Examples Of Confirmation Bias

Although all employees should be assets to their organization, certain employees, because of their respective strengths and talents, may be better suited for certain tasks. In the organization I where I work, the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office, there are several individuals who would be both happier and better suited for different areas of criminal investigations. Several problems persist within the organization that prevent both the agency and the individuals employed by it from achieving their full potential. While there are a host of departments within my organization, the focus of this essay will be on the Criminal Investigations Division in which I work. I will also include a few thoughts on the administrative structure of my department, address some of its problems and offer my own solutions for overcoming these

Avoid actions and statements that could affect how evidence can be used in future investigations and

The role of the criminal investigation process is to balance the rights of the victims and offenders in society. All individuals’ wether victim, offender or member of society have basic rights to which the law attempts to adhere to. While all are individual, the rights will differ for the purpose of maintaining a balance in society. Though upholding the rights of the people is essential in order to ensure that the investigation process is conducted correctly and without abuse.

Confirmation bias: the tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments.

Criminal investigations are important in a case, whether it be criminal or civil matters. This learner believes that criminal investigations are important, because they allow for individuals to either be proven guilty or not guilty in a case. It also allows for the prosecution and the police to find out who is guilty in a case. According to Osterburg and Ward (2014), Criminal investigations determine if a crime has been committed and determine the jurisdiction of the crime (p. 5). Criminal investigations are important, because they also give victims closure and allow for

A cognitive bias in which people will have the tendency to believe that a statement, idea, or information is accurate if it is either positive, meaningful, or if it’s personally addressed to them. Many people believe in biorhythms, horoscopes iridology, cold reading, and tarot cards because they appear to have the solution to their problems which is meaningful. In addition, many mediums and palm readers depend on subjective validation because it is easy to convince others that they are linked to unrelated events. (Pages 120, 122-123).

For a society that is greatly influenced by Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds and Bones, a confession of the offender is seen as an ultimate checkmate of the case because it implies the guilt of the confessor. Thus, a confession, especially the ones with detailed account and perfect representation of emotions (Leo, 2008), outweighs the evidences of innocence and stirs the case against the accused (Kassin & Wrightsman, 1985). People believe that they are open-minded about the possibility of false confession but in reality, the public, law enforcers and justice officials have biases that often infer guilt to the suspect instead of investigating for the truth, which leads to wrongful conviction. According to Leo and Drizin (2004), false confession is the primary cause of law miscarriage (Leo and Drizzin, 2004). False confessors lived many years in jail before being exonerated while others remain imprisoned (Leo and Drizzin, 2004).

Confirmation bias is when a person would rather try to confirm or support a hypothesis than try to prove it. For example, in the Wason Task each card is either “E,” “J,” “6,” or “7,” which follows

Recently is has come to light that many people who are convicted of crimes were not actually guilty for. This could be because of the trial system, but more often than not it is the investigation that is corrupt. During investigations evidence wasn’t handled properly, the scene wasn’t properly closed off, interrogations are mishandled these acts all add up to making someone innocent look guilty.

High profile cases can receive a lot of unwanted media attention. As a result of this media attention, this can lead to an unfair advantage for the three components of the criminal justice system especially within police investigations. As high profile cases tend to get more media exposure, the pressure that the state enhances its authority over the police to solve the case tends to get swifter than they would any other investigation. This result can be disastrous because police investigators will try to work through a case quickly and efficiently to satisfy the media, victims, victims’ families as well as the state. Especially with high profile cases where appearances isn’t

The confirmation bias is the tendency to search for information that confirms our ideas and beliefs. This arises from our eargences to get a good solution. Often times most peopel seek evidence that supports thier ideas more readily than they search for facts that might refute them. Karen for example is using examples from the past regarding the election and who has won to demonstarte that her brother will win. "Karen your can't be serious. What about the issues, such as school poilces and procedures?" "Those issues don't matter. Regina Hoyt won becauseh she was populr last year. The only real issue is popularoty." This is an example of how Karen is searching for information that confirms her ideas that he brother will win the election because

There are instances when interrogations lead to wrongful conviction of innocent persons due to false confessions especially if the suspect is coerced to confess. All these problems can be inhibited by recording or videotaping the interrogation process when writing a case statement for a suspected offender. Videotaping the interrogation is one way to limit the interrogating personnel from using coercion which is usually the major cause of false confessions. The videotaping or recording is beneficial in ensuring that the written confessions are complete and accurate and can be verified if need be. The interrogators also benefit from videotaping since it reduces the workload of recording exclusive statements and instead, they are able to concentrate on the suspect. If any allegations arise or relevant information had

The Chief of police may use discretion in a criminal investigation by deciding that some information should not be shared with the public. In addition, the Chief of police might even give a decision on which information to be shared to the public. The duty of the Chief of police is to protect the public and so while making decisions, he has to be careful of the information the public should know. One of the most important duties of the Chief of Police is to re-assure the public of their safety and so, he cannot comprised their safety by allowing certain information that could harm them reach them. Therefore, while trying to keep the public safe and trying to inform them of the investigations about criminal activities in their community without causing them panic, he/she will make sure that the details that reaches them are limited so that f there are more criminals among them, they are brought to book. In addition, the Chief of Police will give limited information so as to save the public from more criminal activities, and to save their lives. For example, maybe there have been numerous murder cases in a community, and evidence is found at

Confirmation bias is a primary issue that prevents people from perceiving the world objectively. The phenomenon occurs when an individual chooses to expose themselves only to media and information that confirms a personally held belief rather than consider another side of the argument. In the media age we are currently in, it is remarkably uncomplicated to find countless arguments on one side of a controversial debate to buttress one’s own existing beliefs; we come to believe in a false consensus of our beliefs due to our limited exposure to other opinions. Consequently, especially in the United States due to having gone through an incredibly sensationalized presidential election, we are in a time somewhat marked by increased polarization.

There are many everyday examples of people using confirmation bias behavior. A student doing research on only one side to an argument for a paper to confirm their thesis may fail to fully search the topic for information that is inconsistent with what they are writing about. Also a reporter who is writing an article on an important issue may only interview