What Do Potential Jurors Know About Police Interrogation Techniques and False Confessions?

摘要

Psychological police interrogation methods in Americainevitably involve some level of pressure and persuasionto achieve their goal of eliciting confessions of guilt fromcustodial suspects. In this article, we surveyed potentialjurors about their perceptions of a range of psychologicalinterrogation techniques, the likelihood that such techniqueswould elicit a true confession from guilty suspects, and thelikelihood that such techniques could elicit a false confes-sion from innocent suspects. Participants recognized thatthese interrogation techniques may be psychologicallycoercive and may elicit true confessions, but believed thatpsychologically coercive interrogation techniques are notlikely to elicit false confessions. The findings from thissurvey study indicate that potential jurors believe that falseconfessions are both counter- intuitive and unlikely, evenin response to psychologically coercive interrogation tech-niques that have been shown to lead to false confessionsfrom the innocent. This study provides empirical supportfor the idea that expert witnesses may helpfully informjurors about the social science research on psychologicallycoercive interrogation methods and how and why suchinterrogation techniques can lead to false confessions.