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Suspect Interviews and False Confessions
Abstract
In this article, we review two influential methods of police interviewing practice and their associations with false confessions. These are the Reid technique, which is commonly used by police forces in the United States, and the PEACE model, which is routinely used in the United Kingdom. Several authors have recently expressed concerns about the guilt-presumptive and confrontational aspects of the Reid technique and its association with false confessions and recommend that it be replaced by the PEACE model. Anecdotal case studies and DNA exonerations have shown that false confessions are more common than previously thought and are typically associated with two main causes: manipulative/coercive interrogation techniques and suspects’ vulnerabilities in interviews. The main challenge for the future is to develop interview techniques that maximize the number of noncoerced true confessions while minimizing the rate of false confessions. In the meantime, the electronic recording of police interviews, which provides invaluable transparency and accountability, is the single best protection against police-induced false confessions.
... The conduct of an FP during commercial forensic interviewing should be aligned with the legal context in which it is taking place to ensure that the information obtained is admissible in a court of law (Cleary and Warner, 2016;Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011;Kassin et al., 2010;Meissner et al., 2010). In South Africa, commercial forensic investigators should act in accordance with the principles enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa (The Constitution), which emphasise on human dignity (s 10), freedom and security (s 12), privacy (s 14) and the rights of arrested, detained or accused persons (s 35(1)(c)) (see Constitution of South Africa, 1996;Van Graan et al., 2022). ...
... The PEACE model (Scott et al., 2015;Snook et al., 2014;Walsh and Bull, 2011) was developed in the early 1990s in the UK as an effort to establish a new approach to investigative interviewing after the occurrence of several miscarriages of justice. The behaviour of the police, especially in terms of interviewing techniques, was heavily criticised in those cases (Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011). This led to the establishment of two Royal Commissions of Inquiry, which proposed an ethical approach to interviewing suspects and witnesses. ...
... Summary of findingstheoretical assumptions and application. Both the PEACE model and the PCA are non-accusatory interviewing techniques aimed at obtaining information (and not a confession) from interviewees (Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011). Both techniques seek to obtain the interviewee's account and to check its authenticity by questioning and testing it against other evidence (Van Graan et al., 2022). ...
Purpose
A significant increase in financial crime globally emphasises the importance of forensic interviewing to obtain useful and reliable information as part of a commercial forensic investigation. Previous research has identified two interviewing strategies that are aligned with the legal framework in South Africa: the PEACE model (P = preparation and planning; E = engage and explain; A = account, clarify and challenge; C = closure; E = evaluation) and the person-centred approach (PCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical underpinnings and application of the PEACE model and the PCA as commercial investigative strategies aligned with the legal context in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
A scoping review was undertaken to identify literature relevant to the theoretical assumptions and application of the PEACE model and the PCA.
Findings
Literature for the most part reports on the PEACE model but offers very little information about the PCA. A critical analysis revealed that the PEACE model incorporates a clear guiding structure for eliciting information but lacks content needed to create an optimal interpersonal context. To promote this, the PCA proposes that interviewers demonstrate three relational variables: empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard. The PCA suggests a basic structure for interviewing (beginning, middle and end), while providing very little guidance on how to structure the forensic interview and what information is to be elicited in each phase.
Originality/value
Combining the PEACE model and PCA presents an integrated interviewing technique best suited for obtaining useful and reliable information admissible in a South African court of law. The PEACE model has a clear structure, and the PCA assists in creating an optimal interpersonal context to obtain information in an interview.
... Em contraste com o Modelo PEACE, a Técnica Reid, que é influente nos EUA, incentiva os entrevistadores a usar um processo de entrevista em duas etapas (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2013). A primeira etapa é uma entrevista não acusatória, na qual são obtidas informações gerais sobre o suspeito, uma relação de rapport e confiança são construídas, e uma determinação é feita sobre se o suspeito está ou não mentindo sobre a ofensa. ...
... Kassin e Gudjonsson (2004) argumentam que a Técnica Reid de nove etapas pode ser reduzida a três fases gerais: "custódia e isolamento" (ou seja, o suspeito é detido e isolado, ansiedade e incerteza são geradas a fim de enfraquecer a resistência); "confronto" (ou seja, a culpa do suspeito é assumida e ele ou ela é confrontado com supostas provas incriminatórias que podem ou não ser genuínas, as negações são rejeitadas, mesmo que sejam verdadeiras, e a conseqüência da negação contínua é enfatizada); e "minimização" (ou seja, o interrogador tenta ganhar a confiança do suspeito e fornece desculpas para justificar o crime, inclusive sugerindo que foi um acidente ou que a vítima merecia). Em contraste com o Modelo PEACE, a Técnica Reid tem sido associada ao aumento do risco de falsa confissão (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Pearse & Gudjonsson, 1999;Snook, Luther, & Barron, 2016) (Gudjonsson 2018;p. 47). ...
... Leading questions, heavy pressure, and psychological manipulation are avoided, thereby potentially reducing the risk of false confession while still producing true confessions (Shawyer et al, 2009). In contrast to the PEACE Model, the Reid Technique, which is influential in the USA, encourages interviewers to use a two-stage interview process (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2013). The first stage is a nonaccusatory interview, in which general background information about the suspect is obtained, rapport and trust are built, and a determination is made about whether or not the suspect is lying about the offence. ...
Embora as injustiças testemunhais tenham sido pensadas originalmente por Miranda Fricker apenas como redução de credibilidade, neste texto a autora assume a redefinição proposta por Jennifer Lackey para incluir, dentro das injustiças testemunhais, também a hipótese de excesso de credibilidade causada por uma injustiça agencial, isto é, quando a injustiça é cometida por se atribuir excesso de credibilidade a declarações precisamente quando a agência epistêmica do sujeito (as condições de agir como um sujeito de conhecimento) foi obstruída. A partir de sua preocupação com as instituições, Fricker tanto examina o contexto da justiça criminal que propicia as falsas confissões como propõe reflexões sobre as mudanças que são necessárias para a implementação de mais justiça epistêmica no interior dos sistemas de justiça criminal.
... Research and assessments indicate the method consist of psychologically persuasive or manipulative techniques used to induce confessions from suspects (Hartwig et al., 2005). Additionally, volumes of research efforts have demonstrated that the techniques used can lead to false confessions, lack scientific evidence for the claims made (accurate deception detection, the scientific foundation of the techniques, etc.), and that the method is ineffective in distinguishing true confessions from false confessions (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Inbau et al., 2011;Kassin et al., 2010;Leo, 1996;Moore & Fitzsimmons, 2011). According to the corporations website, the firm has been awarded contracts for training from NATO, and the Bavarian and Berlin Law Enforcement communities in Germany, and has and conducted training programs in the U.S., Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, and South Korea (Reid and Associates, n.d.). ...
... In the United Kingdom, a formal, standard interrogation protocol was developed in the early 1990's after several false confession cases became widely known and protested (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). In order to address issues of concern related to police behavior and the reliability of information received during police interviews, an information-gathering interview model was developed (Gudjonsson & Clark, 1986;Meissner et al., 2017). ...
... The rapporteur recommended to the U.N .the development of a universal set of standards for non-coercive interviewing methods, and procedural safeguards aiming to ensure that no person is subjected to torture, ill-treatment or coercion by police during interrogations (Mendez, 2106).Some police organizations around the world have changed their interviewing policies and procedures to reflect an information-gathering approach to interviewing(Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Many police training agencies remain in search of an appropriate platform suitable for the needs of law, cultures and the communities they serve. ...
The following study used self- report data from a sample of police investigators of Sub-Sahara African nations to identify interviewing/interrogation techniques used in the region and capture
the opinions of the techniques used. The literature review provides an overview of the current state of democratic policing in Sub-Saharan African nations, the global interview and interrogation literature, and the gap in literature that exist in relation to the topic from a cultural
and international psychology perspective. A concurrent nested mixed-methods design was utilized in response to the research questions. Results indicate the interview techniques reported used by investigators in Sub-Sahara Africa nations are similar to those reported used in the
United States and other parts of the world, and the issue of obtaining false confessions and false information should be explored further. Also, opinions related to the effectiveness and attitudes
concomitant to bounded authority influences the interviewer's decision to choose a confrontational or non-confrontational method.
... In contrast to the interrogation practices in the United States, the PEACE model, used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Norway (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011), differs from the Reid technique in that it is not guilt-presumptive, is less confrontational (Kassin et al., 2010), and was designed to take into consideration vulnerabilities of suspects, such as age, and minimizes the likelihood of false confessions (Shawyer, Milne, & Bull, 2009). Officers trained in the PEACE model avoid the use of leading questions, "heavy pressure", and are not authorized to lie to suspects or present false evidence (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). ...
... In contrast to the interrogation practices in the United States, the PEACE model, used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Norway (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011), differs from the Reid technique in that it is not guilt-presumptive, is less confrontational (Kassin et al., 2010), and was designed to take into consideration vulnerabilities of suspects, such as age, and minimizes the likelihood of false confessions (Shawyer, Milne, & Bull, 2009). Officers trained in the PEACE model avoid the use of leading questions, "heavy pressure", and are not authorized to lie to suspects or present false evidence (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). These are important distinctions in light of research suggesting juveniles are more likely to falsely confess, even internalize guilty behavior, when presented with falsified evidence (Redlich & Goodman, 2003). ...
Juveniles are more susceptible in the interrogation room than adults, due to a host of factors that put them at risk. Scholars have suggested that requiring the presence of a defense attorney during interrogations can protect juveniles from making an unintelligent waiver; variations of this type of policy have been mandated in some states across the United States (e.g., Illinois and California). The current study takes an exploratory, qualitative approach to examine how defense attorneys may act as a protective factor in the interrogation room. We interviewed 19 juvenile defenders using a semi-structured interview method; questions focused on experiences in the interrogation room, juveniles’ waivers of rights, and protections for juvenile clients. Eight themes emerged that fit broadly into three categories: Factors related to juvenile defendants (e.g., dispositional youth susceptibility factors), the interrogation process and system (e.g., law enforcement impact), and safeguards in the system (e.g., requiring attorneys). Data from interviews suggest defense attorneys are rarely present when their juvenile clients are questioned, highlighting that juvenile defendants frequently waive their rights. Defense attorneys are cognizant that juveniles are susceptible to interrogation tactics, and are skeptical of the protection parents can provide in this context. Overall, defense attorneys are supportive of laws that require juveniles consult with an attorney prior to waiving their rights or require their presence in the interrogation room, but raise a number of logistical concerns, and offer possible solutions important for policy (e.g., an “on-call” attorney, or ‘appropriate adult’).
... People may even create entirely false memories (e.g., Scoboria et al., 2017). And in police interrogations, there is also the possibility of people confessing to crimes they did not commit, resulting in false confessions (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin, 2007;Redlich & Goodman, 2003). ...
Denault, V., & Talwar, V. (2025). Trust and testimony in courts. In K. J. Rotenberg, S. Petrocchi, A. Levante et F. Lecciso (Eds.), The handbook of trust and social psychology (pp. 227-249). Edward Elgar Publishing.
... There is little research on the differences in memory characteristics of true and false memories in general and even less on the differences in CBCA criteria. This is quite surprising, as false memories are far from uncommon (Scoboria et al. 2017;Steller 2020), increase the risk of false confessions and accusations (Gudjonsson and Pearse 2011;Gudjonsson et al. 2014;Kassin and Kiechel 1996;Wright, Nash, and Wade 2015) and can have severe consequences for those involved (Garven et al. 1998;Innocence Project n.d.). ...
Although not designed for distinguishing true and false memories, several reasons argue for differences in the criteria‐based content analysis (CBCA). As, to the best of our knowledge, previous research did not ensure a comparison between true and false memories, this study sought to do so. Memory reports of 52 participants were rated employing the CBCA by two independent raters. Analyses were based on event reports rated as a memory (where participants believed that the event had occurred and reported additionally remembered details about it) or reports rated as a belief (where participants believed that the event had occurred without remembering details about it). For both samples, the CBCA total score was significantly higher for true than false reports. Exploratory discriminant analyses revealed accuracy rates of 61.3%–69.6% and additional analyses hint towards the cognitive (vs. motivational) criteria as the main drivers of the obtained differences. Further replications are needed.
... Faktanya, popularitas model Reid telah menarik banyak klien mulai dari departemen kepolisian negara bagian setempat, FBI, perusahaan swasta dan organisasi dengan 20.000 individu yang dilaporkan dilatih setiap tahun(Salvati & Houck, 2019). Gaya lama yang dikenal dengan model Reid lebih menitikberatkan pada keyakinan tersangka daripada fakta atau penemuan kebenaran(Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2022). Awalnya, model Reid menjadi pilihan terbaik dalam reformasi kepolisian karena seringnya menggunakan gelar ketiga. ...
Investigations are a major aspect of the criminal justice process. However, based on the reality on the ground, the investigations carried out by the police have not been able to produce a balancé between accurate investigation results and practices that continue to uphold human rights by applicable procedures and regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the investigation technique that is proportional and effective. This article identifies three interview/interrogation techniques that are potential to be practised, namely: third level, accusation approach, and information gathering approach. Existing police law regulations do not specify the details of investigative interview techniques in criminal cases. For this reason, it is necessary to have an official procedure that can be used as a reference in the investigation process. The review of interview techniques in this article is expected to be a separate view that motivates and contributes to improving the quality of investigative techniques by police investigators.
... This is astonishing considering a number of high-profile cases of suggested sexual abuse (e.g., McMartin Preschool Case; Garven et al., 1998) and the research demonstrating the successful suggestion of non-experienced events (Hyman & Billings, 1998;Hyman & Pentland, 1996;Lindsay et al., 2004;Loftus & Pickrell, 1995;Oeberst et al., 2021;Wade et al., 2002): A recent mega-analysis of several false memory studies revealed that 30% of all participants developed false memories after comparably mild suggestion (Scoboria et al., 2017). This demonstrates the malleability and fallibility of our memory (Bartlett, 1995;Ceci, Huffman, et al., 1994;Kleider et al., 2008;Loftus, 2010;Loftus & Palmer, 1974) and points to the risk of false confessions and accusations (Garven et al., 1998;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Gudjonsson et al., 2014;Innocence Project, 2021;Kassin et al., 2010;Wright et al., 2015). Consequently, it is important to investigate how true and false memories can be distinguished. ...
Despite a number of real-life cases of false memories and various studies on the suggestion of false memories, little attention has been paid to the distinction between true and false memory reports. The present review summarizes the current state of research on comparing true and false memories. After an extensive search, n = 22 articles (24 studies) were included in the scoping review. From 70 statement characteristics, seven yielded significant differences that have been repeatedly obtained and outnumbered null results. From 61 self-evaluations, significant differences were found repeatedly and more often than null results for seven variables. However, due to substantial conceptual caveats in 18 studies, robust differences between true and false memories are documented for only six variables – three self-report measures (subjective confidence, vividness/clarity, auditory experience) and three statement characteristics (number of idea units, number of words, amount/quantity of details). Differences do not guarantee discriminability, however. Therefore, we argue that reliable and valid indicators for forensic practice may not be derived. Instead, we put forward several recommendations for future research, which is urgently needed.
... This is because our effect sizes were consistently larger for yield before negative feedback when compared to the effect sizes of the shift scores. Cognitive uncertainty is suggested to increase upon receipt of negative feedback leading to a shift in responses (Drake & Bull, 2011;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). After 1 week, the difference in the shift between the two groups became nonsignificant. ...
Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system (CJS) than neurotypical individuals. Interrogative suggestibility is theorised to be a weakness in this population; this is the first experimental evidence of interrogative suggestibility in adolescents with FASD. Fifty‐two participants (aged 11–16 years) completed the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale immediately and after 1 week; the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children; and the Behavioural Rating of Executive Function. Compared to the control group, individuals with FASD were more vulnerable to leading questions, negative feedback and evidenced significantly higher suggestibility, immediately and after 1 week. A significant correlation was found between immediate and repeat suggestibility at 1‐week follow‐up. Poorer memory recall, lower intelligence quotient and higher impulsivity were also observed in the FASD population. The results indicate the importance for the CJS to establish whether suspects, witnesses, and victims of crimes may have been impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure since this is a significant source of vulnerability that could lead to false confessions or miscarriage of justice.
... Psychologically coercive techniques are predominantly ascribed to guilt-presumptive interrogation methods, such as the Reid technique (see Inbau et al., 2013). Despite the association between such methods and increased risk of false confession, they remain popular due to the widespread belief in their effectiveness to gain confessions (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). However, even when information-gathering (e.g. the PEACE model, see Shepherd & Griffiths, 2021), rather than guilt-presumptive, methods are utilised as a deliberate attempt to avoid coercing innocent suspects, coercive elements have been found in police interviews (Soukara et al., 2009). ...
... όπου λαμβάνονται γενικές πληροφορίες για τον ύποπτο, χτίζεται η εμπιστοσύνη και η συμπάθεια μεταξύ των δύο μερών και λαμβάνεται η απόφαση για το αν ο ύποπτος ψεύδεται ή όχι για το αδίκημα. Εάν ο ύποπτος θεωρηθεί ένοχος, τότε η συνέντευξη εξελίσσεται σε μία προσέγγιση εννέα βημάτων κατηγορητικού πλέον χαρακτήρα, η οποία αναφέρεται πλέον ως ανάκριση.(Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). ...
