Biomedical subjects

Pekka Santtila

Publications and source records attributed to Pekka Santtila.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Salience of Guilty Knowledge Test items affects accuracy in realistic mock crimes.

Guilty Knowledge Test measuring electrodermal reactions was carried out in order to investigate the quality of different questions and the validity of the test in a situation that resembled a true crime. Fifty participants were randomly assigned to commit one of two realistic mock crimes, and were later tested with GKTs concerning both the crime they had enacted and the one they had no knowledge of. Different scoring systems (SCRs and peak amplitudes as well as raw and standardised scores) were employed and compared when analyzing the results. Although there were some false positives, the test was able to differentiate between the groups of guilty and innocent participants. With the best scoring systems, the test was able to classify up to 84% of the innocent and up to 76% of the guilty correctly according to a logistic regression analysis. ROC areas reflecting these same results reached values above .80. Questions on matters that demanded the participants' attention and were easier to remember had better discriminative power. With nearly all scoring methods, there was a significant interaction between the salience of the relevant items and the guilt of the participants. Participants reacted more strongly to salient relevant items when they were guilty, while no different reactions were observed for the non-salient items between guilty and innocent participants. It is suggested that, although the Guilty Knowledge Test appears to be a valid measure of guilty knowledge even in crimes that are close to real crimes, the principles on which guilty knowledge test questions are constructed should be more clearly specified.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Dynamics of verbal interaction between interviewer and child in interviews with alleged victims of child sexual abuse.

A number (n = 27) of investigative interviews with children were analyzed with a view to explore the verbal dynamics between interviewer and child. Different types of interviewer utterances and child responses were defined, and the interrelationships between these were explored. The effectiveness of different interviewer utterances in eliciting information from children as well as the type of utterance the interviewer used to follow up an informative answer by the child were investigated. Option-posing and suggestive utterances made up for more than 50% of interviewer utterances, the proportion of invitations being only 2%. Invitations and directive utterances were associated with an increase in informative responses by the child, the adverse being true for option-posing and suggestive utterances. Interestingly, even after the child had provided an informative answer, interviewers continued to rely on focused and leading interviewing methods--in spite of a slight improvement in interviewing behavior.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Differences and similarities between gay and straight individuals involved in the sadomasochistic subculture.

Results from some new analyses as well as a selective review of the results of six empirical studies on a self-identified sample of sadomasochistically-oriented individuals (22 women and 162 men) with an emphasis on differences between gay and straight participants are presented. The gay male respondents seemed to be better educated, to hold white-collar occupations and to be more sadistically oriented. The gay male respondents became aware of their sadomasochistic preferences and had their first experiences at an older age. They showed a preference for leather outfits, anal intercourse, rimming, dildos, wrestling, special equipment and uniform scenes, and the straight male respondents for verbal humiliation, mask and blindfold, gags, rubber outfits, cane whipping, vaginal intercourse, cross dressing, and straitjackets, and different role plays except for uniform scenes. Four separate sexual themes were identified: hypermasculinity; administration and receiving of pain; physical restriction and psychological humiliation. Gay male participants showed a preference for hypermasculinity and straight men respondents for humiliation. The number of lesbian respondents was too low to draw any definite conclusions. Differences between gay and straight male sadomasochists in the present sample were found. Clearly, sadomasochism cannot be thought of as a unitary phenomenon: People who identify themselves as sadomasochists mean different things by these identifications.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Predicting the residential location of a serial commercial robber.

Residential location of a serial offender can potentially be predicted by using models created from home to crime site journeys of solved crimes in the area [N. Levine, Journey-to-crime estimation, retrieved 23 October 2003 from http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/crimestat/CrimeStatChapter.9.pdf, last visited 1 February 2005]. Aims of this study were: (1) to examine the accuracy of this technique, (2) to explore relation of modus operandi (m.o.) to the distance the crime was committed from home and (3) to analyse whether the accuracy of prediction is enhanced by taking the m.o. into account. Data consisted of 76 commercial robbery series from the Greater Helsinki area. Accuracy of prediction was tested by using leave-one-out technique: the series which the predicting function was applied to was never part of the function used to predict. The functions allowed limiting the area to be searched to 4.7% (Mdn, IQR = 31.0%) of the study area generally, and to 1.0% (Mdn, IQR = 2.6%) when the suspect's spatial behaviour conformed to the circle hypotheses presented by Canter and Larkin [D. Canter, P. Larkin, The environmental range of serial rapists, J. Environ. Psychol. 13 (1993) 63-69]. Significant correlations between m.o. and the length of the journey-to-crime were found, but this information did not enhance accuracy of prediction. Low percentage of marauder style perpetrators in the data gives support to the possible separation of hypotheses of underlying spatial behaviour in instrumental crimes versus crimes of interpersonal violence or arson. Suggestions for development of investigative tools are presented.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Connections between experience, beliefs, scientific knowledge, and self-evaluated expertise among investigators of child sexual abuse in Finland.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether clinicians investigating child sexual abuse (CSA) rely more on scientific knowledge or on clinical experience when evaluating their own expertise. Another goal was to check what kind of pre-trial beliefs the clinicians had. The connections between these different factors were investigated. A questionnaire covering items concerning demographic data, experience, knowledge about CSA, self-evaluated expertise and beliefs about CSA was given to 126 social workers, 60 child psychiatrists and 134 psychologists. The results showed that the clinicians relied more on their clinical experience than on scientific knowledge when evaluating their expertise as investigators of CSA. Furthermore, social workers possessed stronger attitudes in favor of children than the other groups, while child psychiatrists had more negative attitudes towards the criminal justice system. Male participants had less strong beliefs than did the female participants. The findings indicate that the education of CSA investigators should focus more on theoretical knowledge and decision-making processes as well as the role of pre-trial beliefs.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Predicting presence of offender's criminal record from antisocial lifestyle indicators of homicide victims.

