PSY 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Voir Dire, Peremptory Challenge, Forensic Science

• School: Stony Brook University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 240
• Professor: Sirena Ibrahim

Document Summary

Looking to prove a person is guilty rather than searching for the truth. Pressure suspect into submission by expressing certainty of guilt. There is e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e that people (cid:272)o(cid:374)fess to (cid:272)ri(cid:373)es they did(cid:374)"t (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)it. Disoriented, low self-estee(cid:373), to prote(cid:272)t so(cid:373)eo(cid:374)e, (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t afford a la(cid:449)yer, (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t i(cid:374)telle(cid:272)tually. May confess merely to escape a bad or stressful situation. Two factors can increase the risk of false confessions: Internalization can lead innocent suspects to believe they might be guilty of the crime. Lack of a clear memory of the event in question. Interrogation is basically an extreme form of social influence. Extreme situations (e. g. no sleep, interrogated for 20 hours) 5 teenagers falsely confessed to a brutal rape in 1989. Asked to press keys, told alt key was faulty (would crash computer) Experimenter blamed participant, asked them to sign a confession for hitting the alt key. Of the i(cid:374)(cid:374)o(cid:272)e(cid:374)t parti(cid:272)ipa(cid:374)ts (cid:272)o(cid:374)fessed to hitti(cid:374)g the key (cid:449)he(cid:374) they did(cid:374)"t.