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Forensic Psychology > Week 2: Interrogations > Flashcards

Week 2: Interrogations Flashcards

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1
Q

Police Selection Procedures

A
  • Screening out undesirable candidates or select in desirable candidates
  • Evaluate knowledge, skills and abilities
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2
Q

Important skills for Hamilton police service’s essential competency interview

A
  • Analytical thinking
  • Self confidence
  • Communication
  • Flexibility
  • Self-control
  • Relationship building
  • Achievement orientation
  • physical skills and abilities
  • Ability to deal with diversity
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3
Q

Police Selection Procedures

A
  1. Selection interview
  2. Cognitive ability tests
  3. Personality Tests
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4
Q

Cognitive ability tests in police selection procedures

A

Measure memory math, verbal skills, reasoning

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5
Q

Personality ability tests in police selection procedures

A

Can asses personality fit and certain concerning behaviour patterns

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6
Q

Inwald Personality Invenetory

A
  • Specifically designed for police selection
  • stress reactions
  • Interpersonal difficulties
  • alcohol and drug use
  • More effective than more generalized personality tests
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7
Q

Police selection assessment centers

A

Facility in which the behaviour of police applicants can be observed in several situations by multiple observers
- Stay multiple days
- interactions observed
- Decision making assessed

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8
Q

Discretion

A

The freedom that a police officer has for deciding what should be done in any given situation
- Consider the safety of themselves, the individual and the community

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9
Q

Goal of police interrogations

A

Obtain a confession of guilt from a suspect

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10
Q

Why do we need a confession

A
  • More likely to be prosecuted and convicted
  • Still same time in court
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11
Q

Types of coercion still used today

A
  • lying about evidence
  • Promising lenient treatment
  • Implying threats to loved ones
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12
Q

Stages of the Reid Model of Interrogation

A
  1. Gather evidence related to the crime interview witnesses and victims
    - tells us who the suspects are
  2. Conduct a non-accusatorial interview of the suspect
    - Is the suspect telling the truth?
    - Is there still evidence to suggest they may be guilty
    - Gather info
  3. Conduct an accusatorial interrogation of the Suspect
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13
Q

What are the first 5 Components of an accusatorial interrogation in the Reid Model

A
  1. Suspect is immediately confronted with their guilt
    - If no evidence, officer may imply that there is
  2. Officers speak in ways that suggest the crime is rationalized
    - Continue until decrease in frequency of denial
    - Longest out of all 9
    - If don’t deny then probable guilt
  3. Officer Interrupts any statements of denial
    - Don’t let suspect get the upperhand
  4. Officer overcomes objections
    - Accept or listen first
  5. If suspect becomes withdrawn, officer ensures that interrogation is not tuned out
    - Move closer, sincerity
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14
Q

What are the last 4 Components of an accusatorial interrogation in the Reid Model

A
  1. Officer exhibits sympathy and understanding, suspect is urged to come clean - Play on mortality
  2. Suspect is offered explanations of the crime
    - Uses facts of the case
    - More concrete than 2
    - Seem not as bad as actually was
  3. Once suspect accepts responsibility, develop into full confession
  4. Officer arranges to have suspect write and sign full confession
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15
Q

Environment of an interrogation room

A
  • Evidence folder in hand to increase though that they have evidence
  • Left alone for a while before accusatorial interrogation
  • White room without much to look at
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16
Q

Factors causing variation in likelihood of confession and manipulation of them

A

FEAR OF CONFESSING
- People make choices that they think will maximize their well-being given the constraints they face
- Want to decrease
ANXIETY CAUSED BY REMAINING DECPETIVE
- Want to increase
- Appeal to morality

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17
Q

Minimization techniques

A

Lull the suspect into a false sense of security
- Decrease fear of confessing

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18
Q

Maximization techniques

A

Sacre tactics that convey the officer’s belief that the suspect is guilty and that denial will fail
- increase anxiety around lying

