title: Does video recording alter the behavior of police during interrogation? A mock crime-and-investigation study.
abstract: A field study conducted in a midsized city police department examined whether video recording alters the process of interrogation. Sixty-one investigators inspected a staged crime scene and interrogated a male mock suspect in sessions that were surreptitiously recorded. By random assignment, half the suspects had committed the mock crime; the other half were innocent. Half the police participants were informed that the sessions were being recorded; half were not. Coding of the interrogations revealed the use of several common tactics designed to get suspects to confess. Importantly, police in the camera-informed condition were less likely than those in the -uninformed condition to use minimization tactics and marginally less likely to use maximization tactics. They were also perceived by suspects-who were all uninformed of the camera manipulation-as trying less hard to elicit a confession. Unanticipated results indicated that camera-informed police were better able to discriminate between guilty and innocent suspects in their judgments and behavior. The results as a whole indicate that video recording can affect the process of interrogation-notably, by inhibiting the use of certain tactics. It remains to be seen whether these findings generalize to longer and more consequential sessions and whether the camera-induced differences found are to be judged as favorable or unfavorable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
authors.forename: Saul M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kassin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kukucka
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
authors.forename: Victoria Z
authors.initials: VZ
authors.lastname: Lawson
authors.affiliation: Department of Law and Police Sciences, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DeCarlo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016544:Patient Simulation; D016495:Police / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014741:Video Recording / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology