This is the second part of the Psychology and Crime gloassayr, and will contain the letters D - I. Remember you can download the entire glossary from here.
D
Dark Figure -
The proportion of crimes that are committed but which are not detected by official crime statistics.
Defensible Space -
Areas (for example, of a residential development) that appear to belong to someone, having clear boundaries against outsiders and characterised by high levels of natural surveillance.
Demand Characteristics -
The cues that are present in an experimental situation that particpants may use in order to work out the experimental aim. There is a danger that participants may alter their behaviour in response to demand characteristics, invalidating the experiment.
Deterministic -
Describes any theory which suggests that people do not have freedom of choice over their actions.
Deviance Amplification -
The tendency of media sources to 'over-report' certain types of crime (e.g. murder), potentially leading members of the public to have an exaggerated idea of the frequency of such crimes.
Dispositional Attribution -
Attributing someone's behaviour to factors internal to them (e.g. personality).
Dizygotic Twins -
Non-identical twins, sharing the same amount of genetic information as any two siblings.
DNA Profiling -
The use of DNA evidence from crime scenes to identify offenders, link different crimes and eliminate suspects from an enquiry.
DSM-III-R -
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological Disorders (third edition, revised). A widely used scheme for classifying and diagnosing psychological disorders, now superseded by DSM-IV.
E
Ecological Validity -
The extent to which an experimental situation resembles the real-life situation to which researchers wish to generalise. Research that is low in ecological validity may not generalise well to real-life situations.
Evidential -
Relating to evidence as presented in court.
Expert Evidence -
Legal evidence from an acknowledged expert which is given particular weight because of their expertise.
Extra-evidential -
Relating to factors (e.g. the appearance of the defendant) other than the evidence presented in courts.
F
Forensic Hypnosis -
The use of hypnotic techniques in an attempt to improve witness reliabilty.
Forensic Psychology -
The application of psychological research to the legal system.
Fundamental Attribution Bias -
The tendency to make situational attributions for our own behaviour and dispositional ones for others' behaviour.
H
Hedonic Relevance -
A phenomenon whereby our attributions change depending on the degree of relevance a situation has for us.
I
Incidence of Crime -
The number of crimes that are committed.
Inquisitorial System -
An alternative trial procedure to the adversarial system, in which the presiding judge(s) controls proceedings, examines eyewitnesses and directs the gathering of evidence.
Interrogation -
A police interview carried out for the express purpose of extracting a confession from a suspect.
Investigative Psychology -
The application of psychological principles to analyse crimes and apprehend offenders.
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