Lecture 3: Police Interrogations and Detecting Deception Flashcards
coerced-compliant false confession
A false confession that is caused by the use of coercive interrogation tactics. Coerced- compliant false confessions may occur to: (1) escape further interrogation, (2) to gain a promised benefit, or (3) to avoid a threatened punishment.
coerced-internalization false confession
A false confession that is caused by highly suggestible interrogation tactics. Unlike voluntary false confessions or coerced-compliant false confessions, these individuals actually come to believe that they are responsible for the crime in question.
Reid model
An approach to interrogations that is commonly used in North America. In general, it consists of three stages. The third stage consists of 9 steps that are designed to extract confessions from guilty persons.
voluntary false confession
A false confession to a crime that is given without any elicitation from the police. People usually provide voluntary false confessions for one of the following reasons: (1) a morbid desire for notoriety, (2) the person being unable to distinguish fact from fantasy, (3) the need to make up for feelings of guilt by receiving punishment, or (4) a desire to protect somebody else from harm.
Brokaw hazard
a failure to take into account how people differ in their expressive behaviour (i.e., absence of deceitful signs is not evidence of truth).
control question test
The control question test is the most commonly used test for detecting deception when employing the polygraph technique. It is made up of irrelevant questions, relevant questions, and control questions. An irrelevant question may be: Do you live in Ottawa? A relevant question may be: Did you stab John Doe on the night of March 18? A control question may be: Before the age of 24 did you ever try to hurt someone to get revenge? The assumption is that guilty people will have larger physiological responses to the relevant questions whereas innocent people will have larger physiological responses to control questions.
deception
when a person intends to deliberately mislead another without having been explicitly asked to do so by the target.
guilty knowledge test
The guilty knowledge test is a test used for detecting deception when employing the polygraph technique. It is made up of a series of multiple-choice questions, with one alternative always referring to information that would only be known by the guilty party. For example, the question may be: If you did rob the bank on June 2, then you wrote a note to the teller giving her instructions. Was the note written on: (a) a piece of yellow paper, (b) a one dollar bill, or (c) the back of a photograph? (with (c) being the correct answer). The assumption is that guilty people will consistently have larger physiological responses when presented with the ‘guilty knowledge’ alternative.
othello error
a failure to consider that a truthful person who is under stress may appear as if they’re lying.
polygraph technique
The polygraph technique is often used in an attempt to detect deception. The polygraph is used to measure a person’s physiological response as that person is answering questions posed by the polygrapher. The physiological responses that are measured usually include: breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating. It is assumed that the measures obtained from people telling the truth will be different from the measures obtained from people who are lying.
2 purposes of police interrogation
- To obtain a confession
- To obtain information about a crime
police interrogations in the UK
police interrogations in the UK don’t aim to obtain a confession
the history of coercive investigations
- Brown v. Mississippi (1936): a suspect was hung around a tree to get him to confess
- Stun guns and the NYC police (1980s): interrogators used stun guns on suspects in an attempt to obtain confessions
- R. v. Hoilett (1999): a suspect was deprived of basic needs and interrogated when tired and intoxicated to get him to confess
coercion today
- Lying
- Exaggerating
- Threats
- Leniency
- Moral justification
- Promises of assistance
3 stages of the Reid model
- Gather evidence
- Conduct interview
- Conduct accusatorial interrogation
9 steps of the Reid Model
- Confront the suspect with their guilt
- Develop psychological themes
- Interrupt statements of denial
- Overcome objections
- Engage suspect
- Show sympathy and urge the suspect to tell the truth
- Offer alternative explanations
- Develop full confession
- Obtain a written confession
standard for confessions in Canada
In Canada, the confession must be voluntary and competent
R. v. Oickle (2000)
- Police officers used threats, exaggerated the efficacy of polygraphs, and conducted the interrogation in a motel
- The confession was deemed permissible
R. v. Hoilett (1999)
- Police officers used sleep deprivation, strip searches in November, and interviewed a suspect while he was intoxicated
- The confession was deemed not permissible
problems with the Reid model
- Detecting deception
- Interrogator bias
- False confessions
