False confessions

what are the first instances of false confessions in histroy?

The great fire of London, the trial of Robert Hubert, 1666

What leads to suspect interviews?

identifying a suspect through:

• crime scene evidence

• witness and informants

personal judgement during pre- interrogation interview

• physical appearance

• suspects demeanour, micro-behaviours

What other reasons are suspects invited to an interview?

• a witness (mis) reports seeing them

• surveillance footage of the area

• physical trace evidence

• problematic relationship with the victim

• history of similar crimes.

What is a confession?

an admission made by a defendent in criminal proceedings.

it is admissible evidence againts the person who made it- unless proven unreliable because:

• physical impossibility to commit crime.

• evidence establishing the defendants innocence (the real perpetrator is found and their guilt objectively demonstrated)

What is a false confession?

A false confession is an admission to a criminal act- usually accompanied by a narrative of how and why the crime occurred- that the confessor did not commit.

What are the problems when someone falsely confessions?

• false confessions are difficult to discover.

• no state or organisation keeps record of them.

• they are typically not publicised.

What are the four possible interrogation outcomes?

	Confesses	Denies
Innocent	False confession	Correct Acquittal
Guilty	True confession	False Denial

What are three types of false confession? (Kassin and Wrightsman, 1985)?

1. voluntary: made without any pressure from the outside. the person willingly knowingly confesses to a crime.

2. coerced-compliant: made only to avoid hard or to get a benefit.

3. coerced- internalised: people who make the confession actually come to believe they have committed the crime. 

What is (1) voluntary false confession?

offered in the absence of any obvious external pressure.

• to protect the real criminal (family, friend)

• the individual is seeking publicity and fame- major criminal investiagtions

• a guilt-ridden person, for reasons real or imagined, seeks absolution by confessing.

What is (2) Coerced-compliant false confessions?

An act of mere public compliance.

the suspects are fully aware that they are admitting to a crime they did not commit but bow to social pressure.

often based on the erroneous belief that the short-term benefits of a confession outweigh the long-term costs of a confession.

What is (3) coerced- internalised false confession?

• the suspect, either temporarily or permanently, comes wrongly to believe during the police interrogation that they really did commit the crime of which they are accused.

• it occurs when people develop a profound distrust of their own memory.

• the memory is often so changed that the original memory becomes irretrievable.

What are the consequences of false confessions?

• jurors and judges

• eyewitnesses and alibi witnesses

• forensic experts

What is the cumulative disadvantage frame work of fasle confessions?

• general

What did Kassin, 2012 investiagte about the test of the corruptive confession’s hypothesis?

Archival analysis- DNA exonerated individuals who gave fasle confessions vs not. 

Number and kind of errors- Multiple errors in 78% of confession cases vs 47% of no confession cases, 63% bad forensic science

• despite standarisation and relibaility, contextual biases: other examiners and outside infor.

• problem: they are blind that they are cognitively biased. 

What is forensic confirmation bias?

self- fulfilling prophecy

confurmation bias

• people seek out what they expect

• people see what they expect

forsnsic confirmation bias

• the effects through which an individual’s pre exisiting influences the collection, perception and interpretation of evidence during a criminal case. 

Empirical evidence of forensic confirmation bias…

Lange et al (2011) Degraded speech studies.

• recording of two people talking, filled with static.

• “suspect” vs “job application” were heard saying gun and kill etc.

Kukucka 2014 handwriting evidence.

• 2 different handwriting: suspect and robbery note given to bank teller.

• confession vs not.

• the “confessed” was significantly more perceived as a match.

What are the confession effects of alibis?

Marion et al (2016) The Alibi witness experiment

• Participant, confederate, and the jar with 20$ bills next door

• All participants hear & partially see confederate working by next table

• Stage 1 - Experimenter’s accusation - 92% provide alibi to confederate

• Stage 2 – Experimenter tells update & asks for alibi confirmation

  • a) Confed denies stealing – 95% confirmed alibi

  • b) Confed confessed but immediately retracted – 45% confirmed alibi

  • c) Confed confessed – 20% confirmed alibi

Those who retracted alibi also described same Confed more negatively

What are the cumulative disadvantage framework of false confessions (Scherr et al, 2020)?

