Forensic Exam 2

Miranda Rights

• you have the right to remain silent

• to have an attorney present during questioning

• to have appointed attorney when financial need exists

• to acknowledge understanding of rights

What are the benefits of obtaining a confession?

more guilty pleas, avoid investigation, avoid trials, almost guaranteed conviction

Interrogation Techniques prior to 1930

use of direct physical violence

ex. torture, hair pulling, burning with cigarettes, electric shocks, being hit with a gun, nut crusher

Interrogation techniques in 1931

report on lawlessness and law enforcement went to less obvious physical abuse → covert abuse: leaving no marks/evidence → deprivation, isolation, intimidation

Interrogation Techniques 1961/Modern

• confessions by physical coercion are inadmissible

• police use more psychological coercion forms instead of physical

Reid Interrogation Technique - 9 Steps

• Confrontation: present evidence and what they are being accused of

• Theme development: build a story.theme of how the crime happened

• Deflection (stopping denials): when the suspect tries to interrupt, police officers deflect so they cannot deny the story

• Overcoming objections: interrogators use evidence ploys

• Regaining attention (expressing empathy)

• Reframing (alternative themes): reframe what they are being accused of in a way to make them feel better about it

• Force the alternative

• Repetition, eliciting full confession

Factors that lead to false confession

• lying

• intimidation

• deception

• fatigue

• abuse

• factors are hard to identify

Types of individuals that are most likely to make false confessions

• young

• inexperienced

• naive

• submissive

• on drugs

• low intelligence

• sleep deprived

• terrified

The four types of false confessions

• Instrumental

• Internalized

• Voluntary

• Coerced

Instrumental

offered to achieve some goal. “means to an end”

Certainty of guilt

one of four basic influence strategies during an interrogation: the suspect is persistently confronted with accusations of guilt, and evidence ploys are used to bolster the accusations

Evidence Ploys

a technique used to strengthen the “certainty of guilt” strategy in interrogation. Police cite real or fake evidence that clearly establishes the suspect’s guilt

False Confession

a confession to a crime made by a person who did not commit the crime

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to dispositional causes (e.g., traits or personality) and to dismiss the situational pressures acting on the person

good cop-bad cop approach

psychological interrogation technique used by the police for extracting confessions. Two interrogators work as a team, one playing the “bad” (angry and intimidating) cop and the other playing the “good” (sympathetic) cop

Instrumental-coerced false confessions

a false confession obtained as a result of a long or intense interrogations, when the suspect falsely confesses to a crime to end the interrogation or because he or she becomes convinced that confession is the best option

Instrumental-Voluntary False Confession

a false confession obtained when the suspect voluntarily admits to a crime he or she did not commit; the goal might be to gain notoriety or to protect a friend or family member

Internalized-Voluntary False Confession

A false confession obtained when someone suffering from delusions confesses to a crime with little or no pressure from interrogators

Internalized-Coerced False Confession

a false confession obtained as a result of a long or intense interrogation during which a suspect becomes convinced, even temporarily, that she or he may have actually committed the crime

Interrogation-Related Regulatory Decline

a breakdown of self regulation - the ability to control thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in pursuit of goals - as a result of the process of interrogation

Loss of Control

one of four basic influence strategies during an interrogation; the interrogator controls the environment and removes the psychological comfort of familiar surroundings, causing the suspect to feel vulnerable, anxious, and off balance

Minimization of Culpability

one of four basic influence strategies during an interrogation; to clear the path for an admission of guilt, interrogators offer the suspect face-saving justifications or excuses for the crime

Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE)

litigation passed in England in 1986 to regulate interrogation tactics. it prohibited the police from lying to, bullying, threatening, and intimidating the suspect as a means of inducing a confession. in addition, all interviews with suspects conducted at police stations must be recored and vulnerable suspects must be accompanied by an “appropriate adult”

Reid Technique

a method of interrogation consisting of nine steps, which focus on every aspect of the interrogation process, including details about how to set up the interrogation room and what to say to the suspect

Short-sightedness

a tendency to give priority to the short-term goals of escaping the interrogation room and appeasing the interrogators

Social Isolation

one of four basic influence strategies during interrogation; the suspect is held alone to deprive him or her of emotional support and to reduce contradictory information

Totality of circumstances

a standard by which a decision is based on all the surrounding facts that give context to the case. For example, this standard is used to evaluate the “voluntariness” of a defendant’s confession and to decide whether particular workplace behavior constitutes sexual harassment

