Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

52 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
Unlike Inbau, Reid and Buckley (1986), Walkley acknowledged that some
interrogation techniques can result in a false confession being elicited. He states:
Perhaps even more powerfully, if an interviewer wrongly assesses the truth teller
as a lie teller he may subject that suspect to questioning of a type which induces
a false confession. Whilst instances of false confessions may not be as common
as some would have us believe, there are well documented cases where they have
occurred, and apart from the obvious damage they do to the suspect they also bring
the police service and the legitimate practice of interrogation into disrepute (p. 5).
Walkley’s comments imply recognition that police officers can misjudge deception
(i.e. they are not infallible in reading the ‘lie’ and ‘buy’ signs); when this
occurs it influences the tactics they use to break down resistance, this in turn
increases the likelihood of a false confession occurring, and brings the practice
of interrogation into disrepute.
Walkley’s interrogation handbook did not meet with much enthusiasm in
Britain and it does not appear to have had much impact on police training and
interrogation techniques used by police interviewers. There were a number of
reasons for this, as follows.
1. Changes in police practice following the introduction of PACE and Codes
of Practice for police officers, which reduced the scope for coercive questioning,
and the use of deception, trickery and psychological manipulation
(Bull, 1999; McKenzie, 1994; Mortimer & Shepherd, 1999; Williamson,
1994).
2. Research into false confessions and psychological vulnerability
(Gudjonsson, 1983, 1984a, 1984b, 1992a; Gudjonsson & MacKeith, 1982,
1988, 1990), and the increased recognition by the judiciary that ‘wrongful
convictions may be occasioned by false confessions and psychological
vulnerability’ (Corre, 1995, p. 9).
3. The successful appeal of the ‘Guildford Four’ in October 1989 and
‘Birmingham Six’ in March 1991 raised public and judicial awareness about
wrongful convictions arising from coerced confessions (Gudjonsson, 1992a).
This was followed in May 1992 by the successful appeal of Judith Ward
(Gudjonsson & MacKeith, 1997; Kennedy, 1992; Ward, 1993). These three
cases, dating back to 1974, all involved major terrorist offences and multiple
deaths of members of the public. The case of the ‘Birmingham Six’ led
to the setting up of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1993).
4. Increased acceptance by the English Crown Courts of expert psychological
evidence in the late 1980s, followed by the successful appeal of the
‘Tottenham Three’ in December 1991 (R. v. Raghip, The Independent, Friday
6 December 1991, p. 19; Rose, 1992; see Chapter 18 in this book). For the
admissibility of psychological evidence in cases of disputed confessions, and
the introduction of the concept of ‘interrogative suggestibility’, this was the
most important and influential judgment and is discussed in Part III along
with other more recent judgments.
5. In December 1992 there was an important and influential legal judgment
concerning ‘oppressive’ police interviewing in the case of the ‘Cardiff Three’