Beyond Common Sense and Human Experience: Lay Perceptions of Witness Coercion

• Author: Laura fallon,Brent snook
• Published date: 01 February 2020
• Date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0093854819892654
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2020, Vol. 47, No. 2, February 2020, 208 –221.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854819892654

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© 2019 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

208

BEYOND COMMON SENSE AND HUMAN

EXPERIENCE

Lay Perceptions of Witness Coercion

LAURA FALLON

BRENT SNOOK

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Perceptions of the use of coercive tactics in witness interviews were examined. Canadian community members (N = 293)

were asked to read a transcript of a witness interview that included either (a) threats/overt coercion, (b) minimization/covert

coercion, or (c) no coercion, and answer questions about the interview. Participants rated the threat transcript as being the

most coercive, containing the most pressure, involving the most serious consequences for withholding information, and

eliciting the most negative feelings from witnesses. Conversely, the minimization transcript tended to be rated less negatively

than the threat transcript and was also rated as being the most effective for gathering information. Results indicate that lay-

people recognize the issues with explicitly coercive police tactics, but are less clear on the problems with subtler forms of

coercion. The implications for the truth-seeking function of the justice system and the role of expert testimony in the court-

room are discussed.

Keywords: police; coercion; witness; interview; layperson; juror; justice system

The same psychologically coercive tactics used to persuade suspects to comply are also

being used against witnesses by some Canadian police officers (see R. v. Morgan,

2013). A vast body of research on suspect interrogations has made clear that (a) psychologi-

cal coercion can lead to negative outcomes such as false confessions, (b) both the police

community and the judiciary tend to view psychological coercion as a necessary interroga-

tion practice (Inbau et al., 2013; R. v. Oickle, 2000; Wallace & Kassin, 2012), (c) laypeople

are generally unable to recognize the risks associated with psychological coercion (e.g.,

Kaplan et al., 2018), and (d) expert witnesses are often denied the opportunity to explain the

relationship between coercive tactics and statement voluntariness to triers of fact (i.e.,

jurors, judge; e.g., R. v. Bonisteel, 2008). Apart from the knowledge that the coercion of

AUTHORS’ NOTE: This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

(SSHRC) of Canada Doctoral Scholarship (awarded to the first author). Correspondence concerning this

article should be addressed to Laura Fallon, Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland,

Science Building, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, A1C 5S7; e-mail: lfallon@mun.ca.

892654CJBXXX10.1177/0093854819892654Criminal Justice and BehaviorFallon, Snook / Perceptions of Witness Coercion

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