... The interrogation phase is inherently accusatory, resulting in an increase in both true and false confessions (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin et al., 2010). Though the Reid technique's creators assert that only deceptive suspects enter the interrogation stage (Inbau et al., 2013), police are imperfect at detecting deception and might make errors when judging a suspect's guilt status during the BAI. ...
Objective:
False confessions are prevalent in wrongful convictions, and much research has examined investigation factors and interrogation methods that can contribute to false confessions. However, not all these factors are under the control of the legal system, and improving the effectiveness of interrogation methods has a limited effect on evaluating the veracity of confessions. We suggest incorporating an important but often-neglected factor in interrogations: suspects' prior probability of guilt ("the prior," a Bayesian term meaning suspects' likelihood of being guilty before police conduct an interrogation).
Method:
By connecting interrogation practices to probability concepts, we discuss a gap in the literature between questions traditionally answered by lab research and a distinct question faced by the legal system.
Results:
On the basis of our analysis, we argue that police should increase priors by collecting additional evidence to satisfy an evidence-based suspicion of guilt before interrogating suspects.
Conclusions:
Implementing the evidence-based suspicion practice can help police reduce false confessions, reallocate investigation time and resources, and assist prosecutors in building strong cases for trial. Likewise, researchers should expand the empirical and legal questions they ask and incorporate priors into their interrogation experiments to improve the generalizability of findings to the criminal justice system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Investigative interviewers spend up to 80% of their time in the interview room during a judicial investigation (De Greef & De Fruyt, 2006). Obtaining truthful information about the offence and involvement of suspects is an important goal of investigative interviews (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Based on the assumption that verbal structures of true and false statements significantly differ from each other, verbal credibility assessment (VCA) tools can assist investigative interviewers in detecting lies and/or deception Nicklaus & Stein, 2020;Vrij, 2008). ...
SCAN (Scientific Content Analysis) is a verbal credibility assessment (VCA) tool that claims to detect deception in written statements. Although the validity of SCAN is contested in literature, various (law enforcement) agencies across the globe are trained in using SCAN. To date it remains unknown how SCAN is perceived, and to what extent it is used in practice. Based on a scoping review and qualitative survey, we identified practitioners’ and scholars’ perceptions on the use(fulness) of SCAN. Data were collected from 48 participants (35 practitioners and 13 scholars). Key findings illuminate (1) that practitioners apply an incomplete, personalized version of SCAN, (2) that SCAN practitioners are reluctant to abandon SCAN, and (3) that SCAN is considered incompatible with (Belgian) legislation on police questioning. Based on practitioners’ expressed needs and concerns, we present several alternatives for SCAN, as well as recommendations on how a shift to other techniques can be facilitated.
... However, effective interviewing techniques (such as trying to build rapport with the suspect) were commonly used along with nonrecommended techniques, such as attempting to detect lies observing nonverbal behavior and presenting photos of the crime or the victims. Thus, our results seemed to indicate that police officers engaged in rapport building with the main purpose of obtaining trust from suspects in order to obtain a confession by the use of more coercive techniques.The use of rapport with no interest in building a real trust relationship with the suspect is observed in coercive interrogation methods, such as the Reid interview method, which leads to less cooperation from suspects and increases the risk of false confessions(Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011; Salvati, & Houck, 2019). These results about the use of ineffective interrogation techniques (e.g., nonverbal behavior observation for detecting lies, seeking a confession) highlights the importance of proper training in information gathering investigative interviewing, in which rapport is key in establishing a truthful relation with the interviewee. ...
... V dnešní době hypnózu nahradilo kognitivní interview, ale Wagstaff (2004) argumentuje, že hypnóza měla také pozitivní rozpomínací přínos a že by bylo možné její pozitivní efekt nahradit zaměřenou meditací, která je podle jeho výzkumů robustní vůči falešným vzpomínkám. Nicméně svědectví je v soudnictví považováno za jeden z nejsilnějších forem důkazů (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Tento přístup reflektuje úvahy a povědomí lidí o přesnosti paměti. ...
A study from 2015 suggests that brief mindfulness meditation increases the amount of created false memories (Wilson, Mickes, Stolarz-Fantino, Evrard, & Fantino, 2015). The purpose of this paper was to replicate the original study and extend the results by observing the level of following instructions during the meditation. I used a 15minute mindfulness meditation to induce a mindfulness state, and I used the DRM free recall test to measure the amount of false memories. Data from 132 participants was analyzed. Results suggest that neither brief mindfulness meditation nor following of instructions has an effect on the amount of created critical lures. Results also suggest that mindfulness meditation has no effect on the amount of correctly recalled words in DRM paradigm. This study suggests that brief mindfulness meditation has no effect on the creation of false memories during free recall.
... Little research has evaluated police interview training with cooperative adult witnesses. Most investigative interview training research focuses on forensic interviews with children (Brown & Lamb, 2009;Ceci & Bruck, 1995;Earhart et al., 2016;Goodman & Melinder, 2007;Poole & Lamb, 1998; for a systematic review, see Saywitz et al., 2015) and suspect interrogation techniques (Cleary & Warner, 2016;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin et al., 2009;Kassin et al., 2010;Kelly et al., 2016;Meissner et al., 2014;Snook et al., 2021), the latter of which may include persuasive and psychologically manipulative tactics (e.g. assumption of guilt, theme development, overcoming objections, blocking denials, appealing to the suspect's conscience; see Inbau et al., 2013; also see Kassin, 2005) and has inherently different investigative needs (i.e. to obtain a confession). ...
The U.S. National Institute of Justice’s Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide
for Law Enforcement makes recommendations regarding best
practice witness interviewing techniques. However, relatively little
is known about police training in collecting and documenting
evidence from witness interviews. One hundred seventy-seven
police officers from three U.S. states (CT, FL, and MA) were
surveyed about witness interview training and practices,
perceptions of question type, and recording/documentation of
interviews. Results indicate awareness of the importance of asking
open-ended questions, but training is lacking, particularly
regarding question types. Many officers reported using techniques
consistent with the Cognitive Interview such as rapport-building,
avoiding leading questions, and taking additional steps to assist
recall. Seventy-four percent reported recording interviews via
notes or electronic recording devices, while 16% indicated only
doing so for certain cases/situations. Fourteen percent also
acknowledged not documenting their questions in notes or
reports, focusing solely on witness responses. In terms of postinterview documentation, 78% acknowledged writing reports
using information elicited during witness interviews. In terms of
testimony, 82% reported frequently testifying about witness
interview content at criminal trials. Findings suggest that although
U.S. police interviewers have implemented some best practice
techniques, there are still some considerable training needs as
evidenced by self-reported practices.
... Like this case, false confessions often originate from people who are under 18 years old (Drizin & Leo, 2004) and ethnic minorities (Grimsley, 2012). False confessions also tend to come from psychologically vulnerable suspects or defendants (Gudjonsson, 2003;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Therefore, specific dispositional traits are associated with falsely confessing to a crime (Kassin et al., 2010;Perillo & Kassin, 2011). ...
The United States Constitution grants Americans the “right to a speedy and public trial,” with an assumption that the trial is impartial and fair. Recent data suggest a nontrivial number of cases fail to meet this standard. During interrogations, suspects can be presented with false evidence, long interrogations can undermine a suspect’s cognitive ability, and minimization tactics often mislead suspects into believing justice is on their side. These dynamics facilitate false confessions and wrongful convictions, which are common in the United States and globally. We argue the current approaches to understand and predict innocence in legal cases are insufficient and interdisciplinary research is required to prevent innocent people from going to jail. In this review, we cover research on wrongful convictions and false confessions, ending with The Truth Project (www.truth-project.io), a new global framework to connect scholars and facilitate research into behavioral patterns of innocence.
... Like this case, false confessions often originate from people who are under 18 years old (Drizin & Leo, 2004) and ethnic minorities (Grimsley, 2012). False confessions also tend to come from psychologically vulnerable suspects or defendants (Gudjonsson, 2003;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Therefore, specific dispositional traits are associated with falsely confessing to a crime (Kassin et al., 2010;Perillo & Kassin, 2011). ...
The United States Constitution grants Americans the “right to a speedy and public trial,” with an assumption that the trial is impartial and fair. Recent data suggest a nontrivial number of cases fail to meet this standard. During interrogations, suspects can be presented with false evidence, long interrogations can undermine a suspect’s cognitive ability, and minimization tactics often mislead suspects into believing justice is on their side. These dynamics facilitate false confessions and wrongful convictions, which are common in the United States and globally. We argue that the current approaches to understand and predict innocence in legal cases are insufficient and interdisciplinary research is required to prevent innocent people from going to jail. In this review, we cover research on wrongful convictions and false confessions, ending with The Truth Project (www.truth-project.io), a new global framework to connect scholars and facilitate research into behavioral patterns of innocence.
