Critical Reading - False Confessions
Critical reading assignments evaluate how well you can summarize key concepts in academic papers. You are going to be graded on your ability to put the answers to each question INTO YOUR OWN WORDS. I am not interested in how well you can hunt out answers and copy them into a word document - I need to know that you understand the material. Rarely (if ever) should you quote directly from the reading, and copying without proper paraphrasing is considered plagiarism and will result in a zero on the assignment and possibly an "F" in the course.
Read - Kassin, S. (2005). On the psychology of confessions: Does innocence put innocents at risk? American Psychologist, 60(3), 215-228
Read the above article and respond to these questions
1. BRIEFLY describe what happened in the Central Park Jogger case.
2. What verbal cues, nonverbal cues, and behavioral attitudes are investigators directed to attend to by Inbau, Reid, Buckley, and Jane? How accurate do they claim investigators can be if they attend to these cues?
3. Summarize the laboratory research on people's performance in detecting deception.
4. Summarize the Kassin and Fong (1999) study.
5. Roughly how many suspects waive their Miranda rights? What are two possible explanations, as presented by Kassin?
6. What does it mean to say that interrogation is a "guilt-presumptive process"?
7. Summarize the Kassin, Goldstein, & Savitsky (2003) study.
8. Describe the three types of false confessions as introduced by Kassin and Wrightsman (1985).
9. Describe the three processes involved in the Reid technique.
10. Kassin says there are three reasons to be pessimistic about whether or not individual people can detect deception. What are these reasons?
11. In proposing reforms for the system, what three reforms does Kassin most recommend for interrogation procedures and why?
12. What does Kassin say are the advantages to videotaping interrogations?
13. What do you think about the proposed reforms? Are they necessary? Why or why not?