Doctoral Dissertation Research: Operationalizing

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PI and co-PI: N. Dickon Reppucci and Jessica KostelnikUniversity of VirginaTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research: OperationalizingProject Abstract0819460Much research has attempted to explain how and why false confession occur, and researchers have identified common characteristics across cases (including types of cases in which they disproportionably occur, such as murder), as well as personal (including youth of suspect) and situational (including use of deceit by interrogator) risk factors for false confessions. However, the extent to which the interaction between risk factors is considered 1) by law enforcement officers when making judgments about the surgical precision of techniques one might use during an interrogation and the diagnostic validity of confession evidence, and 2) by jurors when making judgments about the coerciveness of an interrogation, the voluntariness of a confession and the guilt of a defendant, is unclear. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that law enforcement officers and jurors might consider the interaction between the age of the suspect and the length of the interrogation when making judgments about coerciveness and voluntariness in non-severe cases, but disregard this interaction in severe cases. For the current study, participants will include 500 community members and 500 law enforcement officers who will be randomly assigned to reading case materials from 1 of 12 condition groups produced by a 3 (child, youth, adult suspect) x 2 (45 minute interrogation, 12 hour interrogation) x 2 (assault offense, murder offense) factorial design. Participants will be instructed to consider facts from a police report and excerpts from an interrogation as though they were serving on a Citizens Review Board to determine whether the investigator acted appropriately during the interrogation. After reading the case materials, participants will respond to a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the suspect and the interrogation. The study will identify relationships between 1) the severity of the crime; 2) the age of the suspect; and 3) the length of the interrogation, and perceptions of 1) suspect competencies; 2) interrogation coerciveness; and 3) confession voluntariness. In addition, because the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated in Arizona v. Fulminante (1991) that an erroneously admitted false confession can be considered ?harmless error?, the proposed study will also examine the extent to which judgments about the level of coercion in an interrogation and voluntariness of a confession are related to judgments about the suspect/defendant?s guilt. The study will also investigate group differences in patterns of responses between community members and law enforcement officers. Results will have implications for 1) informing the collaborative development of law enforcement training for conducting juvenile interrogations, 2) explicating how risk factors are weighted within the ?totality of the circumstances approach? to the admissibility of confession evidence, and 3) testing assumptions made in the Arizona v. Fulminante (1991) decision.