Scenes Of A Crime: Interrogation And Confessions

This is a picture of what victimology is. It is also sometimes a best case scenario, a dream too good to be true for many areas in the USA. CSI and other shows demonstrate how this process might work under the most ideal of conditions with the most highly trained and most capable of

When questioning witnesses of a crime, detectives may choose a specific technique; one technique is the Reid Technique. The Reid Technique is a multi-step questioning method that pressures the witnesses or the accused to admit to the crime. It is used in North America. According to Professor Brent Snook, a psychologist at the Memorial University in Newfoundland, the Reid Technique is “Starsky and Hutch”, where two hot head detectives “beat up” their suspects to encourage them confess (http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/25/youre-guilty-now-confess-false-admissions-put-polices-favourite-interrogation-tactic-under-scrutiny/). This paper will examine the steps of the Reid Technique, as well as reveal substantial evidence that this technique should be banned. This technique has led to false confessions. Not only does this mean that someone has been punished that isn’t guilty, but it also means the real criminal has not been found and punished. The arguments against the use of this technique are the following:

In recent years, there have been multiple high-profile cases of people being exonerated, often by DNA testing, after giving a false confession to a crime they did not commit. People who often fall into this trap are juveniles or those with a diminished mental capacity (Redlich, 2009). DNA testing has helped many innocent people that gave false confessions be free again. This trend brings up the question of how were they able to give a false confession.

I think the group presentations were good. The students that where in a group with me seemed to worked very hard on the presentation and gathering information on Al Capone. Pretty much everyone in the group was really active on coming up with ideas on the presentation and figuring out ways to make the presentation more exciting one of the member of the group decided to put pictures in our presentation to make it more lively and not boring with just words and facts of author’s they have written on Al Capone. we also consider a more graphical documentary video on Al Capone to open up the class to be interested on our topic but i really think Al Capone group could improve on a couple of things too. for example one of the my team mates gave me

Police interrogate suspects on a daily basis, but how can they tell if the confession is real? We have all heard, at one time or another of someone confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. Then your next thought is “I would never confess to something I didn’t do”. The only way you can be a 100% sure of that is if you have been through an interrogation before. This paper is going to define “confession” and tell how an innocent person will confesses to a crime they didn’t commit. This paper will also show the history of interrogations.

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).

Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.

False confessions has been the centered stone in the legal system for quite some time. The law enforcement are the biggest advocate for wrongly conducting in false confessions. There are many different tactics and behavioral issues that contribute to the false confessions. The main streamline techniques that are used by law enforcement are the Reid Technique that consist of four areas; lost of control, social isolation, certainty of guilt, and exculpatory. In addition, there is also four types of false confessions; instrumental confessions, authentic confessions, voluntary confessions, and coerced confessions.

As mentioned above, there is very minimal research on judges, police, and jurors on their opinions and beliefs in the area of false confessions and police interrogations. These key characters in the legal system are important factors to produce more information in the area of false confessions as they are working in the legal system and being the first to witness wrongful convictions. However, one recent study has shown that judges have the same biases as the mock jurors (Lassiter, Diamond, Schmidt, & Elek, 2007, p. 225). Thus, this information can lead to many controversial questions regarding whether or not judges are aware of the biases that occur in their own courtroom? Are judges being unaware of the tactics used in interrogation rooms?

Recording a crime: When the police have decided to record a crime they will then need to decide how many crimes as well as what offences have been committed. An example of this is if there was a burglary and some car keys were taken from a house then the car was stolen it would mean there were two offences, a burglary and a theft. If there is only one victim and offender for the offences then only one crime would be recorded. If there are two or more victims then the crime will be recorded for each victim. The police are required to record crime at the earliest time possible.

During the video lecture Denise McMillian discussed effective strategies a social worker may utilize during a forensic interview. First, the examiner must never lose sight of the goal in forensic interview. Second, it is in the client and the examiner best interest to conduct the interview with biases. Third, the examiner should mindful of the situation since the defense attorney may possibly suggest the child was bribed for his/her testimony. The goal during the forensic interview is to obtain information that is consistent and truthful as possible.

My question is who would want to confess to a crime they didn’t commit? I can understand that the pressure of the police can be a bit intense but to own up to something that you didn’t do is just I can’t wrap my mind around it, but if someone is doing this to cover for someone else then I would have to say that is completely insane. I am not sure that they know the consequences of their actions. “The Reid Technique trains officers to first ask non-accusatory questions in order to determine whether the subject is lying about their involvement in the crime.” If the officer believes that the subject is involved in the crime, then an accusatory interrogation takes place. At this stage, the officer asks questions believing that the subject is guilty and the goal is to have the subject admit guilt.” The Reid technique is one of the most used techniques that the police officers use currently. I really don’t think there are pro’s for convicted someone who didn’t do a crime that they are accused of. But looking at the cons of it, they really do outweigh the

In recent years, the proliferation of the popularity of crime investigation shows have risen concerns regarding the fairness of our criminal justice system. The increased use of the courtroom as the setting of drama by the media and the consistent narration employed to dramatize the show has blurred reality from fiction for the everyday citizens. Now that crime shows are so popular, CSI being the most watched TV show in the world with 69 million regular viewers worldwide; many lawyers, judges and other trained professionals are concerned that this increased exposure to unrealistic content regarding the law have given jurors an unrealistic expectation of evidence presented in court. That this has been the basis of jurors unfairly freeing

As the video evidently shows, the overall case was fabricated with the use of psychological tactics that broke some fundamental aspects of ethics. Getting one to confess to a crime is never easy, hence borne the numerous methods introduced and followed by almost all law enforcement officers to “read” possible suspects during interrogations. Further, with the right assembly of personal/background information, the combination of circumstances/techniques, and psychological manipulation can even make the most hardened suspect to confess (“How Police Interrogation works”). To add on, there was a time when “physical abuse” toward the possible suspects during interrogations and the confession obtained thereafter was accepted in court (“How Police Interrogation works”); Not only is this a misuse of authoritative power, but also unethical—inflicting mental /or physical pain upon the individual to confess almost seems extreme.

In this paper, I am going to describe each specialized personnel that will be needed at the scene of a crime or mass disaster. I will inform you of what duties each of these specialized individuals will possess. You will be able to know and understand each of these responsibilities.