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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.
... 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.
... The reliability of a confession partially depends on the interrogation methods used and the confession's content. Confronting suspects with evidence gives a suspect knowledge of nonpublic details, increasing the likelihood of a false confession (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Leo, 2009), and makes the confession harder to judge as more or less reliable. That is, if a confession is consistent with case facts but details of the crime were communicated to the suspect during interrogation, it is difficult to judge whether the confession is a product of the suspect's knowledge of the crime or the details that were communicated during the interrogation. ...
... Information gathering interviews are more common outside of the United States; for example, the PEACE model in United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Norway (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). Information gathering interviews are often thought of as "fact-finding" missions and emphasize the importance of truth gathering (Meissner et al., 2014). ...
... Information gathering interviews are often thought of as "fact-finding" missions and emphasize the importance of truth gathering (Meissner et al., 2014). This model focuses on building rapport and stresses the importance of honesty, explaining the offense, and asking the suspect to give their version of events (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin, Drizin, Grisso, Gudjonsson, Leo, & Redlich, 2010;Meissner et al., 2014). ...
The reliability of a confession partially depends on the interrogation methods used and the confession’s content. Confronting suspects with evidence gives a suspect knowledge of nonpublic details, increasing
the likelihood of a false confession (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011; Leo, 2009), and makes the confession harder to judge as more or less reliable. That is, if a confession is consistent with case facts but details
of the crime were communicated to the suspect during interrogation, it is difficult to judge whether the confession is a product of the suspect’s knowledge of the crime or the details that were communicated during the interrogation. The objective of this article was to examine whether jurors consider the interrogation technique and source of consistent knowledge in judging the reliability of confession evidence. In 2 studies, participants read a trial summary in which the defendant’s confession was consistent versus inconsistent with case facts and evidence was withheld versus disclosed during the interrogation. In Study 2, we also examined for moderating effects of need for cognition (NC). Overall, participants were attuned to confession– case facts consistency in making decisions; furthermore, in Study 2, this effect interacted with evidence disclosure on a number of measures. If the confession was consistent, participants rated the strength of evidence and reliability of the confession higher, and impression of the interrogation more positively, when evidence was withheld during the interrogation rather than disclosed. NC did not moderate these effects. Overall, findings suggest participants are somewhat sensitive to variations in confession evidence.
... False confessions are observed by many as a major ethical dilemma for the criminal justice system and it is an issue that needs to be addressed (Abbe & Brandon, 2013;Banks, 2017;Culhane, Hosch, & Heck, 2008;Frumkin, 2010;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2016;Klaver, Lee, & Rose, 2008;Lassiter, Meissner, & American Psychological Association, 2010;Leo, 2008;Vallano, Evans, Schreiber Compo, & Kieckhaefer, 2015;Vanderhallen, Vervaeke, & Holmberg, 2011). Many recognize that "false confessions are not a new phenomenon," in that there is an "accumulation of evidence indicating the phenomenon is not as rare as once believed" (Lassiter et al., 2010, p. 50). ...
... Many recognize that "false confessions are not a new phenomenon," in that there is an "accumulation of evidence indicating the phenomenon is not as rare as once believed" (Lassiter et al., 2010, p. 50). In addition, false confessions that were led by coerced interrogations have recently become more recognizable due to the use of deceptive interrogatory tactics that are used by investigators (Culhane et al., 2008;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011). According to Culhane et al. (2008), coerced confessions are inadmissible at a court trial due to the increased chance of the confession being false. ...
... Nonetheless, as long as the officers are completing the interrogation within their course and scope of their job discretion, then they are in compliance with the use of the interrogatory tactics (Banks, 2017). Although, it is argued that law enforcement often use deceptive interrogatory methods when interviewing suspects, in that the use of these deceptive methods could lead to suspects making false confessions (Banks, 2017;Frumkin, 2010;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2016;Leo, 2008). Frumkin (2010) emphasizes that "false confessions occur with some frequency... [in that] the effects of various interrogation methods on the reliability and validity of a confession" can be questioned and could be deemed as unethical (p. ...
