Application Paper
Select a chapter from the assigned reading for the week in which the Chapter Application Paper is due and write a 3-5 page paper which summarizes, synthesizes, and then applies the information from the Chapter to issues relevant to the topic.
Each paper must identify the premise and supporting points of the chapter, a synthesis of the information from the chapter, and a critical application of the premise(s) and supporting points from the chapter to an issue in psychology and the legal system. The paper should address:
- Key points, patterns, and trends from the information in the chapter
- How the chapter information applies to issues in psychology and the legal system
- Analysis of the chapter information from a Christ-centered perspective?
The organization of your paper is very important. Please follow APA and make sure to use section headings in your paper. Make sure to include a cover page, a references page, and develop a well-formatted, grammatical correct paper.
Your paper must be a minimum of 3–5 pages, be well-organized, and be reflective of your thinking and struggles in these very complex areas of psychology and the legal system.
Interrogations and
Confessions
Chapter 2
Interrogations and
Confessions
In this chapter
The Power of a Confession
The Evolution of Interrogation Techniques
Inside the Modern Interrogation Room
The Problem of False Confessions
Should Interrogators Be Allowed to Lie?
Potential Solutions to the Problem of False Confessions
Power of Confession
Goal of questioning is to elicit confession.
39%-48% of suspects make full confession.
13%-16% of suspects make damaging statements or partial admissions.
68% of police-interrogated suspects make self-incriminating statements.
Power of Confession
Why do police prefer confessions?
Confessions save time.
Trials are avoided; convictions are almost guaranteed.
Research show mock jurors do not discount confession, even if false.
This may be explained by fundamental attribution bias.
Power of Confession
The existence of a confession predisposes juries toward reaching a guilty verdict.
Mock jurors were asked whether they judged the confession to be voluntary, whether it influenced their verdict and whether they voted for conviction (Kassin & Sukel, 1997).
What do the data tell us?
Figure 2.1
5
Evolution of Interrogation Techniques
Prior to 1930
Use of direct physical violence
1931
Report on Lawlessness and Law Enforcement led to covert abuse that did not leave marks, including such things as deprivation, isolation, and intimidation
Since 1961
Series of legal decisions pushed police from covert physical to more psychological coercion forms
Culombe v. Connecticut, 1961; Davis v. North Carolina, 1966; Reck v. Pate, 1961; Townsend v. Swain, 1963
Evolution of Interrogation Techniques
1966: Miranda Rights (Miranda v. Arizona)
To remain silent
To have attorney present during questioning
To have appointed attorney when financial need exists
To acknowledge understanding of rights
Evolution of Interrogation Techniques
Are rights waived? Why?
80% of suspects waive rights and are subject to interrogation.
Police delivery of Miranda rights may be perfunctory, rushed, or ritualistic in manner.
Suspect may be upset, lack clear thinking, or unable to understand that rights are being waived.
1961: Totality of circumstances (Culombe v. Connecticut)
Judges must look at all circumstances surrounding interrogation
Modern Interrogation
Modern interrogation is primarily psychological (e.g., good cop/bad cop).
Police receive training and are familiar with interrogation manuals and techniques.
Most widely used reference by Inbau and colleagues offers detailed advice on every aspect of interrogation processes.
Central to the process is the Reid technique.
Let’s take a closer look.
Inbau and colleagues (2013) offer detailed advice on every aspect of the interrogation process including how to set up the interrogation room, what questions to ask, appropriate nonverbal behavior for the interrogator, how to respond to questions or denials by a suspect, and how to handle passive or defiant suspects. Even peripheral details such as the type of chairs in the interrogation room receive serious attention
9
Modern Interrogation
Reid technique
Involves 9 step technique that represents the general flow of many interrogations.
Includes 4 psychologically powerful strategies
Loss of control
Social isolation
Certainty of guilt
Exculpatory scenarios
Inbau and colleagues (2013) offer detailed advice on every aspect of the interrogation process
including how to set up the interrogation room, what questions to ask, appropriate
nonverbal behavior for the interrogator, how to respond to questions or denials by a
suspect, and how to handle passive or defiant suspects. Even peripheral details such
as the type of chairs in the interrogation room receive serious attention
10
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SPOTLIGHT
Group Interrogation May Help To Reveal Liars
U.S. police manuals promote myth that suspects are reluctant to talk.
Truth-tellers interrupt and correct more often.
Deceivers are more tacitum.
Truth-tellers’ interactions with one another comes more naturally than it does for liars (Vrij)
CORE PRINCIPLES OF
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Cialdini proposed six principles that underlie influence of others.
Are any of these principles used by police to elicit incriminating admissions from suspects?
If so, how?
False Confessions
Most vulnerable are youth
-psychological immaturity
-brain immaturity
13
Are prompted by lying, intimidation, deception, fatigue, abuse
Contribute to 25% of known wrongful convictions
Occur most often in murder cases (80% of proven false confessions)
Involve vulnerable, suggestible, compliant suspects; especially vulnerable youth
May be related to mindset of innocent suspects
Are caused most by police interrogations
Types of False Confessions
Four types of false confessions across two dimensions
Instrumental or authentic
Voluntary or coerced
Types of False Confessions
Cases can involve all four types of confessions.
Instrumental-coerced false confessions: Suspects confess to crimes not committed; most common false confession in criminal cases
Instrumental-voluntary false confessions: Suspects provide false confession as means to end
Types of False Confessions
Authentic-coerced false confessions: Suspect becomes convinced of own guilt after long, intense interrogation; vivid false memories may be created
Authentic-voluntary false confessions: Suspect suffer from delusion and confess with little or no pressure from interrogation
Four Types of False Confessions
Table 2.1
17
HOT TOPIC
The Use of Torture in Interrogations
Practices such as waterboarding violate international and national treaties and laws.
Ethical and moral codes of conduct are also be violated.
Little research on effectiveness of torture, but irrefutable evidence that less coercive interrogation can produce verifiability false confessions.
Actions based on false information from torture may have dire consequences, especially in military actions.
International and national treaties and laws (e.g., Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, 1948; the Geneva Convention, 1949; the United States Congress
Joint Resolution Opposing Torture, 1984; the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, 1984, 1987
18
Should Interrogators Be
Allowed to Lie?
United States
Police interrogators are legally allowed to use false evidence ploys.
England and Wales
PACE Act makes it illegal to lie.
Witness must be present.
Interrogation must be audio-recorded.
Intimidation is not permitted.
Potential Solutions to Problems of False Confessions
Video recording of interrogations
Creates permanent record
Improves interrogation methods
Video recording can be manipulated, especially if interrogation is partially recorded
Recording admission and not interrogation
Only showing segments at trial
Manipulating camera angle
20
Potential Solutions to Problems of False Confessions
Time limits and expert testimony
Lengthy interrogations common in false confessions
Four hours or less is recommended
Appropriate adult witness for vulnerable suspects
Juveniles should be provided with appropriate adult during questioning
Subjects with mental impairment require special treatment during interrogation
Potential Solutions to Problems of False Confessions
Expert testimony on interrogations and confessions
Expert witnesses can provide assistance
Discussing pertinent research that documents police-induced false confession
Explaining relationship between heightened risk rate of false confession and specific interrogation methods
Case law supports admissibility of expert testimony.
About three-fourth of jurors believe expert witness testimony would be helpful.