Core Principles of Social Influence → social psych

• authority

• reciprocity

• liking

• scarcity

• social proof

• commitment and consistency

Authority

we are more likely to comply with the requests of people who hold positions of power and people who we believe have expert knowledge in the relevant area

Reciprocity

we feel obligated to return favors. if someone does us a favor or gives us some type of “gift,” we will become more likely to comply with a later request from that person

Liking

we tend to say “yes” to people we feel positive toward. that “liking” can be the result of physical attractiveness, perceived similarity, or special treatment

Scarcity

we place greater value on things that are in short supply. an object or offer may be perceived as scarce because it is available only for a limited time or because there are only a few more available

Social Proof

when we are uncertain about what action to take, we tend to look to people around us to guide our choices and behaviors. we attempt to gather information about how other people behave in the situation

Commitment and Consistency

once we make a commitment - especially a public commitment - we increase the likelihood that we will honor that commitment. a verbal or written pledge or promise motivates us to act in a way that is consistent with that pledge

Cognitive Privacy

the legal issue of how to determine at what point lie detection devices invade people’s right to privacy or violate their right not to incriminate themselves

Comparison Question Test (CQT) (or control question test)

a questioning procedure for use with the polygraph; designed to correct some problems associated with the relevant-irrelevant test

Comparison Questions (or known lie questions)

during a polygraph test, questions involving behaviors that are uncomfortable for suspects but not directly related to the crime under investigation. they are deliberately broad so that anyone who answers “no” can be assumed to be lying

Confirmation Bias

an inclination to search out evidence that confirms our beliefs and to dismiss evidence that contradicts our beliefs

Countermeasures

techniques used to influence physiological arousal during polygraph tests; can reduce detection of guilty suspects by 50%

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA)

a lie detection technique that uses systematic analysis of written descriptions of events to assess the truthfulness of witnesses

Electroencephalography (EEG)

a technology that monitors brain activity by means of electrode pressed against the scalp

Eye Movement Memory Assessment

a lie detection method that tracks visual attention to a scene based on eye movement, scanning path, pupil dilation, and gaze fixation to help assess guilty knowledge

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

a specialized MRI that maps activity in the brain. the scans are strung together to produce a moving image of brain activity, even as the person under study performs different kinds of mental tasks

Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) (or concealed information test)

a polygraph test used to detect whether or not someone knows facts that only the true perpetrator would know. scenes and events fro a crime, otherwise unfamiliar to an innocent person, are presented to the suspect. a guilty person’s recognition of those stimuli should be reflected in elevated physiological arousal

high definition infrared thermal imagining

a technology that monitors minuscule shifts in the heat of the human face as a means of detecting deception

Laser Doppler Vibrometry

a lie detection technique currently under development that monitors physiological stress (e.g., respiration, heart rate, and muscle tremors) via a near-infrared light beam aimed at the neck of a subject a few hundred feet away

Liar’s stereotype

the mistaken belief that certain behavioral cues indicate a person is lying, including crossed legs, shifting and fidgeting, grooming gestures, and avoiding eye contact

Mock Crimes

prearranged “crimes” (such as stealing money from an office) committed as part of lie detection research, allowing researchers to determine whether a polygraph examiner can detect participants who lie about committing a “crime” and those who tel the truh

Polygraph

a machine that records a person’s physiological responses to questions asked by an examiner. it measures physiological arousal,, such as rapid heat rate, quickened breathing, rising blood pressure, and increased skin moisture

Positive Comparison Test (PCT)

an alternative form of the comparison question test for polygraph examinations; the relevant question is used as its own comparison question - that is, the relevant question is asked twice, and the suspect is instructed to tell the truth once ad to tell a lie once, allowing for direct comparison of responses to the same question

Reality Monitoring (RM)

a lie detection technique that, like criteria-based content analysis, uses systematic analysis of written descriptions of events to assess the truthfulness of witnesses but unlike criteria-based content analysis, it also assesses characteristics such as the clarity, realism, and emotionality of the description

Relevant-Irrelevant Test (RIT)

the first systematic questioning procedure developed for use with the polygraph machine. it used two types of questions: (1) non-arousing questions that are not relevant to the behavior being investigated and (2) relevant questions that should be especially arousing for the person who actually committed the crime.

Wizards

people who can detect lies at a much higher rate than average using only their powers of observation. Wizards seem to notice more verbal and nonverbal cues than the average person does

Most Common Type of False Confession

Instrumental-coerced false confession → confessing to escape the situation