Response
The authors use this study to support the claim of coerced internalized
false confessions. Indeed, if a suspect believed that he may have
committed a crime and was then presented with evidence that he committed
the crime it appears plausible that the suspect may then confess
to the crime. However, the issue is how often is an innocent suspect
uncertain as to whether or not he raped a woman, robbed a liquor
store or murdered his wife? If a man walked into a police station
and reported that he may have struck a pedestrian while driving
home the previous night, and indeed there was a hit and run accident
in the area described by the individual, what is the likelihood
that this man is innocent? Mistakenly believing that one pressed
the wrong key on a computer keyboard (especially when there is outside
pressure to type more quickly) would be typical of human nature.
It is a huge leap in logic to generalize that finding to criminal
acts which involve specific decisions, and definite knowledge.
Kassin, S. & Fong, C."I'm
Innocent!: Effects of Training on Judgments of Truth and Deception
in the Interrogation Room", Law and Human Behavior, 1999, Vol
23 No. 5
Overview
Video-taped "interrogations" of students assigned the
role of either being innocent or guilty of a mock crime were reviewed
by student observers. These interrogations, which lasted an average
of 4.5 minutes involved the subject first offering an alibi and
then the investigator becoming angry and saying, " Damn it,
you were caught red-handed so stop lying to me. I want to know minute
by minute where you were and what you doing before you were picked
up."
Half of the student observers received no training and the other
half watched two 15- minute video tapes on the Reid Technique. While
neither the untrained nor trained observers were able to identify
truthful or deceptive subjects above chance levels, there was a
statistical difference between their respective accuracies where
the trained observers performed more poorly than untrained ones.
The researchers concluded that the behavioral information taught
by Reid and Associates leads to inaccurate opinions of truth or
deception.
Response
It is almost impossible to duplicate, through a mock crime, the
motivational incentives experienced by actual criminal suspects.
It is therefore not surprising that the student observers were unable
to distinguish truthful from deceptive suspects during the mock
interrogation. On the other hand, studies that utilize field interviews
of actual suspects consistently report high accuracy rates for detecting
deception, e.g., Horvath, F. (1973) "Verbal and nonverbal clues
to truthfulness and deception during polygraph examinations"
Journal of Police Science and Administration, 1, 138-152; Horvath,
F. & Jayne, B. (1990) A pilot study of the verbal and nonverbal
behaviors of criminal suspects during structured interviews"
Dept. of Defense Grant # 89-R-2323.; Horvath, F., Jayne, B. &
Buckley, J. (1994) "Differentiation of truthful and deceptive
criminal suspects in behavior analysis interviews" Forensic
Journal of Science Vol.39 No.3 May 793-806.
Furthermore, all of the previously mentioned field studies involved
evaluating a suspect's behavior during a highly structured and non-accusatory
interview. The behavior symptoms discussed on the training tape
used in the present study described behaviors that occur during
a non-accusatory interview. Given the accusatory nature of Kassin's
interview, coupled with the absence of any behavior-provoking questions,
it is not surprising that the students failed to observe the types
of behavioral differences between truthful and deceptive subjects
presented on the training tape.
Leo, R., & Ofshe, R., "The
Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages
of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation," 88 Journal
of Criminal Law & Criminology 429 (1998).
Overview
The authors reported on anecdotal accounts of 60 possible false
confessions that occurred over the preceding 24-year time period.
Based on the author's subjective assessments, the confessions were
categorized as 34 which were proven to be false, 18 presumed to
be false and 8 that were considered highly probable false confessions.
Two conclusions were drawn from this data. The first was that police-induced
false confessions regularly occur. Secondly, that these confessions
were caused by "illegitimate use of psychological methods of
interrogation".
Response: Because of the selective nature of anecdotal accounts,
they have virtually no statistical value for research. The fact
that 60 possible false confessions were identified over a 24-year
time period sheds no light on the actual incidence of actual false
confessions. From this data there is no way to even estimate if
the rate of false confessions is one in 100, one in a thousand or
one in ten thousand. To claim that the reported cases support the
belief that police-induced false confessions regularly occur is
irresponsible.
