Police interviewing in SpainA self-Report survey of police practices and beliefs

  1. Jennifer M. Schell-Leugers
  2. Jaume Masip
  3. José L. González
  4. Miet Vanderhallen
  5. Saul M. Kassin
Zeitschrift:
Anuario de psicología jurídica

ISSN: 1133-0740

Datum der Publikation: 2023

Nummer: 33

Seiten: 27-40

Art: Artikel

DOI: 10.5093/APJ2022A4 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen Access editor

Andere Publikationen in: Anuario de psicología jurídica

Zusammenfassung

Over the past decades, the psychological science has accumulated a large corpus of empirical knowledge about police interviews, deception detection, and suspects’ confessions. However, it is unclear whether European police forces’ practices and beliefs are consistent with recommendations derived from this empirical literature. The study described in this report is part of a larger research project examining European police investigators’ practices and beliefs. An online survey was administered to Guardia Civil (n = 89) and Policía Nacional investigators (n = 126). The survey inquired about the length, frequency and electronic recording of interviews, the suspects’ use of their right to remain silent, investigators’ self-reported skills in distinguishing between truthful and deceptive statements, their estimates of the frequency of (false) confessions, and their use of specific interview tactics. The outcomes provide insights into investigators’ knowledge and practices, highlight specific needs, and allow for a comparison between European and North American police forces.

Bibliographische Referenzen

  • Aamodt, M. G., & Custer, H. (2006). Who can best catch a liar? A metaanalysis of individual differences in detecting deception. Forensic Examiner, 15(1), 6-11.
  • Alonso, H., Masip, J., & Garrido, E. (2009). La capacidad de los policías para detectar mentiras [Police officers’ ability to detect lies]. Revista de Derecho Penal y Criminología, 2, 159-196.
  • American Civil Liberties Union. (2014). War comes home. The excessive militarization of American policing. https://www.aclu.org/report/warcomes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police
  • Bond, C. F., Jr., & DePaulo, B. M. (2006). Accuracy of deception judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 214-234. https://doi. org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_2
  • Bond, C. F., Jr., & DePaulo, B. M. (2008). Individual differences in judging deception: Accuracy and bias. Psychological Bulletin, 134(4), 477-492. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.4.477
  • Brandon, S. E., Wells, S., & Seale, C. (2018). Science-based interviewing: Information elicitation. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 15(2), 133-148. https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.1496
  • Bujosa, L. M. (2008). El valor probatorio del atestado policial [The evidentiary value of police files]. Derecho en Libertad, 1, 109-134.
  • Bull, R. (2018). PEACE-ful interviewing/interrogation. In K. Shigemasu, S. Kuwano, T. Sato, & T. Matsuzawa (Eds.), Diversity in harmony – insights from psychology: Proceedings of the 31st International Congress of Psychology (pp. 191-210). Wiley.
  • Bull, R., & Soukara, S. (2010). Four studies of what really happens in police interviews. In G. D. Lassiter & C. A. Meissner (Eds.), Police interrogations and false confessions: Current research, practice, and policy implications (pp. 81-95). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/12085-005
  • Burton, S., & Blair, E. (1991). Task conditions, response formulation processes, and response accuracy for behavioral frequency questions in surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(1), 50-79. https://doi. org/10.1086/269241
  • Clatworthy, J., Buick, D., Hankins, M., Weinman, J., & Horne, R. (2005). The use and reporting of cluster analysis in health psychology: A review. British Journal of Health Psychology, 10(3), 329-358. https://doi. org/10.1348/135910705X25697
  • Comisión Nacional de Coordinación de la Policía Judicial. (2017). Criterios para la práctica de diligencias por la policía judicial. https://docplayer.es/72237557-Comision-nacional-de-coordinacion-de-la-policiajudicial-criterios-para-la-practica-de-diligencias-por-la-policiajudicial.html
  • Constitución Española. (1978, December 29). Boletín Oficial del Estado, 311. https://www.boe.es/eli/es/c/1978/12/27/(1)/con
  • DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 74-112. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.74
  • Drizin, S. A., & Leo, R. A. (2004). The problem of false confessions in the post-DNA world. North Carolina Law Review, 82(3), 891-1004.
  • Garrido, E., & Masip, J. (1999). How good are police officers at spotting lies? Forensic Update, 58, 14-21.
  • Garrido, E., Masip, J., & Herrero, C. (2004). Police officers’ credibility judgments: Accuracy and estimated ability. International Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 254-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590344000411
  • Geven, L. M., Wiechert, S., & Masip, J. (2020, September 23-25). The right to remain silent. How people perceive suspect’s decision to silence in an interrogation situation. Paper presented at the Virtual European Association of Psychology and Law Conference 2020. https://osf.io/q4sjf
  • Gimeno, V. (2004). Derecho procesal penal [Procedural criminal law]. Colex.
  • Global Deception Research Team. (2006). A world of lies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(1), 60-74. https://doi. org/10.1177/0022022105282295
  • González, A. (2014). El interrogatorio policial del sospechoso [Police interrogation of suspects]. Revista de Derecho Procesal Penal, 36, 21- 34.
  • Granhag, P.-A., Vrij, A., & Verschuere, B. (Eds.) (2015). Detecting deception. Current challenges and cognitive approaches. Wiley.
  • Gudjonsson, G. H. (2021). The science-based pathways to understanding false confessions and wrongful convictions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 633936. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.633936
  • Henkel, L. A., & Coffman, K. J. (2004). Memory distortions in coerced false confessions: A source monitoring framework analysis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18(5), 567-588. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1026
  • Hirschfield, P. (2020). Policing the police: U.S. and European models. Journal of Democracy, 31(4), 166-181. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2020.0063
  • Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., Buckley, J. P., & Jayne, B. C. (2013). Criminal interrogation and confessions (5th ed.). Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
  • Innocence Project (n.d.). DNA exonerations in the United States. https:// innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-states/
  • Instrucción 1/2017, de la Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad, por la que se actualiza el “Protocolo de actuación policial con menores”. http:// www.sipepol.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/1234-PROTOCOLOACTUACION-POLICIAL-CON-MENORES.pdf
  • Instrucción 12/2007, de la Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad, sobre los comportamientos exigidos a los miembros de las fuerzas y cuerpos de seguridad del estado para garantizar los derechos de las personas detenidas o bajo custodia policial. https://www.defensordelpueblo.es/ wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Instruccion_12_2007.pdf
  • Kassin, S. M. (2017). False confessions. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, 8(6), Article e1439. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1439
  • Kassin, S. M. (2021, January 21). It’s time for police to stop lying to suspects. The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/36l6wKG
  • Kassin, S. M., Drizin, S. A., Grisso, T., Gudjonsson, G. H., Leo, R. A., & Redlich, A. (2010). Police-induced confessions: Risk factors and recommendations. Law and Human Behavior, 34(1), 3-38. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10979-009-9188-6
  • Kassin, S. M., Kukucka, J., Lawson, V. Z., & DeCarlo, J. (2014). Does video recording alter the behavior of police during interrogation? A mock crime-and-investigation study. Law and Human Behavior, 38(1), 73-83. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000047
  • Kassin, S. M., Leo, R. A., Meissner, C. A., Richman, K. D., Colwell, L. H., Leach, A.-M., & La Fon D. (2007). Police interviewing and interrogation: A selfreport survey of police practices and beliefs. Law and Human Behavior, 31(4), 381-400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9073-5
  • Kassin, S. M., & McNall, K. (1991). Police interrogations and confessions: Communicating promises and threats by pragmatic implication. Law and Human Behavior, 15(3), 233-251. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF01061711
  • Kassin, S. M., Meissner, C. A., & Norwick, R. J. (2005). “I’d know a false confession if I saw one”: A comparative study of college students and police investigators. Law and Human Behavior, 29(2), 211-227. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10979-005-2416-9
  • Kassin, S. M., Russano, M. B., Amrom, A. D., Hellgren, J., Kukucka, J., & Lawson, V. Z. (2019). Does video recording inhibit crime suspects? Evidence from a fully randomized field experiment. Law and Human Behavior, 43(1), 45-55. http://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000319
  • Kassin, S. M., Scherr, K. C., & Alceste, F. (2020). The right to remain silent: Realities and illusions. In R. Bull & I. Blandón-Gitlin (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of legal and investigative psychology (pp. 2-19). Routledge.
  • Krumpal, I. (2013). Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: A literature review. Quality & Quantity, 47(4), 2025-2047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9640-9
  • Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., Sternberg, K. J., Hershkowitz, I., & Horowitz, D. (2000). Accuracy of investigators’ verbatim notes of their forensic interviews with alleged child abuse victims. Law and Human Behavior, 24(6), 699-707. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005556404636
  • Lassiter, G. D., & Meissner, C. A. (2010), (Eds.). Police interrogations and false confessions: Current research, practice, and policy implications. American Psychological Association.
  • Lassiter, G. D., Ware, L. J., Lindberg, M. J., & Ratcliffe, J. J. (2010). Videotaping custodial interrogations: Toward a scientifically based policy. In G. D. Lassiter & C. A. Meissner (Eds.), Police interrogations and false confessions: Current research, practice, and policy implications (pp. 143-160). American Psychological Association. https://doi. org/10.1037/12085-009
  • Leo, R. A., & Drizin, S. A. (2010). The three errors: Pathways to false confession and wrongful conviction. In D. G. Lassiter & C. Meissner (Eds.), Police interrogations and false confessions: Current research, practice, and policy recommendations (pp. 9-30). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/12085-001
  • Levine, T. R., Daiku, Y., & Masip, J. (2021). The number of senders and total judgments matter more than sample size in deception detection experiments. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(1), 191-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691621990369
  • Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal [Criminal Prosecution Law] (1882, September 17). Gaceta de Madrid, 260. https://www.boe.es/eli/es/ rd/1882/09/14/(1)/con
  • Luke, T. J. (2019). Lessons from Pinocchio: Cues to deception may be highly exaggerated. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(4), 646-671. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619838258
  • Manzanero, A. L., Quintana, J. M., & Contreras, M. J. (2015). (The null) importance of police experience on intuitive credibility of people with intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 36, 191-197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.009
  • Martín, F., & Álvarez, J. R. (2011). Metodología del atestado policial. Aspectos procesales y jurisprudenciales [Methodology of the police report. Procedural and jurisprudential aspects] (5th ed.). Tecnos.
  • Martínez, A. (2018). Confesión policial y prueba penal: El valor procesal de las declaraciones autoinculpatorias realizadas ante la policía [Confession to the police and criminal evidence: The procedural value of self-incriminatory statements made to the police]. Revista General de Derecho Procesal, 45. https://www.iustel.com/v2/revistas/detalle_ revista.asp?id_noticia=420196
  • Masip, J. (2017). Deception detection: State of the art and future prospects. Psicothema, 29(2), 149-159. https://doi.org/10.7334/ psicothema2017.34
  • Masip, J., Alonso, H., Herrero, C., & Garrido, E. (2016). Experienced and novice officers’ generalized communication suspicion and veracity judgments. Law and Human Behavior, 40(2), 169-181. https://doi. org/10.1037/lhb0000169
  • Masip, J., Barba, A., & Herrero, C. (2012). Behaviour analysis interview and common sense. A study with novice and experienced officers. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 19(1), 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13218719.2010.543402
  • Masip, J., & Herrero, C. (2015). Police detection of deception: Beliefs about behavioral cues to deception are strong even though contextual evidence is more useful. Journal of Communication, 65(1), 125-145. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12135
  • Masip, J., & Herrero, C. (2017). Examining police officers’ response bias in judging veracity. Psicothema, 29(4), 490-495. https://doi.org/10.7334/ psicothema2016.357
  • Meissner, C. A., & Kassin, S. M. (2002). “He’s guilty!”: Investigator bias in judgments of truth and deception. Law and Human Behavior, 26(5), 469-480. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020278620751
  • Meissner, C. A., Redlich, A. D., Michael, S. W., Evans, J. R., Camilletti, C. R., Bhatt, S., & Brandon, S. (2014). Accusatorial and information-gathering interrogation methods and their effects on true and false confessions: A Meta-analytic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 459-486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9207-6
  • Meissner, C. A., Surmon-Böhr, F., Oleszkiewicz, S., & Alison, L. J. (2017). Developing an evidence-based perspective on interrogation: A review of the US government’s High-value Detainee Interrogation Group research program. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 23(4), 438-457. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000136
  • Milne, R., & Bull, R. (1999). Investigative interviewing. Psychology and practice. Wiley.
  • Ministerio del Interior. (n.d. a). Policía Nacional. Conócenos [National Police. Know us]. https://www.policia.es/_es/tupolicia_conocenos.php
  • Ministerio del Interior (n.d. b). Guardia Civil. About us. https://www. guardiacivil.es/en/institucional/Conocenos/misiones/index.html
  • National Registry of Exonerations (n.d.). False confessions. https://www. law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/False-Confessions.aspx
  • Nieva, J. (2007). El discutido valor probatorio de las diligencias policiales [The controversial evidentiary value of police proceedings]. La Ley: Revista Jurídica Española de Doctrina, Jurisprudencia y Bibliografía, 4, 1652-1666.
  • Pan, Y., & De La Puente, M. (2005). Census Bureau guideline for the translation of data collection instruments and supporting materials: Documentation on how the guideline was developed. Survey Methodology, 6. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/ library/working-papers/2005/adrm/rsm2005-06.pdf
  • Sporer, S. L., & Schwandt, B. (2006). Paraverbal indicators of deception: A meta-analytic synthesis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(4), 421- 446. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1190
  • Sporer, S. L., & Schwandt, B. (2007). Moderators of nonverbal indicators of deception: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 13(1), 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.13.1.1
  • Strömwall, L., Granhag, P. A., & Hartwig, M. (2004). Practitioners’ beliefs about deception. In P. A. Granhag & L. A. Strömwall (Eds.), Deception detection in forensic contexts (pp. 229-250). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490071.010
  • Sukumar, D., & Kassin, S. (2017, January). The penalty of silence: Perceptions of suspects who invoke their Miranda rights during police questioning. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Sydney, Australia.
  • Taranilla, R. (2011). Análisis lingüístico de la transcripción del relato de los hechos en el interrogatorio policial [Linguistic analysis of the transcript of the description of the event during the police interrogation]. Estudios de Lingüística Universidad de Alicante, 25, 101-134. https:// doi.org/10.14198/ELUA2011.25.04
  • Vanderhallen, M., Schell-Leugers, J. M., Maegherman, E., Kaesler, N., van Hooff, B., & Kassin, S. M. (in press). Verdachtenverhoren in Nederland door de bril van de verhoorder: Zelfrapportage over de ervaringen en opvattingen van verhoorders [Suspect interviews in the Netherlands through the lens of the interrogator: Self-reported experiences and views of interrogators]. Delikt en Delinkwent.
  • Vrij, A., Meissner, C. A., Fisher, R. P., Kassin, S. M., Morgan III, C. A., & Kleinman, S. M. (2017). Psychological perspectives on interrogation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 927-955. https://doi. org/10.1177/1745691617706515