Video-recorded Interrogations: Beyond Camera Perspective

录像审讯：超越镜头视角

• 批准号: 1228258
• 负责人: G. Daniel Lassiter
• 金额: $ 18.98万
• 依托单位: Ohio University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1228258&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Video; recorded; Interrogations; Beyond; Camera

AbstractMany of the wrongful convictions that have been brought to light over the last two decades have their roots in the interrogation phase of criminal investigations where coerced or false confessions are sometimes extracted from detained crime suspects. A solution that has been widely recommended to help prevent this particular problem is to video record custodial interrogations in their entirety. Such a procedural modification indeed has the potential to improve the administration of justice; however, prudence calls for careful consideration of its possible pitfalls. Guided by basic psychological science, most notably the literature on illusory causation, Dr. G. Daniel Lassiter's more than 25 years of systematic investigation has empirically documented the existence of what is now commonly known as the camera perspective bias in video-recorded interrogations. That is, videos in which the camera directs observers visual attention onto suspects (rather than onto interrogators or equally onto suspects and interrogators) tend to produce more prejudicial evaluations of suspects, their statements are assessed as more voluntary, they are more likely to be judged guilty, and they receive more severe sentence recommendations. Importantly, Dr. Lassiter's research program also demonstrated that the advantages associated with video recording; for example, a more detailed record of the interrogation is provided to fact finders without introducing bias or undermining accurate assessments if an equal-focus perspective is taken by the video camera. Although it is clear that camera perspective is an important issue that any video-recording policy designed to protect the innocent should address, it is unfortunately not the only concern suggested by the behavioral science literature. The proposed research draws on four additional areas of psychological science to derive further potential limitations of video-recorded interrogations. A series of experiments are planned that will 1) determine the extent to which these hypothesized limitations would likely detrimentally influence actual fact finder evaluations of video-recorded interrogations, and 2) evaluate possible strategies for successfully counteracting them. An initial set of studies investigates the possibility that even an equal-focus video recording in certain circumstances may not fully protect minority suspects, due to what Dr. Lassiter and colleagues call a racial salience bias. A second set examines the potential judgment perseverance the defense must overcome to permit fact finders to correctly reinterpret a video interrogation that the prosecution, by virtue of trial convention, has the opportunity to first characterize as establishing a defendant's guilt. A third set focuses on the source monitoring errors fact finders may commit that could impede their ability to accurately conclude that a video-recorded confession narrative was actually contaminated by information provided by police earlier in the interrogation. A final set draws on construal level theory to test whether inducing an abstract (high) or concrete (low) level of mental construal prior to viewing video-recorded interrogations promotes more accurate assessments of a confession's reliability. The proposed work will also yield clear research-based guidelines for legal practitioners and policy makers that will further improve the likelihood that the video-recording reform will fulfill its promise to minimize the possibility that an innocent person will be convicted based on an interrogation-induced false confession. In Dr. Lassiter's previously funded NSF projects, several graduate and undergraduate students were able to learn firsthand how basic psychological theory and research can give rise to scientific investigations that are of considerable practical import to the justice system and thus society more generally. Similarly, the proposed work will expose a new generation of students and future scholars to all phases of a programmatic research agenda that is simultaneously high in scientific rigor and immediate real-world applicability.

摘要近二十年来曝光的许多冤假错案，其根源都在于刑事调查的讯问阶段，在这一阶段，被拘留的犯罪嫌疑人有时会被迫或虚假招供。为防止这一特殊问题的发生，人们广泛建议的一种解决办法是对拘留审讯的全过程进行录像记录。这种程序上的修改确实有可能改善司法；然而，谨慎要求仔细考虑其可能的缺陷。g·丹尼尔·拉西特（G. Daniel Lassiter）博士在基础心理科学的指导下，尤其是在有关虚幻因果关系的文献中，进行了超过25年的系统调查，从经验上证明了在录像审讯中存在着现在俗称的摄像机视角偏见。也就是说，摄像机将观察者的视觉注意力引导到嫌疑人身上（而不是引导到审讯者身上，或者同样地引导到嫌疑人和审讯者身上）的视频往往会对嫌疑人产生更偏见的评价，他们的陈述被评估为更自愿，他们更有可能被判有罪，并且他们会得到更严厉的量刑建议。重要的是，拉西特博士的研究项目还表明，视频记录的优势；例如，如果摄像机拍摄的是相同焦点的视角，就可以向事实调查人员提供更详细的审讯记录，而不会产生偏见或损害准确的评估。虽然很明显，摄像机视角是一个重要的问题，任何旨在保护无辜者的视频记录政策都应该解决这个问题，但不幸的是，这并不是行为科学文献中提出的唯一问题。拟议的研究借鉴了心理科学的另外四个领域，以得出视频审讯的进一步潜在局限性。一系列的实验计划将1)确定这些假设的限制可能会在多大程度上对录像审讯的实际事实发现者的评估产生不利影响，2)评估成功抵消这些限制的可能策略。最初的一组研究调查了这样一种可能性，即在某些情况下，即使是同等聚焦的视频记录，也可能无法完全保护少数族裔嫌疑人，原因是拉西特博士及其同事所说的种族显著性偏见。第二组检查了辩方必须克服的潜在判断毅力，以允许事实查明者正确地重新解释视频审讯，根据审判惯例，控方有机会首先将其定性为确定被告有罪。第三组集中在来源监控方面的错误，这些错误可能会妨碍事实查明者准确地得出结论，即视频记录的供述实际上受到了警方早些时候在审讯中提供的信息的污染。最后一组利用解释水平理论来测试在观看审讯录像之前，诱导抽象（高）或具体（低）的心理解释水平是否能促进对供词可靠性的更准确评估。拟议的工作还将为法律从业者和政策制定者提供明确的基于研究的指导方针，这将进一步提高录像改革实现其承诺的可能性，即最大限度地减少无辜者因审讯诱导的虚假供述而被定罪的可能性。在Lassiter博士之前资助的NSF项目中，一些研究生和本科生能够直接了解到基本的心理学理论和研究如何能够产生对司法系统乃至整个社会具有相当实际意义的科学调查。同样，拟议的工作将使新一代的学生和未来的学者接触到程序化研究议程的各个阶段，同时具有高度的科学严谨性和直接的现实适用性。