Expert Psychological Testimony on the Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions

Abstract

As the research in the field of the psychology of interrogations and confessions begins to grow it is to be expected that defense attorneys will increasingly look to forensic psychologists of both social psychology and clinical psychology backgrounds to provide expert testimony to triers of fact in cases in which a false confession is alleged to have been made. In that sense, we can expect that the case law will parallel the development of case law in the area of eyewitness identification, will be subject to the same tests, and will be subject to the same sorts of arguments both for and against admissibility. These cases have already begun to be reported; it is the intent of this chapter to look at the state of the law in this area as of the middle of 2003. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)