Despite its persuasiveness and potential power, eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate. In 1976, the British government’s Devlin Report tried to explain why honest eyewitnesses can be mistaken (Clifford & Bull, 1978). More recently, the introduction of DNA testing procedures has shed further light on this issue. DNA forensic analysis has been conducted on people who were convicted prior to its introduction in the 1990s.

Eyewitness Testimony

These tests have resulted in the exoneration of people innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. Wells et al. (1998) described the first 40 cases in the USA in which DNA was found to exonerate a previously convicted person (five of these persons were sentenced to death). Of these 40 cases, 36 (90 percent) involved eyewitness identification evidence in which one or more witnesses falsely identified a person. One person was identified by five separate witnesses.

In a more recent analysis, Scheck, Neufield and Dwyer (2000) described 62 exoneration cases (eight persons were sentenced to death). In 52 of these 62 cases, mistaken identification occurred, involving, in total, 77 mistaken eyewitnesses. These findings led Wells et al. (1998: p. 605) to conclude that ‘‘eyewitness identification evidence is amongst the least reliable forms of evidence and yet it is persuasive to juries‘‘. While the DNA studies generally support this conclusion, Wells et al. (2000) point out that we do not know how representative these case studies are.

DNA exoneration is only possible in a fraction of cases, mostly sexual assault cases. Crimes such as murders, muggings and robberies rarely leave DNA trace evidence, so it is not possible to use this type of evidence in these crimes to question the reliability of witness evidence (Wells et al., 2000). A large part of what we know about eyewitness identification comes from empirical research on the factors influencing eyewitness performance.

Psychology and Law shows how psychological research and theory can be used in a legal context. Written with advanced undergraduate students in mind, it focuses upon the pre-trial or investigative phase of the legal process. Obtaining and assessing witness evidence is a key part of any criminal investigation. Topics include witness accuracy and credibility, covering issues such as assessment of witness credibility, interviewing suspects and witnesses, eyewitness testimony, false beliefs and memory, the role of experts and juries. This second edition has been revised and updated to reflect the large amount of new research in the area, making it the essential guide for all courses with a legal component. Comment on the first edition: "This is an excellent appraisal of the psychology of evidence...it provides thorough, substantial and up-to-date accounts of modern developments." —Denniss Howitt, Loughborough University, UK <ul> <li>Written by well known and respected authors</li> <li>Suitable as an introductory, undergraduate text</li> </ul>

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

education

Learning & Education

books

Books

Aldert Vrij

Amina A Memon

Ray Bull

Psychology and Law

It seems that people believe that the emotions they attribute to liars will be evident in their behaviour – a notion we can call the leakage hypothesis. In the psychological literature, this idea can be traced to Freud (1905, cited in Bond & DePaulo, 2006, p. 215), who wrote, ‘No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore’.

The Leakage Hypothesis

In more recent times, psychological theories of leakage have primarily been explored by Ekman and colleagues (Ekman, 2001; Ekman & Friesen, 1969; see also Porter, Ten Brinke, & Wallace, 2013; Ten Brinke & Porter, 2012).It is possible that laypeople’s belief in the leakage of cues is grounded in naïve morality, much like the belief that liars experience negative emotions. More specifically, it could be rooted in a general belief in the fairness of the world.

The theory of a belief in a just world posits that people have a need to perceive the world as a fair place, in which people get what they deserve (Lerner, 1980). Translated to the current context, the notion that lies will be evident in behaviour fits with a general notion of deservingness: to the extent that lying is perceived as bad behaviour, liars deserve to be found out. Expressed differently, the notion that people can lie effortlessly and without behavioural traces may violate the belief in a just world.

The Theory of A Belief In A Just World

Detecting Deception offers a state-of-the-art guide to the detection of deception with a focus on the ways in which new cognitive psychology-based approaches can improve practice and results in the field. <ul> <li>Includes comprehensive coverage of the latest scientific developments in the detection of deception and their implications for real-world practice</li> <li>Examines current challenges in the field - such as counter-interrogation strategies, lying networks, cross-cultural deception, and discriminating between true and false intentions</li> <li>Reveals a host of new approaches based on cognitive psychology with the potential to improve practice and results, including the strategic use of evidence, imposing cognitive load, response times, and covert lie detection</li> <li>Features contributions from internationally renowned experts</li> </ul>

communication

Communication

Bruno Verschuere

Pär Anders Granhag

Detecting Deception

When writing your script, try to include as many of the five senses as possible: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.Always use positive, active wording (for example, excited, energized, anxious, happily, and so on).Make all suggestions believable.Include confidence, self-esteem, and relaxation statements.Use pictures and imaginative phrases. The subconscious mind reacts better to pictures rather than just words. Use your imagination as much as possible, seeing the end result as having already been attained rather than the progression of reaching it.

