Interviewing suspects

Question 1

Interrogative vs. Investigate interviews

Answer 1

An interrogation sounds accusatory in nature

An investigate interview is designed to develop an environment to prompt the suspect to disclose information. To search for the truth in order to obtain accurate and reliable information

Question 2

The Reid Technique

Inbau, Reid, Buckley & Jayne

Answer 2

Interrogation technique intended to break the guilty suspects resistance to tell the truth.

Themes of accusation and repeated accusation

Usage of bluff or outright lies and deceit about supposed evidence

Minimising the crime to gain confession in emotional suspects

Maximising the evidence against the suspect for non emotional ones

Question 3

The Reid technique: nine step approach to interrogation

Answer 3

1) direct confrontation
2) theme development
3) handling denials
4) overcoming objections
5) procurement and retention of suspects attention
6) handling the passive mood
7) presenting an alternate question
8) having suspect orally relate various details of offence
9) converting oral confession to a written one

Question 4

Concerns with the Reid technique

Answer 4

Evidence obtained through trickery is not admissible in some countries

Bluffing runs the risk of the interrogator being caught in a lie

Concerns that it could lead a false confession, especially with vulnerable suspects

Reliance on non verbal cues of deceit identified by Inbau is unreliable

Question 5

Suing Reid & associates

Juan Rivera

Answer 5

Wrongfully convicted for the 1992 rape and murder of 11 year old Holly Staker

A number of pieces excluded Rivera, including DNA from the rape kit and the report from the electronic ankle monitor he was wearing at the times bile awaiting trial for non violent burglary.

However, he confessed after being interrogated for several days using the Reid technique.

Following his exoneration, Rivera was awarded $20 million in 2015, including $2 million from John E Reid & associates

Question 6

Alternative methods

PACE code C

Answer 6

Interviews should be investigatory (open minded and ethical), rather than confession-seeking.

Use of unfair methods can render a confession inadmissible in court

All interviews in police stations with suspects should be audio taped

Right for a solicitor to be present

Question 7

Peace model of interviewing

Answer 7

Planning and preparation

Engage and explain

Account, clarify & challenge

Closure

Evaluation

Question 8

The Amanda Knox case: a classic false confession

Answer 8

Interrogation detail

• repeatedly threatened and called a liar
• falsely informed that her boyfriend had denied her alibi
• falsely told that physical evidence placed her at the scene
• told to shut her eyes and imagine how the crime had occurred
• told she had obvious trauma
• interviews were not recorded despite law

Confession
- eventually broke down crying, screaming and hitting herself
- two ‘confessions’ produced during this phase
- one at 1.45am, one at 5.45am
Nothing in either confessions revealed she had guilty knowledge
Both immediately retracted in a handwritten letter as soon as she was alone

Question 9

Drizin & Leo 2004

Answer 9

Documented 125 cases of proven false confessions in the US

32% of the sample were juveniles
19% were described as having some form of special needs/ mental impairment
10% described as mentally ill

> 80% of cases involved a charge of murder

11% plead guilty to the crime
81% of those going to trial were convicted on the false confession evidence

Length of incarceration
30% served 1-5 years
34% served 6-10 years
27% served > 11 years

The average length of interrogation where a false confession had been obtained was 16.4 hours (median 12 hours)

Question 10

Why do people falsely rimes they haven’t committed

Stephanie Crowe murder

Answer 10

Interviewer: why would you confess

Michael Crow (14) eventually they wear you down to where you don’t even trust yourself. You can’t trust your memory anymore.

Josh Treadway (15) I had a lot of pressure on me at the time. And, again, you’d just have to be there.

Question 11

Tankleff

Answer 11

Sentenced for 50 years for murder of his parents; spent 17 years in jail, all charges dropped.

