Interrogations, confessions, and entrapment
Subtle but nonetheless coercive influences exist in our system of criminal justice. The purpose of this edited volume is to help expose these largely unrecognized forms of psychological manipulation that undermine the integrity of American jurisprudence. The chapters are authored by psychologists, criminologists, and legal scholars who have contributed significantly to our understanding of the pressures that insidiously operate when the goal of law enforcement is to elicit self-incriminating behavior from suspected criminals. Contrary to what the police and the general public generally believe, it is now clear that standard techniques of interrogation can cause innocent people to falsely confess. Many of the wrongful convictions that have recently been brought to light, primarily as a result of DNA testing, establish conclusively that unreliable confession evidence is a serious problem that must be solved if further miscarriages of justice are to be prevented. What are the various forms of psychological coercion? When and to whom is it applied? What effect does it have on the truly innocent suspect? To what extent is this nonassaultive form of coercion detected by trial fact finders? What are some ways in which such coercion can be minimized during interrogations or in other contexts in which law enforcement is seeking to obtain self-incriminating evidence from suspected criminals? These are some of the important questions posed by the authors, and at least in some instances, partial or preliminary answers are provided. It is hoped that this volume will serve as a clarion call for further investigation directed at both exposing the variety of ways in which coercive influences can adversely affect criminal justice and generating research-based solutions for minimizing such effects
Print Book, English, ©2004
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, ©2004