Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Confession Evidence And Defendant Race On Juror Perceptions, Victoria E. Dodge

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Confession evidence continues to be one of the most persuasive, incriminating forms of evidence presented during a criminal trial (Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004; Leo, 2009). Research suggests that jurors may also be influenced by extra-legal factors, such as personal characteristics of the defendant (e.g., the defendant’s race; D.J. Devine & Caughlin, 2014; Pickel et al., 2013; Sommers & Ellsworth, 2000). Research investigating the effect of race on juror perceptions has yielded mixed results. Some research has found that White jurors discriminate against defendants belonging to a racial minority while other research identifies a phenomenon referred to as the watchdog hypothesis …

Criminogenic Risks Of Interrogation, Margareth Etienne, Richard Mcadams

Indiana Law Journal

In the United States, moral minimization is a pervasive police interrogation tactic in which the detective minimizes the moral seriousness and harm of the offense, suggesting that anyone would have done the same thing under the circumstances, and casting blame away from the offender and onto the victim or society. The goal of these minimizations is to reinforce the guilty suspect’s own rationalizations or “neutralizations” of the crime. The official theory—posited in the police training manuals that recommend the tactic—is that minimizations encourage confessions by lowering the guilt or shame of associated with confessing to the crime. Yet the same …

The Effect Of Intellectual Disability On The Perception Of The Validity Of Confessions, Audree Carner

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that false confessions are more likely to occur in certain vulnerable populations, one of those being individuals with intellectual disabilities. The aim of the current study was to gain insight into the current knowledge and attitudes the layperson has about the possibility of an individual with an intellectual disability falsely confessing. Data were collected from 180 participants and after exclusion criteria were implemented, 94 participants were included in the current sample. It was hypothesized that participants would more often rate suspects as guilty and be more confident in their verdict if the suspect did not have an intellectual …

Indicators Of Deception: Science Or Non-Science, Kristina Vasquez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Deception detection is used by many law enforcement professionals who work in interviews and interrogations. The ability to detect deception or having knowledge on the signs of deception is very important in not only law enforcement, but in other careers and everyday life. The question remains: is deception detection a science or not a science? There are three areas where someone can learn how to detect deception and those are verbal communication, non-verbal communication, and paralanguage. The use of verbal communication looks at what the person is saying with their words. The use of non-verbal communication looks at what someone …

The Detrimental Impact Of Alcohol Intoxication On Facets Of Miranda Comprehension, Amelia Mindthoff, Jacqueline R. Evans, Andrea C. F. Wolfs, Karina Polanco, Naomi E. S. Goldstein, Nadja Schreiber Compo

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Law enforcement officers often encounter alcohol-intoxicated suspects, suggesting that many suspects are presented with the challenge of grasping the meaning and significance of their Miranda rights while intoxicated. Such comprehension is crucial, given that Miranda is intended to minimize the likelihood of coercive interrogations resulting in self-incrimination and protect suspects’ constitutional rights. Yet, the effects of alcohol on individuals’ ability to understand and appreciate their Miranda rights remain unknown—a gap that the present study sought to address. Hypotheses: Informed by alcohol myopia theory (AMT), we predicted that intoxicated individuals would demonstrate impaired Miranda comprehension compared to sober …

Analyzing Wrongful Convictions Beyond The Traditional Canonical List Of Errors, For Enduring Structural And Sociological Attributes, (Juveniles, Racism, Adversary System, Policing Policies), Leona D. Jochnowitz, Tonya Kendall

Touro Law Review

Researchers identify possible structural causes for wrongful convictions: racism, justice system culture, adversary system, plea bargaining, media, juvenile and mentally impaired accused, and wars on drugs and crime. They indicate that unless the root causes of conviction error are identified, the routine explanations of error (e.g., eyewitness identifications; false confessions) will continue to re-occur. Identifying structural problems may help to prevent future wrongful convictions. The research involves the coding of archival data from the Innocence Project for seventeen cases, including the one for the Central Park Five exonerees. The data were coded by Hartwick College and Northern Vermont University students …

A Novel Approach To Studying Human Intelligence-Gathering: Employing A Realistic Paradigm For The Study Of Elicitation Approaches, Sarah A. Shaffer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is often necessary to interrogate sources of information when threats to national security (e.g., impending terror attack) are present. However, the overwhelming majority of research focuses on the interrogation of criminal suspects despite the arguably greater consequences of the former context, known as Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collection. The present study is the first to examine a highly successful approach to collecting information from sources of human intelligence (HUMINT)- the Scharff Technique.- within a novel and highly realistic paradigm. Participants were recruited for a study on group interaction. Every group contained a study confederate posing as a participant who gave …

