they discovered the weapon based on his information.
In this case too the Miranda warnings were not given but this case was not considered to be a
functional equivalent of an interrogation because the conversation in this case was happening
amongst themselves rather that directed towards the suspect. And therefore in this case ‘totality
of circumstances clause’ was used, which essentially means that while deciding whether
Miranda warnings applies to a particular case or not it is important to consider all the facts of the
case rather than just the fact that Miranda warnings were not given and all the facts direct that
there was a conversation amongst the police officials and there was no active manipulation and
the police officials could not have predicted the impact of the conversation on the suspect.

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Miranda warning clause does not apply to this case. You look at all the facts of the case and the
circumstances rather than just one aspect that for instance in this case that Miranda warning was
not given and use this only to determine the case, No. All the facts need to be considered.

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25/07/2019
Initially the courts were very specific about the Miranda warnings but over a period of time the
importance of the Miranda rights and also the focus of the courts on the restriction of
psychological coercion has fizzled out and is visible in the multiple kinds of exceptions that are
used in order to allow in cases where the Miranda warnings are not given.
PUBLIC SAFETY EXCEPTION

This was formulated in the context of the 1984 case-

 NEW YORK V QUARLES

Wherein the individual was charged with the possession of an illegal weapon along with which
were other charges. The person was arrested in a super mart and it was suspected that he had
hidden the illegal weapon somewhere in the super mart. So immediately after the arrest the
police grilled him and questioned him and ultimately he disclosed the location of the weapon
which was located in a public arena. In this case even though the questioning happened
absolutely directed at the suspect and happened without giving the Miranda warnings, the court
allowed it. In the previous Brewer Case, direct questioning was considered to be functional
equivalent of interrogation and therefore had not allowed it.
But in this case the court admitted the confession, stating that this constituted public safety
exception wherein since the weapon was within public arena it could have been a threat to public
safety in general and thus it is sometimes ok to question the individual and to gain information
without giving the Miranda warnings. What is considered is the spontaneity of the situation
rather than sticking by the book.
Literature also mentions a number of other exceptions as well and public safety exception being
just one of them.
What is important is the language used to communicate the warnings is also considered to be
important and that the warnings have to be clear warnings and have to be understood by the
suspect. Eventually the courts have also accepted- ambiguous warnings as valid warnings.

 DUCKWORTH V EAGAN
The confession in this case was challenged on the basis that the warning given was an ambiguous
one and it was not clearly understood by the suspect and specifically in this case the interrogator
told the suspect (in the context of assigning an attorney/the right to an attorney) that there is no
way they can arrange an attorney for him but if he still demands an attorney, they’ll try and
arrange one when he goes for the trial. The right was informed to him in a complicated and an
ambiguous way. Unclear way of presenting the warning.
When challenged, the court admitted that the warnings presented were valid and the manner of
delivering was held to be valid by the court, highlighting the fact that during interrogation the

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language cannot always be monitored and supervised for every interrogator, it will be different
and thus valid to deliver the warnings in any language desired by the interrogator.
*A valid waiver is the one where the suspect who has to sign this waiver has the basic ability to
process of what is going on. The competency to stand trial is a psychological assessment with
regards to whether a person has basic competency which are important from the perspective of
going to the trial. (Like the basic ability to comprehend). If there is scope of restoring the
competency then the trial is delayed but if there is no scope of restoring the competency then the
guardian of the individual is called in. So along with the individual’s, it is also the signature of
the guardian’s signature that is important while signing the waiver.
FALSE CONFESSIONS
Why people confess to the crimes that they have not committed!
(*Forced Confessions)
Long and Extended Trials
There exists multiple reasons as to why a person confesses falsely.
One of them being, to save someone else, may be a beloved (child, partner, parent, etc.) and this
kind of confession is false and is a voluntary false confession.
All the research done by Saul Kassin in the 1990s and has been replicated a number of times.
False confession can be of two basic types-

 VOLUNTARY FALSE CONFESSION-

(To save a beloved)
(Need for fame or Social recognition) Psychologically there is an argument offered that a
lot of people confess to crimes that they have not committed only because that offers them
some kind of recognition. Research of this was triggered when – Charles Lindbergh, an
American aviator and his son was kidnapped by some people. When his son was kidnapped,
over 200 people came forward to take responsibility for that kidnapping which they had not
done. And this triggered research into why people confess to a crime that they haven’t
committed. And it was seen that there was a pattern to it. In most crimes where people were
voluntarily confessing to it and were later found to be false, it was seen that these were the
cases that were specifically grabbing a lot of limelight or at least locally they were important
cases. And this led to theories that suggested that essentially for an individual who is living a
life of nothingness and has no fame, ambition, meaning and purpose in life and one living in
existential crisis (an inability to answer question like- what is the larger meaning and
purpose of life, what is the goal, why am I living) just about anything that gets this person
any amount of limelight/fame is something that this person would grab onto, even if it takes
the face of defame. Getting some amount of basic social recognition is a basic innate human
motive which governs a lot of our lives and one who lives a life of nothingness, this
becomes a motivator.

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 (Internalized Guilt/Need to punish oneself) Excessive internalized guilt causing the need
to punish oneself is another important factor which psychological research highlights. This
guilt resulting in punishing oneself further results in the individual committing a crime
because he would know that this might lead to conviction and some kind of punishment.
Because all of these forces are internal, these confessions are considered to be
voluntary in nature. This can be perceived as an inner pressure that the person is
exerting rather than external pressure. And this can be psychological coercion coming
from within.
 INVOLUNTARY FALSE CONFESSION/ COERCED FALSE CONFESSION-
‘Coerced’ because it is assumed that if the person is confessing to something without the
willingness and forced into confessing a crime, then there is some level of coercion that
is involved and is not restricted to only physical but psychological coercion as well.
Coerced Compliant Confessions
When the individual is trying to comply externally with certain behaviors which are desired out
of the individual.
COMPLIANCE IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR- Compliance explains the behavior when the
individual just changes the external behavior in response to certain demands that are placed on
the individual but does not necessarily change the internal behavior or beliefs. Changing or
altering one’s social behavior even though the internal beliefs are different from what is
expressed. 2 Types-
(Putting an end to the strenuous process of interrogation/ threatening by causing harm)
This might be the case where person might confess to put an end to all the abuse and coercion
that the person is going through.
(Promises of leniency or immunity offered) In an alternate situation if the person confesses due
to immunity or leniency that is promised to the person again the person confesses not because he
believes in that but because he feels that there will be certain benefits that he would get if he
would confess to the crimes that he hasn’t committed.
Coerced Internalized False Confessions
An internalization means that the individual actually starts believing in something which might
not necessarily be true in the case. These are cases where the individual confesses to the
commission of a crime and at the same time also starts believing that he actually did commit the
crime when he actually did not.
This typically is the case where an individual who is tired of interrogation and is also confused
because of all the harsh conditions that he is subjected to (food and sleep deprivation, prolonged
isolation) and is exposed to, leads to some kind of cognitive hampering or damaging of rationale
decision making of the person. And this cognitive damage (all the harsh conditions during
interrogation resulting in a cognitive hampering) combined with ‘interrogative suggestibility’
(Gud Jonsson coined this term) - very suggestive interrogative techniques which are constantly

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feeding in this information on the person that he committed the crime. This results in a situation
where the person starts actually believing that he indeed committed the crime. For Gud Jonsson,
a case of Internalized Coerced Confession is simply a game of pressure tactics and confidence
game (inducing cognitive confusion)
In an experiment done by Kassin where he set up a lab and told his examinees that he is
performing an experiment which is to test the reaction time of the examinee. They were
supposed to simply sit in front of the computer and when a certain kind of stimuli flashed on the
screen (stimuli were to do with alphabets), the examinee was supposed to hit the related alphabet
key on the keyboard. Along with this they were told to not press the ‘alt’ key and if they pressed
it the computer would crash. The computer was programmed to crash after 10 seconds. So after
the experiment started, irrespective of the keys that the examinees pressed the computer would
anyway crash after 10 seconds from its commencement. This was followed by this freaked out
examiner entering into the lab and blaming the examinee for pressing the alt key. In all of the
cases the examinee had not pressed the ‘alt’ key.
Results indicated that initially all the examinees denied that they had pressed the ‘alt’ key but
once the experimenter explicitly manifested how freaked out and distressed he was, 69% of the
examinees went onto agree that they had pressed the ‘alt’ key. Later they were given a
questionnaire where they had to respond, 28% of the examinee who agreed to press the ‘alt’ key,
actually internalized the fact. The content analysis of their responses showed that they were
agreeing to it not because they were under pressure by the examiner but because they actually
started believing that they had pressed it. In about 9% of these cases, people actually
‘confabulated’ (Confabulation- filling in the gaps. While recalling an event if there are gaps in
that event then as part of the cognitive processes implied in memory, the person is likely to make
up the information to fill in those gaps) which meant that when they were asked to give a
narrative of what had happened they actually made up the stories and filled in the gaps and came
up with their own explanations about how they went on to hit the ‘alt’ key.
Also the experiment shows that when the high rate of presentation of stimulus (quickly flashed
on the screen) was passed, then the probability of agreeing to having pressed the ‘alt’ key was
high as compared to a slow stimulation presentation case where the stimuli was presented slowly
and is a relatively less stress inducing situation. In a high stress situation the possibility and
probability of internalizing is way more.
Research suggests that when you use these conclusions in an actual set up, it might be difficult to
differentiate between all of these types. So a lot of times it is not possible to gauge the real
motive behind a false confession and therefore a clear cut classification is mostly not possible.
And also a lot of internalized confessions are momentary states of believing in something. Once
the process is done and over with and the person returns to a relatively normal situation and
starts reflecting back again, gains his ability to reason then the realization might dawn that he
never really committed the crime. So in a lot cases the internalization might be temporary and
might resolve at a later stage.

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26/07/2019
The supportive evidence we get for most of the techniques thus not essentially come from
empirical study (experimentation/artificial research). Most evidence that we have in support of
these techniques is essentially procedural evidence (an analysis of actual interrogations taking
place, a gradual modification in the specific methods used and study the positive and negative
outcomes as a result of these modified methods and in turn coming out with a conclusion with
respect to whether the techniques used are effective). PROCEDURAL EVIDENCE- In
psychology, any evidence or any supportive conclusions we obtain out of actual behavior
happening in the due course of the behavior rather than inducing an experimental manipulation
of that behavior.
Interrogative tactics haven’t been studied empirically or experimentally through research because
an interrogation can’t really be simulated in an artificial setup even if one is told that he has been
interrogated, it is never really possible to create that high stress situation that is there in a real
setup where the suspect is actually being interrogated. Therefore, actual interrogations are
studied rather than the artificial interrogation.
A wide variety of psychological techniques are used with respect to interrogation but in most
interrogations basically 3 psychological principles are implemented and focused upon (research
suggests that if these 3 are implemented with efficiency then interrogation would be extremely
effective in getting the expected psychological response out of a suspect).
1. PRINCIPLE OF CONTROL- Interrogation should exert a certain amount of
psychological control on the suspect and the suspect through the mannerism and setup of
the interrogation should be able to believe that he does not have any control and he will
be doing whatever the interrogator wants. It proves effective. He also suppresses his
certain emotions which if let out could worsen the situation.
2. PRICIPLE OF GUILT/STRESS INDUCTION- (tension building process) Most
interrogative settings induce tension in a gradual way and depending upon the kind of
interrogators, an optimal amount of stress/guilt is induced which is used in a particular
interrogative settings depending upon the suspect concerned and his characteristics,
specifically the emotionality. For some individuals, high levels of guilt induction is
effective of others, a low level or rationalism might work. Most interrogations start at a
relaxed pace and later an optimal guilt is induced. Guilt/stress individual is an integral
part of the interrogative setting and an optimal level of it is required in almost every
interrogative setting.
3. PRINCIPLE OF CONFIDENCE- The interrogator communicates to the suspect that he
knows it all, who is in control and has a very clear picture of the crime that is committed
and is very confident of the certain conclusions he has drawn about the crime. A lot of
times some hints are dropped to the suspect which communicate that the interrogator is
very clear about these assumptions, has conclusive evidence. They are specifically
looking for a confession (that is what they show).

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Ways in which these psychological principles can be implemented- 3 broad
categories/elements of interrogative session which can be used to communicate these
psychological principles-
(i) Setting of the setup of the interrogation setup- One sided glass, table, one light
source, 2 chairs, and room is usually uni-coloured with a dull door. Nothing else is
kept, the reason being for not conducting an interrogation in a regular room is to
communicate a sense of tension, no objects to hit the interrogator or oneself.
Psychologically, a strange /unfamiliar set up creates uncomfortableness to us and we
want to go back to home. Some people when upset might go to certain place (because
during stressful situations, human mind tend to cling on to familiar objects/aspects to
make them feel better, the objects can be people, things, places). Therefore, an
interrogative setup holds minimal objects, no colors (familiar colors can be a source
of comfort).These setups have the purpose to minimize the familiarity and when it
goes down, a sense of insecurity kind of increases. A direct outcome of this is
simulation of tension.
Second benefit is insurance of isolation and privacy because if an object is kept, it
might create distraction and one might lose focus. The setting usually is a private
setting. So, usually the interrogative rooms does not open into corridors (to ensure
isolation). The barging of other people in room might distract the suspect. The
presence of psychological security.

(ii) Conduct in the interview itself- Voice modulation (confident, stern, grounded
voice communicates ‘control’), aggression (banging the table) (but aggression
might not work depending upon the emotionality of the suspect), expression (stern,
confident). Usually the suspect is sitting on the chair and interrogator is standing
and he might sit on the table, the reason behind is that it shows the interrogator at a
higher platform and the suspect looks up to the interrogator, this establishes his
position as the person in authority. The interrogator might also work around
(mobility) while suspect is sitting, also establishes control (the interrogator has
choice to freely move around while the suspect has not). The interrogator might
also have a chair with wheels while suspect sits on a regular chair. Violation of
private space is another element- When tension is being built up and the
interrogator is questioning the suspect, he might stand very close or keep his hand
close to suspect- this is violation of personal space (it is an extreme level of
exhibiting control), it clearly communicates control and superiority). Body language
is important, usually a stern face might communicate a calm, relaxed situation to the
suspect. So such face with no emotions is an aspect which is used, in lot of cases
barring a specific category of suspects, it is usually suggested that at least for a
while the interrogator should maintain his peace and calm and not directly jump
into aggression unless tension building is requires because doing so might
communicate that interrogator knows it all and is not in a hurry to get information
from suspect but simply to get a conclusion and communicating calm, showing that
suspect has to confess and has enough time for it but will have to eventually give in
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 and make a confession, this kind of message if transferred leads to a sooner
confession.
The interrogator does not use paper pencil to take notes, it is usually avoided and
the information and conversation are usually recorded by using a Dictaphone (now
a days video recordings usually take place). Constant note taking is likely to distract
(breaks the flow of situation), makes him cautious (Dictaphone, CCTV, one way
glass), minimizes the authority/confidence that the interrogator’s trying to
communicate (it convinces suspect that while writing, he might miss out on some
points and he does not know everything about crime that is why he is taking notes).
The use of weapons induces a sense of control which can be exerted through it, an
interrogator might pull out a gun and put in on the table or tuck the gun where it is
clearly visible to the suspect (subtle element of fact that a weapon is present,
usually not done in case of violent victims because it might trigger them, but in lot
of cases- theft, first time suspects who are not engaged in violent crimes, the use of
weapon would exert control but one has to be decisive about to what extent of
intimidation he has to use through a weapon, so if gun used aggressively-pointed at
the suspect the he might get too intimidated. Weapons thus are used very subtly and
with a minimal visibility.

(iii) Questioning methods- Rapport formation usually done in a clinical setup.

Whenever a client comes in the first few sessions are rapport formation and is
dedicated towards developing comfort and familiarity levels with client. Trust
building is its essence.
In an interrogative process some time is spent in asking just the background,
general questions that might be related to case but definitely do not trigger a denial
of guilt in the suspect. It is used to initiate the dialogue and in establishing comfort
and second use is that the suspect should honestly give answers of the general
questions asked and this will help the investigator to understand the thought process
of the suspect. It enhances the information about suspect which can be used to
develop further techniques for him.
Good Cop- Bad Cop Technique- It is a role playing technique. It is used very frequently during
interrogations. The interrogator plays role of a very stern, harsh, coercive, abusive, aggressive
cop (BAD COP). This stress level reaches the peak and suspect is extremely threatened. This is
maximization phase (stress at max). He builds stress and conveys the message that ‘from here it
will only get worse!’
He is warm, respectful, and polite, communicates concern maybe getting the suspect food and
water, and sympathizes the suspect. This technique builds up trust (very effective trust building
technique) also very effective for naïve offenders who believe and picture bad cop as the
representative of police department, who is very harsh but when good cop takes over, he feels
that this is the only nice person around who understands him. He contrasts both of them and
builds trust with good cop and ends up giving up information or even confessing.

14
This technique however is a clear violation of an individual’s trust because neither the bad cop is
so bad nor the good cop is so nice (they just exaggerate their roles). The very purpose of them
acting like this is to gather information. This was challenged in Miranda verdict. Courts do
recognize it as unethical but despite it is used and a very effective technique. Being unethical, it
is not still illegal.
Rapport formation is also very important in establishment of baselines. Baseline formation is
very important for later understanding that whether if the person is trying to deceive.
Establishing baselines means- an understanding of what the natural bodily reactions of the
person are concerned with picking up non-verbal cues, so initiating a very normal conversation is
going to tell the interrogator about the normal body language of the person and a recognition of
these cues is very important because at a later stage any deviation from this initial relaxed body
language will tell what impact has the interrogation process has on the person and whether he is
trying to lie. So baseline behavior then becomes a comparative measure. Baseline is concerned
with 2 areas of functioning-
1. BASELINE WITH REGARDS TO PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL OR STRESS
RELATED BEHAVIORS- Considering an interrogation session has some amount of
stress since the very start. When stress has not been induced, there is already a certain
amount of anxiety and it is important to establish the anxiety and the interrogator has to
notice where the anxiety is going on from here on from when the stress is actually
induced. The indicators of anxiety can be sweating, fidgety behavior, if person is sitting
in closed postures- arms folded, legs crossed, then he is already becoming defensive and
if this person sits with an open posture and post stress induction the posture is closed will
exhibit that at the beginning not but now he is getting defensive. Some however tend to
sit or stand in a certain way like legs crossed but at the beginning if he was open and
switches his position during interrogation then it might be an indicator to compulsive
behavior and some transition has taken place, eye contact- very little eye contact is when
the person if trying to be evasive. Too much eye contact- person keeps staring in the eyes
of the interrogator. Both are indicators of deceptive behavior. Evasive behavior is
defensive in nature but too much of it means the person is trying to compensate. People
who just keep staring shows over compensatory behavior. Shaking, trembling are also
stress indicators.
2. DECEPTION CUES- If individuals in the beginning use ambiguous, evasive statements
like- ‘I am not sure if that happened.’ (In criminal interrogation, either one is aware of
certain facts or he is not- answer should be a clear YES OR NO). Usually people who are
not guilty talk in very specific, assertive statements like- ‘I do not know about it’. ‘I have
not done it.’ ‘I have not seen it.’ However individuals trying to be evasive talk in
uncertainty and this ambiguity is usually there since the beginning. So a guilty person
who knows he did wrong will try to evade and misguide the interrogative and he is pre-
planning leads to evasive answering even in the beginning (rapport formation), such a
person answers general questions with uncertainty even when they are sure of it. The
pattern becomes pretty obvious which is evasive.

15
Research tells that frequent mentioning of god and religion by individuals, are often guilty if not
entirely then at least they were involved to a certain extent or had knowledge of it. At the start,
they try to put up this defense that they are involved in religion and therefore he will not do
something like this or will not assist a crime.

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27/07/2019
During rapport formation very neutral background questions are asked which the suspect can
answer honestly without deceiving. It is important because it kind of sets the trend for non-
deceptive answering and lays a ground work for honest conversation.
CONTENT OF THE QUESTIONS-How are they asked, what specific questions are asked
vary from situation to situation and upon style of interrogator but some important factors be kept
in mind for questions to work are that of-
Questions need to be non-suggestive in nature or non-directive- implies, at least, initially no
need to suggest whether person did commit the crime, it is always required to allow some space
to the person to come up with such responses for himself. Responses with regards to what extend
was he involved in the crime.
It also implies that use of specific terms with respect to the nature of crime should be
avoided specifically labelling the crime. For example, statements like- ‘You committed the
murder.’ And statements regarding the specific crime, such labels at least initially should not be
announced explicitly. This is because these threatening terms can be inducing defensive
behavior, even a normal person will get defensive hearing of such a crime label against him. So
when a suspect is challenged on face, it will instantly put him in a defensive position and would
straight forwardly deny. Once he begins to deny the responsibility for the crime then it is likely
to lead to further denial during interrogation.
In order to prevent defensive responding style- use of labels, direct challenge, associating labels
with him should be avoided. Along with this if the labels are themselves suggestive in nature like
saying ‘a murder has occurred’ is like painting a framework or a context within which the
suspect will start responding from thereon. So instead of doing so and defining the range of
responses for suspect would also limit his responses. It is thus important to engage in open ended
questioning and wait for suspect to come up with what he understands of the crime and this gives
the sense of his regarding the crime, it will let the interrogator know what he sees there, foe
example, a killing like, as a murder, abuse, act of violence basically how he wants to label or tag
it.
Investigator should probe for specifics instead of painting a global broad picture of what
happened- Probing for specifics gives a very important understanding of what extent the person
is engaged in crime, his understanding of it and later to detect if he is lying. Because these
specifics can later be challenged with respect to certain information where interrogator might
have about the crime and also when one gets into specifics and minor details. When the person is
asked to retain the crime later, it is more likely that if he is lying, he will be ending up countering
himself giving some contradicting information.
While questioning the EMOTIONALITY of suspect is important, it is also important for
interrogator to start gauging the individual’s emotionality right at the rapport formation stage.
Usually, extremely emotional individuals (neurotic individuals- anxious, sensitive, give-in stress
situations, easy to anger, very sensitive in responding to environmental stimuli, more reactive

17
than proactive) are likely to commit crime against people (according to research), example-
killing someone in a fit of rage [emotional aggression- individual who engaged in an aggressive
act against a person was the MEANS, the GOAL was to harm/hurt that person (the person might
not be intending to kill but just to harm), so the MEANS and GOALS coincide] [ instrumental
aggression- when one kills another for property, if one kills their sibling to become the sole
inheritor of the property (aggression is instrumental/valuable MEANS in obtaining a GOAL
which is different from act of aggression itself), means and goal are different and aggression is
instrumental in achieving a different goal, MEANS- aggression, GOAL- property]
So people high on emotionality are more likely to engage in emotional aggression, example-
individual in an argument with another ends up stabbing him with a knife kept nearby. Such
people usually are high on ‘remorse’. After the anger or intense emotions subsides, there is a
realization that their act was wrong or their reach was exaggerated. These individuals are more
susceptible in picking up appeals that are emotional in nature, which kind of targets their
emotionality.
APPEALS
1. SYMPATHY- Justifying the act.
2. RATIONALIZATION- ‘You had your reasons for doing it.’
3. IDENTIFIACTION- ‘I would have probably done the same had I been there.’
If an emotional connect with such individuals is established and the connect which minimizes
their guilt leads to increased feeling of security and then they open up or confess. People high on
emotionality readily take up emotional appeals.
PEOPLE LOW ON EMOTIONALITY- Likely to commit crime, instrumental aggressive
crimes. They are more likely to plan, plot, and decide what they have to do. They spend a lot of
thought in planning and they commit it. Crimes which are planned, plotted well, instrumental in
nature are usually committed by such individuals. In turn, such people have very little guilt
because there is a very long process for plotting and they kind of accept the idea that they have to
commit that crime. So they do not give in into emotional appeals. Sympathizing, focusing on
guilt or maximizing guilt will not make any difference. They fall for rational argumentation. So,
it is important for interrogator to focus on intricate details that would help them later to pick up
contradictions, gaps in variations, to give a logical counter argument which they are unable to
explain.
So. Depending upon emotionality, the questioning technique has to be tailor made by the
interrogator and during rapport formation, emotionality can be picked up like cues of anxiety,
shakiness, sweating, etc., are symbols of emotional individual. Calmness, composedness are
indicators of instrumental individuals because he has already planned it.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE GUILT ITSELF- Another important aspect during an interrogative
technique. Is the interrogator certain of the guilt of suspect or is still guilt questionable! If he is
certain of it, then it is usually suggested that that should be made clear right at the outset. This
caters to 3 principals of psychology-

18
 1. Confidence of interrogator
2. Establishes control- Defense personnel is in control now.
3. Builds up tension- the suspect have this in mind that an authority knows that he did
something against the law, irrespective of whatever he says, he will be held guilty.
If interrogator is sure of the guilt of then questions like- ‘Did you commit the crime’ should be
avoided. So, questions of ‘WHETHER” variety be avoided, because suspect invariably is going
to deny it and once he denies he will keep doing it in complete session. It leads to lesser
likelihood of a sooner confession. So question of ‘HOW’ + ‘WHAT’ variety should be asked. It
implies the interrogator knows he committed crime and now they are only interested in knowing
how and what was the reason.
Research tells us if nothing works with a suspect, what works best is SILENCE, as it is a
tremendous pressure exertor, stress builder because silence is the best way to offer uncertainty to
the suspect (nobody is saying anything or visiting him, he does not know what is going to happen
and over a period of time the silence is going to build a pressure, control, as nothing is happening
and he cannot do anything about it).
REGARDING MIRANDA RIGHTS
Psychological deceit is used a lot of times in almost all interrogations. Common understanding is
that an interrogative process will inevitably use psychological deceptive measures. To a certain
extent, Miranda verdict and the application of it principles in later cases is kind of dwindling
away. Many forensic psychologists note the fact that we have complied by over a period of time,
complied by the letter of law. We certainly have not complied by the spirit of the law, which
means that Miranda Rights are being told to suspect but it is done in a certain way where they
essentially have lost the very purpose of being protective. An author John Hayes wrote about
Lindburgh verdict, said that, while telling the warnings during the Lindburgh case interrogations,
while informing the suspects of their rights essentially they were told in a very ambiguous,
complex manner. So, specifically in one case, the attorney told the individuals that we will get an
attorney. For you, if that is your demand, but I also want you to know that of all individuals who
are waiting on their death row, nobody got there without the benefit of an attorney..
While waiving off Miranda Rights, it is assumed that a waiver actually constitutes a valid waiver
only when it is given knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.
VOLUNTARILY- Waiver given under no coercion.
KNOWINGLY_ Individuals aware of the rights.
INTELLIGENTLY- Not only does he know of it but he also understands what the rights are and
what could be the consequences of waiving off these rights could be.
In this context it is important to reflect that despite knowing the possible positive consequences
of waiving off the rights. Why is it that so many suspects still continue to do so, which of course
is against their self-interest and why is it that so many suspects continue to give self-
incriminating evidence against themselves despite the fact that extremely subtle, psychologically

19
deceptive techniques continue to be used in court through the process of interrogation resulting
in waivers and confessions.
When individual is not guilty it is understandable why would they waive off their rights but so
many suspects waive off their rights and offer potentially incriminating evidence against
themselves. So these are individuals who probably did commit the crime and are still deciding to
waive off their rights and it is clearly against their self-interest. So it is worth thinking why they
actually engaged in that.

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 UNIT-II
INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
02/08/2019

CRIMINAL PROFILING
It is basically when one tries to construct a sketch of who the criminal might be. Establishing
motive is one tiny part of it. It is a very long plus complex process where multiple psychological
attributes of the person concerned are sketched plus evaluated. One primary goal is to narrow the
area of focus with respect to the suspect. So, therefore, it is basically generating a psychological
sketch of the criminal.
ABC of Psychology
A- Attitude
B- Behavior
C- Cognition
And in the context of profiling we add a ‘D’ which is Demographic Features. So, while
creating such sketch of a criminal or anyone, there are 4 important aspects included essentially,
which are-
 Affective Attributes
 Behavioral Attributes
 Cognitive Attributes
 Demographic Attributes
So, the potential criminal or the kind pf person who cannot commit a specific crime, profiling
done for both cases- where crime is committed or in a situation where there is a potential for a
particular crime to occur. E.g. Terrorism (kind of people or psychological sketch of such people
who tend to become terrorists). Demographic variables could be anything regarding the
background of the person like- age, gender, socio-economic background, nationality, culture,
ethnicity, race, etc.
Issue of the reliability of criminal profiling (specifically to what extent is it admissible in a
court of law)- There is a very high level of subjectivity when it comes to reliability and validity
of criminal profiling within the psychological fraternity as well as the legal fraternity. The
specific term used to define profiling has a significant impact on perception of reliability plus
validity of it. Criminal profiling is also sometimes called CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE
ANALYSIS and a lot of research is done in evaluating the term criminal profiling vs. what
technical or scientific terms and the series of these studies come from research work done by
American Forensic psychologist- Torres et al (very recent studies, 21st century, 2006-07), they
evaluated and perceived reliability plus validity of criminal profiling vs. criminal investigative
analysis. Both of them describe same process and the result showed that the perceived reliability
within the psychological community was way higher when ‘Criminal Investigative Analysis’

1
was used as compared to ‘Criminal Profiling’. So, a certain amount of trust in the effectiveness
and efficiency of procedure was way higher when a more technical term was used and these
results were also replicated in legal community. Thus, usually the forensic psychologists who
engage in criminal profiling strongly believe when scientific term is used, it is more likely to be
admissive in a court of law.
What courts have said about admitting evidence based on criminal profiling varies from case to
case and the reasons stated are very valid based on the evidence presented. But if we talk about
certain background psychological cognitive processes which significantly impact the judgment
of the judge/jury with respect to certain evidence then the use of the term to begin with has a
significant impact on how it is evaluated by the judge and in turn has an impact on whether it is
admitted in court.
If one looks at legal evidence, courts have cited legally valid reasons for either admitting or
rejecting evidence based on criminal profiling but studies in psychology shows- even though the
use of term in court is not cited as reason for rejecting it but because the term ‘criminal
investigative analysis’ sounds more scientific, technical, therefore more likely to get accepted.
Depending upon the purpose, factors, method, end goal of criminal profiling, there are basically
5 broad categories of criminal profiling. These 5 categories can further be divided into 2.
When the criminal (suspect) is not known-
1. Crime Scene Profiling
The next 2 are usually done when suspect is known-
2. Suspect Based Profiling
3. Geographical Profiling
The next 2 for analysis of criminal and in turn the information is used for future crimes-
4. Psychological Autopsy
5. Psychological Profiling (a psychological assessment of criminal)
CRIME SCENE PROFILING
Psychological analysis of the elements present at the crime scene, in most cases it is like most
other profiling but specifically crime scene plus suspect based plus geographical. Crime scene
plus geographical profiling are mostly, usually done in case of serial killers, serial robbers,
rapists, murders, thefts, etc.
GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING
Mostly done in cases of violence, murders (crime against human), most effective in cases of
serial rapists, murderers.
Crime scene profiling is basically a process by which the affective, behavioral, cognitive and
demographic features of criminal/suspects are denial based on analysis of the crime scene. It is
based on the assumption that the manner in which the crime is committed, the elements present
2
at crime scene are the reflection of the individual who committed it. (His behavior, movements
changes he makes, how he does it are reflectors of who he is).
When psychological analysis of elements of crime scene is talked one, the most basic kinds
(though it is a very complex process), the most significant features of crime scene analysis is-
analyzing the risk factors which are associated with the kind of Anti-social behavior which
the criminal engages in- THE RISK ANALYSIS OR RISK FACTOR ANALYSIS- An
analysis of the risk factors which increase the predisposition of the criminal towards engaging in
a particular kind of anti-social behavior, e.g. a violent murder and risk factors which put an
individual or predispose an individual to engage in violence and murder. Risk factors (not
watertight but fluid categories) predisposing a person to anti-socialness.
Risk factors in context with crime scene analysis can be categorized into 2 broad
categories-
1. DYNAMIC RISK FACTORS- Risk factors which can change overtime which might
create anti-social tendencies or predisposing a person towards anti-social behavior. E.g.
of such factors- engaging with deviant peers specifically in context of criminal behavior,
low, financial status, engaging in substance abuse, environment.
2. STATIC RISK FACTORS- Stable, cannot be changed. Might lead to potential
criminality in an individual. Factors- childhood experiences, genetic disposition (genes
which makes one more aggressive), parenting style (if parents are too violent then child
learns to respond in an aggressive way to a potential conflict situation which might result
in serial criminality), (if one parent engages in anti-social behavior, the child can also
learn it) - high co-relation with possibility of future anti-social behavior in child.
Childhood experiences are unchangeable. Parenting does not only refer to parents but if
any adult like grand-parents who involve in upbringing of the child would also qualify as
Parenting.
Attitudes are relatively stable. Once formed, it is likely to be that way and determine kind of
experiences one have. E.g. a person who believes men are superior to woman is likely to
befriend a person with same mindset.
Attitude Change/Persuasion-Persuasive techniques are directed towards an attitude to change
it.
Dynamic factors can further be divided into 2-
1. STABLE DYNAMIC FACTORS- Factors relatively stable persist, do not change
quickly or overnight but are changeable and might take a long time to change. Attitudes
that fall under stable dynamic factors, example- positive attitude towards women lead to
crime against them. These attitudes are changeable but to change them would take a long
process and time. Substance abuse- addiction to alcohol is changeable but will take a long
time.
2. EXTREME/ACUTE DYNAMIC FACTORS- Change rapidly, overnight, few hours,
and usually in few days. Crimes committed while intoxication would fall under Acute

3
 Dynamic Factors. There is a differentiation because a lot of people might be addicted to
alcohol/drugs but it does not mean everyone who is substance abusing will engage in
criminal behavior.
Emotional arousing or mood swings- people more susceptible to mood swings
specifically important in cases of violent crimes against humans. Most people engage in
violent crimes when aggressive, so mood swings becomes important and dynamic factor.
FEATURES PRESENT AT THE CRIME SCENE
2 types of crime scene
1. Organized Crime Scene- In an organized crime scene (organized and disorganized
crime scenes are not 2 separate categories and a crime scene never completely qualifies to
be either an organized or disorganized crime scene. So it is important to look at it from
the perspective of a continuum rather than watertight categories) is a crime scene
typically where a crime has been symbolic or implicates a crime scene wherein a crime
has been pre-planned or pre-mediated. The elements of this are very orderly and also
there is a systematic underlined aspect present which shows crime was pre-planned. A lot
of times, it is a reflection of instrumental aggression and in cases of psychopaths,
aggression is not the goal in itself, it is aimed at satisfying some other need/urge (urge
although can be aggressive in nature because it involves hurting others but the
gratification he draws is distinct from the aggression.)
2. Disorganized Crime Scene- Usually a reflection of emotional aggression. Murders in fit
of rage. So expression of aggression is a motive in itself. These crime scenes usually have
very little pattern, underlined systematic orientation. These are usually scattered and
disturbed.

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03/08/2019
Usually in an organized crime scene, victim is selected beforehand whereas in disorganized
crime scene, there is a greater likelihood that victim was just picked by chance and was a victim
due to the situation.
There is also an active recognition of Mixed Crime Scene that has elements of both organized
and disorganized crime scene (an almost equal elements of both). In most cases where there are
dominant plus elements of both then possibility is that the crime was planned but at the time of
execution something unexpected happens and things go out of hands that results in
disorganization. Example-
 A serial killer locates the victim, plans crime, at the time of execution, the victim is
maybe stronger or a third person might come over, resulting in disorganization.
 A gang of robbers which engages in serial robberies and watches a house and behavior of
individuals residing in it and notice that everyone leaves the place by 10:00 a.m. and
finds it as a perfect time but when they in process of committing it, they figure out there
is an elderly living in house. So this planned robbery could turn into a murder.
Four important concepts from the perspective of psychological analysis and crime scene
profiling-
1. UNDOING- A process wherein there is an active attempt on the part of criminal to undo
the things that happened at crime scene. Undoing is very common in a mixed crime
scene. Example- a robber, in a mixed crime scene commits a murder, as a result he will
start cleaning blood, move the body, hide it or places it in a position which suggests that
the death was due to an accident (portraying murder as suicide). His mentality is to
portray that the crime did not happen. If murder is portrayed as it was an accident with a
motive that no murder was committed, it will be undoing but it also has an element of
staging, where death is portrayed as a suicide.
2. STAGING- Adding certain additional elements to crime scene. A crime happened but
happened differently is staging. An elusive technique by criminal.
3. TROPHIES- Elements from the crime scene which criminals after committing crime
take away with them and steal them. They draw a sense of achievement of it.
Trophies even signatures represent elements wherein the individual has gone beyond
what is required to actually commit the crime therefore they offer very valuable
information about personality analysis of criminal.
4. SIGNATURES- Special aspects which the criminal either engages in or which he leaves
behind being symbolic of the crime and simply a signature at crime committed. The
criminal leaves it to portray his certain traits and it can portray valuable information
about his personality.
Signatures and trophies depict a more stable pattern of behavior and are reflection
of more stable risk factors because they are consistent to a very large extent over a
period of time.

5
MODUS OPERANDI OF CRIMINAL- Manner in which the crime is committed. Trophies
and signatures form a part of modus operandi of individual which is why they are relatively
stable. It is more likely to be in a stable position over a period of time and because of this the
manner of commission of crime offer valuable information of criminal. Modus operandi can
change over a time period like a psychopath while committing crime gains certain experiences
might get him more skilled which might result in modifying means operandi, and can also
change due to certain physical changes in body, like, if a serial killer ages, his physical activity
lowers which might alter his modus operandi. In cases of psychopathy, changes in psychological
make up of individual like psychological state of a person deteriorates over also tend to change.
Example- Ted Bundy got skilled while he committing crimes, gained experiences which had an
impact on his psychological makeup resulting in more emotionally aggressive crime and more
planned crimes.
2nd Type of profiling: SUSPECT BASED PROFILING
In criminal based profiling- Analyzing elements of crime scene in order to get an understanding
of the traits of criminal. In contrast, in suspect based profiling, we analyze traits, characteristics
of already known criminals in order to determine who is likely to commit a crime. There are 4
important elements from the perspective of getting an understanding of the- affective traits,
behavioral traits, cognitive abilities and demographic features of the individuals. These features
of known criminals are analyzed to get an understanding of who is likely to commit a crime. This
is very frequently done in cases of terrorism, drug trafficking. People having history of active
involvement in terrorism forms a basis of behavioral traits that can be analyzed in other
individuals.
Suspect based profiling is very prevalent, specifically in US. It is though a subject of criticism
mainly due to most suspect profiling is appearance based. As so much information and factors
are potentially available, so the most convenient factor that one can rely on is the appearance.
Appearance Based Profiling- Profiling done on the basis of what a potential criminal/suspect
may look like. It uses pre-dominantly demographic elements and descriptors of the appearance of
the individual. Aspects like- age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, manner of dressing etc.,
all of these aspects are useful but to certain extent but using purely appearance based profiling is
also extremely problematic because like in case of terrorism- individuals who are dressed in a
certain way or individuals who belong to certain nationalities and certain religion are more likely
to be searched extensively, also strip searched at an airport. Appearance based profiling when
done on the basis of race, ethnicity then also called Racial Profiling. Cases of racial profiling
kind of peaked in the US after the attack on the World Trade Center. So individuals who were
Sikhs were more likely to be harassed on the airport because the appearance fit Osama bin
Laden.
Also after this attack there was a phrase in the US that was doing rounds ‘Driving while black’.
Originally the phrase being- ‘Driving while intoxicated’ but critics substituted intoxicated with
black because in a lot of cases individuals who were of Hispanic origin or who were black were
more likely to be stopped by the police personnel on some very basic minimal traffic violation
and were likely to be extensively searched because it was anticipated that they were transporting

6
weapons (terrorism) or drug trafficking. In the US the typical description of someone who is
likely to be trafficking drugs is that of an individual belonging to a middle class, usually and
adolescent/teenager or and individual in young adulthood and an individual who is black.
Lehman Brothers Collapse- A huge financial banking firm in the US and that led to the global
meltdown and led to the collapse of not just the US economy but also a global collapse. The
shares crashed tremendously and this essentially was a time of global financial crisis. Later
analysis showed that essentially it was the financial crisis leading to unemployment which
resulted in immigration from Mexico to US and at the same time there was rise in drug
trafficking because a lot of Americans lost their jobs. Rising immigration and drug trafficking
and are both correlated and basis that the law enforcement agencies are assuming that due to
immigration the drug trafficking levels has increased. They are attributing a causal relationship
between the two. But is not true. It is the unemployment which has led to increased immigration
and it is the increase in unemployment which is also resulted in more and more people dealing in
drugs because they had nothing to do. This essentially is the problem with Appearance/Racial
based profiling.
Lastly, Suspect based profiling that has to do with terrorism and to do with screening people for
security at the airport. So, individuals belonging to a particular nationality, religion and dressed
in a particular way are more likely to be taken aside for intensive checking. This principal is
usually followed at the airports (appearance based profiling). People who are traditionally
dressed (Asians in general)- Indian women wearing saree, jewelry and men in kurta pajama are
way more likely to be intensively to be taken aside for a pat down and not only in the US but
also in European countries and Australia. Appearance based checking and pat down is extremely
common in airports in order to test for terrorism but a lot of research tells that it is not a very
effective way for screening for terrorism.
About 20 years ago there was a particular kind of behavioral screening in place called Computer
Assisted Passenger Pre Screening techniques and abbreviated as CAPS. In US there is active
recognition that appearance based profiling is not very effective as far as terrorism is concerned
and what they started testing is a more behavioral based profiling – CAPS. Now being
implemented and extensively used in the US. They are based on certain information which is
generated from the passenger before the passenger actually arrives at the airport and boards the
flight. Information related to very basic behavior of the passenger. Research tells that (info
related to basically how many tickets are booked by the passenger, whether cards or cash used
while booking the tickets) individuals who book single ticket, who book ticket for only forward
journey and no return journey, passengers who use cash for booking (in US the use of card is
more common sousing cash becomes a differentiating factor), passengers using cards and
booking tickets of multiple people with different second names (not family tickets)- these
individuals are more likely to engage in acts of terrorism.
Although these systems are fairly high in effectiveness but they have low efficiency and that is
the basis for a lot of criticism. Effectiveness means when we are using such technological or
behavioral based mechanisms then the probability of actually locating a potential terrorist is way
more. So the effectiveness is more than the simple appearance based profiling. Nonetheless the

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efficiency is less which means that a lot of individuals would be taken aside for a pat down and
most of these would be innocent people and a very small fraction would actually qualify to be
potential suspects. But in the end suspect based or behavioral based profiling is a very effective
way for screening potential terrorist.

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3. Geographical Profiling/ Geographical Mapping- It is useful when there are certain
territorial or spatial aspects which are evidently associated with a particular crime scene. So
when there are specific geographical areas where crimes are more likely to occur then essentially
geographical profiling is carried out. There are distinct geographical and spatial patterns to the
crime it is in that context when geographical profiling is carried out. There are 2 separate ways in
which geographical location based analysis can be done.
 Geographical Profiling- The kind and analysis of the spatial movement which is
associated with one particular criminal, usually the spatial movement of a serial killer.
Because only if an individual is a serial killer that the person will engage in multiple
serial killing activities and it is only then where the spatial movement of the person
becomes important or relevant to the law enforcement department of the particular area.
 Geographical Mapping- Analyzing the spatial pattern of occurrence of a crime in a
particularly larger area. And these crimes can be associated with multiple offenders over
a period of time. Maps highlighting locations where crimes are more likely to occur,
areas sensitive to criminal activity. These documents maintained by law enforcement
agencies to keep record of areas more sensitive to criminal activities.
Kim Rossmo, an American forensic psychologist has done a lot of research in the area. Most of
the research in the area got triggered towards the end of the previous century. And this included
Rossmo’s work too (Late 1990s). He used a particular computer based technique to analyze and
interpret the geographical movement of a serial killer and called this technique- Criminal
Graphic Targeting. And this technique got implemented in the US in 1995. The basic purpose of
this technique was to be able to locate the base of the serial killer or the specific space from
where the serial killer is actually functioning and it was nothing but plotting of topographical
maps associated with the criminal activity of the serial killer. The topographical map of the area
are a detailed one and these maps were the probability of commission of crimes in a particular
area by the particular serial killer and was plotted on the map and this plotting was based on
previous behavior and movement patterns of the serial killer and along with this any anticipated
movement patterns. The future likelihood or future locations where a serial killer was likely to
strike was based on a lot of ‘known information’ and a lot of assumed probabilities.
Known Information-Where has the crime previously been committed and on the basis of that an
inference drawn with respect to what are the comfort zones of the serial killer. The technique
was used to figure out both from where the serial killer was based and also to predict what would
be his next place of target. Information based on geographical mapping was also then utilized as
part of these topographical maps in order to get an understanding of which are these sensitive
and high risk areas of that location which essentially offer conditions congenial to commission of
that kind of a crime.
Rossmo also gave a typology based on the hunting patterns of the serial killer. He said that when
specific spatial locations are involved and there is a specific movement pattern to serial killer,
then this individual can be classified into one of the 4 categories. So a very distinct pattern is

9
seen in cases of psychopaths and serial killers and depending upon this spatial movement, if
there is a pattern and depending upon this spatial movement if there is a pattern then the spatial
movement can be categorized under one of the 4 categories.
1. HUNTERS- Are individuals who roam about their base and thus depending upon where
there base is. They roam and step out specifically from their base looking for a victim and
have a clear idea about who the victim is. They Have certain features in mind and thus
roam to across an individual who fits the description which they have in the mind. They
follow this target for a long period of time, plan out for how they would attack them and
gradually execute their crime. They definitely have an image of the victim in mind.

2. POACHERS – Also, a similar category, the only difference being that the poachers were
more transient as far as their spatial movement is concerned whereas hunters were more
likely to roam about their base and their territory was usually smaller and attacked people
who were closer to their base. Poachers are likely to travel longer distances and maybe
spend a little more time at a place away from their base and then locate the victim and
attack him. Other than the spread of the spatial location the pattern was exactly the same
between the hunters and the poachers. High level of planning and control that was
depicted in these crimes.

3. TROLLERS- These are very different from the hunters and the poachers in the sense
that they do not set out with the intent of searching the victim. They do not actively go
out on a hunt for the victim but as part of their everyday activities, they come across
certain people who trigger some aggressive tendencies in them and because of this
triggering, they end up committing the crime. The trigger happens at the moment but in
case of hunters and poachers the trigger is a constant phenomenon.

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4. TRAPPES- A category in which the individual/criminal (very common in cases of
psychopathy) where they create certain situations in order to lure the victim or to attract
them to their base instead of actively going out in search of victim or just randomly
coming across the victim. The situations herein are created to attract to the base of the
operation. (Movie- Hostel typical example of trappers) There is an elaborate base that is
set up with all the equipment so as to execute the crime after luring. To trap, like there
can be fake advertisements in the newspapers maybe an ad for an interview which is not
authentic-just to trap the people who would attend the interview.
The first 3 kinds of criminal profiling which is where the suspects are unknown to us. In the
other 2 kinds (psychological autopsy and psychological profiling), the criminal is known to us
and that he is the one who has committed the crime and an analysis is conducted on the person
simply to understand the psyche of the person concerned. In case where the person is alive and is
readily available for conducting the analysis then in that case the psychological profiling is
conducted but when the person is dead then in such a case, psychological autopsy is conducted.
PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY- This is 3 folds and Is frequently called as ‘Reconstructive
Death Analysis’ or ‘Reconstructive Psychological Analysis’ which is also frequently known as
‘Equivocal Death Analysis’. It is basically a procedure which is conducted to figure out the
manner of death of the person. The focal point being the person who is dead and it is performed
with the perspective of understanding what led to the death of the person or what was the manner
of the death of the person. In this case the person/object of analysis is known and by way of
understanding what led to the death of the person, the end goal is to differentiate between if there
are people involved in the death of the person, then who these people are.
Manner of Death- the term ‘Equivocal Death Analysis’ coined by Edmin Shneidman, in the
context of the large number of cases of death that were coming up which were unexplained and
unambiguous. And it is this when the services of Shneidman were utilized who then acted as a
forensic psychologist. The procedure used by him- ‘Equivocal Death Analysis’ (equivocal’-
unambiguous, something unclear). So the death being unambiguous and thus the procedure
named so. With other various strategies also being used, there is a broader term used now, which
is, psychological autopsy. Also explained the Manner of Death to imply something.
Shneidman stated 5 manners of death of a person-
1. Accidental
2. Natural (illness-cancer, heart attack, etc.)
3. If neither of the above two then someone is involved in killing the person, and if himself
then Suicidal.
4. Homicidal- when someone else is involved in killing the person.
5. Undetermined Death, the cause is unknown.
Initially the idea of psychological autopsy or specifically equivocal death analysis was used and
introduced in the area of undetermined deaths where the manner of death remained unknown.

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Today it is most commonly used in area of Suicides, specifically used to determine the series of
events that led to the commission of suicide in the individual. In this context there are 2 specific
terms that are used-
 ‘Suicide Psychological Autopsy’- The term used if used in cases of suicide.
 ‘Equivocal Death Psychological Autopsy’- The term used if used in the area of
undetermined death.
Shneidman very actively differentiated between the ‘manner of death, and the ‘cause of death’.
For instance, a person goes on hills for a vacation, falls off from the edge of the hill and ends up
dying. The cause of death in this case would be- Falling off from the death. The manner of death
could be accidental (if slips), could be a suicide (if himself jumps off), could be homicidal (if
accompanied by few friends and they push him), could be natural (if had a weak heart and
reaching the edge of the cliff gets a heart stroke if he is phobic of heights).
So when it is known that what resulted in the falling then the manner of death could be any of the
5 but if it is not known then the equivocal death analysis is performed and potentially lead to
what led to the death of the person.
From a legal perspective, the cases in which psychological autopsy can be used- whether there
were people responsible for killing someone, can be used by insurance agencies esp. the western
ones to determine whether the death is a suicide or death is due to some other manner. If suicide
then insurance can’t be claimed. Also can be used by legal agencies to determine the role that
someone else has to play in a suicide.
‘Reconstructive Death Analysis’- Where the possible manner of death is being reconstructed
psychologically.
The procedure which is followed as part of psychological autopsy is a very wide open ended
procedure and this is one major problem with performing a psychological autopsy that here is no
standardized procedure which is followed to conduct a psychological autopsy. It, to a very large
extent depends on the experience and expertise of the psychologist who conducts the
psychological autopsy.
One of the primary tool used as part of psychological autopsy is interviews with the relatives,
acquaintances, friends, colleagues at work, and peers at school of the person who has died or
anyone who could give valuable information in order to get the complete picture of the context
of the death of the person. However there are major limitations of conducting interviews with
relatives in case of suicide- that when you try to construct a narrative of the death of the person,
then essentially you get a colored or subjective perspective about the person. A perspective
which is shaped by the appraisals of the interviewee and the relative and there is no way to get an
objective picture or understand how the person who has died interpreted the reality. So, you can
get some vague understanding of the context of the person, of the environment of the person but
that certainly cannot be same as the person himself. But if you integrate a large number of
perspectives and data then to a certain extent it is possible to develop a potential narrative for the
person who has died. The interview of the relative is the only aspect where the primary data

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about the subject is collected. All the other aspects are based on reviewing information which is
already existing about the person. This reviewing would encompass 5 broad categories-
1. Reviewing the history of the person. History would encompass any medical condition
that the person had. Collecting Psychological history details. To collect educational and
occupational history details of the person. Academic (educational) achievement has
been known to be a direct reflector of the health (both physical and mental) of the person.
If a person is physically chronically unwell then the person is likely to underperform and
if is chronically psychologically unwell then is to underachieve and if is continuously
facing issues then is likely to reflect in his academic achievements. Now in occupational
history, for instance if the person is high on anxiety is likely to switch jobs more
frequently because there is a problem of anxiety that they possess but when they start
going to a workplace constantly they start associating that anxiety which triggers in the
workplace. And therefore they are likely to switch their work area but the anxiety is
carried with them. So, the occupational history of the person is likely to offer valuable
inputs to the analysis of the psychologist concerned. Along with that the family history
of any psychological problems or any history of domestic violence, abuse in the family.
2. Analysis of the relationships. This category is especially important in cases of suicide
psychological autopsy where the case seems like and is more likely to be a case of
suicide, where the purpose of conducting the autopsy is to understand the phenomenon of
suicide and the psycho socio factors which lead to suicide and from that perspective, an
understanding of the relationships of the person is very important. Specifically from the
perspective of understanding any attachments or any support systems that the person had
and perhaps how a lack of attachment and support systems may lead the person in
committing suicide. (inter-marital conflicts, separation, divorce, conflicts with children or
parents, relationship with children, parents or immediate relatives is analyzed)
3. Lifestyle of the person. Lifestyle would encompass an understanding what the typical day
of a person would look like- the activities that the person engages in from early morning
over a period of time in the entire day till the time he goes off to sleep. This is the most
basic form of analysis of the lifestyle of the person. But it also focusses on looking at
certain possible deviant behavior in the person. It could be a case of substance abuse, or
where the person actively engaged with alcohol or drugs or was engaging with a deviant
peer group.
4. Understanding the pre-death behavior of the person. This can be taken as the sub
category of lifestyle but it forms a separate category because it gives important indication
with respect to the death of the person. This analyses the behavior of the person in the
past few days before the death of the person and how that behavior had changed and was
different from the long standing behavior or the normal lifestyle of the person.
Specifically in the case of suicides- writing a will, detachment from things that he earlier
used to value and even giving away of prized possessions to other people, contemplation
of various ways of killing oneself or talking of suicide in a very casual way with family,
quitting job. So any deviation from the normal regular lifestyle of a person could be
potentially reflective of the intention to commit suicide in the person.

