The last decades have seen several convicts being exonerated by DNA. Some of these exonerations come several years after a wrongful conviction of an individual. The impacts of a wrongful conviction on the perceived offenders and their families are often adverse. False confessions are some of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. False confessions present serious implications to the justice system as false confessions often bias the jury’s evaluation of a case to reach a valid conviction. False confessions often result in the perpetrator of the crime being left roaming the streets, increasing the risk of these criminals committing more crimes. Empirical studies on false confessions indicate that police interrogation techniques play a primary role in eliciting false confessions. Police feel the pressure to bring criminals to face justice. Bringing more criminals to the book also elevates the police’s reputation projecting the justice system as reliable and effective. Therefore, the pressure to bring more criminals to the foot of the justice system sometimes forces the police to use stringent interrogation techniques that eventually result in eliciting confessions. These techniques, mainly minimizing and maximizing, have been associated with high cases of false confessions due to the psychological effects they inflict on the suspects. Police interrogation techniques, the suspect’s behavioral composure, and personal factors have a damning impact on the nature of confessions obtained following interrogation.
Common Themes from the Articles
Police Interrogation techniques
The police are usually more interested in obtaining a confession from a suspect regardless of the nature of the confession. Sometimes, police may be frustrated looking for a suspect that continually escapes their grip, yet they are under pressure to bring these criminals to justice. A confession is usually the most damning evidence that the jury may singly rely on to reach a conviction. In their review, Russano, Meissner, Narchet, and Kassin (2005) established that police-implemented interrogation techniques are highly effective in obtaining confessions from suspects. However, these techniques usually overlook the importance of true confession and settle on any confession. These techniques have resulted in significant rates of false confessions. Lassiter, Diamond, Schmidt, and Elek (2007) complement the findings of Russano, Meissner, Narchet, and Kassin (2005) by noting that police interrogators are under no mandate to ensure that the confession obtained from suspects was voluntarily issued. Therefore, exempting the police from this responsibility makes it easier for them to use cunning techniques that get the suspects to give in to the interrogation. Common police interrogation techniques include maximizing the consequence of the crime, sympathizing with the suspect, presenting damning accusations against the suspect, and giving false evidence to the suspect. However, minimizing and maximizing techniques increase the chances of obtaining false confessions.
Goldstein, Savitsky, and Kassin (2003) argue that minimizing technique often appears more appealing to the suspect because it uses an alluring strategy involving making the suspect believe that giving a confession would earn them lesser offense with lesser jail terms. Perceptively, a suspect succumbing to the minimizing technique when innocent of the accusation could be experiencing other underlying challenges. For instance, an innocent suspect from a minority group with a slim chance of being cleared of the crime is likelier to provide a false confession to reduce the jail term. Comparatively, a more advantaged suspect, such as a suspect with a wealthy and connected family background or white, are less likely to succumb to this technique when innocent. The maximizing technique puts more pressure on suspects as it presents damning consequences of not pleading guilty to a crime. This technique overestimates the conviction outcome leaving no room for the suspect to maneuver. These two techniques seem to throve on the suspect’s vulnerability and use this vulnerability to blur their chance of holding on until they are cleared of the accusations.
Suspect’s Behavior
The suspect always controls the interrogation until the interrogator introduces overbearing techniques. Goldstein, Savitsky, and Kassin (2003) report that, among other techniques, interrogators also assess suspects’ non-verbal and verbal behaviors to determine innocence or guilt. A potential problem with this technique is that innocent suspects with a skewed perception of the justice system may act nervous and exhibit guilt-related behaviors. Nervousness and keeping important information during interrogation are likely to be used as a basis for eliciting guilt. Experienced criminals who have been to interrogation rooms may appear confident and remain composed, thus misleading the interrogator into declaring them innocent. Notably, most of these interrogation techniques invade the suspect’s psychology, making them connect o a crime they did not commit.