The purpose of this article is to gain a better understanding of the ethical dilemma of false confessions that are created from the use of deceptive interrogation tactics. First, this article will explore various types of interrogation tactics that are used by law enforcement and assess those tactics' ability to influence the suspect in providing a false confession. The various interrogatory tactics that are used by law enforcement in the United States will be analyzed, including the deceptive interrogatory tactics used with the Reid-technique model. In addition, alternative interrogatory tactics, such as the PEACE model will be explored, along with assessing the use of the PEACE model tactics on decreasing the chances of false confessions. Secondly, this article will examine the different types of coercion that may be used in an investigation, such as inherent coercion and psychological manipulation. The ethical concerns regarding false confessions and how these confessions can easily be coerced will be examined. Additionally, the risks involved in creating a false memory with suspects during an interrogation will be discussed; consequently, there is a risk of creating a false memory that could lead to a false confession. Furthermore, the Innocence Project and other court cases that involved false confessions will be discussed. Finally, this article will examine a real life story of an innocent child who falsely confessed to the murder.
... Sahte itirafta bulunarak ağır suçlardan mahkumiyet almış birçok kişinin suçsuzluğunun DNA teknolojisindeki gelişmelerin de yardımıyla ispatlanması konunun ciddiyetinin daha iyi anlaşılmasını sağlamıştır (Kassin ve ark., 2010;White, 2003). Kuşkusuz, Batı ülkelerindeki ceza adalet sistemleri de bu alanda son 30-40 yılda oluşan bilgi birikiminden gün geçtikçe daha çok etkilenmekte ve yararlanmaktadır (Gudjonsson, 2003;Gudjonsson ve Pearse, 2011;Kassin, 1997bKassin, , 2008bKassin, , 2015Kassin ve ark., 2010;Lassiter, 2010). ...
... Bir suça ilişkin polis soruşturması tipik olarak şüphelinin suçluluğunu ve masumluğunu kestirmeye dönük bir ön görüşme ile başlamakta ve burada edinilen izlenimle ya sorgunun devamına ya da şüphelinin serbest bırakılmasına karar verilmektedir (Gudjonsson ve Pearse, 2011;Kassin, 2005Kassin, , 2008aKassin, , 2015Kassin ve ark., 2010). Soruşturma yönergeleri, bu ön görüşmede suçluluğa işaret eden sözlü ve sözlü olmayan ip uçlarına bakarak (önceden ezberlenmiş cümleler, göz temasından kaçınma, yüzün kızarması, gergin oturuş gibi) şüphelinin suçluluğuna ya da masumiyetine yüksek bir başarı oranıyla (%85) karar verilebileceğini öne sürmektedir (bkz., Meissner ve Kassin, 2002;Kassin ve ark., 2007). ...
... Tüm bunların önüne geçmenin etkili yollarından biri olarak suçlu ve suçsuz ayrımını daha iyi sağlayan sorgu modellerine geçilmesi tavsiye edilmektedir. Sorgunun itiraf almaya odaklanan suçlayıcı (accusatorial) modeller yerine kanıt aramaya odaklanan araştırmacı (inquisitorial) modellerle yürütülmesi önerilmektedir (Gudjonsson ve Pearse, 2011;Kassin ve ark., 2010). Çünkü ilkine oranla ikincisinde hem suçlu-suçsuz ayrımı daha kolay yapılmakta hem de sahte itiraf oranı düşmektedir (Hartwig ve ark., 2005(Hartwig ve ark., , 2006Meissner ve ark., 2014;Rigoni ve Meissner, 2008). ...
Bu derlemede, insanların işlemedikleri suçları çeşitli nedenlerle kabul etmesine
karşılık gelen sahte itiraf olgusu incelenmektedir. Kesin oranları tam olarak bilinmemekle
birlikte, sahte itirafların hem sanılandan hem de kanıtlanmış sahte itiraf vakalarının
gösterdiğinden daha yaygın oldukları tahmin edilmektedir. Güncel veriler sahte itirafların,
sonradan beraat kararı verilen haksız mahkumiyetlerle sonuçlanmış davaların yaklaşık dörtte
birinde rol oynadığını ve dolayısıyla haksız mahkumiyetlerin önemli nedenleri arasında yer
aldığını göstermektedir. Çalışmada, sahte itiraf alanyazını problemin psikolojik boyutunu
merkeze alan bir yaklaşımla ve çeşitli yönleriyle ele alınmıştır. İlk olarak, sahte itirafların
kuramsal çerçevesine ilişkin bilgi ve tartışmalar gözden geçirilmiştir. İkinci olarak, bu
olgunun varlığını ve yaygınlığını ortaya koyan veriler gözden geçirilmiş ve tartışılmıştır.
