Skip to main content

Deception Induced Confession: Strategies of Police Interrogators and Their Lay Collaborators

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Deceptive Communication

Abstract

Police interrogation is a highly scripted process in which every statement and action is designed to contribute to the illusion that confessing is in the suspect’s best interest. Police also interrogate by proxy: using lay collaborators to elicit confessions from friends, family, fellow criminals or prisoners, and even strangers. In turn, deceptive strategies target judges and juries to convey the impression that the confession is both true (to ensure conviction) and voluntary (to ensure the confession is admitted as evidence). This chapter reviews these deceptive processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alter, V. (2005). Jailhouse informants: A lesson in e-snitching. Journal of Technology Law & Policy,10, 223–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloom, R. M. (2002). Ratting: The use and abuse of informants in the American justice system. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy, R. M. (2004). Soft words of hope: Giglio, accomplice witnesses, and the problem of implied inducements. North Western University Law Review,98, 1–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. A. (2008). Influence: Science and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D. (2008). Selling confession: The interrogator, the con man, and their weapons of influence. Wisconsin Defender,16(1), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D. (2010). Lies, damned lies, and the path from police interrogation to wrongful conviction. In M. H. Gonzales, C. Tavris, & J. Aronson (Eds.), The scientist and the humanist: A festschrift in honor of Elliot Aronson (pp. 211–247). New York, NY, USA: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D., & Leo, R. A. (2014). The problem of interrogation-induced false confession: Sources of failure in prevention and detection. In S. Morewitz & M. Goldstein (Eds.), Handbook of forensic sociology and psychology (pp. 47–75). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D., Leo, R. A., & Follette, W. C. (2010). Selling confession: Setting the stage with the “sympathetic detective with a time-limited offer”. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice,26(4), 441–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D., & O’Donohue, W. T. (2004). The road to perdition: Extreme influence tactics in the interrogation room. In W. T. O’Donohue & E. Levensky (Eds.), Handbook of forensic psychology (pp. 897–996). New York, NY: Elsevier Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D., & Villalobos, J. G. (2014). Language and the law: Illustrations from cases of disputed sexual consent. In T. M. Holtgraves (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of language and social psychology (pp. 438–458). New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drizin, S. A., & Leo, R. A. (2004). The problem of false confessions in the post-DNA world. North Carolina Law Review,82, 891–1007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, B. L. (2011). Convicting the innocent: Where criminal prosecutions go wrong. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giglio v. United States, 405 US 150. (1972). 405 US 150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., Buckley, J. P., & Jayne, B. C. (2013). Criminal interrogation and confessions (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Justice Project. (2007). Jailhouse snitch testimony: A policy review. Washington, DC: The Justice Project.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kassin, S. M. (1997). The psychology of confession evidence. American Psychologist,52(3), 221–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kassin, S. M., Drizin, S. A., Grisso, T., Gudjonsson, G. H., Leo, R. A., & Redlich, A. D. (2010). Police-induced confessions: Risk factors and recommendations. Law and Human Behavior,34, 3–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kassin, S. M., Leo, R. A., Meissner, C. A., Richman, K. D., Colwell, L. H., Leach, A. M., et al. (2007). Police interviewing and interrogation: A self-report survey of police practices and beliefs. Law and Human Behavior,31(4), 381–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavine, E. (1930). The third degree: A detailed and appalling expose of police brutality. New York, NY: Garden City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavine, E. (1936). Secrets of the metropolitan police. New York: Garden City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leo, R. A. (1996). Inside the interrogation room. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,86(2), 266–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leo, R. A. (2008). Police interrogation and American justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Leo, R. A., & Davis, D. (2010). From false confession to wrongful conviction: Seven psychological processes. The Journal of Psychiatry & Law,38, 10–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazur, E. P. (2002). Rational expectations of leniency: Implicit plea agreements and the prosecutor’s role as a minister of justice. Duke Law Journal,51, 1333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meissner, C. A., Redlich, A. R., Michael, S. W., Evans, J. R., Camilletti, C. R., Bhatt, S., et al. (2014). Accusatorial and information-gathering interrogation methods and their effects on true and false confessions: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology,10(4), 459–486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9207-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. M. (2011). Becoming an informant. Justice Quarterly,28(2), 203–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 336. (1966).

    Google Scholar 

  • Natapoff, A. (2009). Snitching: Criminal informants and the erosion of American justice. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuschatz, J. S., Lawson, D. S., Swanner, J. K., Meissner, C. A., & Neuschatz, J. S. (2008). The effects of accomplice witnesses and jailhouse informants on jury decision making. Law and Human Behavior,32(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-007-9100-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scherr, K. C., & Madon, S. (2013). “Go ahead and sign”: An experimental examination of Miranda waivers and comprehension. Law and Human Behavior,37(3), 208–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shuy, R. W. (1997). The language of confession, interrogation, and deception (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Innocence Project [innocenceproject]. (2011, July 15). Getting it right: Informants. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM700n64Bx8.

  • The Innocence Project. (2017). DNA exonerations in the United States. Retrieved June 20, 2017 from https://www.innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-states/.

  • Thomas, G. C. I. (1996). Plain talk about the Miranda empirical debate: A “steady-state” theory of confessions. UCLA Law Review,43, 933–959.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Justice. (2005). The Drug enforcement administration’s payments to confidential sources. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villalobos, J. G., Kemmelmeier, M., & Zimmerman, C. A. (2018). Trust in the law: Why authoritarians are more likely to recommend falsely confessing. Manuscript submitted for publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warden, R. (2004). The snitch system: How incentivized witnesses put 38 innocent Americans on death row. Northwestern University School of Law. Center on Wrongful Convictions, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetmore, S. A., Neuschatz, J. S., & Gronlund, S. D. (2014). On the power of secondary confession evidence. Psychology, Crime & Law,20(4), 339–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2013.777963.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (2017). Wicklander-Zulawski discontinues Reid Method instruction after more than 30 years [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.w-z.com/portfolio_category/wz-news/.

  • Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Varieties of police behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah Davis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Livingston, T.N., Rerick, P.O., Villalobos, J.G., Davis, D. (2019). Deception Induced Confession: Strategies of Police Interrogators and Their Lay Collaborators. In: Docan-Morgan, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Deceptive Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96334-1_39

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics