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Introduction interrogation police
Miranda rights and how it changed the criminal law system essays
Miranda rights and how it changed the criminal law system essays
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The challenges and overcoming them
There are a many challenges that an officer faces when it comes to interviews and interrogations. Some challenges include learning if someone is a possible suspect through the information received in an interview, preparation for the interrogation, issues with legality of the Miranda warnings, deception by the officer, emotional balance, and most importantly, preventing false confessions.
Information that is discovered by a suspect during an interview may make a Find the right attitude and structure of the questioning play a huge role in the success of the interview or interrogation. The structure of the interrogation will also determine the success.
When the Miranda Rights were established, police were having a more challenging time getting information from suspects. Suspects were more likely to obtain their right to counsel or answer question more vaguely, leading to longer and less effective interrogations. Officers looked for other ways to get confessions without violating the Miranda Rights. Many psychological techniques became more common, such as the “good cop bad cop” routine; one detective seems to grill the suspect while the other detective appears to be protecting the suspect, creating a trust between the “good cop” and the suspect. Officers also now inform the suspect of all the terrible things they may face if they’re convicted of the crime, and seem to help the suspect by promising a less severe punishment if the cooperate with the police. “For a while, police tried such things as polygraphs to determine if the suspect was being deceptive, but polygraphs and polygraph training are expensive, and the results are almost never admissible in court” (Layton, 2011)....
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...y had not committed. The 104 participants were paired up, one being the interrogator and the other being the suspect for a mock theft. Some of the suspects were to be labeled as “guilty” while others were labeled as “not guilty”. The interrogators had 10 minutes to as questions, and then report back to the judge their opinion and how confident their opinion was. The discoveries of the experiment showed that the interrogators with the innocent suspects were exerting more pressure for a confession then those who were guilty. Also, those innocent were found guilty more often than those who had committed the crime. This information is parallel with other data discovered during actual interrogations. Officers often presumed guilt before having enough evidence to prove it and when the interrogation is not going their way, they tend to try to coerce a confession.
Some people might even argue that the Miranda’s laws might actually be harmful to law enforcement. Because the Miranda rules specify that a suspect must be read their Miranda Rights and has a right to waive those rights. If the suspect declines, the police are required by law to stop all questioning. Even if a suspect initially waives his rights, during an interrogation he can halt the process at any time by asking for a lawyer or taking back the waiver. The police, from that moment on, are not allowed to suggest that he or she reconsider (ncpa.org). Because of this, many people feel that this has had a harmful affect on law enforcement. Police have found that is much more difficult to get a confession. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), the fraction of suspects questioned who confessed dropped from 49% to 14% in New York and from 48% to 29% in Pittsburg. With fewer confessions, police also found that it is much more difficult to solve crimes. For example, following the Court decision, the rates of violent crime cases solved fell drastically from 60% (or higher) to approximately 45%. This level has remained constant over the years. Also, due to fewer confessions and fewer crimes that are solved, this means there are fewer convictions. According to the NCPA, there are 3.85 fewer convictions every year because of Miranda. Defenders of the Miranda decision say that fewer crimes solved are for a good reason. They believe that law enforcement officers were forced to stop coercive questioning techniques that are unconstitutional. Over the years, the Supreme Court has watered down its stance in saying that the Miranda rules are not constitutional obligations, but rather “prophylactic” safeguards which are intended to insure that officers do not force a confession from a suspect. The need for both effective law enforcement as well as protection of society dictate the need
The use of eyewitness statements and testimony’s can be a great source of information, but can also lead to wrongful convictions. Due to eyewitness testimony, innocent people are convicted of crimes they have not committed. This is why the wording of a question is important to consider when interviewing witnesses. Due to the fact that eyewitness testimony can be the most concrete evidence in an investigation, witnesses may feel they are helping an officer by giving them as much information as possible, therefore they may tell them information that is not entirely true, just to please them. This is why there are advantages and disadvantages to using open and close ended questioning at different durations of an interview. The way you word a question may impact the memory of a witness, this is because a person cannot completely memorize the exact occurrences of an event.
Because police investigators are usually under pressure to arrest criminals and safeguard the community, they often make mistakes. Sometimes, detectives become convinced of a suspect 's guilt because of their criminal history or weak speculations. Once they are convinced, they are less likely to consider alternative possibilities. They overlook some important exculpatory evidence, make weak speculations and look only for links that connect a suspect to a crime, especially if the suspect has a previous criminal record. Picking Cotton provides an understanding of some common errors of the police investigation process. During Ronald Cottons interrogation, the detectives did not bother to record the conversation “But I noticed he wasn 't recording the conversation, so I felt that he could be writing anything down”(79) unlike they did for Jennifer. They had already labelled Ronald Cotton as the perpetrator and they told him during the interrogation “Cotton, Jennifer Thompson already identified you. We know it was you”(82). Jenifer Thompson 's testimony along with Ronald Cotton 's past criminal records gave the detectives more reason to believe Ronald committed the crime. Ronald Cotton stated “ This cop Sully, though, he had already decided I was guilty.”(84). Many investigative process have shortcomings and are breached because the officials in charge make
...e police officers. Miranda established the precedent that a citizen has a right to be informed of his or her rights before the police attempt to violate them with the intent that the warnings erase the inherent coercion of the situation. The Court's violation of this precedent is especially puzzling due to this case's many similarities to Miranda.
The Central Park Jogger case is one of false confessions to a crime, with a little help from police, which the defendants did not commit. Evidence taken at the crime scene did exclude the defendants, however, because of videotaped confessions they were sentenced to prison for a crime they admitted to committing even though they did not. It was not until many years later did the original perpetrator step forward from prison to admit he was the one who committed the crime with evidence (DNA) and firsthand knowledge of the scene. The five original defendants were released from prison but until serving a lengthy term. There are cues that can be noticed when investigators are conducting preliminary interviews that have a very high rate of success in determining the guilt or innocence of an individual. Some of these cues may be verbal such as a rehearsed response (Kassin, 2005). Other types of cues may be nonverbal body language such as a slouching (Kassin, 2005).
Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.
In 1966, American police procedure was changed by what is known today as the Miranda Rights. In 1963, Ernesto Miranda, a twenty three year old Hispanic American with an eighth grade education was arrested for kidnap and rape. (Paddock) He was identified by the victim of the crime in a police lineup. After he was identified, he was taken into police interrogation for two hours. When he was arrested, he was not informed of his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself. He was also not informed of his Sixth Amendment right to have the assistance of an attorney. In the first part of his interrogation, Miranda denied having any involvement in the crime, but after two hours he confessed to the crime in writing. (Street Law)
Depending on what study is read, the incidence of false confession is less than 35 per year, up to 600 per year. That is a significant variance in range, but no matter how it is evaluated or what numbers are calculated, the fact remains that false confessions are a reality. Why would an innocent person confess to a crime that she did not commit? Are personal factors, such as age, education, and mental state, the primary reason for a suspect to confess? Are law enforcement officers and their interrogation techniques to blame for eliciting false confessions? Regardless of the stimuli that lead to false confessions, society and the justice system need to find a solution to prevent the subsequent aftermath.
Miranda v. Arizona is a very important activist decision that required police to inform criminal suspects of their rights before they could be interrogated. These rights include: the right to remain silent, that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, you have a right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to you be the court. In this case the Fifth Amendment's right that a person may not be forced to incriminate one's self was interpreted in an activist way as meaning that one must be aware of this right before on is interrogated by the police. Prior to this ruling it was common practice to force and coerce confessions from criminal suspects who did not know they had the right not to incriminate themselves.
Over the years the way law enforcement officers have been able to investigate cases has been drastically changed over the years. Investigations used to be a very prying, and vindictive matter. Now it is very delicate. Since the Miranda case, law enforcement has been very open and aware of defendants’ rights.
In Samuel Baum’s Lie to Me episode “Blinded” Cal Lightman and his team investigates a copycat serial rapist by interrogating the original rapist. This episode discusses topics such as the psychological theory of crime, criminal personalities, psychopathy, and interrogation methods of police officers. However, in Jerry Bruckheimer’s CSI: Miami episode “Just One Kiss” Horatio’s team investigates the murder of a young bartender and the rape of a young woman. This episode discusses topics such as alibis, interrogation methods, and evidence. Both episodes deal with a different dynamic of psychology and the law, so it is important to look at both methods.
Interviews are very popular among most individuals especially researchers and scholars as they attempt to obtain information and data from an interviewee. However, there are many factors that influence the interview and which determines its success or failure. Often, the interviewer takes charge of the situation, and they have the sole responsibility of asking the questions while the interviewee provides an explanation or an answer to the question asked. As a result, an interview can be defined as a consultation or a discussion in person through which information and data are exchanged regarding a particular phenomenon event with the intention of establishing the interviewee’s position. It is easy to tell the mood and success of the interview
This model was designed for the interviewer to allow the interviewee to explain their story without being accused of something they may have not done (College of Policing, 2016). It allows them both to stay relaxed throughout the interview process, without aggression or intimidation present. Before interviewing the subject, the interviewer has the interview well planned out and knows where he is going to lead the interview. He begins to make the victim feel comfortable before allowing her to tell her story. The second stage of the interview is to engage and explain, in which the interviewer explained to victim how to interview was going to pan out. This stage gave the victim a proper layout of how things were going to go. Once the rapport was built and she told her story, the interviewer then clarified which is the third stage of this model. The interviewer gave a brief summary back to the victim of what she told him, so he clearly understood her and they could continue. Another thing the interviewer did was he made the victim draw out a layout picture of the crime she had been involved in (EBS Trust, 1998). As mentioned previously above, this recreated the scene and allowed her to visualize what had happened. The interviewer then closed out the interview by getting the victim to sign the statement and asked her if there was anyone at home that could take her to the doctor to get checked out. After reviewing the interview,
Leo, R and Ofshe R. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions. 16 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 189,
The interrogation room is seen from two opposite views. The suspect sees it as the end. The place where their life either comes crashing down, or a place to provide information that could lead to an arrest. The detective sees it simply as his work space. Both views see the Out, however. The imaginary window to the outside world somewhere in the room. The suspects see this as the thing that will help them through this time of their life. It is what will help them answer every question in a believable manner, and every excuse that will come off as legitimate. Most guilty suspects are looking for the Out the moment they walk into the interrogation room. Detectives wait for suspects to try and find a way to use the Out to their advantage, and then they start asking the real questions. They ask the questions that someone would only answer truthfully if they were truly innocent, or if they were looking for a way to ease some of the potential consequences they might face. The intended audience of this passage ranges from those that are fascinated by criminal law and the interrogation process, to psychologists studying the behaviors of suspects while they are in the interrogation room. The purpose of this passage is to inform readers of the different behaviors of suspects in interrogation rooms, and how many suspects seek the Out before being asked questions