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 5. Pre-death events. What transpired on the day of death of the person? So at max from a
day before what transpired and so even if there was any intention to commit suicide is it
possible that there could be other factors which might be involved and specific activities
during the day or immediately preceding the event of the death, what were these events
and activities and any potential valuable information which these might be offering to the
person.

Last category is that of psychological profiling. Psychological profiling is an analysis of the

psyche of a convicted criminal. So once the crime has been established, the criminal has been
convicted and once the law enforcement agency knows for sure that this was the person who
committed the crime then a psychologist could be employed in order to analyze this person from
a psychological perspective, simply to understand what went into making this criminal and what
were the psychological traits and characteristics of this person concerned. In most cases these are
psychopaths and serial killers who are imprisoned and usually a psychologist is involved in
assessing them and also in interventions and administering treatment. This falls under the process
of psychological profiling.

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MAJOR LIMITATION TO PROFILING
The most important limitation of profiling which applies to all methods of profiling- that it is in
essence categorical in nature and that in itself is problematic inherently from the perspective of
categorizing human behavior. Human behavior is not amenable to categorization because any
human trait be it a normal, deviant or an abnormal trait, varies along a continuum and therefore it
becomes problematic when you are trying to make very concrete categories as far as human
behavior is concerned. And therefore although in profiling we constantly talk about
categorization of human behavior, it is more for the purpose of convenience and the ease with
which we deal with the data rather than guaranteeing effectiveness and efficiency. So it might be
at the cost of efficiency of understanding human behavior but because human behavior offers an
entire plethora or range of variables therefore for us to be able to manage, handle and understand
human behavior and to be able to make valid inferences out of it, it becomes important for us to
categorize it but this categorization might not be a direct reflection of reality.
Even the categorization of a crime scene as an Organized v a Disorganized crime scene should
rather be understood as varying on a continuum than being two distinct categories because even
if it is not a mixed crime scene (a crime scene which has almost equal elements of organization
and disorganization), it would still have some elements of other categories. Thus it is productive
to understand ‘categories’ as lying on a continuum rather than as distinct, concrete, watertight
categories in themselves. It is desired that continuums be created rather than categorization but
creating continuums adds to the complexities and adds to the number of variables which you
recognize are present whereas, categorization is more convenient and gives us relatively fixed
categories and easier categories to work with and understand human behavior.
So, therefore in the name of convenience, in the name of ease of handling and managing and
inferring data, categories are created but they might not be a direct reflection of what human
behavior is actually entails.

OTHER OBJECTIONS/LIMITATIONS TO PROFILING

These are more applicable to crime scenes or geographical profiling rather than the other sorts.
One of the major limitations of ‘crime-scene profiling’ is-
The assumption that certain characteristics of the crime scene are likely to reflect certain
specific behaviors or traits of an individual which are universally applicable. This
assumption of one on one correspondence is based on certain universal generalized principles to
the ignorance of individual differences. So, an awareness of the fact that human behavior is
extremely varied and there might not necessarily be a one on one correspondence between what
is seen and the trait which actually exists. The recognition of this limitation is extremely
important which gives the investigator a certain amount of flexibility in drawing conclusions
about behavior. Inflexible adherence to this (limitation) can lead to an inaccurate profiles which
might be created and might be of no use in the process of investigation. So one needs to be

15
careful while drawing generalized inferences about human behavior on the basis of elements
which are present on the crime scene.
Another limitation applicable to both crime scene profiling and geographical profiling, more
applicable to these is the assumption of Trans- temporal and Trans- spatial or tans-
situational consistency of behavior. It is the assumption that the behavior of the criminal or the
perpetrator is going to be same across situation, space and locations and across time. (The modus
operandi or the manner of execution of the crime is likely to change over a period of time and
also across situations). For instance, as the serial killer gains more and more experience with the
commission of the crime, he is likely to lead to more refinement and at least some modification
in the manner in which he executes the crime. So if we stick to elements which were seen in the
first crime scene and the inference that were drawn from that then it shall lead to a misleading
profile because the perpetrator is altering his behavior as time progresses through experience
(like bodily changes- grows old, become weak and the manner of commission of crime changes.
Initially maybe the weapon wasn’t used due to strength in the person but eventually one might
find the use of arms in order to control the victims a little more.).
Also there are trans-situational and trans-spatial variations are there. So depending upon what the
situation has to offer, the modus operandi is also likely to change. Then one has to keep
accounting for and acknowledging these changes over a period of time and across situations. As
we keep introducing more and more variables, (for instance, accounting for trans-temporal
variations is introduction of a variable where we say that the behavior varies on the basis of time
as well) the process of profiling becomes more complicated. The purpose of profiling is to
reduce variables and practice more control on the inferences one is drawing. And when one is
trying to account for all these variables and process is becoming more and more complex,
difficult to execute and therefore the effectiveness and accuracy might also be decreasing over a
period of time.
The unsustainable assumption about the power of personality of the perpetrator to
overpower the situation. Esp. in crime scene profiling, for instance, we are constantly drawing
a sketch of the personality of the perpetrator and essentially say that everything happening at the
crime scene is a reflection of the personality of the perpetrator and therefore it is the personality
of the perpetrator and the perpetrator which is responsible for everything happening at the crime
scene. We function on the basis of a unilateral assumption wherein there is a perpetrator with a
specific kind of personality and that personality in turn is affecting everything and is the sole
determinant of everything that is present at the crime scene. And this assumption in itself is
highly flawed because if the entire crime scene is looked at with a holistic global perspective, we
would find that the perpetrator is just one element in the entire plethora of elements which are
affecting the crime scene, which determine what is happening at the crime scene.
Another very important element is the victim himself. So everything that happened at the crime
scene also the manner in which the crime was executed is not solely the refection of the
personality of the perpetrator. But is also a direct reflection of the victim. So, for instance, there
was a robbery and breaking into a house and when the perpetrator actually went in he found that
there was a woman present who was very strong and composed in the face of a crisis and

16
therefore able to put up a strong defense. So the elements found at the crime scene then would
not only be a reflection of the perpetrator but also of the victim (he woman). Crime scene
profiling is very significantly eliminating the role of the victim. So what is important then is to
take perpetrator/offender perspective but also shift the perspective and take victim perspective
into consideration. And both these perspective together in unity form an important element, an
interdependent element of the crime scene. This in turn would lead to specific analysis with
respect to what elements of the crime scene were responsible and are a reflection of the victim
personality which in turn is likely to improve the final categorization of profile that we have
because we have simply systematically eliminated the victim elements which are relevant from
the victim perspective and therefore we have a clear unique offender perspective.
Also geographical profiling- when we talk about the spatial movement of the perpetrator we
assume that the spatial movement is almost entirely dependent on the likings of the choices
which the offender has made. But to very large extent that might also be a reflection of where a
perpetrator is finding the victims, where is a greater likelihood of locating the victim to begin
with. So taking victim perspective becomes important.
Specifically, the suspect based profiling, when we make very specific generalized principles
then that becomes problematic. This is called- taking an idiographic approach vs. nomothetic
approach. (an idiographic approach is about studying the uniqueness of an individual and
drawing principles which highlight or focus on the uniqueness of individual behavior and
differences rather than on drawing a generalized body of data. By contrast, the nomothetic
approach focusses on drawing generalized principles about human behavior which are
universally applicable rather than specific aspects which has to do with individual differences).
When we take crime scene profiling we take an idiographic approach where you analyze data to
draw principles about the traits or characteristics of one individual-the one committing the crime.
So in the context of suspect based profiling it is always said that it should take a nomothetic
approach wherein behavior based principles about a general category should be drawn, principles
which apply to a large number of people rather than unique principles which apply to a very
small group of people. Like- where description based on nationality is given, the moment we talk
about nationality we kind of minimize the group that we talk about and this becomes idiographic
in nature. (Also- style, religion, etc. minimizes the group because the principle talks of a specific
group then). Because someone’s dress looks like that of Osama Bin Laden therefore that person
is more likely to be a terrorist and this essentially is a very biased approach to suspect based
profiling and needs to be avoided.
A more nomothetic approach would be- passenger pre-assessment, wherein we say that it is the
behavior of the individual rather than the general description of what the person looks like that
should be basis for screening of terrorism. A description like- what is the behavior at the time of
booking a ticket and what is the behavior which is more likely to make the individual a terrorist-
booking a single ticket, booking tickets for multiple last names on the same credit card. So
behaviors like this can be done by the entire population (global). And therefore we have a
principle which technically is applicable to anybody and everybody who is flying without
excluding any part of the population. This becomes a nomothetic approach.

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So crime scene based profiling should be idiographic in nature that would takes to this one
individual that we are looking for. But suspect based profiling needs to be nomothetic in nature
which gives us a larger target group not focusing on individuality.
Psychological Autopsy- The limitation of profiling is the lack of a standardized protocol and is
only suggestive in nature. So, in crime scene based profiling we would still find some crime
scene based concepts which are used (aspects like- risk assessment, organized v disorganized
crime scene), you would still find that there are certain concepts and ideas, certain structure to it.
But in case of psychological autopsy it is a completely open ended process and to a very large
extent it is dependent on the expertise of the profiler or the psychologist who is conducting the
crime. There is a rough broad protocol which is followed. Depending on the one who conducts
the autopsy, the specific protocol and the procedure followed is going to vary. So there is a
severe lack of a standardized procedure for conducting a psychological autopsy and brings in a
lot of subjectivity in the process. And it is a relatively newer concept so perhaps there is a need
to develop a standardized protocol and procedure to conduct it.
On the other hand, psychological profiling is considered to be a very robust form of profiling
and it is because the situation is such which can lead to a very high level of accuracy. We know
who the perpetrator is and we use very standardized tests from the field of psychology.
Procedures and aspects that have been researched, developed and standardized over a long period
of time. And therefore use an objective criteria in order to get details of the characteristics and
personality make up of an individual who is known to us. And therefore it lends itself to very
high accuracy and effectiveness rates. But it is not true for psychological autopsy. Another
reason for it being that the individual to be studied is dead and thus no objective way of
obtaining data from a person who is dead and this then would inherently have subjectivity.

INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Psychological sketch of a person is profiling and that is an investigative tool. Investigative
psychology is a broader branch and 3 main aspects of investigative psychology (there are others
as well) are to do with profiling, deception & lying and with offender identification. All of
these are techniques which aid in investigations. So profiling then becomes a specific sub
domain of investigative psychology where the crime scene is investigated and the profile of the
perpetrator is created. The second sub domain is- deception and lying, when you take for
instance, interviews, talking to people (investigating a crime) and through the process try to
figure out whether the witness or a suspect is telling the truth or is trying to lie and this is a
specific application of detection of deception techniques and specific reteach in that area. The
third being- offender identification which has to do with, for instance a witness is brought in a
legal set up and is asked to identify who the perpetrator was then what are the possible errors in
this process. Then eye witness testimony becomes a part of identification procedures.
Investigative psychology is a term which was first used by David Canter in 1985 specifically in
the context of Scotland wherein Canter proposed that the processes of investigation, the
procedures which were undertaken by Scotland yard to investigate their crimes should be

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integrated with principles of psychology and essentially to make these procedures and techniques
more sound and robust in nature. So the underlying psychological principles should be
discovered and therefore only the discovery of these underlying fundamental psychological
principles are likely to lead to a more better set of procedures in place. A modification and a
betterment of the techniques and procedures which are used during investigations and that
essentially was result of an active recognition by Canter that when you are investigating there are
essentially humans involved as part of any investigation and in order to improve these techniques
of investigation which are being used on humans, an understanding of human psyche is
extremely important.
Canter defined Investigative Psychology as the application of psychological research and
principles to the investigation of criminal behavior. So in any field wherein we utilize a
psychological understanding of individuals under the larger domain of investigation during an
investigative process that would then qualify to fall under investigative psychology. It is a broad
open ended definition which is true for any of the sub domains of psychology. It is only for our
better understanding and convenience rather than offering any separate individual value in
themselves and therefore have separate domains under forensic psychology.
Specifically while describing investigative psychology Canter said that during investigations any
behavioral or psychological analysis is likely to serve 3 basic purposes for us.
1. Understanding the behavioral content of the crime which is committed with the end goal
to ensure better identification and prosecution of the perpetrator. So when we classify
crime scenes as organized and disorganized, we are essentially doing that on the basis of
certain behavioral content which is present there, which is how the crime was executed.
2. To draw an inference about specific characteristics and traits of the perpetrator again with
the end goal to identify the perpetrator.
3. The prediction of criminal behavior with regards to when, where the next crime is likely
to be committed in case of serial killers or simply what are the other kind of criminal
activities which this individual is likely to be involved in.
So then any psychological analysis which is done as part of investigative psychology should
have a descriptive and explanatory value and inferential value but at the same time it should also
have a predictive value wherein you are trying to predict the future behavior of the offender or
trying to predict the other kinds of crime which the individual is likely to commit.

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DECEPTIVE BEHAVIOR
Trying to present a picture which actually is not true and could be about oneself or regarding
anything at all. Within the criminal justice system deception and detection of deception is very
common because whenever there are investigations, interviews with witness or potential
criminals, then the investigator always has to be careful with respect to whether a person is
telling the truth or not. So even when the person is not actively involved in using technique
which are associated with detection of deception, in any criminal interviewing process, the
awareness of whether the person is lying or not or focus on some queues that the person might be
giving out which might be indicative of lying should always be kept in mind.
A deceptive behavior has broadly been understood as ‘any behavior which is aimed at concealing
or giving out incorrect information and could be complete concealment of information or
misrepresentation of information with the intent to mislead the investigator or the criminal
justice system. When incorrect facts are given out without the intention (out of no awareness,
inadvertently, accidently giving incorrect facts) of misleading the justice system then that
wouldn’t qualify to be a deceptive behavior. Establishing intent is difficult. To establish intent
we end up using same queues and the same techniques that we used for detection of deception in
general.
The most basic question that arises is- Are people any good at detecting deception or lying?
Familiarity with one particular person can play a role in you getting a feeling whether he is lying
or not (like when you are friends with someone). But the general answer given by researches is-
NO and people are not good and do not have the capacity to detect deception. In fact research
tells that layman’s ability to detect deception is actually poor in most cases. A lot of this research
is done by- Paul Ekman. He has done research in the field of psychology in non-verbal behavior
and specifically started the research with the establishment of the fact that there are a lot of
universal queues which are associated with certain emotions and therefore they are innate in
nature. Ekman used people from multiple cultures and he used the pictures of these people
emoting and exposed a lot of individuals with these pictures (shown them). This research
essentially suggested that irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, race, color and the background-
he was still able to gauge the correct emotions by the facial expression (the most basic
expression- happiness so whenever anyone would see the pulled muscles on the face anyone
would know that the person is happy and thus this being universal). He said that culture does not
necessarily play a role in determining the expression of these emotions and therefore these
emotions become universal in nature. This was the base how Ekman started his research in
emotions.
So in his research upon lying and deception by regular normal people he concluded that people
normally don not have good abilities to detect deception and people are no better to detect
deception in more than 60% of the cases. (This 60% in isolation might seem a significant number
but purely basing the judgment on whether someone is lying or not on chance factors then what
are the probability that you will be able to detect whether someone is lying or not). So when we

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are asked that whether a person is lying or not then our chances of guessing it right would be
50%. So if your chance of 50% of being right and then your own logic amounting to 60% then it
is not of significance.
Another point brought up was that it depends on the experience of the investigator. A lot of
research of Ekman tells that even when an individual has experience and an individual is very
confident with regards to the accuracy of his response (whether someone is lying or not), even in
these cases the figures are not very pleasing. And they are no better than a layman in detecting
deception. 29% is the highest figure that Ekman has arrived at and says that 29% of experts in
the field of detecting deception- individuals who have significant amount of experience in the
area, even when research is done on these people-roughly not more than about 29% have
accuracy rates greater than 80%.
What differentiates one who has high ability in detecting deception from someone who is not
doing as well? He says that individuals who actually had an accuracy over 80% relied on
multiple queues and signals of potential lies which an individual was giving out. So, instead of
relying only on non-verbal cues (cues which are more frequently looked at when one is trying to
gauge whether there is deception or not) most good detectors rely on both non- verbal and verbal
cues and multiple specific signals which the individual gives out and this increases the accuracy
of detecting deception. He also points out that an individual who has a lot of experience (older
investigators) were to a certain extent less accurate in detecting deception esp. in cases where
proper training was not given to these individuals (only experience and no training).
The first and foremost reason which Ekman gives for that is Functional Fixedness. It is a kind
of a heuristic (heuristics are mental shortcuts, rule of thumb which we use frequently and rely on
them because it is a convenient, quicker way of processing information and uses up fewer
cognitive resources. But they might not necessarily be accurate.) and is a result of the usage of a
lot of heuristics. When we rely a lot on heuristics then it might result in a particular form of or
manner of thinking or appraising information which is called functional fixedness. And we have
a tendency to use objects as they have been traditionally used or solve problems by using the
same techniques which we have traditionally used to follow those problems and functional
fixedness then restricts out of the box thinking. Functional fixedness restricts your creativity.
Now applying this concept to this particular area, Ekman said that individuals who are old and
have experience suffer from high level of functional fixedness which means they tend to appraise
the cues which they get from an individual in very traditional ways (ways which have been used
ever since) and this results in limited ability to come up with new and novel ideas to appraise
cues and therefore the ability to detect deception is poorer than individuals who have just started
and have little experience. This is the cognitive reason.
The second reason that he states is poorer observation powers. So younger individuals have
better observational powers, better abilities to gauge verbal and non- verbal cues from
interviewees as compared to older individuals who because of age, monotony of work, lack of
interest results in poor observational abilities. Ekman also pointed out that there are no real

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gender differences in detecting deception in layman or an experienced individual. Men are as
good as women and are equally at par in detecting deception.
Experience and training do not go hand in hand. So individuals can be trained to become better at
detecting deception if adequate training techniques and updated training techniques are used in
training these individuals. So studies with respect to trainings give mixed results with respect to
the impact of trainings. In fact most studies tells that when training techniques which are used
are traditional and old and may be outdated in nature then that might actually lead to decreased
accuracy rates as far as detection of deception is concerned. Studies show that a lot of detectors
of deception who are trained in the Reid method of interrogation and observation do not actually
perform better than individuals who are not trained. Reid method is a traditional method of
interrogation and observation of cues and thus lead to poorer abilities to detect deception and one
of the reasons why this happens is – functional fixedness because they have been trained in a
certain way which might be outdated which is restricting them to those outdated traditional ways
and they kind of do not use any new or novel ways of detecting deception. But at the same time
what also is at work is the false confidence level which an individual gets and confidence has in
most cases been negatively co-related with accuracy which means that if confidence levels are
too high and individuals are not well equipped to detect deception then it is likely to lead to
poorer accuracy rates in detecting deception in individuals. So poor training methods convey
false confidence to people in their ability to detect deception which in turn results in poor
accuracy. But if more up to date techniques are used to train individuals then training is
definitely likely to have a positive impact in detecting deception.
Truth Wizards- It is the term specifically used in the context of these people who have been
well trained and are aware and use multiple avenues. And they have excellent accuracy levels.
They use multiple cues to detect deception: non-verbal, verbal (good mix of both) , they also
have training in multiple techniques of deception and because of this rich arena of techniques
that they are aware of their accuracy rates are significantly high.
Comparative studies which have been done on actual real life high stake situation tell us that the
avenues which can be used to detect deception in high stake situations are actually very different
from the avenues or cues which are used in low stake situations. So in high stake situations
which is close to real life situations where risk is high uncertainty is high and emotions are
intense, in these situations the emotional cues are very prominent. Emotional cues which give
away signs of deception. Ekman proposed the theory of- Leaky Channels Theory and said that
when individuals are experiencing very high levels of emotions then individuals tend to give
away some cues through channels which are normally not used as part of communication. So in a
normal, relatively relaxed situation people tend use certain avenues and these avenues are
prominently verbal avenues and some basic nonverbal avenues for communication. But when
stakes are high and is a high risk situation then very inadvertently in a very unconscious,
automated way people start using certain channels which tend to leak certain cues which are
associated with deception. These channels are emotional in nature and these channels might not
always be used as part of communication. It is these emotional channels which can be capitalized

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upon by the investigator to detect whether a person is trying to deceive or whether a person is
lying. And thus the term Leaky Channels.
Second situation where the stakes are low, are situations when there is an experimental set up.
When we experimentally try to study deception and lying then typically that would be a situation
where the stakes are low, where people are asked to lie and deceive and they are studied and
analyzed. Researchers tell that in these situations people tend to rely on thinking cues instead of
emotional cues or leaky channels, are more adequate in determining whether a person is lying or
not.
LEAKY CHANNELS V THINKING CUES
Thinking cues would be with respect to what is actually being said, the facts which the witness is
disclosing about the events which took place. Certain slips of tongue or the manner in which he
is saying and one of the typical ways in interrogating this person in case of a low stake situation
would be to gauge the inconsistencies in what he has said and to challenge those inconsistencies
at a later point or to look out for facts which are contradictory to the investigator’s pre-existing
knowledge and to later on challenge and say that we have evidence which supports otherwise
and you said this so how do you justify this! A reliance on what is being actually said, a reliance
on more reason based rational argumentation and counter argumentation is more apt for
situations which are less emotional situations and are not as high risk. Whereas on the other hand
a reliance on emotional cues, for instance, cues associated with high levels of physical arousal.
Now nonverbal cues associated with arousal- sweating, fidgety behavior, shaking ones leg, facial
expressions where it appears flushed and muscles tensed, the amount of eye contact which the
person is making- if lying then lesser amount of eye contact. All of these would qualify to be
basic and typical emotional channels which can be more relied on when the emotionality of the
situation is high and intense.
Why do nonverbal cues potentially have been considered as very important science of deception
why do they give away or disclose deceptive behavior?
There are multiple theories and approaches but 3 most pre-dominantly used approaches have
been used to explain nonverbal cues and their relationship with deception.
1. The Emotional or Affective Approach-
2. The Cognitive Complexity Approach/ Cognitive Capacity Approach
3. The Attempted Control Approach

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1. The Emotional or Affective Approach- Addressing the question- why do emotions give
way to deceptive behavior. Why behavioral manifestations are linked to high
emotionality? We say that there are emotions that a person is experiencing and because of
them there are some very evident behavioral manifestations and because in case of lying
the physiological arousal is high therefore these can be considered as potential signs of
deceptive behavior. Some people specifically categorical serial killers would experience
excitation at the thought of having deceived someone. So lying about their criminal
behavior would point that there is a possibility that they actually believe that they can get
away with it also leads to excitation. And to that extent it is not essentially a negative
affect or negative emotion but a positive emotion. But will lead to similar behavioral
manifestation of physiological arousal. So a good mix of both negative and potentially
positive emotion which might give way, at an emotional level, to deceptive behavior.
Behavioral manifestation of physiological arousal- sweating, fidgeting, gaze aversion,
inability to sit comfortably on a chair, fiddling with objects around, dry mouth, blinking a
lot of times.
A problem/major drawback with using the emotional approach as a technique of detecting
deception. For instance if we consider that there is an interviewee (potential suspect/witness)
who is being interviewed with respect to certain crime and is showing these kinds of
physiological arousal, then I am considering the possibility that he is probably lying and trying to
deceive. What is the flaw with this logic? This approach is the most initial, primitive approach
which is being used to detect deception which is still being used currently but one of the major
drawbacks of using the manifestations of a high emotionality as a kind of deception is a fact that
these manifestations of emotionality are actually more of a reflection of stress and anxiety rather
than a reflection of deceit and lying. So considering witnesses who are telling truth or who have
not done anything, they are also worrying and fearsome of not being believed. So the emotion of
fear is something which is not specific to the person who is trying to lie but is also present
generally in everyone who is being interrogated. And thus the ones who actually tell the truth
also due to fear and anxiety of not being believed undergo physiological arousal.
A lot of procedural evidence (Empirical Evidence- comes from empirical studies and researches
which have been conducted artificially with the purpose of studying a particular behavior.
Procedural Evidence- Essentially comes from normal procedures which are followed and an
analysis and observation of these normal procedures which are followed in reality when an actual
crime is committed and evidence obtained from those would fall under procedural evidence) and
studies conducted on observation and analysis of individuals who actually either committed or
not committed crime, suspects who have been interrogated by authorities and specifically
suspects who potentially face long term sentences in case they are found guilty. So a very high
stake situation where emotions are intense and a lot of research in these set ups tell us that in fact
a lot of suspects do not show a sign of gaze aversion and fidgeting which is considered as typical
signs of high emotionality. So the emotional approach would say that a person lying would blink
more often and not make eye contacts would fall under gaze aversion and fidgety behavior

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would be an indicator of deceptive behavior according to the emotional or affective approach.
But procedural evidence suggests that gaze aversion and fidgeting are not really associated with
deceiving in an actual high stake/stress situation. In fact the behavior which is depicted more
often in these situations is just the opposite. There is a high likelihood that the individual who is
likely to lie is actually fidgeting less and tend to engaging in lesser amount of gaze aversion.
These behavioral patterns of lower gaze aversion and lower fidgeting behavior is better
explained by the other 2 approaches.
2. The Cognitive Complexity/Capacity Approach- It is based on the fundamental assumption
that individuals have limited information processing capacity. This idea was first proposed by
Daniel Kahnman who gave the information processing models of human cognition and
projected that individuals have limited mental or cognitive capacity to process information. (One
of the theories of ‘attention’ talks about how we have limited information processing capacity
which is why we are selectively attending to a set of stimuli and preventing another set of stimuli
from entry into our cognition because we are incapable of processing and attending to all sensory
stimuli which are impinging upon our senses and the theory goes on to explain what are the
factors which determine which bits and pieces of information would be selected to enter into our
cognition) and all the behaviors that we are engaging in are essentially utilizing these specific
limited information processing capacity. Every possible behavior and also all the involuntary
activities (the fact that you are breathing automatically, heart beating, lungs moving) are also
utilizing that part of that limited information processing capacity in order to engage in any or
every behavior, whether voluntary or involuntary.
Considering, how the act of lying is in itself a cognitively demanding activity. Comparing the 2
situations- where someone is telling the truth and engaging in minimal information processing.
So simply just drawing the truth from ones memory which would take up some information
processing capacity but simply drawing information from someone’s memory and splitting it out
versus the process of fabricating a lie which is a way more complex process which also engages
several multiple processes at the cognitive level. So on one hand one is fabricating and at the
same time trying to remember what one is saying. So it is a process of creation and formulation
of a memory at the same time. So if I lie and tell a false story and telling a false story but I am
also at the same time remembering or memorizing everything that I am telling you which is also
cognitively engaging. One of the foremost reason for doing that- to remember what I have told
you so that at a later point I don’t contradict myself. At the same time in an interrogative
situation, while a suspect or an interviewee is fabricating or creating a lie and he is also taking
into account that the interviewee explains or accounts for all the evidence which the investigative
agencies have at hand. Again it is something which is cognitively more stressful.
Along with all the verbals which the individual is creating consider all the nonverbal which the
person is taking into account. So the person is also taking into account one’s own body language,
the person knows that probably one’s body language and nonverbal can be indicators of
deception. So a constant monitoring of one’s own body language and the indicators which the
investigator is communicating in order to make sure that the investigator is actually buying what
the person is saying and constantly monitoring the reactions of the investigator itself.

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At the end of all, the very act of suppressing the truth. So the very fact that I know what the truth
is and because I am lying therefore I need to suppress the truth and deny it. And suppressing the
truth in itself is a cognitively demanding task. The pre frontal cortex is way more illuminated
when the person is simply denying the truth as compared to person who is committing to the
truth. Pre frontal cortex is the executive center of the brain and is the working memory and the
part where all the cognitive information processing essentially takes place. A lot more cognitive
resources are exhausted when an individual is trying to lie as compared to when a person is
telling the truth which means that lesser amount of cognitive capacity or information processing
capacity is then available to engage in all other kinds of behavior. So all the involuntary
activities cannot stop (breathing, heart pumping, digestion, blood circulation all cannot stop) and
what the person can do in stopping at a voluntary level, the cognition would try to conserve the
limited processing capacity which is now available to person and this essentially then happens in
cutting down other behaviors of the person which includes- blinking, moving one’s eye here and
there which might increase the level of eye contacts, gaze aversion- a sign of stress and anxiety,
the person is more likely to make speech related errors, speech latencies (taking more time
between two words or two sentences than normal meaning that he has to think harder to use
language in comparison to a normal person or person telling the truth) would add to cognitive
load.
Added to this the entire ideology of cognitive load essentially say that the cognitive load of
somebody to test whether a person is lying or not if we further increase the cognitive load in
some cases then it is likely to lead to an increase in the behavioral manifestation of cognitive
load meaning that normally an individual is utilizing a certain chunk to lie or deceive and the
increased information processing capacity which is required to lie then the size of cognitive load
will increase manifold. And this essentially is done by the use of cognitive load induction
techniques.
Cognitive Load Induction Techniques- Simple techniques targeted at increasing the consumption
of the cognitive capacity of an individual. One of the most commonly used techniques is after the
individual has completed narrating the series of incidences, the individual is then asked to recall
the incidence in a reverse order. Even for a normal person telling a series of events in a reverse
order is vexing. Considering someone who is already exhausted a major chunk of the cognitive
capacity this would take up another chunk of the cognitive capacity leaving very little cognitive
capacity for the individual to process all other behaviors and this essentially would reflect in
greater number of signs of cognitive load which the individual will then start manifesting. An as
result speech errors, latencies are likely to occur because very less capacity is left to process the
information. Also leads to movement in arms and fingers and thus the fidgety behavior. This is
opposite to what the emotional approach says.
Another way to increase cognitive load is by introducing secondary concurrent/parallel task
along with the primary task which is the task of telling the story. This secondary task even if is
simple, uses a lot of part of the information processing capacity of the person. So even if the task
is simple, the research tells that in such a case the errors on both the primary and the secondary
task is likely to increase.

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Another technique which can be used for instance, after the person has narrated the series of
events there is some unique evidence presented to the person at later stage and the person is then
asked to account for that new evidence or info within the realm of the narration that he has
already given. Now he has to engage in greater level of cognitive information processing and
thus exhausting the cognitive processing. Along with fabricating the lie he now has to integrate
this new bit of information which would be additional cognitive load.
3. The Attempted Control Approach- Accounts for lower gaze aversion or lower levels of
fidgety behavior in a person who is actually telling a lie. This approach essentially says that
individuals who are lying, most of these individuals are coming to the investigative set up with
some pre-planning. The very fact that they know they have to lie, that they have to deceive, there
is some amount of pre planning in the head which already is going on when he is entering the set
up and if time is given to them then a large part of this planning is already happened before
entering the investigative set up. Planning with regards to what to tell and how exactly they
would tell it. Now when these individuals are planning they are also aware that the body
language might disclose signs or indicators of deceit. So while they plan, they also plan that how
they would behave, appear to the investigator. In turn what happens is that when they control and
regulate their own behavior they end up over controlling and then engage in behavior which
appears very regulative and pre planned and also rigid to a certain extent. Also lacks spontaneity.
Because they have planned and regulated their behavior, they are not very spontaneously
engaging, even in normal behaviors which truth tellers engage in. Research tells that when
individuals are given the time to plan they actually may end up making longer eye contact than a
normal individual would. This individual while planning is aware that less eye contact is an
indicator of deception and lying. In trying to monitor their behavior they try to sort of cover up
this gaze aversion by deliberately making longer eye contact and end up over regulating their
behavior.
Also one would be aware that excessive fidgetiness or any reflection or sign of uneasiness is
likely to reflect deception or lie and therefore they end up in appearing very rigid and inflexible..
Research also tells that individual who are lying actually end up smiling more often than truth
tellers in an interrogative set up. In order to mask their deceit they end up over controlling their
behaviors .
These are few of the important approaches which are used simply when direct observation is
being used to detect deception without the use of any specific strategy or aid in order to detect
deception. Also all these 3 might be happening at the same time. So the individual might be
depicting signs of anxiety and physiological arousal, might be trying to over control for one’s
behavior and also have exhausted to certain extent one’s cognitive capacity and thus show signs
of cognitive load. Today there is active recognition that simply the use of observation in
detecting deception without the use of techniques and aids is not a very effective way of
detecting deception.

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21/08/2019

TECHNIQUES TO DETECT DECEPTION

Unaided Techniques- Investigators are trained in certain strategies which enable them to be
better detectors of deception and are techniques which do not use any technology or other aid.
Technological Techniques- Where technologies are used to detect deception and which is the
scenario today where invariably every case detecting deception uses technology. This has
happened due to the recognition that no matter how much training is given, the human ability to
detect deception is limited. Also there is no harm if technology is available, then using
technology is always beneficial and increases efficiency.
As far as human strategies to detect deception are concerned, there are 2 strategies (unaided
techniques)-
1. Strategic Use of Evidence-Focusses on the kind of evidence which the investigator or
the law agency already possess with them with regards to the particular crime that is
investigated. And this technique bases itself on the fact- if the investigator possesses
some sound evidence and if he is himself well equipped with the evidence that is
available with him with respect to the case in hand and also with respect to the suspect in
hand then that can be utilized to increase the effectiveness and the efficiency with which
the detector can detect deception. It has to do with the manner in which the questioning
takes place and the manner in which the existing evidence is kind of integrated and
utilized in the questioning strategies by the investigator. This technique came into light
when investigators in the field of psychology started studying the psychology of guilt and
innocence, what are the cognitive biases which an individual has when an individual is
guilty versus when he is not guilty. That reflects in the kind of strategies which a person
uses while he investigated. So whether a person is guilty or innocent is in turn likely to
determine the basic psychological biases which an individual uses during ones cognitive
appraisal of the situation and which in turn is reflected the strategies which a guilty
person versus an innocent person brings in to the investigative situation.

*Aversive Conditioning- In the context of phobias, phobias are essentially avoidance

reaction and the entire conditioning paradigm is aversive conditioning. So there are 2 kinds
of responses here- Escape response and the Avoidance response. In context of the Rat waala
experiment,
Escape response and Avoidance response- After the electric current is passed at the base of
the chamber, the rats jump across to the other chamber. Escape learning after the onset of
negative stimulus. Another stimuli is coupled with the onset of the electric current, so if
classical conditioning is coupled with operant conditioning wherein there is a buzzer that
goes on and after that the electric current is passed then the rats will start jumping across to
the safer chamber even before the onset of the current. This then is the response not to the
passage of electric current but the buzzer. This becomes avoidance learning.

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Aversive conditioning pre supposes the existence of both forms of responses (avoidance and
escape).
The theory behind this technique posits that an individual who is guilty is more likely to come in
the investigative situation with a specific strategy in mind which innocent subjects would not
probably have and even if they do have, it wouldn’t be that detailed a strategy. The strategy
brought in by the guilty person is based on an aversive conditioning. The guilty individual will
try to avoid any situation which is threatening or which potentially has any punishment. So
people avoid the mentioning of any information which is likely to lead to a conviction or which
is likely to generate a threatening response. So the initial response is an avoidance response when
the interviewee is narrating the sequence of events he is to avoid any information which can
potentially lead to conviction. However if the individual is directly confronted with any such
potentially threatening information or one which can lead to a conviction, then he is likely to
engage in an escape reaction where he will actively deny that information.
On the other hand, an innocent suspect do not come with pre-determined strategies. What they
do come with is a mindset where they tell themselves that if they are honest and disclose
everything honestly then they are more likely to be believed and this particular thought pattern is
termed as- ‘Just World Belief System or Just World Bias’, which essentially means that if we do
good then good will happen to us and thus the belief by the innocent suspect. But however this
might not be true and thus it is called a bias. So if an investigator is coming to investigate a
suspect then the he will be suspicious or doubtful of the person concerned. The bias might not
necessarily be true but what is important is that innocent suspects believe that they will be
believed by the investigator whether or not that might be objectively true.
Also an associated cognitive bias which seen pre dominantly along with this bias in innocent
suspects, is the ‘illusion of transparency’. It is our tendency to overestimate the extent to which
the other person knows about our mental states or our internal states. We tend to believe that we
are transparent and therefore the people observing us also have an objective picture of our mental
states. It is prevalent in cases of public speaking, like- where a person while speaking in front of
a bunch of people believes that if he is too nervous or too anxious then others would probably
perceive his anxiety and nervousness and therefore he is going to engage in behaviors to mask
that anxiety or the nervousness. But this might not always be true- if a person meets someone for
the first time then the other person would not be aware of basic behavior patterns and if one does
not know the other then it is hard to tell if something that the person engages in is a characteristic
behavior of his or is it a reflection of anxiety. And illusion of transparency is- when one knows
about the other’s internal state.
The strategic use of evidence is based on the fact that the psyche with which a guilty individual
comes into the setup is different from that of an innocent person and therefore if the investigator
uses the evidence he knows in an appropriate way to investigate or question the 2 sets of
individuals then he is more likely to detect who is lying and who is not. Basic elements of
strategic use of evidence includes-

 The investigator shall be thorough with the evidence that he has in his possession.

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  Location of crucial bits and pieces of evidence which are potentially incriminating and
have enough potential to obtain a conviction against the suspect.
Locate those bits and pieces which the suspect might not be aware that the investigator
knows. The investigator is then expected to structure his questions around those bits of
information and pose those questions to the suspect in a manner that the suspect is not aware
that he is being pin pointedly being questioned about those bits and pieces of evidence.

 Building questions around the pieces of evidence in a vague camouflaged way such that
when the suspect is questioned he doesn’t feel that he is specifically being questioned
about that piece of evidence.
The process simply depicts- to get a free recall from the suspect with respect to the chronology
of events that took place followed by a questioning by the investigator wherein the focus of the
questions then becomes these pieces of evidences or information which are crucial for conviction
but are not known by the suspect. If the investigator directly asks a question with respect to
something that the suspect has avoided previously, the suspect shall switch from an avoidance to
an escape reaction and he will deny it. And once the escape or denial reaction comes in, it sort of
blocks the ability to collect any further information from the suspect.
In case of innocent suspects then the suspect will probably mention all these bits of evidences
that the investigator has sort of delineated and therefore there will be very little evidence of the
avoidance reaction and no question of the escape response tendencies.
The process of analysis here is simply targeted at locating statement-evidence inconsistencies.
Research tells that when a suspect is guilty then during questioning at multiple times he is
going to make a statement which is inconsistent or which counters the evidence which the
investigator already has and therefore the number of statement-evidence inconsistencies
are likely to be high in guilty suspects. On the other hand, individuals who are innocent,
statement-evidence consistencies are likely to be high wherein these individuals are asked
to explain any situation then they are likely to make statements which are consistent with
the evidence which the investigator already possesses and therefore the statement-evidence
consistencies are likely to be very high. Even at times if there are inconsistencies, even if
the statement which the suspect gives is countering the evidence has the consistencies to
be way higher. So if there is some incriminating evidence which the investigator has which
makes the person a suspect, if the suspect is innocent then he is likely to adequately explain
that evidence which he has. The avoidance reaction is not going to be there and if he is
questioned about it in an indirect manner and even if there is an avoidance reaction (if the
person forgets it or feels that it is not worth mentioning) then the escape reaction is not
going to feature in because when he is asked to explain then he is likely to do it in an
adequate manner if he is being honest and is innocent. The entire technique revolves around
locating statement-evidence inconsistencies in guilty individuals.
Research evidence offers very strong support for this technique and tells that investigators who are
trained in the strategic use of evidence, in locating evidence which is of importance in the
particular case and structuring their questions in an ambiguous manner- these investigators

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 are way more effective in detecting lies and deception as compared to investigators who
are not trained so. Accuracy rates as high as above 85%- 90% have been seen.
Another important element highlighted by research is that individuals who are trained in the
strategic use of evidence are more efficient in increasing the cognitive load (cognitive load
induction can be a technique of detecting deception and the behavioral response generated
out of cognitive load induction can offer important cues whether a person is lying or not)
of guilty suspect as compared to innocent suspect. This strategy also plays an important
role in extent of cognitive load which is induced in a person, specifically, if the method of
questioning is right then suspects who are guilty are likely to experience a greater level of
cognitive load as compared to suspects who are innocent which is extremely desirable.
2. Reality Monitoring
It is a way of content analysis. Initially it wasn’t even developed in the field of law and was
developed just to see how people recall information. A process of analysis used in the area of
cognitive psychology and specifically a methodology used in qualitative research analysis in
psychology and a specific technique under the broader sets of technique that we call CONTENT
ANALYSIS or NARRATIVE ANALYSIS. Basically there is some written content that we have
and we analyze that content (book review, character sketch- a form of content analysis). Under
this there is a specific technique which is called Narrative Analysis- an individual gives in depth
account of something and this narrative is analyzed to get a sense of the psyche of the person (an
analysis of the experiences of the trauma victims- detailed accounts of what happened with them,
what they went through). One particular form of narrative analysis is reality monitoring and
studies the difference between fictional content (been created out of the imagination of person)
and factual content (actually experienced). This strategy finds application in the field of law
wherein on the basis of the account which the suspect or the interviewee has presented
(narrative), one tries to gauge whether this narrative has come from a real source of information
or from a fictional source. Simply a process to determine that the statement which the suspect is
giving is sourced from an actual experience (implying that the person is telling the truth) or if the
narrative has elements which are reflective more of fictional creation. A process of assessing or
judging whether a person attributes the source of a memory to an external event or an internal
event. The statement made by the person essentially comes from the memory and is a recall of
the memory.
Memory coming from external source- what was actually happening, an experience (inference-
that the person is not deceiving)
Memory coming from an internal source- fictional, imagination (inference- the person is lying)

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Fundamental basis or the basic premise of reality monitoring is the fact that memories which
have been gained through experience are qualitatively different from memories which have been
created. The difference lies because when an event is experienced then the series of event’s
information has been gained through external information (information taken in through sensory
process) and then the account of that information is likely to be rich in perceptual or sensory
information. A lot of this information comes from the study done by Maricia Johnson and
Rayo. They were the first one to write in detail about the qualitative difference between an
experienced memory and a created memory.
How qualitatively different? Memories gained through perceptual information would be rich in
perceptual processes (based on sensation- info taken in through the 5 senses). The starting point
of any perception is sensation. Specific criteria/guidelines which will reflect whether a piece of
information is high on perceptual information and studies suggest that these can roughly be
divided into 3 categories-
1. SENSORY INFORMATION- Information or details about aspects which are related to
the 5 senses. High on visual information, auditory info, on info which is to do with smell
and the taste of certain aspect. So the descriptors would naturally include elements related
to the 5 senses and also with respect to tactile information.
2. CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION- Information which reflects perceptual processes is
high on contextual information, predominantly meaning the information which is to do
with time and space (temporal and spatial information). How objects and people were
placed around in the given space and when did the event take place and how long did the
event extend (a chronological production of info would be an inherent natural part of that
recollection)
3. AFFECTIVE INFORMATION- Details about feeling and would include details about
feeling of the self (how did the person feel while witnessing the event) And also how did
the other people in the setup feel.
Because information has been gained from an outside source through perception therefore it
naturally becomes rich in all of these elements. Another element associated with it is the element
of vividness and clarity. Because an information is not created or fabricated and is actually
witnessed, therefore the memory of it is more likely to be vivid and the info gained through
perceptual processes is again likely to be clear in the description.
By contrast the memories which are created, invented, essentially are not gained through
perceptual experience. The person has not experienced the events through sensory perceptual
process but at the same time has created these events. So because they are created they are likely
to be high on cognitive (created in mind) processes rather than perceptual processes. Since the
basis is cognition, these memories have a higher content of reasoning, analysis or thinking in
general. For instance, a descriptive like- ‘I was wearing a coat, it was very cold that night’. In
contrast to this a description which actually is exactly the same but instead of presenting sensory
information the focus is on reasoning- ‘I was wearing a coat that night “because” it was very

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cold.’ The first description focusses more on sensory information (‘wearing coat’-external
object, very cold- sensation). The second description providing the same information but the
focus becomes the reasoning there (trying to justify that information). Both narratives will have
perceptual and cognitive elements to it but it is the extent of reasoning and the relative amount of
perceptual and cognitive processes which gives an inclination towards whether it is an actual
experience or imagined experience. ‘As I entered the house, I heard the window glass crack’ vs.
‘As I entered the house, I heard a loud noise. It probably must have been the window glass that
broke.’ Considering that at the time of experiencing the event, the person entered the house, there
was a loud noise and after the person went upstairs he saw the glass shattered. So when that
memory was formed that inference of the glass shattering and the noise associated with the glass
shattering was encoded and stored in the long term memory of the person (real example of
constructive and reconstructive process).

*CONSTRUCTIVE AND RECONSTRUCTIVE PROCESS- Processes which are at work which

alter memory at the time of storage. Reconstructive processed essentially are alterations in the
memory once the memory has been stored.
The memory which was stored at the time was that the glass broke and therefore the person after
actually experiencing that event is giving a recall of that event- ‘As I entered the house I heard
the glass break’, when the person actually entered the house did the person know that it was the
glass of the window broken- NO. It was just the noise but because the memory stored was a
collection of all the inferences that were drawn at the moment therefore the actually memory
stored is likely to be high in perceptual and sensory processes. On the other hand, the second
statement is loaded with reasoning because the person while imagining that event has actually
reasoned that out actively in his head to create that event at a very conscious active level and
therefore when the person is recollecting or recounting the event, the memory also in turn is high
on reasoning (that because there is a noise, there must be the glass broken).
When it actually comes to the content analysis of such narratives, there is no standard format
which is followed and no standard prescription which is given as to how exactly such
information needs to be analyzed but in most cases analysis is usually done under 5 broad heads-
1. CLARITY AND VIVIDNESS- memories gained through actual experience naturally
have this element of clarity and more vivid in the accounts which they produce as
compared imagined and created memories and lack a sense of clarity. And thus relatively
more vague in their approach because the person has not actually experienced that event.
2. SENSORY INFORMATION- information with respect to, say, the taste- ‘A cloth which
was tied to my mouth and it tasted salty.’ An experience which has actually been taken
through perceptual experiences, on the basis of senses, a narrative is likely to very subtly
interweave all of these details very naturally (tasted salty). Whereas somebody who
imagined it is likely to say that there was a cloth tied around his mouth but probably
would not be bothered about mentioning the taste of it. With respect to touch or the
feeling in terms of pain that a person got- ‘I tripped, I fell on my hand and I had a
shooting pain.’ Very subtly woven but it gives an expression that the person actually
experienced it in contrast to just a description that ‘My eyes were tied therefore I tripped

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 and I hurt my arm.’ This person might also have said that there was pain my arm but
somebody who describes that pain or adds a tactile description to it (I had a shooting pain
in my arm) is probably giving an account out of an actual experience rather than an
account that he has created. LOUD NOISE- Imagined. LOUD SHRILL NOISE (sensory
descriptor) - actual experience.
3rd and 4th Category based on contextual information
3. SPATIAL INFORMATION- with respect to the location of objects and people within the
visual field of the person. If the person has actually witnessed the crime scene then this
person is more likely to naturally imbibe information with respect to what was located
and where. Instead of saying that the husband and wife were present he is more likely to
say that the wife was standing to the left of the husband.
4. TEMPORAL INFORMATION- Information with respect to what day was it, what time
of the day was it- a clear sequence of events. Clarity with respect to the chronological
order of the events.
5. COGNITIVE OPERATION- the extent of reasoning that the person has engaged in and
specifically in comparison to the extent of sensory and perceptual information that the
person has given. So any reasoning, any analysis that the person is engaging in would
then be a part of this category.
Any narrative which is likely to be created or imagined is going to be high on the 5 th category
and any narrative which the person has actually experienced and if the person is telling the truth
then that narrative is likely to be high on the first 4 categories and low on the 5 th category.
Research documents that if content analysis or narrative analysis is executed properly, this
technique of reality monitoring has very high accuracy rates and so is a very effective technique
in figuring out whether the person is deceiving or not.
LIMITATIONS OF REALITY MONITORING
This technique is based on the assumption that a lie which the person is stating is essentially
necessarily created by the person. However if the person is trying to deceive especially in the
legal setup, it might not necessarily be true. For instance, some crime occurred and the person is
a suspect of this crime, gives an alibi and say that he was at a party and he describes the party
and the person gives a description which high on sensory perceptual processes- is that possible?
It is possible. So the fact that he is using the party as an alibi is incorrect and is an act of lying
and deception but the description of the party that he gives might be the description of a party
that he actually has experienced at some other time. So in these cases where the person actually
recalls an event which he has experienced but uses this event as an excuse or alibi where the lie
is not directly connected to that description which the person is offering in that case reality
monitoring is likely to fail.
Secondly, a repressed memory which is recovered at a later point would that be the same as
sensory processes and would that fit into the domain of reality monitoring- YES, because even if
a memory is repressed and was recovered at a later point but the memory was created on the
basis of actual experience and therefore it is likely to be high on sensory and perceptual

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processes. Ideally this should be the case but considering that when the memory in this case
(repressed memory which is recovered at a later point) or when an individual is asked to recall an
event which happened long time ago, then the constructive and the reconstructive processes are
constantly at work to facilitate recall while at the time of storage or after the storage of the
memory if a long time has elapsed, reconstructive processes would be at work and is also likely
that reconstructive processes alter the memory which has been stored to facilitate retention of
course and the alteration incorporated reasoning. So if these reconstructive processes actually
change the memory in order to incorporate inferences and reasoning and therefore when an
account of that event is produced, it will actually be high on reason and analysis rather than
sensory information because over a period of time the memory has been altered in such a way to
incorporate reasoning.
For instance, I hear a glass and I actually experienced it and went upstairs and store a memory
that as soon as I entered the house the glass broke. But over a period of time I think about this
memory and at a cognitive level tell myself that when I entered the room I did not know that it
was the glass that broke but I heard a loud noise and so therefore the reconstructive process is at
work where actually when I start recalling the memory, if enough time has lapsed, I am more
likely to say that when I entered I heard a loud noise and it probably was the glass that broke. So
if reconstructive processes are given time they are likely to alter the memory.
Also it happens the other way round, Considering that I have created a memory. If I am given
enough time, I might imagine and over-imagine and keep planning about it and over a period of
time again because I have rehearsed that memory so many times in my head that I am able to add
details to that memory. So if long gap is given between the actual occurance of the event and
interviewing an individual for it then it is possible that created memories might get a lot of
perceptual sensory vivid information and memories which actually have been experienced might
incorporate a lot of cognitive processes making it difficult to determine which process is a
reflection of which process. So this reality monitoring as a technique is the most effectively used
only when a lot of time has not elapsed between the commission of the crime and the interview.
Third drawback, this technique cannot be used with children because they are very good with
fantasizing and imagining. Children cannot themselves, at a cognitive level, differentiate
between fantasy and reality. Therefore their cognition and sensation are overlapped. From the
perspective of psychological analysis it is used for the analysis of narratives of children as well
but when we talk about whether a person is deceiving from a legal perspective, it is not used in
cases where children are used as witnesses.

