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Wiley Series in Psychology, Policing, and Law
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gisli Gudjonsson is a Professor of Forensic Psychology at the Institute of
Psychiatry, King’s College, London, and Head of the Forensic Psychology
Services at the Maudsley Hospital. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological
Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Icelandic Psychological Society. In
2001 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University
of Iceland in recognition for his research in the field of forensic psychiatry and
psychology. Gisli has published extensively in the areas of psychological vul-
nerability, false confession and police interviewing. He pioneered the empirical
measurement of suggestibility and provided expert evaluation in a number
of high profile cases, including those of the Guildford Four, the Birmingham
Six, the Tottenham Three, the Cardiff Three, Jill Dando murder case, Kenneth
Erskine (the ‘Stockwell strangler’), Derek Bentley, the UDR Four and ‘IRA
funeral murders’ cases (both in Northern Ireland), Henry Lee Lucas and John
Wille (USA), and the Birgitte Tengs and Orderud cases (Norway). He acts as a
consultant on cases both for prosecution and defence.
Gisli is the author of The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testi-
mony (John Wiley & Sons, 1992), The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales Manual
(Psychology Press, 1997), Forensic Psychology: A Guide to Practice (Routledge,
1998, jointly written with Lionel Haward), and The Causes and Cures of
Criminality (Plenum Press, 1989, jointly written with Hans Eysenck). He is
the co-editor-in-chief of Personality and Individual Differences.
Preface
The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony was published in
1992 and has been reprinted on several occasions. It was extensively reviewed
in the legal, psychological, psychiatric, and medical literature. Its publication
brought the issue of false confessions from a scientific perspective to the atten-
tion of the legal, psychological and psychiatric professions. It provided a much-
needed comprehensive and authoritative text for practitioners, researchers and
academics. The book had a major impact in Britain and abroad, which can be
seen from numerous legal judgments.
Reviewers’ comments on the original book provided invaluable information
about how the book might be improved and I have taken this seriously into
consideration when writing the current book. Ronald Fisher, in Contemporary
Psychology, pointed out that my attempt at completeness on occasions led me
to describe cases and introduce material that was not central to the main focus
of the book. Some other reviewers expressed similar views and suggested that
I focus more exclusively on disputed confessions, and provide a more extensive
analysis of how expert opinion in this area has affected the judicial process.
This is what I have attempted to do in the current book. In addition, since the
publication of the original book, the number of cases of disputed confessions
that I have assessed has more than doubled and I have testified in well over
100 criminal cases where confession evidence was disputed, including many
high profile murder cases in the appellant courts in Britain and abroad. All the
important cases are reviewed in this book and the psychological contribution
and legal implications discussed.
There has been increasing recognition in recent years that false confessions
occur and no legal system should ignore the risk of false confession. In order to
prevent future miscarriages of justice, complacency, lack of open-mindedness,
ignorance, unwillingness to accept mistakes and judicial cover-up must be re-
placed by a more positive approach to a problem that will not go away unless
we actively confront it. There are various steps that can be taken to reduce the
risk of false confessions and prevent miscarriages of justice. These steps, in-
cluding judicial, educational and psychological means, are equally applicable
to legal systems of Britain, USA, Australia and on the continent of Europe.
When I planned this book it was originally commissioned by Wiley as a second
edition of my previous book. As I began to write however, it became evident that
the field had expanded dramatically and this development has continued as the
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Preface
book has developed. As a result, it is largely a new book rather than a second edi-
tion of the previous one. Some themes have had to be omitted from the current
book to accommodate new material. This includes some of the basic principles
and theory of interviewing, child witnesses, psychological techniques for en-
hancing memory retrieval and evaluating testimony and documents. There are
now other books available that make these chapters unnecessary and these will
be indicated in the text, as appropriate.
Accompanying new and important court case material, and important legal
changes since the original book, there has been considerably more research into
police interrogation tactics, psychological vulnerabilities and false confessions.
All the material that remains from the original book has been re-written and
up-dated to accommodate these new findings. The current book is larger and
more substantial than the original and the focus more international.
GISLI H. GUDJONSSON
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Introduction
On a Saturday morning in the early part of 1987 a 17-year-old youth was
arrested and taken to a police station for questioning. A few hours later he
had confessed in great detail as to how he had sexually molested and then
murdered two elderly women before leaving their house. The following day the
youth confessed again to the murders, in the presence of a solicitor. In spite of
the lack of forensic evidence to link the youth to the murders, the case against
the youth was potentially strong because (a) eye witnesses who knew the youth
by sight had placed him near the scene and (b) during interrogation the youth
had apparently given the police detailed and specific information about the
crime, which the police believed could only have been known by the murderer.