General consensus within the criminal justice system:

-   False confessions are not a big problem, because of many “safety nets”

No - The system becomes worse & worse (especially for the innocent)

• Innocents decide to talk to the police without a lawyer

• After a confession - Confirmatory process across the board

  • Eyewitnesses, alibi witnesses, forensic examiners

• The case becomes extremely strong against the suspect at trial

• Even after free, the post-conviction life is ruined

What leads to a confession?

1. dispositional risk factors

2. innocence as risk factors

3. situational risk factors

What are dispositional risk factors?

a. adolescence and immaturity

b. cognitive and intellectual disability

c. personality and psychopathology

What is adolescence and immaturity?

Adolescents are less mature than adults, which manifests in:

• impulsive decision making

• decreased ability to consider long-term consequences.

• engagement in risky behaviours

• increased susceptibility to negative influences.

the development abilities are highly relevant to the behaviour in the interrogation room.

what are the Miranda rights?

you do not have to say anything,

anything you do say may become evidence at court

but it may harm your defence if you do not say 

right to an attorney 

What is the Reid technique?

Phase 1 – Non-confrontational Interview

• Designed to detect if the suspect is lying or not

Phase 2 – Accusatory Interrogation

• Designed to elicit a confession

What is the Reid technique- phase 1 of the interview?

Designed to decide whether to conduct a full interrogation

List of deception cues + 15 structured questions

Underlying idea: Anxiety triggered by hiding the truth 

• Mostly non-verbal cues

• Some verbal statements

Final Decision based on: “Global assessment of suspect’s behaviour”

Problems

• No scientific evidence for the deception cues

• People try to hide that they are lying

• People are bad at detecting liars 

What is testing the Behaviour Analysis Interview (BAI)

• DePaulo & Bond (2003): There are no behavioral cues to deception

Experimental evidence

US: Kassin & Fong (1999); Meissner & Kassin (2002)

• Participants trained vs not in Reid Technique

• Videotaped interviews of ppl who committed mock-crimes or not

  • On average – 56% accurate; 5.91 confident

  • Trained in BAI – 46% accurate; 6.55 confident

  • Police officers – 50% accurate; 7+ confident

UK: Vrij (2006); Participants commit mock crime (steal money) + incentivised to evade guilty identification during the BAI

• Independent observers could not differentiate between guilty & innocent during the key behaviour eliciting questions

  • Questions not special

  • Behavioural cues listed not truly diagnostic

What is alternative 1- cognitive load theory (Vrii, 2008,2010)?

Lying is more cognitively demanding than truth-telling.

Cognitive demand can be interested in multiple ways during a police interview.

• Reverse chronological order.

• Forced to maintain eye contact

• Occasional unexpected questions

Experimental evidence

• Accuracy of raters in differentiating increased

• Liars experienced it more demanding & their performance was more impaired

What is the altenative 2- strategic used of evidence (SUE) technique>

Training study

Accuracy rates increased:

Trained interviewers= 62%

Untrained interviewers = 43%

What is phase 2 of Reid technique?

Confrontational

1.        Precondition

Isolation of the suspect- (alone, with just the interrogator)

In a specially designed room

-              Small

-              Windowless

-              Soundproof

-              2 armless chairs and 1 desk

-              1-way mirror

 

2.        The 9 steps of interrogation

What are the two structurak probkems of Reid techniques?

1.        It has a “Milgramesque” nature – like the Milgram experiments

2.        It is Guilt-presumptive

What is the milgramesque nature of interrogation?

•       The subject is isolated (no friends, family or social support)

•       In a specially & carefully designed space (lab vs “the box”)

•       Confronted by an authority figure (experimenter vs detective)

•       Contractual agreement

•       Receiving payment ahead vs Volunteering

•       Signing consent form vs the Miranda waiver

•       Deception (cover-story vs “it serves your best interest”)

•       Series of relentless demands (the Milgram prompts vs the Reid-technique – “No” is not accepted)

•       Gradual escalation (15 V-s a time to 450 V – at the scene, minor role etc to full confession)

•       Ethics (IRBs vs the “voluntariness” of the confession)

what is the guilt-presumptive nature of interrogation?

• happens after stage 1 concluded that the person is probably lying.

• the authority figure that leads it, already has the opinion that the person is guilty.

• the measure of the interrogation success is: a confession

What is experimental evidence of cognitive and behavioural confirmation bias?

the classic “getting to know you” experiments

• the partner (confederate) is an extroverted vs an introvert

• self-fulfilling prophecy.

conceptual replication in legal setting: mock interrogates and suspects.