... The methods taught are now largely based on science and respect of human rights (Vrij et al., 2017). Such more evidence based, ethical, and human rights-compliant interviewing practices are not only more effective, but also they greatly reduce the risk of false confessions (Gudjonsson, 2021;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011) and miscarriages of justice (Poyser & Milne, 2021). ...
A significant number of individuals detained and interrogated by law enforcement agencies present psychopathic personality characteristics. However, despite the numerous studies conducted in recent decades in the fields of psychopathy or investigative interviewing, there are not many studies in the literature on the particularities of questioning psychopaths. If previously, interviewing techniques based on an accusatory model were more accepted, especially with suspects of more serious or violent crimes; currently the use of a methodology based on the scientific evidence and respectful of human rights is something essential, even with psychopaths. This chapter seeks to compile the various contributions in the field of investigative interviewing and integrate them into knowledge about the behavioral characteristics of psychopaths, to present an evidence based model for conducting investigative interviews with psychopaths.
... Those that confess their crimes often do so under durex and to avoid continuous beating and torture by the police. False confessions often result from Reid technique of interview used by the police (Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011). Memory distrust can result from pressured internalized type of forced confession, in this case suspects rely more on external forces rather than their own memory during forced interview (Gudjonsson, 2017). ...
The police occupy a very important position in the entire criminal justice system in Nigeria. The nature of police relationship with the people and the manner in which the public were handled at the station and on the street daily within the community affects the way the people perceive them and the level of cooperation they get from the people in curbing crime in the society. The study took place in Zaria, Kaduna state, Northern Nigeria. A study population was the police in Zaria. Three police stations (Zaria City, Sabon Gari, and Samaru police stations) were purposively selected reflecting the socio-cultural and demographic backgrounds of Zaria residence and population. The Divisional Police officers and police officers in-charge of crime were interviewed. The police crime and incidence records were examined while the general conduct and social atmosphere of the police and police stations were observed. Using in-depth interview, observational method, and police records, it was discovered that the socio-economic status of suspects affected how they were treated by the police in the police stations studied. Also, the environment suspect lives affected how they were treated too by the police. It was recommended that the police make the rule of law their guide in the handling of suspects in the police stations irrespective of socio-demographic variable or area of habitation of the suspects. Police brutality and violations of citizen’s rights should be checked by senior police officers, while community-policing style should be implemented across communities in Nigeria.
... Law enforcement officers questioning suspected CSEC victims may attempt to use some supportive techniques, even when they perceive the CSEC victims as akin to suspects. In the United States, the most popular and frequently implemented training model for suspect interviewing and interrogation is the Reid Technique (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Meyer & Reppucci, 2007), which recommends that officers attempt to build rapport with suspects (Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2015) before they engage in maximization and minimization. However, Reid interviewing and interrogation manuals "offer few concrete techniques to aid interviewers when building rapport with cooperative witnesses, and even fewer techniques when building rapport with criminal suspects" (Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2015, p. 89). ...
Little is known about the relation between law enforcement interviewing behaviors and commercially sexually exploited children’s (CSEC) reluctance. This study examined the relation between officers’ use of maximization, (references to) expertise, minimization, and support and adolescent CSEC victims’ reluctance in a small sample of police interviews (n = 2,416 question-answer pairs across ten interviews). Twenty-six percent of officers’ utterances contained at least one interviewing tactic. When statements were paired with maximization, they were correlated with more reluctance than when they were not paired with an interviewing tactic. Contrary to predictions, support was also related to greater reluctance. Open-ended (recall) questions and statements were associated with greater reluctance than closed-ended (recognition) questions. The results highlight the importance of understanding the context in which interviewing strategies are employed when assessing the relation between interviewer behavior and interviewee reluctance.
... In other words, about half of the participants could be persuaded to incorporate an event into their autobiographical memory that never happened. The enormous relevance of this becomes immediately apparent in the forensic context: Believing, or even remembering, something that never happened may lead to false confessions (30)(31)(32) as well as false allegations (33)(34)(35). Moreover, estimates of the real-life prevalence of false memories as well as retrospective analyses of exoneration cases clearly suggest that these are not rare occurrences (36)(37)(38). ...
Significance
Human memory is fallible and malleable. In forensic settings in particular, this poses a challenge because people may falsely remember events with legal implications that never actually happened. Despite an urgent need for remedies, however, research on whether and how rich false autobiographical memories can be reversed under realistic conditions (i.e., using reversal strategies that can be applied in real-world settings) is virtually nonexistent. The present study therefore not only replicates and extends previous demonstrations of false memories but, crucially, documents their reversibility after the fact: Employing two ecologically valid strategies, we show that rich but false autobiographical memories can mostly be undone. Importantly, reversal was specific to false memories (i.e., did not occur for true memories).
... In contrast to the Reid Technique, the English PEACE Model [acronym for Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account and Clarification, Closure, and Evaluation] focuses on openness, transparency and accountability whilst identifying vulnerabilities as a way of ensuring fairness and justice (Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011). A number of scientists have provided helpful descriptions of the two interview styles typically associated with the UK (PEACE) and the USA (Reid), respectively (Bull et al., 2009;Meissner et al., 2012Meissner et al., , 2014Vrij et al., 2014;Oxburgh et al., 2016;Snook et al., 2016Snook et al., , 2020. ...
This review shows that there is now a solid scientific evidence base for the “expert” evaluation of disputed confession cases in judicial proceedings. Real-life cases have driven the science by stimulating research into “coercive” police questioning techniques, psychological vulnerabilities to false confession, and the development and validation of psychometric tests of interrogative suggestibility and compliance. Mandatory electronic recording of police interviews has helped with identifying the situational and personal “risk factors” involved in false confessions and how these interact. It is the combination of a detailed evaluation and analysis of real-life cases, experimental work, and community (and prison/police station) studies that have greatly advanced the science over the past 40 years. In this review, the story of the development of the science during this “golden era” is told through the three established error pathways to false confessions and wrongful convictions: misclassification, coercion, and contamination. A case study of a major miscarriage of justice is used to highlight the key issues at each stage of the error pathways and it shows the continued resistance of the judiciary to admit mistakes and learn from them. Science is a powerful platform from which to educate the police and the judiciary.
... This goes against best practice and research showing greater accuracy when open ended questions are employed (Milne & Bull, 1999). When an interviewee is uncertain as to how to respond or receives negative feedback, the interrogative pressure to respond to a closed question may lead them to doubt their memory and change their answers (Drake & Bull, 2011;Gudjonsson, 1992Gudjonsson, , 2018Gudjonsson, , 2003Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Milne et al., 2002). ...
The consistency of young asylum-seeker's verbal testimony is often critical in determining the outcome of their claims. It is well established that an interviewee may change their answers to appease an interviewer or in response to suggestions. Experiencing adversity during childhood may increase vulnerability in such interview situations. Here, the vulnerability to interview pressure of asylum-seeking youth separated from their caregivers as minors was compared with age-matched peers. Thirty participants (16–23 years) completed the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS2, measures of negative life events (NLEs) and non-verbal cognitive functioning measures. Vulnerability to interrogative suggestibility, non-verbal cognitive functioning and number of NLEs was compared between two groups. This preliminary data showed asylum-seeking youth as significantly more vulnerable to Shift; changes in response to interviewer feedback. NLEs and lower non-verbal cognitive functioning were significantly more common among the separated youth increasing vulnerability to Shift. The implications are discussed.
... This goes against best practice and research showing greater accuracy when open ended questions are employed (Milne & Bull, 1999). When an interviewee is uncertain as to how to respond or receives negative feedback, the interrogative pressure to respond to a closed question may lead them to doubt their memory and change their answers (Drake & Bull, 2011;Gudjonsson, 1992Gudjonsson, , 2018Gudjonsson, , 2003Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Milne et al., 2002). ...
Interrogative suggestibility in asylum seeking minors and age matched peers: an exploratory study
... In contrast, confessions increased with crime seriousness. Gudjonsson and Pearse (2011) describe how police interviewing is 'best conceptualised as a dynamic and interaction social process, the outcome of which is influenced by a number of factors (e.g., age and motivation of suspect, intelligence, personality and access to legal advice)' (p. 33). ...
This study examined real-life audio-taped police interviews with 56 serious crime suspects in English and Wales. It provides an analysis of how suspects responded and behaved during the interviews and considers how suspects’ responses may be affected by contextual characteristics including the presence of legal advisors. It was found that fewer suspects admitted these serious offences in comparison to previous studies, with most suspects who did admit doing so early on in the interview. The majority of suspects’ responses were identified as ‘relevant’, only a very small proportion of interviews were assessed as ‘challenging’. Significant associations between suspects’ responses and context were found. Specifically, if the (alleged) victim was female, the location of the offence was in-doors, and there was no clear motive; then, suspects were more likely to say ‘no comment’ than to respond relevantly. Suspects who were 32 years of age or over, and had previous criminal convictions, were more likely to respond ‘relevantly’ than say ‘no comment’. The study also found that whilst present in the majority of interviews, the contributions of legal advisors were minimal (though more frequent legal advisor contributions were associated with the increased use of police strategies).