On the strength of the available evidence the youth’s case was referred to the
Crown Court, during which time he was remanded in custody. The case had all
the hallmarks of a successful crime detection, which would result in a conviction
for two murders and sexual molestation.
Whilst on remand in prison the youth consistently told his solicitor and
his family that he was innocent of the crimes he had been charged with. He
claimed that his self-incriminating confession was due to persuasive police
questioning. Matters had been made worse for the youth by the fact that during
early detention in prison he had confessed to the murders to prison officers and
to a fellow inmate. The youth clearly had been interviewed quite extensively
and persuasively by the police officers, but he was a young man of reasonable
education and without any obvious mental illness or handicap. On the face of it,
the youth had confessed due to skilful interrogation carried out by experienced
police officers who had reason to believe that he had committed the crimes. The
murder enquiry was thus successfully conducted except for one important fact.
The youth was innocent of the crimes with which he had been charged. While
the youth was in prison on remand, the real murderer committed another very
serious offence before being apprehended.
This brief case history, which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 9,
is one of many that are used in this book to illustrate some of the processes
and mechanisms involved in producing erroneous testimony, including a false
confession.
The terms ‘interview’ and ‘interrogation’, as applied to the police investiga-
tive process, imply some form of questioning, whether of a witness to a crime,
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A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
a victim, a complainant or a suspect. Both are essentially a way of gathering
information for use in further enquiries and perhaps judicial purposes. The
term interrogation is more commonly used in the literature, and in police prac-
tice, to refer to the questioning of criminal suspects, whereas witnesses and
victims are ‘interviewed’ (Rabon, 1992). Such a distinction is, however, quite an
arbitrary one, and the term ‘investigative interviewing’ has been proposed to
cover both the interviewing of witnesses and suspects in England. This term
has now been incorporated into police training and its evaluation (Clarke &
Milne, 2001; Williamson, 1994).
The purpose of the book is to examine in detail the various aspects of inves-
tigative interviewing and to highlight the factors that influence the accuracy
and completeness of the information collected. The emphasis is on the appli-
cation of psychological knowledge and principles to investigative interviewing
and confessions. The major issue addressed is to what extent psychological
knowledge and principles can assist the police, psychologists, social workers,
probation officers and the legal profession, in the gathering and evaluation of
confession evidence.
The book shows that during the past 20 years or so there have been major
advances in psychological theory, research relevant to interrogations and con-
fessions, the law pertaining to investigative interviewing and the admissibility
of confession evidence, police training and the contribution of expert psycho-
logical and psychiatric testimony to criminal court proceedings. My previous
book, The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions, and Testimony (Gudjonsson,
1992a), provided a detailed discussion of scientific advances, and their impli-
cations, up to 1992. Since then, further psychological and legal developments
have taken place and these are comprehensively discussed in this book. As
far as children’s testimony is concerned, which was discussed at some length
in my previous book, the recently edited book by Westcott, Davies and Bull
(2002) gives a comprehensive coverage of the recent developments in the
area.
In view of the extensive amount of material presented in this book, which
comprises 23 individual chapters, it is separated into four main parts. In Part I,
entitled ‘Interrogations and Confessions’, the theoretical, research and practical
aspects of interrogation and confessions are reviewed. There are nine chapters
in this section of the book. The first four focus on interrogation, its contexts
and the tactics used by the police in the USA and Britain. Empirical research
findings are presented into interrogation tactics and the psychological vulnera-
bility of detainees. Two chapters enquire into the reasons why suspects confess
to crimes they have committed. Both theoretical perspectives and empirical
evidence are presented. This part of the book concludes with three chapters
where the focus is on miscarriages of justice and false confessions. Relevant
research and theoretical aspects of false confessions are discussed and case
examples are presented of different types of false confession.
One of the chapters in Part I, ‘The identification and measurement of
“oppressive” police interviewing tactics in Britain’, is co-authored with Dr John
Pearse, a senior police officer at New Scotland Yard, with whom I have worked
jointly on cases and conducted extensive research over the past 10 years.
Introduction
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Part II, ‘Legal and Psychological Aspects’, consists of six chapters. It com-
mences with a detailed discussion of the English and American confession law.
Differences and similarities between the two legal systems and legal practice
are highlighted. The chapter on the American law is co-authored with a New
York attorney, Lorca Morello. After discussing the legal issues and practice
there is a chapter on psychological assessment. The concepts of interrogative
suggestibility, compliance and acquiescence, which have become increasingly
important legally in the context of disputed confessions, are discussed in detail
within the context of the relevant theoretical and empirical evidence. Part II
concludes with a chapter on the effects of drugs and alcohol on the reliability
of testimony. In this chapter a double murder case of the false confession of a
heroin addict is presented.
