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Forensic Psychology > Interviewing and confessions > Flashcards

Interviewing and confessions Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a voluntary confession? (3)

A

A formal admission of guilt given freely which can be true or false, usually made to the police

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2
Q

How does the innocence project USA show importance of false confession? (5)

A

Public Policy Organisation in US
Oversees and supports DNA exonerations
Many of those exonerated faced the death sentence
Average sentence served was 14 years
About 25% of wrongful convictions involved a false confession

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3
Q

What are the Birmingham six and what happened? (3)

A

Convicted of the Irish Republican Army’s bombing of a Birmingham pub, killing several people

Four of the six had made confessions

The Court of Appeal quashed the Birmingham Six’s convictions for murder in March 1991.

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4
Q

What are the approaches to interviewing in the UK? (3)

A

Emphasis is on collecting as much accurate information as possible

Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act – tape recording of suspect interviews is mandatory, safeguards laid down for interviewing those with mental health issues or those deemed to be at risk

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5
Q

What are the approaches to interviewing in the USA? (3)

A

Interrogation is more widely used – this is more aggressive and is aimed at securing a confession

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6
Q

How did the Birmingham Six case affect the British criminal justice system? (2)

A

The Royal Commission on Criminal Justice was established to scrutinise the operation of the criminal justice system

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7
Q

What are the common tactics of interviewing between US and UK? (5)

A

Inbau et al. (2013) recommend processes such as:
Small, bare rooms

Interviewee has no access to controls
Invasion of space

One way mirror – checking for moments of vulnerability

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8
Q

What effect can the common interviewing tactics have on the suspects? (3)

A

For some suspects this may create psychological distress or exacerbate existing psychological and emotional conditions

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9
Q

How do cases vary across different jurisdictions? (3)

A

Cases vary around the world but interrogations result between 42%-60% confessions in the US and UK, as high as 90% in Japan

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10
Q

What are the methods used to elicit confession? (4)

A

Maximisation
Minimisation
Woody & Forrest (2009): deception ploys
‘Mr Big’ technique (Kassin et al., 2010): essentially an elaborate sting operation

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11
Q

Which psychologically manipulative tactic is considered negative by the public? (2)

A

Hall et al. (2020) reported that of the psychologically manipulative tactics that may be used, lying about evidence was seen as especially negative by the public

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12
Q

What is maximisation? (3)

A

Scare tactics to intimidate the interviewee, overstating severity of crime and charges.

False claims about evidence

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13
Q

What is minimisation? (3)

A

Encourage a sense of security: sympathy, tolerance, offering excuses and justification, blaming the victim

Severity is downplayed

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14
Q

What are deception ploys? (4)

A

False evidence (that DNA evidence never fails)

Demeanour ploys (behaviour suggests guilt)

Testimonial ploys (someone saw you there)

Scientific ploys (that fingerprints have been found at the scene)

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15
Q

What is the aim with the use of PEACE technique used in the UK? (2)

A

Developed in collaboration with police and researchers with, among others, the aim of avoiding false confessions

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16
Q

Describe the PEACE technique (5)

A

Preparation and Planning before the interview
Engage and Explain (legal factors and rapport building)
Account (Clarify and Challenge) (open questions to elicit an account of events)
Closure (summary and amendments)
Evaluation (reflection on effectiveness of the interview)

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17
Q

What does PEACE focus on? (3)

A

Concentrates on fairness, openness, workability, accountability and getting to the truth
No fixation with achieving a confession

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18
Q

What is not permitted in the PEACE technique? (1)

A

Lying/fabrication

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19
Q

What are the problems associated with PEACE technique? (3)

A

Clarke & Milne (2001) and Griffiths (2008) both reported problems: rapport building, summarising and planning

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20
Q

What did Gudjonsson et al. (1994) do? (2)

A

Interviewed 156 suspects at two London police stations.

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21
Q

What did Gudjonsson et al. (1994) find? (5)

A

7% were suffering from mental health issues
3% had learning disabilities
3% were illiterate
2% had language problems
In this sample, the police had summoned the presence of an appropriate adult in only 4% of cases

22
Q

What did Gudjonsson propose about what kind of people are likely to give unreliable confession? (4)

A

People with mental health issues (schizophrenia, depression)

Unusual mental state (phobias, high anxiety, recent bereavement)

Low intellectual abilities or specific learning difficulties

Those scoring high on personality scales assessing compliance and suggestibility

23
Q

What did Stephenson & Moston (1993) do? (1)

A

Examined recorded interviews

24
Q

What did Stephenson & Moston (1993) find? (3)

A

The detectives’ aim in the majority of cases was to secure a confession as either main evidence or additional evidence

Most detectives were sure of the guilt of the suspect before the interview took place, largely on the basis of their evaluation of the strength of the evidence against the suspect (confirmation bias)

25
Q

What is the legislation of interviews in the UK? (3)

A

Shift the emphasis from getting a confession to seeing the task as a search for the truth
To encourage police officers to approach the interview with an open mind
To encourage police officers to be fair

26
Q

Why is it difficult for the police to follow guidelines? (3)

A

In a highly charged and complex arena, where there are often pressures on the police to solve a high-profile crime
It can be difficult to be certain of how social exchanges during interrogation influence the final outcome

27
Q

When does a voluntary false confession occur? (1)

A

Occurs in the absence of any obvious external pressure from others

28
Q

What did Kavanaugh (2016) suggest about why false confessions are made? (3)

A

The desire for notoriety
mental health problems
The desire to protect someone else
Not understanding the implications of confessing

