Meyer Jessica R, Reppucci N Dickon
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2007;25(6):757-80. doi: 10.1002/bsl.774.
Recent media coverage has highlighted cases in which young suspects were wrongly convicted because they provided interrogation-induced false confessions. Although youth may be more highly suggestible and easily influenced by authority than adults, police are trained to use the same psychologically coercive and deceptive tactics with youth as with adults. This investigation is the first standard documentation of the reported interrogation practices of law enforcement and police beliefs about the reliability of these techniques and their knowledge of child development. Participants were 332 law enforcement officers who completed surveys about interrogation procedures and developmental issues pertaining to youth. Results indicated that, while police acknowledge some developmental differences between youth and adults, there were indications that (1) how police perceive youth in general and how they perceive and treat them in the interrogation context may be contradictory and (2) their general view is that youth can be dealt with in the same manner as adults.
最近的媒体报道突出了一些案例，其中年轻嫌疑人因提供审讯诱导的虚假供述而被错误定罪。尽管年轻人可能比成年人更容易受到暗示且更容易受到权威的影响，但警方接受的培训是，对年轻人使用与对成年人相同的心理强制和欺骗策略。这项调查首次对执法部门报告的审讯做法以及警方对这些技术的可靠性及其儿童发展知识的看法进行了标准记录。参与者是332名执法人员，他们完成了关于审讯程序和与年轻人相关的发展问题的调查。结果表明，虽然警方承认年轻人和成年人之间存在一些发展差异，但有迹象表明：（1）警方对年轻人的总体看法以及他们在审讯环境中对年轻人的看法和对待方式可能相互矛盾；（2）他们的总体观点是，年轻人可以以与成年人相同的方式处理。
