topic 3 criminal psychology- collection of evidence Flashcards
(15 cards)
what is the key study and the 4 additional studies of topic 3 called
Memon + Highman
-Reid- nine step of interrogation
-Gudjosson false confessions
-PEACE model of interviewing
-Mann- lie detection techniques
Outline the additional study by Reid on the nine steps of interrogation
-used mainly in america for interrogation of suspects
1)positive confrontation- tell the suspect that the evidence reinforces that they are guilty of the crime
2)Theme development- shift blame to someone else, themes aim to provide moral justification to the suspect of the crime
3)handling denials- never allow suspect to deny guilt block any denials like shouting over
4)overcoming objectives- listening to objections like ‘i love my job’ and use them to develop the theme that the suspect was guilty of the crime
Outline the additional study by Gudjonsson on false confessions
There are 4 factors that increase the likelihood of false confessions
Suspect- false confessions are more likely from very young, very old, those with low IQ and those with mental health issues
Arrest-when arrested at night suddenly or violently for long periods at night
Mental state-false confessions are more likely when a suspect is stressed or intoxicated
Interrogation- coercive bias or leading interview tactics can lead to increased chance of false confessions
Outline the additional study on PEACE model of interviewing
can be used for witnesses or suspects
Prep and planning- have a record of what is already known based on evidence gathered so far about the interviewee and the crime and consider potential problems such as whether the witness is vulnerable
Engage and explain- establish a rapport with the witness and explain the purpose of the interview
Account,clarify and challenge- allow the witness to give their own account first without interruption, then ask further probing questions. If answers are untrue, challenge and identify inconsistencies
Closure-ensure rapport is still there, close the interview by giving a way of contacting the officer if they remember anything else
Evaluate- review all of the information and check what was learnt and for any inconsistencies
Outline the additional study by Mann on lie detection techniques
Sample- 99 kent police officers (24 females, 75 males) mainly detectives some officers
-they watched video clips from 14 real police interviews (the truth or not of the suspect was known)
-asked to judge whether on not the suspect was lying and rate their confidence on that decision and also explain ehat cue the used to make that decision
-the police officers ability to detect lies and truth telling were significantly better than chance ( lie accuracy 66%)
-correlation with experience
- the cues that lead to better accuracy were contradictions of the story rather than body language gaze evasion or fidgeting.
POlice officers should be trained to focus on the story rather than body language and behaviour and experienced officers should be used for some cases
Outline the aim of Memon and Highman
to compare the effectiveness of the different aspects of the cognitive interview
Outline all the stages to a cognitive interview
-context reinstatement
-report everything
-recall from different perspectives
-recall in a different order
Outline what is meant by context reinstatement and what M+H thought of it
M+H suggest that context reinstatement can obtain as much information on its own as the complete cognitive interview process by asking witnesses to form an image of the environment, what they sensed and how they felt at the time
Outline what is meant by report everything and what M+H thought of it
asking witnesses to report everything that they remember may lead to more information being gathered as witness do not filter out any information that they thinnk is irrelevant or which they are not sure about
Outline what is meant by recalling from different perspectives and what M+H thought of it
The aim was to use different pathways to retrieving information but there are several problems with using this such as confusing the witness or them potentially fabricating details about the event to try image what someone else eould have seen. This does not increase the info recalled compared to other techniques and may be a skipped step in the process
Outline what is meant by recalling in a different order and what M+H thought of it
mixed results found, one study found more information was produces when witnesses were asked to recall the event in reverse order after an initial attemp in forward order
Outline whether there was a statistically significsnt difference between knowledge obtained from context reinstatemnt and the entire cognitive interview
There was no statistically significant difference found
Cognitive interview vs other interview techniques
difficultis in comparing against the standard interview because there is no standard method used by officers
Outline what is meant by memory measures
-most studies have found that fairly simplistic measures such as % of correct interview statements or number of correct and incorrect statements made. It doesnt take into account the amount of unreported information or how important that is. Standard interview encourages you to only give information if it is 100% correct
Outline what is meant by Training effect in M+H
the training given to police officers in using cognitive interviews is inconsisnet and officers may resist training. One suggestion by Memon and Highman was for officers to have a 2 day training