Üçüncü olarak, insanları sahte itirafta bulunmaya sevk eden bazı kişiler arası farklılıklar ile
çeşitli çevresel risk etmenleri ele alınmıştır. Son olarak, sahte itirafları önleme ve/veya
azaltmaya yönelik tedbirler, politika önerileri ve reform çağrıları gözden geçirilmiştir.
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This paper reviews the false confession phenomenon, which refers to innocent
suspects' detailed admissions to crimes they did not commit. The exact incidence rate of false
confessions in the criminal justice system is not known and is estimated to be far more than
what common sense and documented false confession cases so far would tell. Recent
evidence showed that false confessions play a causal role in about one fourth of all
exonerations, indicating that they are among the leading causes of wrongful convictions of
innocent suspects. In this study, the false confession literature was reviewed from various
aspects, with a particular focus on psychological dimensions of the problem. Specifically,
first, the conceptual framework of false confessions was described. Second, the data on the
presence and prevalence of false confessions were overviewed and discussed. Third, a number
of individual differences and situational risk factors that lead innocent people to confess to
crimes they did not commit were examined. Finally, measures, policy recommendations and
reform calls with regards to preventing and/or reducing false confessions were overviewed.
... 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’).
... Two broad approaches to suspect interviewing emerge from the body of research documenting current interrogation practice: accusatorial versus information gathering (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Meissner, Kelly, & Woestehoff, 2015;Meissner et al., 2014). In the U.S., Canada, and some Asian countries, an accusatorial-style of interrogation is most common (Costanzo & Redlich, 2010;Kassin, 2015;Kassin et al., 2010;King & Snook, 2009;Leo, 2008;Ma, 2007;Smith, Stinson, & Patry, 2009). ...
... the use of open-ended questions and active listening techniques (e.g., not interrupting), and challenges to the suspect's account by identifying contradictions and via the strategic presentation of evidence (Clarke & Milne, 2016;Granhag & Hartwig, 2015). In England and Wales, this approach forms the basis of the nationally-recognized and trained PEACE model (Planning and Preparation, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, Evaluation), adopted in 1992 in response to high-profile false confession cases (Bull & Soukora, 2010;Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Milne & Bull, 1999; also see the chapter by Bull, this volume, for a full discussion of the history and methodology of this approach). An information gathering approach often incorporates elements of the Cognitive Interview (CI) (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992;Memon, Meissner, & Fraser, 2010), an interviewing technique first developed for witnesses and victims, but which has been more recently adapted for use with suspects (e.g., Evans et al., 2013;Frosina et al., 2018;Geiselman, 2012;Meissner, Russano, & Atkinson, 2017). ...
The critical need for interviewing and interrogation procedures to be grounded in evidence-based approaches is underscored by the tragedy of documented false confession cases, the revival of a national debate in the United States over the utility of torture, and the critical role that human intelligence plays in both law enforcement and intelligence domains. Meissner, Russano, and Narchet (2010) discussed the importance of laboratory research for identifying techniques that may undermine or improve the diagnostic value of interrogations, arguing that only under controlled laboratory conditions could scholars draw the causal conclusions necessary to identify techniques that increase the likelihood of the elicitation of true information/confessions without increasing, and hopefully minimizing, the likelihood of false information and false confessions. While acknowledging the contribution that field research had made up to that point (primarily survey and observational studies documenting current practice), Meissner and colleagues offered a call for increased laboratory research – and the community of scholars responded. More recently, a sizeable body of research on interviewing and interrogation has been conducted not only in the laboratory, but increasingly in training and field contexts. The purpose of this chapter is to survey the various training and field validation research that has been conducted that is helping to inform a new science of interrogation, focusing specifically on those that have evaluated interview and interrogation methods for eliciting information from uncooperative individuals, including those suspected of crimes and individuals who may possess information of intelligence value for military and intelligence operations. Consistent with the translational approach discussed by Meissner and colleagues (2017), this review considers three facets of existing training and field validation studies: i) research that evaluates current practice in the field via self-report and observational studies; ii) research that assesses the effectiveness of training new methods; and iii) research that validates new methods when they are deployed in the field.
... 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). ...
... 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.
... Unfortunately, this number often includes innocent individuals who have succumbed to the technique (Kozinski, 2018). Kozinski (2018) asserted that the ability for the Reid Technique to evoke false confessions from innocent persons is irrefutable, and this statement has been supported by a number of other scholarly publications (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Leo, 2008, p. 249;Leo & Ofshe, 1998;. ...
Documented cases of innocent persons in the United States having confessed to crimes that they did not commit have become
commonplace since the emergence of deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) testing as a means for confirming a person’s innocence or guilt. The risk of imprisoning any more innocent individuals on the basis of false confessions warrants a closer look at the contingencies that give rise to this kind of tragedy. Using Skinner’s (1957, Verbal Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) and Palmer’s (1991, “A Behavioral Interpretation of Memory,” in L. J. Hayes & P. N. Chase [Eds.], Dialogues on Verbal Behavior [pp. 261–279], Reno, NV: Context Press) analyses of verbal behavior and memory, this article explores how verbal episodes between
suspects and law enforcement can culminate in a false admission of guilt. In addition, to try to identify the variables that might lead to high rates of false confessions in the United States, this article examines some of the contingencies under which law enforcement investigations operate. Finally, we provide some recommendations for how the behavior analyst can fulfill the role of an expert witness, how to take into consideration a systemic and cultural perspective, and how to incorporate some technological safeguards and additional precautions when interacting with vulnerable
populations.
... There are many limitations of experimental studies that can influence the outcome variables in such a study (e.g., the way guilt expectancy was introduced, the pressure to provide a confession, and the perceived consequences of confessing). What the study does demonstrate is that interviewers who hold a presumption of guilt are more likely to employ interview techniques that are known to increase the likelihood of false confessions as demonstrated in related literature (see Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;. However, false confessions are not the only detriment of guilt presumptive questioning and confirmatory thinking in police-suspect interviews. ...
Research has demonstrated that interviewer beliefs about a suspect’s guilt can initiate a cycle of confirmation bias. This occurs when the behaviour and responses of the suspect are interpreted by the interviewer as endorsing their beliefs about suspect guilt. Research has also shown that accusatory questions during an investigative interview are indicative of these biased beliefs. Despite these findings, researchers and practitioners rarely evaluate investigative interviews for evidence of guilt-presumptive language. Moreover, when interviews are evaluated, it is mainly on question type, which does not highlight guilt-presumptive language -particularly insinuation and implicit suggestion.
Whilst traditional interview analysis techniques can be valuable for evaluating interviewer performance, they do not tell the whole story. Understanding the detrimental effects of guilt-presumptive language on the investigative interview is valuable for interviewer improvement and development. It is also an effective tool for expert witnesses to make fully informed decisions on the ethical and professional conduct of the interviewer and the validity of confession evidence.
... ADHD impedes individuals' ability to manage their emotions and response styles during the investigative interviewing process (Gudjonsson, 2010(Gudjonsson, , 2012Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson, Asgeirsdottir, & Sigfusdottir, 2006;Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson, Einarsson, Bragason, & Newton, 2010;Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson, Sigfusdottir, & Young, 2011;Gudjonsson, Young, & Bramham, 2007;Kassin et al., 2010;Milne, Sharman, Powell, & Mead, 2013;Read, Powell, Kebbell, & Mine, 2009). ADHD behaviours may also lead the police to divert from protocols of best practice, and ineffective and/or inadmissible interviews can hold significant implications for the judicial process Vrij, Granhag, & Porter, 2010). ...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in youth witnesses, victims and suspects can significantly impact the investigative interviewing process. In this study, 102 Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU) detectives were asked to read four vignettes of adolescents being interviewed by police, two as witnesses and two as suspects, in which one witness and one suspect display ADHD-type behaviour. The detectives rated the degree to which the behaviour in each vignette would impact the interviewer’s ability to use the 10 key components of the cognitive interview (CI). They perceived ADHD-type interviewee behaviour as significantly hampering the use of all 10 CI components. There is also a significant difference between the detectives’ rated severity of each CI component; they rated Encourage Concentration, Mentally Recreate and Change Order as exerting the strongest impact on the interview process. Implications for police perceptions of training options, needs and preferences regarding interviewing youth with ADHD are discussed.
... The police investigation approach in the United States typically begins with police conducting interviews to gather information and assess the guilt of the suspect, known as the Behaviour Analysis Interview (BAI; Vrij, Mann, & Fisher, 2006). A major issue with this stage of the investigation is that police officers have an overconfidence in their own ability to detect deception and presume guilt; therefore, many police wrongly believe they only interrogate guilty suspects (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004). The Reid Technique (Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Brian, 2001), which is the main training manual for most criminal interrogators in America, states that police officers can be trained to detect suspects' deception in the BAI to a high degree of accuracy, around 85% (Meissner & Kassin, 2002), though empirical evidence suggests that there is no evidence for this (Vrij et al., 2006). ...