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28/09/2019
Forensic Hypnosis as a technique is used as a therapeutic technique in psychology and
predominantly till date that is the major area in which hypnosis is utilized. There have been a few
cases where hypnosis has been utilized within a legal investigative setup as a tool for
investigation and not exactly to detect deception per se but as a tool to enhance the memory of
the witness or memory of the individual who is trying to recall a series of events that took place,
essentially the crime. So, hypnosis is traditionally not a tool to detect deception but is used with
witnesses who are willing and is used as a tool to aid recall of an event or simply used as a
memory enhancement tool, to increase the efficacy of memory or if there are gaps or some bits
and pieces of information which the individual is unable to recall then hypnosis can be used as a
technique to revive those memories.
Hypnosis is grounded in typically psychoanalytical ideology which is Freudian school of thought
but later on there was a neo-analytical movement (grounded in certain criticisms of Freudian
ideology specifically the unconscious) and what followed is psychodynamic ideology by neo-
Freudians or later Freudians had a lot to add to it. Initially hypnosis was used as a therapeutic
technique by Freud under his school of thought of psychoanalysis. Hypnotic hyper amnesia or a
way too enhanced memories or a way of remembering what had happened to an individual
through the use of hypnosis was specifically termed as hypnotic hyper amnesia (amnesia-when
you don’t remember something, a missing memory or an elapsed memory). Hyper amnesia- to
increase the recall of something. So no recall is amnesia and less recall with lapses in memory or
vague, unclear memory is hypo amnesia. Hyper amnesia is increasing the recall or enhancing
what has been recalled by the individual. So, hypnosis was used as a tool to induce hyper
amnesia or to increase the recall.
Along with hypnosis, there were several other techniques that were used by Freud. Most of the
basic key techniques used under psychoanalysis by Freud were directed towards enhancing the
memories of the individual. These other techniques include-
FREE ASSOCIATION and was perhaps the first approach to an individual and it was nothing
but where the individual was asked to simply sit on the couch or maybe lie down and just say
whatever comes to mind. And in the process one thought would trigger another thought which is
why termed as free association. Leading to an individual giving a lot of details about a lot of
varied things, talking about a lot of varied aspects about oneself and specifically the aspects
which are important to the self. The basic ideology behind free association that when an
individual is asked to freely rant, whatever the individual will talk about or whatever comes to
his mind, will be a key reflection on the personality of the individual and in turn the person will
also because he is freely associating be able to recall a lot of events. So each thought offers a
contextual cue for the recalling of some other element.
CONTEXT DEPENDENT MEMORY- The elements of the context of your surrounding aid in
recall. Here the context is created by ideas and thoughts. So because an individual is recalling,
the person is creating a set of ideas and thoughts which then would serve as important cues to
facilitate recall.

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FANTASY- Herein, again the person was made to sit and relax and vividly imagine events in a
conscious state in contrast to hypnosis. And a person is given a lot of time to imagine an event
and then begin recall. This imagination or fantasy would offer important cues to aid and facilitate
recall. Visual cues which are aided and generated by the person to facilitate recall.
2 most important were technique of Free Association and Fantasy and the 3 rd being Hypnosis.
Hypnosis came in after free recall and fantasy. Also the use of other techniques used to aid recall
was termed by Freud as Non-Hypnotic Hyper Amnesia. All of these techniques are to increase
recall. The use of hypnosis would qualify to be hypnotic hyper amnesia and the use of all other
techniques was classified under non-hypnotic hyper amnesia.
As far as the process of inducing hypnosis is concerned and hypnotizability of an individual is
concerned, so the first question is- Can everybody be hypnotized? Or Are there people who do
not let themselves to hypnosis and therefore they cannot be hypnotized. The simple answer to
this is that yes, everybody can be hypnotized but like all other human traits hypnotisability is
also a trait which is considered to be relatively stable and enduring. Meaning that once the trait is
formed like most other human traits it would take a lot of time to alter. So if an individual has
developed and inclination towards hypnotizability or if an individual is easily hypnotizable then
the person will probably be easily hypnotizable throughout life and if at all there is a change, it
would take a long time for the person to change as far as the trait is concerned. Hypnotizability
then from that perspective becomes a reflector of the personality of the individual.
Hypnotizability follows like most other traits, the typical Normal Probability Curve. If the
hypnotizability of a large population is traced then there would be some people who would be
very easily hypnotized and some other who would be very difficult to hypnotize but most of
them would lie on an average normal range which typically means that most people are neither
very easy nor very difficult hypnotize them. What specifically determines how effectively the
person is hypnotized and how quickly the person is hypnotized, is the motivation of the person to
get hypnotized?
So there are several factors which determine the extent to which the person is hypnotized and
how easily the person is hypnotized. First one being the motivation itself. Typically it is not
used as a tool to detect deception but to enhance the accuracy of recall. Because if somebody
does not want to get hypnotized if in the case of legal investigative setup, if an individual refuses
to get hypnotized then probably it won’t be possible to hypnotize that person at all. So the
motivation or the willingness of the person to get hypnotized to begin with is an important factor
in determining whether the person can be hypnotized or not. That along with a certain amount of
trust in who is hypnotizing that person. So, usually the studies tell that even when the person is
willing to get hypnotized but does not trust the hypnotist, the person will probably show a high
resistance in getting hypnotized. Willingness and motivation coupled with trust that has been
established within the client-therapist relationship in a typical clinical setup is important.
What also plays a role is the context and the mental condition of the person. So the context
within which the person is being hypnotized, by inference then in an investigative setup which in
itself is slightly threatening and stressful, inducing hypnosis might be difficult. Along with
context, the mental state- if suffering from some mental disorder then while inducing hypnosis

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that also needs to be kept in mind, because the very mental condition of the person alters the
hypnotizability of the person himself.
The suggestibility of the person plays a very important role. The extent to which a person is
open and actually accepting to certain techniques of suggestibility would play an important role
in determining the extent of hypnosis that can be induced on the person or rather say the ease
with which the hypnosis can be induced which also inform the technique which is used to induce
hypnosis. Usually in hypnosis we differentiate between 2 kinds of suggestion-
 PHYSICAL SUGGESTIONS- Somebody who is more responsive to physical sensations
rather than emotional ideas. For instance, relying more on sounds or visuals in taking
suggestions from anyone. By suggestions it means- the ability to think and be influenced
by what the hypnotist is saying. Physically Suggestive Techniques- a statement during
inducing hypnosis, like- ‘You are walking down the steps in a narrow tunnel (it is a slow
process and a guided process- sensory details mentioned), there are 10 steps, it is a dark
narrow tunnel and when you reach after crossing the last step there is a door and you
open the door and it opens with a thud’ and that is how you enter into a deeper trance.
There are sensory information which is being used to induce hypnosis in this case
whereas sensory information about the tunnel being dark, you going down, there being a
thud and with the thud you enter in a deeper trance.
 EMOTIONAL SUGGESTION- In emotionally suggestive individuals- they are usually
the ones who have more vivid imaginations and can feel and develop a sense of feeling
along with what they are trying to visualize. So for them a suggestion like- ‘You are
sitting in a garden, can feel the grass on your feet. It is soft, the wind is blowing on your
face and you are feeling calm, relaxed and happy.’ The focus in this case becomes- how
the person is feeling- soft grass, cool breeze and feeling of calm and relax rather than the
sounds (the thud). Then the kind of suggestive commands which are given to the
individual vary depending upon the suggestibility of the person. They do not necessarily
make a person more or less suggestive but simply the manner that is used to induce
hypnosis varies from person to person depending upon the kind of suggestibility that the
person has. So somebody who is extremely emotionally suggestive and has the ability to
feel a lot very easily, then this person would be very easily hypnotizable on the basis of
emotionally suggestive commands.
Would depend upon whether the person is physically suggestive or is emotionally suggestive.
There are variations in the techniques that are used to induce hypnosis and these techniques vary
on the basis of 2 ideologies. So hypnosis can be induced either by-
 inducing extreme relaxation in a person or
 by inducing cognitive overload- cognitive overload wherein simply the cognitive
resources of an individual are exhausted by making the individual engage in a lot of
activities.
Ideology is simply this that there is a barrier which is guarding the unconscious and kind of
dividing it from the conscious experience of the individual. So for instance you are currently

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above the barrier and you are constantly functioning within the realm of conscious awareness
and the purpose is to delve within the unconscious. How would this happen? This would happen
if the barrier is weakened in some way. This barrier would be weakened either by relaxing the
barrier and once the barrier is relaxed then it becomes weakened and is then easier to delve into
the unconscious. That is what probably happens when you are sleeping. Freud said that dreams
can be interpreted and dreams are symbolic of the content in the unconscious. So when you are
sleeping, this barrier is relatively weak and there are certain condense in the unconscious which
express themselves in the form of dreams but in a symbolic or a disguised way. So this barrier is
weakened during sleep but along with that it can also be weakened by inducing relaxation in a
person.
So the most basic technique of inducing hypnosis is by guided relaxation. Starting from the toes,
your toes are relaxing, your muscles in the legs are relaxing, your abdomen feels relaxed, arms
and fingers relaxing and all parts of the body are dealt with and gradually falling into a deep
sleep. And this can be one of the way to induce hypnosis and thereby ensuring that the person
enters a trance state.
The second way of inducing hypnosis where this second way is used in individuals who are high
on control. Cognitive overload is a technique where the cognitive resources of the person is
channelized into so many different things and ways and therefore cognitive resources available
for maintain the barrier are depleted. And since the cognitive resources which are available to
maintain the barrier are depleted, the barrier weakens and the person is able to enter unconscious
or in a trance state or hypnotic state is induced. This can be done simply by engaging the
individual into multiple activities. In a lot of fictional depictions- the ball is swung and the
person is asked to follow the ball. This ball is simply a way of engaging the person into some
activity and therefore engaging a part of the person’s cognitive resources into that activity.
Usually when this kind of a technique is used then along with the ball there would be a lot other
techniques and things that the person would be doing. There can be a tick-tick sound that can be
going on and the person is asked to listen and concentrate on to that sound. Also can be asked to
focus on the tip of ones fingers and hold the fingers straight. This hand technique which is used
in inducing hypnosis is a very commonly used technique. So the person is asked to spread the
hand and focus on the tip of the fingers and the person is asked to hold the arm and the fingers
perpendicular to the arm to the extent possible and focus on that. And gradually as hypnosis is
induced the arm kind of folds and the hand kind of relaxes. This arm technique is a frequently
used technique under hypnosis.
The process of holding the arm straight and the wrist perpendicular to the arm is something
which requires cognitive resources and can be another way of exhausting the cognitive resources
which are available and inducing load and thereby inducing hypnosis in the process.
A person comes out from the state of hypnosis through suggestions.

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There are 2 Predominant perspectives and these 2 look at hypnosis from 2 different very
different perspectives.
1. HYPNOTIC TRANCE THEORY- The theory which is more grounded in the
psychoanalytical perspective and it agrees with the psychoanalytical expression of
phenomenon of hypnosis. This theory essentially posits that hypnosis is a special state of
consciousness or rather the altered state of consciousness which is induced in a subject
and in that state of consciousness while the subject is in this altered state of
consciousness, the subject experiences very high levels of suggestibility and very high
levels of awareness with respect to the surrounding of the subject. So the subject then
regresses back to an early stage of life and that was the only kind of regression which
initially hypnosis kind of propagated. The first kind of regression that hypnosis spoke is-
*Age Regression which essentially means that a person regresses back or goes to the
earlier stage of life and is able to recall events and happenings around that person at that
stage.
Essentially then the hypnotic Trance Theory stresses on the fact that in the process of
hypnosis, once an individual is hypnotized, the person enters an altered stage of
consciousness wherein the person has regressed back to an early stage and is able to
experience the surrounding/environment from that earlier stage in a more vivid and clear
manner and at the same time experiences high level of suggestibility which is why he is
able to regress back (is able to take suggestions from the hypnotist).
From this perspective then, age regression serves as a valuable recall of memory. Not just
the experience of what happened but also there is scope to induce altered sensations.
Meaning that since the individual is highly suggestible, there is also this scope that the
hypnotist can induce high levels of sensitivity as far as the sensory functioning of the
individual is concerned and with that the perception of something happening in the
surrounding of the individual can further be enhanced. Example- it can be used as a tool
to increase the visual perception of the individual with respect to certain elements which
are present in the surroundings of the person or can be the auditory perception regarding
the environment.
Essentially saying that there is something which happened around the person at the time
of commission of the crime. At that moment the person perhaps did not take active notice
of something which happened but there was subliminal perception which took place
which means that there is some piece of information which is entered in the cognition of
the person without the person taking active cognitive notice of that information. Since the
information nonetheless has become the part of the psyche of the individual, there is a
memory but because the person has not actively processed that memory the person
cannot actively recall or recollect the memory. In the process of hypnosis, once the
person has delved into the earlier experience, the person can then also access those bits
and pieces of information which were there which the person did not have active access
to which had entered the psyche of the person but the person did not actively recollect
those details. So, with the instructions or the suggestion of the hypnotist with respect to

40
 the person hearing the conversation and focus on what is being discussed. With that kind
of suggestion the person can actively focus on what is being discussed and recall the
details of the conversation which he otherwise would not have been able to.
One of the chief proponents of this theory specifically with respect to accuracy and the
process from the perspective of forensic psychology were- Ernst Hilgard
2. COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE- This clearly disagrees with the
psychoanalytical perspective of hypnosis and says that hypnosis is not an altered state of
consciousness, but is simply the game of expectations and motivations of the person with
which he is coming into the therapeutic setting and along with this the attitude which the
client carries with respect to hypnosis. It simply says that if an individual has a positive
attitude towards hypnosis (that he actually believes in hypnosis), if he is motivated
enough to get hypnotized (believing that it is going to benefit him or for fun) then the
individual will get hypnotized and act in accordance with expectation that he had with
respect to the process of hypnosis. This perspective calls for suggestibility and that
suggestibility is nothing but the ability of an individual to think and behave according to
the suggestion of the hypnotist and if the individual can think, focus all his attention and
think about what the hypnotist is saying and act according to the hypnotist then the
individual is behaving typically like one who is hypnotized. This perspective draws an
analogy between the television and the movie during the behavior of an individual. Like
sitting and crying along with the movie. Crying because there is an emotion which is
expressed in a work of fiction and a conflict which is shown perhaps. But you feel that
conflict to an extreme extent and that induces an emotional reaction and you express the
emotion (this is the ability to think and act along with the work of fiction). And this
perspective says that the process of hypnosis is very similar to that, instead of a work of
fiction here there is a hypnotist who is sitting who administers the suggestions and the
individual simply thinks along with him.
Martin Orwe, within the paradigm of cognitive behavioral perspective used the social
contract theory to explain the process of hypnosis. (Social Contract Theory- basically it is
assumed that we have submitted our individual, absolute rights to the government and we
have sort of accepted the government as is). This is essentially what the perspective and
the use of the social contract theory within the paradigm of hypnosis is saying that when
an individual agrees to the process of hypnosis, he/she is essentially entering into an
implicit social contract with the hypnotist wherein the individual agrees in turn to
renounce his critical thinking. For that moment for the process of hypnosis the individual
has implicitly agreed to renounce his critical thinking. And therefore from that
perspective, hypnosis can simply be seen as a role playing mechanism where an
individual is no longer engaging in critical thinking and is ready to renounce his sense of
reality for a particular time and just be guided purely by the suggestions which are
administered by the hypnotist. Thus individual is role playing in that hypnotic setup and
is just acting the way he expects an individual who is hypnotized to act.
*What the individual gets as benefit? So, ‘Trust’ is very important for the process of
hypnosis to take place and is one of the factors determining the efficiency of doing
hypnosis. If the person believes that he will be benefitted with the session of

41
hypnosis (believing because the hypnotist has told him so), there is enough trust on
the hypnotist. Also, some people just get hypnosis done to gain an insight into their
life.
This perspective uses the term- ‘Trance Logic’. Used to explain the reasoning process
during the time of hypnosis. For that moment the individual develops a trance logic
which is an altered kind of reasoning process and essentially that is a process when
fantasy and reality kind of peacefully co-exist. So the individual is subtly aware of the
environment (the reality) and at the same time the individual has also delved into this
world of fantasy which is although very cognitive but not real.
Now from this perspective, the fundamental assumption, specifically when we are using
hypnosis in the field of investigation to increase the accuracy of recall is, that human
beings are taking memories and they store memories very accurately. It is just that we do
not have access to these accurate memories and therefore we cannot remember or recall.
So, through the process of hypnosis we will simply gain access to these accurate
memories and that in turn will increase the effectiveness of recall or memory in the
individual.
Now from the cognitive behavioral perspective this logic in itself is flawed. Because to
begin with, in the context of memory, we acknowledge the fact that the storage of
memory is a dynamic process and the cognitive psychology acknowledges and stresses
the fact that human memory in itself is distorted and is susceptible to inaccuracies which
are influenced by a lot of factors. First of all the assumption that the memory stored is
accurate is a flawed assumption because the memory even if it is stored and even if we do
not have access to it, the memory in itself probably is inaccurate and distorted because of
several factors.
Added to that, considering that the process of hypnosis is a process of inducing a high
level of suggestibility, added to that, the memory which is already stored can be distorted
and further be made inaccurate by certain suggestions which the therapist himself is
administering and that essentially is a very ideal environment to lead to an increase in the
inaccuracy of memory. So, the cognitive theorists predominantly discourage the use of
hypnosis, esp. when the accuracy of memory is in question. Because they are saying that
memory is in itself can be flawed and distorted and because of the high level of
suggestibility which hypnosis induces that leads to a further scope of potentially
distorting the memory which might further lead to inaccuracy introduced in the memory.

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CRITICAL EVALUATION OF FORENSIC HYPNOSIS
Essentially the reliability and validity of hypnosis as a tool to enhance memory and increase the
accuracy of memory specifically has been researched from the perspective of 3 domains and
those domains are to do with-
 The accuracy of recall- So, does hypnosis actually increase the accuracy of recall. This
specifically why hypnosis is conducted in an investigative and forensic setup. Most
research in fact does not support the fact that hypnosis leads to a high level of accuracy in
the recall of an individual. Most research says that if at all there is an increase in the
accuracy, usually the accuracy rates are pretty marginal. There is at best a very marginal
increase in the accuracy of recall of the individual during a hypnotic session. However
barring the specific accuracy the memory concerned, there are other domains in which
hypnosis is useful, specifically when the investigative process is at use. Hypnosis is seen
to increase the accuracy rates in the recall of specific groups of subjects or specific kinds
of witnesses. When the witness is extremely stressed out or worried and tensed or if the
individual is very fearful of something and the investigative process itself can induce
high levels of stress and fear in an individual, even guilt that he should have not
committed that crime, so these high levels of emotions in the case can lead to a fuzzy and
a weak recall which can affect the person’s memory. And in these sets of individual then
specifically, hypnosis then is a very effective tool in sort of calming down this
individuals, increasing the focus and concentration of these individuals and in turn
resulting in memories which are more accurate as compared to state when the individual
is experiencing high levels of emotions and gives a recall. So in these individuals
hypnosis does lead to an increased accuracy of recall by way of calming down or
mellowing the high levels of emotions which the individual is experiencing.
Also forensic hypnosis is very useful in cases of trauma or when an individual is
suffering from some mental condition. Cases like- amnesia, selective amnesia
specifically- a victim has experienced trauma and as a result of that trauma the victim has
forgotten certain bits and pieces of the memory then in order to ensure a more coherent
picture and a more complete picture of the set of events, hypnosis can be induced and in
turn has found to be very useful in these cases.
Also considering the cases of recovered memory- almost in most of the cases,
memories have been recovered during the process of therapy. Even when they have been
recovered otherwise, eventually there is a therapist who is involved to confirm in a way
the accuracy of these recovered memories.
The third bit is that it does not necessarily have to do with the accuracy of memories
but the amount of recall. So, hypnosis certainly does increase the amount of recall of the
individual meaning that even if the recalled information is not accurate there is certainly
much more details which the individual might is presenting to the investigating agency.
These details or the additional facts which the individual can now remember, can offer
effective leads for the investigating agency to begin the investigation on.

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 The amount of confidence- which the process of hypnosis instills in the witness with
respect to the accuracy of recall. So the confidence level of the witness post the hypnotic
session with respect to the memory or recall. Hypnosis definitely has this ability to
induce very high levels of confidence in an individual with respect to what he has
recalled. During hypnosis (if it is induced accurately and to the right depth then) the
memory or the recollection of the experience which the individual has during hypnosis, it
is usually very clear and vivid. So hypnosis has a very high ability to induce high levels
of confidence in the witness or the individual with respect to what he and she has
recalled. Nonetheless accuracy might not be that much. So the levels of confidence are no
co-related with accuracy of recall. An individual might be very confident about what he
says but it does not necessarily imply that what he says is actually true and thus one
needs to practice precaution there. Therefore, here further investigation and generating
collaborative evidence becomes very important.
Hypnosis also leads to, since there is high levels of confidence and in case the memory
recalled is inaccurate because there is such high level of confidence, a permanent
cementing of that fake memory and end up believing very confidently that what he
experienced during hypnosis is actually true.
Post- Hypnosis if an individual has recalled something which is not true and the person
is asked to explain that phenomenon the post hypnosis confabulation has also been
reported by research. Meaning that in order to explain a certain memory or certain bit of
information, individuals actually come up with fake explanations or come up with fake
filling in the blanks which is very automatic as far as cognition is concerned. So at a
certain level they do not even realize- they are not actively faking but it is almost an
automatic process of confabulation where they actually start believing that those
explanations are true resulting from high levels of confidence which the individuals have
in the memory that he has recalled.
 Suggestibility- To what extent is the individual prone to suggestions which in turn is
likely to lead to inaccuracies in memory. High levels of suggestibility and the extent of
suggestibility in an individual which then is likely to lead to inaccuracy in the recall of
the memory which the witness has recollected under the process of hypnosis. Hypnosis
can be understood as nothing but a high state of suggestibility where the individual is
induced who can take suggestions from the hypnotist. Suggestion like, if the hypnotist
says that you are now delving into a deep trance then the person actually takes that
suggestion. Meaning that hypnosis is actually extremely susceptible to inaccuracies
which can creep in because of the suggestibility of the individual. And this suggestibility
can come from any leading or directing questions which the hypnotist himself is asking.
Question or statement like- ‘You must be feeling really afraid?’ Now this kind of a
question can actually be a suggestive statement to the individual where the person starts
feeling afraid even when he was not feeling as afraid. In that case the person will start
reporting that he was feeling afraid.
Even very subtle indications or subtle gestures of the hypnotist can make him susceptible
and lead to cementing of fake memories. So if the person says something and the
hypnotist strongly agrees to it, then that memory is likely to strengthen even more in the

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 person because this person is strongly taking suggestions from the hypnotist and the
hypnotist agreeing with person clearly tells that this must be very true.
Along with that, individuals are also extremely prone to any extreme happenings in the
environment. For instance, an individual who is hypnotized and who I recalling a scene
that happened at a previous time specifically of a crime and there is a loud sound that
takes place in the environment of the individual or the room in which he is the window
there breaks, considering how that is a loud enough sound to evoke the attention of the
person. That sound might be perceived as coming from within the set up which he is
actually experiencing. And the person then in turn might recall that there was a loud
sound or the window broke while the crime was taking place. Also any loud sound which
is similar to a gun-shot the person might interpret a similar loud sound as a gun-shot and
come up and create a memory which essentially says that there was a gun shot at the
crime scene, where actually there might have been no gun-shot. Any stark loud or
extreme changes in the environment which manage to evoke the attention can also lead to
a fake memory, a memory which is woven into the experience which the individual is
having at the moment. One then needs to be very careful about the place where hypnosis
is taking place and ensure no distractions per se.

LEGAL STATUS OF FORENSIC HYPNOSIS AND ACCEPTANCE WITHIN

THE COURTS
The first case where the evidence generated from forensic hypnosis was used in the court
of law-
 HARDING V. STATE (1968)
This was a case of sexual assault in a state hospital and these were memories of the
victim and the memories of the victim were enhanced through the use of hypnosis of the
sexual assault incident. In this case the court openly admitted the evidence which was
based on forensic hypnosis and therefore the court followed the criteria known as- ‘Open
Admissibility Criteria’, meaning the evidence that is generated through forensic
hypnosis will be admitted in a court of law. The first and the only case where open
admissibility criteria was followed.
In all other cases following them, for a very long time the criteria of ‘Per Se Exclusion’
was followed. Post 1968 in most cases in the US the per se exclusion criteria was
followed which came to the forefront where there was a debate that was initiated with
respect to the potential fake memories which can come up as a result of hypnosis, the
debate around the accuracy of memory and specifically high levels of suggestibility and
also the fact where in a lot of cases in a therapeutic setting because of the suggestion of
the therapist a lot of cases of sexual assault were being brought up where there actually
was no sexual assault but because of the suggestion of the therapist like a condition like
this is usually because of some sexual assault during childhood led to people recalling
sexual assault during childhood. There was very little way of proving or disproving it
because it happened in a private set up and there were no witnesses and thus became
controversial not only in legal psychology but also in therapeutic psychology. Eventually

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 led to, the courts simply rejecting the evidence based on hypnosis as admissible evidence
and therefore ‘per se exclusion criteria’ was followed.
In ‘per se exclusion’ criteria, if an evidence was a result of hypnosis then that evidence
would be rejected from a court of law and considered inadmissible. Nonetheless this
criteria was reversed and rather moderated in-
 ROCK V. ARKANSAS (1986)
Almost 20 years later the above case, the criteria was moderated. In the case, th court
took note of the fact that a complete rejection of the statements (taken in the state of
hypnosis) of the victim would lead to an unfair trial. Violated the right of the defendant to
a fair trial. And in the light of the fact that every victim has the right to a fair trial, the
court then brought into light the criteria which is followed in a lot of cases which is the
‘Totality of Circumstances Criteria’- essentially the evidence which is generated out of
forensic hypnosis can be considered as one evidence and does not have to have an
overpowering effect. Can be considered as one piece of evidence amidst an entire
plethora of evidence which is presented in a court of law. It is upon the court to decide on
a case by case basis depending upon the situation keeping the facts of the specific case in
mind whether the evidence gained through the process of hypnosis is admissible in the
court of law or not. The totality of circumstances criteria was followed for a very long
time and is still being followed in the US.
In 1995 there was an interesting debate around this criteria or the admissibility of the
evidence based on forensic hypnosis and
 BORAWICK V. SHAY (1995)
this was a case of recovered memories wherein the victim during a therapy session had
recovered a memory of sexual assault by her uncle and aunt while she was on vacation
which was so far repressed. The lower court had rejected this piece of evidence as a basis
of legal investigation. The argument which the plaintiff had ordered was that in this case
the memories were recovered through hypnosis. But through hypnosis as part of
therapeutic process and not an investigative process and because hypnosis is considered
to be a scientific and valid technique within the field of psychology and psychotherapy
and therefore any memory recovered through the process of hypnosis should be
considered a valid ground for legal proceedings. So there was no debate as it was not part
of an investigative process but a therapeutic process and thus the memory shall be
admissible in the court and to be a valid ground to initiate legal proceedings. But lower
court had rejected it.
The lower court stated several reasons for this rejection and said that the memories
recovered through hypnosis can be considered as valid ground for legal proceedings and
admissible in a court of law if certain conditions were met. Conditions being-
-that an individual performing the hypnosis should be qualified enough and certified to
perform hypnosis
-the hypnotist should not add any information to the memory of the individual, a guard
against suggestibility
-there should be a permanent record of the procedure which is followed during the
process of hypnosis

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 -there should be other evidence to corroborate the hypnotically enhanced memory.
Basis these grounds, the evidence was found inadmissible and specifically one of the reasons
was that there was no recording of the procedure of hypnosis that was considered. During one of
the hypnotic sessions the person recalled this memory, there was no recording of that hypnotic
session or any permanent record that was kept. Also considering that this criteria may not be met
in a lot of cases, wherein a lot of cases the recording of sessions is at the discretion of the
therapist. When a memory pops up cannot be predicted and therefore recording of that cannot be
pre-planned.
Also what is specifically considered an addition to the memory of the individual is also quite a
vague criteria because again in the process of hypnosis, the hypnotist is guiding the individual
and making statements, statements which can be considered suggestive by certain courts? So
what is considered suggestive and what is not considered suggestive or adding additional
information is something that is totally an open criteria and there is no specific guideline of
criteria which defines that. A vague criteria and open to interpretation.
Last criteria is the presence of- ‘Corroborative Evidence’. Corroborative evidence is usually
missing in most cases and an incident which happened years ago is recalled by the person and
usually in cases of sexual abuse, child sexual abuse- private cases where there is no evidence.
Then generating corroborative evidence might fairly be a difficult task. This verdict was
appealed against and the appellate court took note of all of these restrictions and mentioned that
all of these conditions are important and desired conditions but should not be restrictive
conditions. Because the conditions within themselves are rigid and restrictive and therefore they
are desired but should not be mandatory conditions. In turn the appellate court allowed for the
admissibility of the evidence and the court again supported the open admissibility criteria. Since
then the criteria that has been followed in the US is the totality of circumstances criteria with
respect to hypnotically enhanced memories or admissibility of evidence which is generated
through forensic hypnosis.

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04/09/2019
There are Aided and Non- aided techniques. Non-Aided Techniques which are basically used at
training humans to be able to detect deception but human ability despite extensive training is
susceptible and prone to inaccuracies and with that fact in mind a lot of technological aides have
been created to assist in the detection of deception.
AIDED TECHNIQUES
The one most important and widely used technique is the Polygraph Test in order to detect
deception. Along with this there are several minor techniques which are focused at very specific
behavior patterns (focusing only on ones that are important from psychological perspective
where the human psyche is involved).
POLYGRAPH TEST- Is one of the first tests that was brought to the forefront in order to aid
human detection of deception. The test although is called the lie detector test but it is not meant
to detect lies. Meaning that it does not give statements with regards to whether a person is lying
or not. What it does measure is simply the human physiological response to stress. This test is
designed to measure the physiological activity of humans and specifically the physiological
response of humans to stress and stress related aspects like- anxiety, fear, guilt and the like and
other negative emotional response of the human body. All of this put together is called the-
‘Gross Physiological Activity’ (GPA). The polygraph is measuring the GPA of the body rather
than lies per se. Polygraph is a grouping of several final tests which together measure the GPA of
the body and this GPA has elements which are relevant for stress reaction of the body. Certain
very basic stress reactions of the body are- increased heart rate, increased respiration rate,
increased blood pressure, sweating or skin conductance. These 4-5 tests are the most basic tests
which almost always are used as part of the polygraph test.
Initially, when the polygraph test was introduced it was just the measurement of these. Today
with the advent of technology we have computerized polygraph test which also in addition to all
of this data also gives a probability statement about the likelihood of deceit or lying. But these
are just probability statements and just taken as an indicative of lying or deceit but do not offer
any conclusive statement with regards to whether a person is lying or not.
The first use of the physiological activity of the body to detect lies was done by- Cesare
Lombroso, an Italian anthropologist and in terms of psychology has done a lot of work in
Criminal Psychology. He was the first one to use physiological activity of the body in order to
detect deception and lying and specifically he used blood volume of an individual. He linked the
blood volume to lying and said that whenever an individual lies the blood volume tends to
increase. That is at best partially true but is not a direct indicator of lying. Although when we
said that there is a positive co-relation between blood volume and lying that was accurate but
measuring blood volume is not a easy task. So later from blood volume we switched to the idea
of blood pressure of an individual being associated with lying. The first one to come up with this
conclusion was- William Marston, the first person to use the ‘monograph’ (monograph is one
which is blood pressure and specifically systolic blood pressure related to lying), and his
testimony was also used in the case of US V. FRYE 1917. But this testimony wasn’t really

1
admitted in the court of law. But from then, now we have the polygraph test, which uses not one
but multiple indicators of the physiological activity of an individual or the GPA. One of the most
important work in this case has been done by Larson and Keeler in 1920s in the polygraph test
and integrated several indicators of GPA of an individual to come up with polygraphic test as we
know it today.
Looking at the administration of the polygraph test, there are lot of variations but specifically
broadly there are 4 stages that are followed while conducting this test-
1. DATA COLLECTION- Is a brief small stage which is focused at collecting some basic
information about the person concerned. The protocol demands that when the test is
administered, the background information is collected again (as part of larger
investigation the agency already know of the basic background of the person) because
then that is a one on one interview between the one who is conducting the test and the
person who is giving the test. Basic background information about the person usually
demographic information. If there is some info with respect to the crime which the
administrator feels that it needs to be collected then that also is collected at this stage. But
most of this information, it is ensured that it is neutral in nature and not anxiety
provoking or perceived to be threatening by the individual because if that is done then
right at the data collection there will be peaks in the physiological response of the person
which is extremely undesirable because prior to administration of test of the use of
techniques, a baseline needs to be established. Also legally there is another important
mandate- the ‘consent of the person’. Taking consent of the person at this stage is
considered to be extremely important and usually is a mandate because if the person is
not willing to give a polygraphic test then the readings that we would get as the result of
test itself are likely to be highly inaccurate. To begin with, the assumption is that the
person is willing to give the test in order to get the readings and interpret and assume that
the readings are accurate in nature.
2. PRE-TEST INTERVIEWING- Out of the 4 stages the, this and the third one are 2 most
important stages to get accurate test results. This is aimed at establishing rapport. Rapport
formation is usually done at this stage and that is done with the goal of ensuring that the
person has acclimatized with the surrounding, is comfortable with the environment of the
polygraph because if the person is discomforted because of some elements in the
environment then that in turn will affect the physiological response of the person. Also to
ensure that the conversation is smooth between the administrator and the person. Rapport
formation from the perspective of comfort with respect to the conversation and with
respect to the environment or acclimatization is extremely important.
The second important element is- the briefing with respect to the polygraph itself. The
basic ethics demand that the person should know and should be told what procedure is to
be administered on him. To brief about what the polygraph test is, what is the end
question which needs to be answered here, the purpose of conducting the test, what is the
amount of time that the procedure will take, in order to make the person settle with
respect to what is going to happen next in the process!

2
 The third element after rapport formation and briefing is the setting of a baseline which
maybe done at this stage ore done at a later stage. So this not a mandate and depends on
the procedure and on the comfort of the administrator. The person is also exposed to the
equipment which the person will be working with. The person is shown the functioning
of the equipment at this stage. Most importantly and why this stage becomes most
important is that at this stage the administrator also makes an attempt to persuade the
individual and make him believe that the polygraph is actually a very powerful technique
and this will actually work.
Interestingly, polygraphy is a very controversial technique and most people, not just legal
practitioners but also psychologists right outly reject the use of polygraph but invariably
all researchers and all academicians agree that one of the reasons why polygraph works
when it does work is because the person actually believes that the polygraph works and
the belief makes him generate responses which are in line with the polygraphic test.
Convincing the person of the power of polygraph can be done by suggestive techniques.
Indirect suggestions where people talk about the fact that the polygraph is extremely
effective or very direct techniques which are used in manipulating the belief systems of
the person. Considering, where the administrator tells the person that he will give an
insight into how a polygraph works and asks him certain questions and asks him to lie
about them. Now these questions could be aspects which the administrator already has
about. When the person lies, the administrator himself manipulates the reading which are
being displayed on the screen and says that when you lie this is what happens. This is
done to persuade the person that the machine can actually register when a person is lying.
It could be a technique which is used multiple times. For instance there is a deck of cards
from which the person is asked to pick one card but the deck of cards has all the same
cards. So the administrator knows what card it is and in turn the administrator says that
he is going to give multiple guesses- you either lie about that or do not lie about that by
responding in terms of yes or no. So because the already knows what card it is, so again
depending upon the response of the person the administrator actually manipulates the
readings which the machine is showing in turn trying to convince the person that it is the
polygraph which is actually at work. Using such manipulative techniques is very
common.
Psychological research which tells us that the belief systems of the individual are
extremely important in determining the success of the polygraph has actually triggered
the use of a lot of these manipulative strategies.
3. TEST ADMINISTRATION (actual conduction of polygraphic test)- There are
multiple techniques which are used in a polygraph test but 3 techniques to be focused
upon. One of which is the most initial or earliest techniques and 2 techniques, one of
which is very robust technique of conducting the polygraph and the other one is the most
frequently used to conduct the polygraph.
First technique- RELEVANT-IRRELEVANT TECHNIQUE- one of the first technique that
was used in the area of polygraph. In this technique there are 2 kinds of questions which are
used. One set of questions which are relevant to the crime scene and the second set pf questions
which are irrelevant to the crime at hand. They (irrelevant questions) are absolutely neutral
3
questions, could be a question as simple as “is it Tuesday’. They are absolutely unrelated to the
crime and they could be just about anything. The underlying assumption behind this technique is
that an individual will give a stress response to the relevant questions and the stress response will
be lower or will not exist if an individual is otherwise calm and the rapport information has
worked effectively then the stress response that the individual has to irrelevant questions will be
non-existent so there would be no stress response to irrelevant questions. So every time when a
relevant question is asked, could be anything related to the crime scene- what weapon was used
to conduct the crime, where was the crime committed, where was the body found, who was the
victim. When the individual hears these questions irrespective of the responses that the person
gives, a criminal would probably lie to a response like that probably with a lie which simply
denies the knowledge or would give incorrect information, irrespective of that the person who
actually committed the crime would give a peak physiological response to a relevant question
because the person knows that the investigators have this information that I might be caught or
simply the fear of being caught. So high GPA to relevant questions vs. a lower GPA to irrelevant
questions and that essentially if it happens it warrants a conclusion that the person is trying to lie
or deceit. On the other hand if an individual is innocent, he has no knowledge of the crime. To
begin with, perhaps he won’t be able to understand which questions are relevant because he does
not know what transpired. And therefore the stress response is likely to be much lower and there
probably won’t be much difference between the stress response of the person with respect to the
relevant and the irrelevant questions.
The problem with this assumption, the major drawback is that even a normal person would stress
out when he is asked about a crime. An innocent person, to begin with, would be stressed out and
anxious because of the high risk and anxiety provoking situation, and then when he is asked
about the crime per se then even this normal individual would give a high GPA response. Also
coupled with that if the questions are not well constructed which means that a lot of questions
can be emotionally laden and those emotionally laden question will again trigger stress responses
in an individual. Use of terms like- murder, weapon, knife all of these terms in themselves are
emotionally laden. Hearing these terms in itself might induce a peak in the physiological activity
of an individual and therefore this might mask any real differences between the individuals who
are trying to lie and the individuals who are innocent and who are being truthful.
As a recognition of this drawback a slight modification of the irrelevant technique was then used,
which was called the RELEVANT-RELEVANT TECHNIQUE. Herein the irrelevant
questions are fewer and the relevant questions are more in number. They are clustered together in
terms of certain areas related to the crime. So there are these content categories which are created
and questions for example with respect to like, if there is a robbery how did the break in happen.
So the questions with respect to breaking in would be clustered together. Questions with respect
to what actually was stolen how was the robbery actually committed, these would be clustered
together. If along with that there was a murder then those questions would be clustered together.
Questions with respect to how did the person then escape the crime scene, would be clustered
together. These clusters of question would be interspersed or divided by irrelevant questions.
Which basically are targeted to get the person back to the base line or relax the person after
emotionally laden questions have been asked or after peak physiological activity has been

4
touched during the content category. Now what is done in this technique is that the physiological
activity of the person across content categories is completely is compared and if there is a
significant increase in one particular content category or one set of content category then that is
interpreted as the person for some reason being extremely sensitive to that content category. And
then that can be the basis for further probe. If it is polygraph then that cab be the basis of
building up further questions. For instance building up questions for the latter half of the
polygraph test or if the investigation is continuing then investigating with respect to that content
category because that content category provoked the person a little more and elicited a greater
stress response in the person and therefore perhaps the person is in possession of some
knowledge which is resulting in those stress reactions from the person. It is not very directly
implicative of whether the person is trying to lie or not but basically just implicative of how the
person’s body is reacting to certain aspects associated with the crime. Again, if the person does
not show much fluctuation or much variation to the relevant questions then the person is
considered to be innocent and esp. if the fluctuation is not much in relation to the irrelevant
questions. This technique has been known to find greater value and utility as compared to the
traditional relevant-irrelevant technique.
The second set of techniques is the CONTROL QUESTION TEST. It is one of the most
frequently used polygraphic technique specifically in the west (US and Canada). But as far as
support for its accuracy is concerned it does not find as much support for its accuracy as
compared to the 3rd test (though it has some practical implementing problems). It simply
introduces a third category of question which are the control questions (first being the irrelevant
questions- could be anything and the second being relevant- associated with the crime), are based
either on known lies or assumed lies. They are based on the assumption that there are some bits
and pieces of information which an individual (specifically if he is a suspect), will not want to
share it with the investigators because the person feels that this might lead to a moral judgment
or character judgment by the investigative agencies and therefore disclosing those bits of
information might make his case weaker or might lead to the investigative agencies further
suspect him simply because he looks like somebody who can commit a crime like that if it is the
profile of somebody who can commit a crime like that. Known Lies are basic factual information
about the person which are known to be true. So if it is known that the person beats his wife, a
question like- ‘do you beat your wife or do you engage in domestic violence?’ and the person
will probably deny it because if he has committed some crime then it might lead the investigative
agencies to further believe that he is somebody who can commit a crime because he engages in
domestic violence. An Assumed Lie is basically the kind of information which most people every
now and then might engage in, the kind of behaviors which most people might engage in but
would deny if they are a suspect. And these could be questions with regards to- ‘have you ever
betrayed someone who trusted you?’ An admission of guilt in this case would lead to the
investigator believing that this person is a betrayer and therefore can commit a crime. ‘Have you
ever lied to your family or loved ones’ again admitting to that would lead the investigator in
believing that the person lies and therefore he can commit a crime. ‘Have you ever thought of
hurting someone in order to take revenge?’ these are based on an assumed lie.

5
*The person feels that to be on the safer side I should deny it. The polygraph is not even
grounded on the actual verbal responses of the person, it is grounded in the physiological
activity of the person and secondly polygraph is a comparative measure so it is comparing the
physiological activity of the person. Research tells that individuals who are actually trying to lie
give a higher physiological response to relevant questions as compared to control questions. So
a person who is lying is probably lying to both the questions (relevant and controlled). But
usually in these people who are lying their physiological activity in response to relevant
questions is higher as compared to their physiological activity as compared to the control
questions.
If the relationship is reversed then this warrants a conclusion of innocence which means that
innocent individuals usually show a GPA which is lower to relevant questions as compared to
the controlled questions. The GPA (relevant and controlled) in both cases is usually higher than
the irrelevant questions because irrelevant questions by their very nature are absolutely neutral
in nature therefore the GPA to irrelevant question is the least and is closer to the baseline
response of the person. The GPA response to the relevant and controlled questions is compared
and if the GPA to the relevant questions is greater for the controlled questions then that
warrants an inference of guilt or deceit where one of the most basic reason is simply is that
individuals who have actually committed the crime are usually denying guilt and lying in
response to both of these questions but they are aware of which questions are extremely relevant
to the crime, aware of which question can lead to a conclusion to guilt and therefore it gives a
higher physiological stress reaction in response to the relevant question. On the other hand,
individuals who are innocent they probably might be lying to control questions because they also
feel that if they admit to deceiving someone and if admit to thoughts of hurting someone then that
might lead the investigators to believe that he can commit the crime. So research thus tells that a
lot of innocent subjects also lie to the controlled question. Then in that case the GPA of
individual would be greater to controlled questions as compared to the relevant questions
because they are telling the truth in response to the relevant questions.
The second aspect is that even when a person is not lying or telling the truth to controlled
question, innocent people in most cases do not actively register or cognitively appraise the
relevance of the question and therefore the relevant questions do not provoke as much response
in an individual especially if they are constructed well and are not emotionally laden. Do not
evoke as much response in innocent individuals because they do not see those questions as being
extremely relevant to the crime. In that case the controlled questions for them are more relevant,
they generate more anxiety as compared to the relevant questions because they do not know how
the crime transpired therefore they cannot appraise the relevance of the question which is asked.
Therefor greater physiological activity in response to controlled questions as compared to the
relevant questions.

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05/09/2019
The major limitation of the Control Question Test is the ability of the individual to come up with
enough control questions to construct the test. And framing those questions in the right way in
order to trigger a guilt, a denial statement from the individual. To target that to a certain extent, a
slight variation of the traditional control test is used which is called the ‘DIRECT LIE TEST’.
This test is exactly the same, except that researchers over a period of time through research and
also experiences from actual field of studies, have come up with a set of standardized control
questions and through research on these standardized control questions suggest that most
individuals tend to deny these questions. These questions tend to be very specific in nature and it
is essentially the specificity of the question which elicits a denial response from the individuals.
So, these questions are basic but very specific like- ‘Before the age of 27 I never hurt anyone.’
So, in a situation like that where the individual had to give a quick responses and the primary
response orientation of the individual is to deny any negative behavior on his part, in that kind of
a situation the individual tends to deny a question like that.
The third and the final technique is the- ‘GUILTY KNOWLEDGE TECHNIQUE’. A lot of
work in the area has been done by David Lykken and this technique is also one of the oldest
techniques in the chronological advancement of the polygraphic test. Also research tells that by
far it is the most sound and the most robust technique as far as all the polygraphic techniques are
concerned. Though being the most supported technique still the control question test is the most
widely used, the reason being that there are greater practical problems in implementing the guilty
knowledge technique. As the name suggests it is not a lie detection technique per se but rests on
an analysis or understanding of whether the person who is being interviewed is aware of certain
facts about the crime that took place which only perpetrator is likely to know. Therefore in turn it
capitalizes on a lot of publicly unknown information about a particular crime or information
which people in general do not know but only the perpetrator will know and only the
investigative agency would know. This again has a series of questions about certain information
about facts and occurrences at the crime scene. And in this case MCQs are used. The logic is that
irrespective of what response the suspect gives, if the individual recognizes, that fact or the
occurrence which is being asked about and is listed as part of the MCQ, then the individual’s
body will give out a stress reaction which can then be tapped by the technology which is being
used to tap GPA of the person. A question like- ‘The perpetrator left behind a weapon, what was
the color of that weapon? Or the perpetrator left behind an important belonging of his at the
crime scene, what was that belonging?’ then there are 3-4 responses given to that. The logic is
that when the individual sees those 4 responses even if he is giving out the wrong response, he
knows what weapon he has left behind and in turn he knows that the investigative agency is
aware of the weapon that was left behind. That recognition would then put the body in a stressful
and anxious condition which in turn will result in the body giving out stress reaction and
therefore a peak in GPA of the body.
This kind of technique is known to be extremely effective and research tells that when a suspect
is innocent then accuracy rates of this technique have gone up to as high as 94%. It has an
accuracy rate of about 84% in locating guilty suspects. But there is a problem with the

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implementation and this problem arises because usually it is very difficult to locate enough
number of facts or occurrences about the crime scene which are publicly unknown. Since this
technique is based on only questions about information which are publicly unknown then that
means that there has to be a lot of instances which the investigative agencies actually are aware
of in order to be able to construct enough questions to qualify for the test.
4. POST TEST INTERVIEWING (debrief which the person gets after the polygraph
has been conducted)
COUNTER MEASURES- How can a person cheat a polygraphic test. The polygraphic test is
based on an increased physiological activity when the person is trying to lie and a relatively
lower or normalized physiological activity when the person is telling the truth. In this case the
polygraphic test can be cheated basically in 2 ways. Either the person trains himself to
increase his physiological activity in general and this increase will mask all difference
between an honest baseline and the peaked physiological activity when the person is lying
or Second way in which it can be done is by decreasing the physiological activity even to
questions when the person is lying or even to questions which are targeted to increase the
GPA of the person. Now it can be done in multiple ways-
Individual can use drugs and tranquilizers to do that, there can be a physical measure, mind
training or mental activity. The most basic is physical methods- wherein anything that can be
used to hurt you. So, a person might put a nail in the shoe and press his toe against the nail and
when the nail pierces the skin there is a pain reaction in the body and this pain reaction is similar
to stress reaction. And thus even the baselines would give higher physiological activity.
Basically hurt yourself and the body is going to enter in a stress situation.
Second method is the mental technique- the safest technique. They cannot be detected by any
external aides. But there is a lot more training which is required to successfully execute a mental
technique. Most of them are targeted at decreasing the GPA and one of the most basic ways of
doing that is simply relaxation training. So if one can over a period of time train oneself to relax
then even in a stressful situation the stress reaction of the person will be extremely controlled.
Also the person can learn over a period of time how to increase the GPA and that can be done by
vividly practicing visualization of extremely stressful, traumatic and anxiety provoking situation
and that works even better if the person has actually experienced that trauma or anxiety. To
successfully execute the mental techniques, there is greater amount of training that is used.
Usually a lot of individuals who are professionally trained in that use techniques based on bio
feedback- In case of relaxation training, the normal temperature of body is taken (skin
temperature) by attaching the thermometer to the skin and then the person is asked to breathe in
and out and progressively relax and that should translate into a decrease in body temperature of
the person. With training the person learns to associate bodily sensations of relaxation with the
temperature feedback that the person is giving and then he knows that he needs to relax and he
knows what the body feels like when the temperature is down.
Drugs- Drugs like tranquilizers, anti- anxiety medication and also alcohol can be used to relax
the body but the threat with medication or drugs is that a lot of category of drugs are detectable.

