• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • The Newspaper
  • Our Team
  • PDF Books
  • Archive
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us

Scena Criminis

L'Informazione al servizio della Legalità

  • EnglishEnglish
    • ItalianoItaliano
    • EnglishEnglish
    • EspañolEspañol
  • News & History
    • History of Crime
    • Criminal Words
    • Gender Violence
    • News
    • Organized Crime
  • Quotes, Interviews, Videos
    • Interviews
    • Quotes
    • Videos
  • Crime & Art
    • Recommended Books
    • Criminal Portraits
    • The Eye that Kills: Cinema and Crime
    • Violent Art
  • Criminal Biographies
    • Caserta: Crimes from the Past
    • Criminal Biographies
    • Most Wanted
    • Mysteries and Unsolved Crimes
    • Serial Killer
    • Snapshots from a Crime
  • Forensic Sciences
    • Criminalistics
      • Ballistics: Rifles and Guns
    • Criminology
      • Psychology
      • Sociology
    • Law
    • Nonverbal Communication
You are here: Home / Forensic Sciences / Criminology / Who is Dangerous in High Stress Situations?

Who is Dangerous in High Stress Situations?

2 January 2015 da admin Leave a Comment

13Shares

It is possible to be fully supportive of law enforcement and the military everywhere, which I am, but also push for changes that will improve both organizations. In cases such as we have seen in the news, only a full investigation of the facts can determine if errors were made. If there are determinations that there were errors, corrections are needed and will take place because of the vigorous dialogues taking place from multiple points of view.

The recent events under scrutiny and discussion involve the killing of unarmed persons suspected of law violations while being arrested and the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraibe and secret prisons holding suspected terrorists after 9-11.   How far can an official body go in the name of law to harm another person who is a prisoner or is only suspected of a crime, but “may” pose a danger to others? Where is that line?

Use of force will necessarily always be part of law enforcement, military and corrections when circumstances call for it.  However, not all people are capable of distinguishing where that line is when they are understress. Additionally, society may be in the process of re-examining where that line is and under what circumstances, making these decisions even more difficult for an individual to make in a split second in a high stress event. Experience, training, and oversite may also be important factors in these situations.

In 1971 at Stanford University, Dr. Zimbardo began the, now infamous, prison experiment. He divided a group of students into prisoners and guards and set up a makeshift prison in the basement of one of the University buildings. Everyone knew that this was an experiment. The experiment was planned for two weeks, but was stopped after 6 days because the “guards” became too sadistic and the “prisoners” became too depressed. Some guards did not participate in humiliating prisoners, but did not stop others from doing so. The students were caught in a time warp where they thought what they were doing was acceptable because there were no outside influences to say, “No, that is not OK.” Finally, the experiment was stopped by a professor not involved in the experiment.

Dr. Stanley Milgram wanted to know what kinds of people yielded to the pressure of the Nazi culture. In his experiment, researchers in lab coats at Yale University instructed participants to deliver increasingly painful electric shocks to other “participants” to “teach them through punishment.” Sixty-five percent of the participants continued to deliver what they thought were electric shocks for incorrect answers despite the screams from the “fake” participants. Replications of Dr. Milgram’s experiment have found that about 65% of ordinary people yield to the pressure of the authority figure even when it is contrary to their morals and about 35% do not.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, May 8, 2004, Dr. Zimbardo analyzed the Abu Ghraib abuses and found that the prison environment was set for maltreatment to happen. The prison had a weak leader and it was within the prison.  It was a “secret place” that was not visited often by administrators. The prison was understaffed and undertrained and lacked basic services for staff. They were under the stress of fearing insurgent attacks constantly. They lacked discipline and standard operating procedures. The situation continued to worsen until a soldier pointed out the egregious nature of the activities within the prison. Prisons where the balance of power is so unequal are very likely to become abusive. In the New York Times, May 6, 2004, Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, stated that preventing problems like those found at Abu Ghraib requires discipline, training, and outside monitoring.

Research has identified 7 conditions that make an organization more likely to experience excessive use of force when there is high levels of power over others, such as law enforcement, military, and corrections and low levels of training and supervision.

1. Weak or absent leadership

2. Seeing others as less than human

3. Lack of discipline and training

4. Not having oversight by an outside entity

5. Secrecy

6. Being exposed to brutality

7. Being part of a group with similar beliefs about the legitimacy of using violence in certain situations as a means to an end

Training on the risk factors for risk of excessive use of force could become a part of standard training protocols for law enforcement, corrections, and the military. Additionally, screening candidates for these jobs for propensity for excessive violence when under stress could become a standard screening mechanism for those applying to enter these fields.

Source: PsychologyToday

Author: Kathryn Seifert

Related posts:

Weapons tied to repeat Domestic Abuse
Difference between Criminology and Criminalistics
Shame on you
...Malala Yousafzai...
13Shares

Filed Under: Criminology, Forensic Sciences, Psychology

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Make a donation to support our activities

Stay updated in real time

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Loading

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

Safe and prudent use of Internet

Categorie Articoli

Last Articles

Info

  • Business Contacts
  • Disclaimer

Tags

America american most wanted art artist Chicago crime crimen crime scene criminal Criminalistics criminology disorder Dna fbi forensics forensic science homicide killer law most wanted Murder Nonverbal Communication oil on canvas painting police prison psicólogia psychology psychology today research reward scena criminis science sciencedaily serial killer sex sex offender terrorism terrorist treatment US USA violence violent art war

Footer

Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy

Scene Criminis aims to bring together – around a “round table” – experts, students and simple onlookers, who want to confront, update and find new stimuli.

The largest Italian Community on Forensic Sciences that collects news, studies, curiosities and contributions on Criminology, Criminalistics, Crime Report and Law.

Scena Criminis is also a Non-profit Association, active throughout the province of Caserta (Italy), which has 3 fundamental purposes: Defense of Legality, Fight against all forms of Violence, Education to Gender Differences.

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Instagram

scenacriminis

Gli è andata male... 👮‍♂️ Gli è andata male... 👮‍♂️
Seguimi ➡️ scenacriminis.com 💪 Seguimi ➡️ scenacriminis.com 💪
➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️ ➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️ ➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
Falso allarme... 🤦‍♂️ ➡️ www.scenacr Falso allarme... 🤦‍♂️

➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
Altro che Jackie Chan! 😆 Altro che Jackie Chan! 😆
➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️ ➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️ ➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️ ➡️ www.scenacriminis.com ⬅️
Carica altro… Segui su Instagram

Copyright Scena Criminis Testata giornalistica registrata presso il Tribunale di Santa Maria Capua Vetere (CE) n. 849 del 26/04/2016 © 2023 ·

Direttore Responsabile: Gianfrancesco Coppo

Created by BDM | Log in