Glossary - Part S, T, V, W and Z

The final part of our Psychology and Crime glossary, this includes letters S - Z. Remember, you can download the entire file from here.

S

Schema -
A cognitive structure into which knowledge is organised in order to make sense of objects, people and situations in the world.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy -
A prediction that comes true because it has been made. Related to labelling theory.

Self-serving Attribution Bias -
The tendency to attribute our successed to dispositional factors and our failures to situational ones.

Situational Attribution -
Attributing someone's behaviour to factors external to them.

Social Cognition -
The process by which we make sense of other people and their actions.

Social Learning Theory -
The view that behaviour is primarily leaned from observations of models.

Social Skills Training -
An attempt to reduce aggressive behaviour by equippig offenders with the skills to manage interactions more effectively.

Socio-economic Status (SES) -
A way of classifying people in terms of their occupational background and economic circumstances. Low SES generally implies manual or semi/unskilled occupation, lower income and fewer years in education, high SES the converse.

Somatotype -
Bodily build, classified as endomorph (at), ectomorph (thin), and mesomorph (muscular). According to some early theorists, such as Sheldon, different personality types are associated with the different somatotypes.

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) -
In the US, a branch of the police force involved mainly in special operations, such as hostage-taking incidents.

Standard Interview Procedure -
The usual method by which police interviews are conducted.

Story Order -
An evidence strategy in which witnesses appear in the sequence in which events occurred. Considered more effective than witness order.

T

Television Technique -
A hypnotic techinque in which a witness is encouraged to imagine an event as it seen on television.

Testosterone -
A male sex hormone the main role of which is to promote sexual development and behaviour. However, it may also influence a range of other behaviours including aggression.

Token Economy -
An attempt to reduce offending behaviour by selectively reinforcing desirable behaviours within an institution.

V

VICAP -
The Violent Criminal Apprehension Programmed. An FBI database of violent offences used to generate offender profiles.

Victim Derogation -
The tendency to blame a victim for their own misfortune. Related to belief in a just world.

Victimisation Survey -
A technique for measuring the crime rate which, instead of relying on crime statistics as reported by the police, surveys a sample of the population about their experiences of crime. Victimisation surveys typically reveal a higher incidence of crime than police figures.

Violence Distraction -
The tendency for witnesses of violent events to provide poorer testimony than witnesses of non-violent events, either because of the detrimental effect of arousal on memory or possibly due to weapon focus.

W

Weapon Focus -
The tendency for witnesses of violent crimes to focus on the weapon used, generally resulting in poorer recall of other aspects of the event.

Witness Order -
An evidence strategy in which witnessess appear in the order deemed most likely to persuade a jury. Considered less effective than story order.

Z

Zero Tolerance -
An approach to the prevention of serious crime based on vigorous police response to minor infractions of the law.