Making a Case: Interviewing Suspects

MAKING A CASE

InterviewingWitnesses

InterviewingSuspects

Creating A Profile

Recognising FacesRecognising Faces

Factors Affecting Identification

Factors Affecting Identification

Cognitive InterviewCognitive Interview

Detecting LiesDetecting Lies

InterrogationTechniques

InterrogationTechniques

False ConfessionsFalse Confessions

Top-downTypology (FBI)

Top-downTypology (FBI)

Bottom-upApproach (Canter)

Bottom-upApproach (Canter)

Case Study(Railway Rapist)

Case Study(Railway Rapist)

• Research into deception generally shows that people look for non-verbal clues such as averting the eyes or appearing nervous or laughing as an indicator that someone is lying.

• Studies into deception show that participants score only just above the chance level when spotting liars ie they are not very good at it

• Vrij (2001) suggests that looking at indirect measures of deception such as a change in behaviour, body language, or speech is more effective than looking for lies. Vrij suggests that these indirect measure indicate that the suspect was having to “ think

hard” which might be a better indicator of lying.

Detecting Lies

• In the USA polygraph testing is widely used by police authorities (you will have seen this method of lie detection popularised on programmes such as Trisha, Maury, Jeremy Kyle etc.) but is this any better than just reading body language? Polygraphs measure the four indexes of arousal (Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Respiration Rate and Galvanic Skin response), but arousal is not only raised when we lie, and the test itself can play havoc on people’s arousal levels and this is a threat to its validity.

• There is now a suggestion that lie detection may be possible using of MRI scans (functional MRI scans that measure brain activity), so is it possible that in the future police may regard our brain activity as well as our body language and signs of physiological arousal as an indication that we are lying?

• (As Psychologists, of course, we must be cautious about the potential misuse of such technology).

What other methods are used to detect lies?

Evaluation of detecting Lies

• This was a field experiment. What are the advantages of this method?

• Is the sample generalisable?

• What was the problem with not having a control group?

• What are polygraphs?

• How is the research ethnocentric?

• What was an advantage of asking officers to list the cues they had used to detect the liars?

• Interrogation Techniques

Five Techniques of Surviving a Police Interrogation (Without Confessing)

Taken from freeBEAGLES' recommendations for animal rights' activists (and others) on how to make it through a police interrogation without incriminating themselves or their peers: 1. 1. Remain silent. 2. 2. Remain silent. 3. 3. Imagine the words "I invoke my right to remain

silent" painted on the wall, and stare at them throughout the interrogation.

4. 4. Momentarily break your silence to ask for counsel. 5. 5. Cultivate hatred for your interrogator so you don't

fall into his traps and start talking.

Read the following advice for suspects. Do you think this is good advice? Explain your answer.

• What do you know about interrogation already?

• The aim of employing interrogation is to obtain true confessions from subjects being questioned. The different techniques employed in interrogation are not just limited to questioning, but also carrying out torture.

• Techniques based on psychological studies help in manipulating the individual who is trying to hide information.

•

Interrogation Techniques

• In looking for a replacement for illegal forms of coercion, police turned to fairly basic psychological techniques like the time-honored "good cop bad cop" routine, in which one detective browbeats the suspect and the other pretends to be looking out for him. People tend to trust and talk to someone they perceive as their protector.

• Another basic technique is maximization, in which the police try to scare the suspect into talking by telling him all of the horrible things he'll face if he's convicted of the crime in a court of law. Fear tends to make people talk.

•

Interrogation Techniques

• Read the reading pack on Interrogation Techniques.1. Define PACE and the procedures they use.

2. What are the Miranda rights?

3. Summarise the main differences between an interrogation and an interview.

4. Why can Reid’s Nine steps of Interrogation not be applied to the UK?

Interrogation techniques

Aim – To develop an approach to interrogation which persuades the criminal that they have no choice but to confess.

• Read Inbau’s 9 steps of interrogation.• Give one way in which using the Nine Steps of

Interrogation Technique can be justified.

• Why would Inbau not agree with the Miranda rites?

Key Study – Inbau et al

Granhag: Evaluate

Interrogation Techniques

• ACTIVITY - ROLE PLAY• Think of an offence • Act out the 9 steps of interrogation proposed by Inbau et al. • One person in your group has to be the suspect who eventually admits

guilt in front of the witness• One person will be the police officer using the 9 steps of interrogation• One person will be the witness

Interrogation Techniques

• Can these techniques be justified?• Yes:

• No:

• What type of offender might be particularly vulnerable?

• Could they lead to false confessions?

The pressure of interrogation can lead to false confessions and this is why there are strict safeguards for the rights of suspects.

• Read the section on false confessions on the handout.

• What are the 3 types of false confession categorised by Kassin and Wrightsman?

• The research into false memory syndrome is an aspect of the cognitive approach and is another example of maladapted thinking. It can also be explained by the role of the unconscious mind and specifically ego defence mechanisms from the psychodynamic perspective

False Confessions

Evaluating false confessions• What are the situational factors here which would induce a false

confession?

• What are the ethical issues around this study?

• What are problems with the method used?

• How does this link to the freewill/determinism debate?

In March 2004 Drizin and Leo wrote an impressive and comprehensive review article “The Problem Of False Confessions In The Post-DNA World” and proposed three suggested courses

of action to help reduce the number of false confessions in the US,

1. to electronically record all custodial interrogations with suspects in their entirety (although this happens by law in the UK, this is law in only a minority of states in the US, for example in

Texas it is law that any oral confession be recorded but not the interrogation that preceded it);

2. education and training of police officers is needed to help them understand the reasons why innocent people make false confessions, especially the young and developmentally

challenged;

3. promptly conduct DNA testing of suspects wherever such physical evidence exists as this would either expose a false confession or even exclude a person as a suspect before he/she

falsely confesses.

The way forward to prevent false confessions: