Criminal Psychology

Question 1

What was the aim of Hall & Player’s study?

Answer 1

To investigate whether emotional context (top-down processes) influences an expert fingerprint analysis.

Question 2

Hall & Player - what did the previous research by Dror find about emotional context and fingerprint identification?

Answer 2

Drir found that non-experts (students) were more likely to identify a match between fingerprints when presented with a high emotional context.

Question 3

Hall & Player - what were participants provided with to help their fingerprint identification?

Answer 3

• Magnifying glass
• A Russell comparator
• A crime scene report (high/low emotional context)
  *£50 note with a superimposed (latent) fingerprint
• A set of fingerprints matching the note
  *A participant number (data was anonymous)
  *A poor quality fingerprint

Question 4

Hall & Player - What were the two conditions (IV)?

Answer 4

*Low emotional context (35 participants: fingerprint experts given a crime scene report about a forgery allegation)
* High emotional context (35 participants: fingerprint experts given a crime scene report about a murder allegation)

Question 5

Hall & Player - what were the levels of identification provided for the marks on the note and the set of fingerprints?

Answer 5

• a match
  *not a match
  *insufficient detail to decide

Question 6

Hall & Player - what did the feedback questionnaire ask the participants after the fingerprint analysis?

Answer 6

*asked to elaborate bonus their findings by providing observations and opinions
* . Asked whether or not they had referred to the Crime Scene examination report prior to analysis.
* if they had, they wrre also asked whether they felt that the information on the report had affected their analysis, and if so, how

Question 7

Hall & Player - What result was found in number of matches between conditions?

Answer 7

No significant difference was found between the two condition’s number of matches. (Emotional context did not affect analysis)

Question 8

What percentage of participants read the crime scene report?

Answer 8

81%

Question 9

Hall & Player - did the experts believe the emotional context had affected their judgement?

Answer 9

Experts believed the emotional context did affect their judgement.
High emotional context - 52% (out of 30) who had read the crime scene report felt they were affected.
Low emotional context - 6% of experts who had read the crime scene report thought they were affected.