A “weapon focus” effect in children

In this paper we examined beliefs about deception held by legal professionals. Three groups of presumed expert lie-catchers were investigated: police officers ( n =104), prosecutors ( n =158), and judges ( n =251). The experts' beliefs about deception were remarkably inconsistent with the general pattern resulting from studies mapping actual cues to deception. For example, a majority of police officers believed there is a strong relationship between (a) deceptive behaviour and gaze aversion and (b) deceptive behaviour and an increase in body movements. The scientific literature does not support this view. Furthermore, all three professional groups believed that truthful consecutive statements are more consistent than deceptive, and that it is easier to detect deception in interactive than non-interactive contexts. Research on deception shows the opposite. For five of the seven investigated items we found significant between-group differences. Both the genesis and the implications of these differences are discussed. Judging from self-ratings, the presumed experts admitted knowing close to nothing about scientific research on deception.     

Guilty and innocent suspects’ strategies during police interrogations

Abstract

Deception detection has largely failed to investigate guilty and innocent suspects’ strategies. In this study, mock suspects (n=82) were interrogated by police trainees (n=82) who either were or were not trained in the technique to strategically use the evidence (the SUE technique). Analyses revealed that guilty suspects to a higher degree than innocent suspects applied strategies in order to appear truthful. Guilty suspects reported diverse strategies, while innocent suspects reported the strategy to tell the truth like it had happened, indicating a belief in the visibility of innocence. The realism in the suspects’ expectation about how their veracity was judged was largely dependent on the way in which they had been interrogated. The truth-telling suspects who were interrogated according to the SUE technique were optimistic about being judged as truthful; this optimism was warranted as the vast majority of them were classified as truthful. The SUE technique seems to help (a) spotting guilty suspects without them being aware of it and (b) spotting innocent suspects, and they become aware of it. That innocent (but not guilty) suspects can read how the interrogator views them is advantageous for the investigative process.     

Detecting deception in suspects: verbal cues as a function of interview strategy

Research on deception has consistently shown that people are poor at detecting deception, partly due to lack of consistent cues to deception. This research focuses on eliciting verbal cues to deception when questioning suspects who deny crime and how such cues differ due to type of questioning. An experiment examined verbal differences between innocent and guilty mock suspects (N=96) as a function of veracity and interview style (Free recall, Probes, or Free recall plus Probes). Guilty (vs innocent) suspects omitted more crime-relevant information and their statements were more likely to contradict the evidence, showing that statement–evidence inconsistency was a cue to deception. This cue to deception was more pronounced when the interview contained probes. Lie-catchers (N=192) obtained an accuracy rate higher than chance (61.5%) for detecting deceptive denials. Implications for further research on verbal cues to deception are discussed.     

The Self-Administered Interview: a means of improving children's eyewitness performance?

Abstract

In order to obtain the most informative and correct statements, witnesses should be heard as soon as possible after the incident. However, this is not always possible. This experimental study investigated whether completing a Self-Administered Interview form (SAI) immediately after a critical event could enhance children's witness performance at a later stage. Children (N = 194, age 11–12) reported their memory of an event in a structured SAI, an open SAI, or did not report their memory (control). Two weeks later, the children were interviewed about the event. Before the interview, half of the children were subjected to social influence from a co-witness. Children's free recall of the event was enhanced by the SAI. More precisely, children in the SAI-Structured condition reported more details about the event than children in the SAI-Open condition and the control condition, without a loss of accuracy. The SAI manipulation did not, however, reduce children's vulnerability to social influence. The results suggest that the use of a SAI might prove a simple and yet effective way of increasing the quality of statements from child witnesses in some situations.     

Early Danish census taking

Census taking in its modern form started in Denmark in 1769, and the next two censuses were taken in 1787 and 1801. Problems that arose during the implementation and tabulation of the first census demonstrate the difficulties in establishing an efficient administration of population statistics from scratch. By trial and error during the course of the first three censuses, the administration learned how to carry out and tabulate a census so that by 1801 census taking had reached a form that could be used for the rest of the 19th century with only minor changes and additions.     