Script

Include emotions. Whatever emotions or feelings can be associated with the subject will help the script be more effective.A script can be as long or as short as you like, but it should be long enough to get the point across. You can write a script for any area that you can improve in.

Getting that promotion at work or losing those last five pounds can be a struggle, but goals like these can be accomplished - with self-hypnosis! Whatever obstacles you want to overcome or goals you aim to achieve, this book can help you do it. With this informative resource, you will learn to: break bad habits like nail biting; ease severe pain, such as from migraines or labor during childbirth; ensure confidence and success in business and personal matters; quit smoking for good; lose weight and keep it off; improve memory retention; and reduce stress - in relationships, at home, and at work; and more! Written by a board-certified hypnotherapist, this authoritative guide can help you create your own self-hypnosis scripts to create the life you always wanted. From tearing down mental roadblocks to making permanent changes, readers will be on their way to success in no time!

mindfulness

Mindfulness

writing

Reading & Writing

creativity

Creativity

meditation

Meditation

Rene A Bastaracherican

The Everything Self-Hypnosis Book

People tend to underestimate their own ability to lie (Elaad, 2003).There are several reasons why people think they are worse liars than they actually are. First, they tend to overestimate the extent to which their own thoughts, emotions, and other mental states are transparent to others (e.g., illusion of transparency, Gilovich, Savitsky, & Medvec, 1998). In other words, people mistakenly believe that their lies shine through. Second, self-perceptions are typically characterised by positive illusions (Taylor & Brown, 1988),

Good Liars

and people typically think of themselves as being more moral than most others (Kaplar & Gordon, 2004).Admitting to being a good liar does not match with this positive self-image. Third, although people tell more white lies than serious lies, they remember their serious lies better than their white lies (Elaad, 2003).

Finally, perhaps people remember better those times when their lies failed than when they lied successfully, particularly if these failed lies resulted in negative consequences.By forgetting the times they lied successfully, they may underestimate how often their lies succeed.People tend to overestimate their own ability to detect lies (Elaad, 2003) and more lies remain unnoticed than they generally think.

Poor Lie Detectors

There are many reasons why lies remain undetected, and they can be clustered into three main categories (Vrij, 2007): poor motivation; difficulties associated with lie detection; and common errors made by lie detectors.

Why do people lie? Do gender and personality differences affect how people lie? How can lies be detected? Detecting Lies and Deceit provides the most comprehensive review of deception to date. This revised edition provides an up-to-date account of deception research and discusses the working and efficacy of the most commonly used lie detection tools, including: <ul> <li>Behaviour Analysis Interview</li> <li>Statement Validity Assessment</li> <li>Reality Monitoring</li> <li>Scientific Content Analysis</li> <li>Several different polygraph tests</li> <li>Voice Stress Analysis</li> <li>Thermal Imaging</li> <li>EEG-P300</li> <li>Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)</li> </ul> All three aspects of deception are covered: nonverbal cues, speech and written statement analysis and (neuro)physiological responses. The most common errors in lie detection are discussed and practical guidelines are provided to help professionals improve their lie detection skills. Detecting Lies and Deceit is a must-have resource for students, academics and professionals in psychology, criminology, policing and law.

Detecting Lies and Deceit

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 replaced 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, including judicial, educational and psychological means, are equally applicable to legal systems of Britain, USA, Australia and on the continent of Europe.

This volume, a sequel to The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony which is widely acclaimed by both scientists and practitioners, brings the field completely up-to-date and focuses in particular on aspects of vulnerability, confabulation and false confessions. The is an unrivalled integration of scientific knowledge of the psychological processes and research relating to interrogation, with the practical investigative and legal issues that bear upon obtaining, and using in court, evidence from interrogations of suspects. * Accessible style which will appeal to academics, students and practitioners * Authoritative integration of theory, research, practical implications and vivid case illustration * Coverage of topical issues like confabulation, false memory, and false confessions Part of the Wiley Series in The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law

Gisli H. Gudjonsson

The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions

After allegedly failing a polygraph test and being subsequently interrogated, Reilly was persuaded that he had murdered his mother, of which he was innocent, using words like: ‘Maybe I did do it’, ‘I believe I did it’, ‘It really looks like I did it’, and then saying ‘Yes’ when asked directly, ‘You did it?’. Reilly then signed his written confession statement (Connery, 1977, pp. 65–67; Gudjonsson, 2003a).