8
So the blood test of the person will show that he has actually consumed drugs. There are also set
of studies which tells that when individuals were intoxicated at the time of commission of crime
then they are more likely to escape the polygraph because it is the direct outcome of state
dependent memory which means that what you do while you were drunk you won’t remember it
when you are sober again because cues associated with the state of the body act as an important
retrieval cues. Similarly when an act of crime is committed under mild intoxication is recalled by
the person when the person is sober then it does not generate as much anxiety and stress because
the memory might not be very clear even if it is there, it won’t be perceived as anxiety provoking
as the actual commission of the crime. Then in these cases the people are able to escape or cheat
the polygraph. In psychology there is another technique which is called hypnosis or self-hypnosis
which is similar to progressive relaxation.
Overall research tells that in order to cheat the polygraph successfully by the use of counter
measures usually it requires a high level of training, specifically when you are using mental
techniques but all other techniques have their drawbacks. So even if you are training yourself to
cheat the polygraph physically you still might not be successful if you do not have a lot of
training. So very few individuals are able to successfully cheat the polygraph using counter
measures. This essentially is not so much of a concern as far as the accuracy of polygraph is
concerned. The greater concern is to do with the administration of the polygraph, the specific
techniques itself and the validity and the reliability of the techniques which are used itself. So if
those are used in a sound manner then the effectiveness is likely to be way more.
06/09/2019
LEGAL ASPECTS (POLYGRAPH TEST)
If we look at the trends in the approach of the legal fraternity towards polygraphy esp. in the
context of case laws we would find the 5 specific stands. These case laws are relevant not only
from the context of polygraph per se but also in the context of all expert testimony. These
verdicts are relevant for the testimony of the experts based on the scientific evidence in general
rather than just the polygraph.
The first testimony of its sort which was an expert testimony based on the polygraph test was
done by- William Marston. The testimony was in the context of the case of US V FRY 1923. In
this case the court rejected the expert testimony which was on the basis of a polygraph test and in
this context the court came up with a standard of admissibility of expert testimony on the basis of
some scientific evidence. This standard came to be known as THE FRYE TEST or THE
GENERAL ACCEPTANCE TEST. The court specifically said that for any evidence to be
acceptable in a court of law, this evidence/method of scientific analysis should be considered to
be reliable within the relevant scientific community, it should be established in its relevant field.
Only scientific techniques/methodologies which are seen as reliable by several members of the
scientific community will be accepted in the court of law. This case and the opinion came in
1920s which is when the polygraph was in its raw form. Up until then it was a widely debated
technique and still is but back then it had not established itself as a technique to begin with. In
that context the court held that since the polygraph test does not cater to the general acceptance

9
test (this from where the term ‘general acceptance’ comes from, that the scientific method should
be generally accepted as reliable). And since the polygraph did not have any consensus within
the scientific community with regards to its reliability, therefore, any evidence based on the
polygraph will be inadmissible in a court of law. In the case the polygraphic evidence was
presented in the court of law as an ‘exculpatory evidence’- evidence which has the potential to
lead to an exoneration of the defendant and is in the favor of the defendant and proves the
defendant as not guilty.
Eventually after this case we see a trend whether polygraph was presented to the court by the
defendant or the prosecutor. Irrespective of that there was a standard per se exclusion of the
polygraphic evidence which is seen for a very long time for almost the 50-60 years
approximately, post the Frye verdict, which meant that evidence based on polygraph would not
be admitted in a court of law. But what followed was- a lot of debate around evidence based on
polygraph specifically the reliability and validity of the evidence within the psychological as
well as the legal circles and therefore there was a slight alteration in the legal stand with respect
to the polygraphic evidence which also was highlighted in US V. GIBSON 1987 case.
In this case the stand that the court took is usually known as the ‘RELEVANCY APPROACH.’
The merit of this approach was that it treated all kinds of scientific methods whether they were
new methods or were old and established methods, at par with each other. In this context, even
though polygraphy was, for instance, was not as well established as psychometrics or
psychological testing yet it was treated at par because there was some evidence which did show
that polygraph had its merits and has some potential to detect deception and therefore it was a
scientific method within the scientific community. The relevancy approach essentially said that if
a scientific method is relevant to the case at hand and is reliable, it will be accepted as valid
evidence. The reliability of evidence is important but the reliability does not need to be
established within the scientific community. The court noted in the case that the Fry test- though
the issue it is raising is extremely valid issue (reliability) but the frye test is extremely restrictive
and extremely conservative in its approach. The court shifted the approach to the relevancy
approach rather than the general acceptance test which had in turn led to the per se exclusion of
the polygraphy technique.
After that, in the 1990s there were a series of cases, specifically 3 most important cases (one
single case alone is not important but all are and the standard which was highlighted by all of the
3 cases came to be known as the ‘DAUBERT STANDARD’)-

 DAUBERT V. MERRELL DOW PHARMACEUTICALS (1995) (The first in the

trilogy)
 GENERAL ELECTRICS V JOINER (1997)
 KUMHO V. CARMICHAEL (1999)

All the 3 cases added to the Daubert standard and all of that put together came to be
known as the Daubert Standard. And is something that is used in the context of all
scientific evidence and all expert testimony rather than only the polygraphic test. In the
standard, the court appointed the judge/jury as the gatekeeper to ensure that the scientific

10
 evidence that is admitted in the court of law is reliable, grounded in techniques which are
reliable and is relevant on a case by case basis and also gatekeeper to ensure that the
expert testimony given by an individual was grounded in scientific knowledge which in
turn was grounded in scientific methodology. In the Daubert cases it is seen that the
courts then rejected all other standards of expert testimony or scientific evidence and the
focus of these cases is that there can be no one standard which can be applied to all expert
testimony and all scientific evidence but it has to be decided on the case by case basis and
the judge has to be the ultimate gatekeeper.
Daubert standard was greeted with a lot of appreciation within the scientific community
because it was a relatively flexible and open standard which kind of accepted a vast
amount of scientific evidence within the legal set up as well. Currently as well, the
Daubert standard continues to influence decisions with regards to the admissibility of
scientific evidence. But specifically, with respect to polygraph test the legal community
still has its reservations with regards to reliability of the evidence and also admissibility
of expert testimony based on the polygraphic test.
Not long after the Daubert Standard, in US V. SHEPHARD (1998) which also was a very
important verdict with regards to the admissibility and turned the table for the polygraph test,
resulting in the rejection of the court with respect to admissibility of evidence based on the
polygraphic test. The court in the case held that nothing in the Daubert standard foreclosed the
per se exclusion of exculpatory evidence which is based on a technique like polygraph. And also
ruled that the exclusion of the polygraph (esp. when presented as exculpatory evidence) does not
account to the violation of the right of the defendant to a fair trial because the core issue that was
highlighted was the fact that the reliability of the polygraphic test was not established within the
scientific field or the psychological community and therefore a right out exclusion based on
polygraph, even if its exculpatory evidence, does not qualify to be a violation of the right of the
defendant to a fair trial. The shepherd verdict is going back to the frye test and highlighting that
as elements of the reliability of scientific evidence to be established within the relevant field.
Today in most cases the courts are fairly resistant towards admitting expert testimony which is
based on the polygraph and polygraph test is still very contended.
Despite all the reliability issues, resistance which the legal circles have shown with respect to the
polygraph test- there are also strong arguments both within the legal circles and psychological
circles with respect to the strength and the value of the polygraphic test.
The 1st argument in favor of admissibility is the fact that over a period of time the sophistication
of polygraph technique has evolved and therefore today after each passing case the accuracy of
the polygraph technique has increased and therefore right oultly rejecting the polygraphic
technique is not the solution. It is important to at least admit it in the court of law and have a
debate around it which will also lead to an analysis of the drawbacks of the technique and further
build upon it. An increase in the accuracy can be evaluated as a continuous process.
Also there are theorists who argue that even though the reliability of the polygraphic test might
be in question yet there is merit in at least admitting polygraphic evidence and submitting the
evidence to the adversarial process within the court of law and subjecting it to the adversarial

11
process to the entire process of legal debate and argumentation wherein the evidence per se can
be evaluated just like any other evidence. So only because an evidence is based on the
polygraphic technique should not be ground enough to reject the technique and at the same time
should not have an overpowering influence on the court but should be treated just like any other
evidence, should be subject to legal debate within the courtroom and should be subject to the
adversarial process and there is no drawback in doing that. In this light again the polygraph
should not be per se excluded.
Also if a lot of western cases are evaluated it would be seen that in a lot of these cases,
polygraphic evidence has been entered into the court of law stipulation which means that both
the defendants and the prosecutors come to an agreement with respect to whether the polygraphic
evidence should be admitted in the court of law and they agree that the evidence can be entered
into a court and in turn they can have their own terms with the respect to the admission. So if for
instance they might agree that if the defendant passes the polygraphic test then the prosecution
will drop the chances and if the defendant fails then the prosecution can take it ahead as an
important piece of evidence.
VOICE DETECTION
Another aided technique. Also sometimes called ‘Voice Stress Analysis.’ This technique is
essentially grounded in the fact that the voice quality of every individual is different. The voice
comprises of several vibrations and the pattern of these vibrations in each individual is different
and that is because of the structural aspect of our muscles, vocal cord, the vocal cavity, the
muscles attached to the vocal cord. It varies from person to person and therefore the very
physical structural apparatus is different in different people and therefore the voice of different
individual is different in terms of vibrations that are produced.
Also, not only structurally but also functionally the voice apparatus of people are different which
means that I flex my muscles while I am talking is different from the way you would flex your
muscles while you are talking. And this in turn results in varied vibrations (voice related) which
are produced by individuals. These vibrations (which constitutes the voice of the person) can be
tracked in voice prints. Voice prints are nothing but oscillographic representations of the way
somebody talks. And in turn these oscillographic representations are different for different
people and thus can be used to track the uniqueness of the voice of an individual. Voice print is
tracked using PSE- ‘Psychological Stress Evaluator’ in a stress condition and a stress evaluator
because it is used tracking the voice modulations of the people when he is under stress. These
voice prints essentially show that when an individual is stressed out, is anxious, guilt and fearful
and also when a person is lying or trying to deceive then there are unique changes in the
vibrations which are tracked by the oscillator. When the person is lying there are a larger number
of very tiny vibrations which are registered on the voice print and these tiny vibrations are called
micro-tremors.
The results are pretty clear which is the reason why the tool is used so much and most studies tell
us that when a person is lying the frequency and the number of micro-tremors are more. But still
we do not know why that happens. So there were a lot of initial explanations which said that

12
when a person is lying, these micro tremors which are induced in the laryngitis (larynx is the
voice box and its small muscles are called the small laryngeal muscles) and there are vibrations
which are induced in the small muscles of the larynx of the individual result in a corresponding
change in the quality of voice resulting in greater number of tremors recorded.
But further studies dismissed this conclusion wherein they told that in the smaller muscles there
are no tiny vibrations which take place at all and theory that came into the forefront was that
there are large muscles which are supportive muscles. They are around the area of larynx and
start vibrating in a way which result in registration of the micro tremors. The problem with this
explanation was that research also tells that one needs very highly sophisticated equipment to
actually be able to track these frequencies and micro tremors in the large muscles. Even a lot of
sophisticated equipment present in the lab cannot really track micro tremors which take place in
the large muscles. So the question then arose that if there are micro tremors happening the large
muscles then how does an instrument as simple as the psychological stress evaluator tracking
these micro tremors? The origin of micro tremors still remain a mystery-why they occur and
what is the source! But what we do know today is that there are these micro tremors which do
occur. And it is this lack of explanation of micro tremors which have led to an increased debate
around the reliability and validity of micro tremors. But almost all professions whether in the
psychological fraternity or the legal fraternity, agree to the validity or the utility of micro tremors
or voice detection in assessing whether an individual trying to lie or deceive. As a result what has
happened is that in very few cases so far voice detection has been used. Voice detection has been
used in a lot of corporate houses. So, JP MORGAN CHASE (bank) uses voice stress analyzers to
assess whether an individual is being genuine or client who comes in is a fraud or genuinely has
resources to cater to the loan or not. Nonetheless in legal cases, in very few court cases such
evidence has been presented. At least the utility of voice stress detection has been proven,
despite the issue of reliability it has been entered as a valid evidence in most cases. However in
most cases this evidence has largely been treated as collaborative evidence rather than an
independent piece of evidence. Voice analysis supports the other evidence which has been
presented in the court of law or it supports what an expert witness is saying. It is only then in
these cases that it has been accepted in a court of law.
One recent case in this regard was-
STATE OF FLORIDA V. ZIMMERMAN (2013)
Zimmerman was accused of murder. It was a case where issues against racial profiling (that the
boy was innocent and that only because he was black, Zimmerman actually suspected him of
being up to something and in turn shot him) were also raised. Zimmerman saw a black boy in his
neighborhood and he suspected the black boy of being up to something and started following
him around. He also called the police. The voice which was analyzed here was the phone call
which was made to 911. Called the police and there was some tussle which happened and he
ended up shooting and killing the boy. Zimmerman in this case claimed self-defense and said
that in the process actually the boy attacked him and in order to save himself he had to shoot the
boy.

13
Eventually he was acquitted of all charges. One of the piece of evidence in the case was the calls
that he had made to 911, those were analyzed and the voice print analysis went onto prove that
he was actually in a crisis when he had called and he was telling the truth that there was a boy in
the vicinity who was up to something. However they were supported with other evidence and
that was just one piece of evidence and in turn becomes collaborative evidence within a larger set
of evidences which actually went onto strengthen Zimmerman’s case. So far there is large case
acceptance.
13/09/2019
….Continuing techniques of detecting deception (2 techniques to follow and both are to do
with brain mapping)
FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)- It is nothing but a huge electro magnet,
those are coils in which electrical and magnetic activity which is taking place and those coils
send across through the body changing or altering impulses of magnetic fields in terms of its
north-south alignment. The south alignment of magnetic field is altered very quickly and rapidly.
The magnetic field which it creates is pretty weak in intensity and which is why it is not harmful
for the body. Because of the change or alteration in the magnetic field, certain hydrogen ions in
the cells of the body, they start vibrating and they send across radio waves. These radio waves
then are mapped by the machine to generate 3D images of the brain. Initially the technique used
was MRI which used to map a 2D image of the anatomical structure of the brain itself. But today
we have a functional MRI rather than just an MRI and this functional MRI maps the metabolic
activity of the brain parts. So the image that we get is the image of the activity of the brain parts
and those are series of 3D images and if they are studied then we would be able to tell that when
what part of the brain was activated and what part of the brain was relatively dormant. This
information we get because the quality of the image like the color, intensity of the image will be
affected by the metabolic activity of the particular brain part and which is why it is called the
functional MRI because it is mapping the brain while it is in function.
This in a legal set up cab be utilized to map whether a person is lying or not or whether the
person is telling the truth or not, essentially because the brain activity of liars is different from
the brain activity of truth tellers and two very parts of the brain have been implied in the act of
lying. Individuals when they are lying have a relatively more active pre-frontal cortex or the
frontal lobe (a larger chunk of the pre frontal cortex) and the parietal lobe.
FRONTAL LOBE_ Is responsible for higher order cognition- creativity, complex thinking,
decision making, problem solving, reasoning, analyzing, etc. Pre frontal cortex is also called the
‘working brain’ because it is when the body is in action, the major cognitive processing is taking
place in the pre-frontal cortex and predominantly the frontal lobe.
PARIETAL LOBE- In this there is also a certain amount of reasoning and thinking which takes
place and is responsible for some amount of reasoning and thinking but predominantly it is also
responsible for behavioral control, behavioral governance and regulation. The development of
the parietal lobe is responsible for the development of behavioral control through the adolescent
period. In the early adolescence the parietal lope is relatively less developed which is why it is

14
said that even though an adolescent might be cognitively aware of the negative consequences of
the act yet an adolescent has problem in restricting oneself from engaging in that act.
If we consider this neurological basis of lying wherein it is said that the person who is lying has a
relatively more active frontal lobe and a parietal lobe. It fits with a quintessential picture of the
act of lying, wherein we say if someone is lying, predominantly there is a thought, the person is
suppressing that thought (that thought is the knowledge of the truth) and creating another thought
which is the act of cognition/thinking/reasoning and after one comes up with that thought, the
false thought has to be expressed either behaviorally or verbally. So once ability to control and
regulate ones behavior becomes important. Working brain which is playing the role and the
parietal lobe which is ensuring that the person is in a certain kind of behavior which is in
concordance with the lie.
Research evidence which documents the accuracy of the use of functional MRI- there is a good
mix of studies, all of them do point towards the utility and the accuracy of the MRI but specific
number they give us varies. Range is between 75-76% to about 90%. From the legal perspective
and specifically from the ethical and psycho legal in terms of ethics, this technique is largely
contended. There are both sides of the debate. One side which strongly advocates the use of
FMRI and the other side which doubts the utility of the technique.
One of the biggest advantages- objectivity of the technique is very high. There is equipment
which is highly standardized which is mapping the activity of the brain and clearly tells that
whether the frontal and parietal lobe is active or not. No human judgment required. No space of
much subjectivity.
Also, along with that it is a very non-evasive technique as compared to a lot other contended
techniques which also largely are not used (using drugs to ensure that the person is speaking
truth, though a medical technique). This too is a medical technique but does not invade the body
of the individual.
In legal context, one of the strengths of the technique is that it ensures that there is no coercion
which takes place. In order to ensure that an MRI gives an accurate picture, the person himself
needs to be willing to undergo the process and the person has to be voluntarily willing to
undergo. If he is coerced or forced into taking an MRI then the brain in itself would undergo
certain changes, certain paths will be triggered and since the frontal lobe is the working brain
then if a person is resisting a particular technique then the frontal lobe in itself will be highly
triggered. Then it would mask the real difference between liars and truth tellers. This technique
pre-supposes that the person is willing to undergo the procedure and the person is voluntarily
doing it without the use of coercion. This removes the possibility of physical, psychological
coercion.
One of the most basic objections is- doubts with regards to the validity of the technique (validity
in the field of detecting deception in a legal setup) and these doubts come in the forefront
because of the fact that this technique is relatively new in the field of investigative psychology
and so far the horizon of data is very limited. Like- we do not know how the FMRIs of people of
different ages is different or we do not know how the brain activity esp. in the context of

15
detecting deception, how the FMRI of different genders are likely to vary. People who are
suffering from mental disorders- we do not know what the brain imaging of these people would
look like in the context of detecting deception.
Data that we have in itself is very limited and therefore does not cover enough area to ensure the
validity of the technique. In the psycho legal context, what impact does the setup itself has on the
brain activity of the person? Is it possible that the high risk situation itself might be triggering
some alterations in the brain activity of the person? If yes, then in what way does it then affect
the brain images that an MRI actually generates? That also is a very important information which
can be used while evaluating the validity of the FMRI technique. As research progresses the data
is likely to come in but so far there is no data regarding all this.
Another debate against the technique is the potentially intrusive nature of the technique.
Intrusion in terms of the privacy of the person. Violation of the privacy which is inherent in
nature and privacy herein is implied in terms of cognitive privacy. There is an entire line of
debate which is called the neuro-ethics. And it is advocated that the cognitive freedom of an
individual is of paramount importance which means that cognition is something which is an
internal activity and therefore something which is internal to the person is extremely private in
nature and only the person has the right to know the internal activity. And thus contended that
cognitive freedom is intruded.
A term parallel used to Brain Mapping or Brain Imaging is Mind Reading. Mind reading is
nothing but studying the different patterns of brain activity and through these patterns
determining what the person is thinking. Again the process of mind reading has been critiqued
wherein the thoughts of the person are considered to be private, if the person wants to make
those public he would speak it out. But as long as they are thoughts they are private. Then using
technology to read mind is inherently is ethically problematic. MRIs have been considered a tool
to read the minds of the people. So when we use MRIs to detect whether a person is lying or not,
a lot of advocates of the use of MRIs also recognize this potential misuse of the MRI. Also
highlight that the use of MRI should be restricted to one particular act of the person which is the
act of lying and should be restricted to just studying whether the parietal and frontal lobe lit up
when the person was talking about something or not rather than an extended mapping of the
activity of the brain of the person resulting in mind reading and in turn resulting in an analysis of
the cognitive activities and the thought patterns which the person was possibly having.
As of today, research suggests that the technique is highly objective and accurate. There are still
issues with the validity of the technique in the field of investigative psychology as a tool to
detect deception and there is a major debate on the issue of neuro ethics considering the
technique as an intrusion in the cognitive freedom of the person.
BRAIN FINGERPRINTING
In the context of this technique there is a greater neuro-ethical debate. It is a relatively very new
technique. When a witness watches a crime happening then there is the memory of the crime
which is stored in the mind of the person. One way to gain access to that memory is Direct
Recall (ask the witness to give a recall of what he witnessed). Is there any other way to access

16
that memory even if the person is unwilling to give a recall of the incident? Lawrence Farwell
would say yes and that it is possible to access the memory of the person and Farwell is the
person to introduce the technique of brain fingerprinting. He was a scientist studying the brain
mechanism of a person and he realized that every time the person is exposed to something that
he is familiar with then the brain pattern of the person changes in a certain way and specifically
there is a particular brain wave which is emitted by the person. Farwell code named this
particular brain wave as P300. The brain constantly emitting electro-magnetic waves and these
waves can be mapped by using certain machines and a particular frequency of this electro-
magnetic wave is what is emitted by an individual when the person comes across something
familiar and this frequency was code named by Farwell as P300.
In this technique (brain mapping) Farwell said that we need to do nothing, we need to simply
come up with certain pictures of any aspect of the crime scene which the offender will have
knowledge of- pictures of crime scene, people who were there, objects at the crime scene, picture
of the dead body- pictures with which the offender is likely to be familiar with and then simply
showing these pictures to the offender and studying the brain wave patterns of the offenders and
the specifically looking for this particular frequency which is called P300, is likely to give
information with respect to whether the person recognizes the information and if the person
recognizes then by inference the person is likely to be the offender. Electrodes are fitted to the
skull of the person and then the pictures are flashed.
One of the most basic elements on which the accuracy and the effectiveness relies on is coming
up with few pictures which only the offender is likely to be familiar with. If generic pictures are
collected with which a lot of people are familiar with then even this person who might not be an
offender might be familiar with and might emit P300. P300 is emitted for a very small time,
emitted for roughly 300-800 milliseconds.
This technique per se has not been used in a lot of cases barring one in which it was also used as
very secondary evidence-
STATE V. HARRINGTON (2000)
In this case, the person was a murder convict and convict had already served 22 years in prison.
So, the attorney of person moved the court to reopen the case in light of some new evidence that
has come to the forefront and had come to the forefront because of the use of brain
fingerprinting. Herein the defendant did not show P300 brain wave pattern in response to certain
pictures from the crime scene. But he did show P300 wave pattern in response to pictures which
were associated with his alibi. He had given an alibi of being away at some party and when he
was shown pictures of that he showed P300 wave pattern but when he was shown pictures from
the crime scene he did not show the particular wave pattern and thus the attorney argued that the
case shall be re-evaluated in light of the new evidence.
The case is important because it is the first and the only case where such evidence has been
presented. This evidence was considered to be admissible in the court of law. Also there was a
mention of the Daubert Standard and held that this technique is being used in the scientific
community and is thus a valid technique and should be admitted as a valid technique. The

17
technique was admitted but did not concede to the motion to reopen the case wherein it simply
stated that even though there is a new piece of evidence that has come to light but it is unlikely to
change the final verdict of the case because there was enough evidence to support the fact that he
had actually committed the crime. Therefore the case wasn’t reopened. But what is of importance
is that this evidence was admitted.
For now, evidence in the field of psychology and brain sciences suggest that it is a pretty valid
technique. It is an extremely intrusive technique. So even though if the validity of the technique
is established there are likely to be reservations within the psycho-legal circles to the use of the
technique and admissibility of the technique because potentially this technique has the ability to
draw the memory of the person in indirect manner but intrude upon the memory of the person
and draw the memory even without the person recalling that memory.
Also, it does not pre suppose consent. So, even if the person is unwilling and does not consent to
the technique, simply exposing that person to certain pictures from the crime scene is likely to
result in the emission of P300 and is likely to give an indication of whether the person was there
or not. Therefore a high element of psychological coercion. Even if it is established as a valid
technique in the psycho-legal circles, it is likely to raise ethical debates from a neuro-
psychological perspective.

18/09/2019
OFFENDER IDENTIFICATION
It is the process where the witness and also the victim can be used to identify the offender (most
researches done in the context of witnesses identifying the offender). 3 important ways in which
offender identification can take place and also along with that is mentioned their inaccuracies-
1. VERBAL DESCRIPTION OF THE OFFENDER HIMSELF BY THE WITNESS-
This leads to the generation of facial composites on the basis of verbal description given
by the witness about the offender. Facial composites are the sketches of the offender that
an artist might come up with on the basis of the description given by the witness.

When an individual is describing an offender then fundamentally it is considered to be

psychologically a very unnatural process to describe the offender on a feature based
processing. The most initial research in the area tells that the brain are used for visual
processing of information and the brain area used for verbal expression of information
are 2 very different areas. The brain area used in verbal expression of information-
‘brocas area’. Brocas area is known to be located in the left hemisphere. Initial research
said that it is located on the left side but now there is slight modification with regards to
this information and that it is located in the dominant hemisphere of the individual. By
contrast the visual area for visual stimulation and perception is located in the right
hemisphere. There is a clear divide in terms of broad brain areas involved wherein when
an individual is perceiving visual information it is parts in the right hemisphere that are

18
active but when an individual is giving verbal descriptions of this information then brocas
area in the left hemisphere which is active. There is thus a high susceptibility of
inaccuracy.
The second aspect is the manner in which individuals process visual information with
respect to recognition of facial structure of the individual. A difference between a top
down perception which is used while we perceive the face of individuals and the
bottom up perceptional process which is used when we are recalling information about
an individual.
*Feature Based perception (bottom up perception) - Where while you are perceiving
information, you are using simpler percepts, the component parts of the total complex
object to get a perception of the whole object or meaningful perception of what the whole
object is.
When exposed for the first time to an object then you are more likely to use the bottom
up process of perception or feature based process of perception where the simple features
are perceived and thus a get a meaningful understanding of the object.
*Whole Based Perception (top down perception) - When once you develop familiarity
with the object and then by simply looking at it you would be able to derive the basic
features. Just look at the object as a whole and then derive the simple features.
So when we perceive faces, we use the whole based perception or the top down process.
The mistake in sometimes recognizing people is because we use the whole based
perception. We look at the face in toto and feel that this face is familiar and therefore this
person is a particular person that we are aware of but at the same time we do not get into
the details of what does the nose or the eyes of the person looks like. When you approach
the person and begin the conversation and have a closer look then you realize that the
specific features of the person are different from the initial appraisal you had basis the
whole based perception.
Contrast this, when witness is describing the face of a person to a sketcher then the
individual is relying on feature based processing (eyes, nose, body structure and all such
related details).
So, the basic perceptual processes involved at the time of encoding of face structure of an
individual are very different from the very nature of perceptual processes which are
utilized by an individual at the time of generating that facial composite or at the time of
giving the description of what a person looked like. And in turn the facial composite that
is generated for the first time is highly inaccurate. What can be done about it is to perhaps
make the generation of facial composite a more interactive process going back and forth
between the sketcher and the witness. But this then becomes a cumbersome task because
a sketcher sketches and shows it to the person then the person uses whole based processes
and then realizes that this is not what the person looked like and then starts making
modification, the sketcher then has to start from the scratch. And this might happen
again. To tackle this to a certain extent, in the western countries what they have today is
that they use artificial intelligence to sketch that. It is a less time consuming process but
there is still a lot of back and forth that happens.

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2. USE OF PHOTOSPREADS- When a number of photographs of the potential offender
are shown to the witness and the witness is asked to locate which of these individuals is
possibly the offender. These photographs of the offender might be selected on the basis
of the verbal descriptions which are given by the witness, also on the basis of previously
existing information with regards to who could have possibly committed the crime.
Research tells that the identification of any face is a very individual process and highly
ridden with individual differences. And these individual differences creep in in the
context of personal values and motives of the person concerned himself. Faces which the
individual finds more attractive are easier to remember as compared to faces which are
usually seen as very normal average faces. Certain kinds of faces are easier to remember
and when we start to describe what kinds of faces are easier to remember there is a lack
of universal definition in that regard because a particular kind of face might be easier to
remember for one particular person and might not be easier for certain other kinds of
people. For instance- attraction. Considering, that if the witness finds the face of offender
attractive, then those kinds of faces are easier to remember and less thus less prone to
accuracy as compared to face with average attraction to the witness.
Also for instance, faces which have some distinctive features, like- a very prominent nose
or a very distinctive rare face structure. These faces would be easier to recall as compared
to faces which are an average version in a particular culture.
Also a particular kind of bias known as the- ‘Own Race Bias.’ This is usually seen in
multi-ethical culture where a culture like the US, people of multiple ethnicity stay there.
This bias is a process which simply says that individuals find it easier to distinguish
between facial features of individual belonging to their own culture as compared to facial
features belonging to other races or culture. We are able to recognize facial features
differences of people that we constantly interact with or we are familiar with but we are
unable to recognize individual differences in the facial make up of people who do not
belong to our culture. This bias is known to have led to a lot of false alarms in multi-
ethnical cultures. In terms of investigative psychology, it is not a mono-ethnic
phenomenon. In a culture like India if there is a photospread and one has to pick up
people then it is highly likely that there will be people belonging to your own culture at
least the facial features of the people that you are familiar with. But in a multi-ethnic
culture like the US if an individual of a particular culture or ethnicity commits a crime,
then another individual belonging to that ethnicity is likely to be identified as the offender
even though if that particular person has not committed that crime. Because the level of
similarity is a lot and the person has not developed enough familiarity to be able to
differentiate between different individuals of that community and the illusion of
homogeneity raises false alarms. Own raise bias is one type of inaccuracy. ‘Differential
Experience Hypothesis’- It is not just the frequency of experience but the frequency of
meaningful experience which determines our sensitivity to facial features of an individual
belonging to some other ethnicity.
Another type of inaccuracy is the notion of ‘Unconscious Transference’. It is simply a
process of interference of memory wherein one individual to which the witness had an
exposure to at a prior event is misidentified as the offender in an event which took place

20
 at a later stage. This typically is a case of ‘proactive interference’ (interference are of 2
kinds- retroactive and proactive). In this case there can be retroactive interference too but
in most cases proactive interference has been seen. A memory of an individual which has
been created at an earlier event is confused with the memory of the individual being
present at the scene of crime. For instance- I see an individual in a potential stressful
situation. There is tussle happening between 2 people at the restaurant and I witness the
tussle at one point in life, following it a few days later- I am at a restaurant again and
there is a robbery and I witness the robbery and have a good look at the thief. Now is it
possible, as a witness when I am asked to give a recognition the offender, instead of
recognizing the offender I actually misidentify that individual that I had seen in the first
tussle that I witnessed in the same restaurant? This is Possible. This has been witnessed in
a lot of cases of offender identification specifically more in the cases of photospreads
rather than line ups because photospreads present very inanimate photograph of an
individual rather than the actual animate individual.
This then becomes a very quintessential example of ‘context dependent memory’. The
question is that why is it that this individual who was involved in the previous tussle in
this restaurant was misidentified as the offender in the case of robbery which happened at
the same restaurant? This has to do with context dependent cues (Encoding specifity of 2
kinds- state dependent and context dependent) and because at a previous point there was
a tussle which happened, it was a stressful situation created some negative emotions and
stress in the individual who was sitting and watching that tussle and there was this
restaurant which had particular cues. At a later stage when the robbery takes place in the
same or similar kind of restaurant, can be a different restaurant too but the case of
unconscious transference is going to be even stronger if it is the similar setup as far as the
physical environment is concerned. The context dependent cues become active leading to
the misidentification of the individual involved in the tussle as the offender who
committed the offence in a similar set up.
Another explanatory factor used to describe the phenomenon is known as ‘Source
Monitoring.’ It is simply the ideology which suggests that while we are recalling or
retrieving information from our memory, we are actively making inferences about the
source of that information. So it suggests that information is not stored along with the
source of that information while we are recalling the particular memory by actively
making inferences about the source of that memory. So you see the face or photospread
and say that I have seen this man somewhere (the customer was involved in the tussle for
instance) but I do not know exactly where- do not remember the source. Therefore you
rely on context dependent cues to come with the identification of the person. So you tell
yourself that I have seen this man somewhere but do not remember where, the source is
missing but it was a stressful situation (similarity in the context) and therefore this person
must be the offender and that is how the person is misidentified as the offender.

3. LINE UPS- Line ups are similar to the use of photospreads, the only difference being
that in line ups actual individuals are presented in front of the witness and the is asked to

21
 pick one individual as the possible offender. Also in terms of psychological processes
involved it is overlapping for both photospreads and line ups.
The principle underlying facial composites and line ups are overlapping. What is
discussed in photospreads also applies to line ups. Possible sources of errors are multiple,
few important ones are-
First of all, a line up is extremely susceptible to suggestibility. Observations tell that even
a simple neutral question or even a very vague statement by the investigator can actually
be taken as a suggestion by the witness. Question like- ‘Does the second person resemble
the offender in terms of height?’ This can be taken as a suggestion that it is perhaps the
second individual in the lineup who is the offender leading to misidentification simply
based on the suggestion.
Another potential source of error is- ‘Conformation Bias.’ Research tells that once an
identification (identified someone as an offender) has taken place then there is very high
tendency in the individual to stick to the identification even if there is contradictory
evidence which is available. In turn confabulation also takes place, meaning that
individual also comes up with some explanation in support of his identification. Which is
why one of the principle of having an effective line up is the fact that the witness is told
that he is under no pressure to identify someone, he should take some time, think, reason
out, analyze and then identify. Also that the person needs to be told that it is quite
possible that the individual is not in the lineup. This is simply to avoid the pressure of
identification. Also for an effective line up- the ‘functional size of the lineup’ ideally
needs to be the same as the ‘nominal size of the line up.’
-Nominal Size- The actual size of the lineup. If there are 5 people in the lineup then the
nominal size would be 5 which is the entire size of the lineup.
-Functional Size- The number of individuals who closely resemble the description of the
offender given by the witness.
So if the witness says that the offender had a beard, then if out of the 5 people only 3
have a beard then functional size is 3. It is essentially the functional size which
determines the accuracy or effectiveness of lineup because typically, those 2 other people
are of no use.
In an ideal situation the functional size of the lineup should be equal to the nominal size
of lineup meaning that ideally all individuals in the lineup should match the description
of the witness then all the individuals (functional size of lineup) will be equal to the
nominal size.

19/09/2019
So as far as the legal stand with respect to identification procedures and specifically line
ups are considered and specifically the aspect that there is an argument that line ups can
be extremely suggestive in nature. Courts have also actively taken cognizance of the fact
that line ups can be extremely suggestive in nature but the verdict in MANSON V.
BRATHWAITE (1977) at length commented on the validity and reliability of line ups.

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 The courts said that line ups can be extremely suggestive in nature and that raises serious
issue around the reliability and validity of evidence obtained from identification of the
procedure. The court identified that this cannot be a reason enough to entirely doubt the
reliability of line ups and if a line up is conducted in a reliable fashion then that it is
reason enough to admit evidence based on line up and evaluate those evidence as within
the context of all other evidence presented in the court. What would determine whether a
line up has been administered in a reliable manner or not. The court identified 5 specific
conditions which needed to be ensured to ascertain the reliability of the line up. These 5
particular conditions were based on the behavior of the witness in the particular case.
1. It should be ascertained that the witness has had the opportunity to view the crime.
2. Along with that the witness should have had the opportunity to attend to the crime at
length.
3. The witness should have given consistent account of the crime itself over multiple
interviews and also of the perpetrator.
4. The witness should be confident or should show certain level of certainty with respect
to his account that it is accurate. There is contending evidence within the field of
psychology as far as the confidence level and the level of accuracy is concerned
because a lot of psychological studies tell us that the level of confidence of an
individual does not find high co-relation with the accuracy rates.
5. Less amount of time must have elapsed between the occurrence of the crime and the
identification procedure or lineup which is administered. When a large amount of
time lapses after memory has been formed, there is greater scope of reconstructive
processes to take place and thus greater opportunity for cognitive processes to alter
the memory.
Also in the field of psychology APA has a sub society of psychology which is called the
American Psychology Law Society. And this society in 2001 gave a list of 4 features or
characteristics which again should be ensured in order to ascertain that a lineup is generating
evidence which are highly accurate and therefore limiting the scope of inaccuracy.
1. The most important factor in the list to ensure that a lineup is a double blind procedure. It
means that the administrator of the lineup should not be aware of who the possible
perpetrator is. Functionally implying that the person who constructs the lineup that
person would be different from the person who actually administers the lineup when it
comes to calling the victim and view these individuals and pick the possible perpetrator.
This is one level of blindness (blindness because the administrator is not aware of it). The
second level of blindness is that the witness who is viewing the lineup is also aware that
the administrator does not know anything about the lineup. Now this double blind
procedure in effect is important, in order to counter the suggestibility of the line up. That
since the administrator does not know of who the possible perpetrator is then there is no
chance that the administrator would be able to suggest anything directly or indirectly to
the witness. Along with that what is important is that the witness also knows that the
administrator is unware of the line up so that the witness does not take any suggestions
which were not even intended to begin with.

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2. Ensuring that the functional size is indeed equal to the nominal size. Research in
psychology says that having a greater nominal size has little or no value so in order for
the line up to be effective and ensure a greater opportunity to the witness to explore
greater number of alternatives then the functional size should typically be as large as
possible and should ideally be equal to the nominal size.
3. The witness should definitely be informed that it is possible that the perpetrator is not in
the line up. Even if the perpetrator is in the line up, as a standard rule the individual
should be informed that it is possible that the perpetrator is not in the line up and
therefore the individual is not under any compulsion to make an identification to begin
with. This happens to counter the conformation bias.
4. Taking a statement from the witness with respect to the certainty with which he has made
an identification or simply taking a statement with respect to the confidence level of the
witness with respect to identification before he has given feedback or before he is
allowed to interact with any other individual outside the context of identification set up.
Confidence level is not used as a co-relate of accuracy (that if there is greater level of
confidence then it implies higher accuracy).

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20/09/2019

UNIT-III
IN COURT LEGAL PROCESSES
DECISION MAKING WITHIN THE COURTROOM
Basically when the judges/juries are listening to the arguments which are offered within the
courtroom, in the most ideal situation if it is assumed that the judge/jury takes the most rationale
decision based on the arguments which are offered in the court of law then technically we are
assuming that the judge is taking into account all the information which is being offered in the
court and is able to analyze or assess that info on a perfectly rational basis, eventually arriving
through this systematic and rational process at the final decision based purely on the merits of the
arguments which are offered.
Now that assumption of rationality from a psychological perspective is a flawed assumption. So,
very basic level studies in psychology show that human cognition is not entirely rational, the
irrationality of the human cognition begins at the level of basic cognition as basic as the
selectivity of human perception and memory. How you make sense of the world around you is
through the process of perception. Perception then is the selection and organization of
information (sensory) in your cognitive system. Sensation is the beginning of perception but
perception is not limited to that and selection of information is a very important perceptual
function which is where attention comes into play. Attention plays the selection role of
perception. The process of attention which is at work, meaning, that we are constantly selecting
certain specific kinds of information or only specific amount of information to allow it to enter in
our cognitive system. The selection of external information ensures that all possible information
which is presented in the court as part of the arguments are not entered into human cognition or
the cognition of the judge. For the process to be completely rational in nature, all info presented
in court needs to be evaluated by an individual. We are arguing that that to begin with is not even
possible because human cognition is limited by selection (with respect to the information which
is allowed to enter the human cognitive process and we do not allow all information to enter our
cognitive process, therefore right at the beginning of our perceptual process there is scope for
inaccuracies and irrationality.
As far as human cognition is considered, selection is not limited to the selection of external info,
it also extends to the info which we have access to from our internal memory. Retrieval becomes
a memory based function and when it comes to retrieving info from memory it becomes selective
in nature, meaning that we do not have equal ease of access to all information which is there in
our long term memory. This all is to do that we are challenging the notion that an individual is
taking into account all the information that is available while appraising information.
The second aspect of it has to with the complexity of the information which is presented within a
legal context. We are arguing that for a judge to be able to take a completely rational decision,
we are assuming that the processing or the appraisal of information is entirely reason based.
Whereby we are assuming that all the complex info, all the contradictory info, every bit of

25
information which is presented is given equal importance by the judge and is taken into account
by the judge which again is not true. Considering that there is high level of contradictory, vague,
ambiguous info and added to that time constraints. The decision is also time bound and has to be
taken immediately. And considering all this, systematic rational processing is not always
possible and therefore instead of systematically rationally processing this info, judge tends to use
heuristics rather than processing information at length in a detailed manner.
Heuristics- Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb which individuals use to quickly process
information and these rules of thumb usually are developed on the basis of experience. They are
an extremely convenient and an easy way of processing information. They also reduce the
cognitive load or the cognitive efforts that the individual puts in. A lot of times they are also
accurate ways of processing information. The use of heuristics doesn’t always leads to errors but
because they are shortcuts it increases the potential for error and erroneous decision making. But
it also adds to the potential for biased and prejudiced decision making. Biased decision making
because we have certain rules in our mind and we are constantly lying on those rules to make
current decisions. So, instead of relying on the rationality in the current setup we are using our
pre-conceived notions and this results in the potential for biased decision making.
Specific situations in which humans are more likely to use heuristics, there are situation related
variables as well as personal, human related variables which increase the possibility of
heuristics- 2 specific factors which research points towards-
1. When important decisions have to be made in light of uncertain events. It is not easy to
process vague unclear information and because information we have unclear but the
decision that needs to be taken on the basis of that info is a very important decision. In
such a situation we are more likely to rely on pre- existing rules which we have in our
minds which inform our decision making and these pre-existing rules are based on past
experiences rather than the current situation.
2. When cognitive load is very high. Simply meaning that the amount of information which
needs to be processed in a particular situation is very large.
If we consider a typical decision making situation within a courtroom, both of these criteria are
met. The amount of info on which the decision is to be taken is very large and along with that the
evidence is also very vague and contradictory, complex and also there are time constraints.
Research shows that when time constraints are high we are more likely to base our judgment on
heuristics because the time to take decision is limited and quick decision have to be made and
one does not find enough time to process all info in a rational manner. A courtroom situation
then offers a typical situation where the use of heuristics can be very high. Apart from this there
are 2 other personal factors which determine the use of heuristics-
1. Tiredness or fatigue. Such a person with tiredness or fatigue is more likely to rely on
heuristics and is done to increase the simplicity of the task at hand.
2. Inability to take cognitively demanding task. This becomes important when the person is
cognitively incapable of processing the kind of information which is presented to that
person. For instance- if there is an argument which is presented in front of a person and

26
 the person does not understand that argument or doesn’t have enough knowledge of it,
then because of lack of understanding or cognitive incapability the person is not in a
position to process the merits of that argument in a rational manner.
Why the understanding of heuristics is important is because the research tells that we use
heuristics in an automatic manner without even having the awareness of those heuristics and that
leads to a potential for error. How to manage or reduce the error? Essentially research is not
suggesting that we should reduce our reliance on heuristics because it would simply make
everyday task very difficult but the problem arises, because most of us are not even aware of the
use of heuristics or the manner in which they can possibly bias our judgment. When individuals
are made aware of the manner in which they are processing information in an automatic manner
then this awareness in itself has resulted in a decrease of the error which can be caused due to the
reliance on this method. The mere awareness of this underlying automatic ways of processing
information has been known to reduce the potential for error. Since it is automatic in nature, the
potential for error can never be absolutely negated.
5 HEURISTICS ( There are more but within a courtroom 5 of these have been frequently
studied and studied because research tells that judges tend to rely on these heuristics while
decision making. The first three are the most common heuristics which have been studied
even in the normal everyday human cognition.)
1. AVAILABILITY HEURISTICS- It is used more frequently when we are taking
probabilistic decisions which are to do likelihood or frequency of occurrence of events. It
says that we base our judgment on the likelihood or the frequency of occurrence of events
on the basis of the ease with which we can recall a memory of that event. Example- We
tend to overestimate the possibility of women being subjected to abuse on the roads
because we are so frequently exposed to news articles which talk about sexual abuse of
woman. Therefore because these instances are easier to recall, so when we have to make
a judgment with respect to what is the likelihood that if we step out on the road at night
then you are likely to be a victim of sexual assault. Our estimate is likely to be higher
than what actual, rational statistics suggest. This happens because instead of actually
taking a purely rational decision to answer the question we tend to base our judgment on
the ease with which we can recall the memories of that incident (newspaper reports,
television talking about violence against women and because they are easy to recall and
we have very easy active access to these reports in our memory and we tend to
overestimate our likelihood of actually being a victim of sexual assault).
It can potentially be a source of error when a judge is taking decision within a courtroom.
The selective function of memory- Selectivity of memory plays an important role and it
determines which information do we have easy access to and which is easily recalled by
an individual and which info is difficult to recall and one which is easy to recall is likely
to increase the perception of likelihood of occurrence of a certain event. When a judge is
taking decision regarding- ‘How likely is it that the crime took place?’ or ‘how likely is it
that a particular version of the crime presented in a court is true?’ When a judge is taking
decision like that (likelihood and probabilistic decisions) then the selectivity of memory

27
or availability heuristic becomes important and one way in which it functions is through
selectivity. So, information which for some reason is easy to access for that individual is
likely to reflect in the probabilities and likelihoods which the judge associates with that
particular event. What determines the selectivity of memory- one most important factor is
the distinctiveness of that memory. The specific factors that determine distinctiveness can
differ from person to person. But if a memory has some distinct factors for ‘me’ then that
memory will be easy to recall for me and therefore it will play an important role in my
decision making or my judgment. ‘Distinctiveness’ also supersedes the role of relevance
which means that memories which might not be typically relevant to the situation at hand
might not be typically a reflection of the situation at hand. But they are similar in some
way or they are connected to situation in hand in some way still continue to practice their
influence as long as they are distinct.
For instance- a judge is taking a decision with regards to a particular kind of case and
while decision making the judge sort of recalls a certain other case which was about a
similar crime and for some reason the case had relevance for the judge (had a distinctive
quality for him). In that case irrespective of what transpired- if a judge has to take a
decision with respect to how frequently does this crime occur? Ideally the judge should
go back to statistics and evaluate them to gauge how frequently such a crime occurs. But
if there is a particular case which happened which had distinctive quality for the judge it
will continue to increase the likelihood of appraisals with respect to the frequency of
occurrence for the judge as long as the memory of the case easy to access because of the
distinctiveness value it has even it is not directly relevant to the case in hand. So, it is
possible that in that particular case the individual was not found to be guilty but
irrespective despite the outcome it becomes relevant for the judge and the judge
continues to use that in order to increase his perception of the likelihood of occurrence of
that kind of crime and when it increases it is more likely to lead to a conviction for the
defendant. So if in the previous case the individual was not found guilty irrespective of
that outcome it is more likely to lead to a guilty conviction in this case.
Another study reported by Colwell in 2005 and was evaluating the judgments of several
judges and points out to one particular case of 2 decisions and compared in contrast 2
decisions that were taken by a judge in the state of Pennsylvania on the same day and he
noted the difference in the severity with which these verdicts were arrived at. First
decision with respect to sentencing the individual who was charged with cruelty towards
animals and was given the sentence of 2 years of imprisonment which was the maximum
sentencing for cruelty against animals that was prevalent at that time in the state. And the
second decision was a decision with regards to this individual who was accused of
robbery for the second row in time and he was released on probation by the same judge.
If these 2 decisions are rationally compared then there certainly is a difference in the
severity with which the judge approached the 2 situations wherein in the first case he
gave maximum possible sentence concerning animal cruelty whereas in the other case he
let go of an induvial on probation who was found guilty of robbery for second time in a
row where if someone is found guilty for the second time then ideally the sentencing
should be severe.

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 Colwell came to the conclusion that it is from the psychological standpoint it is quite
possible. He does not find any valid reason for such massive difference in severity and
says that from a psychological standpoint the most appealing reason for this is the fact
that on the same day in the morning this judge who had taken these 2 decisions had
buried his pet for 14 years and considering how that memory of burying his beloved pet
became so salient in the mind, memory becoming so easily accessible to the judge that
instead of offering a more lenient hand to this individual, he took a severe stand against
him.
In the context of legal decision making, the impact of pre-trial information in the media
has also been the center of critique. Studies essentially tell that pre-trial reports in the
media continue to have significant impact on the decision making of the judges. It is
because that even before the trial begins the judge has been exposed to so much of
contemplation about the case in the media that it sort of primes the memory of the judge.
It is a typical example ‘Cognitive Priming’- It is the process of creating a cognitive
readiness in an individual. So if I have watched an excessive aggressive movie and the
movie got over, I walk out and somebody does something that I do not like then I am
more likely to react in an aggressive manner at that point because I have just watched an
aggressive movie and it has created a readiness with respect to aggression.
So the news which might not have a basis at all that creates sort of a cognitive priming or
readiness and the readiness is created simply because these news articles are easily
accessible in the memory of the judge and thus influence the decision making.
Another cognitive factor which underlies the impact of media on legal decision making is
the idea of ‘Source monitoring’. This when decisions are taken after a long time has
elapsed. After such a long time the judge is trying to recall memories with respect to the
case in order to do an analysis and the judge recalls a memory but does not know the
source of the memory that information about the source has not been encoded along with
the information. So, when the judge comes to the final decision then he knows that there
is some information but does not know what the source of it is and this leads to automatic
cognitive cognition with regards to whether the source was the trial itself or whether it
was the newspaper or casually told by someone. This leads to an assumption that because
it is info with respect to an ongoing case it came probably from within the courtroom and
in turn influences decision making when actually it should not have been a part of
rational analysis of the judge.

21/10/2019

2. REPRESENTATIVE HEURISTICS- It is used when we are making inferences about

the probabilities or likelihoods of events just like availability heuristics but then in this
case it is to do with the likelihood of inferring whether an object or an event belongs to a
particular category of objects or events. If we infer that the profession of a girl is that of a
student or an activist or a journalist then we are making inference of the category of the

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profession to which this person belongs to. We base our inference on the extent to which
this object or event resembles or has features of the prototype of that category. Higher the
number of representative features- greater is the likelihood that we infer that this object
belong to that category.
In the legal setup, in the background of the cognitive processing, the judge or jurors
involved are making inferences with respect to, like, whether this particular victim looks
like a victim. It has to do with 3 important aspects of the legal process-
-The Victim Characteristics- So, does the person look like a victim?
-The Defendant Characteristics- Does this person look like someone who can be the
offender? What profiling procedures do to shape the perception of the general public and
the decision maker? One of the drawbacks of profiling- Subject based profiling. When
there are descriptors and specifically physical and demographic descriptors which
describe what atypical offender looks like then that shapes the outlook of public in
general. This also decides that who is more likely to be perceived as a defendant and even
if that person is not a defendant. For instance- in cases of drug trafficking there is this
profile where an individual who belongs to the middle class, a young, male, urban
individual and belongs to an ethnic minority is more likely to engage in drug trafficking.
Now if there is a case which is to do with drug trafficking and the defendant fits into this
profile then this individual is more likely to be perceived as a possible offender by the
judge even if he is not. So there are so many people who can actually fit into this profile
or this typical description of drug trafficker but then does that mean that all these
individuals engage in drug trafficking? Clearly not. But despite that just because the
offender has all the features which are representative of an offender, which fit into the
expectation of the judge therefore the judge in the case would be more inclined towards
believing that this person is possibly guilty and if this individual does not have most of
these features then the judge would be more inclined towards believing that this person is
not guilty. This is how profiling also colors the decision makers within the legl setting
and not just the general public.
-Crime Related Characteristics- Are details of the crime which are specified in a
particular case, does it feel as if it can be the case of this particular crime?
In all of these 3 cases- the extent to which the features describe the characteristics of the
victim/defendant/details of the crime fit within the expectations or the pre-conceived
notions of the judge or the jurors- the greater the fit the greater is the likelihood that the
judge will be inclined in one direction.
A research done by Regan & Baker studied the impact of the demeanor (behavior) of
the victim on the appraisal of the jury members with respect to the guilt of the
offender/defendant. Most of these researches have been conducted in a mock jury series,
the jury which is setup is a close representative of the actual juries which are present at
the time of actual trials. This experiment was done in 2 phases. In the 1st phase the
researchers obtained descriptions from within the community with respect to what the
behavioral reactions of a victim of child abuse would be when he is first exposed to the
offender in a courtroom setup? He obtained open ended descriptors from people within
the community on this question and an analysis of the responses depicted that there was

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in fact a very high level of overlap in terms of the descriptions which were given by
different people which means that there was a clear cut expectation with respect to how
this child is likely to behave when he actually sees the offender for the first time.
In 2nd phase, they went onto setup these mock jury situations and simulated a courtroom
setting where there is a jury at work and these mock jury members were presented
detailed descriptions of the affective and behavioral responses of the child first confronts
the offender within a courtroom setup (they were given a brief detail about the case) and
these behavioral descriptors were based on the descriptions which they had obtained from
the community itself. What they did was that they created a slight variations of these
descriptors and varied these descriptions on one particular manner and that was to do
with the presence or absence of crime in the child. All other behavioral responses were
exactly the same except one. In one set of descriptors the child cries when the offender
first appears in front of the child and in another set of descriptors the child does not cry.
Considering an entire range of behavioral patterns simply the presence or absence of
crying in a child is one small behavioral affective detail. But the results were interesting
and went onto show that the presence or absence of that detail had a significant impact on
whether the jury thought the offender was guilty or not. All other details remaining the
same when the child cried at the appearance of the offender, this child was perceived to
be more honest, reliable and trustworthy as compared to the child that did not cry and in
turn that had a significant impact in judging whether the offender was guilty or not.
So, typically if a judgment process was a rational judgment process then this information
would not have had an impact but since there was it shows that there are underlying
background psychological processes which are at work and which have an impact on the
final judgment.
This also implies on crime related characteristics. Research tells us that individuals also
have a very strict set of expectation in terms of what a typical crime would look like.
Expectations like- most burglaries happen at night or most sexual abuses happen at places
which are lonely and relatively isolated. If a description of crime would cater to these
basic expectations of the judges then the judge or the jury members are more likely to
believe that the crime actually transpired the way it is being described by a particular
party and therefore is more likely to trust a party. Also, a research has been on the fact
that individuals believe that truck drivers drink and drive at night. So if a truck meets
with an accident at night then the individuals are more likely to believe that the truck
driver was drinking and driving and the belief is so staunch to the extent that the
individuals might actually start instead of saying that the truck was swaying and struck a
tree at night, they would actually start saying that the truck driver was drunk and
therefore met with an accident. This kind of behavioral thought pattern was actually seen
in judges. Studies tell that individuals actually retrieve information which is more in tune
or consistent with their belief system. So, when a legal professional is given a detail of
the case and is asked to read that case and at a later point is asked to give a recall of that
case, the details which he is likely to recall are likely to be more consistent with his
expectations with respect to that crime. This has to do with selectivity of information and
this is selectivity in terms of retrieval, in terms of information which is already part of our

31
 cognition and we are trying to remember that information. The other aspect is that not
only we remember such information but we also tend to misremember information which
is more in tune with our belief system and that is the typical example when in studies like
this where legal professionals or judges have been asked to read a case brief and asked to
give a case recall at a later point. They are more likely to recall an incident like the truck
one where later the information regarding the drunk driver is added. This happens
because one expects that the truck drivers drink and drive at night. Therefore this
information is added on by the judge although it was not present the previous time when
the case brief was presented to the judge (a typical example of how information is
misremembered by the judge). This process in memory is called- Constructive and
Reconstructive processes. Misremembered- memory is altered by an individual and this
alteration is in the context of ones schemas. These schemas represent our belief systems.

