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Selling Confession: Setting The Stage With The "Sympathetic Detective With A Time-Limited Offer", Richard Leo, Deborah Davis, William C. Follette Mar 2010

Selling Confession: Setting The Stage With The "Sympathetic Detective With A Time-Limited Offer", Richard Leo, Deborah Davis, William C. Follette

Richard A. Leo

The effectiveness of an interrogation tactic dubbed the “sympathetic detective with a time limited offer” was tested. Participants read two versions of an interrogation transcript, with and without the tactic. Those who read the sympathetic detective version believed the detective had greater authority to determine whether and with what to charge the suspect, more beneficent intentions toward the suspect, and viewed confession as more wise. However, regression analyses indicated that for innocent suspects, only perceptions of the strength of evidence against the suspect and the detective’s beneficence and authority predicted the perceived wisdom of false confession. Interrogation tactics were generally …


Commentary: Overcoming Judicial Preferences For Person- Versus Situation-Based Analyses Of Interrogation-Induced Confessions, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo Dec 2009

Commentary: Overcoming Judicial Preferences For Person- Versus Situation-Based Analyses Of Interrogation-Induced Confessions, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

This article identifies some fundamentally mistaken assumptions underlying admissibility decisions favoring disposition-related expert testimony regarding individual vulnerability to false confession over situation-based testimony describing how the context or nature of interrogation can promote false confessions. The authors argue that it is important to understand both the forces of influence within police interrogations and the individual differences that enhance vulnerability to these forces. Most false confessions occur in the context of interrogation and in response to the sources of distress and persuasive tactics of the interrogation. For this reason, this article suggests that experts asked to evaluate an interrogation-induced confession should …


One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo Dec 2009

One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

In this article the authors analyze a century of research on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system while explaining the many lessons of this body of work. This article chronicles the range of research that has been conducted on wrongful convictions; examines the common sources of error in the criminal justice system and their effects; suggests where additional research and attention are needed; and discusses methodological strategies for improving the quality of research on wrongful convictions. The authors argue that traditional sources of error (eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, perjured testimony, forensic error, tunnel …


Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors And Recommendations, Saul M. Kassin, Steven A. Drizin, Thomas Grisso, Gisli H. Gudjonsson, Richard A. Leo, Allison D. Redlich Jul 2009

Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors And Recommendations, Saul M. Kassin, Steven A. Drizin, Thomas Grisso, Gisli H. Gudjonsson, Richard A. Leo, Allison D. Redlich

Richard A. Leo

Recent DNA exonerations have shed light on the problem that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Drawing on police practices, laws concerning the admissibility of confession evidence, core principles of psychology, and forensic studies involving multiple methodologies, this White Paper summarizes what is known about police-induced confessions. In this review, we identify suspect characteristics (e.g., adolescence; intellectual disability; mental illness; and certain personality traits), interrogation tactics (e.g., excessive interrogation time; presentations of false evidence; and minimization), and the phenomenology of innocence (e.g., the tendency to waive Miranda rights) that influence confessions as well as their effects on …


The Third Degree And The Origins Of Psychological Interrogation In The United States, Richard Leo Dec 2003

The Third Degree And The Origins Of Psychological Interrogation In The United States, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

This chapter describes and analyzes third degree interrogation in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. The chapter begins with a detailed description and analysis of the various kinds and types of third degree interrogation, describing both the physical and psychological components of the third degree. Next, the chapter discusses how the ideology and practice of so-called "scientific" lie detection and psychological interrogation came to replace the third degree following the Wickersham Commission's Report in the 1930s. Although the third degree is, for the most part, a relic of the distant past, its demise represents a crucial turning point in the history …


Miranda, Confessions, And Justice: Lessons For Japan?, Richard Leo Dec 2001

Miranda, Confessions, And Justice: Lessons For Japan?, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

This chapter explores whether a Miranda-like warning and waiver regime could be successfully implemented in Japan. The chapter reviews the social science and legal scholarship on Miranda's impact on American interrogation practices and suspect behavior, concluding that most American suspects continue to waive their rights and law enforcement personnel continue to obtain a high number of confessions and convictions. Next, the chapter discusses the contemporary law and practice of interrogation in Japan. In Japan, interrogation appears to be routinely psychologically coercive and virtually all defendants make either partial admissions or full confessions to alleged offenses. Confessions are regarded as superior …