Making a Case: Interviewing
Suspects
MAKING A
CASE
Interviewing
Witnesses
Interviewing
Suspects
Creating A
Profile
Recognising Faces
Detecting Lies
Top-down
Typology (FBI)
Factors Affecting
Identification
Interrogation
Techniques
Bottom-up
Approach (Canter)
Cognitive Interview
False Confessions
Case Study
(Railway Rapist)
Detecting Lies
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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
.
What other methods are used to
detect lies?
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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).
Evaluation of detecting Lies
•
This was a field experiment. What are the advantages of this method?
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Is the sample generalisable?
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What was the problem with not having a control group?
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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?
Interrogation Techniques
• 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 timehonored "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?
Key Study – Inbau et al
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?
Granhag: Evaluate
Interrogation Techniques
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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?
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
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?
The way forward to prevent false
confessions:
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.