3. ANCHORING AND ADJUSTMENT- Example-Any place where there are no fixed

prices and you tend to bargain. But at the same time you have not frequented the place
and thus you are not familiar with how much bargaining you can do and thus a sense of
uncertainty. So you like something and ask its price, the shopkeeper quotes a price and
then usually depending on how much the shopkeeper has quoted you put in your pitch.
The element of uncertainty- you like something but you do not know how much it
actually costs and this unfamiliarity plays an important role. Another factor which
decides how much you end up paying for that product is the first pitch which is made by
the shopkeeper. This exactly is this heuristic which essentially says that when we are
taking quantitative decisions along with an element of uncertainty then we tend to begin
with an anchor- an initial estimate which tends to be the anchor and adjust our final pitch
in a certain way but usually that adjustment is insufficient in nature and this is anchoring
and adjustment heuristic which means that our final decision on how much we are ready
to pay for the product is significantly determined by the anchor which is first offered by
the shopkeeper rather than an actual research on how much does that product costs.
Considering if the level of uncertainty is low and we know what the cost of the product is
then we are likely to say that this does not cost what is being asked and it is better to buy
it from elsewhere or ask the shopkeeper to give it at the asked price. So if you are
extremely certain and familiar with the issue in hand then the impact of this heuristic sort
of takes a back seat and goes down. But it continues to inform our decisions specifically
in situations which are high on uncertainty.
Considering how a typical legal decision making specifically with respect to monetary
compensation, is a highly uncertain setup where there are a lot of complex information
which needs to be processed, contradictory information is presented which results in a lot
of uncertainty and a lot of uncertainty with respect to what the monetary liability in
particular cases would be. Research which assesses the impact of initial anchor or the
initial quote which is demanded by an individual and the final decision which the courts
have arrived at.
Series of studies done by Hinsz and Indahl. In the series of experiment that they did it
was to do with monetary compensation that was claimed by the parents of 2 children who

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died in an accident (it was a case brief that they prepared). So they had accused the
defendant of negligent driving. With those basic detailing remaining same across there
was a variation in terms of the amount that these parents claimed. To one set of people
the amount that these people claimed was 2 million dollars and to other set of people the
amount that these parents claimed was 20 million dollars. The law and how much
compensation was allowed was exactly the same across both groups of people. Would
there be a difference in the amount which was granted by the court? Clearly. In the first
case on an average the amount granted by the juries was 1 million and the other setting
the amount granted was 9 million. So there was this significant difference in the final
amount that was granted. The first pitch here becomes a key determining factor in terms
of the monetary compensation that was claimed. The same results or the same process
appears to be true when the 1st claim which is made by the individuals is extremely high
and excessive in nature the residual effects are still known to be true. Meaning that even
if the judge or the jury members feel that the amount which the individual is claiming is
extremely high and so much amount should ideally have not been claimed, leading to a
negative perception of the individual, despite the negative appraisal the amount granted
by the jury I still likely to be higher.
Another set of research done by Chapman et al and they showed that when the claims
made were excessively high and that excessive nature is recognized by the jury members
they still ended up granting greater amount of compensation. A study done where a claim
made by a woman against a pharmaceutical company wherein she had claimed that
consumption of the birth control pills manufactured by this pharmaceutical company led
to ovarian cancer in this woman. The case details remaining exactly the same the amount
claim which was initially pitched by the woman varied across cases. In one set of group
the claim made was 5 million and to other set the claim made was 1 billion dollars. In this
case the jury members were asked to pen down their subjective appraisals about the case
and the people concerned and the jury members highlighted that probably the woman
who is claiming a thousand million dollars is being extremely selfish in nature and that is
less honorable for a person to do that. But despite the recognition the final claim decided
was way higher than the lower claim than in the case where the woman claimed less.
So, Even when the claim is seen as unreasonable by the jury members, the final amount
granted by them is still significantly more than a claim that was more reasonable in
nature.
From legal perspective, how it is significant is when there is a case at hand which is to do
with monetary compensation and when numbers are at play perhaps it makes more sense
to go ahead and with the maximum possible claim which the law allows for rather than
rationalizing that claim in terms of that the damage was not much and therefore it is not
reasonable to ask for maximum claim because even if your claim is seen to be too much
by the judge concerned it is more likely that it will fetch you greater returns as compared
to a lower rate. And this also has been seen cases where bail setting is under question.
These results have been obtained from an actual situation of bail settings. These studies
tell us that one of the most important determinants of the amount which is set to bail an
individual is the prosecutor’s initial demand. In this context, Dhami has given a 3 factor

33
 model and says that from a psychological perspective it is these 3 factors which go on to
determine how much bail would be set in particular cases. The 3 factors that he talks
about are-
The prosecutor’s request- Initial request of the prosecutor
The position of the police- the stand that the police has in these cases
The case precedence- What has been done in the past?
Considering the question of bail setting, what should ideally be the determinant of the
amount of the bail? The gravity of offence and past record of the offender should
rationally be the most important determinants of the bail setting amount. But these
research posits that these nowhere feature in the conditions which actually go on to
impact the bail decisions. He says that the most important factor which plays a
determining role is the initial amount which the prosecutor asks for because that
essentially acts as an anchor and then that anchor is adjusted by the legal professionals in
light of what the police has to say and what has happened in the previous cases. Also
when we talk of case precedence, instead of systematically looking at all the cases or
research which is available on the area- the availability heuristic comes into play- the
ease with which the judge could recall a case. And then the uniqueness and the
distinctiveness of the case then becomes important.

25/09/2019
4. HINDSIGHT BIAS- It is not typically manifested in legal decision making and is not
per se an influencer as far as legal decision making is concerned but the fundamental
cognitive principle which underlies hindsight bias is what is responsible for it. This bias
is that when you are aware of the final outcome that outcome is more likely to have an
impact on how you are thinking about a particular event. In turn what happens is that we
tend to overestimate the likelihood that events would transpire exactly the way they
actually transpired. It is simply reflected in the idea that when something happens and
you say that I knew that it is exactly what was going to happen, this is a result of
hindsight bias.
If for instance throughout the semester you do not study at all and you end up flunking in
your exam and at the end of it I say –‘well I told you, you would fail.’ Now when you
were not studying for the exams and I was telling that if you do not study then you are
going to fail then my level of confidence is relatively low but when you actually flunked
(outcome has actually happened) and we discuss you not studying after it has actually
happened, I turn back and say I told you, you will fail. Now considering that how my
level of confidence about the same series of experience has increased manifold when the
event has already transpired in that particular way when you have actually failed rather
than when I am considering the possibility that if you do not study you will fail or rather
if you do not study you are likely to fail in contrast to saying that you did not study you
failed and I told you so. Hindsight- thinking in retrospect.

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So after an event has occurred there is a tendency that I am likely to overestimate the
probability of occurrence of events exactly the way they actually occurred whereas before
that we are talking about a possibility. The prime reason why hindsight bias takes place is
the fact that once we have the knowledge of the outcome, we are more likely to recall
information which is consistent with that outcome and therefore that increases our
confidence in the final outcome that transpired. So if you actually got late then I am more
likely to retrieve information which was actually consistent with the final outcome (lot of
traffic, car breaking down) and therefore my confidence level in that is likely to increase
manifold rather than thinking of inconsistent information which is a scenario where you
actually reach on time.
So, in the context of legal study, a prominent study done with respect to this bias which
evaluated the role or influence of the knowledge of the outcome on the jurors’ decisions
of the liability of the police with respect to an alleged illegal search. This study done by
Casper et al which evaluated the influence of the knowledge of outcome of the police
search on the decision makers’ or the jurors’ evaluation of the likelihood of the liability
of these police officers who were alleged to have committed an illegal search. The case
brief presented to them- outline presented of the search that was conducted by the police
officers. And later on it was alleged that these police officers had actually conducted an
illegal search and had not followed a protocol. Now this mock jury were given the details
of the search, they were also given details regarding what the protocol was (what a legal
search constituted) and were asked to give their evaluation with respect to whether the
search was legal or illegal. There were multiple mock juries that were used and what was
manipulated was the information with respect to the outcome of the search conducted by
the police. There were 3 specific groups that were used-
-One group was told that the police officers actually found important evidence which
proved that the party that was being searched was indeed guilty (guilty outcome group).
- The second group was the innocent outcome group wherein the jury members were told
that the police could not find any evidence against the party that was being searched.
- The third group was the control group which was not given any information with
respect to the outcome.
Now ideally irrespective of the outcome and information with respect to whether police
actually landed or got evidence with respect to the crime at hand, the decision of the jury
should have been consistent across the groups. So ideally in a rational situation the
decision of the jury should be based on the procedure that was actually followed by the
police as compared to the procedure which was outlined by law. But that was not the
case. The innocent outcome group was more likely to find the police liable. The group
that was told that the police did not found any important evidence, those jury members
were more likely to hold these police officials as guilty of an illegal search as compared
to the group that was told that the police did actually find evidence and that consistently
those multiple juries were more likely to hold these police officers as not guilty of the
crime. And the control group was somewhere in between with respect to their judgments.
The study essentially tells that once we are aware of a particular kind of information even
if that information is irrelevant or even if we are told to disregard that information, we

35
 find it difficult to actually disregard that information. And once that information has
formed a part of our cognitive system, it will continue to affect our decisions of the
situation even if it is not relevant and even if we are not doing it at a conscious cognitive
level, it will still continue to have an impact on our decisions.
How this kind of heuristic/manner of processing information has an impact on our
decisions? - even if the technique is excluded (if there is a per se exclusion kind of a trend
and where that technique is not admitted into a court of law as a valid evidence)
nonetheless if there is evidence which is an off shoot of that technique in support of your
case, it is better to present it in a court of law. Let the opposition oppose to that, let the
judge or the jurors sustain the opposition, let the judge ask the jurors to disregard the
information but the very fact that some info has been in presented in the court, it is still
likely to continue to have an impact on the decision making of the judges.
5. SIMULATION HEURISTIC AND COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING- Simulation
heuristic in itself is a very simple cognitive phenomenon. It is the same as simulation. So
when we are in a discussion with respect to something which has occurred already in the
past, we constantly create scenarios with respect to this event which has already occurred.
It is this simulation or mental image of the scenario that we have created is what has
impact on our decisions with regards to the events which have already transpired or the
ease with which we can create simulation or mentally create an event that has already
transpired is likely to have an impact on the way we appraise information about this
event. Why it becomes a heuristic is because we are not just creating events with respect
to what actually transpired but we are also creating events with respect to events which
could have transpired had things been different and that is the process of counter-factual
thinking. This essentially means that while thinking about certain events we are more
likely to create alternate situations or events which are likely to be slightly different from
the event which actually transpired and these different alternatives are based on out
thinking of what could have happened differently so the outcome would have been
different and that is when counter factual thinking comes into play.
So, if you do not do well in exams and say- ‘If only I had studied I would have done
well.’ This is counter factual thinking where you think of an alternate situation with
respect to what could have happened differently had I studied. Also counter factual
thinking is likely to be more evident when the outcome is negative or undesirable. When
we have a desirable outcome where we are all happy and satisfied therefore we do not
normally tend to create alternate situations and therefore we are more likely to create and
consider these alternate situations when the final outcome is negative or undesirable.
How counter factual situation essentially plays a role in the legal set up is, for instance,
when the judges or the jurors while considering the events that transpired they also start
creating alternative scenarios with respect to what could have happened differently for a
different outcome to take place. These differences can be on part of the perpetrator or
they can be on the part of a victim. In a crime situation there are 2 players- the perpetrator
and the victim. So when counter factual thinking is with respect to perpetrator or when a
judge can come up with certain examples or alternative situations with respect to certain
action that were changeable on the part of the perpetrator, so what the perpetrator could

36
 have done differently that would have made the outcome of the crime less severe. If the
judge thinks that the perpetrator could not have done such things and had the perpetrator
not done something the outcome would have been better for the victim, in that situation
we are more likely to evaluate the perpetrator more severely. We are trying to undo
certain events on part of the perpetrator and in effect we are saying that because the
perpetrator did certain things which resulted in certain undesirable outcomes therefore the
perpetrator would be seen in a more harsh light.
Normally, research tells that naturally that is not the natural way of processing the
information. So instead of taking an offender perspective, human beings are more likely
to take the victim perspective. And one of the most important reasons for that is simply
identification. So- ‘today it is someone else, tomorrow it could be me, I could be the
victim.’ Because the humans are more likely to identify with the victim more, therefore
they are more likely to take the victim perspective. Meaning that when we are thinking
about something that is changeable and whenever we are talking about something
changeable we are presupposing the element of controllability. Actions which are
perceived as more controllable are likely to be the center of the counter factual thinking.
So, something that is in my control is something that I can change and since I identified
with the victim more therefore actions on part of the victim are seen as more controllable
and therefore seen as changeably by the individual. As long as I can undo certain actions
on part of the victim or I can change certain actions on part of the victim, I am then more
likely to see the victim I a more harsh perspective as compared to the perpetrator.
Although it is incorrect to blame the victim for what happened, the counter factual
thinking is leading precisely to that. Individuals holding the victim ,at least in parts,
responsible for the crime that took place because had the victim done something
differently he could have avoid the situation. Counter factual thinking which is victim
centric is very clearly evident in statements with respect to sexual assaults that people
make when they say that ‘well she should have not gone out alone.’ Or ‘not gone out
alone at night’ or ‘should have worn proper clothes’ all this is victim perspective counter
factual thinking and this also is very harsh in nature. We also have more subtle levels of
counter factual thinking. Consider a situation where a child at night remembers that there
is a project at school the next day and there are some stuff which has to be bought. Then
the parents ask him to bring it from a nearby shop and this child goes at night, steps out
and while crossing the road meets with an accident. When somebody else would hear this
kind of a scenario, the first reaction of the person is likely to be that the parents shouldn’t
have left the child to leave alone rather than saying that the driver should have driven
carefully. This is victim centric counter factual thinking.

26/09/2019
Counter factual thinking can be of 2 types-
1. UPWARD COUNTER FACTUAL THINKING (UCFT) - A scenario wherein the
outcome is better than what happened. UCFT is a more common kind of thinking esp.

37
 with regards to negative events wherein we consider what could have happened
differently that would have resulted in a better outcome. Like- the child who met with an
accident waala example. So had the kid not went out that night he would not have met
with an accident (had the event transpired differently, the outcome would have been
better). This is victim perspective upward counter factual thinking.
2. DOWNWARD COUNTER FACTUAL THINKING (DCFT) - It is- creating a
scenario which resulted in an outcome which is worse than what has actually happened.
CFT is naturally more upward in nature and takes a victim perspective. So naturally we engage
in victim perspective UCFT specifically when it comes to negative events or crime related events
where the outcome is an undesirable one.
Research done by Smith et al in 1990s and what they did was- they created mock jury situations
and presented them with scenarios of different crimes. There was a case detail with regards to
assault of a victim. After the juries were presented with these case details- they were asked to
reflect upon and evaluate or come up with certain things which the perpetrator could have done
which would have actually led to a worse assault. After they were asked to come up with such
details, they were then asked to evaluate the liability or the severity of the perpetrator and in
these cases the evaluation of the perpetrator was actually better and less severe. The final
sentencing in these cases was a more lenient sentencing as compared to a group that was not
asked to engage in this exercise, a group which was basically given a case brief and asked to take
a decision. Here, we are basically forcing the jury members in the case to take an offender
perspective and engage in DCFT. What could the offender have done differently such that the
outcome would have been worse for the victim? This reflection with respect to what could the
offender have done which would have made the situation worse and therefore the offender did
not engage in certain actions which the offender could have chosen to engage in making the
situation worse and since the offender chose not to engage in those extreme actions resulting in
more lenient and less severe appraisal of the crime as far as the jury members are concerned. If
an advocate arguing a case can push the jury or the judge to think and take an offender
perspective and think in terms of DCFT that has a potential to lead to more lenient sentencing.
On the other hand if we make the decision makers engage in perpetrator perspective UCFT
(naturally it is victim perspective UCFT) then there is a likelihood of shift in the perception of
severity as far as the decision makers are concerned. Similar setting but a slight difference from
the actual experiment that was conducted. In this case- mock jurors were asked to take an
offender perspective but engage in a thinking wherein what the perpetrator would not have done
and in those cases would have resulted in a better outcome for the victim. So, the perpetrator
engaged in an assault but they were asked to contemplate and reflect upon- had the perpetrator
not engaged in certain acts then the outcome for the victim would have been less severe and that
simply is the case when the decision makers are reflecting upon the severity of the actions of the
perpetrator himself and had the perpetrator not done that it would have resulted in a better
outcome for the victim. In these cases the perceptions of severity of actions which were taken by
the perpetrator increased substantially and that resulted in a harsher sentencing by these jurors as
compared to the group that was not asked to undergo such reflection.

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POLARISATION
It as an idea came up later, the genesis of the idea was- ‘Risky Shift Effect’. The idea was first
proposed by James Stoner and it is a social psychology concept wherein Stoner essentially
posited the fact that decisions which are taken within a group setting and esp. if this group is a
group of like-minded people, they tend to be more risky and rash as compared to the decisions
taken by an individual. (Example- asking for attendance individually is calm whereas if a group
goes for attendance then the situation turns out to be rash). The later research did not support the
risky shift effect per se and therefore the idea of polarization was brought into the forefront.
Group think is a mirror image of polarization rather than the risky shift effect. Polarization is a
phenomenon which says that individuals as a group do not necessarily take more risky decisions
and not necessarily shift in the direction of greater risk but what happens is that as a group,
decisions tend to be either more cautious or more risky in nature depending upon the context. So,
as a group phenomenon the final decision then comes out to be more extreme in nature but more
extreme in the same direction in which the pre group discussion tendency were leaning.
Polarization from a legal perspective points out towards the idea that when decision is made by a
group of people (jury, bench of judges) then that is likely to lead to a decision which is either
more lenient or more harsh as compared to a decision taken by one individual.
One stream of study points out to the fact that for instance you have certain attitude against
racism and you are at the same time part of an anti-racist group. After your meeting with the
group (had a discussion, monthly or weekly meeting with the group) when you step out again,
you are more likely to assert your opinion in a more stronger way with a more greater conviction
within a society as compared to what you would have done prior to that group meeting. This
happens (increase in assertion, increase in conviction about your ideas) because the ideas of
members of your in-group tends to reinforce your own ideas. This theory was first proposed by
Ryan. And he essentially proposed the Social Theory of Reinforcement- How does the society or
my in-group reinforces my behavior. Here the reinforcement is not happening directly. For
instance if I look at someone engaging in a similar way as me then that person is not directly
reinforcing my behavior but my behavior gets reinforced because somebody else is engaging in
behavior which is similar to mine and although the reinforcement is not directed towards me but
I get reinforced by seeing someone engage in a similar kind of behavior. This theory is used to
explain the phenomenon of polarization wherein my initial ideology/ my conviction in my
ideology tends to get reinforcement from the ideology of group members who tend to think like
me and it tends to increase my conviction with respect to my initial ideology. From a legal
perspective, polarization has been studied to evaluate how the decisions of judge tend to be more
harsh or lenient when it comes to sentencing an individual while taking a decision in a group
rather than an individual decision.
Main and Walker evaluated around 1500 actual cases which were undertaken by district judges
in the US. He compared cases which had single judges and the same judge while he was in a
bench of 3 or 5 judge bench. He devised his own criteria of leniency v harshness and highlighted
towards the fact that while these judges took an extremely harsh stand in roughly about 30% of

39
cases while they were taking the decision alone. The same judge took a very harsh stand in about
60% of cases when they were sentencing those cases as part of a group.

CONSULTING WITH CRIMINAL COURTS

These are areas where the services of a psychologist are utilized by a court in order to take
certain important decisions with respect to the case concerned. Most often consulting with court
specifically with criminal court, it takes the form of Forensic Mental Health Assessment
(FMHA). The most common type of FMHA are competency evaluations and the most common
ones of the competency evaluations are the competency to stand trials and competency to waive
ones rights.
COMPTENCY TO STAND TRIAL
What constitutes the Competency to Stand Trial? In the field of forensic psychology, has been
defined by the courts themselves.
DUSKY V US (1960)
It commented on what constitutes competency to stand trial and basically an individual is seen as
competent to stand trial if the person has rational as well as a factual understanding of the
courtroom procedure. And if the individual has sufficient present ability to assist his lawyer with
a reasonable degree of rational understanding of the case. This standard came to be known as the
Dusky Standard which mentions the above 2 standards.
From a psychological standpoint what is also important is to keep in mind that when it comes to
psychologically assessing an individual there is no one universal standard with respect to what
competency perhaps entails. It is difficult because the facts of each case are different. For
instance, a case which involves a complex conspiracy to murder someone versus a simple theft
case. Now the complexity of the 2 cases, the cognitive abilities that have gone into planning a
complex murder versus simply a snatch and run sort of a case are very different and therefore the
cognitive ability to evaluate the competency in both the cases are different. Therefore from a
psychological perspective it is difficult to design a complex measure targeting the assessment of
cognitive abilities because there is no one universal standard which we can hold as a benchmark
and say if that benchmark is attained, an individual is competent. Therefore, most psychological
tools which are used in these cases are very open ended tools and irrespective of the tool being
used, there is a clinical interview and that interview while assessing the competency is designed
keeping the case in mind. So, again the expertise of psychologist here becomes extremely
important in determining the interview schedule and the kind of questions which are asked and
also gauging the level of complexity of cognitive abilities which are required in order to get that
rational understanding of the case concerned.

27/09/2019
An additional aspect answering the question of whether if an individual is found competent to
stand trial, does that also imply that the individual is competent to represent himself or be an
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advocate or lawyer for himself? The answer from a legal perspective was addressed in the
context of 2 landmark cases-

 PEOPLE V. FERGUSON (1998)

The case where for the first time the idea of the competency to represent oneself is different from
the competency to stand trial. The defendant, Ferguson fired on a commuter train in long island
and in the process ended up killing 6 people and also injured several. Ferguson was assessed by 2
psychologists acting separately, not in consultation with each other. He was diagnosed as having
a dependent personality as well as a paranoid personality disorder (primary diagnosis). But
despite the diagnosis, he was assessed as absolutely articulate understanding the crime that he
was committing along with a rational understanding of the legal process. From that perspective
he was assessed as being competent to stand trial. Since he was also diagnosed with paranoid
personality disorder, his lawyer suggested that he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity which
somehow he wasn’t convinced about and in turn he ended up firing his lawyer and put up a plea
to represent himself which the court granted. What followed was something which the critic
label as ‘the mockery of the legal process’ because he ended up putting elaborate complex
conspiracy theories, wanted to call presidents of many countries including that of the US as one
of his witnesses. These were all rejected and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
But post-verdict, the center of debate for the critic was- even if there is clear understanding of the
courtroom procedure and the crime that he had committed, but despite this comprehensive
understanding is it safe to assume that if an individual does understand all these nuances, he is
also capable of representing himself? This was not addressed in this case but this idea was
addressed roughly about 10 years later this Ferguson case in-

 INDIANA V. EDWARDS (2008)

Whether competency to stand trial can be synonymous to competent to represent oneself.
In this case the court clearly highlighted that if an individual is assessed to be competent to stand
trial, it cannot be assumed that the person is also competent enough to represent himself esp. if it
is a case that involves a mental health concern. This case was of a schizophrenic who was sued
for theft and attempt to murder and also criminal negligence. He had attempted to steal a pair of
shoes from a store and in the process ended up firing at the guard and injuring a passerby and
thus sued. He was assessed be a psychologist and was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia
but along with that because his ideas and thoughts with respect to what had transpired and what
constituted a criminal procedure appeared to be incoherent- typical of someone suffering from
schizophrenia. Therefore he was assessed to be incompetent to stand trial and not once but thrice.
He was sentenced to a competency restoration intervention. After that he was assessed again and
found incompetent again and again sent to competent restoration, which repeated itself again.
Finally after which he was declared as competent to stand trial. After this when he was taken to
court, he put up a plea to represent himself and that plea was denied in the court. And court
clearly stated that competency to stand trial does not imply a competency to represent oneself.
There was also a plea put up in the case wherein the argument was to have a universal standard
denying all criminal defendants the right to represent oneself which the court rejected. In this

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context the court noted that it perhaps is relevant and true for cases where some mental health
diagnosis is involved but might not necessarily be true across. It should be decided on a case by
case basis that whether an individual who is competent to stand trial is competent to represent
himself or not.
From a perspective of psychological assessment, whenever there is a psychological evaluation
with respect to competencies, it has 2 components to it-
1. The Interview by the Psychologist- It is usually an unstructured interview which is even
custom made to suit the requirement of a particular case because the complexity of
cognitive abilities which are required in different cases is going to vary depending upon
the facts of the case. And also depends, to a very large extent, on the expertise of the
psychologist who is conducting the assessment.
2. An Assessment Tool- Can be created or can be custom made depending upon a particular
situation. But in the West, there are standardized assessment tools used frequently by
psychologists. These assessment tools are basic tools which test the comprehension
ability and the rationality of the defendant. One of the tools used frequently is the-
‘Competency Screening Test’- It is a basic sentence completion task which tests
whether an individual has basic understanding and awareness of the legal procedure (the
rationale, the role as defendant, the factual understanding of the process and the
consequence of the legal process). Has very simple questions like- ‘After the judge hears
my argument he will…’ the defendant is expected to complete the sentence.
Another simple test which is a basic comprehension test- ‘Macartha’s Competency
Assessment Test’- In this test, situational snippets are given to the defendant and these
snippets (a paragraph long) describe a crime that is committed and the fact that the
criminal is then taken to the court and there is a legal procedure that follow. Then the
defendant is asked various questions with respect to that situation, like- what the role of
the defendant was, if there was a legal procedure then question like why was there a legal
procedure (in order to know if the defendant has an awareness of what is the rationale
behind a legal procedure).
These assessments are basic rationality assessments and do not necessarily imply any
complexity of mental health of the individual and is reason based.
JUVENILE ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCY
In cases of juvenile, to what extent these children actually have an understanding or actually
competent to stand trial or understand their rights. At what age to begin with, do you start to
become capable to understand the basic nuances involved?
Research in this area was triggered by the legal analysis in the case-

 HARE V. MICHAEL (1979)

In this case, Michael was a 16 year old who was sued for rape and robbery. He was told about his
rights and was asked whether he wants a lawyer, he refused the request for a lawyer and
demanded to see his probation officer. To this the officials told that the probation officer would

42
be coming shortly and he would be allowed to see him after the questioning but they asked him
again if he wanted to see a lawyer. Later it was seen that Michael was doubtful of what the police
meant when they said that if he wanted to see the lawyer and he was also suspicious of the fact
that it might actually be a trick that was being played by the police. That instead of giving him a
lawyer they will actually send in one of their colleagues (police officer) in disguise in order to
get information out of him. So there is a major trust issue here and Michael did not understand
that he had the right to have an attorney and that it wasn’t meant to be a deceptive trick by the
police. The probation officer was allowed after the investigation. During the trial it was argued
that it amounted to a denial to right to have a lawyer wherein Michael’s lawyer argued that when
he asked for the probation officer that should have been interpreted by the police as a request for
a lawyer. And since the police did not cater to that, it amounted to a violation of the right of the
defendant.
This argument per se was rejected by the courts and held that the police could not have possibly
taken the probation officer to mean the same thing as a lawyer. Because the probation officer is
supposed to be an agent of the State who works in the interest of the State and by contrast a
lawyer is supposed to work for the interest of the client. Basic roles of the 2 are fundamentally
different. Thus the demand for probation officer can’t be interpreted as a demand for lawyer. But
the court did contemplate at length- whether juveniles have the basic ability to be able to
understand the legal process and their rights as defendants. It called into questions 2 rights-
competency to stand trial and competency to waive ones rights. Any waiver of Miranda rights in
order to qualify for valid waiver (the 3 conditions for valid waiver -intelligent waiver, voluntarily
and knowingly). The court picked up the 3 terms and wondered that if the juveniles have a
comprehensive understanding of all of these and are capable of giving voluntary waiver two their
rights.
There are 2 imp. aspects in the case- First, interrogating or questioning a juvenile without the
presence of an adult (guardian, parent, parole officer). In a lot of jurisdictions the questioning of
juveniles is not allowed without guardian and a parent. So, in that case it is assumed that even if
there is no lawyer, the parents are competent enough to understand the legal process and that
they are offering any constructive assistance here. But studies in psychology show that this
assumption is an incorrect one. So studies involving parents of juvenile delinquency and
observation of actual scenarios where parents have been involved in the process tells that parents
do not offer any constructive assistance in such cases. In contrast, in majority of cases the parents
actually add to the negativity of the situation because they themselves are undergoing so many
negative emotions that they in turn having a negative impact on the situation. Studies tell that
most parents are anxious, fearful or uncertain of what’s going to happen and therefore likely to
be of very little use to their children. Also when the negative emotions shifts towards anger
mode, it implies that parents also begin to express a lot of anger towards their children for
engaging in certain acts and in such a case the parents might be adding to the coercive pressure
of this situation. So parents as a replacement for lawyers is a bad idea.
Second- the competency of juveniles to understand the legal process and the rights and waiver of
the rights. Study on this has been done by- Thomas Grisso. Research tells that juveniles who are

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below the age of 13-14 years are clearly incompetent to waive off their rights and are also
incompetent to stand trial. Meaning that they do not understand rights, the utility of these rights
and the consequences that follow if they waive off these rights and also do not have an
understanding of what the legal process entails. And there is a need to sensitize and adjudicate
them when they are taken into custody. Juvenile who are around the age group of 15-16 years or
above, their abilities vary on the basis of their intelligence level. So who are low on intelligence
do not have the competency to waive off their rights but ones who score high on intelligence
tests show basic comprehensive abilities and they are labelled as competent to stand trial. 2 other
important stated individual factors are- age and intelligence as personal variables. Research also
points out towards the social background of an individual. If an individual belongs to a low
socio-economic status and has had a stressful life then that also will lower the ability of the
individual to comprehend these rights. Along with this the history of delinquency plays an
important role. If a juvenile has been a persistent delinquent. Over a period of time has come in
contact with law because of certain illegal actions or crime the individual has committed in the
past then this individual in terms of comprehension is intact but there are other variables which
come into play. Like research says that individuals who have criminal record usually suffer from
trust issues and when the trust issue pops up then that trust is also with regards to trusting the
lawyer and has a significant impact on client-lawyer relationship. Along with this, persistent
delinquents are also known to have certain intellectual (in turn affecting the intelligence tests)
and emotional deficits (in turn affects the individual’s ability to appraise comprehensively the
legal process and the relationship with the client).
For persistent delinquents the relationship is worse, they are usually less capable than non-
delinquents or first time offenders in appraising the utility of the rights and understanding the
legal process as far as their competency abilities are concerned.
Along with age and competency there are few other factors which the research highlights. One
basic factor is being the beliefs about the Miranda rights themselves. A lot of juveniles view the
Miranda rights as privileges which have been offered to them or something which has been
granted to them by the court rather than being a matter of right which these individuals do have.
Also when it comes to the right to remain the silent, most individuals report that they feel bound
to respond when they are asked a question. They do not understand that the right to remain silent
means that they can remain silent and that would result in no judgment against them These
interpretations or appraisals of the right are further hampered in case of persistent delinquency
wherein when it comes to the right to have a lawyer, juveniles who had a history of delinquency
are more likely to be suspicious of the lawyer and therefore do not understand the positive values
of the right to have a lawyer.
What are some of the important factors which make the competency assessment of
juveniles different from the competency assessment in case of adults?
1. Complexity of the process itself- Psychologist needs to keep in mind that the legal
proceedings for the juveniles are not fixed. Depending upon the case and the age of the
juveniles they vary in terms of the formality which is actually followed during the
procedure. Can vary from being very private and informal procedures to the very formal

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 criminal proceeding against an adult criminal. Which is why a lot of times standardized
tests are not used for juveniles because a standardized test cannot take into account so
many variations and therefore juvenile assessment depends solely upon the interview
which is chalked out by the psychologist.
2. Keep in account that the end goal for juvenile proceeding is rehabilitation and not
punishment- Most juvenile proceedings have rehabilitation as the end goal and which
makes it characteristically, fundamentally different from an adult proceedings and
therefore questions relevant to this rehabilitative goal also needs to be inculcated within
the assessment procedure (interview procedure chalked out) rather than following a
quintessential traditional adult procedure.

28/09/2019
3. Parent-child and Lawyer-Client Relationship- assessment of the relationship of the
child with the parents as well as the child’s relationship with the lawyer becomes
important because we are functioning under the assumption that the juvenile does not
have adequate capabilities and therefore the parent will be a key decision maker and a
key influencer in the process and also the lawyer will have a significant impact and
influence on the decision making with respect to the child and the case. Usually in
juvenile cases it is suggested that along with assessing the child, the parents should also
be assessed (at least to a relative degree) with respect to competency (both- competency
to stand trial or competency to waive the rights) and specifically if the child is found to
be incompetent.
The lawyer child relationship becomes important because in a lot of cases, juveniles
usually are unable to assess the importance and role that the lawyer plays in such
situations. The lawyers’ perception of juvenile delinquency as well as the juvenile’s
perception about the lawyer are highly inadequate and out of place. For instance, research
on lawyer tells that lawyers tend to over-estimate the level of understanding that juveniles
have with respect to the case. So juveniles might not always have a rational
understanding about the crime committed or the case at hand and lawyers usually tend to
over-estimate this understanding which means that they tend to function under the
assumption that juveniles do have an adequate understanding of the crime and the case at
hand. At the same time the lawyers also tend to over-estimate the extent of cognitive,
emotional and rational disabilities in the child. So, just the assumption that the child is a
delinquent, leads to an assumption in the lawyers that the child is in turn suffering from
certain mental or emotional instability, while the child might be a pretty normal child. As
far as the child’s perception of the lawyer is concerned, juveniles a lot of times show trust
issues with respect to the lawyer and esp. when the juvenile has committed the crime, in
these cases the juveniles promote a belief that there is no need to be honest with the
lawyer. Also that happens because the juveniles have a lack of impulse control (not
necessarily behavioral impulse but can be impulse with respect to decision making). So,
impulsivity arises from the focus on immediate benefits (if I am dishonest with the

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 lawyer and convince him that I haven’t done anything wrong then I will probably be
saved) rather than a focus on long term benefits (to be honest with the lawyer and then
probably I will be saved).
Persistent delinquents, they are likely to be even more suspicious of the lawyer. This also
has to do with the fact that delinquency in itself pre-supposes trust deficits in any
individual. So, because one of the key personal trait which leads to delinquent behavior is
lack of trust behavior is reflected in their relationship that the juvenile has with lawyer.
To that extent the research supports the idea that lawyers should invest in rapport
formation and trust building with the child. And lawyers who invest doing that in those
cases the lawyer-child relationship is significantly more congenial in nature and to that
extent it leads to the child playing a better role of a defendant in terms of assisting the
lawyer to formulate a case for the child.

ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGIST IN CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATIONS

From a legal perspective, mostly child custody evaluations come into the picture when it is a
case of divorce. The entire process of divorce and understanding that the divorce in itself is
negative for the child. A divorce might be way better for the child as compared to a situation that
the child is staying with both parents but there is also high level of family discord. An these
family discords and constant disagreements and arguments between the parents are more
detrimental for the development of the child as compared to a situation when the parents are
divorced and the child has a more congenial environment. Studies show that divorce does have
short-term negative consequence on the child but these negative consequences might not always
persist in the long run. If the child shows temperamental problems immediately after divorce, it
doesn’t imply that those temperamental problems now have become a permanent character of the
child and will continue throughout the life of the child. Divorce might have positive as well as
negative impact, it completely depends on how the divorce is handled. If the parents and the
support system that the parents have, are able to handle the divorce in a congenial manner for the
child then divorce doesn’t necessarily have any negative consequences and might prove more
beneficial for the child as compared to living in a family with high levels of relationship discord.
Studies show that the frequency/likelihood of divorce in remarriages is way higher as compared
to first time marriages. Implying that if a mother and father has gone through a divorce once, it is
more likely that this person (if he decided to remarry) is likely to undergo divorce and separation
again. A case of repeated divorce is problematic for the child in the long run because it means
that the child has not gone through one phase of emotional upheaval but implies that he is
undergoing multiple phases of emotional upheaval. This continued environmental and emotional
instability is likely to lead to long term negative consequences as far as psychological
development of the child is concerned.
BASIC CUSTODIAL ARRANGEMENTS
These custodial arrangements are based on the decision making authority of the parent. There are
2 kinds of recognized decision making authorities.

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 1. PHYSICAL DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY- it is do with taking every day
decisions about the child- what would be the everyday routine, extra-curricular activities
that the child is allowed to engage in, till what time the child is required to be back home,
what shall be the play time and other small decisions made for the child. The parent who
has the physical authority for the child, the child is staying with that parent.
2. LEGAL AUTHORITY- It is to do with taking long term decisions, mostly about the
future of the child, decisions with respect to- what would the career of the child be, what
would the religion of the child be, the general education plan of the child.
Even though the 2 authorities are defined as 2 separate categories, it is clear that they are
overlapping. Like- school going behavior of the child forms part of the everyday activity of the
child but specific decisions with respect to what school the child goes to or what course does the
child pursue that becomes a part of legal authority. And if different parents have the authority
then there might be fluctuations because, like a physical authority decision- you get to do a part
time job but this part time job to earn pocket money but in turn is likely to interfere with the
schooling of the child. So the 2 are not distinct watertight categories, there is a lot of overlap. To
that extent if there is disagreement between the parents there is also likely to be friction in the
case.
There are 4 custodial arrangements in place. The first 2 are the most frequently used in legal set
ups-
1. SOLE CUSTODY- It is a kind of arrangement where one single parent has both the
authorities and that one single parent becomes the entire decision maker for the child.
Also to a very large extent, the sole parent also gets a very large say in the visitation
rights of the other parent.
2. JOINT CUSTODY- In this case, usually physical custody is shared between both the
parents but one parent gets the legal custody of the child. So, decisions with respect to
everyday activities are made on the basis of which parent the child stays with. But legal
authority resides with one and so as far as the long term decisions of the child are
concerned, that one parent gets the authority.
The most common amongst the two is the sole custody arrangement. In 90% of the cases, sole
custodial arrangement is offered by the courts.
3. DIVIDED CUSTODY- Where both parents have the physical and legal authority of the
child and legal authority is determined by-which parent the child is staying with at that
time. These cases are usually the ones where there is a high level of co-ordination and
understanding between the parents- very low emotional rivalry between the parents,
connect at rational level, co-ordinate in a congenial manner. Because if it is not there then
that is a divided custody failed case. So, parental relationship is considered while
deciding custodial arrangements.
4. SPLIT CUSTODY- This happens in cases where there are more than one children. So if
there are 2 children then one parent will get the sole custody of 1 child and the other

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 parent will get the sole custody of the other child. So usually in these cases, depending
upon the comfort of both parents the visitation rights are offered to the other parent.
DOMINANT IDEOLOGIES IN THE FIELD OF CHILD CUSTODIAL
ARRANGEMENTS
With respect to the standards of resolution of child custody disagreements, there have been
multiple standards/ideologies that have been followed in the case. Looking at literature of couple
of centuries back- there is no argument in place about what should be done in these cases
because the rights of the woman and child were not recognized. The child was seen as the
property of the father and in that setup the cases of divorce were also rare. In the west there were
cases of separation and in such matter the custody of child was not a question because the child
obviously would stay with the father because considered property and possession. This was the
trend until the beginning of previous century.
One of the first ideologies- ‘TENDER YEARS DOCTRINE’ around 1990s. This ideology
essentially held that for a young child, specifically below the age of 7 years but true for children
across ages, it was assumed that the mother is the sole person who has the capacity and basic
capability to take care of the child. To that extent the father was considered incapable of taking
care of the child. In that context, the mother-child relationship was given paramount importance
and it was considered to keep those relationship intact and only a strong, intact mother-child
relationship can lead to a positive, congenial development in the child. And so in these cases the
sole custody was given to mother without much debate, unless it was proven that the mother is
unfit to take care of the child.

 PEOPLE V. HEATH (1899)

The court rightoutly rejected the idea that anyone other than the mother should get the custody of
the child. In awarding care and custody of children of divorced persons, an infant of tender years
(in this case the child was of 7 years) will generally be left with the mother where no objection is
shown to exist as to her even if the father is without blame because of the father’s inability to
bestow on it that tender care which nature requires and which is the peculiar province of mother
to supply. This came to be the essence of the tender years doctrine. The court also held that this
doctrine applies with greater force to girl children (irrespective of her age).
The major lapse in the doctrine is- Studies do show that there is a gender difference as far as
nurturance is concerned between men and women but then studies which have been conducted in
non-patriarchal cultures that relationship gets blurry. The assumption that women by virtue of
their sex are more capable of taking care of a child that is clearly a misguided assumption.
Socialization does that to us. Women are brought up in a way that they are meant to believe to
take care of the child and thus end up taking care of the child. But when men are bestowed with
that responsibility, they also end up doing pretty decent at their job. There might be individual
differences but there is no gender differences as such. This doctrine became challenged from a
lot of psychological groups wherein they said that the assumption is unwarranted, it is not
grounded in research and therefore it cannot be assumed that mothers can take care of the child

48
better. In fact in a lot of cases fathers might show greater emotional sensitivity and they might be
able to take care of the child better.
But this doctrine received support from other circles not because of the logic or rationale but
because of the end result. The end result being- the child staying with the mother. The end goal is
something which is desirable and the child gets to stay with the mother and that should happen
not because the mother can take better care of the child but because in most cases the pre-divorce
investment (time, energy, emotionality) that the mother has made in the child is definitely way
more.
Second doctrine- ‘THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PARENT PRINCIPLE’- It was grounded in all the
research that mothers are not necessary for the congenial development and growth of the child.
What is necessary for the congenial growth and development of the child is a mother figure. The
child does not need a female biological parent but what he does need is someone who can act
like the parent and take care to extent the mothers are supposed or assumed to take care of the
child. The extent to which this person is taking care of the child that person becomes the mother
figure of the child. The mother figure can be anyone, does not have to be related to the child. But
from a psycho-legal context this mother figure preferably has to be related to the child in some
way or the other. To gauge who would be mother figure of the child, assessment related to
attachment of the child with respect to the 2 parents concerned formed the basis of gauging that.
The courts highlighted the fact that what the child actually needs is a potentially omnipresent
figure that the child is attached to a very great extent. Then in these cases the task became to
locate that attachment figure for the child and this attachment figure then won the sole custody of
the child. Also in its pure form, this doctrine also advocates that not only this attachment figure
gets the sole custody of the child but also gets the sole right to decide the visitation rights of the
other parent.
In its pure form this doctrine was a center of lot of debates. One point of criticism being the
absolute rights which this doctrine gave to the ‘ATTACHMENT FIGURE IDEOLOGY’, the sole
parent. The criticism because this doctrine was arguing that just because one parent is the parent
to whom the child is more attached to does not imply that the other parent is unfit to parent the
child. Meaning that this doctrine is systematically negating or minimizing the contact which the
child can now have with the other parent because the other parent has no say in that. And this
sort of pre-supposes the fact that just because the child has an attachment with one parent, the
other parent technically becomes unfit to parent the child.
The other criticism was from a psychological perspective- the problem with assessing attachment
itself. Attachment is very subjective, individual specific concept and in the case of children,
attachment might be expressed in very different ways by the child. There can be no one
standardized way of assessing attachment but that needs to be customized depending upon the
child and that subjectivity is problematic in nature. The other aspect is that attachment does not
imply that the parent can be a better care giver for the child. For instance- a father who is
working, constantly gets gifts for the child on everyday basis. If you ask a child who is 4-5 years
old, it might seem that he is better attached to the father because the father is giving all the
goodies and the mother regulates and governs behavior, so the mother is the bad person. But

49
because the father can develop that rapport or attachment with the child doesn’t mean that he is
also capable of taking better care of the child. The mother probably has been responsible and
taking better care of the child. And therefore the assumption that attachment in itself is an
effective predictor of congenial personality development for the child is an ungrounded
assumption.

SANITY/INSANITY EVALUATIONS- Evaluations with respect to criminal responsibility or

specifically the MSO evaluation- mental state at the time of commission of offence. Sanity
evaluations in this case basically are evaluating whether an individual had any specific mental
disorder or had a mental health condition which made it difficult for the person to understand the
nature of his act/the crime that he was committing and the consequence of his act while he was
committing the offence. If the individual is found that he indeed was suffering from a mental
condition which made it difficult for the person to understand the consequences of the act then
that would give a go ahead to the person with respect to insanity defense.
PRE-SENTENCING EVALUATIONS- it is more of an exception than a norm or a rule. These
are very uncommon evaluations and are court ordered evaluations in which a psychologist is
asked to assess the mental health of the convict and accordingly the courts take a decision with
respect to the sentencing of an individual. Specifically these are done when sentencing is with
regards to certain intervention or treatment programs which might be a part of sentencing an
individual. For instance- someone has a personality disorder or a serial sex offender then sex
related disorder and interventions are accordingly or personality related interventions then in
these cases sometimes the court might order an assessment by psychologist and might take into
account the report of the psychologist in deciding the final sentence. The assessment usually is
about the amenability of an individual to the treatment or the rehabilitation program. What kind
of interventions or treatment programs is this individual more likely to be amenable to or what
kind of treatment is more likely to be beneficial to this individual. Also there are risk assessment
evaluations sometimes- to what extent is this individual likely to be a danger to himself or others
around him and then accordingly the treatment program needs to be designed.

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‘THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD IDEOLOGY’ – This ideology recognized the fact that
the rights of the parents are secondary to the rights of the child. The idea that one of the 2 parents
has predominant right over the child, is something that this ideology negates entirely. The
previous 3 ideologies focused towards a particular parent as having a predominant right over the
child. This ideology says that it cannot be stated which parent has a greater right over the child, it
is the best interest of the child or an arrangement which is most congenial to the development of
child and therefore decision should be taken keeping in mind all of these multiple factors in mind
rather than a singular factor which other ideologies talk about. The interest of the child shall be
the sole basis of the decision which is based on multitude of factors rather than the legal right of
the parent or a singular factor.
Having said that the best interest of the child is the core to taking such decisions, we still do not
have a singular criteria or a relatively objective criteria to judge what is in the best interest of the
child. Therefore there is very high levels of subjectivity in the cases. The first attempt to
standardize what constitutes the best interest of the child was done at the Michigan University
and is called ‘The Michigan Best Interest of the Child List’- what is mandate to define what
constitutes best interest of the child. They came up with 3 broad areas which should definitely be
assessed while taking decisions with respect to best interest of the child.
1. The ability and willingness of the parent to nurture, take care and offer guidance to the
child. From a psychological standpoint, an evaluation of the parent himself or herself is
important in order to understand the extent to which the parent is able to nurture the child
and to offer guidance to the child. And along with ability, the extent to which the parent
is willing to nurture the child.
2. The willingness of parent to continue a positive association with the other parent. This is
important from the perspective that usually the most congenial form of custodial
arrangement in cases of divorce and separation is the case of joint custody and it sort of
presupposes a very minimal amount of hostility. Because if the hostility is too high then it
would again have a negative effect on the child.
3. The presence of family related violence. For instance if the family of the father or mother
has high levels of violence in it then it is more likely that that parent will not be given
custody esp. sole custody of that child because then it implies that if the parent is
engaging in single parenting the parent will need the family as a support system and the
conflict which is prevalent in that family is then likely to have a detrimental impact on
the child.
Later researches pointed out that this criteria is missing on to a lot of other important aspects of
child functioning. Therefore, this criteria in itself does not completely address the area of
defining the best interest of the child.

 KAMLA DEVI V. HIMACHAL PRADESH (1986)

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The Supreme Court upheld the definition or the criteria for best interest of the child as applied by
the court of Himachal Pradesh. In this case SC said that while determining the best interest of the
child it enlisted certain factors which are extremely important. These factors include-
o The child’s ordinary comfort and contentment
o Intellectual, moral and physical development
o Health, education and general maintenance of the child
o Favorable surroundings
These area are very broad areas, specifics would vary depending upon what specific factor
becomes more important in a particular case and thus differs on a case by case basis. But the
court is broadly talking about the environment at home, the ability of the parent to care
(education and health related), overall development (intellectual moral and physical
development), also talks about the general comfort level of the child and the extent to which the
child is satisfied with this kind of parental arrangement.

 HIDAYTULLAH V. SAUDATH (2009)

This verdict pinpoints to another important element which is the element of transition. Herein,
the mother was given the sole custody of the child and this was the petition filed by the father
who wanted the custody of the child. The father argued that since the father is better off
financially as compared to the mother, he would be able to better provide for the child and
therefore the father shall be given the sole custody. This child was a female child. The court
rejected the father’s plea and stated 2 important elements-
1. The impact which the transition or the change in the home will have for the child. The
frequent readjustment of the child can itself be extremely harmful for the child. Court
noted that the child is already used to a particular environment and settled in a particular
home and giving the father the sole custody would imply a transition for the child.
Multiple transition being detrimental for the child.
2. The idea of tender years doctrine was noted wherein the court noted that because it is the
girl child, then it is predominantly important that the mother retains the custody of the
female child.
The idea that what is in the best interest of the child is varied and is influenced by who the judge
is and who is taking the decision. Along with it, the values and the principles of the judge who is
taking the decision also plays an important role in impacting the final decision.

 PAINTER V. BANISTER (1966)

It was a case wherein the child’s mother had expired and by default the child was staying with
the father. The maternal grandparents of the child had moved the court asking for the custody of
the child. The court gave the custody of the child to the grandparents and noted that the
grandparents were more middle class, stable and conventional family, they were capable of
offering a greater dependable relationship to the child. Whereas the father on the other hand was
more unconventional in nature, he had very agnostic religious beliefs and also deviant political
beliefs. The court also noted that the father perhaps was more capable of offering a more

2
intellectually and creatively stimulating environment to the child and this was the upside of the
upbringing of the father. But the grandparents were capable of offering a greater sense of
security and dependability to the child even if the upbringing might not be intellectually and
creatively stimulating and therefore the custody granted to them.
This judgement is highly loaded with subjective value system and the subjective appraisal of the
judge. Whenever the assessment criteria is relatively unclear that leads to a very high level of
subjectivity and implies that there is a lot of scope for the personal value judgments and biases of
an individual taking the decision to creep into the decision making.
‘LEAST DETRIMENTAL ALTERNATIVE STANDARD DOCTRINE’ – This terminology has
been introduced in the psychological circles and is also adopted to a certain extent by legal
circles in light of the fact that this term perhaps better reflects what legal and psychological
professionals are actually capable of doing. An ideal situation would be to figure out a setup
which is best in the interest of the child. But it is not always practical to measuring what the best
interest of the child includes. Keeping this in mind the researchers argue that perhaps a better
reflector of what we are actually capable of doing is offering to the child an alternative which is
unlikely to be ineffective. Instead of saying what the most effective alternative for the child will
be, which custodial arrangement is likely to be most effective for the child, what we do in reality
is highlighting custodial arrangements which are likely to be ineffective for the child and saying
that this kind of arrangement should be avoided in this particular case. So the standard used is
not a positive one but a negative one. In this context the researchers argue that by their very
nature, psychological assessment is negative in nature. So, for instance, psychological
assessment most of the time is focused on pathologies rather than the most desirable personality
traits or personality characteristics. And since it is focused on the pathologies or negative
attributes therefore psychological study can in principle give some indication with respect to
what should be avoided for this particular child in case.
For instance, it is said that joint custody arrangement is one of the most beneficial arrangements
for the child. While evaluating, whether in a particular case the joint custody arrangement should
be used or not, the hostility factors become important. Hostility is an important mediator to the
effectiveness of the joint custody arrangement and therefore a psychological assessment is likely
to indicate that since high levels of hostility exists therefore a joint custody arrangement is likely
to be ineffective or detrimental for the child. Rather than saying that the sole custody is going to
be the best arrangement for the child, psychological assessment is more likely to tell that because
of the prevalent hostility a joint custody arrangement is unlikely to be effective for the parent.
Another aspect is that most theoreticians abiding by this ideology essentially highlight that
psychologists should restrict or prevent themselves from giving an opinion on the ultimate issue
(deciding what custodial arrangement is likely to be most effective for the child). Meaning that
the psychologists should not give opinion in terms of which custodial arrangement is the best one
for the particular child. Rather the psychologist should simply give an analysis (developmental
needs and the personality of the child concerned) of the situation from a psychological
standpoint. The analysis of the family dynamics is important- what is the relationship of the
parents with the child or of the child with his parents and the like. The psychologists should

3
make assessment at multiple levels- individual level, relationship level or the family level and
just present these findings to the court and leave it for the court to decide from a legal standpoint
which arrangement is most important for the child taking into account the findings of the
psychologists.

