Deck 3: The Psychology of Police Investigations

Question 1

One of the major goals of a police interrogation in North America is to:

A) build rapport with the suspect
B) identify whether the suspect can understand their legal rights
C) clear other unsolved cases
D) threaten the suspect with harsh sanctions
E) secure a confession from the suspect

Answer 1

secure a confession from the suspect

Question 2

An innocent suspect is interrogated for 18 hours without food or water.The suspect is told by the investigator that he can get up and leave once "he comes clean." The suspect is exhausted and confesses.What type of confession has just occurred?

A) a voluntary false confession
B) a coerced-compliant false confession
C) a compliant-internalized false confession
D) a coerced-internalized false confession
E) a confabulated false confession

Answer 2

a coerced-compliant false confession

Question 3

? While interrogating Sam Suspect,Officer Sipowitz states,"Look,they should never leave liquor in a store window to tempt honest guys like you and me." Officer Sipowitz's statement is an example of which category of interrogation tactic?

A) minimization
B) maximization
C) a scare tactic
D) a baiting question
E) good cop-bad cop

Answer 3

minimization

Question 4

Which of the following statements is true with respect to the findings of King and Snook's (2009)examination of Canadian interrogations?

A) Canadian interrogations appear to be extremely coercive.
B) Components of the Reid model are frequently used in Canadian interrogations.
C) Canadian police interrogators frequently exaggerate the seriousness of offences.
D) It appears that some suspects were not read their legal rights.
E) Interrogations lasting more than 12 hours were not uncommon.

Question 5

When questioned by police,John confesses to a burglary that occurred on his street.Later,when his defence attorney is preparing his case for court,John declares the confession he gave to the police was false.This is an example of:

A) a coerced-compliant false confession
B) a coerced-internalized false confession
C) a retracted confession
D) a voluntary false confession
E) a disputed confession

Question 6

Recent research in Canada has examined the degree to which people understand their right to silence and their right to legal counsel (Eastwood & Snook,2010).What did these researchers find?

A) In general, people had difficulty understanding their rights.
B) Presenting legal rights in written format appears to increase comprehension of those rights.
C) Presenting legal rights one element at a time appears to increase comprehension of those rights.
D) Self-reported confidence in one's own comprehension of one's legal rights is not a good predictor of actual comprehension.
E) all of the above

Question 7

Coerced-internalized false confessions are typically characterized by:

A) a vulnerable suspect
B) exposure to highly suggestible questions
C) an attention-seeking suspect
D) exposure to physically coercive interrogation techniques
E) both a and b

Question 8

There are a number of potential problems with the Reid model of interrogation.These include which of the following?

A) The techniques included in the Reid model will rarely be approved of by the courts.
B) The Reid model incorrectly assumes that investigators can accurately detect when a suspect is lying.
C) The techniques used in the Reid model decrease the chance that people will falsely confess.
D) The Reid model increases the likelihood that interrogators will be biased when entering the interrogation stage of the process.
E) both b and d

Question 9

As related to police interrogations,Kassin and his colleagues (2003)discovered several important findings regarding investigator bias.Which of the following was not one of their conclusions?

A) Interrogators with guilty expectations tend to use a higher frequency of interrogation techniques compared to interrogators with innocent expectations.
B) Suspects generally have accurate perceptions of the investigator's expectations of guilt or innocence.
C) Neutral observers tend to view interrogators with guilty expectations as more coercive, especially against suspects who are actually guilty.
D) Neutral observers tend to view suspects being interrogated by an officer with guilty expectations as being more defensive.
E) Interrogators with guilty expectations tend to ask more questions that convey their belief of guilt.

Question 10

Which of the following was not identified by Gudjonsson (1992)as a vulnerability factor associated with the occurrence of voluntary false confessions?

A) the confessor's need to make up for pathological feelings of guilt
B) the confessor's desire for notoriety
C) the confessor's desire to protect someone else
D) the confessor's level of suggestibility
E) the confessor's inability to distinguish fact from fantasy

Question 11

The model of police interrogation used in North America is ___________ and the model used in Britain is ___________.

A) accusatorial/accusatorial
B) inquisitorial/admissible
C) inquisitorial/accusatorial
D) accusatorial/inquisitorial
E) inadmissible/admissible

Question 12

In the United States,a suspect's legal rights in the context of an interrogation are often called:

A) Marianne rights
B) Monica rights
C) Miranda rights
D) Marissa rights
E) Melissa rights

Question 13

According to your textbook,which type of false confession is most common?

A) voluntary
B) coerced-compliant
C) coerced-internalized
D) retracted
E) disputed

Question 14

One of the main issues in the case Brown vs.Mississippi (1936)was:

A) the use of physical coercion to obtain a confession
B) the use of criminal profiling in court
C) the standard for admitting expert testimony
D) the right to plead not guilty by reason of insanity
E) both a and c

Question 15

In order to be admitted as evidence in Canadian courts,confessions must be ________________ and the confessor must be _______________.

A) given voluntarily/at least 21 years old
B) written down/competent
C) provided when a lawyer is present/supported by corroborative evidence
D) given voluntarily/competent
E) provided when a lawyer is present/at least 21 years old

Question 16

In Canada,which of the following police interrogation practices would not be acceptable by legal standards?

A) exaggerating the infallibility of polygraph tests
B) minimizing the seriousness of the crimes that were committed
C) implying that psychiatric assistance can be made available if the suspect confesses
D) depriving the suspect of sleep
E) none of the above are legally condoned

Question 17

An innocent suspect is interrogated for 22 hours about a life-threatening injury to her young infant.She keeps asking if she can go to the hospital to see her daughter,but is refused.The police investigator says that she can see her daughter when she confesses and that if she cooperates she will be given a lenient sentence.Although she knows she is innocent,she confesses.This is an example of a:

A) voluntary false confession
B) coerced-internalized false confession
C) coerced-compliant false confession
D) confabulated confession
E) none of the above

Question 18

Maximization techniques are also called _______ tactics; minimization techniques are also called ________ tactics.

