ICPS

2021 APS Virtual Convention · 2021

Show and Tell: Observers Struggle to Discount Suspects' Confessions and Guided Reenactments

Virtual · May 2021

Posters · Research Proposal

  • Gabriela Rico
    John Jay College of Criminal Justice
  • Gabriela Rico
    The Graduate Center, CUNY
  • Saul Kassin
    John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Abstract

Innocent suspects may physically “reenact” crimes they did not commit at the request of an interrogator seeking to corroborate their oral confession. In two studies, we found that oral confessions substantially increased convictions even without a reenactment and that observers did not discount reenactments that were guided by an interrogator.