The aim of the present study is to explore the possibility of predicting the presence of a criminal record in the background of a homicide offender on the basis of victim characteristics. Eight victim characteristics, as well as the presence or absence of offender criminal record and offender violent criminal record, were coded for 502 Finnish homicides. A configural frequency analysis (CFA) showed that it was possible to predict the presence of a criminal record on the basis of the victim variables. The practical significance of the results for police investigations is discussed.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

PubMed2003

Testing the utility of a geographical profiling approach in three rape series of a single offender: a case study.

The purpose of the study was to test the potential utility of a geographical profiling approach for three separate series of rapes committed by a single offender. Two different mathematical distance-decay functions using either a normal distribution with a mean distance and standard deviation based on previous research or a truncated negative exponential function based on distances between crime sites in the series under investigation were applied to each of the series giving prioritised search areas the accuracy of which was then assessed. The prioritised area that had to be searched before the home base of the offender could be located varied from 7.60 km(2) or 2.15% of the total search area at its best to 15 1.10 km(2) or 42.66% at its worst for the normal distribution based on previous research and from 42.06 km(2) or 11.88% to no improvement when the truncated negative exponential function was used. The functions used showed less predictive ability when the offender was a commuter. Explanations for the variations in the findings as well as suggestions for improvements were outlined in the discussion.

Forecasting↗

PubMed2003

Validity of a test of children's suggestibility for predicting responses to two interview situations differing in their degree of suggestiveness.

In the present study the relative contributions of internal and external sources of variation in children's suggestibility in interrogative situations were examined. One hundred and eleven children (48 4- to 5-year-olds and 63 7- to 8-year-olds) were administered a suggestibility test (BTSS) and the most suggestible (N=36) and the least suggestible (N=36) children were randomly assigned to either an interview condition containing several suggestive techniques or to one containing only suggestive questions. The effects of internal sources of variation in suggestibility were compared with the effects of the interview styles on the children's answers. The former did influence the children, but the external sources of variation in suggestibility had a stronger impact. Influences of cognitive, developmental factors could be found, but not when abuse-related questions were asked and high pressured interview methods were used. These findings indicate that individual assessment of suggestibility can be of some assistance when interviewing children, but diminishing suggestive influences in interrogations must be given priority.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2003

Age and gender specific sexual behaviors in children.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present research was to explore the sexual behaviors of 2- to 7-year-old children through reports of day-care personnel. An overall aim of this exploratory study was to provide information about the frequencies of child sexual behaviors. Also, the aim was to explore any age and gender differences. METHOD: A representative sample of 364 Finnish children not screened for developmental delay, sexual abuse history or psychiatric problems (181 girls and 183 boys) in 190 day-care centers were studied using the "Day-Care Sexuality Questionnaire" (DCSQ), with 244 sexual and other behavior items. RESULTS: Age influenced more the extent of the 244 sexual behaviors of boys than of girls. In sexual behaviors increasing with age, girls showed behaviors with a more social character, whereas boys showed more explorative and information-seeking behaviors. Girls had a higher frequency of domestic and gender role exploring behaviors, whereas the boys tended to engage in explorative acting and information-seeking behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that child sexual behavior reported by day-care personnel may provide useful information about the development of children's sexuality. Implications for sexual abuse investigations were discussed.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2003

Classifying homicide offenders and predicting their characteristics from crime scene behavior.

A theoretical distinction between instrumental and expressive aggression was used in analyzing offender characteristics and their associations with crime scene actions in Finnish homicides. Twenty-one variables reflecting the offenders' criminal activity, previous relationships with intimates and victims, and general social and psychological adjustment were derived from files of single-offender/single-victim homicides occurring between 1980 and 1994 (n = 502). Additionally, three variables describing post-offense actions and police interview behavior were included. A multidimensional scaling procedure was used to investigate the interrelationships between the variables. A distinction between expressive and instrumental characteristics was observable in the empirical structure, which was divided into three subthemes of Instrumental, Expressive: Blood, and Expressive: Intimate. Associations between the characteristics with five previously identified subthemes of crime scene actions were computed. In addition, the subthemes of crime scene actions were related to post-offense actions and police interview behavior, with Expressive themes being associated with less denial as well as a greater likelihood of surrendering and confession. The practical usefulness for police investigations and theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Investigating the underlying structure in sadomasochistically oriented behavior.

This study explores the extent to which 29 individual sexual behaviors, previously identified in L. Alison, P. Santtila, N. K. Sandnabba, and N. Nordling (2001), as each being associated with 1 of 4 different broad themes of sadomasochistically oriented behavior, represent different scales of intensity within each theme. The themes were as follows: hypermasculinity, administration and receipt of pain, physical restriction, and humiliation. For example, we wanted to establish whether skinbranding is a more intense expression of pain than spanking; whether faceslapping is a more intense expression of humilitation than flagellation, and so on. One hundred and eighty-four participants (22 women and 162 men) who were members of two sadomasochistically oriented clubs gave information concerning which of the 29 sexual behaviors they had participated in during the preceding 12 months. A multivariate analysis (POSAC; Shye, 1994) supported the existence of cumulative scales in each of the 4 themes, suggesting that the order in which people engage in different sadomasochistic behaviors is not random and that specific, less intense behaviors generally precede more intense behaviors.

Adult↗