As for illegitimate use of psychological interrogation methods,
many of these interrogations involved out-right duress or coercion.
Several lasted 20 to 30 hours while others involved clear threats
such as telling one subject she would die in the electric chair
unless she confessed; in another case the suspect was threatened
that if he did not confess his girlfriend would be thrown in jail.
Yet other interrogations involved physically abusing the suspect
until he confessed. These do not represent psychological methods
of interrogation. They represent improper interrogation tactics
that have been illegal for much of the twentieth century.
Finally, the accuracy of these reports must be brought in question.
Of the 60 cases reported on, Reid and Associates was involved in
one of them. We were unsuccessful in obtaining a confession from
the suspect but the police later did. Follow-up with the police
agency, including obtaining copies of two written confessions yielded
significant discrepancies between what really happened and Ofshe
& Leo's description of the events.
Professor Paul Cassell challenged Leo and Ofshe's findings in an
article titled "The Guilty and the
Innocent: An Examination of Alleged Cases of Wrongful Conviction
from False Confessions." * Relying on first hand
court documents, Cassell presents convincing evidence that at least
nine of the 29 defendant's confessions were accurate to the extent
that the suspect was telling the truth about committing the crime.
{* Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 523, 1999. Also see
www.law.utah.edu/faculty/bios/cassell
and click on "Download Drafts/Papers" button on r.h. side
- it is the first item under "Published Articles"}
Leo, R., "Inside the Interrogation
Room" Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 86, No.
2, 1996, 266-303.
Overview
Leo reviewed 182 interrogations conducted by three police departments.
He then completed a structured assessment of each interrogation
utilizing both objective and subjective measures. Examples of objective
measures would be the length of the interrogation, biographical
information about the suspect and whether or not Miranda warnings
were issued. Some of the subjective assessments included specific
types of interrogation techniques used, e.g., pragmatic implication,
minimization/maximization He found that only 4 (2%) of the interrogations
utilized what he classified as coercive techniques.
Response
Of the published studies researching contemporary interrogation
techniques, this one presents the best methodology. That is, actual
interrogations were used as the source of the data. Because these
were sequential interrogations over a set period of time, they may
be a representative sample of at least the three departments included
in the study. A weakness in the study is that the researcher alone
conducted the subjective and objective analysis of the interrogations.
This researcher bias could have been minimized had Leo averaged
the scores of perhaps three or four outside evaluators who completed
data sheets on each interrogation. Nonetheless, it is significant
to note that of these 182 interrogations, Leo did not report a single
false confession. His finding that 2% of the interrogations involved
"coercion" must be considered in context. For example,
Leo reported that if a suspect was not advised of his Miranda rights,
it was reported as a coercive interrogation. He makes no distinction
as to whether the interrogations were custodial or non-custodial.
Behavioral Confirmation in the Interrogation
Room: On the Dangers of Presuming Guilt
Kassin, S., Goldstein, C., & Savitsky, K.
Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 27, No 2 April, 2003 187-203
Method
In the first phase of this study, 52 psychology students were asked
to play the role of either an "innocent" or "guilty" theft suspect.
Fifty-two other psychology students were asked to be investigators.
Some of the investigators were told that 80% of the suspects were
guilty of the theft (guilty condition). The others were told that
only 20% of the suspects were guilty of the theft (innocent condition).
Each investigator was instructed to interview and interrogate a
suspect and render an opinion of that person's guilt or innocence.
The suspects were all instructed not to confess.
To prepare for the interviews/interrogations, the student investigators
were given a list of 12 questions from which they selected 6 to
ask during the actual interview. The possible questions were rated
as either guilt-presumptive, e.g., "How did you find the key that
was hidden behind the VCR?" or neutral, e.g., "Do you know anything
about the key that was hidden behind the VCR?" In addition, the
investigators were provided with a list of 13 interrogation tactics
and instructed to select 6 to use during the interrogation. The
techniques were rated on a scale reflecting coercion. The lowest
coercive tactic was appealing to the suspect's conscience whereas
the most coercive tactic was telling the suspect that there was
independent evidence of his guilt.
