Gudjonsson & MacKeith

Question 1

Intro

Answer 1

Police worried about false negative - guilty walk free
Public about false positive - identifying an innocent person as being guilty.
Why do innocent people make false confessions?
Higher suggestibility eg. Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales GSS

Question 2

Power of confessions

Answer 2

• Fundamental attribution error, this leads people to believe confessions to be powerful. (Our tendency to explain other peoples behaviour by internal states, and underestimate the influence of external factors).
• Ignore other evidence which may prove innocence if a confession has been made.
• Reluctant to look for external factors such as why a confession has been made. eg. manipulative interrogation techniques.

Question 3

Why confess?

Answer 3

Psychoanalytic… superego/guilt complexes.
Decision making processes - suspects make a lot of choice throughout interview… some based on false information.
Social psychology - obedience and conformity.

Question 4

Dispositional factors of false confessions

Answer 4

IQ

Age

Question 5

Situational factors

Answer 5

Social isolation
Obedience to authority
Desire to escape

Question 6

Question investigators ability to draw confessions from guilty subjects… or elicit confessions from innocent people.

Answer 6

Police are over confident in their ability to detect lying
Many people wavier rights to silence and legal representation
Interrogators use psychological strategies to help elect confessions.

Question 7

Types of false confession

Answer 7

Voluntary
Coerced - Internalised
Coerced - Compliant

Question 8

Voluntary

Answer 8

No obvious external pressure.

eg. protection someone else
need for fame
confessing to less crime to receive less punishment

Question 9

Coerced - Internalised

Answer 9

Suspect, at least temporarily, believes they did commit the crime.

• suspect is vulnerable eg.stress, fatigue
• presentation of false evidence eg. rigged forensic tests

Innocent suspects memory of their own actions may be altered
post event info used to alter
false memories implanted

Question 10

Coerced - Compliant

Answer 10

Suspect confesses to escape from the stressful situation.

eg. due to extreme stress of interrogation, to escape pressure.
Give in to make it all go away or are offered incentives eg. allowed to sleep, eat, make phone call.

Question 11

Gudjonsson & MacKeith

Answer 11

FC accused of 2 murders.
Inconsistencies of movements at time of attack.
Average intelligence, no mental illness.
Not allowed access to a solicitor.
Interviewed for 14 hours by police with no-one else present.
Denied being near scene - but repeatedly accused of lying.
Questions leading and accusatory… distressed by claims of sexual impotency.
Confessed by end of interview.
3 further interviews, further wrote a statement incriminating himself.
Someone else pleaded guilty, FC released.
Tested in prison and no sign of mental illnesses. Scored 10 for suggestibility on GSS.
IQ = 94 - fractionally below average.
Stable extravert.

Question 12

What did FC score on GSS

Answer 12

10, abnormally suggestible.

Question 13

Gudjonsson & MacKeith CONCLUSIONS

Answer 13

Coerced compliant false confession.
FC caved to intense pressure of the interviews and confessed as a way of escaping from an intolerable situation.
Shows it can happen to anyone not just the mentally handicapped, ill or illiterate.
FC appeared to undergo a change in personality, his confidence improved after release, suggesting experiences hardened him.
PACE guidelines must be followed throughout legal process.

Question 14

Reliable

Answer 14

GSS - highly reliable method.

Question 15

4 factors proving if been produced through coercion

Answer 15

Defendant
Arrest
Mental/Physical State
Interrogation

Question 16

Defendant

Answer 16

False confession more likely from very young, old, low IQ and sufferers from mental disorders.

Question 17

Arrest

Answer 17

Suspects arrested suddenly, violently, or interrogated for long periods or at night.

Question 18

Mental/Physical State

Answer 18

Unreliable where suspect is stressed, anxious, ill or intoxicated.

Question 19

Interrogation

Answer 19

Coercive, biased or leading interview tactic can encourage vulnerable suspects to make false confessions.

Question 20

PACE

Answer 20

Despite this to regulate police interviewing.
Vulnerable suspects not routinely identified and allowed to have an ‘appropriate adult’ to help them.
eg. 4 members of Birmingham 6 suggested by Gudjonsson for higher suggestibility than two who asserted their innocence.
Legal system rarely acknowledges false confessions. Judges are reluctant to accept evidence that a confession was false.

Question 21

Generalise

Answer 21

Study of one suspect therefore difficult to generalise.

Question 22

Useful

Answer 22

• GSS used throughout the world when the issue of false confession arises.
• Case study very revealing and raises a lot of questions about how the police go about their questioning of suspects.
• Future of suspect interviewing: Police ought to screen suspects for high susceptibility before interviewing them. However very easy for genuinely guilty to fake higher suggestibility in order to get their convictions overturned.

Question 23

Suggestibility

Answer 23

Distortion of memory through suggestion.

Question 24

False memories

Answer 24

Persuasion is possible because the nature of our memories, which are fragile and susceptible to suggestion, especially when we are in a vulnerable state and anxious.

Question 25

Strong interrogation techniques

Answer 25

Lead to false confessions.