Liberty and (In)Justice for All: An Overview of Wrongful Convictions in the United States: Secondary Sources

Before a researcher delves into the reasons why people are wrongfully convicted, I seriously urge him or her to take a serious look at who the criminal (in)justice system in the United States hurts the most. People of color make up about 37 percent of the United States population, but make up about 67 percent of those incarcerated in the U.S. One cannot do accurate and good faith research on wrongful convictions without first acknowledging the systemic racism through which our criminal (in)justice system wields its power.

Although it is generally believed that wrongful convictions based on false confessions are relatively rare—the 1989 Central Park jogger "wilding" case being the most notorious example—recent exonerations of the innocent through DNA testing are increasing at a rate that few in the criminal justice system might have speculated. Because of the growing realization of the false confession phenomenon, psychologists, sociologists, and legal/law-enforcement scholars and practitioners have begun to examine the factors embedded in American criminal investigations and interrogations that may lead innocent people to implicate themselves in crimes they did not commit. Police interrogations and false confessions brings together a group of renowned scholars and practitioners in the fields of social psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, criminology, clinical-forensic psychology, and law to examine three salient dimensions of false confessions: interrogation tactics and the problem of false confessions; review of Supreme Court decisions regarding Miranda warnings and custodial interrogations; and new research on juvenile confessions and deception in interrogative interviews. Chapters include well-recognized programs of research on the topics of interrogative interviewing, false confessions, the detection of deception in forensic interviews, individual differences, and clinical-forensic evaluations. The book concludes with policy recommendations to attenuate the institutional and social psychological persistence (and pervasiveness) of the various inducements and impediments that have informed law enforcement's interrogation techniques and the types of false confessions they encourage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

This article examines the recommended changes to lineup reforms outlined by eyewitness researchers and the impact of these reforms on public policy as reflected in national guidelines for police identification procedures (Technical Working Group for Eyewitness Evidence, 1999). The limitations of these reforms are discussed. Alternative "best practices" for social science researchers, as well as for police, are proposed to minimize false-positive lineup selections and, consequently, convictions of innocent persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).