In the second phase of the study, 78 psychology students listened
to the audio taped interviews and interrogations conducted in phase
I of this study. In one condition the students only heard the suspect.
In a second, only the investigator could be heard and in the third,
both investigator and suspect could be heard.
Results
Investigators in the guilty condition chose more guilt-presumptive
questions than investigators in the innocent condition. There was
no significant difference in the interrogation tactics selected
between the guilty or innocent condition investigators. However,
independent analysis of the interrogations indicated that investigators
used a greater number of tactics when interrogating innocent than
guilty suspects. Overall, only 30% (16) of the interrogators judged
their suspect to be guilty of the theft. In a post-interrogation
survey, investigators reported how hard they tried to get suspects
to confess. There was no significant effect on the guilty-innocent
investigator condition. However, there was a significant effect
on the suspect's actual guilt. Investigators tried harder to get
innocent suspects to confess than suspects who were guilty.
In the second phase of the study, the neutral observer students
judged, as guilty, 40% of the suspects in the guilty-investigator
condition and 30% in the innocent-investigator condition. They also
felt that investigators in the presumption of guilt condition tried
harder to get a confession than investigators who had a presumption
of innocence.
Conclusions
The researchers state that, "Modern American police interrogations
are theory-driven social influence events, founded upon a presumption
of guilt, that sometimes draw false confessions from innocent people."
They go on to say that, "Interrogators with guilty expectations
chose more guilt-presumptive questions, used more techniques in
their interrogation, and were more likely to see suspects in incriminating
terms." They summarize these findings by stating, "Results indicate
that a presumption of guilt sets in motion a process of behavioral
confirmation by which expectations influence the interrogator's
behavior, the suspect's behavior, and ultimately the judgments of
neutral observers."
Analysis
This study has two primary findings:
- Expectations bias perceptions. This is such
an obvious relationship that it need not be demonstrated through
research. Consider that you had to judge whether or not 10 cars
coming down a street exceeded the 25 mph speed limit. You are
told that 8 of the cars will exceed the speed limit. In truth,
only five cars travel at 25 mph and the remaining five go 30 mph.
Under this circumstance, it is human nature to judge most cars
as speeding because you are looking for the two slowest cars.
Kassin set up an even more difficult case scenario for the observer
because each investigator only interviewed one suspect. In the
car analogy this would be similar to forcing the observer to judge
the speed of a single car and decide if it was going faster than
25 mph. In real-life, investigators make intra-suspect comparisons
and are able to contrast one suspect's behavior, and case facts,
against those of other suspects.
- An investigator's attitude and questioning technique
influences the behavior of the suspect. This is a very real effect
and has been documented extensively in our publications. During
our seminars we emphasize the importance of conducting a non-accusatory
interview and discuss how the interpretation of behavior can change
depending on the nature of interaction with the investigator,
e.g. between interviewing and interrogation. This study reinforces
the need for investigators to be aware of fundamental principles
of interviewing and behavior symptom analysis.
A short-coming of almost all laboratory studies
is the inability to generalize those findings to field situations.
This study is no exception. For example, no competent investigator
would ever ask a suspect during an interview, "How did you find
the key that was hidden behind the VCR?" In the study, the investigator
and suspects were in separate rooms and only communicated through
audio headsets. Again, this is not typical of field interviews or
interrogations. The student investigators were instructed to interrogate
each suspect. In field situations an investigator would only conduct
an interrogation on a suspect whose guilt was reasonably certain.
This determination would be made by evaluating not only the suspect"s
behavior but other factual information (opportunity, access, motive,
propensity, evidence etc.) In this study there was apparently no
distinction made between interviewing or interrogation as investigators
were instructed to conduct "interviews" up to 10 minutes in duration
and signal the end of the session with a closing remark such as,
"I have no more questions." Evidently, at some point, the interview
turned into an interrogation. In summary, this methodology, in no
way, attempts to replicate field procedures of actual interviews
and interrogations.
Response to Kassin Research
Professor Saul Kassin has recently published a research article
called "Behavioral confirmation in the interrogation room: On the
dangers of presuming guilt".. Law and Human Behavior, 27,187-203.