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19
Q

The Mr.Big Technique

A
  • Noncustodial Procedure (Happens outside the interrogation room)
  • Undercover officer poses as member of criminal organization and lures suspect into ‘gang’
  • Suspect made to commit minor crimes and rewarded form them to show lucidity
  • Suspect is interviewed for higher level job within the gang - must confess to serious crime to Mr.Big for ‘insurance’ in the gang or under impression Mr.Big can make evidence disappear
  • Confession recorded and used as evidence in trail
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20
Q

When using the Mr.Big technique, is the person being coerced to commit an illegal act

A
  • Yes, but not the act they are confessing to
  • The confession is in reference to a crime committed before the operation
21
Q

What are potential problems of the Mr.Big technique

A
  • Are these confessions given voluntarily
  • Are these confessions potentially unreliable
  • According to the law, reasonable use of trickery is allowed
  • Up to prosecutors to argue technique is necessary
  • Confession out of coercion may be deemed unacceptable
22
Q

Problems with current interrogation techniques

A
  • Techniques assume that the suspect is guilty and being deceptive
  • Officers can’t know for sure if a suspect is being deceptive
  • There are many biases that could affect what an interrogator believes
  • Techniques are coercive and suggestive possibly leading to false confessions
23
Q

Suspect rights protecting them form interrogation

A

US: Miranda Rights, CAN: Listed in Charter of Rights and Freedoms
1. Right to silence
2. Right to legal counsel
- Only once these rights are waived by the suspect can interrogation begin
PROBLEM: Many people do not understand these rights

24
Q

Eastwood & Snook Reading of right to silence study

A
  • Study conducted on undergraduate students, some of which were enrolled in police academy
  • Each phrase of right to silence presented in verbal or written format
  • Participants asked to record their understanding of the message
    FINDINGS
  • Sentence 2 was less understood than 1 and 3
  • Better understanding with written copy
  • Those who had heard rights before and police recruits didn’t have a better understanding
    OUTCOMES
  • Written copy of right
  • Repetition of stating rights
25
Q

Def: False confessions

A

Confession that is intentionally fabricated or is not based on actual fact
- May be elicited in response to a demand for a confession

26
Q

What are the criteria for a confession to be admissible in court

A
  • Confessor must be competent
  • Confession must be voluntary
27
Q

Def: Retracted Confession

A

Confessor later declares confession to be false
- Confession could be true or false

28
Q

Def: Disputed Confession

A

Confession that is later disputed in trial
- Doesn’t have to be false or retracted
- May be inadmissible due to legal reasons - - Claim not to have said it

29
Q

What are the three types of false confessions?

A
  • Voluntary: Voluntarily confesses without elicitation
  • Coerced-Compliant: Suspect confesses to the crime even though they are fully aware that they did not commit it
  • Coerced-Internalized: Recall and confess to a crime that they did not commit
30
Q

Reasons for voluntary false confessions

A
  • Desire for notoriety
  • Unable to distinguish fact from fantasy
  • Desire to make up for feelings of guilt by receiving punishment
  • Desire to protect someone else from harm
31
Q

Which type of false confession is most common

A

Coerced-complient

32
Q

Reasons for coerced-compliant false confession

A
  • Escape further interrogation
  • Gain promised benefit
  • Avoid threatened punishment
33
Q

Vulnerability factors of coerced-internalized false confessions

A
  • History of substance abuse, interference with brain function
  • Inability to detect discrepancies between reality and suggestion
  • Severe anxiety, confusion, feelings of guilt
34
Q

Study on convincing university students they committed a crime as a teen

A
  • 71% developed false memories of crime they were convinced they committed
  • Recalled false additional details
  • Example of coerced-internalized false confession
35
Q

R. v. M.J.S. 2000 Shaken baby case

A
  • Father interrogated and cooperative
  • Denied allegations 34 times over 4 interviews
  • Confessed but rule false due to video of interrogation showing coerced
  • Example of coerced compliant false confession
36
Q

Billy Wayne Cope convicted for murder and sexual assault of 12-year-old daughter (2001)