Assessing The Strategic Use Of Evidence Using A Psychologically Realistic Paradigm: Improving Diagnosticity Of Elicited Information In The Interrogation Room, Amelia R. Mindthoff

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) is an interrogation method that uses strategic timing (e.g., early vs. late disclosure) and framing of evidence disclosure to elicit verbal cues that can help interrogators discriminate between liars and truth-tellers. Despite mounting empirical support for its efficacy, there are gaps in the SUE literature that the present research addresses (e.g., studying SUE using a psychologically realistic interrogation paradigm). In Study 1, community members engaged in a supposed government-funded knowledge test. During testing, a research assistant posing as another participant prompted (guilty condition) or did not prompt (innocent condition) participants to cheat. An interrogator …

The Development Of The Rapport Scales For Investigative Interviews And Interrogations, Observer Version (Rs3i-O), Justin Loren Magee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rapport between an interviewer and a source is a vital component of successful investigative interviews and interrogations. Accurate measurement of rapport in these interactions is crucial to understanding its development and maintenance. The Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations, Source version (RS3i-S; Duke et al., 2018) was developed to measure sources' perception of rapport, but no tool has been developed to measure rapport from a third-party observer's perspective. The primary purpose of this study was to develop the Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations, Observer version (RS3i-O), a tool that allows observers to rate the rapport generated in …

Enhancing Your Intelligence Agency Information Resource Iq: Pt. 2: The Central Intelligence Agency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides an overview of information resources produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) including popular reference works like World Factbook and Chiefs of State and Cabinet Leaders of Foreign Governments. Additional content describes the CIA's origins and development, descriptions of current organizational components, information about it's directors, and the text of historical National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) and the President's Daily Brief covering topics as varied as North Korea, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and NIE's on Soviet ballistic missile forces and numerous other topics. Features artifacts from the CIA Museum.

Murky Projects And Uneven Information Policies: A Case Study Of The Psychological Strategy Board And Cia, Susan Maret

Secrecy and Society

This case study discusses the Truman and Eisenhower administration's (1951-1953) short-lived Psychological Strategy Board (PSB). Through the lens of declassified documents, the article recounts the history and activities of the Board, including its relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and clandestine projects that involve human experimentation. Primary documents of the period suggest that institutional secrecy, coupled with inconsistent information policies, largely shielded CIA's BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, and MKULTRA from the Board. This subject has not been previously reported in the research literature, and supplements existing historical understanding of the PSB's mission under the broad umbrella of psychological warfare.

Torture And The Human Mind, Larry D. Miller

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Recording Of Custodial Interrogations: Policies And Practices, Laura Rubino

Wayne State University Theses

Within the last century, interrogation practices throughout the United States have notably changed. Police interrogations went from physical harm (i.e., the third degree) to psychologically suggestive techniques. These psychologically coercive techniques put suspects at risk of giving a false confession, which is one of the contributing factors in wrongful convictions. One remedy to reduce false confessions is to electronically record interrogations. Very little is known about the specific policies and practices of electronic recordings during interrogation within law enforcement agencies. Policies and practices vary by state and by agency, which makes it difficult to identify agencies that do electronically record …

"It's (Not) Your Fault": The Influence Of Blame Mitigation Versus Guilt Induction On True And False Confessions, Skye Woestehoff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

False confessions remain an important problem facing the criminal justice system. Practitioners assert that blame mitigation techniques can minimize suspects' perceptions of responsibility independently from legal consequences. However, blame mitigation techniques increase false confessions in part by minimizing suspects' expectations of punishment. Blame mitigation techniques are also designed to reduce suspects' feelings of guilt, which may inhibit confessions from guilty suspects given that true confessions are related to feelings of guilt and remorse. Thus, it may be more beneficial to induce guilt rather than mitigate blame in the interrogation room. This Dissertation (1) tested practitioners' assumption that blame mitigation can …

Is Torture Ever Justified? The Influence Of Group Membership, Interrogation Approach, And Success On Attributions Of Interrogator Behavior And Perceived Acceptability Of Torture, Julia Labianca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of these three experiments was to determine what factors affect Americans' attitudes toward torture and the interrogators who engage in torture. Using theories of intergroup bias, fundamental attribution error, and cognitive dissonance, the three experiments investigated how people make behavioral attributions for an interrogator, as well as how people perceive the acceptability, ethicalness, effectiveness, and procedural justice of the technique used. Four variables were manipulated: group membership of the interrogator and detainee, outcome of the interrogation, and type of interrogation tactic used. It was expected that people would make attributional and attitudinal judgments in a manner that preserved …

