Search

The development of the field of environmental psychology and its research methods are reviewed. Trends in areas of study -- perception, space, personality, learning, and building design -- are noted. (KM)

The current paper explores the journey offenders make after their offence through a series of Tiger Kidnap offences from the North and South of Ireland. Tiger Kidnap is the abduction of a person of importance to a victim (generally a bank manager) in which that person is used as collateral until the victim complies with the requests of the offenders. Three stages of the offences were highlighted; 1. The Journey from the abduction location to the hostage location 2. The abduction location to the robbery location and 3. The robbery location to the money exchange location. Analysis found significant difference between offences in the North and South for stages 1 and 2 but not for stage 3. This is due to the type of offenders committing the offence; for example, offences in the North being committed by ex-paramilitary offenders. Further study should focus on understanding complex Tiger Kidnap offences.

To contribute to an understanding of the individual psychologies that characterise people who carry out acts of terrorism, four distinct themes are proposed that can each dominate Islamic terrorist’s conceptualisations of his/her own actions: Islamic Jihad, Political Jihad, Social and Criminal. These themes are illustrated from interviews with people convicted of Jihadi-related acts of terrorism within India. The interviews utilised Kelly’s Repertory Grid procedure, thus allowing the Personal Construct System of the interviewees to be explored in association with their accounts of their lives. These case studies provide rare insights from the terrorists themselves, indicating important similarities across individuals as well as distinct differences in the structure of their thinking that inform considerations of radicalisation and approaches to facilitating disengagement

This chapter investigates the variations in crime scene behaviour revealed in a sample of victim statements in cases of stranger sexual assault. Building on previous findings by Canter and Heritage (1990), and Canter (1994), it was hypothesised that there existed a scale of differing levels of violation by the offender. This scale, based upon actions in the offence, ranged from personal violation, through to physical violation and finally, at the most extreme level, sexual violation. Offences could also be differentiated at the personal and physical levels in terms of hostile, controlling, stealing or involving thematic emphases to the criminal’s actions.\ud To test these hypotheses, crime scene data from the first detected offences of 112 British rapists were analysed using a multi-dimensional scaling procedure to explore the relationships amongst crime scene actions. The results provided empirical support for the four action themes as different expressions of various intensities of violation. The implications that these findings have for the investigation of stranger sexual assault and treatment of victims are discussed.

The ability to infer the characteristics of offenders from their criminal behaviour (‘offender profiling’) has only been partially successful since it has relied on subjective judgments based on limited data. Words and structured data used in crime descriptions recorded by the police relate to behavioural features. Thus Language Modelling was applied to an existing police archive to link behavioural features with significant characteristics of offenders. Both multinomial and multiple Bernoulli models were used. Although categories selected are gender and age group, in principle this can be applied to any characteristic recorded. Results indicate that statistically significant relationships exist between both age and sex in certain types of crime. Both types of language model perform with similar effectiveness. It is also possible to identify automatically specific terms which when taken together give insight into the style of offending related to a particular group.

Within psychology and related social sciences there is an emerging framework for understanding a person’s actions and experiences in terms of what McAdams (McAdams, 1993) refers to as ‘The Stories We Live By’. This reflects the approach given particular emphasis by Bruner (Bruner, 1990) in his critique of the information processing model that so dominates cognitive psychology. It is argued that people give sense to their past, current and future lives by the roles they see themselves playing in key episodes that they remember experiencing. They formulate views of their identity and self-concept through an interpretation of the unfolding storyline that they see their lives as being. Importantly, the concept of a story here is not that of a fiction but of a constructed account derived from events and interactions with others

Those investigating crimes have always tried to formulate some idea of the\ud characteristics of unknown culprits as an aid to finding and convicting them.\ud This parallels the generals of Ancient Rome building a picture of the Barbarian\ud leaders they would face in battle. It is therefore not surprising, as discussed by\ud Canter (1995a), that as long ago as 1888, when Jack the Ripper stalked the\ud streets of London, some attempt was made to produce a description of the\ud person who had committed these still unsolved crimes.