A
  • Bill showed little emotion and no signs of forced entry (however forced entry was found later)
  • Denied guilt, waived rights, offered to be polygraphed
  • Very cooperative and sure he didn’t do it
  • He passed the polygraph but they told him that he didn’t
  • He broke down and stated that he must have done it
  • Provided full narrative of crime and showed where it occurred around the house
  • DNA pointed to local sex offender but Billy was still accused of being involved
  • He was initially convicted
37
Q

Kassin & Kiechel (1996): The ALT Key study set up

A
  • Reaction time study - type letters that are read aloud
  • Don’t press ALT key or data will be lost
  • 60 seconds into procedure, system ‘crashes’
  • Head researcher accuses participant of pressing the ALT key
38
Q

Kassin & Kiechel (1996): The ALT Key study Independent variables

A

Vulnerability
- Uncertainty of own innocence
- Rate of pressing was fast vs slow
False evidence
- Does the experimenter claim that they witnessed the key being pressed

39
Q

Kassin & Kiechel (1996): The ALT Key study dependent variables

A

Compliance
- Tendency to go along with demands from authority
- How many participants signed a written confession
Internalization
- Personal acceptance of guilt
- When participant left the lab, a confederate asked them what happened
- How many participants accepted blame
Confabulation
- Reporting events that did not occur
- Participants asked to reconstruct what went wrong
- How many participants reported that they pressed the ALT key

40
Q

Kassin & Kiechel (1996): The ALT Key study Results

A
  • Consistent Compliance but greater with false witness and at fast pace vs slow pace
  • Internalization was lower than compliance but still substantial
41
Q

Kassin & Kiechel (1996): The ALT Key study - are these results generalizable

A
  • Not high consequences
  • Easier to believe you accidently did it over an actual crime
  • Just university students (specific population)
42
Q

Consequences of False Confessions

A
  • False confessions often lead to convictions (even if jury is aware of coercion)
  • False confessions viewed as evidence of guilt (difficult believing innocent person would confess, unable to distinguish between truth and false confessions, True and false confessions often similar in content and structure)
  • False confessions may taint other evidence
  • Misdirect the overall investigation - wild goose chase leading to cold trails
43
Q

Consequences of alternative to coercive interrogation methods

A

Decrease in coercive interrogation does not result in substantial reduction of confessions obtained - remains about 50%

44
Q

Taxonomy of interrogation techniques based on likelihood of confession

A
  • Increases confession rate in all subjects: Confession-prone
  • Doesn’t increase confession rate in any subjects: Nonconfession-prone
  • Increase confession rate in guilty suspects only: Differentiating
  • Increase confession rate in innocent suspects only: assimilating
45
Q

Confession-Prone Techniques

A

COMPONENTS OF THE RIED TECHNIQUES
- Isolating Suspect
- Identifying contradictions
- Appealing to self-interest
- Offering excuses
- Interrupting denials
- Bluffing
- Minimizing techniques
- Threatening consequences
- Suggesting false evidence
- Physical Intimidation

46
Q

Differentiating Techniques

A

Build trust and maximize the feeling of guilt if the person did it
- Building Rapport
- Presenting guilt evidence
- Appealing to conscience
- Showing photos

47
Q

The Peace Model

A

Investigative interview (Inquisitorial, not accusatorial)
P: Planning and Preparation
- Collect evidence
- Try to avoid bias info
- Decide where and when interview should take place
E: Engage and Explain
- Check welfare of individual
- Explain reason and structure of interview
- Warm greeting
- Relaxed and build rapport
A: Account Clarification and Challenge
- Longest Stage
- Gather info using free recall and conversation management
C: Closure
- Ask if they have any questions
- Tell them its coming to an end
- Take back to anything you are unclear about
E: Evaluation
- Look at all info before and gathered and evaluate situation

48
Q

Conversation Management

A

Technique allowing for information gathering by keeping track of the facts and contradictions

49
Q
A

Forensic Psychology (11 decks)

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