... 205 Such phrases are not only inherently less guilt presumptive but also make the interrogation less cognitively demanding for the interrogator. 206 An associated benefit is that the interrogation becomes more cognitively demanding for the suspect, who therefore has less cognitive resources available for, for example, making untrue statements appear credible. Furthermore, continuous education and training in asking open-ended questions reduces cognitive load in the applied setting. ...
Although the historical roots, contemporary challenges, material as well as procedural law vary across different jurisdictions, all jurisdictions have one common and continuous denominator; they are all fundamentally dependent on the decision-making processes of humans operating inside of them. It has been said that: “if one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration” (Nickerson, 1998). Confirmation bias connotes the seeking and/or interpretation of evidence in ways that are partial to existing hypotheses and the relevance of this bias for the context of criminal investigations and proceedings has been confirmed by legal psychological research. So far, this research has focused almost exclusively on national jurisdictions while similar problems may very well arise in international investigations into core international crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide etc.). In this context, confirmation bias would strongly contradict legal demands on decision making such as the presumption of innocence and the prosecutor’s duty to investigate both incriminating and exonerating circumstances equally (Rome Statute of the ICC, Articles 66 and 54).
This research explores manifestations of confirmation bias such as suspect-driven investigations and asymmetrical scepticism using examples such as The Ayyash et al case from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and The Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It also discusses the importance of confirmation bias in more specific investigative settings such as forensic investigation and analyses, identifications and interviews. Furthermore, explanations of confirmation bias stemming from cognitive, emotion/motivation, social and organizational psychology are addressed, as well as how these explanations can be converted into possible debiasing techniques. Such techniques involve for example structured analytical techniques, models for suspect interviews, contextual information management (CIM) and changing decision makers between different stages of the investigations and proceedings.
... PEACE is an acronym for the five stages of the interview process: Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, and Evaluation. The PEACE model is an inquisitorial method that employs a noncoercive information gathering approach to interviewing all interviewee types (Meissner and Russano 2003;Snook et al. 2010;Gudjonsson and Pearse 2011). The goal of the approach when questioning suspects is to elicit the suspect's account of the situation in as much detail as possible by using open-ended questions and allowing them to provide a narrative account of their side of the story without interruptions. ...
The current study assessed the relative propensity of a persuasion-based and a dialogue-based interrogation approach to generate true and false confessions (i.e., their diagnosticity). Following the Russano cheating paradigm, participants were first either induced or not induced to cheat on an experimental task to create innocent and guilty conditions. An experimenter, blind to the participants’ guilt or innocence, then attempted to generate a confession using a persuasion-based or a dialogue-based interrogation approach. Chi-square analyses showed that both interrogation approaches generated an equally high proportion of true confessions from guilty participants (95% for both approaches; p = 0.942) but that the persuasion-based approach generated substantially more false confessions from innocent participants than the dialogue-based approach (45% vs. 0%, respectively; p = 0.001). The dialogue-based approach’s clear advantage over the persuasion-based approach in this study adds to the call for law enforcement organizations to utilize dialogue-based approaches within real-world interrogations.
It has been approximately 36 years since the initial development of the cognitive interviewing technique for conducting witness interviews. At that time, federal law enforcement adopted the method, and numerous studies have repeatedly shown the value of using cognitive interviewing to increase the quantity and value of witness recall. While cognitive interviewing, like any other scientifically devised technique, has limitations, each can be mitigated by limiting any negative impact that may reduce law enforcement's choice to implement it. Even after decades of research, demonstrated real-world value in federal investigations, and similar implementations in other nation's police forces, with few exceptions, local US law enforcement still has not implemented cognitive interviewing. Would additional training and improved leadership bring local law enforcement into balance with the federal system?
This paper presents the results of a bibliometric study providing a comprehensive overview of the social science research conducted on criminal interrogations and investigative interviews since the 1900s. The objectives are to help researchers to further understand the research field, to better communicate research findings to practitioners, to help practitioners understand the breadth of scientific knowledge on criminal interrogations and investigative interviews, and to foster dialog between researchers and practitioners. To begin, after a brief description of Web of Science, we describe how we developed our database on criminal interrogations and investigative interviews. Then, we report the yearly evolution of articles, the journals where they were published, the research areas covered by this research field, as well as the authors, the institutions and the countries that published the most on a variety of topics related to criminal interrogations and investigative interviews. Finally, we present the most used keywords and the most cited articles, and examine the research on questionable tactics and techniques in the research field of criminal interrogations and investigative interviews. This paper ends with a critical look at the results, for the benefit of researchers and practitioners interested in criminal interrogations and investigative interviews.
I consider Katherine Hawley's commitment account of interpersonal trustworthiness alongside her sceptical challenge regarding the value of philosophically modelling institutional trustworthiness as distinct from reliability. I argue, pace Hawley's challenge, that there would be significant diagnostic and explanatory loss if we were to content ourselves with ideas of institutional (un)reliability alone; and I offer an illustrative case where institutional unreliability is only the half of it, indicating that when it comes to certain kinds of institutional dysfunction, we do need philosophical models of institutional ‘distrustworthiness’ if we are to achieve a proper diagnosis.
Psychologists are sometimes asked to provide their expert opinion in court on whether memories of victims, witnesses, or suspects are reliable or not. In this article, we will discuss what expert witnesses can reliably say about memory in the legal arena. We argue that before research on memory can be discussed in legal cases, this research should ideally meet the following three conditions: replicability, generalizability, and practical relevance. Using a fictitious false memory case, we offer a guide to how psychologists should critically examine whether a particular segment of memory research is in line with these three conditions. We show that the area of false memory broadly fits these conditions but that for areas such as eyewitness identification and false confessions, there is limited discussion on which effect sizes are of interest in legal cases. We propose several recommendations that expert witnesses can use when they evaluate the validity of statements such as working with scenarios (e.g., statements are valid or not). Being transparent about the limits and strengths of memory research will assist triers of fact in their decision-making process.
Anger appears to be a neurocognitive adaptation designed to bargain for better treatment, and is primarily triggered by indications that another individual values the focal individual insufficiently. Once activated, anger orchestrates cognitive, physiological, and behavioral responses geared to incentivize the target individual to place more weight on the welfare of the focal individual. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that anger works by matching in intensity the various outputs it controls to the magnitude of the current input—the precise degree to which the target appears to undervalue the focal individual. By magnitude-matching outputs to inputs, the anger system balances the competing demands of effectiveness and economy and avoids the dual errors of excessive diffidence and excessive belligerence in bargaining. To test this hypothesis, we measured the degree to which audiences devalue each of 39 negative traits in others, and how individuals would react, for each of those 39 traits, if someone slandered them as possessing those traits. We observed the hypothesized magnitude-matchings. The intensities of the anger feeling and of various motivations of anger (telling the offender to stop, insulting the offender, physically attacking the offender, stopping talking to the offender, and denying help to the offender) vary in proportion to: (i) one another, and (ii) the reputational cost that the slanderer imposes on the slandered (proxied by audience devaluation). These patterns of magnitude-matching were observed both within and between the United States and India. These quantitative findings echo laypeople's folk understanding of anger and suggest that there are cross-cultural regularities in the functional logic and content of anger.
This chapter documents US counter-terror law demonstrating how torture has come to symbolise American “exceptionalism” where executive power is out of control. The dangerous fusing of patriotism with vengeance and the contumacious disregard of the “Rule of Law” in the US’s rewriting of torture enables the perpetration of wanton sadism against Muslim detainees in Guantánamo, and strategies of sexual humiliation enacted and performed in Abu Ghraib. Such abuse is perpetrated by men and women and authorised by torture lawyers and politicians. The judiciary demonstrates a determination to uphold due process norms and the “Rule of Law”. The chapter concludes by considering the impact this state terrorism and its ever-continuing presence in memory and celluloid has on the psyche and identity of Iraqi people, Muslims and on right-thinking people everywhere.