Reilly's Case

What is apparent is that Reilly had become confused by the result of the ‘failed’ polygraph test and intensive interrogation, believing that he might have murdered his mother, but he always remained unsure (i.e. he was never completely confident that he had murdered his mother; in fact, he harboured serious doubts about it).Whatever the appalling deficiencies of Peter’s interrogation, it was at least recorded on tape. Indeed, it might be said that one of the factors leading to Peter Reilly’s eventual vindication was the audiotape made during his ruthless grilling;

Test And Interrogation

it clearly revealed the browbeating methods of coercion used upon an exhausted boy, and helped many people make up their minds about the police and their subtle brutality.In the 1980s the main obstacle to preventing and correcting miscarriages of justice involving confession evidence was that people found it hard to believe that anyone would confess to a serious crime of which they were innocent (Gudjonsson, 2003a). That misguided attitude changed considerably after the acquittal of the ‘Guildford Four’ in October 1989 (Ewing & McCann, 2006; Gudjonsson & MacKeith, 2003),

Guildford Four

a case that opened the gate to other miscarriage of justice cases involving disputed confessions in the UK (Gudjonsson, 2010a). The case represented a long and hard battle (Kee, 1989; McKee & Franey, 1988), but justice prevailed in the end (Victory, 2001). Persistence does pay.

A part of the early battle was to change negative attitudes and misconceptions by educating police officers, lawyers, and judges about the growing evidence base of false confessions and the need for improved police interview training and practice (Gudjonsson, 1992a, 2003a). The science of the psychology of false confession emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and has continued to develop over time. It has paid dividends in the form of changing the legal landscape in the UK and Norway, but other countries have been slower to respond (Walsh, Oxburgh, Redlich, & Myklebust, 2016).

Need Of Improvement

A solid theoretical foundation, supported by empirical evidence and case studies, helps us understand the underlying causes of false confessions and how they may be identified, researched, and prevented.

False Confessions

Provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the development of the science behind the psychology of false confessions Four decades ago, little was known or understood about false confessions and the reasons behind them. So much has changed since then due in part to the diligent work done by Gisli H. Gudjonsson. This eye-opening book by the Icelandic/British clinical forensic psychologist, who in the mid 1970s had worked as detective in Reykjavik, offers a complete and current analysis of how the study of the psychology of false confessions came about, including the relevant theories and empirical/experimental evidence base. It also provides a reflective review of the gradual development of the science and how it can be applied to real life cases. Based on Gudjonsson’s personal account of the biggest murder investigations in Iceland’s history, as well as other landmark cases, The Psychology of False Confessions: Forty Years of Science and Practice takes readers inside the minds of those who sit on both sides of the interrogation table to examine why confessions to crimes occur even when the confessor is innocent. Presented in three parts, the book covers how the science of studying false confessions emerged and grew to become a regular field of practice. It then goes deep into the investigation of the mid-1970s assumed murders of two men in Iceland and the people held responsible for them. It finishes with an in-depth psychological analysis of the confessions of the six people convicted. <ul> <li>Written by an expert extensively involved in the development of the science and its application to real life cases</li> <li>Covers the most sensational murder cases in Iceland’s history</li> <li>Deep analysis of the ‘Reykjavik Confessions’ adds crucial evidence to understanding how and why coerced-internalized false confessions occur, and their detrimental and lasting effects on memory</li> </ul> The Psychology of False Confessions: Forty Years of Science and Practice is an important source book for students, academics, criminologists, and clinical, forensic, and social psychologists and psychiatrists.

The Psychology of False Confessions

Psychological factors in criminality relate to genetic and constitutional causes and to personality and other sources of individual differences . Such factors have often been misunderstood, and even more frequently misinterpreted, in the context of crime and crime prevention. To say, as we shall do as a result of a very extensive body of evidence, that genetic factors are powerfully involved in criminal activity, is not the equivalent of saying that "crime is destiny" and that for a given person such behavior may be predestined and inevitable.

Psychological Factors In Criminality

It is not crime itself or criminality that is innate; it is certain peculiarities of the central or the autonomic nervous system that react with the environment, with upbringing, and many other environmental factors to increase the probability that a given person would act in a certain antisocial manner. No social determinism is involved in such estimates of probability, and the evidence is now conclusive that some such interactionist view is more in line with the evidence than a purely environmentalistic (or a purely genetic) one. <warningtag>﻿</warningtag>

Many Other Factors

Similarly, to find that certain traits of personality-such as impulsivity, anxiety, sociability, or whatever-are correlated with antisocial behavior is not to say that they inevitably produce such behavior. As we shall note, they might also produce success in certain types of sport or praiseworthy behavior on the battlefield.

