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Criminal investigations by citizens : can guidelines support decision making in crisis situations?

Bussmann, Tim (2018) Criminal investigations by citizens : can guidelines support decision making in crisis situations?

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Abstract:In recent years, the number of citizen investigations has been growing exponentially. However, there are also numerous instances of vigilantism and unwanted consequences. The goal of this research was to find out if adequate guidelines could contain this vigilantism and if the emotional load of a situation influences it as well. Participants were recruited on an online recruitment panel and the personal network of the researcher. After signing up for the study, participants would fill in a survey based on two situations they were shown before answering the questions. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions; in guidelines condition participants received guidelines before answering the questions and in no guidelines condition they would not receive guidelines. It was found that there were indeed differences in the way in which people approached the citizen investigation, when it comes to a more emotional situation. There were main effects of the attitude, vigilantism and trust in public professionals constructs. There was however no significant effect of the guidelines on these results. There is still much that is unknown when it comes to efficiently tackling vigilantism. Guidelines do not fully prevent vigilantism, however there are enough possibilities to devise better countermeasures against vigilantism.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Clients:
Unknown organization, Nederland
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:02 science and culture in general
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/75141
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