What is Conceptual replication in legal setting: mock interrogators & suspects (Kassin, Goldtein & Savistky, 2003)?

“Suspect” Participants made experimentally guilty vs innocent (commit mock crime vs not)

“Investigator” participants told – regardless of actual guilt - baseline probability (“most are innocent” vs “most are guilty”) or “guilty vs not guilty”

In “(most are) guilty” condition – tried harder: more coercive interrogation, incriminating questions

Independent evaluators listened to audiotapes or watched the videotapes

• Judged “(most are) guilty” subjects as more guilty. Including the truly innocent.

 

What is the alternative: (Non-confrontational) PEACE method?

Developed in the UK in 1993 because of PACE (Police & Criminal Evidence Act; English Parliament, 1984) as a result of the Guilford 4 case

Non-confrontational Investigative Interviewing Technique

• “Investigative mindset”: get as much information from the suspect as possible

• Further “probing” questions

• Inconsistencies challenged with further questions

2 types

• Cognitive Interview (cooperative suspects)

• Conversation Management (non-cooperative suspects)

Evidence about success still inconclusive

• It appears: Confession rate same overall (50%), but less false

• Possible that Reid-like things still happen

• but outside of the actual official questioning of suspects

What is the PEACE method?

P Planning and preparation

E Engage and explain

A Account, clarify and challenge

C Closure

E Evaluation

What are the interrogation methods:information gathering vs accusatorial?

Information-Gathering Methods - PEACE (UK)	Accusatorial Methods – Reid Technique    (USA)
Establish rapport	Establish control
Use direct, positive confrontation.	Use psychological manipulation
Employ open-ended, exploratory questions	Employ closed- ended, confirmatory questions
Primary goals is to elicit information	Primary goals is to obtain a confession
Focus on cognitive cues to deception	Focus on anxiety to deception.

What are the innocence as risk factors?

The psychology of innocence

innocents have the tendency to ‘tell it like it was’ and think that ‘their innocence will shine through’ and truth will prevail.

• wave miranda rights- talk to police without legal help (instead of remaining silent)

• more likely confess during difficult interrogations. 

What is beleif in “just world”?

people tend to overestimate the extent to which their true thought, emotion, and other inner states can be seen by others.

What is illusion of transparency?

-- people tend to overestimate the extent to which their true thoughts, emotions, and other inner states can be seen by others.

What are the situational risk factors?

a)        Factors exacerbating short-sighted decision-making

b)        Lying & Presentation of False Evidence

c)        Minimization & Maximization

What is confession as decision-making? (Yang et al, 2017)

•       Temporal discounting

•       Preference for the smaller, immediate reward vs. larger, delayed reward (2 £ now, 5 £ in a month)

•       Conceptual replication in legal setting

•       Smaller immediate consequence: immediate brief follow-up questions

•       Larger later consequence: meet-up for a longer interview later

•       The further away is the distal, the more pronounced the effect

•       Stopping the process NOW

what is factor (A) of exacerbating short-sighted decision-making?

a) Physical Custodial and Isolation (Madon et al, 2013)

•      Interrogation outside familiar surroundings

•      Duration of interrogation

–      Recommendation: 30 minutes; maybe 2-ish

–      In proven cases of false confessions:

•       34% = 6-12 hours

•       39% = 12-24hours

•       Mean = 16.3 hours

What is factor (b) of exacerbating short-sighted decision making?

b) Sleep deprivation (Frenda et al, 2016)

Sleep deprivation may accompany prolonged periods of isolation and can heighten susceptibility to influence and impair decision-making abilities in complex tasks.

What us factor (C) of exacerbating short- sighted decision making?

C) Fatigue and self-regulation decline (Davis and Leo, 2012)

False confessions usually happen at off-peak hours (late-night or early morning)

•       Fatigue + hunger/thirst  self-control decline

•       Cognitive functions

•       Memory consolidation & distortions, real/unreal

•       Rational analysis & evaluation  less resistant to persuasion

•       Impulse-control & emotion-regulation

•       Immediate impulses > Long-term goals

Lying and presentation of false evidence

Target event -> false evidence -> including a flase confession

What is lying an presentation of false evidence?

2 classic experiment paradigms

The ALT key experimental paradigm- what leadds to internalisation and confabulation?

