Juripragmatics - From the interview to the cross-examination - describing, understanding, acting 171001r181209 - ch IV.ppt (original) (raw)

Verbal credibility assesment of incarcerated violent offenders' memory reports

This study investigated the verbal credibility of incarcerated offenders' memory reports of perpetrated violent crime through the use of Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA) and Reality Monitoring (RM). For a previous study, which examined memory in violent offenders, 150 male incarcerated violent crime perpetrators recalled up to five different types of memories: an act of perpetrated instrumental violence, an act of perpetrated reactive violence, a subjectively disturbing (traumatic) event, a positively valenced event, and a perpetrated act of violence for which the offender had poor memory . The present study applied CBCA and RM to each of the memory reports of violence. In particular, this study compared the credibility of reports of instrumental violence to reports of reactive violence, compared credibility ratings with consistency with file information (whether details from memory reports were corroborated by correctional file information), compared the utility of CBCA and RM as credibility assessment tools, and compared the credibility ratings of psychopaths to nonpsychopaths.

The unsaid in the courtroom / Le non dit en audience - 161010

In the hearing room, a lot remains unsaid. One can even say that much more is said than is said. But the Law knows officially only linguistic utterances, which are quite inefficient to communicate many aspects of human experience. The law of contracts, torts and obligations, and the law of evidence, have been created without any reference to the knowledge accumulated by linguistic and cognitive sciences. We will summarize such knowledge and analyze its consequences for the management of communication in the hearing room. En salle d'audience, beaucoup demeure non-dit. On peut même dire qu'il y a beaucoup plus de choses non-dites que de choses dites. Toutefois, le droit ne connaît officiellement que les énoncés linguistiques, qui sont très inefficaces pour communiquer de nombreux aspects de l'expérience. Le droit des obligations, des contrats et des délits civils, et le droit de la preuve ont été créées sans aucune référence aux connaissances accumulées par les sciences linguistiques et cognitives. Nous résumerons ces connaissances et analyserons leurs conséquences en ce qui concerne la gestion de la communication en audience.

Criteria-based content analysis of true and suggested accounts of events

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2009

Worldwide, the criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) is probably the most widely used veracity assessment technique for discriminating between accounts of true and fabricated events. In this study, two experiments examined the effectiveness of the CBCA for discriminating between accounts of true events and suggested events believed to be true. In Experiment 1, CBCA-trained judges evaluated participants' accounts of true and suggestively planted childhood events. In Experiment 2, judges analysed accounts of recent events that were experimentally manipulated to be a (a) true experience, (b) false experience believed to be true and (c) deliberately fabricated experience. In both experiments CBCA scores were significantly higher for accounts of true events than suggested events. However, this difference was not significant for participants classified as experiencing 'full' memories for the suggested event. Self-report memory measures supported the findings of the CBCA analyses. Taken together these results suggest that the CBCA discriminative power is greatly constrained.

Validity of Content-Based Techniques to Distinguish True and Fabricated Statements: A Meta-Analysis

Werner, V. A., Naefgen, C., Koppehele-Gossel, J., Quinten, L., Banse, R., & Schmidt, A. F. (2016). Validity of content-based techniques to distinguish true and fabricated statements: A meta-analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 40, 440-457.

Within the scope of judicial decisions, approaches to distinguish between true and fabricated statements have been of particular importance since ancient times. Although methods focusing on “prototypical” deceptive behavior (e.g., psychophysiological phenomena, nonverbal cues) have largely been rejected with regard to validity, content-based techniques constitute a promising approach and are well established within the applied forensic context. The basic idea of this approach is that experience-based and non-experience-based statements differ in their content-related quality. In order to test the validity of the most prominent content-based techniques, Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) and Reality Monitoring (RM), we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis on English- and German-language studies. Based on a variety of decision criteria, 56 studies were included revealing an overall effect size of g = 1.03 (95% CI [0.78, 1.27], Q = 420.06, p < .001, I² = 92.48%, N = 3429). There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of CBCA and RM. Additionally, we investigated a number of moderator variables such as characteristics of participants, statements, and judgment procedures, as well as general study characteristics. Results showed that the application of all CBCA criteria outperformed any incomplete CBCA criteria set. Furthermore, statement classification based on discriminant functions revealed higher discrimination rates than decisions based on sum scores. Finally, unpublished studies showed higher effect sizes than studies published in peer-reviewed journals. All results are discussed in terms of their significance for future research (e.g., developing standardized decision rules) and practical application (e.g., user training, applying complete criteria set).

