Why are people of colour at a higher risk of falsely confessing? Answers from the psychology of prejudice?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26481/marble.2013.v3.153Abstract
Almost three in four wrongful conviction cases concern defendants of colour – a statistic which seems to be partly explained by the greater number of false confessions cases in this group. Among them, there are five adolescents who spent many years in prison after falsely confessing to a brutal rape in New York’s Central Park. Why were they and why are other people of colour at a higher risk of falsely confessing? To answer this question, I discuss approaches from the psychology of prejudice and their possible relationship to false confessions. Can stereotypes about Black men as criminals increase the pressure on suspects of colour in police interrogation? Do stereotypes make suspects of colour appear more nervous in interrogation? Do White police officers tend to assume the guilt of suspects of another race? Based on evidence from psychological studies, I evaluate in how far each of these approaches explains the overrepresentation of people of colour in false confession cases.
References
Allport, G. W. (1954/1979). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Anwar, S., Bayer, P., & Hjalmarsson, R. (2012). The impact of jury race in criminal trials. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127, 1017-1055
Billig, M., & Tajfel, H. (1973). Social categorization and similarity in intergroup behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 3, 27-52.
Burns, K., Burns, S., & McMahon, D. (2012). The central park five [Motion picture]. United States: IFC Films.
Cadinu, M. R., & Rothbart, M. (1996). Self-anchoring and differentiation processes in the minimal group setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 661-677.
Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., Wittenbrink, B., Sadler, M. S., & Keesee, T. (2007). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1006-1023.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.
Devine, P. G., & Elliot, A. J. (1995). Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton Trilogy revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1139-1150.
Dixon, A. (2010). Policing bias. In J. Marsh, R. Mendoza-Denton, & J. A. Smith (Eds.), Are we born racist? New insights from neuroscience and positive psychology (pp. 80-87). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Drizzin, S. A., & Leo, R. A. (2004). The problem of false confessions in the post-DNA world. North Carolina Law Review, 82, 891-100.
Duru, N. J. (2004). The Central Park Five, the Scottsboro Boys, and the myth of the bestial black man. Cardozo Law Review, 25, 1315-1356.
Federal Judicial Center. (2012). Biographical directory of federal judges. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/research_categories.html
Gross, S. R., Jacoby, K., Matheson, D. J., Montgomery, N., & Patil, S. (2005). Exonerations in the United States 1989 through 2003. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 95, 523–560.
Humes, K. R., Jones, N. A., & Ramirez, R. R. (2011). Overview of race and Hispanic origin: 2010. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.census.gov/population/race/
Innocence Project. (2009). In their own words. Innocence Project in Print, 5, 16-17.
Innocence Project. (2012a). Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Facts_on_PostConviction_DNA_Exonerations.php
Innocence Project. (2012b). Innocence project case profiles. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/
Kassin, S. M. (2012). Why confessions trump innocence. American Psychologist, 67, 431-445.
Kassin, S. M., & Gudjonsson, G. H. (2004). The psychology of confessions: A review of the literature and issues. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 33-67.
Kassin, S. M., Meissner, C. A., & Norwick, R. J. (2005). “I’d know a false confession if I saw one”: A comparative study of college students and police investigators. Law and Human Behavior, 29, 211-227.
Klasfeld, A. (2012). Judge shines light on central park jogger case. Courthouse News Series. Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/02/46175.htm
Najdowski, C. J. (2011). Stereotype threat in criminal interrogations: Why innocent black suspects are at risk for confessing falsely. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 17, 562-591.
Najdowski, C. (2012). Stereotype threat in police encounters: Why African Americans are at risk of being targeted as suspects (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from UIC INDIGO.
Nguyen H. D., & Ryan, A. M. (2008). Does stereotype threat affect test performance of minorities and women? A meta-analysis of experimental evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 1314-1334.
Taslitz, A. E. (2006). Wrongly accused: Is race a factor in convicting the innocent? Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 4, 121-133.
The Sentencing Project. (2012). Trends in U.S. corrections. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf
U.S. Departement of Justice. (2009). Arrests by race, 2009. Retrieved June 20, 2012 from http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_43.html
Wilson, M. (2002, October 16). Protests swirl around jogger case. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
