Interviewing and Interrogation Skills
Building my interviewing and interrogation skills is an important process to me because having these skills will help me in the future when i get into my career. The piece on the Reid technique helped me develop my interview and interrogation skills by learning not to use the Reid technique because its based on outdated science. People thought they could see anxiety in peoples body language. If a suspect had his arms folded and looked away from the officer, the officer would think he was being anxious and that he was lying. After 40 years of research both of these turned out to be untrue. Anxiety has nothing to do with lying. There are many people that can look into someone's eyes and tell a lie. The Reid's technique lead police in the wrong direction and can lead to wrongful convictions.
As i was reading the piece on Reid's technique I was wondering why someone would confess to a crime they really didn't commit. Why would someone want to go to jail for a crime they didn't commit? The article talks about how when people are in an interrogation they might feel like there is no way out and they're sure the justice system will exonerate them, they might confess to get out of the situation. It becomes the easiest way out. People with faith in the justice system tend to confess more because they're sure something will work out in the end. The problem with this is confession trumps everything because confessions are so compelling. From reading this piece now i know why people confess to crimes they didn't commit and when I start doing interrogations to not use the Reid's technique because it can lead to wrongful confessions.
Blubargh's short film revealed how memory might shape my approach in interviewing and interrogating suspects, victims, and witnesses. People may not remember everything that had happened at the time of the crime. Some people can be in such shock that they forget what really happened or believe something else happened when it really didn't. In Bluebargh's short film, he was beaten up by a group of guys and he thought that the people that jumped him were all black men. So whenever he seen a black man he was scared of them. He eventually finds out it wasn't just black men that jumped him and he realizes that his memory of the event wasn't accurate. He realizes that when your in a crazy situation your memory of the event isn't always right. You sometimes mix things up because its so shocking that the event even occurred. This short film helped me realize that the persons memory of a serious event that took place may not be 100% accurate and I should keep this in mind when I'm interviewing a suspect or even a witness.
While reading the article false confessions I learned that the most common source of error is the eyewitness mistake. Seventy-five to eighty percent of all DNA exonerations contain one or more mistaken eyewitness identifications. Eyewitness identification are not always accurate and can sometime lead to wrongful convictions. People can lie about what they seen to protect someone or they can honestly forget what happened. Some people have a hard time remembering certain details about what happened and what they say can lead to a wrongful conviction. This article helped me realize eyewitness identifications can be wrong and can put a innocent person in jail for a crime they didn't commit.
While reading the article on The Social Psychology of False Confessions I found it really interesting how they added a brief description of a film called Central Park Five. In the movie a female jogger is raped, beaten, and left for dead. The woman could not remember anything about the attack but within 72 hours 5 African Americans and Hispanics boys turned themselves in. They confessed to the rape in vivid details. Nobody questioned their guilt even though the DNA test on sperm that was recovered from the victim had excluded them all. They were later convicted. Thirteen years later Matias Reyes, who was already in jail confessed that he was the jogger rapist and he acted alone. He was later questioned by the District Attorney and had accurate guilty knowledge of the crime and the DNA samples that were taken from the victim matched his DNA. Reading this helped me understand that there are people out there who confess to crimes they really didn't commit and when I start interviewing and interrogating people i need to be cautious that some people might give false confessions.
Beyond Good Cop/Bad Cop: A Look At Real-Life Interrogations
Scaredycat by Andy Blubaugh
False Confessions by Kassin
The Social Psychology of False Confessions
As i was reading the piece on Reid's technique I was wondering why someone would confess to a crime they really didn't commit. Why would someone want to go to jail for a crime they didn't commit? The article talks about how when people are in an interrogation they might feel like there is no way out and they're sure the justice system will exonerate them, they might confess to get out of the situation. It becomes the easiest way out. People with faith in the justice system tend to confess more because they're sure something will work out in the end. The problem with this is confession trumps everything because confessions are so compelling. From reading this piece now i know why people confess to crimes they didn't commit and when I start doing interrogations to not use the Reid's technique because it can lead to wrongful confessions.
Blubargh's short film revealed how memory might shape my approach in interviewing and interrogating suspects, victims, and witnesses. People may not remember everything that had happened at the time of the crime. Some people can be in such shock that they forget what really happened or believe something else happened when it really didn't. In Bluebargh's short film, he was beaten up by a group of guys and he thought that the people that jumped him were all black men. So whenever he seen a black man he was scared of them. He eventually finds out it wasn't just black men that jumped him and he realizes that his memory of the event wasn't accurate. He realizes that when your in a crazy situation your memory of the event isn't always right. You sometimes mix things up because its so shocking that the event even occurred. This short film helped me realize that the persons memory of a serious event that took place may not be 100% accurate and I should keep this in mind when I'm interviewing a suspect or even a witness.
While reading the article false confessions I learned that the most common source of error is the eyewitness mistake. Seventy-five to eighty percent of all DNA exonerations contain one or more mistaken eyewitness identifications. Eyewitness identification are not always accurate and can sometime lead to wrongful convictions. People can lie about what they seen to protect someone or they can honestly forget what happened. Some people have a hard time remembering certain details about what happened and what they say can lead to a wrongful conviction. This article helped me realize eyewitness identifications can be wrong and can put a innocent person in jail for a crime they didn't commit.
While reading the article on The Social Psychology of False Confessions I found it really interesting how they added a brief description of a film called Central Park Five. In the movie a female jogger is raped, beaten, and left for dead. The woman could not remember anything about the attack but within 72 hours 5 African Americans and Hispanics boys turned themselves in. They confessed to the rape in vivid details. Nobody questioned their guilt even though the DNA test on sperm that was recovered from the victim had excluded them all. They were later convicted. Thirteen years later Matias Reyes, who was already in jail confessed that he was the jogger rapist and he acted alone. He was later questioned by the District Attorney and had accurate guilty knowledge of the crime and the DNA samples that were taken from the victim matched his DNA. Reading this helped me understand that there are people out there who confess to crimes they really didn't commit and when I start interviewing and interrogating people i need to be cautious that some people might give false confessions.
Beyond Good Cop/Bad Cop: A Look At Real-Life Interrogations
Scaredycat by Andy Blubaugh
False Confessions by Kassin
The Social Psychology of False Confessions
Comments
Post a Comment