Welcome to Criminal Psychology...

This is our first M-term hosting this course. We have ten students and two faculty members on our team. Follow along to see how our Criminal Psychology adventure unfolds...

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Day 8: Aliya brings us up to speed on Crime Stoppers...

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Today we started our day wondering what was happening in the court case we have been watching the past two days. We then went out to Crime Stoppers Of Houston to meet Andy Kahan. Andy Kahan is the current Director of Victim Services and Advocacy. Crime Stoppers began in 1980 based on a similar crime tipping system in New Mexico. Today Crime Stoppers is the largest crime-stopping organization in the nation and the leading non-profit in Houston. Mr. Kahan began by talking about how exactly Crime Stoppers as an organization works. The police reach out to Crime Stoppers and Crime Stoppers then reaches out to the community to hopefully receive an anonymous tip that will help solve the case. Mr. Kahan also talked about how he was part of the reason that the families of victims could attend the execution of the murderer. We came back to the school and had lunch. After lunch, we watched a few episodes of Criminal Minds. Specifically S3 Ep 9, S3 Ep 16, and S3, Ep 17 We were informed that ...
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Day 4: Emma chimes in about Criminology Professor Dr. Kane and Murder by the Book...

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 By: Emma Lai The students heard from Dr. Michael Kane, a criminology professor at the University of St. Thomas. He shared several theories about the cause of criminal behavior. They ranged from basic explanations like that state people just want to break laws, to more complicated theories about how life drives people to. Students were especially interested in the theory of having two switches. Someone's internal switch is the voice that tells them right from wrong, and their external switches (like friends, family, environment) are what push a person to act unethically or break the law. Dr. Kane gave the students a simple example to think about: If you got to class and the teacher was not present, but the upcoming test was on their desk, what would you do? Internally, the students knew cheating on a test was wrong, however, external factors provided a different incentive. Looking at the test would help the student succeed while offering them popularity among their peers by sharing...
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Day 7: Alex gives us the scoop on our second day in court...the plot thickens!

On Tuesday at 9:00 am we headed over to the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. We were there to observe the case we had previously been to on Monday. The court case we attended, covered an incident of aggravated sexual assault that took place in 2009. The case was from a while ago however, recent research and evidence brought the case to court finally in 2024. We listened to the witnesses that the state had brought in including a forensic analysis. The courtroom morning session lasted from 9:30 am to around 1 pm. After the morning session, we ate lunch at a pizza place close by called Roma’s Pizza till about 2 pm. We then returned to the courthouse for another hour of observation but left early and returned to school just in time for pick-up.
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