Coercive Interrogations
You are a forensic psychologist working with Forensic Consultants, Inc. An attorney is using your services as a consultant in a case. During a meeting with the attorney, the attorney tells you that the client, while undergoing police interrogation, confessed to murder. When the attorney asked the client, the client reported to being not guilty.
As you conduct a preliminary investigation, draw up a plan on how you will assist your the attorney with this case. The plan should answer the following questions posed by the attorney:
- What specific factors about police interrogative tactics do you think will be important to the defense strategy? Discuss interrogation tactics that lead to false confession, specifying at least two examples and explain the reason they are considered coercive. Include information about how this would look in an actual interrogation and how the client experienced this behavior.
- Will you look for any specific personality characteristics in the client? What are they and why will they help or hurt your case? Are issues of competency going to come up? Discuss information about what types of people are more at risk with coercive interrogation tactics. Include at least one research study that has demonstrated this risk.
- What type of personality assessment instrument will you want to use to either identify or rule out the characteristics listed in question 2? Be specific and support your answer: Identify at least one psychological test that can be used and include information on why it would be useful in determining whether a person was vulnerable.
Based on the client's response to police interrogation, how should you conduct your interview? Specifically, what should you avoid when attempting to gather accurate information from the client?