False Confessions From The Viewpoint Of Federal Polygraph Examiners, Bradford Beyer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

While confessions are a powerful form of evidence, innocent people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Many researchers have studied false confessions through laboratory experiments with university students or by focusing on proven cases of false confession. These approaches have led many researchers to form a conceptual framework that law enforcement interrogative methods are a key cause of false confessions. A gap exists in the literature as few researchers have queried law enforcement about false confessions or consulted with officers who specialize in interrogation. For this study, a qualitative case study approach was used to explore the experiences …

The Language And Cross-Cultural Perceptions Of Deception, Brent Logan Laing

Theses and Dissertations

While much research has shown that some linguistic features can indicate a person is lying, this line of research has led to conflicting results. Furthermore, very little research has been done to verify that these supposed linguistic features of deception are universal. In addition, few studies have researched the cross-cultural perceptions of deception, which knowledge could greatly improve the detection of deception across cultures. The current study addresses these gaps in the literature by analyzing and comparing truthful and deceptive discourse of eight native English-speaking Americans and eight non-native English-speaking Ghanaians. The discourse was elicited in one-on-one interviews where each …

Imagining The Unimaginable: Torture And The Criminal Law, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the use of torture by the U.S. government in the context of the late 20th-century preventive turn in criminal justice. Challenging the assumption that the use of “enhanced interrogation tactics” in the war on terror was an exceptional deviation from accepted norms, this article suggests that this deviation began decades before the terror attacks, in the context of conventional criminal procedure. I point to the use of the “ticking time bomb hypothetical,” and its connection to criminal procedure’s “kidnapping hypothetical.” Using case law and criminal procedure textbooks I trace the employment of that narrative over several decades, …

Intensity Based Interrogation Of Optical Fibre Sensors For Industrial Automation And Intrusion Detection Systems, Gary Andrew Allwood

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this study, the use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection and industrial automation systems has been demonstrated, with a particular focus on low cost, intensity-based, interrogation techniques. The use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection systems to secure residential, commercial, and industrial premises against potential security breaches has been extensively reviewed in this thesis. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is one form of optical fibre sensing that has been underutilised in applications such as in-ground, in-fence, and window and door monitoring, and addressing that opportunity has been a major goal of this thesis. Both security and industrial …

The Development Of The Rapport Scales For Investigative Interviews And Interrogations, Misty Christina Duke

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop the Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations (RS3i), a measure of rapport for use in the context of investigative interviews and interrogations. Eighty "source" participants were interviewed by 80 "interview" participants. Each source rated the interview using the Prototype RS3i-Source Version. Observer participants each viewed and rated two interviews. Exploratory analyses were done on 374 observer ratings of 20 interviews to explore the factor structure of the items and develop the final scales. The final version of the RS3i contained 32 items comprising 8 rapport scales and one Commitment to Communication …

The Influence Of Case-Specific Expert Testimony On Juror Sensitivity To Confession Evidence, Skye Alani Woestehoff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research on the effect of expert testimony has resulted in incongruent findings. Expert testimony has been shown to lead to sensitivity, by educating participants about the evidence and facilitating the application of this knowledge, and skepticism, by causing jurors to distrust the evidence regardless of its quality. The current study explored the role of expert testimony in improving participants' evaluation of confession evidence. Data were collected from 352 students and 281 community members. Participants read a trial transcript that included a low-pressure, medium-pressure, or high-pressure interrogation. Participants also read expert testimony that was general, case-specific, or no testimony at all. …

Assessing Naturalistic Decision Making By Experienced And Inexperienced Interrogators In High Stakes Interviews, Amy Bethany Ross

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current thesis aimed to improve the ecological validity of human intelligence interrogation research. Although field practitioners and researchers have worked together to improve the scientific validity and practical execution of interrogation techniques, research has yet to understand how, when and why interrogators implement such techniques. This thesis investigated the active decision making processes of interrogators that occur during high value interrogations. The theory of Naturalistic Decision Making was used to capture the naturalistic characteristics of high value interrogations- ambiguity, time pressure and high stakes. To capture the decision-making processes that are associated with skilled performance, this research conducted in-depth …

