lecture 8-false confessions

Why do police interview?

• To obtain maximum quality of information (accurate, complete, relevant)

• To find out what happened

• To discover who did what

What is a confession defined as

• Includes any statement wholly or partly adverse to the person who made it

• can be made to a person in authority or someone else, can be made in words or otherwise

• Anything the suspect says can be used in evidence

Peter Sullivan 19/11/25

Impacts when focus is wrong - today’s news, peter Sullivan released today 19/11/25. Police bullied him into admitting murder, wrongly jailed for 38 years.

What is an interrogation defined as

• Accusatory in nature, (normally a suspect in a criminal offence). They are told that they committed the offence and presented with various facts

Police have mindset before interview that they are the only person responsible and the  objective is to get them to confess

What is an investigative interview ?

• Designed to develop sufficient rapport to prompt the suspect to disclose valuable information.

• Not the objective to elicit a confession but to search for the truth, to obtain accurate information

Different from an interrogation

R v heron 1993

Nikki Allan - stabbed 37 times, found in a building near her in Sunderland.

Mr justice Mitchell concerned about whether the interviewing officers had deliberately misrepresented the evidence of identification to the suspect

Interview when it got to trial was appeared to be oppressive/coercive so

 David Boyd lured the 7yr old Nikki Allan and brutally murdered her 

Is interviewing oppressive? Factors to consider.

Depends whether person being interviewed is a victim, witness or suspect

What room are they being interviewed in

How many investigators interview

How many other people present

What is the nature of allegation or offence committed

Personality type

Mental health issues

Reid technique of interrogation

• Widest used in US, starting to lose ground

• Originated in 40s, came from harsh third 3rd degree interrogations (coercion/physical):

9 step approach

They have no option but to admit they’re involved

What are the 9 steps of Reid technique

1. Direct positive confrontation

2. Theme development

3. Handling denials

4. Overcoming objections

5. Procurement and retention of suspects attention AND

6. Handling the passive mood

7. Presenting alternate question

8. Having suspect orally relate various details of offence

9. Converting oral confession to written one

Manipulates individual into confession

Inbau et al., 2013. Do the manipulation techniques justify when dealing with serious crimes?

• Themes of accusations and repeated accusation

• Usage of bluff or outright lies and deceit about supposed evidence

• Minimising the crime to gain confession in emotional suspects, and

• Maximise evidence against suspect for non emotional ones

Supposed to do behavioural assessment for their personality to see who dealing with and what approach to take, can minimise or maximise it

Example of minimising and maximising evidence / crime

maximising evidence : ”we know you were there, your prints on gun, cctv etc” - lies to get in their head

Minimising evidence : ”we know this is hard but if you want to go home to your family, we want to help you etc”

What are the four false assumptions of interrogation?(inbau et al., 2013)

1. Interview is the only aspect of investigation

2. A confession has to be obtained

3. Only the guilty confess

4. Police officers are experts at telling difference between guilty and non guilty

Is there ever justified reason to use coercive interrogation ?

The evidence has consistently shown that the answer is NO

The coercive interrogation does not work as well as other methods

Mendez principles for interviewing

Effective principles for investigations and information gathering

Embodies all current thinking on effective and ethical interviewing processes

Investigative interviews

Not just for witnesses, suspects too

What is effective in an interviewer -

1. Knowledge of psychology of interviewing and scientific experimentation

2. Received thorough grounding in a wide range of theoretical and practical techniques to draw on in interviews as appropriate

3. Have had the opportunity for substantial practice in a learning environment and

4. Are supervised and given feedback on real life interviews 

What is the PEACE model for interviewing

Standard for Uk, widely used in Europe, Australia etc

We know it works

Involves:

Pre interview phase - planning and preparation

Interview phase - engage and explain, account, clarify and challenge, closure

Post interview - evaluate what worked and didn’t work, what can you develop for next time  

Individuals under pressure, have a series of decisions to make. What is the decision making model (Hilgendorf and Irving 1981)

• Whether to speak or remain silent;

• Whether to make self-incriminating admissions or not;

• Whether to tell the truth or not;

• Whether to tell the whole truth, or only a modified, or partial version

• How to answer the questions asked

Why do people confess ?

Authorities in criminal justice look more favourably toward those who cooperate and save time/money.

In England and wales, 1/3rd is taken off sentence

• Mitigating circumstances will mean that the outcome will be much less serious than feared

• Once a confession has been made, things might stop there and then

• Strength of evidence - whether it’s perceived or factual

What are the 3 types of false confession ?

• Voluntary confession - generally quite easy to work through, key info withheld, investigation held from public to test these things out.

• Coerced - compliant confession

• Coerced - internalised

Voluntary confession

• May feel they deserve punishment . Unconscious need to expiate guilt over previous transgressions

• To protect others e.g. family member

• Hope for recommendation of leniency

• Desire for notoriety

• To take revenge on another

Coerced - compliance confession

Gudjonsson 2003, coerced compliances occur when:

Eagerness to please interrogator and preserve their self esteem

To avoid further contact with feared authority figures and to avoid realisation of threats, real or imagined

To fulfil a bargain with interrogator that offers a reward for compliance

Suspect knows truth is different but still agrees to this version for any of above reasons

Coerced - internalised confession

Gudjonsson, coerced internalised confessions occurs when

Person comes to accept the interrogators version as the true one

Personal experience

The interrogator have a version of events and manipulate this to make the interviewee confess

Vennard (1984) - three most common reasons given by suspects for having made an alleged false confession were:

◦A promise from the police of early release from custody;

◦Prolonged detention in police cells;

◦Actual or threatened violence.

This clearly fits the view of compliance as a coping strategy used to avoid the aversive, stressful experience of both custody and interrogation/interviewing.

Kassin 2005 - confessions on jury decisions

showed that this had a stronger impact on jury decision-making than any other type of evidence including eyewitness and character evidence

The jury believe people would not confess falsely so confessions are highly persuasive to them.