The hidden consequences of racial salience in videotaped interrogations and confessions.

Ratcliff, Jennifer J.; Lassiter, G. Daniel; Jager, Victoria M.; Lindberg, Matthew J.; Elek, Jennifer K.; Hasinski, Adam E.

doi:10.1037/a0018482

Cited by 15 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Indeed, activating the social category Black has been demonstrated to have negative consequences on legal judgments [12] . The effect of attention and perceptions of guilt is especially salient for minority groups [26] , so priming attention to minority racial groups in a judicial setting is particularly troublesome. Similarly, because Black has been shown to be implicitly associated with Guilty, compared to White and Not Guilty, it would be surprising if this finding were completely reversed in the current research paradigm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innocent until Primed: Mock Jurors' Racially Biased Response to the Presumption of Innocence

2014

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BackgroundResearch has shown that crime concepts can activate attentional bias to Black faces. This study investigates the possibility that some legal concepts hold similar implicit racial cues. Presumption of innocence instructions, a core legal principle specifically designed to eliminate bias, may instead serve as an implicit racial cue resulting in attentional bias.Methodology/Principal findingsThe experiment was conducted in a courtroom with participants seated in the jury box. Participants first watched a video of a federal judge reading jury instructions that contained presumption of innocence instructions, or matched length alternative instructions. Immediately following this video a dot-probe task was administered to assess the priming effect of the jury instructions. Presumption of innocence instructions, but not the alternative instructions, led to significantly faster response times to Black faces when compared with White faces.Conclusions/SignificanceThese findings suggest that the core principle designed to ensure fairness in the legal system actually primes attention for Black faces, indicating that this supposedly fundamental protection could trigger racial stereotypes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innocent until Primed: Mock Jurors' Racially Biased Response to the Presumption of Innocence

2014

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“…Such stereotypes may directly increase the perceived truth of a suspect's confession, as several studies have shown. For instance, Ratcliff and Lassiter ( 2010 ) showed participants scripted videotaped interrogations of Black, Chinese, or White suspects conducted by a White interrogator. The defendant confessed to a hit-and-run offense.…”

Section: Judging the Confession: Is It Voluntary And True?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogation and the Minority Suspect: Pathways to True and False Confession

Villalobos

Davis

2016

Advances in Psychology and Law

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Eddie Torbio-Ruiz was asked to come to the police station in Reno, Nevada, voluntarily, to discuss allegations that he had sexually molested his girlfriend's two underage granddaughters. Although Eddie's native language was Spanish and he spoke English poorly, he was interrogated by English-speaking Detective Curtis Lampert. After asking a series of background questions, Lampert began an accusatory interrogation designed to cause Eddie to admit to the accusations against him. Throughout the interrogation, Lampert spoke faster than even native English speakers would understand easily. Though Eddie appeared superfi cially to understand Lampert, his problems with understanding became clearer as the interrogation progressed.Eddie initially denied all allegations, but Detective Lampert was a master interrogator who very cleverly enacted strategies interrogation scholars have shown to promote both true and false confessions. As Lampert used these strategies to move Eddie from denial to admission, Eddie appeared to admit to sexually abusive behaviors with the girls. But at several points he answered "yes" to questions or assertions that he had committed specifi c actions toward the girls, only to answer with a vehement "Oh, no!" when asked the very same question only a short time later. At many points in the interrogation, it was diffi cult to clearly infer that he knew what he had been asked, what he was responding to, or whether he and Detective Lampert were talking about the same things. Perhaps the clearest indicator of Eddie's misunderstanding came after he had been charged. When his attorney, Jennifer Lunt, tried to tell him the implications of his confession, Eddie denied that

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“…Participants then watched the interrogation video. The interrogation video was obtained from G. Daniel Lassiter, and a similar version has been used in previous research (e.g., Ratcliff et al, 2010). The video was derived from a transcript used in prior research (Kassin & McNall, 1991), and filmed from an equal-focus camera perspective (i.e., both the interrogator and suspect profiles were visible).…”

Section: Trial Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the judicial decision to substitute credibility instructions for expert testimony on confessions

Gomes

Stenstrom

Calvillo

2014

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose The present study tested the judicial decision to deny false confession expert testimony on the basis that jury instructions are sufficient to aid jurors in their determinations of disputed confession evidence. Methods Three groups of mock jurors (N = 150) were presented with a trial summary that included a videotaped re‐enactment of an interrogation in which the interrogator used a maximization ploy. One group received expert testimony in the trial summary, another group received credibility instructions, and a control group received neither. All participants received standard reasonable doubt instructions at the end of the trial summary and then answered questions such as their verdict in the case, the defendant's likelihood of guilt, and the voluntariness of the defendant's confession. Results The results showed a high rate of conviction that was only reduced when participants received expert testimony. Across all measures, no significant differences were found between the control and credibility instruction groups. Conclusions The results suggest that credibility instructions are not comparable to expert testimony in influencing jurors' judgments of disputed confession evidence. These findings do not support the judicial decision to deny expert testimony on the basis that credibility instructions alone are sufficient to aid potential jurors in their evaluations of confession evidence. Avenues for future research on expert testimony and jury instructions in confession cases are discussed.

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The hidden consequences of racial salience in videotaped interrogations and confessions.

Cited by 15 publications

References 64 publications

Innocent until Primed: Mock Jurors' Racially Biased Response to the Presumption of Innocence

Innocent until Primed: Mock Jurors' Racially Biased Response to the Presumption of Innocence

Interrogation and the Minority Suspect: Pathways to True and False Confession

Examining the judicial decision to substitute credibility instructions for expert testimony on confessions

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