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New methods for examining expertise in burglars in natural and simulated environments: preliminary findings
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 22:53 authored by Claire Nee, Martin WhiteMartin White, Kirk Woolford, Tudor Pascu, Leon Barker, Lucy WainwrightExpertise literature in mainstream cognitive psychology is rarely applied to criminal behaviour. Yet, if closely scrutinised, examples of the characteristics of expertise can be identified in many studies examining the cognitive processes of offenders, especially regarding residential burglary. We evaluated two new methodologies that might improve our understanding of cognitive processing in offenders through empirically observing offending behaviour and decision-making in a free-responding environment. We tested hypotheses regarding expertise in burglars in a small, exploratory study observing the behaviour of experienced offenders (ex-burglars) and novices (students) in a real and in a simulated environment. Both samples undertook a mock burglary in a real house and in a simulated house on a computer. Both environments elicited notably different behaviours between the experts and the novices with experts demonstrating superior skill. This was seen in: more time spent in high value areas; fewer and more valuable items stolen; and more systematic routes taken around the environments. The findings are encouraging and provide support for the development of these observational methods to examine offender cognitive processing and behaviour.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Psychology, Crime & LawISSN
1068-316XPublisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
5Volume
21Page range
507-513Department affiliated with
- Informatics Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2015-10-22First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2021-03-08Usage metrics
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