For many years Offender Profiling has caught the popular imagination, being drawn on by law enforcement throughout the world. But until the development of Investigative Psychology ‘profiling’ was based on little more than the informed personal expertise of experienced detectives. Spearheaded by David Canter and his associates throughout the world the new discipline of Investigative Psychology has emerged out of a quarter century of research and involvement in many actual cases. \ud This ground-breaking text book offers for the first time;\ud • A detailed overview of the worldwide research that has been carried out into criminal actions that is relevant to all aspects of police investigations, from the earliest work through to recent studies, including descriptions of previously unpublished internal reports.\ud • A framework for students to explore this exciting terrain, combining \ud o Narrative Theory and \ud o an Action Systems framework,\ud Offering empirically tested models for Offender Profiling.\ud • Guidance for investigations. \ud • An agenda for research in Investigative Psychology \ud The full range of crimes from advance fee fraud to terrorism, including burglary, serial killing, arson, rape, and organised crime are dealt with in this unique book, which is the first to provide a thorough basis for studying all aspects of criminal activities. \ud Important methodologies are described including multi-dimensional scaling and the Radex approach as well as Social Network Analysis.\ud The important area of Geographical Offender Profiling is covered supported by detailed analysis of the underlying psychological processes that make this such a valuable investigative decision support tool.\ud Going far beyond the early activities of drawing profiles of serial killers and rapists Investigative Psychology deals with the full range of investigative activities, including;\ud • Improving the effectiveness of the information collected\ud • Detecting deception \ud • The nature and development of decision support systems. \ud The approach detailed in this book thus provides an exciting new paradigm for a wide range of psychological contributions to all forms of investigation within and outside of law enforcement. \ud Throughout the book is illustrated with actual cases and quotations from offenders. Each chapter has questions for discussion and research, making this a valuable text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Applied and Forensic Psychology, Criminology, Socio-Legal Studies and related disciplines.

This paper briefly describes the methodologies employed in the\ud collection and storage of first-hand accounts of evacuation experiences\ud derived from face-to-face interviews with evacuees from the World Trade\ud Center (WTC) Twin Towers complex on 11 September 2001 and the\ud development of the High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED). The\ud main focus of the paper is to present a preliminary analysis of data derived\ud from the evacuation of the North Tower.

VCU Theses and Dissertations

A 70 year old woman up from the country spent three days trying to get out of a\ud hypermarket in Utrecht. She told police who rescued her she was afraid to ask\ud other shoppers how to get out (Glasgow Herald, April 1979).\ud All form of public information and direction finding systems, whether they are\ud maps, signposts, guides, display boards or whatever, exist within the context of the\ud human use of the built or natural environment. The use and purpose of these\ud communication systems is therefore of interest to people, from a variety of\ud disciplines, who also have a concern for the human use of the physical\ud environment, human geographers, architects, planners and environmental\ud psychologists. Furthermore, in order to understand fully the psychological\ud significance of signposting and the like, and thus be able to produce systems which\ud can be more effectively utilised, it is necessary to understand the relevance of the\ud normal use of the physical surroundings. This chapter summarises some of the\ud research into the ways people navigate within, and make sense of, their physical\ud surroundings, of such relevance to the creation and study of public information and\ud direction-finding systems.

By the mid 1980s the Fires Research Station that funded my studies of human\ud behaviour in fires decided that it had provided what was needed and that they\ud should not support me to do any further research. So I set about finding other ways\ud of developing that work. An opportunity was provided by the Insurance Technical\ud Bureau who wanted to measure the management contribution to risk in industrial\ud processes (Powell and Canter, 1985). This work did not survive the demise of that\ud bureau but it did open the door to British Steel, who were interested in ways of\ud assessing and ultimately improving the attitude of their workforce to safety

The extrapolation of characteristics of criminals from information about their\ud crimes, as an aid to police investigation, is the essence of 'profiling'. This paper\ud proposes that for such extrapolations to be more than educated guesses they must\ud be based upon knowledge of a) coherent consistencies in criminal behaviour and b)\ud the relationship those behavioural consistencies have to aspects of an offender\ud available to the police in an investigation. Hypotheses concerning behavioural\ud consistencies are drawn from the diverse literature on sexual offences and a study\ud is described of 66 sexual assaults committed by 27 offenders against strangers.\ud Multivariate statistical analyses of these assaults support a five component system\ud of rapist behaviour, reflecting modes of interaction with the victim as a sexual\ud object. The potential this provides for an eclectic theoretical basis to offender\ud profiling is discussed

A model of individual sexual offenders' spatial activity was developed based upon\ud 45 British male sexual assaulters who had committed at least two assaults. For each\ud offender a separate map was produced indicating the spatial locations of his\ud offences and residence. A Marauder model and a Commuter model of offenders'\ud spatial behaviour was proposed. As an elaboration of the Marauder model, the\ud Circle and Range hypotheses were tested against the sample of offenders. Results\ud of the study support the Marauder model showing that most of the sample (87 %)\ud move out from their home base in a region around that base to carry out their\ud attacks. The antithetical Commuter model was not supported within the sample. The\ud Circle and Range Hypotheses were supported demonstrating that offenders operate\ud within a distinct offence region (in 91 % of cases) and that the distance they travel\ud to offend correlates directly with distances between offences (r = 0.93, p

The putting together of this book coincided with my moving to a Chair in\ud Psychology at The University of Liverpool from Surrey University where I had\ud been for 23 years. This return to my alma mater after 30 years provides both an\ud opportunity for new developments as well as a curious feeling of completion and\ud consolidation. Reading through and editing the material for this book, all originally\ud written while I was at Surrey, I can see that a particular style of research and of\ud psychological thinking did evolve through these many studies (and of course the\ud many others not covered here). There is still the need to give as full and coherent\ud an account of that approach as is possible rather than the demonstration by example\ud which is currently the main way the approach has been explored. Of course, it is\ud not a fixed framework. In particular it is now evolving rapidly through use with\ud many colleagues in application to the emerging area of Investigative Psychology\ud which I identified and named shortly before I left Surrey. This book thus can be\ud taken both as a review of the past and a sketch plan for a future more elaborate\ud examination of a particular approach to psychological research.