04/10/2019
DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS WHICH NEED TO BE KEPT IN MIND WHILE
DECIDING THE CUSTODY ARRANGEMENT FOR CHILDREN
There are several factors and the specific kind of custody arrangement that works for a particular
child depends on a case per se. There is no one universal standard to define which custody
arrangement is better for a child. But over a period of time researchers have delineated certain
very key developmental factors which need to be kept in mind and which are also determined by
the age of the child when the divorce is taking place. Most commonly used forms of custodial
arrangement are either sole custody or joint custody.
If asked that which custodial arrangement in general is better off, then looking at the body of
research, there are some indications here and there but there is no conclusive research as such
which tells us one particular arrangement which is better for children in general. So at best if we
see research it will talk about certain trends in data rather than some conclusive evidence with
respect to one custodial arrangement being better. Most researches have been done around the
relative importance of sole custody v joint custody.
The early most research-______ series of studies and have done a lot of research on custodial
arrangements in the 1990s. The initial researches point out- there is a trend which suggests that
joint custody is significantly more beneficial for the children concerned as far as its relative
importance to sole custody is concerned. In one series of studies they used psychometric
assessment and used psychometric tools which assessed the child’s anxiety levels and adjustment
levels. And their study concluded that in joint custody arrangement, the child was way less
anxious and way more adjusted as compared to a sole custody arrangement and thus post-divorce
the child benefitted more from joint custody arrangement as compared to sole custody
arrangement. They also highlighted that there was also a slight gender difference in that regard
wherein they said that in case of female children, sole custody of mother (maternal sole custody)
was perhaps as beneficial as joint custody and paternal sole custody was least beneficial. But in
cases of boys, no such trends and researches have been delineated. For boys, joint custody is
predominantly seen to be better than sole custody of any parent concerned. So, gender
differences for girls exist but not for boys.
Multiple studies tell that in joint custody arrangements, the children not only show low anxiety
and better adjustment but they also have higher self-esteem levels. They show lower emotional
and behavioral problems. So rather than internalizing even externalization is lower.
Internalization- when there is an emotional trauma that is directed inward by the child and that

4
results in problems like-anxiety, depression, mood related disorders, low self-esteem.
Externalization- the outward manifestation of behavioral problems.
So in terms of expressed emotional and behavioral problems also children benefitted more.
They also showed better self-esteem, had a better family related relationship and also academic
or classroom performance was better. And thus joint custody has multitude benefits.
But later research did not absolutely support these conclusions and say that joint custody being
better might not always be true esp. in cases of girl children. And later researches suggest that
maternal sole custody might be definitely better for the girl children as compared to joint custody
or sole custody of the father. Also there is a lot research which highlights that making a
statement like joint custody is better for children is an absolutely preemptive statement and
premature to conclude that because it is not solely the custodial arrangement but also the
multiple dynamics and specifically relationship dynamics and the age of the child which are key
determining factors in which custodial arrangement is better for the child. So, for instance,
hostility between the parents is seen as a key mediating factor in custodial decisions and when
hostility levels are high then joint custody arrangements are unlikely to work and in those cases
then sole custody is perhaps a better arrangement, simply because if the hostility level or conflict
level is high then the level of coordination which joint custody presupposes really does not exist.
So that negative dynamics between the parents is likely to further hamper the development of the
child.
Also, while taking custodial decisions or making a decision like joint custody is better than sole
custody, what is important is not just the direct impact that this custodial arrangement has on the
child but it is also important to consider what impact this custodial arrangement has on the
parents concerned because then the parent’s well-being and mental health will have a direct
impact on the personality development of the child.
So the sole custody where the mother has the custody of the child v. a joint custody kind of a set
up where the mother has the physical custody of the child (child is predominantly staying with
the mother), in these kinds of studies it is usually seen that in a joint custody set up the child and
the father perhaps benefit more than the mother and this benefit is depicted in terms of greater
frequency of contact between the father and the child and therefore greater satisfaction levels
with the arrangement that fathers depict and also greater attachment that the child now develops
with the father and associated related mental benefits for the child. The father is more satisfied
and greater levels of attachment develop between the father and the child. But mothers report
higher levels of dissatisfaction and this results from the fact that because there is so much of
interference which the father has with respect to the child, the mother sort of loses her autonomy
over the child and that is essentially seen by mother as interference by the father. And because
the child is predominantly residing with the mother then this dissatisfaction of the mother
potentially has negative consequences for the child. So, in that sort of a set up the impct which
the custodial arrangement has on the parents is also to be assessed and considered and its relative
indirect impact on the child also needs to be kept in mind.

5
Overall research tells that joint custody appears for most kids to be a better arrangement as far as
divorce and separation are concerned. But the effectiveness of a joint custodial arrangement is
significantly mediated by hostility levels. So if the conflict or hostility levels are high then
perhaps a sole custody is better arrangement to look at. Also studies tell that in a lot of sole
custody cases where the custody is with the mother and does not adequately take care of the
child, in most of these cases financial constraints have been implicated. So one of the reasons for
the sole custody of a mother which does not work is because there is a decrease in the lifestyle
and the quality of life post-divorce of the mother and therefore that in turn translates into a
negative impact for the child. So quality of life and financial constraints here become important
determining factors. Also as far as sole custody of father is concerned, it appears to be more
negative and more ineffective as compared to the sole custody of the mother or joint custodial
arrangement. And this kind of finding is true for female children.
These are broad trends that are seen. Some of the significant factors which are responsible for
what custodial arrangement is actually to work are- the age and the gender of the child.
Invariably most researches highlight the important determining rule of age depending on which
age group the child currently is, a parenting plan needs to be designed. The entire process of
separation and divorce itself, so longer the process of divorce, the greater the detrimental
impact that is likely to have on the child and along with that the pre and the post-divorce levels
of conflict. So if the amount of conflict and familial discord which is involved in these cases,
before and after the divorce, if that is great then it is likely to have a greater detrimental impact
on the child. Along with that, the personality of the child concerned (depending on the age
group, what is the personality or the temperament of the child) that will also determine the
impact which a custodial arrangement has on the child. And the financial concerns which are
involved in a divorce process- the financial status of the parent who has the sole custody or the
joint physical custody of the child and also the financial status of the other parent who then in
turn might be offering some financial assistance to the child.
BASIC DEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS DEPENDING UPON THE AGE OF THE
CHILD AND WHAT ARE THE KEY FACTORS WHICH SHOULD BE INTEGRATED
WITH THE PARENTING PLAN OF THE CHILD
PARENTING PLAN- Is a detailed plan with respect to what each parent’s role would be- what is
the custodial arrangement? What are the visitation rights? What is the kind of communication
which the parent is required to establish with the child? What responsibilities does each parent
carry with respect to the child? How should the parent manage change as the child grows and
develops? All these details are a part of the parenting plan. It is essentially an entire detailed
blueprint of what the role of each parent is when the parents are sharing a child. A developmental
psychologist usually comes up with this plan. There are several factor and the uniqueness of the
personality of child is the key in determining the parental plan. Parenting plan doesn’t only mean
the custodial arrangement but it also means what the interaction of the child with the parent
should be like.
4 AGE BRACKETS

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These age groups are not absolute. Everyone’s developmental progress is different and
depending upon the unique characteristics of the child, the age bracket could spill over from say,
3 years to 4 years. It is flexible.
1. INFANTS AND TODDLERS
These are kids roughly between the age brackets of 0-3 years old. One of the most important key
developmental marker is the process of attachment and trust formation. This the time when the
child is in the process of forming attachments and bonds and usually the object of this attachment
is either 1 or both of the parents, the primary caretaker in most cases. In the process of
attachment formation the feeling of trust and security also develops. The children who tend to
feel more secure about themselves in the formative years of life, these children develop more
secure attachment bonds with their parents and as adults then, these secure attachments is likely
to then manifest in almost every relationship that they have. So a child who has an insecure
attachment with the mother is likely to be insecure in terms of his/her relationship with the
spouse, with friends, and is more likely to mistrust people. One of the key criteria in which trust
is developed at this stage is the process by which the extent to which the mother or the primary
caretaker sort of attends to the child with promptness. If the child cries for food and the mother
attends to child and satiates the need for food in the child then the child will develop a sense of
security and trust in the relationship with the mother. If the child cries and goes on crying and the
mother doesn’t pay attention then the child will develop a sense of insecurity and to begin with-
a sense of insecurity with respect to one’s own survival and oneself- that I am not important.
This would lead the child to mistrust the mother and the people in general.
Towards the end of this age (around 2 and a half years), the child essentially has almost
completed the process of attachment building and what results is- separation individuation-
separating oneself from the environment. Initially, when the child is born, the child does not
differentiate oneself from the environment and over a period of time he realizes that he is a
separate individual and have a body which demarcates him from the environment. And this is the
process by which an individual develops a sense of individuation and that in turn is also
reflecting a sense of autonomy.
One of the most important factors which result in the development of trust or attachment or
security in children of this age is routine. Routine is extremely important for the personality
development of the child because every day roughly at about the same time the child is following
the same routine, then that results in a kind of predictability as far as the environment of the child
is concerned and predictability is the basis of security.
And when divorce happens at this stage, it is basically this routine which is severely disrupted
for the child. Disruption of routine is likely to disrupt the attachment patterns and the security
and the trust which the child is likely to develop with respect to relationships.
Also the deal with developing attachment is that research tells us that instead of being attached to
one psychological parent or one single parent figure, children at this age are actually capable of
maintaining multiple attachment patterns with different people that they are frequently being
exposed to. As far as divorce cases are concerned this has both an upside and a downside.

7
Meaning that in a divorce case, for instance, if a child has developed adequate attachment pattern
with a maternal grandparent, then that grandparent can also play a key role in ensuring some
kind of routine and security for the child because that parent becomes a key care giver for the
child and therefore the disrupted routine and security of the child to a certain extent will be
managed. But that also implies that if a father previously has been involved in the caregiving of
the child and the child has developed a series of attachment with the mother as well as the father,
the missing father for instance, eventually will result in a severe disruption of the security of the
child. So thus the upside and downside. Upside is something which can be capitalized upon,
implying that in cases of divorce- grandparents or some other support system should definitely
be included in the parenting plans. But at the same time the downside or the weakness of it also
needs to be addressed and managed. By giving the father, for instance, very liberal visitation
rights.
Also at this stage what is suggested is- short but frequent interactions meaning that the amount of
time which the father spends with the child can be short but what is important is that the father
does come and meet the child frequently. So the child continues to have a sense attachment with
the father. Also research suggests that not just the frequency of interaction but the frequency of
meaningful interaction is what is important. Like- taking care pf the child- bathing the child,
feeding the child, changing his clothes, making him fall asleep. So rather than a casual
interaction it shall be a meaningful one.
05/10/2019
2. PRE-SCHOOLERS
This is the age bracket within the range of about 3-5 years of age. When the child has crossed the
infancy stage but has not attained the school age. During this time, attachment to a certain extent
has been established by the parent. Also children who are about 4-5 years of age usually
interacting or playing with kids of their age and so they have a sense of peer group. This is the
time when attachment has relatively been established substantially and the child has now entered
the process of relationship building. It around this age (3 years old) that children also start
speaking and so language develops around this age and starts expressing oneself verbally. With
the development of language and verbal skills, cognitive development in terms of comprehension
and understanding also develops simultaneously. So if there is a conflict between parents and if
they are going through separation or divorce, then this is the time that the child does understand
that there is something wrong in the family as far as the parental relationship is concerned. But
the cognitive understanding is still in the formative years and so the child fails to understand the
nature of the problem, he has the idea that something is wrong but doesn’t exactly understand
what is wrong because he doesn’t understand the nuances and complexities of adult
relationships. Studies tell that this is the stage where the child also is most prone to development
of mental illnesses and because this essentially is the stage where the child tends to internalize
the most. Problems and risk associated with divorce at this stage predominantly includes
developmental delays and even regression which is very evident. Internalize because internally
the child is thinking and evaluating what is wrong but the child fails to understand the nature of
the problem. And as a result, children at this age are at the highest risk of conditions like

8
depression, anxiety, high levels of discomfort with formation of relationships, higher levels of
irritability and aggression might be seen in the child.
One of the most problematic behavior patterns which is seen in children of this age is what is
commonly known as- parentified behavior. This is the behavior pattern where the child starts
acting as parent to the parent. So the child understands that the parent is going through some
emotional turmoil and instead of taking care of one’s own emotional needs, the child then starts
attending to the emotional needs of the parent. And to an extend becomes the nurturer for the
parent and that parentified behavior has been associated with an entire plethora of mental health
and behavioral problems as an adult. So children who frequently behave parentified behavior at a
very early age in life, usually have major mental, emotional behavioral problems as an adult. The
associated behavioral problems are immense.
Attachment per se has been relatively achieved and the child is now focusing on building
relationships. So at this stage what is important is the building of relationships is continued even
post-divorce. And for that it is important the other parent maintains contact with the child and
becomes a part of the life of the child. But instead of frequent smaller interactions at the toddler
stage, the interactions at this stage usually should be longer because the longer interaction then
facilitates building up of meaningful relationships between the child and the parent. And this
meaningful relationship has future positive implications for the child as far as future
relationships of the child are concerned.
It is highly recommended that even if there are high levels of conflict between the parents, the
child should not be exposed to the conflict because the more the child is exposed to the conflict
the more confused the child will feel. Researches suggest that probably when the parents are
meeting, if the level of conflict is high then instead of meeting at the home where initial conflicts
had taken place, it is a better idea for the parents to meet at a neutral place if they are switching
the child because when there is a conflict between people and they meet at a place which has an
environment which is laden with cues associated with that conflict then even if there is no direct
conflict it is implied indirectly in all conversations which occur between these parents. Research
highlights that usually one parent who the child is interacting with should highlight the strengths
of the other parent rather than the weaknesses of the other parent. So initiating some amount of
dialogue with the child at this stage and highlighting the positives of the other parent rather than
then the negatives has also been associated with positive parent-child relationship and positive
outcomes for the child himself. But in cases of conflict that positive exchange is usually which is
missing, that aspect is something which is to be worked upon.
From the perspective of specific custodial arrangement, the most ideal arrangement is the joint
custody one where both the parents are spending quality time with the child and both the parents
are sharing the authority over the child. But if that is not possible, sole custody is a good enough
option with liberal visitation rights for the other parent.
3. SCHOOL AGE
The age range between 6 to 12 years. This is the time when the child enters the mainstream
school and up till the onset of adolescence or puberty. This the time when the child’s overall

9
personality growth is happening tremendously and the child’s skill sets are expanding
tremendously esp. from the perspective of social and cognitive development. Child starts going
to school, begins socialization, starts learning the ways of social interaction, cognitive
development in terms of school related academic activities, extra-curricular activities. This is
also the time when moral development of the child is taking place and learns that there are some
inherent rules of existence within the society and if those certain rules are not followed then that
implies immoral behavior. This also is the stage when separation individuation which had started
around 3 years of age towards the end of the 1st stage, has relatively been established. So
separation individuation is now complete, the child now realizes that he is an independent person
separate from other people and the environment around him. And he has also learnt by now that
each parent as far as the child’s relationship with the parents is concerned, the child has learnt
that each parent has a different role in the child’s life. As a result what happens is that when the
divorce occurs at this stage, the children tend to massively feel the loss of family. So, when the
parent who is forming certain very specific functions and catering to specific needs of the child is
gone then the child specifically feels the loss of that parent and misses the parent as far as those
functions are concerned even if the other parent now takes over and starts catering to those
functions. At this point the child feels the lack of family tremendously.
Also studies tell that most children during this stage also report a very strong longing to have a
united family. And at this stage the child begins to understand the nature of the conflict between
the parents. An understanding of adult problems is not entirely complete but the child begins to
understand that this is where a conflict between the 2 parents is and it is a conflict related to
divorce and what it implies (incompatibility between the parents). So an understanding of the
nature of problems associated with divorce and the conflict is now a parent to the child. And this
due to the tremendous cognitive development which happens during this stage. But what is more
problematic at this stage is that along with understanding the nature of parental problems, the
child also starts, to a certain extent, taking responsibilities for those parental problems and starts
doubting that he is responsible for those parental problems and there is a term in developmental
psychology which is called- ego centrism- When the child starts feeling that he is the center of
everything that is happening around him and therefore if there is a problem there then he is
center of the problem which means he or she is responsible for that problem which happening
between the parents. And to that extent, very active attempts are noticed on the part of the child
to undo that problem or take care of the problem but then those are failed attempts. Since the
child is not responsible for those problems, there is hardly anything that the child can do about it
and therefore those are failed attempts which also might result in very strong feelings of
inferiority in child or low self-esteem in child where the child is trying to solve a problem but is
constantly failing at that.
At this stage what is predominantly highlighted is the communication with the child. A joint
custody or a sole custody might equally work depending upon the specific needs of the child but
irrespective of the custodial arrangement what is important is to establish a conversation with the
child which is based on reasoning and logic. And this the conversation where the parents should
make an attempt to make the child understand what is going wrong and also to make him
understand that he is not responsible for what is happening in the family.

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 4. ADOLOSCENT AGE
Roughly ranging between 13-18 years of age. This is a very turbulent stage in an individual’s life
and is the time when identity formation takes place. There is a high level of risk taking behavior
in a child, is experimenting, peer pressure is high, the child is exploring different value systems,
principles and seeing what appeals to the child and what the sense of ‘I’ is all about. And the
child is asking the question- ‘Who am I?’ at this stage. Developmental theorists define this stage
as a second stage of separation individuation. Initially the child feels he and the environment are
same and the child gradually separates from the environment and establishes a sense of
independence. Peer pressure is extremely high which means the child is now trying to
differentiate oneself and establish one’s independent identity different from the peers. This is the
process where the child feels that he needs to do things which the peers are doing and needs to
follow the same principle and have the same values as the peers but gradually through
experimentation the child separates from the peers and establishes a sense of who am I? This is a
second stage of separation individuation where a teenager is similar to a 2 year old who is going
through separation individuation.
A lot of experiments coupled with a lot of oppositional and defiant behavior- defiance towards
authority, not obeying parents or teachers and considering this aspect, this stage puts the kids at a
very high risk of externalization in phase of conflict. So if divorce occurs at this stage then the
child is more likely to externalize his problems and in turn these children are put at a high risk of
behaviors like substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, delinquent behavior, or any kind of deviant
behavior because it makes them rebellious and oppose rules.
There is also a sense of alienation from the parents which is inherent in this stage. The child is
more prone to peer pressure rather than what the parents are saying, the child is more likely to
listen to what the peers are saying. And the child becomes more self-centered rather than opening
up to the parent. As far as the custodial arrangement is concerned, most studies would tell that
sole custody is more desirable at this stage and it is so because the child at this age has a very
strong sense of space that this is mine and it belongs to me. So, sole custody ensures that the
child has some stability in terms of physically where the child is staying. Physical and
psychological space is very important. Also because of the alienation from the parents esp if the
child is made a part of the parenting conflict- lot of times the parents have the tendency to rattle
things out to the child because the child is now grown up and can understand and therefore can
burden the child with adult problems. So this becomes a problematic approach in dealing with
children because the child is grown up, has cognitive understanding but he is still not
emotionally mature as an adult. In fact should be given enough space to cope in his way with the
conflict or divorce which is taking place.
A healthy level of boundary should be maintained by the parent as far as the interaction of the
parent with the child is concerned, So the parent is not perceived as intrusive by the child, if that
happens then the child is further going to alienate oneself from the parent. But if too much
alienation is already seen in the child then it is suggested that some other member of the family
(usually an adult- grandparent) is made a part of the parenting plan. So the child might alienate
oneself from the parent which implies that the child is at a higher risk of externalizing behavior-

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peer pressure, engaging in deviant social behavior, then the child needs someone at home as a
supportive figure and in most cases an understanding grandparent who is ready to listen to the
child and if that parent is made a part of the parenting plan then that usually helps the child.
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UNIT-IV
CORRECTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
From a psycho-social perspective, there are basically 5 ideologies of corrections and in turn
influence the goals of corrections.
1. INCAPACITATION
As an ideology, incapacitation posits the fact that the end goal again in this case of corrections
within the ideology of incapacitation becomes simply to incapacitate the individual from
committing future crimes. One of the most straightforward way of doing that is to sentence an
individual to prison. The idea being that if an individual is imprisoned then the individual will
not be able to engage in future crimes and therefore to that extent the individual then becomes
incapacitated from the perspective of engaging in future criminal activity. The fundamental
principle underlying incapacitation is slightly problematic from the perspective that even when
an individual is imprisoned, the person can still engage in crimes in different ways. For instance,
the person can engage in violent behavior within the prison set up. So if an individual has
criminal propensities then this individual can engage in violent and aggressive behavior within
the criminal set up. And that in turn adds to the coercive environment of the prison.
Secondly, individuals who are specially engaged in organized crimes or are part of organized
groups then these individuals can continue to influence criminal activity outside of prison
through these organized groups. These individuals can still have an indirect impact and be
indirectly a part of organizing the crimes which happen through organized crimes.
Lastly the drawback being is that- a lot of times, individuals who are released from prisons will
again continue to engage or go back to the criminal activities if no other intervention is done
while they are in the prison. So in its purest form the extent to which incapacitation is talking
about imprisonment of individuals and incapacitating them to that extent. Once an individual is
released from the prison, the individual is likely to get back to one’s criminal ways and to that
extent again this ideology fails.
In light of this, the ideal case in which incapacitation works is a case where life imprisonment is
offered to an individual. So never released and thus cannot get back to engage in criminal ways.
But offering or sentencing the individuals to life imprisonment for just any and every crime that
these individuals are committing, is clearly excessive and also adds to the financial burden and
also to the resources of the State and to that extent it is not even practically possible to do that.
Then an altered version of the pure ideology of incapacitation which was propagated was the
idea of selective incapacitation- technically meaning that individuals who are persistent
criminals are imprisoned rather than individuals who engage in first time crimes or who are not

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persistent criminals. In those cases, for instance, laws which say that if you engage in a crime 3
times or multiple times then that would warrant life imprisonment as compared to someone who
engages in crime for the first time- that person would be left off with a lenient sentence or fine.
Even in cases of selective incapacitation, the idea of keeping an individual in prison for a
lifetime has certain other limitations. One of the major limitations which still continues to have
an impact on the legal set up- is the idea of overcrowding and immense burden on the resources
of the State. So if you keep imprisoning repeated offenders then that that would result in
overcrowding in the State prisons and the State does not have enough resources to cater to that.
Also the idea that life imprisonment is a solution to a lot of crimes, again has stark limitations
because it is clearly excessive for certain crimes. Someone engaging in petty thefts and the
person keeps on engaging in such petty thefts, is offering life imprisonment to that person a
solution to anything at all? Perhaps not. The punishment should be in accordance with the crime
committed and therefore to that extent the number of times the crime is committed is not the sole
criteria that should decide the nature of the punishment given to this individual.
From a psychological perspective within the current set up, assessing and testing individuals is
essentially problematic and suffers from inherent limitations. The kind of assessment which is
done to assess and gauge whether an individual will engage in future acts of crime or not is the
kind of assessment which is termed as- risk assessment. Risk assessment in itself till date despite
a lot of research and modifications in the assessment procedures, it’s still not a full proof risk
assessment system in itself. Therefore risk assessment is inherently controversial which has its
own limitations and thus basing an individual sentence on a psychological tool which in itself at
max offers probabilistic statements is highly unethical.
From an ethical standpoint- ethically it is argued when you sentence an individual for life
imprisonment based on a logic or reasoning that this individual should be sentenced to life
imprisonment because this individual would not engage in future crimes. This again is unethical
because you are basing your punishment on what the individual would or would not do in the
future rather than what the individual has objectively already done. So, punishing an individual
for future behavior which still hasn’t occurred is problematic and unethical rather than punishing
the individual on the basis of what the person has already done.

2. RETRIBUTION
It is the ideology which in the latter half of the previous century was supported even by the
psychologists. Currently there is a shift from retribution to rehabilitation as being promoted by
psychologists as the most effective way. Towards the end of the last century, retribution from a
psychological standpoint was evaluated to be one of the most impactful ideologies. Retribution is
the ideology which talks about the fact that the offender should be made to compensate for the
crime that the offender has committed and this compensation should be in accordance with the
severity of the crime which is committed by the individual. Basically the punishment should be
able to make the offender pay for or compensate for the criminal act. This is the ideology which

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is similar to ‘eye for an eye’ ideology, that if you blinded someone then you in turn should be
blinded.
This ideology is starkly different from that of incapacitation in the sense that incapacitation talks
about increased severity of punishment even for the same crime based on the number of times
the crime is committed. But in the context of retribution, irrespective of the number of times the
crime is committed, it is only the intensity and severity of crime which is evaluated and that in
turn will determine the severity of punishment which his attributed to the individual irrespective
of the number of times the crime is committed. At least towards the end of the 19th century, this
ideology was proposed and propagated by the psychological body in general. In this context in
1970s, there was an APA task force which was set up and it essentially evaluated the role of
psychology in the criminal justice system. It highlighted the importance and greater effectiveness
of ideology of retribution over rehabilitation.
Why retribution was a superior ideology as compared to rehabilitation?
To begin with, the APA taskforce highlighted that institutionalized rehabilitation or rehabilitative
approaches or interventions within an institutionalized system such as a prison or within the
criminal Justice system is inherently problematic and in this context the interventions or
treatments offered do not have a very effective impact on the changes of behavior of the
offender. Predominantly, the 2 important aspects which the APA taskforce pointed out was the
presence and the prevalence of coercion within the criminal justice system and the environment
within the prison. They pointed out that one of the reasons why treatments or interventions failed
within an institutionalized set up is because institutionalized treatment presupposes or is based
on the assumption that treatment or psychological change can be imposed on an individual which
is actually not true. In fact, the ability and the willingness of the individual to change is actually a
precondition for treatment to be effective even within the traditional setup. So when a person
walks in the clinic of psychologist with certain mental health problems, the individual has certain
motivation which has led to this individual entering in to the clinic and the individual wants to
change in some way or the other and therefore treatment becomes effective. But in an
institutionalized set up, the treatment has been imposed on to the individual by the State and
therefore the individual is not inherently motivated to change. And since the willingness and
motivation in the individual is missing, therefore it becomes inherently problematic.
The second important aspect highlighted by the APA taskforce- is the environment within the
criminal justice system. The environment within a prison is a negative one where there is high
levels of violence, victimization, aggression or deviant behavior. It is also a phenomenon where
a large number of deviant individuals are put together and that impact then in turn is essentially
the same as socialization within a deviant peer group. There is a very strong element of social
reinforcement- if an individual engages in criminal behavior, comes back to the deviant peer
group, the person doesn’t even need to be directly reinforced in order to perpetuate that behavior.
But simply because everyone in this group is engaging in that deviant behavior and that is similar
to the kind of behavior that the person is engaging in that in itself inherently acts to reinforce the
behavior of a person. Social reinforcement here is typically indirect reinforcement rather than
direct. Also there is a strong element of modelling here. So, the impact of observational

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learning- an individual views high levels aggression, high levels of modelling and therefore we
perhaps are perpetrating violent, aggressive behavior in an individual through observational
learning that took place during the time person spent in prison.
Along with that negatively violent, aggressive environment, a congenial social support system is
essentially missing. Every therapy presupposes a strong social support group and if that social
support group is missing then long term impact of therapy is likely to fail. One of the purposes of
the group is to create a social support system for people who do not have an adequate support
system. Someone who engages in substance abuse or is addicted to alcohol, a group of individual
who have had alcohol addiction in the past or currently are going through alcohol addiction, that
group acts as a social support group for the individual who is addicted to alcohol. So a group of
positive people which likely to support the growth and development of this individual is missing
within a prison culture and this has a negative impact on the effectiveness of the therapy which is
treatment intervention therapy which is taking place here.
The other aspect which the taskforce pointed out was that, the fact that specially in cases where
an individual is sentenced to a long term within the prison, in that context- spending time within
prison is inherently detrimental to the psychological development of the individual an therefore
the APA taskforce shunned the idea of spending more time within the prison than what was
required. In this context, it highlighted that at least the ideology of retribution delineates the
amount of time which an individual is required to spend within the prison, in contrast to the
rehabilitation strategy- which does not really delineate a specific time which an individual is
required to spend within prison. But on the other hand the individual is given a more flexible
sentencing and is supposed to remain within the prison till the time the individual does not get
rehabilitated. Typically meaning that if an individual is taking more time to show any significant
changes in behavior, then this individual will be asked to spend a greater amount of time in
prison.
The APA taskforce thus highlighted that this element of flexible sentencing or indeterminate
sentencing by the APA taskforce is inherently problematic because again the person might be
required to spend a greater amount within that coercive negative environment which is
detrimental to human growth and development. Today there are also a lot of community based
rehabilitation programs which are present. In that context the APA now supports the
community based rehabilitation programs rather than institutionalized rehabilitation programs.
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3. DETERRANCE
The ideology suggests that the law shall be to prevent the criminal from committing crimes
rather than punishing people for what they have done. In this context deterrence is understood as
being of 2 types-
(i) GENERAL DETERRANCE- It is typically what law is meant to do and it acts
through the threat which law places on people and this is the threat of punishment,
this in turn is likely to prevent the person from engaging in particular kind of act.

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 (ii) SPECIFIC DETERRANCE- It results from the personal experiences of punishment.
When an individual is actually punished for something illegal that he has done and
once he is punished he does not repeat the act again because of the fear that the
person might be punished again. This is the ideology of specific deterrence.
From psychological perspective, the entire notion of deterrence is predominantly based on the
principles of operant conditioning (basic principle of OC- if a behavior is punished or there is a
threat that a behavior will result in punishment then individuals are less likely to engage in that
kind of behavior). But the question is- the manner in which the philosophy of deterrence is
implemented through law, is that actually effective in having a deterrent effect? Research
psychology suggest that it perhaps not so.
Basic conditions to ensure the punishment to be effective.

 Immediacy and Contingency- For any punishment to be effective, it should

immediately follow the act which needs to be terminated so that the person is able to
draw a valid association between the act which is committed and the punishment or the
reinforcement which follows. For example- if the child misbehaves in the morning and
the mother scolds the child in the evening, will the child be able to develop a valid
association or link between the misbehavior and the scolding? No. Even if there is a link
it won’t be that strong. Immediacy is also an important pre-condition to establish
contingency. While defining the phenomenon of OC we define ‘reinforcer’ as- reinforcer
is any environmental event which increases the likelihood of occurrence of the behavior
that caused it when it is made contingent upon that behavior. By this contingency it
means that the relationship between the act and the punisher or reinforce should be amply
clear to the individual and should be clear that the environmental event (punisher) is a
consequence of the behavior of the individual. So, when the mother scold immediately
after the misbehavior of the child then this child will be able to understand that this
scolding is a consequence of the behavior of the child.
 Consistency- The punisher should also be consistent. Means that every time the child
misbehaves, it is important that the child is checked and scolded every time because if the
child is not checked every time, the child will probably think that I can misbehave and
there is a possibility that I might get away with. Therefore consistency is an important
condition to ensure that a punishment is effective.
Why consistency is not an important precondition for reinforcement. Kind of
reinforcement schedule which is most effective is-
- CONTINUOUS REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE- That every response of the organism
is reinforced. When the organism knows that some behavior is likely to result in a
reinforcement but also knows at the same time that it is not necessary that every
behavioral response will lead to the reward. It means that the organism will engage in the
particular behavior that results in reinforcement with the expectation that it will lead to a
reward.
- INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE- This is the most effective one.
Means that you are not reinforcing every behavioral response but intermittently every

16
 now and then you are administering the reinforcement. The organism engages in the
behavior, even if that behavior is not reinforced the organism will still engage in the
behavior the second time in the hope that response is likely to lead to a reinforcement.
Gambling- This explains the gambling behavior wherein a lot of cases the individuals do
not win when they are gambling, there is still this hope that the more they engage in
gambling the more likelihood it is that it will result in a win and thus continue engaging
in the behavior.
 Intensity- The punishment or the reinforcer should stand out against the background as
far as the intensity or the amount of reinforcement is considered. For instance, in shaping
the behavior of the child, the mother is always cribby and is always scolding and
checking the child for every little thing, then in that case if the mother also checks the
child in the context of the negative behavior that the child has performed- is that going to
stand out in comparison to the general behavior of the mother? No. Then in that case also
it might be difficult for the child to understand that this scolding is coming as a
consequence of the behavior of the child and the association might be missing. On the
other hand if the mother scolds the child in response to this particular behavior with
enough intensity and enough amount of scolding then the child is going to develop a
valid association resulting in the decrease in the likelihood of occurrence of that behavior.
 Reinforcement of the Desired Behavior- (This condition is not that much essential in
the context of deterrence). In shaping everyday behavior, punishment in itself might be
an ineffective technique if a lot of reinforcement of positive behavior is not really done.
Meaning that if the child is constantly scolded for engaging in negative behavior but is
never really reinforced when the child displays positive behavior then in that case the
child will perhaps learn to do what the child is not supposed to do but will not be able to
adequately learn what good behavior constitutes and what the child is supposed to do.
This kind of parenting has long-term consequences on personality development of the
child. One of the most obvious off shoots of this is- high level of self-doubt and low self-
esteem. So, the child constantly knows that he is engaging in negative behavior but the
child doesn’t know of his strengths.
When we say how punishment is administered by law- None of the 3 conditions (sticking
only to the first 3, 4th one is additional) are adequately met. Case like- tax evasion. So, we
have laws in place that would punish or penalize an individual who does not pay tax
regularly. But despite those laws there are so many individuals who actually do not pay
taxes. So, is that law effective? No. Why not effective? Considering that an individual while
making a choice between whether to pay taxes or not pay taxes, the lack of payment of taxes
or if he decides not to pay taxes- that ensures certain immediate rewards for the individual.
Reward- if he doesn’t pay he saves that much money and so the reward is certain and is
immediate in nature. As compared to the negative long-term consequences of tax evasion, the
punishment in this case is definitely not certain. Consistency is missing- someone might be
caught, somebody might not be caught. Even if the person is caught- there is a process,
depending upon the outcome the person might be penalized or might not be. Also immediacy

17
is missing and lacking- if at all the person is penalized there are likely to be long delays in
the process and is going to be a delayed punishment.
As far as intensity is considered, the punishment might be intense, depending upon if the
person is found guilty of it. But even though if the punishment is intense, the amount of
punishment actually loses its value because it is delayed in nature. Studies in operant
conditioning tell us that intensity does not work in isolation, it works together. When
intensity is evaluated, the amount of punishment is evaluated- it evaluated with the time lapse
or the delay in punishment. Intensity in this case because it is delayed might not have its
adequate impact on the behavior of the individual or might lose the value that the punisher
has because of the amount of delay in administering the punishment. This idea is simple to
impulsive behavior. For instance- if a child is asked- if he wants 1 chocolate right now or 2
chocolates tomorrow, then he is likely to choose 1 chocolate right now. Considering how
intensity or the amount of reinforcement and the time delay are both playing a role here.
Amount of reinforcement is small here (1 chocolate) but it is immediate as compared to 2
chocolates (intensity of reinforcement increased) but because there is a time delay it loses its
value. In time delay- there is an element of uncertainty which creeps up inherently because
something that is future oriented is uncertain in itself.
These are the reasons why deterrence is not adequately implemented by law. And the law
fails to have the deterrent effect that it desires to have.
DEATH PENALTY- This is an element which is important to understand in this context. The
greater the penalty for an extremely heinous crime greater is the deterrent effect that it is
likely to have. It again has to do with intensity- greater the intensity greater would be the
deterrent effect. But this logic in itself is flawed. Also studies in psychology do not support
the idea that death penalty has any effect of reducing heinous crime in a society. Flawed-
because intensity works along with immediacy and consistency and therefore even in death
penalty cases usually the execution or the punishment is very long delayed and therefore as
far as its impact on society in general is concerned- the intensity here sort of loses its value.
And the basic premise on which it is based is flawed as far as the ideology of deterrence is
concerned.
Along with this, research tells that when individuals are evaluating information with respect
to whether they want to commit or engage in an extremely heinous crime, the information
processing that takes place at that time is a fairly complex phenomenon and is complex both
at the cognitive level as well as at an affective level. At the cognitive level, the individual
does not consider the potential negative consequences of the heinous crime in isolation. It is a
comparison of the pros and cons that the person makes. Relative risks and benefits which are
associated with the commission of the act. While comparison the basic principles of OC play
their role- when the comparison then becomes between certain immediate benefits (whatever
the motive of the person is behind committing the act, is sort of catered to) v. uncertain
delayed punishment. Immediacy and consistency is extremely important. So, those certain
immediate rewards always take an upper hand as compared to long term uncertain negative
consequences of the act.

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A lot of studies also tell us that at the moment where an individual is taking the final decision
to whether commit a heinous act or not, in those cases a lot of times the decision is more of
an affective decision rather than a cognitive decision. So more of an emotion decision rather
than cognitive decision. In this case, usually the emotional decision making is sort of
delinked from the cognitive decision making of an individual. Emotional decision making at
a neurological level also involves a totally different brain part. Limbic system- involved in
emotional decision making v pre-frontal cortex- cognitive decision making. The reason why
decision making in these cases is more like to be emotional in nature because most of these
situations are high arousal situations, which in turn ensure that emotionality of situation is
very high and therefore the emotional brain (limbic system) is more dominant in taking the
decision and therefore the emotional brain to that extent sort of disengages or delinks itself
from the thinking brain (pre-frontal cortex or frontal cortex). Therefore, decision making in
this kind of a situation is more emotional rather than rational and not based on reason, logic
or rationing. The decisions become feeling based rather than thinking based. So even if at the
rational level the person is convinced that the person should not engage in a crime like that,
the individual is still in a high arousal situation where emotionality is high, the person is still
likely to engage in emotional act because the feeling brain is taking the decision.
Third aspect. Research in this area are not conclusive but a number of researches suggest that
execution by the state might not actually be increasing the number of murders committed in
that society. Researches studied the trends in the number of murders committed and they note
that post the execution by State, there is a slight peak in the number of murders which have
been recorded in various societies. This phenomenon is frequently called ‘the brutalization
effect’- means that the death penalty or the execution by the State might actually be having
the reverse effect as compared to what is desired. The reverse effect in terms of actually
increasing the number of murders committed in a society. Why this happens? Few common
explanation cited for it-
The fact that when an individual executes someone is actually seen as murder by the State
and is seen as sending across dual message to the society that at one hand while the State is
condemning murder on the other hand the State itself is committing the same action that it
condemns. This essentially is seen as not just legitimizing the act of committing the murder
but also sort of devaluing human life. Devaluing human life is a cultural phenomenon and
has to do with the idea of what is the amount of value or what is the amount of worth that we
as a society place in the life of an individual. And it is depicted in our everyday lives through
basic behaviors that we engage in. For instance- on the road there is an ambulance which is
buzzing the siren and taking an individual to the hospital, noticing how many people make a
deliberate attempt to move aside to give way to the ambulance. Quite a few. This idea is very
strongly enforced by the State in a lot of western countries. In Germany the law says that if
there is a traffic jam then people are inspected to stop and park the cars on the extreme sides
of the lane. So in the west the State is strongly propagating a culture which ensures high
values which are instilled as far as the worthiness of human life is concerned.

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 The second ideology propagated- is that of modelling or social learning. The individuals
which hold the State in high authority, that State is committing murder and that in turn results
in observational learning or modelling of murder related behavior in citizens in general.
Therefore post execution for a while till this modelling continues to have an impact on
behavior, people are more likely to commit murder. Also why it is called brutalization effect-
there are theories which propose that not just murder, the effect might not be limited to
murder per se but translate into aggressive behavior in general. So, the State is engaging in
aggression and therefore people in general are likely to engage in high levels of aggression.
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4. REHABILITATION
It is an approach which sort of promotes psychological intervention in just about any case of
criminal behavior. This approach says that what is important is not to punish individuals for the
act that they have committed but to understand why is it that they have committed a particular
kind of act and if that act is an act that potentially harms the society then what is important is to
remedy that act rather than punish the individual for committing the act. So from this
perspective, psychological intervention are stressed upon and are targeted basically at decreasing
significantly just about any criminal propensities in an individual. And are specifically targeted
at affective, cognitive and behavioral improvement of the individual concerned. Working on the
cognitive and emotional aspect of the individual which might be leading to deviant behavior in a
person. Correcting the cognitive elements which would include any deviant belief systems, any
assumptions which the individual might be carrying which are leading to the deviant behavior or
simply any thought which might be significantly impacting the individual’s appraisal and
perception of reality resulting in deviant behavior in an individual. When those are rectified, by
default there is likely to be some improvement in the behavior of the person but to ensure
significant behavioral changes usually intervention strategies of the behavior therapy type are
involved in order to rectify the overt manifest behavior of the person. This emanates from a
school of thought which is from behavioristic school of thought which focusses predominantly at
external environmental factors and behavior being learnt as a result of stimuli. Stimulus-
Response Paradigm- there is an external stimulus and there are certain ways in which the
individual learns how to respond to those stimuli. So once a behavioral pattern is developed even
if there are changes at the level of cognition or emotions in an individual, the individual is still
likely to continue engaging in certain learnt behavioral patterns because they have almost
become a habit as far as the individual is concerned and becomes automatic in nature. So to
rectify those then along with cognitive behavior therapy which targets the cognitive and
emotional aspect of an individual and breaking the automated response pattern which an
individual has learnt or developed over a period of time.
Along with that, the psychological interventions are also targeted at building up a skill set in
individual- job training, skill training and are essentially targeted at providing the individual with
enough skills such that after the person is released back to the society, the individual can be well-
integrated within the social set up in more socially congenial and adaptive ways. One of the ways
in which that can be ensured is by ensuring that the individual has enough skill set to, for

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instance- seek gainful employment. That targets the crime which is usually understood as anomy
related crime. Anomy theory says that an individual engages in criminal behavior because there
is no other alternative means or behavior which the individual is aware of. For instance- if an
individual has no money, has no job and the person is hungry. Then the person is likely to steal
money or food but the only alternative which the person sees is stealing as a way to ensure
survival. Anomy theory also talks about more complex situations where emotions are also
involved. An unemployed person whose mother is very ill. This person is more inclined towards
stealing because now there is also this emotional push which the person has- the need to take
care of the mother, the survival of the mother is also involved.
In these cases specifically, the rehabilitative approach argues that punishing an individual and
releasing him back to the society is not ensuring behavioral change or termination of criminality
in anyway because once the person is released back to the society an the person does not have
alternate, means to reach one’s goal- the person is going to fall back into the trap of criminal
behavior. That is the condition of anomy- a lack of alternates available to the individual creates a
condition of anomy where the person keeps going back to his own previous deviant ways. So in
that case- education, skill set building, job training, all of these kinds of training are done as part
of a rehabilitative approach and also as part of psychological intervention.
5. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
In India at least it is a very new concept and is significantly and substantially implemented in the
West. As compared to others, this is a relatively new ideology. It shifts the perspective from the
State being the decision maker to the community being the decision maker. This perspective
highlights that when a crime is committed that crime has been committed against a society or the
community and the crime has been committed against the victim rather than the crime being
committed against the state. Therefore, rather than a judge which is a state appointed individual
being the decision maker with respect to what should be done in order to rectify the crime, it is
the community and the victim that should be involved and integrated with the justice process in
order to take a decision with respect to what should be done to rectify a crime.
Also as the name suggests, restorative justice talks about bringing together the victim, the
community and also to whatever extent it is possible- reintegrating the offender with the
community at an appropriate stage. It is also making heal the community in terms of integrating
the victim as well as the offender with the community and along with bringing together these
institutes at a psychological as well as at a social level, it also talks about the positive growth and
development of the community as a whole. From that perspective there is again a shift in
perspective in focus from punishment or on the crime which is committed to the development or
betterment and the growth and well-being of the community/victim in which the crime is
committed/against whom the crime is committed.
The methods which are used under restorative justice are starkly different. The procedures are
more likely to include mediation processes or simply the meetings between the offender, the
victim and some important other community members/ The aim is to create a common ground, is
to bring a victim and the offender at a common level of understanding through the process of

21
mediation, process of dialogue and conversation, even negation – a more rational process where
emotions are more controlled and it is assumed that if rationality is built up then that would also
sync back to have positive emotional impact on all parties involved. Instead of punishing the
individual and instead of simply rehabilitating the offender, the focus is at positive change and
development as far as socio psychological aspects of the victim as well as the offender are
concerned and in turn the community also grows and develops in the process.

JUVENILE REHABILITATION STRATEGIES

In the West these are more acceptable ideologies. To begin with there is an open recognition that
the juvenile or somebody who is below the age of 18 years, is at a stage where very rapid
transformation is taking place. This is the stage of identity formation, the stage where a child is
experimenting a lot, exploring different alternatives and in turn the child is more likely to engage
in deviant behaviors.
The association or link between deviant behavior and the adolescent years
Why is it that usually during the adolescence some kind of deviant behavior is actually
considered to be normal in an individual? A lot of research done but the most debated stream of
research comes from the research in neuro- psychological development of an individual. As far
as research in psychology is considered there is no evidence which supports the idea that
someone who is 16 years old, irrespective of the crime that the person has committed, should be
tried as an adult. This essentially comes from the fact that a 16 year old at a very neurological
level, at a very biological level cannot function like an adult. You have to track the development
of deviant behavior in an individual over a period of time from childhood to adulthood.
GRAPH. It is an averaged out graph. The specific kind of behavior which occurs, the specific
manifestation of deviant behavior and also the extent of deviant behavior varies from person to
person and varies from culture to culture. But if you have to plot an averaged out graph which
represents global trends in age and deviant behavior it is a simple graph. Graph- age v deviant
behavior. The deviant behavior is more levelled up. Till the age of 12-13 years, deviant behavior
is relatively more levelled out and is also at its minimal. And why it does not coincide with the x-
axis is because every individual will engage in some kind of deviant behavior. Like- losing
temper and acting impulsively in front of the parents. But post that, there is likely to be an
increase in deviant behavior after about the age group of 12-13 years of age and deviant behavior
is then likely to rise from there on hitting a peak at about 16-18 years of age and there is also a
termination which begins around that age. It would then start to level out around the age of 16
years and that decrease in the deviant behavior is going to continue for a while and is going to
reach its minimal at roughly about 24-25 years. This is the general trend in deviance in
adolescence which is seen. In this case there is definitely an increase in deviant behavior during
the adolescent years and these trends are seen globally.
One of the theories which explains this kind of phenomenon comes from the neuro-
psychological theory of Laurence Steinberg. He said that this problem of increased delinquency
during the adolescent years is not something which the juvenile or which the person has a control
on and is also to a certain extent not something which the parents have a control on or the society

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has a control on. So it doesn’t also result from the upbringing or the experience of an individual,
it is something which is hardwired within the individual and is something which the individual at
a very biological level is predisposed to because this is related to the neuro-psychological
development of the individual. Steinberg spoke of 2 kinds of brain development and spoke of 2
neurological pathways in the brain of an individual which are 2 distinct systems in the brain of
an individual and these systems constitute multiple brain parts. And these two systems are
developed in a very different fashion while the person is developing-
1. THE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL SYSTEM- It is responsible for impulsive behavior in an
individual and is responsible for increased risk taking. It makes the individual more
emotional in nature or more affectively lead in nature rather than reasoning based
governance of oneself. This system of an individual develops way before the
development of the cognitive control mechanism (CCM).
2. CCM is responsible for behavioral control of an individual and self-regulation. For
instance- if I see a chocolate kept somewhere, I want that chocolate and that is the social
emotional system telling me that when you want that chocolate and creates a need and a
drive in me to get that chocolate but at the same time I know that I should not be picking
up the chocolate because it belongs to someone else. The fact is that unless CCM
develops, at the cognitive level the juvenile perhaps knows that I do not have to pick up
that chocolate, it probably belongs to someone else. But despite that knowledge the
juvenile will not be able to control and govern one’s behavior. It happens because the
mechanism which is responsible for controlling behavior is the CCM, develops way later
in life.
This system makes an individual more prone to emotions, peer pressure, risk taking
behavior, sensation seeking and all of these human traits in turn are related to adventure
seeking in life- drinking, drug abuse, driving or pacing up the car while driving all related
to sensation seeking, extremely prone to peer pressure.
At least in the West and also now to a certain extent in India, there is growing recognition that
juvenile delinquency esp. the kind of delinquency which happens during the adolescent years
that kind of delinquency grows in concordance with age of an individual. Normally juveniles
during their adolescent years very naturally engaged in some form of deviant behavior or the
other and therefore the end goal of a lot of juvenile rehabilitation programs is basically to ensure
that when an individual gets a congenial environment while the individual is going through these
adolescent years. And once the person enters adulthood then the understanding is that deviant
behavior is naturally going to decrease or go down and with that the criminal propensity is going
to take a back seat and the person is naturally going to go back to socially adaptive ways.
What are the kind of individuals who engage in criminality throughout their lives?
ADHD-ODD-CD-JD-ASPD
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)- the child finds it difficult to focus and pay
attention and is hyperactive in nature. Happens early on in life and has neurological basis to it.
OD (oppositional defiant disorder)- children who oppose authority.