... Another practically more feasible way to reduce cognitive load is to use interrogation techniques that do not constantly require police officers to come up with new ways of asking open-ended questions but rather use instructions or encouragements such as "Please tell me everything you remember about. . ." (Yarbrough, Hervé, & Harms, 2013, p. 87) or similar phrases that do not convey a belief that the suspect is guilty (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Meissner, Hartwig, & Russano, 2010). Apart from that such phrases are inherently less guilt presumptive, they are also less cognitively demanding for the police officer (but more cognitively demanding for the suspect). ...
This research tests whether a police officer’s decision to apprehend a suspect triggers confirmation bias during an interrogation. The study also tests two strategies to reduce confirmation bias: (1) decoupling decision to apprehend from interrogation and (2) reducing cognitive load for the interrogating police officer. In Experiment 1, Swedish police officers ( N = 60) were faced with 12 scenarios in which they either had to decide for themselves whether to apprehend a suspect or were informed about the corresponding decision by another police officer or a prosecutor. Participants then prepared questions for a suspect interrogation and evaluated the trustworthiness of the suspect’s denial or confession. The same method was used in Experiment 2 but with law and psychology students ( N = 60) as participants. In Experiment 3, psychology students ( N = 60) prepared interrogation questions either by freely producing their own or by choosing questions from a preset list. Overall, apprehended suspects were interrogated in a more guilt presumptive way and rated as less trustworthy than non apprehended suspects. However, the tested debiasing techniques, primarily reducing cognitive load for the interrogating police officer, hold some potential in mitigating this bias.
... The police investigation approach in the United States typically begins with police conducting interviews to gather information and assess the guilt of the suspect, known as the Behaviour Analysis Interview (BAI; Vrij, Mann, & Fisher, 2006). A major issue with this stage of the investigation is that police officers have an overconfidence in their own ability to detect deception and presume guilt; therefore, many police wrongly believe they only interrogate guilty suspects (Gudjonsson & Pearse, 2011;Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004). The Reid Technique (Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Brian, 2001), which is the main training manual for most criminal interrogators in America, states that police officers can be trained to detect suspects' deception in the BAI to a high degree of accuracy, around 85% (Meissner & Kassin, 2002), though empirical evidence suggests that there is no evidence for this (Vrij et al., 2006). ...
The causes of false confessions are an important issue in legal studies and forensics. Recent advances in DNA testing have increased the number of proven false confessions; however, there are likely many cases without scientific evidence to refute the guilty verdict. The current research provides a novel approach to understand the structure and process of police interrogation techniques, in America: Behaviour Sequence Analysis. This method allows complex interactions in interrogations to be broken-down and the progression of techniques analysed clearly. A case study is provided of an individual who confessed to a series of very serious crimes. The results show several psychological techniques, such as leading statements, pressure, empathy, and inducements are used, in increasing frequency, which resulted in the suspect’s confession. This research provides support for Behaviour Sequence Analysis as a new method to understand the structure of police interrogations and how psychological techniques may be used to gain false confessions.
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.
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.
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.
This study explores the administrative law enforcement from three perspectives, namely, discourse, cognition and society, according to van Dijk’s theory of critical discourse studies. “Discourse” is the essential linguistic analysis of administrative law enforcement, which may lead to the tension between law-executors and law-breakers, as well as to ease the conflicts and achieve the balance, so that the discourse mode with considerable tolerance and explanation is of great significance for improving the current practice of administrative law enforcement. “Cognition” deals with psychological model based on cognitive and social psychology. In the interaction of administrative law enforcement, the social roles are institutionalized by the context, which is achieved through knowledge background, cognitive methods, communicative purpose, role expectations and information transmission. “Society” focuses on the investigation of institutions, powers and groups based on sociology. There are normative factors and non-normative variables in the administrative law enforcement: the former refers to superior will, judicial review, supervision and defense of law-breaker, while the latter involves administrative habits and experience, natural emotions, interest and mass media. In the institutional context, social variables affect the implementation of administrative law enforcement in different discourse modes.
