Definition of Critical Thinking

(Army Management Staff College)

"Critical Thinking in crime analysis is disciplined, self-directed thinking.  It includes recognition of one's strengths and weaknesses with the objective of improving one's thinking processes to conduct better analytical work."

"Critical thinking can be defined as indispensable thinking."

Left Brain Thinking vs. Right Brain Thinking

Left Brain: is linear, focused on cause and effect.  It's the foundation of reasoning skills and involves breaking down wholes in to parts to study them.

Right Brain: is non-linear, functioning is global, non-verbal, emotional, intuitive, and integrative. It perceives the whole, the relationships, and the interconnections.  Ex) Facial recognition.

Perception

Is the beginning of thought.  We use our five senses to perceive the world and create knowledge. 

Mental Models

Established thinking patterns that help us categorize sensory input, including new information into familiar patterns.

They are assets that help us categorize and classify information quickly. 

Perspective

Problems

Are the precursor to thinking.  We think because of problems and then we try to solve them. 

Abstraction

Involves the symbolizing of real persons, places, and things through use of words, labels, visual representations, and numbers. 

Logic

Based on premises that are known or thought to be true.

Reasoning

The ability to draw accurate conclusions based on observations and knowledge of causes and effects. 

Deductive Reasoning

Is reasoning from the general to the specific. 

Involves taking a generally known fact and applying it to a specific fact or specific set of facts in a given situation. 

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from the specific to the general.

Involves taking a fact or set of facts about a particular incident and using the fact or set of facts to find a general explanation. 

Abductive Reasoning

Inference to the Best Explanation = IBE

Abduction involves inferring causes from effects. 

Ex) The analysis of gang graffiti reports & photos combined with analysis of intelligence info and arriving at the conclusion that a specific gang is using graffiti as a method to claim territory in a specific neighborhood. 

Dialogical Reasoning

Reason by comparing multiple perspectives.  Helps consider other points of view and expands our awareness of issues. 

Dialectical Reasoning

Reason by considering opposing views.

Considering the arguments against a finding helps determine if the conclusions are based on missing or inadequate information, follow incorrect assumptions, or are illogical.

Analogous Reasoning

Involves comparing a situation to a past situation that is similar in some way. 

Used when linking crimes in a crime pattern or series.

Assumption

An unstated premise or belief. 

Observation

The act of noticing.

Ex) Noticing relationships, contradictions in information, gaps in information, what is significant, and noticing what works.

Raw Data

Comprises individual, unorganized facts not yet interpreted for meaning.

Information

Composed of processed data, loosely grouped with relative meaning.

Ex) Statements from officers and victims, news reports, government statistics, charts & maps.

Knowledge

Interpreted, organized information. 

Ex) Well written analytical report on a particular crime problem revealing new, actionable information to officers.

Theory

Consists of abstract principles, the collection of ideas about observed phenomena.

Evidence

The data or information that may prove a conclusion to be true. 

Processed data becomes our evidence.

Relevance

 The determination of what is pertinent, or what is connected to the matter at hand.

Ambiguity

Refers to information that has more than one meaning.

Analysis

The element of reasoning that involves breaking down a problem into parts and studying parts. 

Interpretation

Involves placing information in the context of a point of view to give it meaning.

Synthesis

The combining of separate elements to form a coherent whole.  The ability to synthesize large quantities of information from a variety of sources and summarize it in a report, map, or bulletin. 

Judgment

Is to determine authoritatively after deliberation, or to decide after achieving some understanding. 

Opinion

Like a judgement but is open to dispute. There is often less evidence to support an opinion, or the subject area is complicated and open to interpretation from a number of perspectives.

Premise

A statement that serves as the basis for an argument.

Syllogism

A classic form of reasoning in which two premises are made and a logical conclusion drawn from them.

Ex) The premise, all robbers steal and the premise John is a robber equals the conclusion that John steals.

Conclusion

A judgement or decision.

Implications

Refers to what will be involved or affected. 

Analysts can reflect on the implications of their work to determine whether the work is meaningful or unintentionally harming innocent persons.    

Evaluation

Involves deciding if something is valuable.  It's most effective when it occurs throughout the thinking process, from first question to final answer. 

Ad Hominem Argument

Involves attacking the person (or persons) rather than the idea. 

Ex) An analyst may refuse to believe something because he/she does not like the person presenting the idea. 

False Dilemma

Presenting either/or choices when there are more choices than two. 

Ex) The audience is given a choice of something being true or not true, when reality often presents us with multiple options. 

Oversimplification

Occurs when analysts describe a problem in broad categorical terms instead of specific situational terms.

Ex) Robbery vs. Convenience Store holdup

Appeals to Questionable Authority

Forming arguments based on theories or ideas from authorities who lack credibility.

Confusing "What Should Be" with "What is"

A reasoning fallacy that involves lack of acceptance of reality and over-idealization. 

Ex) Complaining that high-tech equipment is needed for crime analysis in an agency that cannot afford it because crime analysis can be done w/o it. 