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CD (conduct disorder)- when child further grows and enters the school age (9-10 years of age).
This is a more full blown deviant behavior
JD (juvenile delinquency)- as an adolescent. If an adolescent engages in deviant behavior it can
be classified as a conduct disorder as far as the juvenile is not in touch with the law 9does not
engage in illegal activity) but as soon as he starts engaging in illegal activity that becomes a case
of JD.
ASPD (anti-social personality disorder)- anti-social behavior in adults. Usually if someone has
anti-social personality (not disorder) and trace back the history of the person then all of those
behavioral patterns will be evident.
In the context of childhood related disorders- that is the order in which the disorders which are
associated with deviant behavior in children, in adolescents and in adulthood, that is how they
unfold. We can argue that this might not apply to everyone because like in case of anomy, I
might not be pre-disposed to persistent criminality, criminality is not something internal to me
but externally I do not have enough resources and therefore am forced to engage in criminal
behavior. So from that perspective if anomy is taken as an example then internal personality
dynamics are less responsible and external environmental factors are more responsible.
If the environment which the child is in is not a congenial environment. In most rehabilitation
programs the focus is on providing the delinquents with a congenial environment which can
foster positive growth and development and the understanding is that if the person is given a
congenial environment then the deviant behavioral tendencies in themselves will take a backseat
as the person naturally grows and develops and will get back to more adaptive congenial ways of
the society.
However if living in an environment which in itself is deviant.
Terrie Moffitt gave 2 pathways which the adolescent is likely to follow
1. Where there is no deviant behavior and it rises during adolescence and during adulthood
gradually takes a back seat again. This according to Moffitt is normal trajectory which
most people follow and assumes that every individual is getting a relatively congenial
environment and the environment is not very aversive in nature.
2. When the environment itself is very negative and coercive in nature, in that case the
developmental trajectory is starkly different. This second trajectory is called the
persistent adult criminality trajectory. It talks about what comes of persistence of criminal
behavior in an individual. They are hardwired in that way and starts manifesting the
hardwiring and this happens right at the childhood. It manifests by way of ADHD and
followed by others. Meaning that symptoms of deviant behavior are present right in the
beginning. The increase in deviant behavior is at childhood but also rises during the
adolescence and these individuals continue to engage in criminality even after the enter
adulthood. One of the reason being that because they have deviant behavior patterns as
child they did not get enough time or learning through positive socialization so a very
small child in class who is deviant in some way- he is probably not befriended by a lot of

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 normal children around. This kind of a child is going to be shunned by peers early on in
life. Therefore, once shunned by peers this child is more likely to socialize with deviant
behaviors resulting in learning of deviant behavioral patterns and therefore along with
being hardwired at a neurological level to deviant behavior even at a social level, these
individuals do not learn adaptive pro social ways because from very young age they are
socializing with deviant peers. Therefore, as a result what happens is that even as an
adulthood even when their behavioral regulation of control is well developed because
they do not know alternate ways to engage in pro social ways their deviant behavior
continues. So when we speak of internal criminality or criminality which is driven
because of internal personality factors of an individual the persistent criminality
trajectory usually is the one which accounts for it.
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In the West, there is clear recognition of the fact that there is a natural growth and decline in the
delinquent behavior. And from that perspective it is understood that what’s important, as far as
the development or rehabilitation of juvenile delinquent is concerned, is to give them a congenial
environment wherein that fosters the development of a healthy social personality and if these
individuals are exposed to that congenial environment then in the natural course they will turn
out to be well-adjusted adults. So, most rehabilitation programs then are basically targeted solely
to provide a congenial healthy environment in which the juveniles can develop in a healthy
manner. There is also recognition of the fact, esp. in the case of the second kind of trajectory-
that there are certain delinquent behaviors which are there present in these individuals since early
childhood and because of that deviant behavior patterns then become a part of the individual
repertoire which means that the individual then knows how to solve problems in a deviant way.
Whenever there is a situation of potential conflict, then that conflict is approached in a rather
aggressive or violent or an anti-social way rather than using more pro-social ways to approach
these conflict. Why? To begin with, since there were deviant behavior patterns very early on in
childhood, the child did not get adequate opportunity to learn pro-social ways and therefore
because the child has been engaging in deviant ways since childhood, these become an integral
part (deviant or anti-social ways) of the behavioral repertoire of the child and therefore these also
need to be addressed in more serious cases of juvenile delinquency.
One of the primary goals of juvenile rehabilitation is to provide or ensure a congenial healthy
environment in which the juvenile can grow and develop in a positive way and along with that
target certain inherent behavioral patterns which have developed and crystalized within an
individual and crystalized to an extent that they have become very natural ways in which the
juvenile now approaches problems.
The third most important aspect of rehabilitation program is- skill building. There is an active
recognition that juvenile will at some point be released from the care of the criminal justice
system and the juvenile will have to go back and adjust within the society and community in
general. The juvenile in such case does not have adequate skills which ensures proper adjustment
within the community or the natural environment of the juvenile. Then in those cases, the
juvenile will automatically tend to go back to the negative deviant ways. Therefore, basic social

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skills, occupational skills, learning skills, educational skills are also an essential part of most
rehabilitation programs which are undertaken from the perspective of a gainful, profitable
settlement of the individual back in the society once the individual is released from the care of
the criminal justice system.
AMENABILTY FOR REHABILTATION ASSESSMENT PATTERNS
Specific kind of assessment done for juveniles in which psychologists are involved. It means- to
what extent assessing the extent to which the juvenile is likely to benefit from the various
rehabilitative inventions or treatment programs. So if a treatment or rehabilitative program is
offered to a juvenile then what is the extent to which the juvenile is likely to benefit from these
treatment programs. These amenability assessment programs usually are done roughly at about 3
stages within the legal proceeding.
1. The first kind of amenability assessment is done right at the beginning of the trial. These
kind of assessments are to answer the question- whether a juvenile should be tried as a
juvenile or whether the juvenile should be transferred to an adult criminal court and tried
as an adult. This is exactly the same kind of assessment which the JJ Act (amended) talks
about. And says that if a juvenile is within the age range of 16-18 years of age then
depending upon the nature of the crime, the juvenile can be tried as an adult following the
regular criminal proceeding but that judgment is based on the assessment report. Several
individuals form the panel that take the assessment of the individual. The Act also
provides for the assessment by a psychologist. The Act doesn’t mandate an assessment by
the psychologist but provides for an assessment by the psychologist. This kind of
assessment is an assessment report which talks about the nature of the mental health of
the juvenile, what is been the developmental background of the juvenile, what is the
current developmental stage of the juvenile and also takes into account the nature of the
crime that has been committed and the intensity, severity, heinousness of the crime.
Taking into account all of these factors, the court talks about- does the juvenile has the
same capabilities as that of an adult and in that case should then the juvenile be tried as
an adult. Also, to what extent is the juvenile amenable to rehabilitation? So if the juvenile
is tried within the regular juvenile justice system and is sentenced to rehabilitation then is
the juvenile likely to benefit from that rehabilitation. For instance if the report says- the
juvenile is likely to benefit from rehabilitation only then is there any merit in trying the
juvenile as juvenile and sentencing him to rehabilitation. If not, like if the juvenile is
completely fully developed juvenile and is not likely to benefit from rehabilitation then
there more merit in trying the juvenile as an adult and punishing him in the way similar to
adult punishment because there is no point in giving rehabilitation.
So, usually in these cases it can be a transference proceeding which talks about whether a
juvenile shall be tried as juvenile or should be transferred to an adult criminal system and
to what extent is the juvenile likely to benefit from any rehabilitation program. This is the
central question of such assessment.
2. The second kind of assessment is done at the disposition stage. This is the stage where
the juvenile has been adjudicated a delinquent, the juvenile has been convicted of the

26
 crime that he was charged with. The question now is- what kind of intervention programs
or rehabilitation programs are likely to be of benefit to the juvenile. This again is a
psychological assessment of the juvenile which talks about what is the current mental
health or condition of the juvenile and what are the kind of intervention programs that are
likely to be most beneficial for the juvenile. Dangerousness assessment is also undertaken
at this stage- is the juvenile likely to be dangerousness to oneself or to someone else and
in that case what is the kind of security which needs to be provided to the juvenile. The
kind of secured setting which the juvenile is supposed to be kept in, in case he poses a
threat to other people around him.
3. The third kind of amenability assessment is done while the treatment is in progress and
more so towards the end of the rehabilitation or the treatment program itself. At this
stage, the assessment is essentially to answer- whether the juvenile has benefitted from
the treatment which is being offered to him. This is a progress and an outcome evaluation
kind of assessment. What is the progress of the individual with respect to the mental
health benefits and also in terms of outcome- if the program is complete, has there been
any positive outcome. Such kind of evaluation assessment then has implications for
whether the juvenile should be released or should the term be extended.
Out of these 3, the second and the third one are relatively controversy free. The first one has
been center of controversy esp. from an ethical standpoint wherein within the psychological
circles it has been argued that the amenability assessment which takes place right at the
beginning can actually infringe with the juvenile’s right against self-incrimination.
Specifically so because, as part of the evaluation one of the major areas which is delved into
is the crime itself. The kind of crime that the juvenile has committed or if there are a series of
crimes then what are the nature of crimes which the juvenile has been engaging in over a
period of time and that then also becomes the center of evaluation by the psychologist as far
as the evaluation of the mental health of juvenile is concerned. And delving into the nature of
the crime which was committed by the juvenile and the details of those crimes, then that
essentially means that the juvenile needs to give out information with respect to the crime in
question and in turn might also need to give out self-incriminating information. Any
information about the crime in question can then also be used by the prosecution in a court of
law and that then constitutes the violation of the right against self-incrimination by the
juvenile.
Should the juvenile be informed about the Miranda rights and should these rights be
protected at the time of evaluation or not. This is a legal question to be answered. The
question was raised in-

 CHRISTOPHER P. V. MEXICO
The juvenile was ordered by the court to submit to an amenability assessment by a psychologist.
Since the juvenile was ordered by the court, the juvenile took that as a mandate. Also, along with
that both the lawyers were allowed to view the assessment process through a viewing mirror.
Later, a psychologist’s report judged the juvenile as unamenable to rehabilitation which meant
that he is not likely to benefit from rehabilitation. In turn the court allowed the prosecutor’s

27
motion to transfer the case to a regular adult proceeding. And thus was transferred to an adult
criminal system.
This decision of the court was appealed against and the appellate court reversed the decision to
transfer the case to an adult criminal system. And the appellate court mad 2 important
observations- first to begin with, the juvenile was ordered by the court to undergo the evaluation
and in that sort it mandated him to undertake the evaluation. And secondly, the prosecutor was
allowed to view the assessment process through the viewing mirror and thus was given a clear
access to the details that were being discussed during the evaluation.
The court in turn held that keeping these 2 factors in mind that led to a clear violation of the right
against self-incrimination because several details were discussed related to the crime during the
process and therefore those details in turn were used by the prosecutor to build up the case
against the juvenile.
One of the important arguments by the prosecutor was that the assessment did not form part of
the evaluation process. The proceeding was a transfer proceeding and the evaluation was only
supposed to be a supportive proceeding and was not a central part of the case. The evaluation
was not a critical stage in the entire process and therefore the protection against incrimination
and the right to an attorney and all other rights do not really apply in the case. This argument was
rejected by the court and held that even though it does not form a critical stage during this kind
of a proceeding, it still is an important ancillary process which offers direct valuable information
which is likely to direct the course of the judgment. Therefore, the juvenile is entitled to various
rights and should be informed of the Miranda rights specifically the right to attorney and the
right to remain silent.

 US V AR (1994)
In this case, a similar line of argument was raised wherein the defendant (juvenile) was not
informed of the right to remain silent or the right to an attorney during the assessment by the
psychologist and this argument was rejected by the court stating exactly that assessment is a
supportive mechanism and is not a central part of the proceeding and therefore the juvenile is not
entitled to these rights while the assessment is being done by the psychologist. But in this case
the attorneys were not given any direct access to the assessment proceeding that was taking
place.
In most cases, the attorneys are not given access to view these proceedings esp. the prosecutor
and therefore there is no direct mechanism or way in which the prosecutor can have access to the
details of the crime which are being discussed to during the assessment. But the analysis of the
reports which have been presented by the psychologists, these reports show that the
psychologists end up mentioning extremely important aspects with respect to the crime itself. On
needs to keep in mind that parties involved, all have access to the report including the prosecutor.
And therefore it is important that the psychologists should be trained in terms of what needs to
be mentioned in a report and what doesn’t need to be mentioned in a report.

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In this context, the APA has given certain guidelines. In a nutshell, these guidelines talk about
the developmental stage in which the juvenile is in. The developmental stage will talk about the
level of understanding (cognitive and emotional) that the juvenile has, the background of the
juvenile, the contextual factors from which the juvenile is coming and that in turn has
implications on the extent to which the juvenile is likely to benefit from any treatment or
intervention programs. The assessment report of the psychologist should be a mere description of
the developmental stage of the juvenile and that developmental stage for instance also tells us the
extent to which the psyche of the juvenile is changeable. The extent of psychological changes
which can be facilitated to the juvenile in the opinion of the psychologist and what should be the
nature of the intervention which needs to be offered and roughly the amount of time that these
interventions would take. The amount of time stated by the psychologist is totally indicative.
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Rehabilitation for anyone, juveniles or adults can be either institutionalized rehabilitation or it
can be non-institutionalized rehabilitation. The better form would be non-institutionalized.
Institutionalized are largely ineffective due to multiple reasons, some of them being- the coercive
environment within the institution itself, the lack of willingness or the assumption of willingness
rather where an individual who has been sentenced to and subjected forcefully to certain kind of
treatment approaches, renders the treatment approach in itself largely ineffective. Also along
with that there is also a high scope for observational learning because the person is now staying
with a lot of individuals who are engaging in deviant behavior and activities and therefore
criminal behavior can also be learned through observational learning within the criminal justice
system.
What is promoted by the psychological studies is non-institutionalized rehabilitation or
rehabilitation within the community itself rather than rehabilitation within the prison or an
institution. Also what studies show is that the level of trust between the client and the therapist is
way higher within the community itself as compared to an institutionalized set up? The very
atmosphere of the institution (coerced, forced treatment) also renders the trust low as compared
to the trust between the client and the therapist which is established within the community itself.
Again, the client-therapist relationship and the trust in the relationship is one of the key factors
which determines the effectiveness of the intervention.
ESTABLISHED MODELS TO JUVENILE REHABILITATION
1. The Family Preservation Model- The first set of approach. As the name suggests, it
essentially focuses at preserving the original family of the juvenile. One of the basic
underlying fundamental principles to this model is the recognition that any kind of
transition is detrimental in itself for the juvenile. The family reservation models are seen
to be in the best interest of the child (where there is removal from one setup and
readjustment in other) to maintain and preserve the original family structure of the child
to begin with. Even if the family is slightly dysfunctional (if the source of deviance in the
child is the family itself) then perhaps intervening at the level of the family and
maintaining the family structure of the child can be beneficial for the mental health of the

29
 child as compared to removing the child and shifting him to a different spatial location.
But at the same time if the level of dysfunction in the family is high (where child in a
family has experienced abuse, or domestic violence, child sexual abuse) then in those
cases, this approach would not be very suitable. With mild to moderate dysfunctionality
with intervention the model is to be most effective.
Within this model, different kind of therapies can actually be offered to the juvenile. 3
basic kind of therapeutic approaches within this-
(i) HOMEBUILDER’S APPROACH
It is taken when the level of delinquency or the illegal act which is committed by the juvenile is
relatively mild in nature. It is an ideology which supports the idea that if a juvenile is given a
congenial family atmosphere then the juvenile through the natural course of development will
fall back into more adaptable pro social ways of behaving. The primary goal of this kind of
therapy is to ensure a positive congenial family environment as far as the juvenile is concerned.
This therapy is done on an out-patient basis. There is usually a counsellor who visits the family
of a juvenile on a regular basis for a defined period of time and engages not just with the juvenile
but also the family as far as the very basic family dynamics is concerned. Basic therapy
includes- basic forms of cognitive behavior therapy and behavior therapy at the basic level.
Searching for certain basic belief systems or ideologies which might be deviant in nature and
targeting those deviant ideologies leading to an altered world view as far as the juvenile is
concerned.
Along with this, this psychologist also looks at certain basic patterns within a family- some
deviant communication patterns or some deviant family dynamics which might be leading to a
perpetuating deviant behavior in the juvenile and so at some level, there is some amount of
family therapy also which is done by the case worker or therapist. But dysfunctionality in this
case usually is between mild to moderate range and not very suitable for severe kinds of
criminality. Also the case worker then deals with all aspects of the development of juvenile. So,
along with engaging in therapy, the case worker also helps the juvenile with like- education,
assisting him with extra-curricular activity so the energies are positively channelized, engaging
in all aspect of life as far as the juvenile is concerned and also to a certain extent, looking at
deviant family dynamics to in turn bring about an effective behavior change.
Therapist in a lot of these cases is referred to as the home builder- an external support system
which is offered to this home and thus named so.
(ii) MULTISYSTEMIC THERAPY
It is based on the ‘systems theory’ given by Urie Bronnfrenbrenner where he said that an
individual is embedded within multiple systems of the social environment and these systems of
the social environment can be analyzed or considered as existing at multiple levels. All of these
systems determine the behavior of the individual. To begin with, it is the individual factor which
will have a determining role- factors like the age, gender, social orientation, religion that the
person is uniquely following.

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At the second level which is the closest to the individual- family, friends, peers in school (micro
level of the environment- it constitutes all the factors or elements which have the direct, personal
impact on the behavior of the individual).
The following layer is the exo system and constitutes of all the factors which again have a
personal unique individual impact on the juvenile but these factor do not have a direct impact on
the juvenile- the extended family of the juvenile, neighborhood. If the neighborhood in general is
a backward neighborhood and there is high levels of delinquency or criminality within the
neighborhood then this is something which has a unique impact on the individual but has a
relatively indirect impact.
The macro system has an indirect collective influence on the person. These are the factors which
are determining the behavior of not just the juvenile but also determines the behavior of people
in general. Factors- culture, tradition, prevalent social norms, the policing, law and order, level of
criminality in a society in general.
The multi systemic model is based on this and highlights the importance of each of these systems
and posits the fact that if any kind of therapy has to be effective then it should be targeted not
only at the individual or individual factors but at all of these systems through the individual
because the therapy becomes individual centric. The process of this therapy evolves making the
individual brainstorm and think about all of the factors which offer strength and can act as
resilient factors for the individual within each of this system and also looking at factors which
can be a source of weakness for the individual and training the individual to sort of counter the
weakness and capitalize or build up on the resilient factors of each of these systems.
So at a micro level, certain factors which can have a negative impact on the behavior of the
individual could be, for instance- parental separation or divorce, the detrimental impact which
divorce has on an individual- high levels of family conflict, domestic violence. All of these could
be sources of weakness for the individual.
Sources of strength- a sibling who is very supportive, an extended family member who is very
supportive, a friend, financial stability.
At the exo level- a deviant neighborhood or an exposure to deviant group of individuals has a
negative impact on the behavior of the individual and can lead to criminality in an individual. On
the other hand, an interest in some extra-curricular activity would lead to some positive
channelization of energies. A teacher that this child can talk to with respect to certain family
related problems.
At the macro system, weakness could be- extremely stereotypical misogynistic gendered norms
of a society, or extreme reliance on traditions which are highly outdated in nature. Strength could
be- very strong policing, strong law and order in place and thus low opportunities to commit
crime.
The multi systemic therapy essentially involves brainstorming about the strengths and
weaknesses at different levels, different systems within the environment of the individuals and
building up on the strengths and countering the weakness of each system.

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 (iii) FUNCTIONAL FAMILY THERAPY
It essentially focuses at the family as the locus of the deviant behavior of an individual. The
focus here has shifted from the individual to the family at large. And essentially looks at the
sources of deviancy in an individual within the family rather than the individual himself. The
family dynamics has a direct impact on the behavior of the individual. So, therefore the focus of
therapy here is to rectify the dynamics of the family itself along with it targeting each individual
within the family. This therapy is a combination of multiple kinds of therapies rather than just
one therapeutic approach. At an individual level when dealing with all of the members of the
family, usually techniques of cognitive behavior therapy are applied which essentially are
targeted at assessing any dysfunctional or irrational attitudes or assumptions which the family
members might have, any irrational expectations which family members might have with respect
to other family members. So, dysfunctional belief systems, assumptions, attitudes are located and
there is an attempt made to rectify those assumptions.
As far as the dynamics of the family is concerned, usually inter-personal therapy is used and it is
a therapy which is a special kind of therapy which is based on modelling/on the observational
theory. This looks for discrepancies between what is being said and what is being done by the
parents or the elder members of the family. So, a mother who teaches a child that do not be rude
to your elders and the mother herself is talking rudely to other elders. Then the child is going to
learn to talk rudely to elders. Then discrepancies in the communication which is happening
between the family and then an attempt is made to rectify those discrepancies. There is also a
focus on verbal communication v non-verbal communication. Communication patterns within
the family are checked for and these communication pattern are then rectified through
interventions.
Along with inter personal interaction, the global dynamics within the family which then falls
under the domain of the family systems therapy. Family systems therapy is looking at family as
the system and rectifying multiple altered dysfunctional dynamics within a family in order to
lead to a more socially adaptable behavior as afar as the individual juvenile is concerned.
If these therapeutic approaches are compared to traditional approaches, they have been proven to
be way more effective. For instance, the multi systemic approach of therapy is known to be way
more effective than cognitive behavior therapy esp. in terms of behavior of an individual at home
or in school. So it is known to have significant positive impact on the level of cohesion and the
emotional bonding which the child has within the family and the level of violent behavior and
social adaptability which the child depicts outside of the family. The key difference between
multi systemic therapy and functional family therapy is that multi systemic therapy is done in
most cases where source of deviance are more individual in nature. So child engages in deviant
behavior because of his own deviant appraisals of reality as compared to functional family
therapy, is done in cases where there are very deviant family dynamics which are at work and
which seem that these family dynamics need to be addressed or rectified in order to ensure that
there is translation into positive individual behavior of the child.
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 2. GROUP HOME MODELS
It is seen as the least restrictive alternative treatment. Least restrictive because when the child is
removed from the family so there are likely to be some restrictions but at the same time the
extremely punitive and the controlling environment of the prison is also avoided to a very large
extent. Therefore there is a group home which is created for the child which will have its rules,
norms and ways of functioning but at the same time, the child can remain in the community,
continue with normal regular schooling, develop and retain certain skills which are essential for
survival in the community, maintain normal interactions with the community in general and
therefore major disruptions in the life of the child doesn’t really occur but at the same time a
relatively more monitored group home is the place where the child is supposed to live which also
has its own controls and rules in place.
Group home model usually looks like- there is a couple that is running the group home, a
husband and wife volunteer to be teaching parents for the child. These individuals are trained in
basic techniques of care giving of children who are deviant in some way. There are parents who
adopt or keep a group of children with them. The exact number varies between 6-8 children. The
reason for keeping these children at group home varies from child to child and has good mix of
children who are deviant, who are adjudicated delinquents, it also can contain children who are
simply at a high risk-unwanted children, children rejected by their parents, orphans. Along with
that, these group homes also have children with mental health issues- these children have parents
and are also allowed to meet their parents but for the rehabilitation of children with some form of
mental health issues- usually mildly autistic or mild to moderate retardation. There are also
outpatient services which are offered to these children. On a regular basis there would be a
consultant, psychologist, social worker who’d be visiting the group homes. There are case
workers who are allotted these group homes and they are supposed to go to the homes and
actively engage and offer group therapy and counselling to these children and the parents.
It comes down to creating a small community where a congenial atmosphere for the development
of the child is offered along with active therapy and counselling and also ensuring that the child
continues engaging with the society and the community on a normal basis. Therefore the normal
life of the child is also not severely disrupted to that extent. Certain basic elements which are
present in almost all group homes include- practicing culturally diverse traditions and it is to
bring about cultural sensitivity in the juvenile who are staying in this group home. While
allotting children to different group homes, it is ensured that children from different ethnic and
racial backgrounds are staying together in the same group home and it is to ensure that children
in the process of living with such diverse people learn to respect diversity and cultural values.
Also festivals and traditions of different culture are celebrated in all of these homes in order to
make children more tolerant and acceptable of differences.
Cultural diversity being one, the second important aspect which is almost always followed is-
gender based diversity. In all group homes there is a good mix of boys and girls. Gender based
sensitivity programs also are implemented. These are also beneficial for adolescents who are
more inclined towards sexual violence or sexual aggression and those programs targeted these
juveniles are also administered or conducted in these group homes.

33
The functioning of the home is like every other normal home. From morning to noon there is a
routine that is to be followed by everyone, the duties are allocated to different people. For
instance, depending upon the age and ability of the child- gardening, washing clothes, getting
groceries, all of this work is divided and the child then meaningfully contributes to the running
of the household and takes responsibility of the household.
The focus here is to offer congenial environment which had been missing at the original home of
the child. To offer a close-knit warm environment of the family and in the process itself the child
would learn to develop a close family bond, cohesion among the family members, pro social
behavior and the warmth which was missing at home is now given by the teaching parents. Any
special deviances which the child might have are addressed through the consultation and the
therapy offered by the case worker. This kind of set up has mostly proven beneficial across
deviances (children at risk, deviant children as well as children suffering from mental health
problems). But at the same time if the deviance in the child is extreme like- extremely violent
behavior then in those cases this kind of a approach is not suitable for that child. Along with the
child damaging himself or herself that child would also offer opportunities for social modelling
and observational learning for other children staying in the family.
3. BOOT CAMPS
Boot camps had their origins in the adult corrections in order to address the problem of
overcrowding of prisons. A lot of adults, when the prisons were overcrowded, they were sent to
the camps which were offside camps but highly monitored and regulated camps. Over a period of
time it was seen as an approach that had high utility in the field of corrections and certain
modifications of that started being used in the field of juvenile corrections or juvenile
rehabilitation.
These are camps which have a very high level of regulation, very specific rule of conduct which
have to be followed. To that extent they ensure conformity, ensure discipline and at least in the
original form the boot camps also had an element of punishment which was supposed to have a
deterrent effect. So, if the person broke the rules then the person was punished and the
punishment was very specifically outlined in the rules of conduct and it was administered strictly
such that in order to ensure that it had a deterrent effect. In its original form, the boot camps,
from a psychological perspective, were not seen to have a high utility because it simply meant
that the punitive environment of the prison was now transferred to another off side camp and
there was still a high level of punishment and control.
But in the modified version, the boot camps were used in the case of juvenile rehabilitation. The
punishment element was removed and replaced with elements of community service. The
ideology is that if a juvenile is given a safe and a secure environment with a high level of
structure and a high level of discipline being ensured then in the normal course of development,
while following that discipline and that structure which these boot camps offer, the child will
learn to conform, to live in a congenial manner with other human beings and therefore to that
extend will develop the desired level of pro social behavior. And an understanding that certain
behaviors have positive while certain behaviors have negative consequences and that

34
understanding in turn will be replicated in the everyday activities of the juvenile once the
juvenile goes back and lives the normal life back in the community.
One of the major drawback of the boot camps is that they are very financially demanding. So
creating a congenial environment outdoor for a group of individuals, ensuring security, ensuring
all the basics and supplies becomes very financially demanding. This is the reason why most
states avoid the boot camp approach. But with the implementation of rehabilitative approaches
and lesser amount of focus on punitive punishing, boot camps are now becoming more and more
effective as far as the treatment of boot camps is concerned.
4. ADVENTURE PROGRAMS/ADVENTURE CAMPS/ WILDERNESS
ADVENTURE PROGRAMS
These are usually programs which are run by private institutes rather than state run programs. As
far as the state run programs are concerned, it takes the form of the boot camps. The adventure
programs in the West at least, are run by private players. These programs are short term courses
for individuals who have been deviant or problematic in some way. This could be a good mix of
delinquents (have actively engaged in something illegal) and non-delinquents (simply seen as
problem children by their parents, difficult to control and manage) and is important to send them
away and put them through a rigorous training program so that their level of conformity, level of
behavioral control and regulation increases.
And that it is run by private players, there is a screening which happens wherein these corporate
firms select the kind of children that are most suitable for their adventure programs and then they
are taken to the camp itself. The cam has strict and stringent rules which are to be followed and
all the children within the camp run the camp and contribute to the activities of the camp but they
also follow very unconventional ways of education. There is also regular education and
schooling which is done there (camps can be 6 months- 8 months or an yearlong). The focus of
the camps is- self-concept of the child. A lot of education and empowering which is happening is
in the context of building up the self-concept, building up the self-esteem of the child, self-
efficacy. It functions on the basic premise that if the child has a sound sense of self then the child
is less likely to engage in deviant behavior and is more likely to engage in behavior which is
more goal oriented which caters to the larger goals and motives of the child and to that extent is
more positive in nature.
Even the education which takes place, they have very individualized education plans. Meaning
that there is a system of learning which is created, which is custom made for the child, which
caters to the need of the child and the child can learn and educate himself at his own pace. The
kind of therapies which are used in the camp are also very unconventional therapies. So instead
of relying on traditional approaches like cognitive behavior therapy, these camps are more likely
to rely on therapies like art therapy, dance and movement therapy, drama therapy- focusing on
problem solving, focusing on individual interest, the therapy is accordingly allotted to the child.
The focus is on facilitating a positive peer culture and in the process the child learns pro social
behavior, generating and maintain social bonds, community living and that coupled with therapy

35
targeting specific problem areas for the child and positive education plans for the child results in
positive change and development in the child.
External validity for adventure camps is problematic. Meaning that when a child has stayed in a
particular kind of community set up and after the child moves out of that set up into the normal
everyday life- the rules are different, rules of functioning, the kind of stressors which the child
now faces are all different, then the child is likely to relapse and go back to the deviant ways.
This is especially more problematic because since the adventure programs are run by private
players there is no follow up mechanism. In follow up mechanism- when an individual goes and
starts living back in the community, gets reintegrated with the community, there are these case
workers who come and visit the individual and take down their case details and talk to them and
observe them every now and then. But in adventure programs, the parents pay for the child, the
child stays and once the child is released from there, there is no responsibility of the individuals
who are running the camp.
Studies tell that in the short run, adventure and wilderness programs are highly effective. Till
about 2-3 years there is positive change and development in the behavior of the child. But in the
long run, over a period of time, the positive impact of adventure program sort of fizzles out to the
extent that a lot of children might go back to their deviant ways as they were before entering the
camps. What we have in place is a very robust strategy of intervention as far as juvenile change
and development is concerned. But what is important is that if the State starts employing these
programs then there is a possibility of follow up mechanisms which will perhaps increase the
soundness of these programs. As of now, because of the lack of follow up mecahnism long term
efficacy of adventure programs is relatively low.
19/10/2019

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF IMPRISONMENT

Philip Zimbardo, a theoretician in the field of psychology was a professor in the University of
Stanford and was interested in studying the entire phenomenon of imprisonment and what effect
does imprisonment have on people in general including the prisoners and the staff and the
authorities which are involved in the entire institution. He created an artificial prison in the
basement of the Stanford University, very extensively created, complete with lock up and
uniforms for the guards and all weapons. The findings of the experiment were starkly different
from what the initial expectation of the experimenters was. The experiment was designed to
continue for about 15 days but it had to be terminated within 6 days of its initiation. He
highlighted that as a result of the experiment it was seen that it seemed as if an entire lifetime of
values were unlearnt in a matter of 2-3 days. What turned out to be an extremely horrendous
display of dehumanized behavior wherein guards actually ended up treating the prisoners as
slaves and animals! And they also started behaving like de-humanized robots. Zimbardo and
other researchers noted the fact that during those 6 days even sustaining the experiment for 6
days became problematic because there was extreme aggression, extreme violence that became
the part of the entire process. To answer the question- who was powerful in that kind of a set up?
(There were 2 groups of people. One set of volunteers who were acting as prisoners and the other

36
set acting as guards and these were all white-middle class, middle socio-economic status male
individuals. They were all similar as far as their demographics were concerned but it turned out
in a way in which the prisoners were subjected to extremely violent and aggressive behavior by
the guards) It was neither the guards who were in control of the situation nor the prisoners who
were in control of the situation. It was actually the institution that was controlling the situation,
which is why Zimbardo used the term- ‘power of the institution’ or ‘institutionalization of the
prisoners and the guards’ which resulted in such horrendous display of dehumanized behavior
within the prison set up. While studying the behavior of an individual (prisoner or the guard)
what is important is to study the power that the institution then begins to practice on all human
players within the institutional set up. It is the phenomenon which is inherent in the nature of the
prison. What is peculiar about the nature of the prison which makes the prison practice such
power on people? It is the notion of absolute control. Whenever absolute control of certain
number of people in terms of their curriculum, their discipline, what they are doing in life, is
invested in the hands of certain other group of people, then that results in what is known as-
complete de-humanization of the individual. It is not the various groups of people which then
continue to practice their control, it is this kind of a setup, this kind of offering absolute control
and in turn the institution that becomes all powerful and damages the psyche of not just the
prisoners but also the guards.
There were also widespread criticism of this experiment per se and one of the criticism was that
this experiment was not an actual replica of what actually happens because this was an artificial
setup where the guards and the prisoners also came in with certain pre-established expectations
with respect to how they are supposed to behave and they were simply role playing. They were
behaving in the manner in which they were expected to behave. But this contention with respect
to artificiality and with respect to people role playing and performing in the manner in which
they were expected to perform has also been counter-challenged by several circles wherein they
say that when we say that individuals are simple role playing then that is what we are essentially
doing in our daily lives. There are certain pattern of behaviors which we have internalized
through socialization, there are expectations which are imposed onto us, we are expected to
behave in certain ways by virtue of our backgrounds and most of us are just behaving in those
ways. So even when in an actual set up, a prisoner goes to a prison then even an actual real
setting, the prisoner begins with enacting the certain role of a prisoner and to that extent the
external validity of the experiment and the results of the experiment cannot be entirely
invalidated. To that extent they are also similar to what actually happens in the real set up. But in
the light of all the contentions that were raised around the entire set up, Zimbardo did modify his
explanation of the outcome or the results of the experiment a bit towards the end. So, initially
when he spoke of the power of institution he was essentially taking a completely situational
model at hand in the process. So everything that happened could be blamed simply on the
situational arrangement. So, the power of the institution was essentially a situational model that
was initially posited by Zimbardo. But then eventually he moderated his position and took a
more interactionist approach. There was a clear transition from a situational approach 9from
considering the institution as all powerful) to an interactionist approach (wherein the
characteristics of the situations were important but at the same time along with that the human
players who were a part of the situation were also important). Under the interactionist approach,
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Zimbardo gave due recognition to the fact that the situation constitutes not just the rules, not just
the condition of absolute power but it also consisted of human players (in this case- the prisoners
and the guards) and those players also gotten certain characteristics within the situation. So what
resulted was not only the off shoot of the situational arrangement but also an off shoot of the
interaction between the situational arrangement, the characteristics of the prisoners and of the
guards. So he acknowledged that the condition of absolute power is pathological in itself but
those pathologies are either maximized or minimized depending on the characteristics of the
people involved and the people interacting in the situation.
With that understanding, the process of imprisonment and the environment of the prison is
psychologically damaging not only for the prisoners which is a common understanding but it is
also damaging for the guards and the authorities of the prison.
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF IMPRISONMENT ON PEOPLE AND HOW DOES
ADJUSTMENT OR LIFE WITHIN PRISON PROGRESS AND WHAT ARE THE
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS WHICH MIGHT BE FACED BY THE PEOPLE.
3 DOMAINS WITH REGARDS TO THIS
1. ADJUSTMENT WITHIN THE PRISON
Adjustment is an individual process. So, how an individual adjust to a prison environment is
absolutely variable depending upon the person concerned. But over a certain period of time there
are patterns in the adjustment process which have been delineated by researchers. Adjustment is
most problematic usually in the initial phases of adjustment. Adjustment is an issue within the
prison and is clear by the fact that the number of suicides within a prison are way more as
compared to the number of suicides in the outside world in general. Prisons are almost twice
more susceptible to suicide as compared to suicide rates outside the prison. Studies within the
area of suicides tells that suicide rates are maximum within the initial period of imprisonment-
suicide rates in jails and lock-ups are way more as compared to suicide rates in full term prison,
once an individual is sentenced and is sent to prison. This is because, lock ups and jails are where
people are initially kept during the trial and therefore adjustment during that phase is most
difficult.
A summary of findings, highlighted by Toch and Adams. Highlights certain patterns in the way
people tend to adjust to prisons. To begin with, they highlight that emotional stress or emotional
mis-adjustment is maximum during the beginning of the imprisonment phase and because of this
emotional distress then individuals also tend to be most destructive and violent towards the
beginning of their imprisonment. So, the internally felt distress is externalized during the early
phases of imprisonment and that results in behavioral problems- destructive behavior, denying
the following of rules and also violent and aggressive behavior. Also, age is an important
mediator to the 20s and early 30s who are more likely to engage in externalization of the distress
and more likely to engage in disruptive or violent behavior whereas individuals who are
relatively on the higher side of age (40s and 50s) are more likely to engage in a relatively more
calm behavior and more likely to dissociate or detach themselves from the deviant prison
environment and use more of their internal sources to cope with the adjustment problems or

38
emotional distress which they might be facing. With these initial problems that are seen during
the process of adjustment within the prison, gradually what sets in is what is known as
‘prisonization’- an idea which is very similar to socialization. Like you get socialized within the
community that you are living in similarly once an individual adapts to the environment, gets
used to the customs within the prison then that process of adapting to the prison environment is
called prisonization. This term was coined by Donald Clemmer. He coined this term with the
reference of socialization- just like you get socialized with the community, you get prisonized
within the prison culture. He also described very specific characteristics of the process of
prisonization and said that the interest that an individual initially took in the outside world that
decreases gradually and eventually gets extinct which is followed by some amount of
understanding that prison is now home. Specifically true for people serving long-term sentences.
This results in the lack of the ability in the individual to take independent decisions meaning that
all activities are now governed by rules and regulations of the prison and to that extent they
become almost automatic in nature. Gradually what sets in and is the mark of prisonization is
complete deindividuation of the individual- the person instead of looking at oneself as an
autonomous independent individual, he now starts describing every expect of himself within the
context of the prison.
In terms of gender related phenomenon and prisonization, there are theories which highlight that
women adapt to the prison culture slightly differently than men. The process of prisonization is
true for both but the external behavior differs at certain levels. To begin with, in the process of
adapting both men and women tend to form these groups which become their social groups.
These groups differ for men and women in the sense that women tend to form more family
oriented groups and men tend to form more gang oriented groups. In a gang oriented group there
is a sense of brother hood whereas in a family oriented group there is a greater sense of familiar
relationships rather than a uniform sense of brotherhood irrespective of age which is more so in
the case of men forming these groups.
These groups are a characteristic of a way of adjustment of people during the initial phases of
adjustment, people who are serving long-term sentences over a period of time also tend to move
away from these groups and lead more isolated and solitary lives and it is true for both men and
women. These people serving longer sentences tend to spend more time with themselves, tend to
spend a greater time reflecting on their own lives, they also spent greater amounts of time
building up on their own abilities and talents. Eventually the person becomes more self-focused
and self-absorbed with fewer friends around. This also is the time when positive change begins
to set in. Also this is the time of high level of existential reflection where people start thinking
about their larger goals in life and how they want to attain them and that then defines their future
actions. There are also different social groups with different social status within the prison. Like
individuals who have committed crime against people like- rape and murder, are considered
lower down in the social hierarchy, they are also more susceptible to sexual assault and sexual
violence against that person. Or somebody who has murdered or engaged in a violent crime
against people is also more susceptible to violence against himself within the prison. On the
other hand, people engaging in non-human crimes- monetary crimes or material acquisition
related crimes, these individuals are considered to be higher up in the social hierarchy.

39
The assumption that all kinds of prisons are harmful for people- the question becomes important
when we mention that gradually down the line people who are serving longer sentences do
engage in existential self-reflection, do engage in seeking=g the larger motives in life, then from
that perspective- is all kinds of imprisonment always detrimental to the well-being of an
individual? No. a set of studies by Toch and Adams, essentially studied prisons where the
atmosphere was relatively congenial- basic hygiene maintain, basic amenities provided to the
prisoners, they were not substantially over-crowded, there were opportunities for extra-
curricular- sports grounds, libraries maintained, reading areas provided. And in these prisons,
individual did actually benefit from being a part of these prisons. So they (Toch and Adams)
took estimates of their psychological and mental well-being over a period of time through the
years and said that over the first couple of years (one and a half to two years) there was no
substantial improvement that was seen but then there was no substantial psychological damage
that was done except for the fact that these individuals were not as motivated to change. But after
a period of one and a half to two years, there was a slight understanding which was more leaning
towards change. There was also an acceptance that behavioral change is required and this
essentially was a reflection of the existential evaluation by the individual. Along with that, an
understanding with respect to the consequences of behavior, that positive behavior will lead to
positive consequences and negative behavior would lead to negative consequences. Also along
with this understanding, a more pro social behavior also developed in these individuals. Toch
and Adams point out that the very fact that an individual is subject to some kind of discipline,
some kind of structured living and routine in life, that in itself can be beneficial for the well-
being and mental health of an individual if the individual is given a congenial environment to
live in, environment which is congenial for the positive growth and development of the
individual.
23/10/2019
2. IMPACT OF CROWDING ON THE PEOPLE
Overcrowding is a well-known problem within the prisons and the impact of overcrowding has
also been studied by psychologist from a psychological standpoint. It has been established to
have a negative impact on the psychological development of individuals and generally the
psyche of the prisoners in terms of greater reports, incidents and greater severity of
psychological disorders and specifically disorders related to anxiety and mood related disorders.
From a physiological standpoint, there are greater health issues or physical health related
problems which are reported by prisoners living under conditions of overcrowding. To a certain
extent, the kind of physical disorders which are indicated by these individuals include conditions
like- high blood pressure, heart related problems, ulcers, sugar related problems and all these
problems to an extent are psycho-social in nature. High levels of stress in general have been
associated with these psychosomatic conditions and these quintessential basic psychosomatic
conditions include exactly these set of conditions. Overcrowding then from that perspective
contributes to stress and high levels of stress then becomes an important mediator between
overcrowding and physical problems which are reported by these individuals.

40
Greater amount of externalization is also which is seen in individuals living in conditions of high
overcrowding. Anxiety and mood related disorders has to do with internalization and greater
amount of externalization is manifested in greater behavioral problems- higher levels of
expressed aggression and violence in individuals, greater disruptive behavior, violation of rules.
So from all the perspectives- overcrowding has been established to have a negative impact on the
prisoner or any individual even outside the prison. For instance- psychosomatic problems are
higher in individual who are staying in lower socio- economic neighborhoods because these
neighborhoods are more crowded.
There are 2 important aspects of crowding that are under study-
1. SENSE OF PHYSICAL CROWDING- Physical crowding is an objective phenomenon
and simply has to do with actual distance and space between 2 individuals. It is also
reflective of the population density of a particular place. So, greater is the population
density greater will be the level of crowding and that can be measured in a very objective
way. Crowding has to do with- the average distance separating 2 individuals within a
particular space.
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL CROWDING- It is to do with psychological space or a sense of
personal space that an individual might have and it is a subjective phenomenon.
Irrespective of the objective population density, the psychological space- there is a
subjective phenomenon and psychological crowding then is a subjective discomfort
which an individual feels as the number of individuals in ones surroundings increase.
Psychological crowding is subjective and differs from person to person. Some people
might have a high tolerance for crowding wherein some people might feel active
discomfort when the space is too crowded.
A lot of studies point out that it is not necessarily the physical crowding which is of importance
esp. when we study psychological impact of crowding but it is the psychological crowding which
has a determining role wherein even if there are exactly the same number of individuals within a
particular area, if a sense of psychological crowding is decreased then the negative psychological
impact is likely to decrease or go down. So, what is more important is to control the
psychological crowding and not physical crowding per se. This would be done by- say, if the
number of people in one cell is too many then even if it is necessary to have so many people in
one cell of a prison then give them a sense of personal space. This can be done by ensuring some
amount of privacy or blocking direct visual contact between different prisoners. Privacy shall be
ensured.
Psychological crowding is an individual phenomenon and there will always be individual
differences but if one has to pinpoint certain very basic variables which have an impact on the
individual’s adjustment to crowded situations, important variable being the socio-economic
status of the individual. Studies tell that individuals who belong to lower socio-economic status
can easily adapt to more crowded situations and has to do with the fact that because of their poor
socio-economic background they are used to more crowded situations (physical as well as
psychological) and therefore can adapt more easily to crowded prisons. Another variable being-
education level of the individual. Roughly studies tell that specifically as far as adaptability to

41
crowding is concerned- higher the education level lower is the level of an individual to adapt to
crowding per se. But if the general adjustment of the individuals who are highly educated is
concerned then studies tell that this inability to adapt to overcrowding does not necessarily
replicate to the inability to adjust to the prison setting in general because individuals who are
more educated usually find more creative ways and different aspects of the prison and use them
to adjust to the prison situation in general. The general adjustment skills of individuals who are
highly educated sort of mitigate or negate the negative impact or their inability to adapt to the
crowding in the prison situation.
The third important aspect here is ones prior experience or exposure to the prison system in
general. Persistent criminals, who are imprisoned over and over again find it difficult to adjust to
overcrowding and the finding is very contrary to what one would expect. One would expect that
because an individual is exposed to a prison system therefore would be able to adjust to the
conditions including overcrowding within the prison easily. But usually psychological studies
tell that it is not the case and in fact the persons who are persistent criminals and exposed to the
justice system again and again find it difficult to adjust and adapt to overcrowding and that
adjustment is not limited to overcrowding, it is to do with adjustment and adaptation in general.
Therefore their prior experience with the prison system play an important role and what is
important is that inherently they are unable to adapt and adjust to life conditions in general and
that also is replicated in their adjustment to overcrowded prison situations.
So, usually a lot of studies majorly talk about these 3 variables as offering some amount of
consistency with respect to one’s ability to adjust and the impact on psyche and physical health
of an individual.

 RHODES V CHAPMAN (1981)

The argument that was raised in this case was that overcrowding in itself was cruel and unusual
punishment. Therefore, overcrowding as a phenomenon in itself should be declared illegal by
law. The court here did not recognize the negative impact that overcrowding has on the psyche
of an individual. The court held that such an argument can only be considered in a contextual
way, in the context of several other factors and a totality of circumstances approach needs to be
taken in this case- where overcrowding cannot be evaluated in isolation but if we talk about
overcrowding within a prison setup then what is important is to consider the general context and
the general environmental conditions which are prevalent in the prison and these environmental
conditions would then include- whether basic hygiene is maintained or not, whether all the
amenities are provided or not, enough opportunities for extra-curricular activities are provided or
not. So, several other factors which contribute to the lifestyle of an individual should then be
considered and taken into account while evaluating whether overcrowding should be declared as
being a cruel punishment in itself and therefore in this case, the argument was rightoutly rejected
barring one dissenting opinion which referred to literature and which highlighted the details of
the aversive impact or negative impact which overcrowding can have on the psychological and
physical health of an individual. Barring this one reference to literature and what psychology has
to say about the impact of overcrowding on the health of an individual, there was not much
reference to studies that was taken up in this case. And a totality of circumstances approach was

42
taken rather than overcrowding being evaluated in and of itself. So even though psychological
studies highlight the aversive impact which overcrowding in itself can have on the psychological
and physical health of an individual, legally so far it has not been recognized.
3. IMPACT OF ISOLATION
From the perspective of psychology, isolation essentially talks about what a deprivation either
sensory (this deprivation has to with a cut-off of sensory stimuli), social (individual not allowed
to socially engage, not allowed to interact) or psychological stimuli and the deprivation of
necessities (the basic necessities and basic aspects from a survival perspective are not being
catered to- food, water to drink, clothing, clean hygienic environment.) does to an individual at a
physical or a psychological level. Most psychological studies have actually focused on social and
sensory stimuli. A deprivation of necessities is not so much at the center of the debate because
most courts in the West have reiterated the importance of ensuring the basic necessities to an
individual. But what psychologically is studied is the impact of social and sensory deprivation on
the psyche of an individual.
Isolation in a legal set up usually happens under 3 broad categories-
1. ADMINISTRATIVE SEGREGATION
It is to do with isolating an individual or locking up prisoners in general within their cells.
Usually administrative segregation is short-lived. So, as far as its long term impact on the psyche
of the individual is concerned there is not much controversy over that. Locking up individuals in
their own cells could be because of multiple reasons- shortage of staff, investigation happening
in the prison.
2. DISCIPLINARY SEGREGATION
This happens when an individual has broken the rules of conduct of the prison or if an individual
has displayed violent behavior or is considered as a threat to people in general. It is a kind of
punitive segregation and a kind of punishment given because the individual has engaged in
violence against others or has broken some rules.
3. PROTECTIVE SEGREGATION
Isolation because of protective custody. Protective custody is essentially given to an individual in
cases where there is some threat which is perceived against the individual concerned. So, if other
prisoners are seen as a potential threat against the individual concerned then to ensure the
protection of the individual he is sent into protective custody. Also in case where the individual
is considered a threat against himself or herself. The cases where there is a high potential for
suicide, the individual is typically kept in an isolated setting and also kept under observation.
From a psychological standpoint, administrative segregation is not that important but disciplinary
segregation or punitive segregation and protective custody have been the focus of study under
most psychological studies.

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The understanding that if an individual is sent to an isolated set up is likely to lead to a positive
behavioral change in an individual, is a notion which is extremely prevalent in the guards or the
officials of the prison and is an incorrect notion. A lot of studies tell that guards and the officials
of the prison tend to believe that if an individual is sent to an isolated setting by virtue of the
amount of control that is practiced on the individual while in an isolated setting that in itself is
likely to lead to a positive behavioral change in an individual even if that is seen as a
punishment. So, that is likely to have a deterrent effect on the level of violence which is depicted
by an individual in the prison because people would avoid going to an isolated setting because it
is seen as a punishment by these individuals.
But research tells that that is not necessarily true. A set of studies tell that a lot of individuals
actually favor or they like going to these isolated settings in order to avoid the overcrowding
which is so rampant within the prisons. And these individuals deliberately engage in violent
behavior when they know that perhaps an isolated segregation would be punitive step taken
against them and that becomes more desirable in light of the overcrowding which is prevalent in
prisons. So the fundamental idea which the notion of disciplinary segregation function is actually
a misnomer.
In fact studies tell that isolating an individual for long periods of time can actually have a more
negative and detrimental effect as far as the psyche of an individual is concerned and specifically
as far as the aggression and violence level in an individual is concerned. So when an individual is
deprived of social stimulus (social deprivation has been implied as far as the aggression of an
individual is concerned) then these individuals are more likely to engage in anti-social behavior
(higher levels of aggression and violence) against people once they are allowed to mingle with
people in general and this specifically becomes a problem when these people are released
directly into society. So instead of having a positive impact, this social deprivation is likely to
have a negative impact as far as the social behavior of the person is concerned.
The second aspect is to do with protective custody. From a psychological standpoint, it has been
extreme point of controversy esp. when it comes to protective custody which is offered to
mentally ill prisoners. Several instances have been documented in literature wherein because an
individual was mentally ill, the individual was sent to protective custody because he was seen as
more disruptive by other prisoners in general. A commonly witnessed misnomer in guards and
officials in prison officials in general is that mental health can be addressed by isolating an
individual. This idea is an archaic idea and grounded in history and emanates from the idea from
where there used to be prisons for mentally ill individuals. If history of mental health is traced
back- initially mental health was addressed by simply sending an individual to a prison or a jail
where the individual would be isolated and would probably be there for the rest of his life
because there was no actual improvement in the condition of the individual but the notion
prevailed that the only way to tackle mental health issues is to send an individual to an isolated
facility. This misnomer in guards and officials is widely prevalent and is further reinforced by
the lack of psychological services which are available to prisons in general. Again studies tell
that esp. for mentally ill individuals, sending them into isolated facilities can further deteriorate
their symptoms and mental health especially if no treatment is offered to these individuals.

44
  MADRID V GOMEZ (1995) ‘Pelican Bay Prison Case’
In the US there was a newly created facility which was the pelican bay prison facility and this
facility was a very isolated one and meant for extremely violent individuals. One of the
individuals who was diagnosed as suffering from several mental health conditions, this
individual was sent into an isolated facility and he eventually over a period of time (this was long
term isolation, long term sensory and social isolation deprivation) reported that the mental health
actually worsened resulting in extreme paranoia, greater levels of fear, hallucinations and
multiple levels of fear.
The impact of prolonged sensory deprivation even in an individual who is absolutely normally
functional, it is likely to result in hallucinations in these individuals and this has to with the basic
human need for sensation. In these facilities- Walls painted in a unicolor, bedsheets and
equipment in a single color, a bright light which is always on or if no window then absolutely
dark, no sound, a complete lack of visual and auditory stimuli. As a result of such kind of
sensory deprivations, humans have a need for visual and auditory variation, even when there is
complete silence there are still certain environmental sound which an individual might not be
aware of but an individual is still exposed to. When this kind of sensory deprivation takes place,
when externally the environment does not offer any stimulus to the individual, the human psyche
itself starts playing games with the individual and thus starts creating the stimuli for himself.
Auditory and visual hallucinations have been associated with sensory deprivations and is a very
common phenomenon. And these hallucinations resulted in extreme fears in the individual where
he was hearing and seeing things and probably knew that it was not real but still experienced it
and thus multiple fears.
In this case, the person was already mentally ill but sensory deprivation can have adverse impact
on the psyche of the individual even when the person is not mentally ill. The courts to an extent
did recognize that isolation is extremely a harsh punishment and certain guidelines shall be in
place while evaluating whether an individual should be sent to isolation or what kind of isolation
shall be ensured for this kind of individual. Though the recognition to guidelines was given in
this case but the guidelines came in later cases.
Most courts recognized the minimum quality of care which should be guaranteed to all prisoners.
This minimum quality of care included- basics which every individual has a right to- food, water,
fresh air, ventilation, an opportunity to exercise and basic hygienic conditions. These should also
be ascertained in cases of isolation which is why the maximum period for which isolation is
allowed is 23 hours of a day and 24 hours isolation is non-existent. Basic amenities and hygiene
are sufficient for short-term isolation. For long-term isolation then treatment also becomes a part
of the minimum quality of care. Working on the pretext that there is some major cause of
concern or some problem with the person concerned if the person is being kept under long term
isolation and therefore cannot be kept under long-term isolation if not offered some kind of
psychological treatment.
When it comes to disciplinary or punitive segregation then courts have recognized that in cases
of disciplinary segregation, an individual has the right to be heard.

45
  WOLF V MCDONALD
The court presented certain guidelines which should be undertaken before sending an individual
to punitive segregation and these important guidelines or aspects which should be catered to
revolve around- ensuring the right to be heard to this individual concerned. First aspect included-
right to a written statement or a right to a written notice meaning that if some kind of a
proceeding is taking place against an individual then this person should be given a written notice
with respect to this proceeding and the charges against this person.
2nd aspect-When given a notice he also has the right to know the charges against him and the
evidence which the prison officials have against the individual.
The third aspect- hearing by an unbiased, impartial body. This body does not necessarily have to
be a legal body or a court but could simply be panel of officials of the prison who do not have a
bias against the individual.
4th aspect-And the individual also has the right to defend oneself. This right is not the same as the
right to have an attorney. It is not a legal proceeding and just an internal proceeding which is
happening within the court and the individual can represent oneself and ask other people to
present the evidence.
Safeguards given because the court recognized that punitive segregation can be detrimental to
the psyche of an individual.

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01/11/2019

UNIT-V
VICTIMOLOGY
What aversive impact can any negative life circumstance have on any individual and from that
perspective then victimology from a psychological perspective considers that if a crime has taken
place, it has taken place against an individual and that essentially is then becomes untoward
negative aversive enviornmental stimulus. So, what impact does this negative stimulus has on the
victim? From a psychological perspective and undertanding of the possible negative impact
which the enviornmental stimulus of the crime in this case can have on the victim is what
psychology studies as far as victimology perspective is concerned.
2 important parts under Victimology-
First part would look at children as victims. Crime against children or in most cases domestic
violence, sexual or physical violence or abuse against children and what impact does that have
on children
Second part- concept of domestic violence and specifically intimate partner violence. Battered
woman syndrome.

