Customer Development Interviews for the Interview and Interrogation Assessment Instrument

This research is being conducted by a team of forensic psychologists working on a project to advance the way expert witnesses evaluate interrogations for coercion and risk factors for false confession. There is a solid base of research on coercive interrogation practices and on factors that may result in individuals being more vulnerable to coercion and false confession (e.g., youth, individuals with mental illness), yet, unlike other areas of forensic psychological assessment there exists no standardized way of evaluating coercion in police interrogations. We aim to enhance current practices by providing an objective and reliable measure of coercion and voluntariness in interviews and interrogations, and advance that goal by interviewing 90 experts in interrogations and confession evidence. When completed, our Interview and Interrogation Assessment InstrumentTM to improve the way that the courts weigh confession evidence and make findings clearer to judges and jurors, making them better legal decision makers.

Faculty Supervisor:

Joseph Eastwood

Student:

Jeffrey Kaplan

Partner:

Incubate Innovate Network of Canada

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Ontario Tech University