Interviewing Suspects

Detecting Lies

Some behavioural signs of lying;

• Touching hair, ears, nose, etc
• Avoiding eye contact
• Laughing too frequently
• Repeating the question in the answer

Vrij (2002) asserts that hard-core prisoners are excellent at sussing out liars.  Here are 7 traits of a good liar;

• Original
• Able to think with speed
• Eloquent
• Ability to create memories
• Doesn’t have feelings such as guilty or fear
• Good at acting
• An emotional deficit often associated with psychopathy

We cannot know for sure if the police are good at identifying liars as the public are not allowed to observe recordings of interviews as a suspect is innocent until proven guilty.

Samantha Mann et al (2004) tried to find out about the police’s ability to detect liars.

Investigate this study and answer the following questions;

Q - What type of experiment did Mann conduct? 

• Field experiment

Q - How many police officers were participants?

• 99 police officers

Q - Were the video clips shown fictitious or real life?

• Real life

Q- The officers wrote down if they thought the suspect was lying or not, how confident they were of this decision and what else?

• The cues they had used to come to their decision

Q - On average how often did the officers spot lies?

• 66% of the time

Q - Was this better than chance?

• Yes, better than chance which is 50%

Q- What were the most frequently mentioned cues of lying?

• Gaze, vagueness, fidgeting, contradictions in stories

Q - What is the biggest flaw with this study?

• Lack of control group; we don’t know if the police officers can detect lies better than the public because the public are not permitted to view the sensitive material of the filmed interviews

Analyse these two scenarios. Which one do you think is lying?

Susan looked away when he asked her if she liked flowers. “Sometimes,” she mumbled, “But I do like to pick flowers on a sunny day,”

FIRST PARAGRAPH: “I enjoy watching flowers turning their petals to the sun and I love seeing bees buzzing around them. I picked some wild flowers for my mother when she was ill and she loved them. I love summertime when the flowers begin to come out. Especially spring, actually, when everything starts to come to life.”

SECOND PARAGRAPH: Susan looked into his eyes and said, “Yes, flowers are good,” she smiled and laughed and then paused, looking out the window, “Violets are beautiful flowers, aren’t they? Primroses are very yellow and they have extremely delicate petals.” She hesitated and seemed a little lost for words, “Campion are often in the hedgerows this time of year and are distinctly pink! Foxgloves also, such big flowers and also very pink!”

Susan from the first paragraph is telling the truth.

The lie is normally shorter than the truth but what reveals that Susan from the first paragraph is telling the truth is the fact that she used ‘I’ more often than Susan from the second paragraph, was more emotional in her description and less factual and also didn’t pause or hesitate

Interrogation Techniques

• Coercive techniques are used in this country to obtain a confession - TRUE
• The 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act insists all interviews are recorded - TRUE
• Suspects can be interrogated in the night in this country - FALSE
• In the Cardiff Three case, one defendant was subjected to 19 interrogations over 14 hours - TRUE
• PACE dictates in the UK that police may not offer inducements, act deceptively or oppressively - TRUE
• The general public, a jury and even a judge doesn’t necessarily know what goes on in a police station in this country - TRUE
• America have more interrogation freedom but the British police do also under the Prevention of Terrorism Act - TRUE
• The Reid Technique (Inbau and Reid 1986) uses deceit and manipulation to increase a suspects desire to confess - TRUE
• This technique is effective and in 1967 Zimbardo felt it to be within the suspect’s rights - FALSE
• With the Reid technique, people don’t normally confess as a result of an oppressive situation - FALSE
• Direct confrontation, inference of guilt, ignoring excuses and not permitting the suspect to deny guilt are several of the steps in the Reid technique - TRUE
• The evidence against the suspect is never exaggerated with this technique - FALSE
• The police in this country are not allowed to use such coercive steps found in the Reid technique - TRUE

False Confessions

Let’s think about why people confess to crimes they haven’t committed...

Answer the multiple choice questions below;

1. The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales are psychometric tests that describe types of false confessions such as;

• A) Voluntary (person believe they are guilty)
• B) Coerced-internalised (convinced by police they are guilty)
• C) Coerced-compliant (confesses though they know they are innocent)
• D) All three

Answer: D

2. Gudjonsson suggests exploring factors such as

• A) The defendant such as middle age and high IQ’s
• B) The arrest; did it happen in the night, did it happen suddenly
• C) The physical state such as in good health
• D) The interrogation such as non coercive

Answer: B

3. Gudjonsson and McKeith (1990) examined the case study of FC and found

• A) FC wasn’t accused of lying
• B) FC hadn’t been spending money
• C) Questions were accusatory
• D) There was forensic evidence

Answer: C

4. They also discovered

• A) FC was subjected to 14 hours of questioning that was aggressive
• B) Psychiatrists found evidence of mental illness
• C) He had a low score on Gudjohnssons Suggestibility Scale
• D) He didn’t confess

Answer: A

5. It has been found today that

• A) False confessions are rare
• B) Gudjohnssons Suggestibility Scale isn’t needed
• C) Vulnerable adults are identified
• D) The legal system doesn’t always acknowledge false confessions

Answer: D