A) soft sell/scare
B) heavy/compassion
C) scare/soft sell
D) compassion/scare
E) intimidation/sympathy

Question 19

Good cop-bad cop strategies are equivalent to:

A) minimization and maximization techniques
B) rapport building and minimization
C) rapport building and forced-hand techniques
D) suggestibility and coercion
E) none of the above

Question 20

Beverly steals a turkey from the local grocery store.When interrogated by the police,she confesses to stealing the turkey.During her trial,the confession is thrown out because Beverly was not properly read her rights upon arrest.What term best describes this confession?

A) a coerced-compliant false confession
B) a coerced-internalized false confession
C) a retracted confession
D) a voluntary false confession
E) a disputed confession

Question 21

List the two primary goals of a police interrogation.In addition,describe the three types of false confessions that can result from North American-style police interrogation techniques,making it very clear how they differ from one another.

Question 22

Distinguish between a retracted confession and a disputed confession.

Question 23

What is the equation specified by Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990)that describes the process of criminal profiling?
Define or explain each component of the equation.

Question 24

Distinguish between deductive criminal profiling and inductive criminal profiling.Identify a problem associated with each method.

Question 25

In the domain of geographic profiling,it is more likely that a __________ can be accurately profiled than a __________.

A) travelling offender/non-travelling offender
B) non-travelling offender/travelling offender
C) non-serial offender/serial offender
D) serial offender/sequential offender
E) commuter/marauder

Question 26

Criminal profiling is likely to be least useful in cases involving:

A) serial homicide
B) serial rape
C) serial burglary
D) a serial offender with severe psychopathology
E) both b and c

Question 27

Define what is meant by minimization and maximization techniques and provide one example of each technique.

Question 28

The RCMP's VICLAS system was primarily established in an attempt to remedy the problem of:

A) linkage blindness
B) ambiguous profiles
C) racial profiling
D) police officer bias
E) geographic profiling

Question 29

Which of the following is the basic assumption underlying geographic profiling?

A) Offenders will commit their crimes in their immediate neighbourhood.
B) Offenders tend not to travel far from home to commit their crimes.
C) Offenders only target areas they know very well.
D) Offenders travel far distances from home to commit crimes to avoid detection.
E) Offenders will sometimes move residences while committing a series of crimes.

Question 30

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a disorganized offender?

A) lives far away from his crimes
B) lives alone
C) does not have vehicle
D) is sexually inadequate
E) has little interest in the media

Question 31

Rigel is one of the most commonly used geographic profiling systems.Who developed this system?

A) David Canter
B) James Brussel
C) Richard Kocsis
D) Brent Snook
E) Kim Rossmo

Question 32

Define criminal profiling in general terms and provide five goals of criminal profiling.

Question 33

Richard Kocsis and his colleagues (2000)conducted a study on the accuracy of professional profilers relative to groups of psychologists,police officers,students,and psychics.Results of this study suggest that:

A) Professional profilers were much more accurate in their construction of profiles compared to all the other groups.
B) The performance of professional profilers was about the same as all the other groups.
C) Professional profilers and psychologists performed about equally well.
D) Professional profilers and police officers performed about equally well.
E) Psychologists were much more accurate than professional profilers.

Question 34

Which of the following was not proposed as a goal of criminal profiling in your textbook?

A) flushing out the offender
B) prioritizing suspects
C) identifying new lines of inquiry
D) providing evidence of guilt in court
E) developing strategies for suspect interrogation

Question 35

According to your textbook,what is the primary disadvantage associated with the inductive method of criminal profiling?

A) It will never be possible to obtain a representative sample of serial offenders upon which to draw profiling conclusions.
B) The logical foundations upon which the profiling predictions are based might be flawed.
C) Data related to serial homicide cases does not exist.
D) The method is too vague.
E) No profiler uses the inductive method of profiling.

Question 36

The FBI's organized-disorganized approach to criminal profiling is based on a particular model of personality.This model is called the:

A) five-factor model
B) conditional trait model
C) situationist model
D) classic trait model
E) schema model

Question 37

In a study by Kassin and Keichel (1996),students were brought into the lab in order to examine the phenomenon of false confessions.Subjects were accused of committing a crime (hitting a forbidden computer key)that they had in fact not committed.Two factors were manipulated: the participant's level of vulnerability and whether false evidence was presented.What did this research find?

A) Participants never exhibited compliance when accused of the crime.
B) Participants presented with false evidence were more likely to internalize their guilt.
C) Participants presented with false evidence were less likely to confabulate details.
D) The presence of false evidence had no influence on compliance or internalization.
E) none of the above

Question 38

The first known criminal investigation where criminal profiling was used was:

A) the New York Mad Bomber investigation in the 1950s
B) the Jack the Ripper murders in the 1880s
C) the John Duffy serial rape case in the 1980s
D) the Ted Bundy serial murders in the 1970s
E) profiling was not used in any of these cases

Question 39

What is the name of the interrogation model that is most often taught to police officers in North America?
Briefly describe the model's three stages.

Question 40

According to Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990),the process of profiling described in equation form is:

A) WHO + WHY = WHAT
B) WHAT + WHY = WHO
C) WHAT + WHEN = WHO
D) WHO + WHERE = WHAT
E) WHAT + WHO = WHY

Question 41

List five crime scene behaviours that are assumed to relate to organized offenders and five crime scene behaviours that are assumed to related to disorganized offenders.

Question 42

State three general criticisms of criminal profiling.