29
Q

What did Kassin & Wrightsman suggest about why false confessions are made? (3)

A

Inability to distinguish between fact and imagination
See no way of proving their innocence, aim to reduce severity of punishment
The individual may feel guilty about a previous event in his life, and believe they deserve to be punished

30
Q

What is a coerced false confession? (1)

A

The individual is persuaded to confess

31
Q

What did Gudjonsson and Clark (1986) suggest about coerced false confessions? (5)

A

Suggested that a suspect will come to an interrogation with a general cognitive ‘set’ that may be hostile, suspicious or cooperative

This cognitive set will influence the suspect’s appraisal of the situation, and so affect the suspect’s strategy for coping with the interrogation

The cognitive set the suspect adopts will be related to factors such as intelligence, level of stress and the degree to which the suspect has previous experience of police questioning

32
Q

What styles did Gudjonsson and Clark propose of initial coping response in coerced false confession (4)

A

The suspect adopts a logical, realistic approach. They actively seek to deal with the situation and are actively resistant to the interrogator’s persuasion to confess. Active resistance may weaken as the interrogation goes on

The suspect adopts a passive, helpless stance. They avoid confrontation with the interrogator so as to reduce stress. However, this may lead to their being increasingly susceptible to the interrogator’s persuasive tactics

33
Q

What are the difficult decisions the suspect makes during interview? (3)

A

They have to decide how confident they are in their memories
What answers to give the interrogator / interviewer (which may not be the same as their private knowledge of events)
Whether they trust the interrogator / interviewer

34
Q

What do resistant suspects do during interviews? (1)

A

Likely to hold onto their own version of the truth, resisting persuasive attempts to bring them to confess

35
Q

What do coerced suspects do during interviews? (1)

A

May change their version of the truth so as to agree with the interrogator / interviewer

36
Q

What are the two sub-types of coerced false confession? (2)

A

Coerced-compliant false confessions
Coerced-internalised false confessions

37
Q

What is coerced-compliant false confessions? (3)

A

The suspect remains aware that their confession and private, internal knowledge of the event disagree, but the suspect nevertheless comes to agree with the interrogator

A suspect may develop a memory for having committed the crime OR people may come to falsely believe they committed a crime, even though they continue to have no memory of doing so

38
Q

What is coerced-internalised false confessions? (3)

A

In some circumstances, the suspect’s internal account of events actually changes to fall into line with the interrogator, so that, both publicly and privately, the suspect comes to agree with the interrogator’s version of events

39
Q

Why does coerced compliance occur? (5)

A

Please the interrogator
Avoid further detention and interrogation
Avoid physical harm (real or imagined)
Strike a deal with the interrogator that brings some Reward for making a confession

40
Q

What is interrogative suggestibility? (3)

A

The extent to which, during intense questioning, people accept information communicated by the questioner and so change their responses

41
Q

Who developed the notion of interrogative suggestibility? (1)

A

Gudjonsson (1987)

42
Q

How does interrogative suggestibility lead to false confessions? (6)

A

Situational stress
Low intelligence
Low self-esteem
Fatigue
Memory ability
This may combine to trigger the suspect’s suggestibility to misleading information – leads them to produce a false confession

43
Q

What did Kassin & Kiechel (1996) do? (3)

A

Participants were asked to enter data on a computer .

They were warned not to press the ALT key as this would crash the computer software.

The software was set up to crash unknown to the participants.

44
Q

What did Kassin & Kiechel (1996) find? (3)

A

The participant was accused of pressing the ALT key. All the participants were “innocent” and denied the charge.

Half the participants were confronted with a witness (a confederate) who told the experimenter they had seen the participant hit the ALT key. 65% then confessed to hitting the key

Half were confronted with a witness who said they had not seen what happened. Only 12% then confessed to hitting the key

45
Q

What qualities did Vrij (2000) list that make a good liar? (7)

A

Having a well prepared story

Being original in what is said

Thinking quickly when the need arises

Eloquence in storytelling

Having a good memory for what has been said previously

Not experiencing emotions such as fear or guilt while lying

Good acting ability

46
Q

What qualities did Verigin et al. (2019) list that make a good liar? (3)

A

Embed lies into truthful info

Keep things clear and simple

Provide accounts that are plausible

47
Q

What approach is used to detect deceit? (1)

A

Statement Validity Assessment (SVA)

48
Q

What is SVA? (3)

A

Highly structured analysis of verbal content

This relies on the idea that truthful and false accounts are essentially different in nature, and these differences can be identified

Originally developed as a clinical tool for analysing children’s statements

49
Q

What are the two major components of SVA? (2)

A

The content of the statement is judged by the forensic psychologist in a criterion-based content analysis (CBCA)

A validity checklist

50
Q

What is the criteria that may indicate an account is “truthful” in criterion-based content analysis? (5)

A

The account may be unstructured and not presented in chronological time order, but still be coherent

Reference to specific detail about events and people which is embedded in a context (time & space), deceptive accounts may include less detail

The reporting of subjective feelings

Spontaneous corrections and additional information, Admitting a lack of memory (truthful suspects are less concerned about impression management)

A reference to offence-specific elements concerning the fine details of the offence

51
Q

What is the statement validity checklist? (3)

A

Assesses likelihood of suggestion
Influence of others
Lack of realism

52
Q

Is SVA effective? (2)

A

While not a perfect technique, it seems that SVA does help improve accuracy beyond guesswork and addresses inaccurate beliefs about how to judge accuracy

Oberlader et al. (2016) Meta-analysis supported the underlying assumptions of CBCA

Forensic Psychology (10 decks)

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