CHILD ABUSE
Predominantly there are 4 types of child abuse or forms that child abuse can take.
1. PHYSICAL ABUSE
The most common one and when we mention it there is a picture formed of the child being
thrashed by the parent or too much physical violence and the child is physically punished for
every little mistake that the child makes at home. So whenever physical violence is there it is
constituted as physical abuse.
2. MENTAL ABUSE/ EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Not only physically violent behavior but also anything that has an extreme negative impact on
the emotions or the psyche of the child even though there is no physical element to it and in most
cases it pre-supposes a verbal element. For instance- excessive criticism of the child which is in
the long run likely to have a negative impact on the self-esteem of the child. Screaming and
shouting which happens constantly on the child- incessant scolding of the child or just about
anything which is likely to have a negative impact on the child would then be classified under
mental abuse.
3. SEXUAL ABUSE
Rape, incest, grouping, inappropriate exposure, toughing the child inappropriately- all of this
would be classified under sexual abuse.
 4. NEGLECT
This abuse usually as far as name and understanding of child abuse goes is not even
considered as a kind of child abuse but this fourth kind of abuse is neglect. Neglect
implies any kind of abuse which- a basic inability or an incapability in the parent to cater
to the basic needs of the child would then constitute under neglect. Inability that has an
external source, so external source would be- an inability arising from like financial
constraints. So, the parents wants to cater to the basic needs of the child. But one needs to
differentiate between the intention of the parent to cater to the needs of the child and then
external inability wherein the parents want to cater to the needs of the child but for
instance there are financial constraints, the parent becomes inacapable here. That then
would not typically constitute neglect.
So, differentiate between an inability to cater the needs of the child with a source which
is external in nature vs. a source which is internal in nature. Internal source- wherein the
parent simply is not interested or does not even make an attempt to cater to the basic
needs. In a lot of such cases, the parent does not even understand that the child needs to
be taken care of. So, these are parents who give birth to the child and feel that the child
has now been given birth to and will now be able to take care of himself and will be able
to manage on its own. This basic neglect where the parent has this basic inability to even
understand that the child needs to be taken care of and therefore the parent does not make
an attempt to take care of the child vs. where the parent has an intention to take care of
the child but because of external constraints like financial constraints is incapable of
taking care of the child.
Now, child abuse is a basic element of usually violent families. So, mostly when there are cases
of child abuse, violence is something which is prevalent in family at large. These families in
general are dysfunctional rather than abuse being limited to or specific to the child concerned.
What essentially constitutes violent families? There is an entire plethora of reasons or possible
causes of violent families ranging from- personality variables- one of the parent having
aggression problem or a deviant personality related problem, then that is likely to lead to some
form of violence in the family. Then can be enviornmental constraints- a parent who is not able
to earn enough money to cater to the needs of the family, that results in higher levels of
frustration in the parent which in turn results in irritable behavior or irritable familial
relationships. Then the focus of the problem here is not the parent but the enviornmnetal
constraints. It could also be in case of child abuse- the characteristics of the child concerned
and this kind of an interaction is usually an interaction which is considered and frequently
referred to as ‘coercive interactive relationship’ between the parent and the child. Now the term
itself focuses on the bi-directional relationship. It talks about a corecive relationship but then it is
also talking about interactive relationship meaning that it is not just the parent that is coercive
towards the child but it is also the child which is coercive towards the parent. A lot of times
certain characteristics or features of the children might be eliciting certain irritable or aversive
behaviors from the parent. Considering a child who is temperamentally a difficult child, who has
this tendency to say no to just about anything and acts stubborn when asked to do anything. That
child is likely to produce a greater amount of frustration in the parent. Even a patient parent is
likely to lose his patience and that is likely to result in an aversive negative emotionally laden
kind of a response from the parent. The focus here then is not the parent and the child but the
interaction between the parent and the child.
So, we talk about bi-directional relationship. So when we say that the parent engages in child
abuse , we essentially focus on a uni-directional relationship. But the coercive interactive models
essentially talk about an interaction between the parent and the child and are focusing on the
child being a difficult child. It is possible that the child is temperamentally difficult and that is
constantly eliciting a negative response from the parent and theerfore becomes a bi-directional
relationship as far as the abusive relationship between the parent and the child is considered.So
abuse here becomes not an object but a process in nature and that is what the coercive interactive
model is focusing at. The focus of the abuse lies within a process and not an object per se.
What results in abusive families or the causes of violent families. The causes can be multitude
but over a period of time a couple of constant factors which almost always have been associated
with deviant dysfunctional families have been delineated. The sole most important indicator of
violent family is- Social Isolation. Invariably, whenever there is violence prevalent within the
family, most of these families invariably are socially isolated families which means that
individuals or typically elders in the family do not interact with people outside of the family. The
socio-cultural variables are an important set of variables determining the behavior of an
individual. So here considering the family as an individual, the family having a personality of its
own and now when the family is cutting off the social variables which are an important
determinants of the behavior of the family, which can also offer important support system to the
family- external social relatioships, friends that an individual has outside of the family can be
important social support for individuals. And when these social support groups are missing, also
outlets for pented up energy- so something that happens at home which results in a lot of
negative emotions in an individual, the individual goes out and mixes with other people and that
results in a release of the pented up emotions. So in the absence of these external vents to pented
up emotions, all of these emotions tend to clutter within the family. Social support systems are
also missing for members of this family and therefore what essentially reults in is an absolutely
cluttered misunderstood complex patterns of communication within the family itself resulting in
deviant behavior in most of the individuals involved in the family. So, social isolation over a
period of time has been delineated as one of the most important variable which has been
associated with families which are dysfunctional in nature. Having said that, social isolation is
also more prevalent in families which belong to a lower socio-economic status and that might
sound contrary to common understanding because people who belong to a lower socio-economic
status tend to live in a more close knit and more crowded communities and theerfore common
sense tells that they are more inter-linked with each other but studies tell that interlinking in this
case that physical interlinking is not the sole determinant. What is important is emotional
interlinking. Thus in such places there is lower emotional interlinking leading to psychological
and emotional isolation resulting in greater levels of violence. Which is why domestic violence is
more prevalent in lower socio-economic status families.
After social isolation and socio-economic status, gender is also an important determinant.
Studies tell that there is a clear cut gender difference in terms of male abusers vs. female abusers.
What results in a abusive personality specifically, the specific factors might vary but broadly
research tells that one of the most important factors which contributes to abusive behavior in
men is mysoginstic attitudes and it is the chief most important factor which results in all kinds of
violence including physical, sexual and verbal violence. Men believe that in the society men
have an upper hand and the women are the second sex and have a lower status in society and
therefore men can assert themselves on the women by depicting abusive behavior. So,
mysoginistic attitudes is one of the chief most important determinant of aggressive behavior in
male abusers and abusive relationships is even more common when the male member of the
family becomes the primary caretaker of the family. Again the phenonmenon which is
commonly seen in the lower socio-economic status where the women of the family actually go
out and work where they would do all the labor work and becoming the bread earner of the
family and the male member essentially does not hold the position of the bread earner of the
family and becomes the primary care giver of the children. Again because of the prevalent
mysoginistic attitudes coupled with the role reversal that results in greater amount of frustration
in men and results in greater amounts of external aggression which takes the form of abuse be it
the child abuse or abuse of the wives. Men usually are more impulsive in nature so violence in
men who abuse usually takes the form of a more impulsive violence in nature. These men also
depict lower levels of maturity and greater levels of frustration. So basic personality traits which
have consistently been associated with male abusers are greater levels of immaturity, frustration
and extreme impulsive behavior.
By contrast women who engage in abusive behavior are mostly women who themselves are
dominated and aggression in these women is usually the displaced aggression. In most cases,
women tend to abuse their children and abusive behavior in these women then is the form of
displaced aggression and these women essentially are dominated. Most of these women
themselves are suffering from mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety and
aggression or abuse by women is usually a reaction to some precipitating event. A typical
example- a woman was abused by the husband, comes back to another room and there is this
child who is crying and this aggression which actually is a result of the abuse by the husband
now redirected to the child because the child is crying and it becomes a precipitating event
resulting in some amount of frustration in woman and thus an abusive behavior. Female abusers
are usually the ones who themselves are dominated or depict some kind of mental health
disorder. Other ones who are abused themselves and usually aggression in women is a key
example of misplaced aggression or redirected aggression wherein aggression which is
essentially directed or targetted at the abuser and is now redirected at the child concerned
resulting in child abuse.
The kind of factors which result in abusive families are unique to the families themselves and
therefore from a psychological clinical perspective, while approaching these families a very
nuanced understanding of a family dynamics needs to be developed before actually getting into
therapy of these families.
BASIC SYNDROMES ASSOCIATED WITH CHILD ABUSE
By syndrome it means certain characteristic patterns which have been delineated and which have
been classified under the particular categories which are reflective of children being abused in a
certain way. So the abuse takes certain pattern, a particular manner of abuse and certain patterns
are seen in the children who are abused. Most commonly visible and predominantly seen
syndromes in child victims of abuse-
1. MANCHAUSAN SYNDROME BY PROXY
In this syndrome, the child essentially is repeatedly, chronically over a prolonged period of time
brought to the attention of medical practioners even when the child does not really have any real
underlying physical concerns. In most of these cases, the symptoms of the child they are entirely
falsified by the parent or they might actually also be created by the parent. So a lot of medical
tests done by the child, the parent ensures that the test will show ceratin deviances by
manipulating the sample which the parents give. For instance- in a stool test the parent might add
blood so that the test reads the blood and shows that the child is actually suffering from some
medical condition which the child is actually not suffering from. This is an example of how the
parents manipulate tests. Mostly these children are young children so a lot of patterns are directly
falsified by the parents. A lot of symptoms reported by the parents which actually do not exist
but the parent would say that they exist.
In the movie- ‘The Act’ ( a depiction of manchausan syndrome)- The parent goes to the doctor
and takes the child to the doctor over and over again and tells tales of weird symptoms that the
child has. So the headaches, inability to move. In fact the child here is shown as a paralyzed
child when there is actually no paralysis that the child has and this is actually a girls as big as 18-
19 years old who uses the wheelchair who is not paralyzed but for a very long time at least
during her childhood believed that she had paralysis and she would use the wheelchair. When
shew grew up she realized that there is no paralysis and starts moving around but only at night.
During the day when the mother takes her out, everyone believes that she is suffering from
paralysis. Considering that how there are very systematic belief systems which are developed by
the mother since the child was very small and has been told that she has paralysis which is true
for a lot of symptoms. And therefore she comes to believe that she actually has paralysis and
continues to use the wheelchair.
Similarly, a lot of symptoms are induced by the parent by suggesting those to the child over a
period of time where he actually comes to believe that he has those symptoms. And at the same
time while giving the details of the symptom to the doctor, the mother or the parent in this case
would also give symptoms like the child gets headaches or the child gets seisure attacks which
the child actually does not get.
There is no single reason for which that has been delineated for such behavior patterns. But
research tells that usually in most cases these are mothers who engage in such behavior- the
female parent who has been abused as a parent. It is a characteristic pattren of a parent who
engages in such behavior. Usually in this case there is either a father who is emotionally very
distant or physically missing- a non- exisiting father. In the movie, the father and the mother
were separated and it was only the mother and the child that were staying together. A parent who
has been abused in some way or the other herself during childhood. Abuse here does not
esssentially imply physical abuse, it could also be mental abuse or neglect.
Also, usually the kind of behavior patterns which the parent depicts with the child are a
reflection of the needs of the parent himself /herself, usually a mother. In most cases, the most
general need here is a need for attention. So, the mother here gets a lot of sympathy from people
around, the mother sort of portrays as if she is bearing the burden of the child in a very spirited
or a positive way. So, also gets a lot of appreciation and a lot of support from the people. In the
movie mentioned above- the mother got financial funds. So a lot of attention, support, positive
appraisal which the mother might be getting results in perpetuating this kind of a behavior.
Usually a personality profile of the parent shows that the parent themselves are extremely
depressed and hollow. So, a lot of parents report a lack of goal in life as the child being a single
child and the parents report the child being the soole goal in life and therefore the mother
investing all she has on the child without having anything of her own. And a lot of parents report
as feeling hollow or envy or meaningless in life and therefore over focus on the child. This is the
typical behavior pattern of the parent in this case. Interestingly, the parent comes across as avery
caring parent. Interviews of parents who have engaged in such behaviors when neighbours were
interviewed these neighbors saw this parent as a responsible, caring parent and a parent which lot
of other parents looked up to and idealized and this parent is appraised positively by other
parents and comes across as a caring one when actually in reality the parent was serving his or
her own needs.
Manchausan syndrome by proxy was recognized somewhere in the 1970s. Before that, there was
a recognition of simply the manchausan syndrome and manchausan syndrome then is an adult
phenomenon. So when an adult constatntly engages the medical facilitie, constatntly presents
fake symptoms- cutting oneself, creating bruises on oneself and saying that they appeared
naturally or faking one’s own test in order to generate some symptoms. When the adult does that
on himself then that becomes an example of the manchausan syndrome and only in the 1970s
was there evidence and a lot of cases started coming up where the parents were using the child to
get a lot of attention. Then the term- manchausan syndrome by Proxy came into being. ‘by
proxy’ implied that the parent is getting attention through the child or via the child. In most
cases, for a very long period of time a lot of parents were actually able to sustain this kind of an
act. In the movie- the child was about 22-23 years old and it was only after a couple of decades
of such show that she ends up murdering or killing the mother and then the child was prosecuted
as a result and convicted and punished by law.
This raises questions from a legal perspective essentially because the law does not recognize
such kind of prolonged abuse as a kind of abuse. So when a mother is creating or faking
symptoms in, say a child who is 20 years old that child also becomes party to that faking and
therefore it is essentially not seen as a defence in any court of law. But the fact is that this is a
kind of syndrome, a prolonged kind of an abuse which can lead to detrimental effects on the
child. To begin with, a very low level of sel-autonomy. So, the mother is incharge of the child,
she is taking decisions for the child and therefore the child has very low levels of self-autonomy
and that in itself should be a defence in a court of law from a psychological standpoint. In the
psychological circle there is a strong case to legally recognize manchausan syndrome by proxy
and to ensure that such kind of behavior patterns are also recognized in a court of law and taken
up as a legal defence. Till now, they are not taken up as a legal defence. Usually suspicians in
cases of manchausan syndrome are raised, it is usually the medical practioners who highlight
discrepancies in the symptoms reported by the mother. A typical feature is the refusla of the
mother to leave the side of the child when the child is giving the report of symptoms or even
undergoing tests. The mother insists being around the child in order to ensure that the mother is
successful in managing the fake symptoms of the child and an overinvolved mother is an
important element that starts to raise suspician.
The second important factor is the inconsistency in the symptoms themselves. So, a very large
variety of inconsistent symptoms which do not follow any pattern are presented by the mother.
These symptoms also do not let themselves easily into treatment. So, even when the doctor offers
treatment the symptoms continue to persist because the mother continues to report these
symptoms. And that becomes a ground to raise suspician with respect to something being long as
far as reporting of symptoms is concerned. The symptoms tend to disappear when the parent is
not by the side of the child.
These are some basic patterns which can be a cause of concern which in most cases have been a
basis of being able to locate cases of manchausan syndrome. This key example of prolonged
abuse, the parents have been able to sustain such kind of faking acts for prolonged periods of
time and thus becomes a problem in locating such cases of child abuse.
02/11/2019
2. SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME
The term which is used now frequently is- Abusive Head Trauma. The medival diagnosis now
given is abusive head trauma. In psychological circles, the term shaken baby syndrome is still
continued to be used. The name suugests- injuries and specifically brain damage which is caused
in babies and infants because of shaking the baby out of frustration (caretaker or parent does
that). And ends up shaking the baby so hard that it causes brain damage in the child. Usually the
most common kind of brain damage or symptoms which are seen is subdural hemorrhage and
retinal hemorrhage, brain swelling is also common. Subdural hemorrhage is essentially when
the brain hemorrhage is and there is blood which is collected within the outer layers of the brain.
Retinal hemorrhage is when the retina of the eye gets damaged and there is redness and blood
collection in the eye and the eye of the baby becomes red. These are the 2 most common
symptoms of brain damage in shaken baby syndrome along with the swelling of brain in a lot of
cases. If there is no direct hemorrhaging then the brain swells because of fluid and blood that
might get collected in the brain tissue itself.
Usually the manifested problems with which the parents approach hospitals in such cases when
the baby is shaken too hard. These are problems with excessive vomiting of the baby, lack of
consciousness or altered consciousness- the baby starts talking gibberish that doesn’t make
sense, excessive crying in the baby. Basically, excessive discomfort in the baby even when the
hemorrhage is not very evident then those are the initial symptoms. A lot of babies die when
such intense hemorrhage takes place. When the baby does not die then there are usually severe
consequences associated with brain damage. Consequences like- intellectual disability, mental
retardation which his biogenic in nature or sensory problems like vision- blindness or deafness.
In most cases babies die (because babies concerned here are very small- a few months old or 1
year old) but if the baby does not die then there are extreme long term biological consequences.
In almost all cases there is a precipitating event- so extreme anger or aggression is triggered in
the parent by the baby who is incessantly crying and is difficult to calm, the baby who is
demanding food, baby who needs to be cleaned up and the parent is burdened with other
responsibilities and the parent ends up channeling the aggression or frustration on the baby.
In the legal circles, the shaken baby syndrome has also found recognition but it is also a highly
debated issue.

 CAVAZOS V SMITH (2011)

This case debated the validity and the reliability of the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome at
length. Here a grandmother was convicted of assault of the child resulting in death, the child was
a 7 year old infant. The first case in the series of cases was documented in 1996 wherein this
grandmother was essentially charged with killing the child and the child was diagnosed with
suffering from shaken baby syndrome. Now the initial defence that was put up in the case was
that, initially the case was not even documented because the child was diagnosed with what was
frequently known as ‘the sudden infant death syndrome’ (SIDS).
Grandmother’s version- She had found the child in bed and the child was dead and the child had
died while he was sleeping and just to make sure that the child was sleeping she gave him a little
jolt and that was the maximum amount of shaking that she had done with the child. She refused
that there was any intense shaking that was done there. Which is why this case was not initially
found because it was considered a case of SIDS. SIDS is a phenomenon which is very common
in very young infants who are a few weeks to few months old. SIDS- where the infant is found
dead by the parents in the bed usually sleeping in a perfectly normal way. At max there is some
fluid which is seen around the nose or the mouth of the infant or some discoloration of the face
and that is about it. Till date there is no obvious cause which is been associated with sudden
infant death syndrome. A lot of autopsies have come up with different reasons for why the infant
died but again it is not a case of parental neglect or abuse, the child just dies in sleep and appears
to be sleeping absolutely normally. So in the case where it was initially considered that of SIDS
but the autopsy showed that it appeared to be more like the case of shaken baby syndrome
wherein the autopsy showed severe brain damage in the child. That is when the case was filed
against the women, along with the initial diagnosis of the initial doctor who inspected the child
and diagnosed the child. With his testimony and 2 other testimonies were taken by 2 different
experts who independently assessed and analysed the case and all of their testimonies pointed
towards shaken baby syndrome and therefore she was convicted of abuse resulting in the death
of the child.
What followed was a series of appeals wherein the defendant appealed to various courts stating
that it was not the case of shaken baby syndrome and was a case of SIDS. But those appeals were
rejected. Eventually, her appeal was accepted on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to
support that it was the case of shaken baby syndrome. But then that was also reversed by the
Supreme Court of California wherein the SC held that the lower court had been very
unreasonable in upholding the defendant’s appeal and since 3 expert testimonies were already
admitted in the court of law, theer was not any need for any further evidence and that was
sufficient evidence. Finally she was charged with the abuse resulting in the death of the child.
But in the context of all of these appeals, there was a lot of research and a lot was wriiten in the
academic circles about the shaken baby syndrome specifically in the legal context. Even in the
SC’s judgment which sort of overturned the decisiono of the appellate court, there were certain
dissenting voices and very specific concerns that were voiced against the decision of the court
and very specific points that challanged the validity and reliability of diagnosis of the shaken
baby syndrome. These dissenting judgments cited research articles and applications and pointed
out specific concerns, the first being- that there is insufficient evidence even in the scientific
field with respect to the diagnosis, causes and the treatment of shaken baby syndrome. In that
context, even the diagnosis of the shaken baby syndrome is likely to be unreliable and invalid
and therefore it cannot be used as an evidence in a court of law. The second concern was with
respect to the symptoms of the shaken baby syndrome wherein the court noted that the most
commonly accepted symptom of shaken baby syndrome including subdural and retinal
hemorrhage, these symptoms as necessarily reflecting the presence of abuse of shaken baby
syndrome is an unsustainable argument because these symptoms can also result from some other
kind of accident and therefore they do not necessarily imply that the baby was shaken out of
rage. So, again the court dismissed the idea that certain symptoms present in the baby necessarily
implied the existence of shaken baby syndrome. The third argument by the dissenting judgment
that was raised was questioning the extent to which shaking a baby can fataly injure the baby. So
they held that by citing research articles that shaking the baby in itself cannot cause sufficient
damage to the brain of the baby resulting in the death of the child. Therefore the entire
phenomenon of shaken baby syndrome is under question.
Again what followed was a lot of criticism and analysis if the dissenting opinion voiced by the
court and a lot of psychologist and writers pointed out to the fact that the articles and the
researches which the judges had referred to in the court of law were themselves
methodologically flawed and unscientific in nature. So then the scientific validity of the
researches which dismissed the shaken baby syndrome was in itself called into question. There is
recognition in the legal circles with respect to the existence of the phenomenon but it is quite a
controversial concept and a lot of research has been done which gives evidence both in support
of and against the shaken baby syndrome.
The main debate here and in the legal circles is really about to what extent does if there is a child
with certain symptoms and there is no supporting evidence, so in the absence of any other
evidence is it reasonable to conclude with certainty that those symptoms of the child definitely
imply abuse. That is what the debate is around. The research that we have today- there is no real
single answer that we have to that kind of question.
Another complexity with the issue is that if we look at the trends in research, the idea was first
introduced in the 1970s but over the past 30-40 years, specifically what the research documents
with respect to the shaken baby syndrome has evolved over a period of time.
The 1977 case of Suzanne Johnson which was reopened in 2012 and Suzanne used to run a
creche and she was convicted of abusing a child who was few weeks old and shaking the child
and the child ended up dying. She was sentenced to 25 years of prison. In 2012 that idea was
challanged in the light of current literature and it was also upheld that challenge to initial
conviction where it was held that research has evolved in today from judging to what we know
today with respect to shaken baby syndrome she cannot be held guilty anymore in the light of
new research. In the debate the advocates argued that ‘criminal convictions are forever but
science moves on’. So she is a convicted criminal and that is the irony of using new methods and
developing methods science grows evolves and moves on but criminal convictions are forever.
She already served 25 years already. So it is a controversial idea.
SIDS in itself is not a form of abuse. SIDS is one of the most common causes of death of
children who are very young infants. It does not reflect any kind of neglect or abuse by their
parents but a lot of babies who actually die because of SIDS result in their parents being
convicted of systematically killing their children- slow poisoning gradually leading to the death
of children.

 R VS. SALLY CLARKE (2003)

She was convicted of the murder of her 2 sons and both of them had died because of SIDS. So
when the first son died it was declared a case of SIDS when 2 years later her second son died, the
prosecutors came up with a lot of statistical evidence which stated that it is statistically highly
impropable that 2 children of the same woman end up dead because of SIDS. Then those
statistics and researches were quoted which essentially resulted in the conviction of assault
resulting in murder and Sally Clarke in turn was sentenced.
Much later the verdict was appealed against and theer was evidence which stated that the
statistics which were quoted in the initial case were misquoted and it is impropable but possible
that 2 kids from the same mother suffered from SIDS and therefore the verdict was overturned in
the light of research.
3. SEXUAL ABUSE AND THE IMPACT THAT SEXUAL ABUSE CAN HAVE ON
CHILDREN
Child sexual abuse is known to have both long-term and short-term negative consequences for
the child. As far as the long-term consequences are concerned, it varies completely from person
to person. An entire range of personality deviances have been observed in these individuals and
that it is very individual phenomenon of how a chid with trauma like sexual abuse manifests as
an adult varies completely from person to person. So it might range from mood related disorders
to depression to anxiety to phobias (the case of person phobic of fans- a case of sexual abuse
resulting in phobia of fans), sleep related disorder are also very common in child sexual abuse. If
not completely full-blown disorders then it also definitely results in some personality related
deviances like- extremely low self-esteem, extreme feelings of inadequacy, feelings of guilt are
extremely common if child abuse occurred when the child was very small and did not make an
attempt to defend oneself or when the abuse happened seemingly without any threat. Eventually
as an adult it a lot of times take the form of guilt wherein the child feels that he is responsible for
it. So, guilt as a form of intra-aggression develops when the child feels that he was responsible
for it and he did not do anything to stop it and therefore extreme feeling of guilt are manifested
in these children. The specific long-term adult symptoms which are seen varies completely from
person to person. In most cases there are these symptoms, there are definitely a few cases where
as an adult no specific extereme symptoms which are of concern are seen. But in most case these
symptoms do exist.
As a child there is a fair amount of variation in the kind of symptoms that a child shows who has
been sexually abused. Immediate symptoms even long-term symptoms are more common when
abuse is taking place by a close relative of the person because that along with sexual abuse also
implies a violation of trust and violation of trust when the child is very small has short-term and
long term consequences in terms of attachment patterns, in terms of relation that the child is
developing and then that gets manifested in almost every interaction that the child has. So, then
violation of trust has significant impact on increasing the intensity of the psychological
consequences that child abuse can have for a child. Short-term consequences can also vary,
specific manifestations can vary depending on the personality of the child, theer are several
attempts which have been made to diagnose certain characteristic patterns of syndromes in these
children.
One such diagnosis which is been most frequently researched is what is known as the ‘child
sexual abuse accomodation syndrome’. Initially it was simply called the child sexual abuse
syndrome but later research sort of modified the name and included the etrm accomodation in it.
Most research has been done by Summit around the 1980s and that is when he introduced the
name. The phenomenon has also been the center of a lot of controversies. Summit highlighted
that usually this kind of syndrome is seen in cases of where trust is violated where the abuse is
routinely taking palce. It is a case of chronic long-term abuse. And somebody who is visiting the
family or is a close relative essentially is involved in the abuse. He says that very young children
that chid does not have the ability to understand that the abuse is sexual in nature. So for the
child it is just an abuse and he is not in a position to understand the sexuality which is involved
or the sexual nature of the abuse. It becomes problematic when this abuse continues over a
longer period of time and when that happens it is accompanied by threats by the offender to the
child in order to ensure that the child does not tell other realtives about what is happening. In
order to ensure secrecy there are certain threats which are given by the offender and it is these
threats which make the entire situation extremely psychologically damaging for the child. The
threats can be for the well-being of the child or for the well-being of the family and then a very
young child then becomes the sole bearer of the responsibility to ensure the security of the entire
family- a child who is too young to do that. It is a parentified behavior of the child which is
actually damaging. For a younf child to take the responsibility of the entire family is
psychologically damaging. A secrecy to be ensured and a sense of helplessness in the child
which the child wants to put a stop to what is happening but the child cannot so anything about
it. That helplessness and the pressure of the situation results in psychological damage in the child
and therefore the child in a way is accomodating what is happening and accomodating these
deviant experiences into one’s lifestyle and that is predominantly psychologiaclly problematic.
Which is why the name was altered and was called child sexual abuse accomodation syndrome.
Summit gives 5 specific experiences which the child who is going through the child sexual abuse
accomodation syndrome. And these 5 specific experiences then result in deviant personality
development of the child.
i. The first experience that the child has is the experience of secrecy and the secrecy is
usually accompanied by certain threats of injury or harm to the child or the family.
ii. The experience of helplessness, wnating to do something about it but not being able
to do anything. Sense of lack of control on one’s own life resulting in feelings of
helplessness in the child.
iii. The third stage is the experience of accomodation itself where the child alters one’s
lifestyle and makes changes in one’s way of behavior in oder to ensure that the secret
is not let out. So the child then behaviorally and psychologically accomodating to
what is happening around oneself
iv. Eventual disclosure of what is happening. This disclosure usually is extemely
delayed, it is very incoherent because the does not have enough capacity to give a
coherent picture or coherent details of what is happening and in that sense this
diclosure a lot of times is very unconvincing. History documents this that a lot of
parents disbelieve their children even when the child explicitly tells his parents that
they have been subjected to sexual abuse.
v. Retracting the experience of the child, esp. when the parents want to preserve the
integrity of the family. It is dimissing or rubbishing of what is happening, putting it
aside and telling the child that what is happening has happened and we need to move
on in order to protect the family. This by far is the most damaging experience that the
young child can face because this would mean that the child has no support system at
all.
These 5 experiences are exteremely damaging for the psyche of the child. The validity of the
child sexual abuse accomodation syndrome has been challanged by a lot of researchers wherein
to begin with the most fundamental argument is that the classification of a syndrome is based on
certain symptoms that the child is showing. What summit has done is that he has left the
symptoms and has not given the details of the symptoms of syndrome but has given the details of
the processes of the experiences which can possibly be psychologically damaging. Therefore, the
symptoms can be many, there could be any symptom at all and those symptom can be a
reflection of not just sexual abuse, they can be a reflection of just about any kind of abuse. It can
also be a symptom of physical abuse or mental or psychological abuse by the parent. It could
also be a symptom of neglect by the parent so not active abuse but neglect. So, research has
challanged the utility of this kind of an approach but theer are also supporters which tell that
such models and such approaches definitely give more structure to the way we approach child
sexual abuse. It delineates the experiences which the child has and that gives enough space for
treatment and intervention even though it does not talk about certain specific symptoms. The fact
remains that any and every research that you look at in the field of child sexual abuse does not
specifically categorise or classify the specific psycgological impact of child sexual abuse. Most
researchers agree that the specific impact it depends on the individual and the symptoms are
extremely varied and broad ranging. We still do not have a narrow range of symptoms which can
result from child sexual abuse but the key is to work on the symptom, work on the condition and
go back and diagnose it if it was case of child sexual abuse.
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INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a kind of family violence. Family violence can take multiple
forms, generally domestic violence is termed as family violence. Specifically family violence is
any kind of abuse either physical violence or psychological abuse which occurs and which is
inflicted upon one family member by another family member resulting in high levels of injury or
even death of this individual and mostly family violence is a term used to define violence within
family members which live together in the same house. By contrast IPV is any kind of violence
either physical or psychological which is inflicted on one partner by the other partner. It is
prevalent in intimate relationships- husband-wife or individuals in live-in relationships. But in
cases of IPV, violence can be classsified as IPV even when the partners are not necessarily living
together or it can take place when one partner momentarily stays away from one partner. In these
cases, violence is a psychological abuse rather than physical abuse. Psychology recognises that
there can be abuse that is purely psychological in nature and physical violence can be entirely
missing and still it would be termed as IPV. But majority cases of IPV are cases where partners
are living together. Most literature on IPV if looked into then a stage wise approach to
understand the phenomenon of IPV has been given.
STAGES (all researches in IPV focuses on female victim because in all cases of family violence
it is the man who is the offender which is goverened by a lot of factors and one being that man is
physically more stronger)
One of the most frequently used stage wise approaches in the context of IPV is the classification
which is given by Mever. He looked into what the characteristic features of different stages are
and those stages according to him also sort of are the reason why IPV perpetuates in a family and
why it becomes a long-term phenomenon.
1. The first stage according to Moyer reflects a perfectly normal healthy functional couple.
It is a stage where there is lot of love and attention which is positive in nature where the
partneres seem involved in each other in a caring loving manner. When the husband
questions the wife, the questioning does not reflect any kind of control or obsession in
this case. The husband seems to be involved in what the wife is doing and her activities,
her goals in life in general and is also percieved as a supporting and encouraging husband
who takes ineterst in what the other partner is doing to be able to contribute in what the
 other partner is doing. But that interest after the first stage sort of terminates and
gradually gives way to the second stage.
2. The interset that was initially percieved to be a healthy one now acquires a more
controllong and excessive nature wherein rather than contributing positively to what the
partner is doing, this questioning now takes an obsessive and a controlling turn. This now
is the stage where the partner starts questioning the wife with respect to her everyday
activities- what she is doing, where she is going, who she is meeting. It also takes the
form of high levels of insecurity where the husband ususally gets discomforted by the
wife meeting other people on her won without the awareness of the husband and he
insists on knowing who all she is meeting. This is the stage where the rules of conduct
beging taking shape and now the husband defines certain rules which the wife is required
to follow. When she does not follow that then it results in high levels of conflict resulting
in severe argumentation and fighting.
3. This is the stage of adjustment and is the phase where the female partner sort of adjusts to
the expectations of the male partner, regulates her life around the rules to a certain extent
believing that things will normalize. There is a predominant belief system that if the rules
that are defined by the partner if they are followed then thing will go back to how they
were in Stage 1 and a belief that things are just temporarilyout of order and if certain
things are taken care of by the female partner then mostly things will be normal. But that
never happens.
4. This stage is an expansion and intensification of the control. Now this control which
initially was limited to the everyday activity of the wife and predominantly ceneterd
around the insecurities of the husband with respect to where she is going and who she is
meeting, this control now sort of absorbs the home life of the partner within the family as
well. Rules and expectations also start extending with respect to what the wife shoul wear
and what should be the hair-style be, how shall she conduct herself within the house as
well. The control which up until Stage 2 was limited to the outside interaction of the
female also now absorbs the family life of the person and there are innumerable number
of rules with respect to just about anything that the female is doing. Also excessive rules
which then become difficult to follow and keep up to, in turn result in escalating conflict
between the male and the female. But conflict till this stage is verbal and psychological in
nature and there is no incidence of physical abuse so far.
5. This is the first stage of physical abuse. Stage 5 begins the moment when the first
occurrence of physical abuse is there between the husband and the wife. This stage is
extremely important in perpetuating the violent interaction between the husband and the
wife because once when for the first time physical abuse occurs, the initial restraint
against physically abusive behavior is overcome and once the initial restraint is overcome
in most cases the studies suggest that that pattern of behavior then continues to repeat
itself and happens with greater ease.
6. The stage where physical violence becomes the primary inter-personal strategy to conflict
resolution between the husband and the wife. Till Stage 2 and 3 verbal argumentation
was used to resolve the conflicts but starting from Stage 6 ,once violence has occurred in
stage 5, physical abuse becomes the primary inter-personal strategy. So even if there are
 minor conflicts and minor rules are broken by the wife and even if the wife remotely does
something which the husband does not like, instead of resorting to peaceful strategies to
resolve the conflicts or verbal argumentation, the husband now uses physical abuse and
violence and therefore physical violence becomes a more frequent phenomenon and
gradually also intensifies over a period of time.
7. This is the stage where the Social Isolation of the wife is induced and intensified. Up
until now high levels of control was practiced by the husband on wife. This stage occurs
where the husband now starts manifesting physical violence when the wife goes and
meets someone that the husband is not aware of. The wife stepping out, doing things on
her own, meeting people that the husband doesn’t know of essentially now results in
physical violence. This leads to the wife practicing a lot of control with respect to who
she is meeting and where she is going and eventually going just anywhere without the
permission of the husband results in physical violence which results in the wife avoiding
meetin people and starts restraing herself to the household rather than going out. Also the
husband then becomes restrictive of who she is allowed to meet and in most cases
practically the wife is allowed to meet no one without the presence of the husband. This
all results in social isolation which in turn decreases the support system that is available
to the wife. No one to discuss the physical, verbal and psychological violence.
8. This is the stage of intensification of emotional conflict. One of the most frequently
associated features with the stage is very high level of confusion both at an emotional
level and at a cognitive level. That essentially arises from an inability to understand why
violence is taking place. So even when the wife puts in a lot of efforts into following the
rules and doing what the male partner likes that also a lot of times fetches violent
behavior from the male partner. This is because there are so many rules that no matter
what the female partner does, all of those rules will never really be catered to. There is an
inability at the cognitive level to understand that why there is so much of violence which
results in an associated emotional confusion where there is a good mix of emotions that is
observed in this stage. Emotions of- fear, extreme anxiety, anger and this anger is not
necessarilt towards the husband but a lot of times is towards oneself because (intra-
aggression) the insults by the husband is internalized to the extent that results in very
high levels of guilt in the wife that she is not doing enough to contribute positively to the
relationship.
9. The use of psychological threats and physical force in order to gain compliance and
control over the female partner. This is the final stage where physical and psychologiacl
violence has been established by the partner as the ultimate strategy to gain control over
the wife. Over a period of time, the husband has successfully managed to ensure that the
wife does and behaves exactly in the same manner as it is desired and at the same time
that desire is never really fulfilled. Beyond this stage there is a repitition of everything
that ahs happened in the past specifically the use of physical abuse. Even if in some
cases, the wife wants to leave or quit this relationship and physically move away from
this relationship, the use of threats or physical violence again are used by the husband in
order to ensure that the wife stays and does not leave. And usually the wife believes the
 threats to be real and therefore decides to remain in the relationship and without
questioning the relationship and just following the rules to the best extent possible.
BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME
All cases of IPV might not really be cases of battered woman syndrome (BWS). It constitutes
specific types of cases, these are cases of IPV but all cases of IPV does not fit into the
description of BWS. BWS is typically the presumed reaction of a woman to long-term physical,
chronical and psychologiacl abuse which has been inflicted on the woman by the mate. BWS
assumes that violence can be physical or psychological. Psychological violence is an extremely
important part of the entire phenomenon of BWS but as the name suggests there is also physical
violence which is necessary in most cases of BWS to take place. As far as classification of
disorders in DSM is considered, BWS is not recognized as a separate disorder by the DSM. A
clinical diagnosis of someone suffering from BWS would be a PTSD diagnosis.
The term ‘syndrome’ in this case as specifically being used rather than calling it symptoms is
because there is recognition that there is a very high level of similarity or consistency in the
reactions of women who have battered over a period of time. But the specific manifestation of
those recations vary depending on the person. So the term syndrome has also been used to ensure
a certain amount of flexibility in terms of what specifically is manifested as a result of long-term
battering of a woman.
A lot of theoreticians have come up with what specifically ‘psychological abuse’ constitutes.
There is a lot of diverse explanantions for it but there is also a significant amount of consistency
across theories in terms of what psychological abuse constitutes. One of the most frequently used
models of psychological abuse is the Duluth Model- also frequently used in the West to deal
with cases of domestic violence or IPV. It forms the base of a lot of intervention strategies. This
model is used extensively in cases of BWS because in most of these cases the features which the
Duluth Model talks about are manifested in the psychological abuse which takes place as part of
the BWS. This model talks about the ‘power and control wheel’ and it posits that the power and
control wheel essentially results or caters to the psychological abuse aspect of battering and this
wheel talks about 8 categories of psychological abuse-
i. Coercion and threat- this coercion and threat is verbal in nature. These could be
threat with respect to just about anything, controlling someone’s behavior by
threatening bodily harm to that person or loved ones of that person, to the children
concerned and a lot of times it also takes the shape of threats of burning down the
house, also threats to oneself- where the person tells that he would kill himself if the
other person doesn’t do as he has asked him to.
ii. Intimidation visual in nature- This could be anything which the person does which
is percieved as negative or threatening to the victim concerned. Just a display of
weapons would qualify to be visual intimidation or simply breaking an object would
be one.
 iii. Emotional abuse- Predominantly takes the form of humiliation and insults, name
calling, mocking, forced nudity, demeaning the person either when the person is
alone or even in front of other people.
iv. Isolation- is an extremely important afctor which can essentially be psychologically
abusive for the person and in cases of BWS isolation can also take the form of
extreme isolation which would be then not only cutting off physical social contact
with people but also cutting all kinds of access to telephone, television, internet or to
any kind of information which is coming from the outside world and an extreme
monitoring with respect to what the person is doing as far as the social activity is
concerned. A lot of times in cases of BWS, woman are also locked up inside the
house when the husband leaves in order to ensure that the woman does not step out of
the house and meets anyone.
v. Denial, Minimizing or Blaming- It has to do with the abuse which is taking place
either physical or psychological. The offender either entirely denies that there is any
kind of psychological abuse which is taking place or minimizes the intensity of the
abuse- so takes the stand wherein he feels that if at all very little abuse is taking place
or very little insult actually happened and which is normal- so the abusive or the
abnormal quality of that abuse is minimized by the individual. Even blaming- so even
when there is recognition that there was significant abuse which took place, the
victim is blamed for the abuse. So saying that you were assaulted because it was your
mistake and you were the one at fault and you did not do enough to contribute to the
positive quality of the relationship.
vi. Use of children- This would categorise- the threats which are used by the partner
with respect to the children like threats regarding harming the children or sending
negative, harmful messsages through the child. Or simply stating that the female
partner has not done enough as a parent- constant excessive criticizing of the
parenting strategy is used against the female parent and that she is not a good mother.
vii. Use of the male privilege- Establishing oneself as the head of the family and also
constantly asserting that on the partner- that the male partner is the bread earner of th
efamily, controls the finances of the family and therefore he in turn is the chief person
responsible for anything that the family gets to do including- survival of the family.
viii. Use of economic resources- this is the kind of abuse where if the husband is sole
bread earner of the family, the wife a lot of times is not given any money and does
not have enough resources to cater even to her basic need and is made to beg for
some basic financial resources.
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BWS as a concept was first proposed by Lenore Walker in a lot of research studies she had
done with women who had been battered and following the history of these women and the
analysis of the specific kind of abuse that these woman wen through and also the kind of
symptoms that these woman showed. She categorised the battering incident as into 3 phases
which actually followed a cycle and called it- ‘Cycle of Abuse’ in due recognition of the fact
that usually battering in cases of BWS actually is a cyclical process with distinct phases to it.
Any relationship which eventually might lead to battering, in most cases these relationships at
least initially are not dysfunctional relationship at all and initially there is a phase which she calls
the nurturing phase. So, when the couple initially comes together there is a lot of love and
affection between them, taking care of each other and being involved with each other in a
healthy way. In cases of BWS the nurturing phase is extremely important because it is also a
fairly lengthy phase. Eventually once when the nurturing phase gets over, it gives way to the 1st
most important stage of the battering cycle-
1. Tension Building Phase- in this phase, the love and affection which was displayed as part
of the nurturing phase, takes an obsessive or controlling quality and what results is a lot
argumentation between the couple. The abuse which happens is verbal in nature and is
also relatively minor intensity. Gradually the intensity increases, excessive criticism and
insult features in, the criticism becomes perpetual in nature taking the form of humiliation
and in the initial phases, criticism in front of others also takes place. Apart from the verbal
nature of abuse, there might be minor instances of physical abuse as well but usually
restricted to a nudge or push and no major physical assault. Over a period of time the
tension in this phase intensifies and thus the name.
2. Battering Incident- Eventually the building up tension gives way to the battering
incidence which basically is an explosion of aggresssion as far as the male partner is
considered involving the battering of the wife by the husband. Depending on the case,
there might be variations in the intensity and severity of the physical assault involved but
usually the physical assault involved, ranges from moderate to severe. In most cases
severe assault is involved causing major injuries to the female partner. This has been
termed as the battering incident and not battering phase because it is a one off incident-
where extreme physical assault takes place and that gives way to the next phase.
3. Contrite Phase- This is the phase where the male partner recognises that there was major
physical assault which has taken place and which perhaps was wrong. So, this phase
accompanied by fair amount of apologising with respect to what happened- giving gifts in
order to please and flatter the female partner. It also involves a lot of promises that such
incident would not be repeated and an active expression of regret that what happened was
incorrect and should not happen again in the future. So, a lot of surity given to the future
partner. But after the contrite passes off, the tension starts building again. So, gradually
the argumentation, the fights, the differences in opinions starts surfacing againg resulting
in an intensification of the tension between the couple, verbal disagreement and verbal
abuse which finally gives way to physical abuse resulting in the battering incident again
followed by apologising and the cycle goes on.
The nurturing phase is a one time phase , it only happens in the beginning of the relationship.
Eventually when the cycle of abuse begins then the 3 phases take a cyclical turn. Woman who
experience the cycle twice are said to be diagnosed with BWS. Along with that Walker
highlights that the first initial phase- the nurturing phase is an extremely important phase to
ensure that the battering cycle takes place because that is the phase where trust building is taking
place between the couple and the trust building where the trust is very important in ensuring that
the woman stays in the cycle. So, if usually there is no long enough nurturing phase, there is
enough trust-building which has not taken place then it is highly likely that somewhere while the
1st cycle or the 2nd cycle is taking place, the woman will actually leave the relationship and move
out. So, in order to sustain the cycle and the battering actually continues for a long while, the 1 st
phase is an extremely important determinant then. Also the contrite phase plays a very important
role and Walker explains that women are hopeful when the man promises that physical abuse is
not going to take place again then the women end up believing the man because they have
experienced the nurturing phase for a long while and thus are hopeful for the things to go back to
normal when in the contrite phase they are offered an apology with respect to that. Both the
phases are important in maintaing the cycle of battering.
SYMPTOMS OF BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME
An entire debate around how woman react to assault, the reaction of women being different from
that of men.
Walker has delineated specific symptoms which are true for a majority of woman who have gone
through these battering cycles and these patterns have also been supported by a lot of other
researchers.
1. The Trait of Learnt Helplessness- This is one of the most important symptoms seen in
these women which is Learnt Helplessness (LH). LH is essentially a response of an
organism when the individual is exposed to chronic painful stimuli over a period of time
and the person has either little or no control over the stimuli and no avenue of escape. It
is the underlying cognitive thought which says that there is an aversive stimulus but there
is nothing I can do about it and I can’t even escape. The phenonmenon of LH was first
studied by behavioristic psychologists on rats. They trapped the rat in a box and they
passed electric current through the iron box. Initially when the current was passed
through the box the rat would jump around and then would find a way to get out. So after
the initial jumping which lasted for quite some time, eventually the rat would lie down
and do nothing. The rat was not dead but it seemed to be dead. This was termed as the
Learnt Helplessness Reaction where the rat did not have any control over the current
which was being passed. Even if you have an option of learning but once you have learnt
that there is not much escape the you do not even make an attempt to figure out a way to
escape.
As far as the emotional reactions are concerned the predominant reactions which are seen
are- extreme fear and terror in these individuals to the extent that in a lot of these
individuals the fear is generalised to all men. So even when men in general approach
them they show a physical fear reaction. Also a sense of rage and anger, this anger is
not always towards the batterer but in a lot of cases it is the anger towards oneself and
this is a very common phenomenon. So a lot of intra-aggression which takes place and
there are cases where woman turn insensitive to bodily harm. So, they might be
physically harmed but they do not show any pain reaction to minor cuts and burns on the
body. This to a certain extent is desensitization because they have suffered bodily harm
so much that they get desensitized to a certain extent to bodily harm. In a lot of cases it
also is an example of intra-aggression. So, when they are harmed they get a sense of
satisfaction of getting harmed in a physical way. Also there are cases where there is
distinct sense of self-blame which also to a very large extent explains intra-aggression.
Self-blame which has resulted from internalisation of the humiliation, the criticism or the
insults which they have faced or suffered. So when they are constantly insulted and
criticised they actually start believing those things about themselves and that criticism
and insult gets internalised. This internalisation results in high levels of self-blame. And
there are very direct statements like- I could not play the role of a good homemaker or I
could not be a good parent to my children. These are clear manifestations of self-blame
that are seen. And an associated phenomenon is low self-esteem which is a feeling of
worthlessness and feeling of low value which the person attaches to oneself because
basically the person has failed in being productive in any way.
Battering does not only have an impact on the emotionality of the person but also has a
significant impact on the cognitive information processing of the individual. Cognitively
these individuals usually have avery high tolerance for inconsistencies meaning that
when potentially contradictory statements are offered to them, they fail to recognise that
those statements are contradictory. So, a high tolerance for inconsistency. This essentially
arises from the apparently paradoxical life situation that they are in where considering the
person who is actually supposed to be a loving partner and a protector is actually harming
them. Then there is high levels of inconsistency in the relationship which the person is
executing and that inconsistency again desensitizes them to inconsistency in general and
this become highly tolerant of them.
Another major cognitive processes which hamper these individuals is the ability to plan
out behavior. These individuals have an inability to execute planned behavior. So when
tests are conducted on these individuals when they are given a potentially problematic
situation and they are asked to solve that problem in a logical rational manner, a lot of
time they perform poorly on these tests because they cannot plan a sequence of activities.
A situation where, for instance, they are given a situation and they are asked to escape.
They will not be able to plan out that escape of the character which is the part of the
situation. What results is a phenomenon which is known as the phenomenon of
‘Diminished Alternatives’ meaning that when it comes to applying planned behavior to
one’s own life- where one is trapped in a situation and he has to escape, there is some
planning which needs to be done but these individuals because they cannot plan behavior
therefore they find it difficult to plan their escape as well. As far as the alternatives to
living in the family, one option for them is to continue living with the husband and when
they are asked what are the other alternatives that were available to them, they are usually
not able to come up with other alternatives. So there is a significant decrease in the
number of alternatives that they can consider and this results in them being trapped in
their life situation and their inability to escape that situation.
A lot of interviews of these woman go on to show that most of them esxpress that they
had accepted the fact that they ahd to be there, live there, live in that situation. So there is
a high level of acceptance that these are how things are and how it will and the focus is
not on escape. Their focus then becomes the survival within the situation. And fail to
recognise that there are alternatives available to them.
Ultimately the final and the most important reaction to battering which occurs which is also
responsible for women going ahead and killing their husbands is the phenomenon of Hyper
Vigilance (HV) So once the battering has occurred over and over again for a few time, women
become hyper vigilant to danger cues which means that they start recognizing the physiological
changes in the body of their husband which precede the battering incident and these changes
which they become sensitive to are basic physiological changes which are a part of any stress
reaction. Considering that when we are angry and when we shout at someone then the voice
quality, tone speed, intensity, volume changes. These are all cues which reflect some kind of
stress and anger. And most of these women are hyper vigilant to these danger cues. They are
highly sensitive to changes in the tone of voice and to speed with which the person is speaking,
the intensity of the voice and even the changes in pronunciation that takes place when you are
angry, they are also able to locate the dilation of the pupils- when you are angry the pupils dilate
to allow more light to enter into the system. Similarly, preceding the battering incident, the
husband usually more frequently the dilation of the pupil takes place. That is usually towards the
end of the tension building phase where these changes are more frequently located in the
husband by these women and they fear that now the battering incident is going to occur soon,
that now the husband is going to assault the woman soon and that the time is coming closer and
closer and it is usually around this time that the woman strike and kill their husbands. So it is
more like a preemptive strike and kill their husband in order to protect and save oneself from this
impending possible battering incident.
Attention building phase and Battering phase somewhere between these phases where the
transition is taking place it is then that most of these women kill their husbands. In the movie-
‘Provoked’ the woman burns the bed of the husband and the husband burns along with it so
interestingly in most of these cases that is how the killing is done and the woman kills the
husband while he is asleep and when he can cause no possible harm or damage to the woman.
From the perspective of law it is essentially at this phase or this time when it comes in
contradiction with the law where women as long as they are suffering the battering cycle it is
fine, it is a psychological issue but women when they begin to kill that becomes problematic
because most of these women are actually tried for murder for murdering their husbands.
THE UTILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE BWS AS A LEGAL DEFENCE.
This in itself is a debated issue. There are a lot of mixed responses which a lot of courts in the
West have given with respect to the BWS. Largely as far as the acceptance of BWS as a legal
defence is considered, it is not considered to be a legal defence. In a lot of cases it is also
suggested that instead of using BWS as a legal defence use either insanity defence or self-
defence as a defence in a court of law. Meaning that either prove the woman who killed the
husband to be insane who did not understand the consequence of her act, was not in that mental
state of mind to understand the nature and consequence of the act and therefore claim insanity
defence or bring a case of self-defence wherein again you establish that there was danger to the
person and the person killed the man to defend herself from bodily harm.
The first level at which it becomes problematic is that the killing of the woman does not typically
fit into the scenario of self defence. Because self-defence presupposes an eminent danger of
injury or bodily to either oneself or one’s children and justify the amount of lethal force used by
the woman which ends up killing the husband. But in this case, it does not really hold true
because the husband in most of these cases is in a very passive condition and is in most cases
even sleeping. Then how would you establish that the husband was of any eminent danger to the
person concerned. Thus in most of the cases in the court taking this defence has been rejected.
Also the insanity defense has been majorly critiqued from an ethical psychological standpoint
because if you are saying that there is a woman who was insane and mentally ill is not exactly
true and you essentially make a point that woman who have been battered over a period of time
and who have been victims of IPV or domestic violence lose their mind and become insane. This
is not true and they are not insane. Also, killing their husbands require conscious awareness that I
am now going to kill my husband. Killing might be impulsive to a certain extent but nonetheless
it is a conscious decision which the person makes and an assessment of the person shows that the
person did understand the nature and consequences of the act. And in most of the cases the
woman accepts the fact that she killed the husband with the intention of killing him and they
knew what they were doing and thus even insanity defense does not apply.
The debate in the feminist circles is that there should not be any need for insanity plea or any
self-defence plea wherein the courts in themselves should have a basic understanding that the
reaction of men to violence and the reaction of women to violence are very different. So when
they define self-defense by saying eminent danger or sudden provocation which presupposes that
somebody was provoked and somebody retaliated immediately, that immediacy of reaction is a
flawed supposition and assumption. The assumption that immediacy reaction applies across
population is a flawed one. It applies to men and not necessarily to women and law carries that
assumption essentially because law predominantly has been devised by men. And to that extent
law becomes men-oriented and anti-women. Women on the other hand do not react in an
immediate fashion to aggression or violence. The first reaction of most women to violence is
adjustment where they want things to go back to normal and gradually they take time to react
and when they react, they react in a sound and secure surrounding. To a large extent this has to
do with the way men and women are differentially socialized in a social set up and it also has to
do with the fact that men and women differ in their physical strength. So, men can retaliate
immediately as they are physically strong and perhaps there is some certainty that they will win
if they react immediately. Women on the other hand are physically weak and they do not react
physically in an immediate fashion because there is a greater chance that they will be
overpowered by someone who is powerful. Therefore, men and women due to socialization and
the physical strength have different ways of reacting to physical violence and that fact should be
taken into account by law and therefore BWS in itself should be admitted as a valid defence in a
court of law because BWS is the typical reaction which the woman give to chronic battering over
a prolonged period of time. So a lot of these debates have been raised within the legal circle.
Legally there is not much recognition.
BWS has been recognized in a lot of courts but not as a defense.