Many psychologists have emphasised that the ability to function in the world relates\ud closely to the ability to form categories and to construct systems of classification by\ud which nonidentical stimuli can be treated as equivalent (e.g., Miller 1956; Bruner\ud et aI, 1956; Rosch, 1977). As Smith and Medin (1981) have recently reiterated, if\ud we had to deal with objects, issues, behaviour, or feelings on the basis of each\ud unique example, then the effort involved would make intelligent existence virtually\ud impossible. Thus, an understanding of the categories people use and how they\ud assign concepts to those categories is one of the central clues to the understanding\ud of human behaviour. As consequence, one of the important questions for many\ud investigations is the nature and organisation of the concepts that people have,\ud specific to the issues being explored.

Complementary medicine is a term used to cover a vast array of treatment\ud procedures as wide ranging as aroma therapy, iridology, acupuncture, homeopathy\ud and osteopathy. It is sometimes known as alternative or even folk medicine. These\ud complementary therapies exist because people find them helpful. Research must,\ud therefore, be directed at asking 'Who?' ,. 'What?', and 'How?'. In the following\ud chapter ways of answering these questions are examined. Emphasis is given to the\ud need for a variety of different research strategies and tactics. A preliminary outline\ud of an overall approach which would hold together the strands in a fruitful way is\ud proposed, based on facet Meta-Theory.\ud In considering the emerging research prospect for the study of complementary\ud medical practice it is important to clarify some initial premises. These provide a\ud framework within which to consider a great variety of research possibilities. They\ud also point towards areas of study that might not otherwise be apparent.

In order to illustrate a relatively new approach to research methods and data\ud analysis, most commonly referred to as facet theory (Gratch, 1973), the present\ud paper describes three examples of the approach in use. The range of data types and\ud variety of modes of analysis which can be accommodated by this approach are\ud exemplified, starting with a simple example dealing with energy conservation in\ud universities, then moving on to examine differences between prisoners and staff in\ud their evaluation of prison buildings, and finally considering the more complex\ud methodological issues involved in establishing the structure of housing satisfaction.\ud However, whilst this paper essentially concerns research procedures, especially the\ud use of multivariate statistics, I wish to make the case that the facet approach holds\ud particular potential for applied social psychology.

Any account of a natural process must be a simplification. The written word can\ud only sketch the variety that is integral to growth and change. This is true whether\ud it is a garden that is being described or a human career. But for a career there is a\ud further distortion. The sequence of activities that intertwine to make a period in a\ud person's life when written as a history has far more shape and direction to it than\ud it ever has at the time, when it is being experienced.

The major differences between fires in the patterns of behaviour that are associated\ud with them are not due to variations between the personalities of the people present\ud or to particular physical details of the design of the buildings involved. Rather they\ud relate to the type of 'place' in which the fires occur. The term 'place' here is used\ud in the sense discussed by Canter (1977), implying a combination of social and\ud physical processes that give any setting its particular qualities. In the parlance of\ud the fire brigades a place is very similar in meaning to a 'building occupancy',\ud because each occupancy has its own characteristic physical structure as well as its\ud own type of organisation and associated fire risk. The following summaries will\ud therefore consider fires in relation to the type of setting in which they occur.\ud In order to clarify and elaborate these aspects, details of behaviour in various\ud types of buildings are worthy of closer consideration.

Shenley Hospital was a large psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of North London.\ud It was undergoing considerable modification as a result of changes in medical\ud practice. As part of these changes attention was turned to providing better facilities\ud for that part of the patient population that it was assumed would continue ~o need\ud continuous in-patient care, especially its psychogeriatric population.\ud It had a large psychogeriatric population housed in wards that had been designed\ud for quite other purposes early in the century. The clinical psychologists who\ud worked there recognised the problems of these wards and commissioned me to\ud carry out studies that would lead to design proposals. It happened to be a year when\ud we only had four students on the MSc in Environmental Psychology at Surrey so\ud the project became the focus for their year's study. .\ud As a result of the various projects we were able to make design proposals for\ud how the wards could be redesigned, perhaps the first and only time that\ud psychologists have produced detailed design recommendations without any\ud architectural intervention. The recommendations, of course, also included proposals\ud on the management of the ward, which is virtually unknown in strictly design\ud schemes.