Police Investigator Decision Making in High Profile Cases

执法部门的刑事调查是刑事司法程序的一个重要方面。一些调查是在媒体的聚光灯下进行的，因为高调的案件有可能在执法部门进行调查时对他们施加公众压力。虽然一些引人注目的案件导致了错误的定罪，但很少有科学证据表明，在引人注目的案件中，错误的定罪或多或少普遍存在。该项目将审查高调案件背景下的刑事调查，以确定高调犯罪与错误定罪之间是否存在关系。该项目采用实验方法来研究心理确认偏差理论如何在媒体高度关注的刑事调查中发挥作用。它通过分析确认偏误是否在引人注目的刑事案件中加剧来做到这一点。当个人主观地解释信息以确认他们先前存在的信念时，通常会忽略、怀疑或重新解释不一致的信息。媒体和公众对警察施加逮捕压力的引人注目的案件可能会对调查人员的确认偏见产生影响，这可能会进一步影响在无辜的人被确定为嫌疑人时被错误定罪的可能性。本研究的实验将评估确认偏误、高调案件与错误定罪之间的关系；此外，该项目还将调查潜在的除偏策略的影响。通过这种方式，该项目将在调查背景下检查确认偏见，重点关注高调案件和无罪的作用，以及改善确认偏见的策略。

Criminal investigations by law enforcement provide a critical aspect of the criminal justice process. Some investigations occur under the media spotlight, as high profile cases have the potential to exert public pressure on law enforcement as they conduct those investigations. While some high profile cases result in wrongful convictions, there is little scientific confirmation that wrongful convictions are more, or less, prevalent in high profile cases. This project will examine criminal investigations in the context of high profile cases, to determine whether a relationship exists between high profile crimes and wrongful convictions.The project employs an experimental approach to examine how the psychological theory of confirmation bias comes into play in criminal investigations that take place under high media attention. It does so by analyzing whether confirmation bias is exacerbated in high profile criminal cases. Confirmation bias occurs when individuals subjectively interpret information in order to confirm their preexisting beliefs, often while ignoring, discrediting, or reinterpreting inconsistent information. High profile cases, where the media and the public exert pressure on the police to make an arrest, could have an effect on investigators' confirmation bias, which may further influence the possibility of a wrongful conviction when an innocent person is identified as the suspect. The experiments in this study will evaluate relations between confirmation bias, high profile cases, and wrongful convictions; as well, the project will investigate the influence of potential debiasing strategies. In this way, the project will examine confirmation bias in an investigative context, focusing on the role of high profile cases and innocence, as well as strategies to ameliorate confirmation bias.