Suggestibility in Legal Contexts: Psychological Research and Forensic Implications

Suggestibility in Legal Contexts is a comprehensive guide to the theory, research and forensic implications related to suggestibility in legal contexts. It traces the history of the topic from the early twentieth century to the present, including its post–1970s resurgence after the publication of the seminal research of Elizabeth Loftus.

The text engages with the investigative and theoretical controversies that have attended the subject, including controversial topics such as recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse in adulthood, and coerced or false confessions.

Core chapters are structured thematically and cover salient aspects of the field such as research on immediate versus delayed suggestibility; memory conformity and the relationship between suggestibility and vulnerability factors including age, intellectual disabilities, personality and memory.  The text also outlines witness interview techniques that can reduce the effect of suggested evidence in legal cases.

Series Preface xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xv

1 Suggestibility: A History and Introduction 1
Anne M. Ridley

2 The Misinformation Effect: Past Research and Recent Advances 21
Quin M. Chrobak and Maria S. Zaragoza

3 Interrogative Suggestibility and Compliance 45
Gisli H. Gudjonsson

4 Suggestibility and Memory Conformity 63
Fiona Gabbert and Lorraine Hope

5 Suggestibility and Individual Differences: Psychosocial and Memory Measures 85
Anne M. Ridley and Gisli H. Gudjonsson

6 Recovered Memories and Suggestibility for Entire Events 107
James Ost

7 Suggestibility and Individual Differences in Typically Developing and Intellectually Disabled Children 129
Kamala London, Lucy A. Henry, Travis Conradt and Ryan Corser

8 Suggestibility in Vulnerable Groups: Witnesses with Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Older People 149
Katie L. Maras and Rachel Wilcock

9 Acute Suggestibility in Police Interrogation: Self–regulation Failure as a Primary Mechanism of Vulnerability 171
Deborah Davis and Richard A. Leo

10 Suggestibility and Witness Interviewing using the Cognitive Interview and NICHD Protocol 197
David J. La Rooy, Deirdre Brown and Michael E. Lamb

11 Suggestibility in Legal Contexts: What Do We Know? 217
Anne M. Ridley, Fiona Gabbert and David J. La Rooy

Index 229

Anne Ridley is Principal Lecturer in Psychology at London South Bank University, UK, with particular interest in individual differences in witness suggestibility as well as strategies for supporting vulnerable witnesses in the legal system. In 2008 she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy.

Fiona Gabbert is a Reader in Psychology at the University of Abertay Dundee, UK. She is an expert in the area of social influences on memory, and has published widely on this topic, including a chapter on memory conformity in the current book. Another of Fiona s interests is developing methods to obtain reliable evidence from eyewitnesses. She received an Academic Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Area of Investigative Interviewing in 2011.

David La Rooy is a Reader in Psychology at the University of Abertay Dundee, UK. He is also a Scottish Institute for Policing Research Lecturer and his research focuses on issues surrounding the forensic interviewing of children. He teaches evidence–based investigative–interviewing and oversees the university s degree course in Forensic Psychobiology.