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The Dark Side of Visual Recording in the Suspect Interview: An Empirical and Experiential Study of the Unexpected Impact of Video Images

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International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The video-recording of police interrogations of suspects has become widespread in criminal justice systems and is routinely regarded by legal professionals and lay people alike as a means of protecting the rights of suspects and reducing the likelihood of coerced or false confessions. This study, based on evidence from Japan and experiments conducted in Tokyo as well as cases and reinforced by studies from elsewhere, finds that the way visual images of suspects and their narratives are depicted on film can, on the contrary, be misleading. Not only lay participants in trials, but also legal professionals, may be misled into accepting unreliable confessions. Indeed the very power of visual images to convince viewers calls for great caution in their use. Possible solutions include the use of independent expert witnesses to evaluate the reliability of visual recordings and the restriction of taped evidence to audio tracks.

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Notes

  1. See also New Zealand Police, Electronic Recording Video Interviews: Policy and Procedural Guidelines.

  2. Accessible to subscribers from: https://www.netflix.com/title/80000770, with a trailer viewable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxgbdYaR_KQ.

  3. For the story of Dassey’s trial see: http://stevenaverycase.com/brendan-dasseys-involvement/#sthash.Bfhk18kZ.dpbs and for the transcript of his statement see: http://convolutedbrian.com.s3.amazonaws.com/dassey/13May2006/13May06Transcript.pdf.

  4. Brendan Dassey Interview Transcript, March 1, 2006. Transcript Page 547. See http://www.stevenaverycase.org/police-interviews-and-interrogations/ Accessed June 1, 2018.

  5. Ibid, at 548.

  6. Id, at 561.

  7. State v. Dassey, 2013 WI App 30, p 7, 827 N.W. 2d 928 (Wis. 2013).

  8. Dassey v. Dittmann, United States Dist. E. Dist. Wisconsin (No. 14-CV-1310) p. 88 (12 Aug., 2016).

  9. For the Saiban-in system, see Ibusuki [12].

  10. Author’s translation of excerpt provided by newspaper but not in official transcript.

  11. 代用監獄 Daiyō means ‘substitute’ or ‘temporary’ and kangoku means ‘prison’.

  12. There was some circumstantial evidence from the first trial, however, such as records from automatic vehicle surveillance gathered by the so-called “N System” showing the defendant’s car close to the crime scene the day after the victim disappeared, animal hair found on the victim’s body that closely matched hair from the cat kept in the defendant’s house, and a scar on the victim’s body suspected to be from a stun gun possessed by the defendant.

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  1. Seijō University, Tokyo, Japan

    Makoto Ibusuki

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Correspondence to Makoto Ibusuki.

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Ibusuki, M. The Dark Side of Visual Recording in the Suspect Interview: An Empirical and Experiential Study of the Unexpected Impact of Video Images. Int J Semiot Law 32, 831–847 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-019-09645-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-019-09645-0

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