Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Criminology and Criminal Justice
Criminogenic Risks Of Interrogation, Margareth Etienne, Richard Mcadams
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 …