Chapter 2 Interrogation and False Confessions

Question 1

Tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to dispositional causes (traits, personality) and to dismiss the situational pressures acting on the person

Answer 1

Fundamental attribution error

Question 2

Rights of Suspects

Answer 2

• Right to avoid self-incrimination (participating in interrogations without counsel)
• Right to silence
• Right to legal counsel

Question 3

Reasons why people waive their rights

Answer 3

• we are used to waiving everything – contracts, acknowledgements etc.
• guilty waive rights so they appear not guilty/appear cooperative/have nothing to hide
• don’t understand what having rights means

Question 4

What comprehensions must be ensured in law?

Answer 4

• Instructions – what they need to do with the info provided
• Listing – presenting each point
• Explanations – provide explanation

Question 5

What do the “Common Law Confession Rules” Qualify?

Answer 5

Voluntariness of Confessions

Question 6

• 9-step technique that represents the general flow of many interrogations
• 4 strategies employed by the technique

Answer 6

• Reid Technique

1. Loss of control
2. Social isolation
3. Certainty of guilt
4. Minimization of culpability

Question 7

Canadian police technique by which a suspect is drawn into a fictitious criminal organization with the ultimate goal of securing a confession

Answer 7

Mr. Big Technique

Question 8

Suggests the strongly negative potential consequences of confessing should prevent suspects from confessing —unless a suspect is mentally impaired, mentally ill, or physically abused, there is no immediately obvious, easy-to-understand explanation for a false confession.

Answer 8

The Naïve Model of Suspect Decision Making

Question 9

Suggests the option of continuing to deny involvement in crime seems to make things worse. The interrogation tactics described in this chapter are designed to reshape suspects’ understanding of their decision options and consequences that follow from those options.

Answer 9

interrogation induced model of suspect decision making

Question 10

Four Types of False Confessions across 2 Dimensions

Answer 10

• Voluntary or coerced
• Instrumental or authentic

Question 11

Solutions to False Confessions

Answer 11

• Video Recordings
• Reduce Vulnerability of Suspects
• Time Limits on Interrogations

Question 12

Suspect confesses to crimes they know they did not commit to end interrogation

Answer 12

Instrumental Coerced

Question 13

Suspect confesses to achieve a goal; such as protect someone.

Answer 13

Instrumental Voluntary.

Question 14

Subject confesses because they become persuaded they actually did it.

Answer 14

Authentic Coerced

Question 15

Suspect confesses because they suffer from delusion or Mental Illness

Answer 15

Authentic Voluntary

Question 16

This English law made it illegal to trick suspects or lie about evidence as a means of inducing suspects to confess.

Answer 16

Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE)

Question 17

Model of investigative interviewing that takes a non-confrontational approach to ‘getting information and truth’ from an investigation interview subject rather than ‘eliciting a confession’.

Answer 17

PEACE method