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关注下进行的，因为备受瞩目的案件有可能在执法部门进行这些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错误的定罪，但很少有科学证实错误的定罪在引人注目的案件中更普遍或更少。本课题将通过对备受瞩目的案件的调查，来判断备受瞩目的犯罪和错误的定罪之间是否存在关联。本课题将通过实验的方法，来研究确认偏差的心理学理论在媒体高度关注的刑事调查中的作用。它通过分析确认偏见是否在高调的刑事案件中加剧来做到这一点。当个体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。在引人注目的案件中，媒体和公众对警察施加压力，要求逮捕，这可能对调查人员的确认偏见产生影响，当无辜者被确定为嫌疑人时，这可能进一步影响错误定罪的可能性。在这项研究中的实验将评估确认偏见，高调的情况下，和错误的定罪之间的关系;以及，该项目将调查潜在的去偏见策略的影响。通过这种方式，该项目将在调查背景下研究确认偏见，重点关注高调案件和无辜的作用，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.