Co-authored with S. M., Goldstein, C. C., & Savitsky, K. (2003)
This article attempts to suggest an inherent bias an interrogator
develops during the initial contact with the subject during the
interview/interrogation process. As this response from Pete Blair
at Michigan State University School for Criminal Justice clarifies,
the research is essentially useless since the authors do not understand
the distinction between an interview and an interrogation.
For
an additional response to this Kassin article, click here
Summaries of Various Research Articles
Cassell, P. G. (1998). Protecting the innocent from false confessions
and lost confessions and from Miranda. Journal of Criminal Law
and Criminology, 88, 497-556.
The risk to the innocent from false confessions, lost confessions,
and lost convictions is considered. The dimensions of the false
confession problem are quantified; the relative risk to the innocent
from false confessions versus lost confessions is assessed; and
the existing interrogation regime, which is largely dictated by
the Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona, is discussed.
It is argued that this interrogation regime is perverse, because
on one hand it does almost nothing for the innocent, who will almost
invariably waive their Miranda rights; but at the same time, Miranda
has harmed numerous innocents by preventing the police from obtaining
confessions from actual perpetrators of crimes.
Cassell, P. G. (1999). The guilty and the "innocent": An examination
of alleged cases of wrongful conviction from false confessions.
Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 22, 523-603.
Cassell reviews many of the cases reported by Leo and Ofshe (1998)
as false confessions. Cassell comes to the conclusion that many
of the "false confessions" reported by Leo and Ofshe may have in
fact been true. Implications are discussed.
Conti, R. P. (1999) The psychology of false confessions. Journal
of Credibility Assessment and Witness Psychology, 2, 14-36.
A discussion of why false confessions occur and the impact of false
confessions on the judicial process.
Gudjonsson, G. H. (1992). The psychology of interrogations, confessions,
and testimony. New York: Wiley.
Gudjonsson discusses the general psychology of interrogations and
confessions. The 2003 book is more up to date.
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2003). The psychology of interrogations and
confessions: A handbook. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
From the cover: . . . a comprehensive and authoritative handbook
that demonstrates the crucial relationship between research and
practice. In Part I, interrogation tactics used by the police in
the USA and Britain are reviewed and the reasons why suspects confess
to crimes are examined. In Part II, differences between English
and American legal systems are highlighted and the concepts of suggestibility,
compliance, and acquiescence are discussed in detail, along with
the effects of drugs and alcohol. Twenty-two leading disputed confession
cases are presented and evaluated in Part III, showing how high
court judges have become more sophisticated in the way that they
admit and rely on expert psychological and psychiatric testimony.
Part IV provides a detailed discussion of seven high profile cases
from outside Britain. They demonstrate how different legal systems
approach, view and evaluate disputed confession evidence and expert
testimony, providing material of international significance.
Horselenberg, R., Merckelbach, H., & Josephs, S. (2003). Individual
differences and false confessions: A conceptual replication of Kassin
and Kiechel (1996). Psychology, Crime, & Law 9(1), 1-8.
An experiment which was similar to Kassin and Kiechel's (1996) study
was conducted. The results indicate that several common psychological
measures did not predict who would confess falsely.
Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., Buckley, J. P., & Jayne, B. C. (2001).
Criminal interrogation and confessions (4th ed.). Gaithersburg,
MD: Aspen. The authoritative book on the Reid Technique of Interviewing
and Interrogation.
Kassin, S. M. (1997). The psychology of confession evidence.
American Psychologist, 52, 221-233.
Basic questions are raised concerning police interrogations, the
risk of false confessions, and the impact that such evidence has
on a jury. On the basis of available research, it was concluded
that the criminal justice system currently does not afford adequate
protection to innocent people branded as suspects.
Kassin, S. M., & Kiechel, K. L. (1996). The social psychology
of false confessions: Compliance, internalization, and confabulation.
Psychological Science, 7, 125-128. An experiment is performed which
suggests that the presentation of false evidence can increase the
likelihood of false confessions, internalization's, and confabulation.