This chapter examines the Criminal Cases Review Commission's policy on post-decision decision-making, focusing on what happens in cases when the Commission has decided there are no grounds for referral but where the applicant comes back with further information or a new application to try to persuade the Commission that its decision was wrong. The chapter first describes the legitimacy of the Commission's post-decision decision-making before discussing its instrumental decision-making based on referrals, judicial review, and procedural justice. It then shows how the Commission responds to ‘further submissions’ or ‘reapplications’, and how they provide applicants with an opportunity to have their cases reconsidered. It also analyses the empirical and theoretical drivers that underpin the Commission's decision field, the new ‘frames’ that make it possible to redefine cases in further submissions and reapplications, and how developments in the surround affects the Commission's decision frame.
Although it is known that interrogation tactics can elicit false confessions and interviewer manner may determine the outcome of an interview, the combined effects of questioning technique and interviewer manner on false confessions have not been examined empirically. Following a false accusation of theft, participants were interviewed in one of four questioning conditions (minimisation, repetitive questioning, leading questions, and nonleading questions) in which interviewers adopted a stern or friendly manner. Perceptions of pressure to confess and interviewer behaviours were measured. Significantly more false confessions were elicited using nonleading questions rather than repetitive questioning. More false confessions were elicited in the friendly interviewer condition than in the stern interviewer condition. Neither interviewer manner nor questioning technique had a significant effect on subjective ratings of pressure to confess. The finding that false confessions may be elicited in the absence of coercive tactics may have implications for informing best practices in investigative interviewing.
This study explores how juvenile offenders in Sweden between the age of 15 and 17 are interviewed by police officers when suspected of homicide crimes. The quality of question types was assessed in 47 authentic interviews. The findings show that the police officers used option-posing and suggestive questions most frequently and social pressure was used in three predominating ways: to confront, to challenge and to appeal for a confession. The conclusion is that the police officers’ question style to a large extent contradicts recommendations for how to interview children. There is therefore a need to develop an evidence-based interview practice for interviewing young suspects.
Police interrogation methods have changed over time. While traditional techniques relied on violence and physical torture, modern techniques have shifted toward psychological coercion and manipulation. These techniques, most widely known as parts of The Reid Technique, have proven to be a powerful way to elicit confessions of guilt from suspected criminals. Authors of the Reid Technique claim that when applied correctly, their methods lead to significant increases in police confession rates. But, these techniques are not universally useful. In addition to eliciting false confessions, the Reid Technique has been less effective on psychopaths—who are self-centered, manipulative, and lack empathy. Psychopaths can be resistant to these methods, which rely on the interrogator’s ability to induce fear, anxiety, and feelings of remorse in the suspect. When confronted with a criminal psychopath, interrogators face unique challenges requiring a different approach to interrogation. To show this, we analyze the cell plant video of an undercover officer who obtained a serial murder confession from Robert Pickton by appealing to his narcissism. We conclude by offering a few additional strategies that can be used by investigators when interrogating psychopaths.
Este manual nace con la vocación de facilitar la obtención y valoración de la prueba testifical a policías, fiscales, abogados, jueces y psicólogos forenses que intervienen en las investigaciones criminales, y por extensión, a todos aquellos que realicen actividades investigativas similares a las del proceso penal (periodistas, historiadores...). También puede ser una buena lectura para los alumnos de grados y posgrados relacionados con la psicología criminalista y la criminología interesados en acercarse a las técnicas de investigación criminal y al proceso penal. Sin ser un manual específico sobre pericias de credibilidad, se profundiza lo más posible en los fundamentos de esta tarea, dejando negro sobre blanco lo que se sabe al respecto, desmitificando conceptos que quizá se han instalado en la práctica profesional sin suficiente apoyo empírico, y proponiendo líneas de futuro para mejorar esas prácticas.
Sin renunciar a la justificación científica de cuanto se afirma, en el libro se pone el foco en lo más práctico, proporcionando hasta donde se puede guías y sugerencias de intervención, de cómo hacer las cosas para conseguir los mejores testimonios posibles, tanto de los testigos y víctimas como de los inculpados en la creencia de que de ese modo se podrán adoptar mejores decisiones, más acertadas, incluso más justas.
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.
A scholarly edited book about the emerging interface of psychology and the law.
Offshoring of IT can deliver benefits to your organization and help to achieve business priorities. However, these benefits are inherent neither in the act of offshoring nor in India as a destination for outsourced IT delivery.
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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