False Convictions: Resulting from Police Interviewing, Interrogations and Identifications with a Psychological Perspective

Abstract

This paper traces the trajectory of the various police investigation and interrogation techniques that result in false convictions all over the world. False confessions remain the number one cause of innocents being falsely convicted of crimes. The paper studies the different techniques, that include Deception, Pride and Ego Down, Reid Technique, Bad Cop/ Good Cop, Kinesics Technique and Peace Method in depth along with examples and illustrations to provide a better understanding. Various external factors such as leading questions asked during interrogations, media, and discussions with third parties or co- witnesses often result in our memories getting resconstructed. These interrogation techniques target the vulnerability of the subject and capitalise on their fear and weakness. These techniques have been criticised not only for resulting in false confessions but also violating basic human rights. To avoid such false confessions a rapport based on mutual trust needs to be built between the interrogator and the subject.