2
Interrogations and Confessions
SUMMARY
A primary goal of police officers is to obtain a confession from a suspected criminal. It is estimated that self-incriminating statements are obtained from about 68% of suspects interrogated by police. Confessions save time and money, and they are almost certain to result in a conviction because they are one of the most powerful types of evidence in jury verdicts. Although jurors can oftentimes identify when confessions have been coerced, they are unable to ignore such confessions when making their decisions. Jurors are also likely to make a fundamental attribution error by blaming the suspect’s behavior on him or her rather than on the circumstances surrounding the confession. It is the judge’s responsibility to determine whether there is convincing evidence that a confession was coerced and, if the judge decides there is, to disallow it and so prevent the confession from being presented in court. Interrogation techniques have undergone changes over the years. Whereas prior to the 1930s, suspects were essentially tortured, the Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement led to legislation banning such processes. The ban led interrogators to switch to forms of physical abuse that would leave no marks on suspects. More recently, psychological forms of abuse have become popular and if a confession is deemed to have been obtained by coercion, the confession is said to be inadmissible. The term coercion is, however, not well-defined in the legal sense, and police routinely lie to suspects about evidence (e.g., eyewitnesses or fingerprints) that they actually do not possess. Because coercion is not clearly defined in the U.S. legal system, other than physical abuse, it is very difficult to have juries form a consensus if coercion has occurred. But suspects are not without legal protection. Since 1966, they must be read their Miranda rights before being interrogated. These rights are to remain silent, to have an attorney present at questioning, have an attorney provided free of charge if they cannot afford to hire an attorney, and to assent that they understand their rights. Unpredictably, 80% of suspects waive their Miranda rights. Innocent people feel they have nothing to hide, and guilty people want to appear cooperative. If they waive their Miranda rights, an interrogation following the nine-step Reid technique is likely to ensue. The Reid technique specifies the desired physical characteristics of the questioning environment as well as four strategies for extracting confessions—creating in suspects a sense of loss of control, social isolation, convincing suspects of the certainty of their own guilt, and offering suspects exculpatory scenarios. For those being interrogated as suspects, having all aspects of the physical location and the process of interrogation determined by the interrogator generally result in feelings of loss of control. Feelings of social isolation are enforced by questioning the person with none of his or her acquaintances present. Interrogators accuse him or her, dismissing all denials, while presenting fictitious evidence to create a certainty of guilt and maximize the apparent case against the suspect. Last, they provide exculpatory scenarios, which are acceptable explanations for why the suspect may have committed the crime, implying these may result in reduced punishment.
False confessions have been implicated in 25% of wrongful convictions. They are especially likely to occur in cases involving very serious crimes. Certain classes of individuals are particularly vulnerable to giving coerced false confessions. These include people with a low IQ, developmental disabilities, low socioeconomic status, strong desires to comply as well as those who are highly suggestible or sleep deprived. Being young is among the strongest of factors implicated in false confessions. There are four categories of false confessions: (1) instrumental (to achieve a goal), (2) authentic (the suspect believes in his or her own guilt), (3) coerced, and (4) voluntary.
A well-known case, the “Guilford Four”—in which three men and one woman, members of the Irish Republican Army, confessed to exploding bombs in two pubs— was instrumental in effecting policy change in the way interrogations were to proceed in England and Wales. The case led to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, prohibiting interrogators from lying to suspects or intimidating them. All interviews had to be recorded and an “appropriate adult” had to be present when a young or vulnerable suspect was being questioned. Whether such reforms simply changed the venue of such questionable interrogation tactics to a location other than the interrogation room is unclear. In the United States, police still retain the right to lie to suspects, which has led some to question whether this may lead the police to believe that lying is acceptable in other forums as well, such as the courtroom. Possible remedies for addressing false confessions include video recording of interrogations. Many states now require the recording of criminal case interrogations, though this practice leads to additional problems, such as introducing edited videos. Another associated problem concerns camera focus. The person the video focuses on is seen by viewers as more powerful than if he or she were not the focus. Because of this perception, if the suspect is the video’s focus, his or her confession is interpreted as having been less coerced or not coerced at all. Other potential remedies for the false confession problem are to set time limits on interrogations, ensure that vulnerable suspects have an “appropriate adult” present during questioning, and allow expert testimony on false confessions in court.
Another well-known case of a possible false confession and repressed memories was the case of Paul Ingram. In 1988, Paul Ingram was a deputy sheriff and married father of five. One of his daughters, Erika, at the age of 22, brought allegations against her father of sexual abuse and Satanic rituals involving sacrificing live babies and full-term fetuses. When she first spoke to police, she stated that she and her sister were abused up until she was 9 years old and her sister Julie was five years old. After continuous questioning, Erika stated she had also been recently abused by her father. Julie also backed up Erika’s story.
Paul Ingram was interrogated by police and hypnotized but could not remember any of the events of abuse. He was told by a psychologist that sex offenders often repress memories they do not wish to acknowledge. At the urging of his pastor, Paul confessed.
Dr. Richard Ofshe was hired by the prosecution to examine the case, and he concluded that Paul Ingram’s confession was false. His confession was coerced through faulty hypnosis and planting of thoughts and narratives in Paul’s mind and in the minds of his children. Dr. Ofshe also found that the police and interrogators used leading questions throughout the interrogation procedure.
Though no charges were brought for the Satanic rituals and baby sacrifices, Paul Ingram was found guilty of six counts of rape against his daughters and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 2003 after serving 15 years in prison.