Effect Of Crime Type, Citizenship Status, Ethnicity, And Location Of Interrogation On Perceptions Of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Brianna Correira

Honors Theses

The current study asks when, if ever, is it acceptable to use "enhanced" interrogation techniques? A mostly White (90.4%), female (55%) sample of 240 participants read a vignette describing an Italian or Saudi Arabian suspect, who was a U.S. citizen or illegal immigrant, who was interrogated on either a U.S. army base or abroad for one of two crimes: child molestation or terrorism. The study failed to find the hypothesized interaction that participants would be more likely to endorse the use of harsh interrogation tactics when the suspect was Saudi Arabian, an illegal immigrant, accused of terrorism, and interrogated abroad. …

Good Guys, Bad Guys -- And Miranda, Tamar R. Birckhead

Tamar R Birckhead

This op-ed argues that we as a society must get beyond our single-minded focus on the Miranda warnings and find a better way to elicit accurate information from suspects while lowering the risk of false confessions.

The Torture Debate: What The Scholars And The Intellectuals Are Saying, Dieudonné Balla

Global Honors Theses

In the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib investigation and the 2009 CASUSS report on post-9/11 interrogation practices, the question of state-sanctioned torture has become the subject of much public and scholarly debate. In this thesis, the author examines three arguments in support of lawful torture: Alan Dershowitz’s Law of Necessity and the concept of “torture warrants,” Michael Walzer’s “problem of dirty hands,” and Richard Posner’s notion of Constitutional interpretation in times of emergency.

Venus In Furs: Why False Confessions Are True, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the nature of truth and false confessions in the context of confession and interrogation.

Snitching, Lies, And Computer Crashes: An Experimental Investigation Of Secondary Confessions, Jessica K. Swanner, Denise Beike, Alexander T. Cole

Jessica K Swanner

Two laboratory studies with 332 student participants investigated secondary confessions (provided by an informant instead of the suspect). Participants allegedly caused or witnessed a simulated computer crash, then were asked to give primary or secondary confessions during interrogation. Study 1 replicated the false evidence effect for primary confessions. Secondary confessions were obtained at a high rate, which was increased by false evidence in combination with incentive to confess. In Study 2 a confederate either confessed to or denied crashing the computer. Incentive increased the rate of secondary confession only in the presence of a denial; that is, incentive increased the …

Incentives Increase The Rate Of False But Not True Secondary Confessions From Informants With An Allegiance To A Suspect, Jessica K. Swanner, Denise Beike

Jessica K Swanner

One hundred ninety-two students participated in an experimental simulation testing whether incentives would reduce the reluctance of informants to implicate a close other. Half of the students were made to feel interpersonally close to a confederate who either admitted to or denied a misdeed. All students were interrogated and encouraged to sign a secondary confession stating that the confederate had confessed to the misdeed; half were offered an incentive to do so. Contrary to expectations, closeness did not induce reluctance. Instead, the offer of incentive increased the number of participants willing to sign a secondary confession implicating a close other. …

Ongeoorloofde Pressiemiddelen Tijdens Ondervraging In Extreme Situaties: Moraliteit, Effectiviteit En Efficiëntie, George Dimitriu

George Dimitriu

The paper is about the question whether alleged terrorists or insurgents in certain circumstances should be tortured. Does it yield any results? Is it effective? Paper in Dutch.

In veel landen, waaronder ook westerse, worden pressiemiddelen gebruikt bij ondervragingen vangevangenen. Sinds de aanslagen op 11 september 2001 in de Verenigde Staten en de ‘War on Terror’is de discussie over het toepassen van pressiemiddelen weer actueel. Ernstige schendingen van mensen-rechten door Amerikaanse militairen op Guantanamo Bay kwamen aan het licht. Wat zijn de morele argumenten om ongeoorloofde pressiemiddelen toe te staan dan wel te verbieden? Welke juridische kaders zijn er? En …

Interview And Interrogation: A Perspective And Update From The Usa, Randy Borum, Michael Gelles, Steven Kleinman

Randy Borum

With a renewed interest in, and reliance on, human intelligence (HUMINT), an opportunity exists for the USG to re-examine its policies and practices for interviewing and interrogation to discern whether or not it is relying on best practices that are consistent with American values, international human rights and legal requirements. It is clear that, to protect national security interests, the USG is now – and for the foreseeable future will be – required to gather information form human sources either for purposes of intelligence gathering or for investigations that may lead to criminal prosecution. Broadly speaking, the purpose of these …