Confusing Naming with Explaining

Listing crimes is merely naming.  Explaining the "who, what, where ,when, why, and how" of crime is explaining.

Creativity

Involves synthesizing ideas from a variety of places to come up with new ideas to answer questions and solve problems. 

Sociological Imagination

It involves understanding history in terms of individuals, and individuals understanding themselves in the context of history and society.  A crime analyst can seek to look at a criminal group or crime problem in terms of historical, social and biographical contexts. 

Cross Fertilization

Involves learning and applying knowledge and practices from other disciplines. 

Ex) Computer software helps analysts to analyze and display information; Business market analysis techniques might help us understand about markets for drugs & stolen commodities.   

Types of Problems

1. Requests for information that can be fulfilled by providing facts without analysis.

2. A problem with one answer or multiple but limited correct answers.

3. A problem wherein one answer of many must be chosen.

4. A problem in a multi-answer situation wherein the answer must be designed. 

Analysis

The identification of the components of a situation and consideration of the relationships among the parts.

Ex) Reading the individual police reports in a geographic hot spot of burglaries to see if the specific crimes within that hot spot seem related. 

Categorizing/Classifying

The process of identifying and selecting rules to group objects, events, ideas, and people.

Ex) Creating a database of sex offenses of data elements such as, approach method, suspect demeanor, use of ligatures, etc. 

Challenging Assumptions

The direct confrontation of ideas, opinions, or attitudes that have previously been taken for granted. 

Ex) To challenge the notion that a neighborhood in your jurisdiction is a crime cold spot by collecting citizen surveys that indicate the contrary. 

Evaluating/Judging

A comparison to a standard and making a qualitative or quantitative judgement of value or worth.

Ex) Comparing an agency's crime maps to those of experts in crime mapping to determine if they are equal to or better than the experts' maps and suitable for the intended purposes.  

Inductive/Deductive Reasoning

The systematic and logical development of rules or concepts from specific instances or the identification of cases based on a general principle or proposition using the generalization and inference. 

Ex) Reading crime reports and noting similarity in times and locations of purse snatchings and then inferring that the crimes are related. 

Thinking Aloud

The process of verbalizing about a problem and its solution while a partner listens in detail for errors in thinking or understanding.

Ex) An analyst might talk to a detective about a recent rash of pocket picking to determine if ideas for deterrence are feasible. 

Network Analysis

An approach to project planning and management where relationships among activities, events, resources, and timelines are developed and charted. 

Ex) Creation of an event flow chart depicting criminal activity and non criminal activity of a suspected serial arsonist in relation to the arson incidents to determine relationships between crimes and the suspect.

Task Analysis

The consideration of skills and knowledge required to learn or perform a specific task. 

Ex) The creation of an activity flow chart that explains the general steps of money laundering to better understand and explain the process.

Brainstorming

Involves attempting to spontaneously generate as many ideas on a subject as possible.   Ideas are not critiqued during this process.

Ex) Members of a unit brainstorm to generate ideas about how to best distribute analytical products to the target end-users. 

Imaging/Visualization

Producing mental pictures of the total problem or specific parts of the problem. 

Ex) Use of a mind map to explore the visual relationships of crime problems within your jurisdiction.

Incubation

Involves putting aside the problem and doing something else to allow the mind to unconsciously consider it. 

Outrageous Provocation

Making a statement that is known to be absolutely incorrect and then considering it; hoping to bridge to a new idea. 

Ex) Considering "the computer can do all the crime analysis work by itself" might lead to finding ways to automate some crime analysis work.   

Overload

Considering a large number of facts and details until the logic part of the brain becomes overwhelmed and begins looking for patters. 

Ex) Reading hundreds of crime reports in a week will lead an analyst to find some patterns. 

Random Word Technique

Involves selecting a word randomly from the dictionary and juxtaposing it with problem statement, then brainstorming about possible relationships. 

Synthesizing

Combining parts or elements into a new and original pattern. 

Ex) To combine and map data on recovered guns, gun related calls for service, gun possession arrests along with data on shooting victims to uncover new relationships and patterns. 

Taking Another's Perspective

Involves deliberately taking another person's point of view; referred to as "be someone else."

Ex) Use the word "rape" and think about what it means to a rape victim, a rapist, the husband of a victim, the parent of perpetrator, a defense lawyer, and a judge.    

Metacognition

Refers to self-awareness, self-examination, and self-correction of one's thinking.   

Requires ongoing self-regulation involving self-direction, adjusting oneself to a standard, and adjusting oneself to improve accuracy. 

Bias

(2 Definitions)

1) Mental inclinations: Result from personal conditioning (personal history, personalities, and temperaments, education, and social groups influence an individual).

2) Prejudice: Involves judging prematurely or unfairly.  Its opposite is fairmindness.

Egocentricity

A tendency to view everything in relation to the self.

Ethnocentricity

A tendency to view one's race or culture as superior. 

Groupthink

The tendency of individual group members to be more interested in getting the approval of others than thinking original thoughts that fall outside the group norm.