Chapter 7 forensic science

Artificial intelligence

Computerized systems performing tasks generally associated with human intelligence, including prediction, decision- making , language translation , visual perception, and other areas .

Behavioral confirmation

An influence in which peoples expectations cause them to act in ways that confirm those expectations.

Brain fingerprinting

A procedure that involves the measurement of brain waves in response to a stimulus to assess whether the brain recognizes that stimulus.

Cognitive load

The demand placed on a persons thought processes .

Compliant false confessions

Confessions elicited when the suspect is induced to comply with the interrogators demand to make an incriminating statement.

Concealed information test

An approach to interrogating criminal suspects focusing on relevant concealed knowledge in the suspect’s mind , not the truthfulness of his /her statements . Such information is particularly important when only a guilty individual would know it .

Control question test

A polygraph technique in which the subject is asked a question that elicits an emotional response.

Countermeasures

Techniques employed by a deceptive subject to “beat” the polygraph test in order to avoid detection

Criminal profiling

The use of psychological principles as a crime investigation technique

Diagnostic cues

Cues that enable professionals to diagnose or distinguish among available alternatives

Evidence ploys

Used in criminal interrogation, these are ruses that involving providing false information to suspects about their guilt , which can apparently cause them to doubt their memories and rely instead on external sources to infer what happened

External validity

A measure of whether the results of scientific research, conducted with a sample of the population, can be generalized to a larger group or that population.

Fabricated evidence

False evidence presented by interrogators in order to elicit information from suspects

False confession

An admission of guilt to a crime for which the confessor is not culpable. False confessions occur for different reasons and they can be explained by different situational and dispositional factors .

False denial

A guilty suspect’s proclamation of innocence and denial of involvement in crimes for which he or she is actually responsible.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

A type of specialized neuroimaging that registers blood flow related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord.

Fundamental attribution error

The belief that behavior is caused by stable factors internal to a person rather than by situational factors external to a person .

Internalized false confessions

An inaccurate confession that is genuinely believed . Can result after long hours of questioning , and being told stories about what “ must have happened “. Causes a suspect to build a distrust of their own memory .

Lie bias

The assumption that most statements , even truthful statements , are lies and deceptions .

Mass murder

A person who kills four or more victims in one location during a period of time that lasts anywhere between a few minutes to several hours

Negative incentives

In terms of interrogation, tactics use to convey the suspect has no choice but to confess.

Polygraph/ lie detector

An instrument for recording variations in several physiological functions that may indicate whether a person is telling the truth .

Positive inducements

Tactics used by interrogators to motivate suspects to see that an admission of guilt is in their best interest. Conveys the suspect will receive some benefit in exchange for the confession.

Serial killers

A person who kills four or more victims in separate occasions, usually in different locations.

Spree killer

A person who kills victims at two or more different locations with almost no time between the murders .

Serial murder

The deliberate killing of four or more victims on separate occasions, usually in different locations.

Truth bias

The assumption that most statements are honest and truthful . In the context of interrogation, people are better at detecting truthful denials than accurately judging deceptive elaborations.

Voluntary false confessions

False confessions that arise because people seek notoriety, cleanse from previous offenses , protect the real criminal , or have difficulty with delusion.