Author name: Derry

This is the first draft of my undergraduate dissertation. Looking back on it now, I cringe! But this was my first real piece of research on a topic that I wanted to explore.

Investigative Psychology (IP) is a relatively new area in psychology, that aims to question and improve all aspects of criminal investigation for all involved- including the management, investigation and prosecution of crime (Canter and Youngs, 2005.) Therefore, an investigative psychologist comes into contact with a wide range of people- victims, witnesses, suspects, police officers, and various legal professionals. IP also looks at the psychological principles that support criminal investigations, such as problem solving, evaluating eyewitness testimony, and suspect prioritisation, alongside exploring the psychological significance of how offenders operate (Canter, 2018.) Therefore, the potential impact IP can have on criminal investigations is huge, both to specific investigations and to managing crime as a whole.

Self-selection policing (SSP) is an evidence-based form of policing that has been pushed by several researchers to be used in mainstream UK policing for nearly two decades (Roach, 2018). SSP has huge legal and moral advantages compared to the current form of policing, which is especially important with police scrutiny in the public eye. Although it would take a while for police officers to be appropriately trained in SSP and a large amount of funding would need to be invested into research, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives and SSP should therefore be used routinely by UK police.

The effect of the presence of a weapon on eye witness testimony (EWT) has been debated thoroughly throughout the past five decades of psychological research. There is a general consensus that the presence of a weapon greatly effects the reliability of eyewitness evidence (Loftus, Loftus & Messo, 1987; Pickel, 2009), but the direction of this effect is affected by many other factors such as age, gender, and racial bias (Davies, Smith, & Blincoe, 2007; Pickel, 2009; Pickel & Sneyd, 2017). Understanding the potential impact of unreliable EWT is of key importance to the criminal justice system, given that in the absence of a confession EWT is one of the greatest sources of evidence leading to a conviction (Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004; Yarmey, 2001). Thus, the factors that can influence the accuracy of EWT are of key importance, particularly given the involvement of a weapon usually means a more serious crime.

Research surrounding social smoking has mainly focused on teenagers at high school age, and college students in America; yet university students in Britain seem to have been overlooked despite their unique social position (financial freedom for the first time in an atmosphere that encourages drinking and other social activities, but yet involves the stress of deadlines and familial expectations.) Therefore, this study aimed to investigate what influences social smoking among university students (particularly first year undergraduates) and what they perceive influences them.

Current research surrounding court processes and juries, witnesses, and defendants suggests that a court is extremely stressful for all involved; which can lead to juries dismissed, witnesses misunderstood, and defendants given harsher sentences. Critically, more changes are needed universally in particular areas to make court less alienating to laypeople- such as making changes in juror comprehension, witness preparation, and gender perception to make court less distressing and unfair for all parties involved.