The cheating experiment paradigm- the effect of presentation of false evidece?

What is the ALT key experiment?

Research Question

How easy do people confess  falsely?

Conditions

IV1 = vulnerability (high vs.  low)

IV2 = witness (presence vs. absence)

Reaction Time Task

Confederate reads letters  to be typed at either fast or  slow pace

Subjects instructed not to  hit the ALT key because  computer would crash

Computer Crash

The computer appears to crash after 1 minute

Distressed experimenter  enteres & asks subject if  they pressed the ALT key

Witness statement

- A confederate tells she saw subject hit the  ALT key or “I did not see anything.”

Request

Compliance: subjects  asked to sign a “confession”

Internalization: tells second  confederate “He says I hit the Alt-  key” vs. “I hit the Alt-key”)

Confabulation:  At a later time some of these participants “reconstruct" how they hit  the ALT key (adding specific specific details)

What is the ALT key experiment at a Glance?

1. signed confession (compliance)

2. hallway confederate (internalization)

3. details provided (confabulation)

slow vs fast pace

no witness vs witness

What is the cheating studies- presentation of false evidence Phase 1?

The participants were told:

•       This is a study about gambling behaviour when individuals gamble with physical vs.  virtual money

•       Task: win as much money as possible by answering 15 questions correctly

•       When you are wrong (red cross) = return  money

•       When you are correct (green tick) = take  money

•       (You were filmed while playing)

Video was created:

The resulting clip ostensibly showed the subject collecting money from the bank when they should have returned it: signs on screen changed.

What is the cheating studies experiment (Phase 2) and (Phase 3)?

Phase 2: false evidence

Participants were told:

•      There was a problem in the earlier session: the video showed that  you took money from the bank when you had given an incorrect  answer

 

Phase 3: including a false confession

All subjects were asked to sign a confession form:

•      If they sign => no reception of payment

•      If they did not sign => meet the professor in

charge

What is the minimisation: promises implied but not spoken?

Establishment of superficial friendship & fake kindness

Interrogators are trained to minimize  the crime through "theme development“

• a process of providing moral  justification or face-saving excuses (e.g. blaming the victim)

• Minimize the seriousness of the situation

• making confession seems like an  expedient means of escape

Research shows that minimization is  particularly harmful!

• Suspects infer leniency in sentencing

  • Experimental subjects estimate the same sentence as if leniency was explicitly promised

What is evidence of minimisation as risk factors?

• People are “reading between the lines”

Experimental evidence --

Estimate equally low punishment for minimisation & leniency scenarios (Kassin & McNall, 1991)

More likely to sign a confession in mock crime studies (Russano, 2005)

• IV 1 (cheating vs not: helping a confederate in a quiz-game)

• IV 2: participants told: explicit leniency vs minimisation vs nothing

• DV: Sign a confession – 6% if nothing was told; 18% if minimisation (19% if explicit leniency)

What can be done? fixing parts of the interrogation techniques?

• Video recording of interrogations

• Education on the Pseudoscience of Lie Detection

• Banning the False Evidence lies during interrogations

  • Allowed only in very few Western countries

• Banning Minimisation strategies that imply leniency

  • Explicit promises of leniency are banned

• Replacing the Reid technique with other ones

  • E.g. PEACE

What is video recording of interrogations?

video recording 

permanent, objective record.

• even if there is a recording, jurors see only a “recap” (of about 30 minuets)

  • usually, the end-product of a long process.

• even if people know the interrogation and coerceive, they do not discount it.

the cameras point of view matters 

• Suspect only vs. Equal-focus camera

• True both for jurors & highly experienced judges

Time Limits on Interrogations

No more than 4 hours

• False confessions usually follow a 6+ hour interrogation (Davis & Donahue, 2004)

What is camera perspective bias?

•       2 people facing each other and having a conversation

•       Viewers sitting around in circle

•       Who do the they attribute more influence?

•       Lassiter’s Camera Focus experiments

•       Videotaped mock interrogations in his laboratory.

•       3 camera angles: suspect vs interrogator vs both

•       Randomly assigned p-s to watch one camera angle

•       Asked: Was the situation coercive? Was the statement voluntary?

•       If suspect in focus – less coercive & more voluntary.

•       Results identical for laypeople & expert trial judges (Lassiter, 2007).