Traits Of Personality

The infinite complexity of human behavior in modern society allows only probabilistic estimates, but these can be powerful instruments in understanding behavior and providing us with a better theoretical insight into criminality than other relevant factors. Indeed, it is only by acquiring such an understanding that we shall be able to undertake the task of reforming the criminal and altering the criminal's patterns of behavior for the better.

Complexity Of Human Behavior

The title that the authors have chosen for this book, The Causes and Cures of Criminality, suggests that it may be just another book specu lating on the sociological evils that need to be put right for "everything in the garden to be lovely." If this is the expectation, the reader could not be more mistaken. The recurrent theme, in fact, is a strong accent on psychological experiments. Both authors have tackled the theoretical and practical side of crime through an exhaustive literature review of past experi mental work. Hans J. Eysenck has concentrated on the constitutional and biological theory of criminality, whereas Gisli Gudjonsson has con cerned himself more with a review of ongoing research into therapy and possible prevention of antisocial behavior. Part I goes into considerable detail on the causes of criminality, stressing much of the strangely neglected area of individual differences in personality. Research studies point to a very heavy involvement of heredity in the causation of criminality, but the authors are careful to acknowledge that much can be done environmentally to discourage a life of crime once those persons who are at risk have been identified.

Hans J. Eysenck

The Causes and Cures of Criminality

If we take in our hand any volume, let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames; for it can contain nothing but sophistry and delusion.

Untitled (1)

Despite what you might think not all polygraphers are former police officers, military men, private detectives, or CIA agents. Many are just your average high school graduates, college dropouts, or college griduates who realized they could make a lot more money as polygraph examiners than as assistant managers at the local fast-food joint.In one respect, these types of examiners may treat their examinees more fairly, because they don't have the preconceived notions that seem to be inherent in a lot of former cops, for instance.

About Polygraphers

One examiner who had been a police officer was captured on a hidden camera saying that he could usually tell within five minutes of meeting a suspect whether or not that suspect was guilty. This is the ultimate in polygrapher arrogance. If the examiner can really make that distinction almost immediately after meeting someone, why does he need the machine? This is not to say that civilian polygraphers do not make determinations of guilt before the test has even been run ー they do. It's human nature.

See he Difference

This is precisely why no polygrapher can be completely obiective as he scores and interprets the charts. His personal biases and opinions are incorporated automatically (consciously or unconsciously) into his decisions, whether or not he recognizes it.

About Bias

"On a more pragmatic level, the lie detector does work as long as the subject believes it works. A good examiner scares the crap out of you. It's theater." ― Leonard Saxe, principal author of the OTA's 1983 polygraph validity study

Fear is the polygrapher's most powerful weapon, but you can defend yourself! All it takes is a little know-how and some concentration and practice. Arm yourself with these proven effective tactics for rendering the polygrapher impotent in his efforts to intimidate and manipulate you, and learn how to beat the box hands down!

Charles Clifton

Deception Detection

The Japanese language is composed of numerous regional dialects, many of which are mutually unintelligible. It is not surprising, then, that dialectology (the study of dialects) has long been very popular in Japanese linguistics. Regional dialects are, however, rapidly fading away, due mainly to the influence of mass communication, which routinely utilizes kyōtsūgo ‘common Japanese’. As of the mid-twentieth century, unique dialectal forms and traits were most conspicuous only in the Okinawa, Kyūshū, and Tōhoku regions (Sanada 2002: 15).

A Linguistic Introduction

Dialects are valuable not only to appreciate the diversity of the contemporary Japanese language, but also to probe its historical development. Many specialists agree that peripheral (outlying/remote) areas tend to retain older forms. That is, dialectal variations – especially those heard in Okinawa, Kyūshū, and Tōhoku – are likely to be remnants of older forms once spoken in culturally central regions as well.

Dialects

This comprehensive introduction to the Japanese language consists of six parts. Following the introductory section, it explores the Japanese lexicon, grammatical foundations, major clause types, clause linkage, and language usage. The discussion of formal and structural properties of Japanese such as sound structure, vocabulary and grammar assist readers as they gain insight into historical and sociocultural aspects of Japanese; some are compared with those of English-speaking nations. An ideal choice for instructors, the book includes twenty-eight chapters, sufficient for approximately ninety hours of hands-on instruction. Each topic has been rigorously selected based on the author's experience of more than two decades teaching Japanese linguistics. The book's breadth and depth make it highly appropriate for learners of the Japanese language, for linguistics students interested in Japanese, and for researchers interested in Japanese linguistics. Online resources include exercises and supplementary multimedia materials to enhance the reader's comprehension and enjoyment.

Psychology and Law

Detecting Deception

The Everything Self-Hypnosis Book

Detecting Lies and Deceit

The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions

Anastaska