Question 12

False confessions in the UK

False confession evidence played a role in cases

Answer 12

Guildford four
Birmingham six

Both cases involved physical interrogation techniques/ mistreatment
Recording of interviews and appropriate suspect interview techniques make false confessions of this nature unlikely, however false confession still occur

Question 13

Voluntary false confession

Answer 13

When a person confesses to police or others without apparent external pressure

Question 14

Compliant

Why?

Answer 14

When someone know knows he is innocent confesses to escape a stressful situation, avoid a threatened or implied harm or gain a promised or implied reward

Seeking instrumental gain

• to escape pressures of the interrogation situation, psychological and/ or physical coercion, even though they are innocent
• short term beliefs appear to outweigh long term costs
• may believe that their situation will improve if they appear to ‘help’
• may believe truth will shine out

Negative and unethical police behaviours are a key factor in eliciting complaint coerced confessions
- impropriety throughout the investigative process
- manipulating techniques
—- unlawful: brute force, isolation, deprivation of food/ sleep, threats of punishment, promises of immunity or leniency
—- psychological: feigned sympathy/ friendship, appeals to conscience or religion, presentation of false evidence, good cop/ bad cop, trickery and
deception

Question 15

Internalised

Answer 15

When an innocent person subject to highly suggestive techniques comes to believe that he may have committed the crime, a belief change sometimes accompanied by false memories

Question 16

Sean Hodgson

Answer 16

Told a prison chaplain he murdered a bar maid
Then told a police officer, and made a statement
Claimed responsibility for two other murders
Withdrew confession at trail and described himself as a pathological liar
Convicted
Spent 27 years in jail
Released 2009

Question 17

Why do people false confess

Answer 17

Desire to protect someone

Need for fame or attention seeking

Inability to distinguish its reality from fantasy

Psychological vulnerability

Question 18

Complaint confession example:

Jeffrey deskovic

Answer 18

Convicted in 1989 for rape and murder of 15 year old classmate
Given a polygraph by investigator hired to get false confession
Interrogated between polygraph sessions (no lawyer, parents food)
His alleged confession occurred after six hours, three polygraph sessions, and extensive questioning by detectives between sessions
Told he had failed the polygraph examination
Detectives stated that Deskovic realised” three weeks ago he might be the responsible party
During the first confession, deskovic sobbed, by the end was under the table in the fetal position crying
Dna evidence was available but ignored
Exonerated via DNA evidence after 16 years in prison
DNA match to convicted murderer already jailed for something similar

Question 19

Coerced internalised confession

Paul Ingram

Answer 19

A religious Christian and a deputy sheriff in Washinton - was accused of raping his daughter, sex abuse, and a satanic cult crimes that included the slaughter of newborn babies

After two dozen interrogations, extending for 5 months, Ingram was detained, hypnotised, provided graphic crime details and told by a police psychologist that sex offenders typically repress their offences

Urged by his pastor to confess. Ingram eventually recalled his crimes, pled guilty. Served his full sentence of 20 years in prison.

No physical evidence to prove that the crimes to which he confessed had even occurred.

Ofshe 1992, concluded that Ingram was ‘brainwashed’ into thinking he was part of a satanic cult.

To demonstrate Ingram’s suggestibility, Ofshe manufactured a phoney crime. Ingram denied the charge at first, but after 24 hours he submitted a full confession

Question 20

Coerced internalised confession: why

Answer 20

Person comes to believe they are responsible for the crimes to which they have confessed

Memory dust syndrome (Godjohnnson, 2003)

• develop memories for having committed the crime
• falsely believe they committed the crime but cannot remember

Memory has to be vulnerable e.g. Substance use, fatigue, low intelligence, youth

Question 21

Interrogation factors

Ofshe 1989

Answer 21

Identified a number of common interrogation tactics associated with coerced internalised confessions:

• exhibiting strong and unwavering certainty about suspects guilt
• isolating the suspect from all familiar social contacts and outside sources of information
• conducting sessions that are lengthy and emotionally intense
• presenting false but allegedly incontrovertible prof of the suspects guilt, offering the suspect a ready physical or psychological explanation for why he/she does not remember the crime
• applying implicit and explicit pressure on the suspect to remember and confess.

Question 22

Innocence can put innocents at risk

Answer 22

Waive their rights to silence

Waive their rights to a council/ lawyer

Behave in ways that are open and fourth coming

Offer up alibis freely without regard for the fact that inconsistencies may be viewed with suspicion

Seems oblivious to the dangerous position there in

Question 23

Perceptions of confession evidence

Answer 23

People believe false confessions
Confessions have more impact on juries than other strong evidence
People do not discount confessions even when
- retracted
- judged to be the result of coercion
- told the confessor suffers from psychological illness or interrogation induced stress
- confession is provided by informant incentivised to implicit defendant
Most people believe they would never confess to a crime they did not commit

Question 24

Kassin, Meissner, Norwick 2005

Answer 24

Videotaped true and false confessions from inmates convicted of crimes, 4.5 minutes and examined whether investigators and naive participants could distinguish between them.

61 naive students, 57 police investigators

• investigators were significantly more confident in their judgments of deception
• investigators were not more accurate than students
• – but did demonstrate a bias to see guilt

Experience and prior training related to these biased perception

Question 25

False confessions have been elicited in laboratory settings

Answer 25

• failure to follow instructions
• breaking equipment
• checking on task or examinations

Question 26

Godjohnnson 2003

Answer 26

Research indicates that between 40 & 76% of all suspects confess in response to interrogation

Question 27

Interrogation techniques

Minimisation

Maximisation

Answer 27

Minimisation: minimising the seriousness of the offence and the perceived consequences of the confession

Maximisation: confronting them with accusations of guilt, refusing to accept their denials and claims of innocence, exaggerating the seriousness of the situation. May also include fabricated evidence to support accusations of guilt

Question 28

Kassin & Keiche, 1996

Eliciting false confessions in the laboratory

Answer 28

Mock crime involved causing a computer to crash by accidentally hitting a forbidden key on a computer keyboard during a reaction time test.

Innocent parties were falsely accused of hitting this key, and the DV was whether they signed a confession.

69% of participants falsely confessed, and this tendency was influenced by the suspects vulnerability and the presentation of false evidence.

Question 29

Critical analysis

Kassin & Keichel 1996

Answer 29

Failure to capture certain key elements of real world interrogations and confessions.

Individuals are factually innocent

Highly plausible crime, leaving open the possibility that many participants are unsure whether they are innocent or guilty

Most real world subjects are accused of intentionally committing a certain criminal act and are certain of their own culpability

Question 30

Russano, Meissner, Narchet & Kassin 2005

Answer 30

337 graduates (70%) female
Guilty: confederate asked for help
Non guilty: confederate did not ask for help solving individual problems
Experimenter blind to graduate condition, stated that the confederate and participant had the same wrong answer.
Minimisation & maximisation techniques

Found: minimisation provided effective means of obtaining full confession , however this also increased the risk of false confessions.
Leniency upon confession on the basis of the experimenters communication and amiable tone.
Similar effects to those of maximisation which lead to an increase in both true and false confessions.
Guilty people more likely to confess than innocent people, and that use of minimisation and offering a deal increased the rate of both true and false confessions.

However, because criminal acts that are more severe in nature and in consequence than the one in this paradigm, it would be imagined that confession rates would be lower than in the lib.

However, would assume that these underlying interrogative psychological processes occur in the real world.

Question 31

Redlich & Goodman 2003

Answer 31

48 males 48 females
Young adults 18-30
Children 12-16

Crashing computer paradigm

False evidence presented 50% young adults signed statement compared to 73% 15/16

15/16 year olds more likely to sign a confession taking responsibility for the crashing computer.
Younger people are more susceptible than older and are more likely to take responsibility.

X falsely hitting a computer button is vastly different to confessing to a crime

X mild interrogation compared to actual interrogation

Showed that adolescents presented with false evidence as well as those who are more suggestible may be more prone to take responsibility for something that they did not do