Criminology Key issue exam questions and answers

1. Explain how you carried out either a content analysis or an analysis of

articles within criminal psychology? (4)
One answer
I conducted an analysis of two articles concerning the key issue of EWT and
its reliability, in particular when it is used to convict without any other
evidence. I researched the internet and found two articles which discussed
the issue of EWT and DNA evidence in court cases. I analysed these articles
paragraph by paragraph for themes. I wrote up summaries for each article. I
then linked these themes to the main concepts and theories in the area I am
studying such as the unreliability of EWT and its importance in convictions. I
found some similar themes form both articles. I was then able to draw
conclusions from the summary of the two articles. I found that both summaries
suggested that EWT was unreliable and how other evidence should be used
to confidently convict. (Julius Ruffin)
Another answer
I analysed two separate but inter-themed news articles pertaining to criminal
psychology, involving criminal acts. One involved a man named Julius Ruffin
being wrongly accused of a crime due to eye witness testimony, proved false
by DNA testing. I then extracted the main points from the article and linked
them with concepts and studies from within the criminal approach. I did the
same with a news article written by Balko, giving empirical evidence to
support DNA testing being more reliable than eye witness testimony, which is
the point both articles were trying to make.
What do these results suggest? (4)
One answer
The results from the summarising of the two articles suggests that EWT is an
important issue in psychology because there have been problems when
convicting someone on the basis of EWT alone. My conclusions showed
examples of where people were convicted (wrongly) on the basis of EWT
alone, and spent 20 years in prison before being exonerated (Julius Ruffin
case). In particular results I found were surrounding the problems with how
people build up a memory which relates to Bartletts reconstructive memory
and issues of facial recognition. The knowledge from this research I did
suggested that when convicting criminals, police and courts have to use other
more reliable evidence to convict rather than EWT alone. Results suggest
other evidence must be used in conviction such as DNA.
Another answer What do these results suggest? (4)
These results suggest that eye witness testimony is in fact not as reliable as
DNA testing especially when used alone. Julius Ruffins witness turned out to
retrieve a false memory which could have been due to cue-dependence, time
passed in between, reconstruction or another cause of memory loss. These
results suggest that eye witnesses should be interviewed as soon after the

event as possible and as close to the scene of the crime as possible. My

results from the article analysis state Loftus and Ketchum found also found
that in 2009, 77% of, again suggesting there are many negative implications
surrounding eyewitness testimony 230 of eyewitness convictions were proven
false by DNA testing

What were the issues involved in this method of analysis? (4)

The newspaper articles I found may have been subjective according to the
writers or editors and therefore unreliable. As they were articles from the
internet, it was secondary data which maybe have been biased. Therefore it
was difficult to analyse the article because the information was limited and
some factual information was missing. I had to further research outside of
class time in order to find out more information relating to the articles because
not all information such as; ethnicity of victims was given due to privacy
circumstances. To increase inter-related reliability and decrease bias, I
discussed my interpretation with a partner.