Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

318 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
Police officers do sometimes experience problems when interviewing people
who suffer from learning disability and some are so disabled that they are not
fit to be interviewed (Gudjonsson, Murphy & Clare, 2000). This problem arises
because their condition may impair their ability to give a detailed and coherent
account of events to the police. They may have problems with remembering the
material event, become confused when questioned, have problems understanding
the questions and articulating their answers, not fully appreciating the
implications and consequences of their answers (Clare & Gudjonsson, 1995;
Gudjonsson, 1999b). They may also feel easily intimidated when questioned
by people in authority (Gudjonsson, 1995d; Gudjonsson & MacKeith, 1994),
often they do not understand their legal rights (Clare, Gudjonsson & Harari,
1998; Fenner, Gudjonsson & Clare, 2002), and they tend to be acquiescent and
suggestible (Clare & Gudjonsson, 1995). In view of the potential importance
of learning disability in relation to custodial interrogation and confession, a
detailed review of the relevant issues and material is given below.
Bull and Cullen (1992, 1993) and Kebbell and Hatton (1999) have written
important papers on how to identify witnesses with learning disability and
on how to improve their performance during police interviewing and court attendence.
Clare and Gudjonsson (1993), Dent (1986), Henry and Gudjonsson
(1999, submitted), Perlman, Ericson, Esses and Isaacs (1994) and Tully and
Cahill (1984) have all shown the kinds of problem that persons with learning
disability have with reporting events by free recall and the extent to which they
can be influenced by leading questions. Clare and Gudjonsson (1993) showed
that persons with learning disability are particularly susceptible to yielding to
leading questions and they are more prone to confabulate with regard to verbal
memory recall.
‘Cognitive interview’ techniques developed and refined by Fisher and
Geiselman (1992) can enhance the recall of witness, victims and cooperative
suspects (Memon, 1999). Milne, Clare and Bull (1999) provide evidence that
the cognitive interview techniques can be effectively used in cases of children
and adults with learning disability. This is an area where psychological research
has had an important impact on police practice (Milne, 1999).
The concept of personality disorder is an important psychiatric diagnosis
in connection with a number of cases of disputed confessions since the case of
Judith Ward (see Chapter 18). Personality disorder may represent an important
psychological vulnerability among some witnesses and suspects in that they
appear to have an enhanced tendency to confabulate in their memory recall
(Smith & Gudjonsson, 1995a, 1995b) and more readily make false confessions
as a part of their criminal lifestyle and (Sigurdsson & Gudjonsson, 1997).
Abnormal Mental State
Suspects may suffer from an abnormal mental state, which may adversely influence
the reliability of their testimony, without their having had a history of
mental disorder. Apart from feelings of extreme anxiety, detainees may experience
specific phobic symptoms, such as claustrophobia (i.e. an irrational fear
of being locked up in a confined space such as a police cell) or panic attacks
(e.g. drug addicts panicking when they are withdrawing from drugs). In the