A confissão criminal é uma prova poderosa e altamente incriminadora. Uma confissão autoincriminatória autêntica pode ser uma fonte produtiva de novas provas conhecidas apenas pelo verdadeiro autor do crime. Ela também ajuda a acusação a construir um caso mais forte contra o réu em uma situação em que apenas indícios estão disponíveis. Em alguns casos, como homicídios sem localização do corpo e incêndios criminosos em terras selvagens, é difícil provar a participação e a culpa do réu sem o seu consentimento e total cooperação. Tudo isso explica por que, na era das técnicas forenses avançadas, os investigadores buscam obter confissões usando uma variedade de estratégias. Estudos mostram, entretanto, que algumas técnicas de interrogatório têm maior probabilidade de induzir falsas confissões, o que, por sua vez, potencializa o risco de erros judiciais. Do ponto de vista dos direitos humanos, o Tribunal Europeu de Direitos Humanos expressou sérias preocupações sobre o uso de provas obtidas por meio de violência, coerção ou tortura, mas não estabeleceu um equilíbrio entre a aplicação eficaz da lei penal e a proteção adequada dos direitos individuais. Neste artigo, analisam-se as disposições legais contra a compulsão policial imprópria na Polônia e na Rússia. Afirma-se que cada país adota uma perspectiva diferente sobre a questão da coerção policial. Na Rússia, a lei fornece regras específicas sobre a admissibilidade de confissões criminais, seu valor probatório e métodos de verificação da confiabilidade do depoimento do suspeito. Na Polônia, a lei confere aos tribunais nacionais uma maior discricionariedade quanto ao modo de lidar com a confissão e as alegações em relação à utilização de técnicas de interrogatório coercivas. Com base nos resultados da análise de dispositivos legais pertinentes, jurisprudência e revisão bibliográfica, nesta pesquisa busca-se determinar a eficácia de dois modelos jurídicos na prevenção e tratamento de confissões penais coagidas. Em sede proporsitica, alterações foram sugeridas para abordar a questão do formalismo judicial excessivo em relação às alegações sobre o uso de técnicas de interrogatório ilegais.
Presentation of synergology; Analysis of the scientificity of synergology, Professional application of synergology.
This essay answers the following question: what contributions can we expect from synergology in psychotherapy?
In addition, it allows to situate synergology in the field of science and non-verbal communication.
The author is a synergologist and psychologist.
http://depot-e.uqtr.ca/id/eprint/9384/
Présentation de la synergologie, Analyse de la scientificité de la synergolgie, Application professionnelle de la synergologie.
Cet essai répons à la question suivante : quels apports peut-on attendre de la synergologie en psychothérapie?
En outre, il permet de bien situer la synergologie dans le champ de la science et de la communication non-verbale.
L'auteur est synergologue et psychologue.
Personality variables have frequently been ignored by scientists studying legal‐forensic psychology. This neglect is likely due to legal psychology's focus on variables that are under the control of the legal system (e.g. eyewitness identification procedures, interrogation techniques, jury instructions). However, there are a few areas where legal‐forensic psychologists have found it useful to explore the impact of personality and individual differences. This entry summarizes several of these areas including the personality characteristics of criminal suspects that raise the risk of false confessions, how the personalities of jurors might be expected to influence how evidence is evaluated and how verdicts are decided, individual differences in the tendency to engage in illegal workplace harassment, and the personality traits associated with criminality. Although we have some understanding of how personality influences the legal system, much work remains to be done.
Police interviewers find the investigation of sexual crimes ‘technically difficult’ and ‘stressful’ to conduct by having to make sense of very powerful and painful emotions. In addition, such interviews often contain inappropriate as opposed to appropriate questions and interviewers often find it difficult to be ‘attentive’ to the specific needs of victims. Through the analysis of interviews with adult rape victims (N = 25) in England, we wanted to establish whether the ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of investigation relevant information (IRI) obtained would be impacted as a function of different question typologies (e.g. appropriate versus inappropriate), and overall interviewer attentiveness. We hypothesised that: (i) more inappropriate questions would be asked compared to appropriate questions; (ii) responses to appropriate questions would contain more items of IRI than responses to inappropriate questions; (iii) attentive interviews would contain more appropriate questions than non-attentive interviews, and; (iv) attentive interviews would contain more IRI than non-attentive interviews. Results found that interviewers asked significantly more appropriate questions that elicited significantly more items of IRI. However, there were no significant differences in the number of appropriate questions asked or the impact on the amount of IRI obtained between interviews as a function of interviewer attentiveness. Implications for practice are discussed.
Personality variables have frequently been ignored by scientists studying legal‐forensic psychology. This neglect is likely due to legal psychology's focus on variables that are under the control of the legal system (e.g. eyewitness identification procedures, interrogation techniques, jury instructions). However, there are a few areas where legal‐forensic psychologists have found it useful to explore the impact of personality and individual differences. This entry summarizes several of these areas including the personality characteristics of criminal suspects that raise the risk of false confessions, how the personalities of jurors might be expected to influence how evidence is evaluated and how verdicts are decided, individual differences in the tendency to engage in illegal workplace harassment, and the personality traits associated with criminality. Although we have some understanding of how personality influences the legal system, much work remains to be done.
This article was based on an archival study on police files of CSA cases.
Successful prosecution in child sexual abuse (CSA) cases is an essential purpose of law enforcement agencies to ensure accountability of perpetrators and children's safety. However, research has shown that legal prosecution of CSA cases is a highly complex endeavor resulting in only a limited percentage of cases being prosecuted and ultimately proven in court. Most attrition occurs at the stage of the police investigation. The current study is the first study of CSA prosecution in an Asian country. We aimed to identify factors, which contribute to Indonesian CSA cases prosecution. We examined police files of CSA cases (N = 179) from three police units in greater Jakarta. We found that only 32% (n = 58) of cases were prosecuted. The following factors increased the odds of prosecution: victim being threatened, the suspect confessed, medical examination report being present, duration of investigations between one to 2 months, and the case being charged under the Child Protection Law. These findings (threat, suspect confession, and the presence of a medical examination report) correspond to previous studies in other jurisdictions.
Rencontrer les chercheurs en synergologie pour leur demander quelle est leur méthodologie de recherche. Comparer la méthodologie de recherche synergologique avec la démarche scientifique.
A scholarly edited book about the emerging interface of psychology and the law.
Recently, in a number of high-profile cases, defendants who were prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced on the basis of false confessions have been exonerated through DNA evidence. As a historical matter, confession has played a prominent role in religion, in psychotherapy, and in criminal law-where it is a prosecutor's most potent weapon. In recent years, psychologists from the clinical, personality, developmental, cognitive, and social areas have brought their theories and research methods to bear on an analysis of confession evidence, how it is obtained, and what impact it has on judges, juries, and other people.
There exist rather few published studies of what actually takes place during police interviews with suspects. Only a proportion of this small sample has provided data concerning the various tactics and skills used by such interviewers, and almost no studies have examined the possible relationship between actual tactic and skill usage and the elicitation of confessions (but see Pearse & Gudjonsson, 1999). The present chapter describes four interrelated studies that provide a significant addition to this limited literature. These four studies were conducted several years after a very major initiative was undertaken in England and Wales to improve and change the way police conduct interviews with suspects, witnesses, and victims. We now present four interrelated studies that were designed to examine not only the extent to which interviewers' beliefs and interviewers' actual performance were in line the PEACE approach but also which aspects of their performance (e.g., tactics, skills) might relate to suspects giving a confession. Study 1 found that the views of experienced interviewers and detectives in England appeared to be in line with the new approach (referred to as investigative interviewing) and its evolving training program (PEACE). One major aim of Studies 2 and 3 was to determine if actual police interviewing of suspects was in line with the philosophy behind investigative interviewing. These two studies found this to be the case to a considerable extent (e.g., the absence of oppressive coercive tactics), which clearly suggests that the PEACE approach can be accepted and used by police officers. However, some inappropriate tactics were used in a considerable number of interviews (e.g., leading questions, repeating the same questions, positive confrontation), although Clarke, Milne, and Bull (2009) found fewer leading questions. Studies 3 and 4 also had the major aim of trying to determine whether interviewer use of tactics and skills bore any relationship to the suspect confessing. Interviews largely using the noncoercive PEACE investigative interviewing approach still resulted in confessions. Contrary to what the limited previous research had found (e.g., Baldwin, 1993), most of the suspects who confessed did not do so very early on. This allowed, almost for the first time, examination of whether the interviewer's behavior influences confessing (as suggested by convicted persons in studies by Holmberg & Christiansson, 2002; Kebbell & Hurren, 2006). Of course, in our research studies it was not possible to determine whether use of the PEACE approach results in fewer false confessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
IntroductionCognitive InterviewConversation ManagementPeace TrainingACPO National Investigative Interviewing StrategyReferences
Purpose. This study was concerned with examining the types of tactics employed by police officers to overcome a resistant suspect and elicit a confession to a major crime. The main hypothesis is that tactics that seek to maximize or exaggerate the strength of the evidence against the suspect, or that seek to minimize the suspect's responsibility or role in the offence will be present in serious cases where initial resistance was overcome.
Method. The interview data from 18 serious criminal cases were subjected to a detailed analysis using a specially constructed coding frame that identified the nature and number of tactics present in every 5‐minute segment of each interview.