Kassin (2017) highlights that the psychological interrogation approach may not be any different from the physical torturing approach. Physical torturing inflicted physical pain on the suspect to a limit beyond their pain-withstanding threshold. Suspects would give in after unbearable torture; The psychological approaches seek to infiltrate the suspect’s psychology by projecting the interrogator as a friend of the suspect or making the suspect develop great hope for a more lenient conviction. Unfortunately, the police hardly kept the promise they made to the suspect. In his review, Kassin(2017) recaps Netflix’s Making a Murderer documentary involving Dassey in the interrogation room. The interrogation technique of presenting the suspect with false evidence, threatening to arrest the suspect, and offering sympathy, as detailed in the study, resulted in the lifetime conviction of the suspect. The suspect’s behavior throughout the interrogation may significantly be altered, especially when the suspect is underage, experiencing underlying stress, or disadvantaged by the system.
Personal Factors
Personal factors such as stress can coerce suspects into giving false confessions. Some suspects might be experiencing extreme economic stressors, making them vulnerable to poor decision-making. The pressure the interrogators inflict on suspects dealing with preexisting stress may fasten reaching a confession. Suspects are also likely to take the blame if they witness a loved one committing a crime. Unfortunately, the psychological techniques do not seek to elicit whether a suspect is in the right state or free from the influence of personal factors before pressuring the suspect into giving a confession.
Camera Perspective
Recent initiatives to reduce the rates of wrongful convictions have seen intensified capturing of the interrogation on camera. The jury can use the interrogation data captured on camera to ascertain the diagnostic value of the confession for effective judgment delivery. Most wrongful convictions have been connected to involuntary confessions by suspects coerced into giving confessions. The effectiveness of the camera technique depends on camera positioning. When cameras are only positioned toward the suspect leaving out the interrogator, the chances of determining the diagnostic value of false or true confessions are limited compared to when both parties are captured on camera. When the camera is only diverted toward the suspect, it is impossible to determine whether the interrogator implemented techniques that coerced the suspect into giving false confessions. Suspects giving false confessions may equally leverage the camera perspective to recant their confessions by claiming that the investigator lured them into making false confessions. This situation obscures justice delivery.
Future Research Directions
Previous interrogation techniques involved excessive force that would leave the suspect limited options. Techniques such as physical torturing were eliminated with the inception of psychological means. However, these psychological techniques continue to be ineffective at limiting wrongful convictions. Future research should focus on elucidating the effect of these psychological techniques on suspects. These techniques can potentially cause psychological pain and incapacitate suspects, obscuring effective decision-making.
Recommendations
Assessing the sufficiency of probable cause supporting guilt: Coercing or alluring interrogation techniques are mainly applied when interrogators lack sufficient evidence to tie the suspect to the crime. The pressure to speed up justice also results in interrogators using these techniques to obtain confessions. Investigators must assess and ascertain sufficient evidence tying the suspect to the crime before exposing them to undue pressure that may obscure good judgment.
Further training and Education in Law enforcement
The negative impact of false confession seems to be overlooked by law enforcement bodies. Law enforcement officers are often bothered by the pressure to solve a crime without reviewing the impact of a wrongful conviction on suspects. In some cases, these impacts are adequately understood within law enforcement, but there is a lack of effective penalties for enforcement officers who go beyond the recommended techniques and compensations for victims. Law enforcement officers need further education to enhance their understanding of the repercussions.
References
Goldstein, C. C., Savitsky, K., & Kassin, S. M. (2003). Behavioral Confirmation in the Interrogation Room: On the Dangers of Presuming Guilt. Law and Human Behavior. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Kassin%20LHB__xid-137192979_1%20(1)vvvv.pdf
Kassin, S. M. (2017). False Confessions: How Can Psychology So Basic Be So Counterintuitive? Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Kassin%20AmPsych__xid-137192977_1%20(1)www.pdf
Lassiter, G. D., Diamond, S. S., Schmidt, H. C., & Elek, J. K. (2007). Evaluating Videotaped Confessions: Expertise Provides No Defense Against the Camera-Perspective Effect. Psychology Science. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Lassiter%20PsychSci__xid-137192980_1%20(1)aaa.pdf
Russano, M. B., Meissner, C. A., Narchet, F. M., & Kassin, S. M. (2005). Investigating True and False Confessions Within a Novel Experimental Paradigm. Psychological Science. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Russano%20PsychSci__xid-137192978_1%20(1).pdf
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