In Part III, ‘British Court of Appeal Cases’, the role of the Court of Appeal is
discussed and 22 leading disputed confession cases in England and Northern
Ireland are presented and the judgments evaluated. In all but one of the cases
the convictions were quashed, often on the basis of fresh psychological or psychi-
atric testimony. In the one unsuccessful case, the House of Lords later quashed
the appellant’s conviction and criticized the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold
the conviction. The cases demonstrate how the Court of Appeal views confes-
sion evidence and expert testimony and how its approach to such cases has
developed over the past 12 years. I have carefully traced this development and
will show how high court judges have become more sophisticated in the way in
which they admit and rely on expert psychological and psychiatric testimony,
particularly as it relates to psychological vulnerability. The legal criteria for
admitting psychological evidence have broadened considerably. The courts are
no longer restricted to admitting evidence where there is mental illness or learn-
ing disability. Personality disorder is now judged as a potential psychological
vulnerability relevant to the reliability of confession evidence. Furthermore,
personality traits, such as suggestibility, compliance and trait anxiety, when
falling outside the normal range, are now regularly admitted into evidence to
challenge the admissibility and the weight of confession evidence. The impact of
psychological research and expert testimony on legal changes, police practice
and legal judgments is a development unparalleled in the rest of the world
(Gudjonsson, 2001).
The cases of the ‘Guildford Four’ and the ‘Birmingham Six’ were the first
to have a great impact on the English legal system. They brought the risk of
false confession to the attention of the legal establishment and the public. The
chapter on these two cases was prepared jointly with my psychiatrist colleague,
Dr James MacKeith. We were both commissioned as experts to work on the cases
prior to their successful appeal. We review these cases and present some of our
medical and psychological findings.
Part IV, ‘Foreign Cases of Disputed Confessions’, provides a detailed discus-
sion of seven high profile cases from outside Britain. The cases demonstrate
how different legal systems—American, Canadian, Israeli and Norwegian—
approach, view and evaluate disputed confession evidence and expert testi-
mony. As will be seen from reading these chapters, there is much to be learned
from cases in different jurisdictions. The dangers of coercive interrogation
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A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
techniques, the risk of false confession and miscarriages of justice are of in-
ternational importance and all judicial systems must take these seriously.
In the final chapter of the book, ‘Conclusions’, I draw together the main
findings from the other chapters and provide a conceptual framework for future
work on investigative interviewing and confessions.
This book is aimed primarily at practitioners involved with different aspects
of investigative interviewing. This includes clinical psychologists and psychia-
trists who have been asked by legal advocates to assist with the evaluation of the
likely validity of self-incriminating statements, such as confessions. Detailed
assessment techniques will be provided for this purpose, including the assess-
ment of specific and idiosyncratic psychological states and traits. The relevant
legal concepts, legal practice, Court of Appeal judgments and detailed case pre-
sentations, will be provided to assist expert witnesses in how to assess a wide
range of cases of disputed confessions.
Police officers will find many parts of the book directly applicable to their
investigative work. The book is not a training manual for police officers on how
to interview, but it does provide police officers with a further understanding
of the processes involved in producing erroneous and misleading testimony.
In addition, it identifies the circumstances under which information can be
collected most effectively. At a policy level, the book has major implications for
police training.
Social workers and probation officers will find several of the chapters useful
as they commonly have to interview and assess groups of individuals who need
special care, such as persons with learning disabilities, the mentally ill, children
and the sexually abused. The increased role of social workers as ‘appropriate
adults’ during custodial interrogation in England and the criticism they have
received in the past about their interviewing techniques of allegedly sexually
abused children mean that this book is going to be particularly helpful for them.
The legal profession will learn from the book what kinds of contribution
clinical psychologists and psychiatrists can offer to judicial proceedings. Case
histories will be used to illustrate specific points throughout the book and these
provide an important insight into how the judicial system deals with the prob-
lems created by disputed confessions. Many of the findings highlighted in the
book provide an important insight into safeguards against false confession.
Finally, the combination of theoretical ideas, empirical findings, case histo-
ries and leading Court of Appeal judgments brings together knowledge that
will also appeal to researchers and other academics. Hopefully, it will stimu-
late more research, both theoretical and practical, in an exciting field that is
already rapidly expanding.
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This was pulled from the TOR Library...
http://am4wuhz3zifexz5u.onion/
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Off to have a bath am I, night Marry - you may be in bed when I get back -- hugs all