Results. A total of 39 interviewing tactics were identified, of which 33 were factor analysed. Six factors emerged and were rotated using the varimax procedure. The first three factors were ‘overbearing’ in character. They were labelled Intimidation, Robust Challenge and Manipulation. The remaining three factors were identified as Question Style, Appeal and Soft Challenge.
Conclusion. This Police Interviewing Analysis Framework (PIAF) provides the first systematic attempt to identify, analyse, measure and display the dynamics of the police‐suspect interview. In order to overcome resistance the police resorted to manipulative and coercive tactics. The nature of the tactics used and their frequency were found to be related to the likelihood that the courts would rule the evidence inadmissible.
Basic questions are raised concerning police interrogations, the risk of false confessions, and the impact that such evidence has on a jury. On the basis of available research, it was concluded that the criminal justice system currently does not afford adequate protection to innocent people branded as suspects and that there are serious dangers associated with confession evidence. The specific problems are threefold: (a) The police routinely use deception, trickery, and psychologically coercive methods of interrogation; (b) these methods may, at times, cause innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit; and (c) when coerced self-incriminating statements are presented in the courtroom, juries do not sufficiently discount the evidence in reaching a verdict. It is argued that the topic of confession evidence has largely been overlooked by the scientific community and that further research is needed to build a useful empirical foundation.
Les pratiques d'entrevues d'enquête au Canada devraient faire l'objet d'une réforme importante. La formation sur les entrevues avec des témoins et des victimes adultes, qui est offerte aux agents de police canadiens, est souvent superficielle et celle sur l'interrogation de suspects se limite à la controversée technique Reid. Cela pose problème parce que les enquêteurs risquent ainsi de ne pas maximiser la quantité ni la qualité des renseignements obtenus des personnes interrogées. Dans l'article, on décrit la méthode PEACE, un modèle d'interrogatoire inquisitorial jugé à la fois éthique et fondé sur la recherche scientifique. Pour réussir cette réforme des pratiques d'entrevues d'enquête, il faudrait mettre en place un modèle national standardisé qui serait basé sur le modèle PEACE et qui augmenterait les partenariats entre utilisateurs et théoriciens. Mots clés : entrevuews d'enqueête, technique Reid, modèle PEACE, faux aveux, témoins, suspects Investigative interviewing practices in Canada require substantive reform. Adult witness and victim interview training for Canadian police officers is often cursory, and suspect interview training is limited to the much-maligned Reid technique. This state of affairs is troublesome because interviewers may not be maximizing the quality and quantity of information that can be re-trieved from interviewees. An inquisitorial interviewing method, known as PEACE, that is ethical and grounded in scientific research is outlined. Inves-tigative interviewing reform can best be achieved through the implementation 6 2010 CJCCJ/RCCJP doi:10.3138/cjccj.52.2.203 (V9 28/1/10 12:52) UTP (6"Â9") Palatino (Lino) CJCCJ 52:2 pp. 203–218 CJCCJ_52.2_04_Ch04 (p. 203) of a standardized national model that is based on PEACE and through increased practitioner–academic partnerships.
The Behaviour Analysis Interview (BAI) is an interview protocol developed by John E. Reid and Associates to generate different reactions in guilty and innocent suspects. Even though research has questioned the usefulness of the BAI protocol (Vrij et al., 2006), many law enforcement officials are trained in the BAI every year. Two studies were conducted to examine whether the BAI recommendations are in line with lay participants' beliefs about the correlates of guilt or innocence. In Study 1, the participants read the transcriptions of two BAIs and had to indicate which one corresponded to the guilty suspect. Virtually all the participants who were familiar with the BAI protocol were successful in this task; however, more naïve participants (69%) than expected by chance were also able to identify the guilty interview. In Study 2, a questionnaire was designed to examine whether those behaviours that the BAI proponents maintain are guilt indicators were judged by lay participants as more indicative of guilt than those behaviours that the BAI proponents maintain that are indicators of innocence. The results strongly supported this prediction. Not only are the BAI recommendations inaccurate, but they are also in line with what people already believe. Apparently, little new can be learned by attending training seminars on the BAI. Law enforcement personnel should be taught interview protocols grounded on sound science instead of unsupported common-sense beliefs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Research has demonstrated that false confessors whose cases are not dismissed before trial are often convicted despite their innocence. In order to prevent such wrongful convictions, criminal justice officials must better understand the role that false confessions play in creating and perpetuating miscarriages of justice. This chapter examines police-induced false confessions and analyzes three sequential errors that occur in the social production of every false confession: investigators first misclassify an innocent person as guilty; they next subject him to a guilt-presumptive, accusatory interrogation that invariably involves lies about evidence and often the repeated use of implicit and/or explicit promises and threats as well; and once they have elicited a false admission, they pressure the suspect to provide a post-admission narrative that they jointly shape, often supplying the innocent suspect with the (public and nonpublic) facts of the crime. We refer to these as the misclassification error, the coercion error, and the contamination error. Additionally, at least three other processes - "misleading specialized knowledge," "tunnel vision," and "confirmation bias" -- usually pave the way to a wrongful conviction by convincing all of the criminal justice actors to ignore the possibility that the confession is false. We analyze these processes in this chapter and conclude with recommendations designed to reduce false confessions and prevent false confessions from leading to wrongful convictions.
The act of interrogation, and debate over its use, pervade our culture, whether through fictionalized depictions in movies and television or discussions of real-life interrogations on the news. But despite daily mentions of the practice in the media, there is a lack of informed commentary on its moral implications. Moving beyond the narrow focus on torture that has characterized most work on the subject, An Ethics of Interrogation is the first book to fully address this complex issue. In doing so Michael Skerker confronts a host of philosophical and legal issues, from the right to privacy and the privilege against compelled self-incrimination to prisoner rights and the legal consequences of different modes of arrest, interrogation, and detention. These topics raise serious questions about the morality of keeping secrets and the differences between state power at home and abroad. Thoughtful consideration of these subjects leads Skerker to specific policy recommendations for law enforcement, military, and intelligence professionals.
The White Paper suggests important reforms that will reduce the likelihood of false confessions resulting from police interrogation. The research underlying these suggested reforms has yielded significant advances in our understanding of factors associated with false confessions. As we move forward, we encourage the development of empirically based approaches that provide a viable alternative to current practice. In doing so, we suggest that researchers pursue a positive psychological approach that involves partnering with practitioners to systematically develop interrogative methods that are shown to be more diagnostic. By taking such an approach, we believe that the recommendations offered in the current White Paper can be supplemented by methods that carry the support of both scientific and law enforcement communities.
Recent DNA exonerations have shed light on the problem that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Drawing on police practices, laws concerning the admissibility of confession evidence, core principles of psychology, and forensic studies involving multiple methodologies, this White Paper summarizes what is known about police-induced confessions. In this review, we identify suspect characteristics (e.g., adolescence; intellectual disability; mental illness; and certain personality traits), interrogation tactics (e.g., excessive interrogation time; presentations of false evidence; and minimization), and the phenomenology of innocence (e.g., the tendency to waive Miranda rights) that influence confessions as well as their effects on judges and juries. This article concludes with a strong recommendation for the mandatory electronic recording of interrogations and considers other possibilities for the reform of interrogation practices and the protection of vulnerable suspect populations.
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This volume, a sequel to The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony which is widely acclaimed by both scientists and practitioners, brings the field completely up-to-date and focuses in particular on aspects of vulnerability, confabulation and false confessions. The is an unrivalled integration of scientific knowledge of the psychological processes and research relating to interrogation, with the practical investigative and legal issues that bear upon obtaining, and using in court, evidence from interrogations of suspects. Accessible style which will appeal to academics, students and practitioners. Authoritative integration of theory, research, practical implications and vivid case illustration. Coverage of topical issues like confabulation, false memory, and false confessions. Part of the Wiley Series in The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law.
The main aim of the study was to investigate the rate of claimed false confession during police questioning and identify variables that best discriminate between false confessors and non-false confessors. The participants were 24 627 high school students in seven countries in Europe. Out of 2726 who had been interrogated by the police as a suspect, 375 (13.8%) claimed to have made false confessions to the police. Logistic regression analyses showed that for both boys and girls, having attended substance abuse therapy, been attacked and bullied, and having committed a burglary, significantly discriminated between the false confessor and non-false confessor. In addition for boys, having been sexually abused by an adult outside the family was the single best predictor. The study shows the importance of history of victimization and substance misuse among adolescents in relation to giving a false confession to police during interrogation.
Recently, in a number of high-profile cases, defendants who were prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced on the basis of false confessions have been exonerated through DNA evidence. As a historical matter, confession has played a prominent role in religion, in psychotherapy, and in criminal law—where it is a prosecutor's most potent weapon. In recent years, psychologists from the clinical, personality, developmental, cognitive, and social areas have brought their theories and research methods to bear on an analysis of confession evidence, how it is obtained, and what impact it has on judges, juries, and other people.