Kassin, S. M., & McNall, K. (1991). Police interrogations and confessions:
Communicating threats and promises by pragmatic implication. Law
and Human Behavior, 21, 233-251.
An experiment is performed wherein the participants read transcripts
of interrogations that contained different types of interrogation
tactics and then indicated how much punishment they thought the
suspect would receive. Kassin and McNall claim that the results
show that commonly used legal interrogation tactics have an impact
upon participant's perceptions punishment that is similar to explicit
threats and promises.
Kassin, S. M., & Neumann, K. (1997). On the power of confession
evidence: An experimental test of the fundamental difference hypothesis.
Law and Human Behavior, 21, 469-493.
An experiment explores how the presentation of a confession in court
can impact juror decisions.
Kassin, S. M., & Sukel, H. (1997). Coerced confessions and the jury:
An experimental test of the harmless error rule. Law and Human
Behavior, 21, 27-46.
An experiment explores the impact of the admission of a confession
on juror decisions.
Leo, R. A. (1992). From coercion to deception: The changing nature
of police interrogation in America. Crime, Law, and Social Change,
18, 35-59. Leo discusses how modern police interrogation has moved
away from coercion and toward deception to produce confessions.
Leo, R. A. (1996). Inside the interrogation room. Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology, 86, 266-303.
Leo observes 182 interrogations and reports the results. The results
suggest that coercion is rare and the police use many of the tactics
taught by Reid. No false confessions are reported.
Leo, R. A. (1996). Miranda's revenge: Police interrogation as a
confidence game. Law and Society Review, 30, 259-288.
Leo discusses how modern police interrogation resembles a confidence
game.
Leo, R. A. (2001). False confessions: Causes, consequences, and
solutions. In S. D. Westervelt & J. A. Humphrey (Eds.), Wrongly
convicted: Perspectives on failed justice (pp. 36-54). New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Leo discusses the social psychology of false confessions. A typology
of false confessions and a model of how false confessions occur
are included.
Leo, R. A., & Ofshe, R. J. (1998). The consequences of false confessions:
Deprivations of liberty and miscarriages of justice in the age of
psychological interrogation. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,
88, 429-496.
Leo and Ofshe report on 60 cases of "false confessions." Many of
these are disputed by Cassell (1999).
McCann, J. T. (1998). A conceptual framework for identifying various
types of confessions. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 16(4), 441-453.
This article discusses a typology of false confessions.
Ofshe, R. J. (1992). Inadvertent hypnosis during interrogation:
False confession due to dissociative state: Mis-identified multiple
personality and the satanic cult hypothesis. International Journal
of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 40(3), 125-156.
Ofshe presents a case of false confession and discusses his theory
about why it occurred.
Ofshe, R. J., & Leo, R. A. (1997). The decision to confess falsely:
Rational choice and irrational action. Denver University Law Review,
74, 979-1122.
Ofshe and Leo discuss how modern interrogation tactics may induce
people to confess falsely.
Ofshe, R. J., & Leo, R. A. (1997). The social psychology of interrogation:
The theory and classification of true and false confessions. Studies
in Law, Politics, and Society, 16, 189-251.
Ofshe and Leo discuss the social psychological forces that they
believe cause false confessions. A typology of false confessions
is included.
Redlich, A. D. (1999). False confessions: The influence of age,
suggestibility, and maturity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of California, Davis.
Redlich performs and experiment that is similar to Kassin and Keichel's
(1996) study. However, Redlich uses a different form of false evidence.
The presentation of false evidence in this study did not result
in a higher rate of false confessions. The results do suggest that
juveniles may be more likely to falsely confess than adults. Other
psychological factors are explored.
Scheck, B., Neufeld, P., & Dwyer, J. (2000). Actual innocence. New
York: Doubleday. This book discusses several cases of false confessions
that lead to wrongful convictions.
Wakefield, H., & Underwager, R. (1998). Coerced or non voluntary
confessions. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 16(4), 423-440. Discusses
how police often use coercive tactics, and that these tactics can
produce false confessions. Also, discusses how psychologists should
address false confessions in court.
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