Lecture 3 part 1 Flashcards
Police investigations
- Rely on witnesses, victims, and suspects
- Who involved
- What happened
- Where and when did it happen
- How and why did it happen
- Often through interrogations
Purpose of interrogation
- Obtain a confession
- Obtain information about the crime
Brown vs. Mississippi (1936)
Whipping used in interrogation
NYC police (1980)
Stunguns used in interrogation
R v Hoilett (1999)
Confession under durress
Today’s interrogation
- Lying
- Exaggeration
- Threats
- Leniency
- Moral justifications
- Promises of assistance
Reid model of interrogation
- Gather evidence
- Non-accusatorional interview to assess deception
- Accusational interview to obtain confession
Minimization techniques
Soft sell tactics that provide false sense of security
Maximization techniques
Scare tactics to intimidate
9 steps of 3rd stage Reid model
- Confront suspect with guilt
- Develop psychological themes
- Interrupt statements of denial
- Overcome objections
- Engage suspect
- Show sympathy and urge truth
- Offer alternative explanations
- Develop full confession
- Obtain written confession
What is permissible by the courts
- Confession must be voluntary
- Confessor must be competent
Detecting deception
- Assumed investigators can detect deception when moving from stage 2 to 3 of the Reid model
- Little research supports the assumption
Procedural safeguards
- Assumed safeguards like rights to silence are in place to protect those who are being interrogated
- Research indicates most do not understand their legal rights
- Comprehensions can be improved if cautions are delivered in an appropriate format (written vs verbal)
Investigator bias
- Officers enter accusational phase of interrogation in belief the suspect is guilty
- Can lead to biased perceptions and behaviours on the part of the interrogator and neutral observers of the interrogation
PEACE model
- Alternative to Reid model
- Preparation, Engage/Explain, Account, Disclose, Evaluate
Problems with Reid model
- Detecting deception
- Interrogator bias
- Coerciveness and false confessions
False confessions
- Possibly intentionally fabricated
- Possibly not based on actual knowledge of the facts
- Must be distinguished from disputed and retracted confessions
3 types of false confessions
- Voluntary
- Coerced-internalized
- Coerced-compliant
Voluntary false confessions
- Desire for notoriety
- Inability to distinguish fact from fantasy
- Need to be punished
- Attempt to protect real offender
Coerced-compliant false confessions
- Desire to escape interrogation or gain a reward
- Knows they did not commit crime
Coerced-internalized false confessions
- From suggestive interrogations
- Comes to believe they committed the crime
False confessions in the lab
- Computer key study
- Participants accused of committing mock crime
- Vulnerability manipulated
- Presence of false evidence
Consequences of false confessions
- Genuine false confessions still likely to be viewed as evidence of guilt by jurors
- Difficulty with self-incrimination explanation
- Difficulty distinguishing true vs false confessions
- Difficulty with form and consent similarities between true and false confessions
- Increased chance of conviction