Drawing on individual case studies, archival reports, correlational studies, and laboratory and field experiments, this monograph scrutinizes a sequence of events during which confessions may be obtained from criminal suspects and used as evidence. First, we examine the preinterrogation interview, a process by which police target potential suspects for interrogation by making demeanor-based judgments of whether they are being truthful. Consistent with the literature showing that people are poor lie detectors, research suggests that trained and experienced police investigators are prone to see deception at this stage and to make false-positive errors, disbelieving people who are innocent, with a great deal of confidence.
Second, we examine the Miranda warning and waiver, a process by which police apprise suspects of their constitutional rights to silence and to counsel. This important procedural safeguard is in place to protect the accused, but researchers have identified reasons why it may have little impact. One reason is that some suspects do not have the capacity to understand and apply these rights. Another is that police have developed methods of obtaining waivers. Indeed, innocent people in particular tend to waive their rights, naively believing that they have nothing to fear or hide and that their innocence will set them free.
Third, we examine the modern police interrogation, a guilt-presumptive process of social influence during which trained police use strong, psychologically oriented techniques involving isolation, confrontation, and minimization of blame to elicit confessions. Fourth, we examine the confession itself, discussing theoretical perspectives and research on why people confess during interrogation. In particular, we focus on the problem of false confessions and their corrupting influence in cases of wrongful convictions. We distinguish among voluntary, compliant, and internalized false confessions. We describe personal risk factors for susceptibility to false confessions, such as dispositional tendencies toward compliance and suggestibility, youth, mental retardation, and psychopathology. We then examine situational factors related to the processes of interrogation and show that three common interrogation tactics—isolation; the presentation of false incriminating evidence; and minimization, which implies leniency will follow—can substantially increase the risk that ordinary people will confess to crimes they did not commit, sometimes internalizing the belief in their own culpability.
Fifth, we examine the consequences of confession evidence as evaluated by police and prosecutors, followed by judges and juries in court. Research shows that confession evidence is inherently prejudicial, that juries are influenced by confessions despite evidence of coercion and despite a lack of corroboration, and that the assumption that “I'd know a false confession if I saw one” is an unsubstantiated myth. Finally, we address the role of psychologists as expert witnesses and suggest a number of possible safeguards. In particular, we argue that there is a need to reform interrogation practices that increase the risk of false confessions and recommend a policy of mandatory videotaping of all interviews and interrogations.
This paper analyses the techniques used by police officers at two South London Police Stations: Orpington and Peckham. Audio tapes of 161 police interviews were analysed with regard to their duration, type of techniques employed, suspects' reactions, and the number of confessions obtained. The findings reveal that the great majority of the interviews are short, non-confrontational, and that exchanges are conducted with polite and compliant suspects. The Orpington suspects were significantly more ‘co-operative’ than their Peckham counterparts which may reflect quite different social and demographic conditions. In only a fifth of the cases did the police employ any challenging tactics to question the suspect's version of events. Overall, there were fewer coercive or manipulative tactics employed compared with earlier studies although the number of confessions or admissions obtained has remained relatively constant. Recommendations are made for police interview training to reflect these findings.
Despite the obvious importance of eyewitness information in criminal investigation, police receive surprisingly little instruction on how to conduct an effective interview with a cooperative eyewitness (Sanders, 1986). . . . Reflecting this lack of formal training, police often maintain a less-than-rigorous attitude toward this phase of investigation. . . . It is not surprising, therefore, that police investigators often make avoidable mistakes when conducting a friendly interview and fail to elicit potentially valuable information. The intent of this book is to provide the police interviewer (INT) or any other investigative INT with a systematic approach so that he can elicit the maximum amount of relevant information from cooperative eyewitnesses (E/Ws).
The language of this book is couched in terms of police investigations, primarily because our research has been conducted with police participants. However, since the Cognitive Interview is based on general principles of cognition, it should be useful to anyone conducting an investigative interview, whether a police detective, fire marshal, state-, defense-, or civil attorney, private investigator, etc.
The Cognitive Interview has evolved over the past several years and reflects a multidisciplinary approach. We have relied heavily on the theoretical, laboratory research in cognitive psychology (hence the name "Cognitive Interview") that we and other psychologists have conducted over the past thirty years. . . . The Cognitive Interview . . . is an eclectic approach, making use of ideas found across a variety of people, research approaches and disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The Gudjonsson Suggestibility ScalesSuggestibility And Hypnotic SusceptibilityComplianceAcquiescenceCorrelations Between Suggestibility, Compliance And AcquiescenceSuggestibility and GenderSuggestibility and Ethnic Background
Suggestibility and AgeSuggestibility and IntelligenceSuggestibility and MemorySuggestibility and AnxietySuggestibility and ImpulsivitySuggestibility and the Mmpi-2Suggestibility and Sleep DeprivationSuggestibility: Dissociation And Fantasy PronenessSuggestibility and Instructional ManipulationSuggestibility and the Experimenter EffectSuggestibility and Social DesirabilitySuggestibility and Coping StrategiesSuggestibility and AssertivenessSuggestibility and Self-EsteemSuggestibility and Locus Of ControlSuggestibility and Field DependenceSuspiciousness and AngerSuggestibility and Test SettingSuggestibility and Previous ConvictionsPolice Interviewing and SuggestibilityResisters and Alleged False ConfessorsSuggestibility and False ConfessionsSuggestibility and Eyewitness TestimonySuggestibility and Recovered MemoryConclusions
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This article takes the reader inside the interrogation room in order to analyze the characteristics, context and outcome of police interrogation practices in America. This study is the first in over twenty-five years to examine routine police interrogation practices in America through field research. The data is based on nine months of observation in a major, urban police department involving 122 interrogations and 45 detectives. It also relies on 60 videotaped custodial interrogations from two additional police departments. The article attempts to fill in the gap left by criminal interrogation scholars who have failed to employ empirical research on police interrogation practices in their studies. The article asserts that the techniques that Miranda was designed to address, such as undermining suspects' confidence in their denials and confronting suspects with fabricated evidence of their guilt, continue to be used in contemporary American police interrogations. It also suggests that interrogators have become increasingly successful at eliciting incriminating information from custodial suspects in the last thirty years. These findings confirm that interrogation methods exert a fateful effect on criminal cases at every subsequent stage in the criminal justice system.
Over the past three decades much has been learned about the role and importance of psychological vulnerabilities in the context of unreliability of information obtained during police interviews. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge and explains why vulnerabilities are important. Psychological vulnerabilities are best construed as potential ‘risk factors’ rather than definitive markers of unreliability. They are important, because they may place witnesses, victims, and suspects at a disadvantage in terms of coping with the demand characteristics of the interview (and subsequent Court process) and being able to provide the police with salient, detailed, accurate, and coherent answers to questions. Early identification of relevant and pertinent vulnerabilities in the interview process helps to ensure fairness and justice. Currently, the identification of vulnerabilities is poor, and even when identified, they are not always acted upon. Nevertheless, England has taken the lead in improving the police interview process and the protection of vulnerable interviewees. More work needs to be done, but the Bradley Report recommendations represent an excellent opportunity for police and health care professionals to work together to improve justice for all. This is the key initial interface that will be vital for reducing future miscarriages of justice.
In this paper the focus is on one aspect of forensic psychology: the development of psychological instruments, a social psychological model and assessment procedures for evaluating the credibility of witnesses and police detainees during interviewing. Clinically grounded case work and research has impacted on police interviewing and practice, the admissibility of expert psychological testimony and the outcome of cases of miscarriage of justice. After describing the research that laid the foundations for advancement of scientific knowledge in this area, a brief review is presented of 22 high-profile murder cases where convictions based on confession evidence have been quashed on appeal between 1989 and 2001, often primarily on the basis of psychological evidence. The review of the cases demonstrates that psychological research and expert testimony in cases of disputed confessions have had a profound influence on the practice and ruling of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales and the British House of Lords. The cases presented in this paper show that it is wrong to assume that only persons with learning disability or those who are mentally ill make unreliable or false confessions. Personality factors, such as suggestibility, compliance, high trait anxiety and antisocial personality traits, are often important in rendering a confession unreliable. Future research needs to focus more on the role of personality factors in rendering the evidence of witnesses and suspects potentially unreliable. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd.
The focus of this chapter is principally false confessions and psychological vulnerabilities. Gudjonsson presents recent survey data relating to the incidence of false confession. Gudjonsson reviews growing evidence from prison inmates, police detainees, and community youths that false confession is a global phenomenon. Gudjonsson also describes a number of risk factors associated with false confessions, including the rate of delinquency, the number of delinquent friends, personality, mental state, and multiple exposures to unpleasant life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Four studies of what really happens in police interviews National evaluation of the PEACE investigative interviewing course
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