Information-gathering approaches increase true confessions and decrease false confessions.
The review in brief
Information-gathering approaches increase the number of true confessions and decrease the number of false confessions when compared to both accusatorial and direct questioning interrogation approaches.
What is this review about?
Ideally, interrogation approaches should maximize the number of true confessions obtained while minimizing the number of false confessions. Problematically, however, some interrogation approaches, such as accusatorial approaches, have been tied to false confessions which have contributed to approximately 12% of known wrongful convictions in the United States. An alternative approach, known as information-gathering, has considerable evidence showing its utility in reducing false confessions. For the purposes of this review, we compared accusatorial, information-gathering, and direct question interrogation approaches. This review examined whether interrogation approaches have different effects on the rates of true and false confessions. The review considered evidence regarding the debate about whether the United States should move towards more information-gathering interrogation approaches.
What is the aim of this review?
This Campbell systematic review examined the effects of accusatorial interrogations on true and false confessions, compared to the effects of information-gathering and direct questioning interrogations. The review summarizes evidence from 29 high-quality experimental laboratory studies.
What are the main findings of this review?
What studies were included?
This review included studies that evaluate the effects of interrogation approach on true and false confessions. A total of 27 studies were identified. One article reported three independent studies, thus leading to 29 independent studies included in analyses. The studies span the period from 1996 to 2023 and were conducted largely in the United States.
What interrogation approach produces the most true confessions?
Information-gathering approaches, on average, produce more true confessions than both accusatorial and direct questioning interrogation approaches. The largest difference is between information-gathering and direct questioning approaches.
What interrogation approach produces the most false confessions?
Accusatorial approaches, on average, produce more false confessions than both information-gathering and direct questioning interrogation approaches. The rates of false confessions between information-gathering and direct questioning interrogation approaches were similar.
What do the findings of this review mean?
Overall, results support calls for practice to continue moving away from accusatorial interrogation approaches. Future research should continue directly comparing accusatorial and information-gathering approaches; furthermore, future research should consider a more nuanced exploration of accusatorial and information-gathering tactics and their effect on true and false confessions.
How up-to-date is this review?
The review authors searched for studies up to 2023.