Fact or Fiction?: Discriminating True and False Allegations of Victimization

In forensic settings, decision-makers are continually challenged with evaluating the credibility of reports of victimization. Unfortunately, judgments concerning the truthfulness of allegations can be misguided, and few standardized approaches to discriminating the veracity of such reports exist. In many cases, evaluators heavily rely on erroneous cues to deception, such as gut instinct, witness demeanor, eye contact, witness confidence, and whether a claim fits with the “typical” crime victimization scenario. As such, empirical literature has emphasized a focus on verbal behaviours (including content) as a function of veracity, as these may be less susceptible to interpretive bias. When confronted with claims of victimization, analysis of the content of the alleged victims’ statement is of utmost importance for investigators, and may be the only source of evidence available. While advocating a reliance on empirical evidence, we observe that few studies concerning truthful and false...

Assessment of child witness statements using criteria-based content analysis (CBCA): The effects of age, verbal ability, and interviewer's emotional style

Psychology, Crime & Law, 2000

The goal Of the ItUdy W.S to determint w h t ~f f -w, V -ability (aeseosed with W C -R Mcabulary), aod interviewer's emotional styk would have an the o c c u~~~o c e of Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) aiterir Children (N=68) from three diffmnt age-pups (7-6,10-11, and 13-14 yeam) mdc botb a true aod a false statemcot umcemiog a mildly trauuutic event. The amcct d.~Uficatim rate was 66%. Age and wrbal ability wen f w d to incrrase the occunmce of somc of the CBCA criteria irrespective of the truthfulness of tbc statemmts. Also, diffatnt criteria differentiated between true and false statemots in differcot age groups. Interviewa behaviour also affected the occumnce of the criteria. It is concluded that the CBCA should not be used in court pmxccdmgs in its present f a Key words: CBCA; child witness; age; verbal ability; interviewer style.

Remembering and Law / La remémoration et le droit - 150901

The practice of Law is based on judicial proceedings: - personal appearance of a witness - to tell the decision-maker (Judge) - what he/she perceived, did and thought Based upon memories - recorded - recollected → What are memories? - neural foundations → How do we remember? - recollection ==================== La pratique du droit est fondée sur la procédure judiciaire: - comparution du témoin en personne - pour dire au décideur (Juge) - ce qu’il/elle a perçu, fait et pensé Fondée sur les souvenirs / mémoires - assimilés - remémorés → Qu’est-ce que c’est que les souvenirs? - fondements neuronaux → Comment nous souvenons-nous? - remémoration

The effect of informing liars about Criteria- Based Content Analysis on their ability to deceive CBCA-raters.

As soon as liars realize that evaluators use CBCA to assess the credibility of their statements, it is possible that liars will gain knowledge of CBCA and try to 'improve' their statements in order to make an honest impression on CBCAjudges. The present experiment investigated to what extent liars are capable of doing this. In all, 45 participants were randomly allocated to one of the following three conditions: a truth telling condition in which participants were asked to recall a videotaped event which they had just seen; an uninformed deception condition in which participants who had only been given guidelines about the content of the videotaped event were asked to recall the event as though they had seen the videotape; and an informed deception condition in which participants received information about CBCA before they were asked to pretend that they had seen the videotape. CBCA-raters scored the accounts and a comparison was made between the total CBCA-scores of the three conditions. The study also examined the extent to which CBCA-assessments could correctly classify truthful and deceptive accounts, rst by means of a discriminant analysis (with the total CBCA-score as dependent variable) and secondly by asking a British CBCA-expert to judge the veracity of the statements. The results indicated that liars are capable of in uencing CBCA-assessments. First, the CBCA-scores of liars who were informed about CBCA were similar to the CBCA-scores of truth tellers and signi cantly higher than the CBCA-scores of liars who were not informed about CBCA. Secondly, the objective status of the participant (truth teller vs. informed liar) could not be successfully predicted in a discriminant analysis on the basis of total CBCA-scores. Thirdly, statements of the majority of informed liars were assessed as truthful by a British CBCA-expert.