Limiting conflict in the Gulf

Non‐fiction reviews

Undoing Independence: regionalism and the reincorporation of Transkei into South Africa. Andrew Donaldson, Julia Segar and Roger Southall (eds), Grahamstown: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, 1992. (Special Issue of Journal of Contemporary African Studies 11(2); published mid‐1993) pp 281 US$12.00 pb

Frontiers. The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People. Noel Mostert, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp xxix + 1355. £25

Ghana and the Rawlings Factor. by Kevin Shillington, London: Macmillan, 1992, pp 184, £5.95 pb, £14.95 hb

Staying Poor. Ghana's Political Economy, 1950–1990. by Douglas Rimmer, Oxford: Pergamon Press (for the World Bank), 1992 pp

Class, Politics and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution. by Mansoor Moaddel, New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press, 1993, pp 309, $43.50 hb

The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality. by John L Esposito, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp 212, $22.00 hb.

Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment. by Cristobal Kay, London and New York: Routledge, 1989, pp 295

Communications and the ‘Third World’. by Geoffrey Reeves, London: Routledge, 1993, pp 277, £12.99 pb

A New World Order: Grassroots Movements for Global Change. by Paul Ekins, London: Routledge, 1992, pp 248, £9.99 pb

Reference reviews

Directory of African Film‐Makers and Films. Compiled and edited by Keith Shiri, Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Hicks Books, 1992, pp 194, £33.00 hb

The Penguin History of Latin America. by Edwin Williamson, London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1992, pp 631, £25.00 hb

The United Nations Library on Transnational Corporations. Edited by John Dunning The Theory of Transnational Corporations. Vol 1 Transnational Corporations: a historical perspective. Vol 2 Transnational Corporations and Economic Development. Vol 3. Transnational Corporations and Business Strategy. Vol 4. London: Routledge, 1992, total pp 1644, Boxed set of four volumes: £350.00.

Green Globe Yearbook 1992. Edited by H O Bergesen, M Norderhaug and G Parmann, For Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Oxford &; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp 303, £25.00 hb

World Resources 1992–93: A Guide to the Global Environment. Toward Sustainable Development. by The World Resources Institute, In collaboration with United Nations Oxford &; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp 385, £15.95

Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. by David Maybury‐Lewis, London: Viking, 1992, pp 397, £17.99 pb     

Never a final design: interviewing Norwegian alcohol smugglers

This paper presents a typology of respondents that have been encountered in interview-based research on the illegal alcohol market in Norway. Six distinct types (“the social talker”, “the expert witness”, “the flasher”, “the manipulator” and “the paranoid”) are distinguished and their relative value discussed from a scientific perspective. Students of organized crime must learn how to handle these characters both socially and analytically, and how to avoid certain pitfalls. Challenges a researcher may meet while studying organized crime will also be discussed, like “going nervous,” “going naïve”, “going native” and “going nonchalant”. Traditional Scandinavian literature on research methods has not been very helpful in this sense.     

Absolutism and the ‘rule of law’ in Denmark 1660–c. 1750

With the introduction of absolutism in Denmark, the country became one of the two most absolute monarchies in Europe. The question arises whether the concept of the ‘rule of law’ was compatible with absolutism, or whether it was totally contrary to this form of government. Through an analysis of the criteria central to the concept of the ‘rule of law’, for example, the public proclamation of laws, the independence of the courts, predictable proceedings, the right of appeal, due care, legal aid, promptness of legal proceedings etc., and evidence of practice from public records, the present article concludes that although the ‘rule of law’ was fragile, as it depended on the absolute king's mercy, there was an ideal among the ruling elite that the ‘rule of law’ ought to be respected, and the rural and urban population trusted the system.     

Eliciting Cues to False Intent: A New Application of Strategic Interviewing

This article examined how to elicit cues to deception when a suspect is asked both about his/her intentions and his/her corresponding past planning, and when the investigator holds evidence on the suspect’s planning activities. In a new experimental set-up accommodating the main characteristics of intent, participants (N = 120) either planned a criminal or a non-criminal act. They were intercepted before completing the planned act. Each participant was interviewed in accordance with one of three interview techniques: Early Evidence disclosure or one of two versions of the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique. All the interviews were transcribed and scored for consistency. As predicted, the liars were perceived as having a higher degree of inconsistency for two of the three relevant comparisons (Statement on Planning–Evidence on Planning; Statement on Intent–Evidence on Planning). Furthermore, using the evidence strategically resulted in differences between liars and truth tellers being magnified, as predicted. This article advances previous findings in showing that by interviewing strategically with respect to the evidence, it is possible to elicit reliable cues to deception when a suspect is asked about intentions and corresponding planning activities.