Psychological science and sound public policy: video recording of custodial interrogations

Interrogation-induced false confessions virtually guarantee that the innocent suspects who made them will be wrongly prosecuted and convicted. One widely endorsed recommendation for curbing such miscarriages of justice is to video record custodial interrogations in their entirety, the belief being that the resulting audiovisual record will enable trial fact finders to make more accurate assessments of the voluntariness and veracity of suspects' statements. Psychological science, however, highlights a variety of potential pitfalls associated with the video-recording practice. Some can be avoided with proper implementation of the practice, and in these instances research-based policy recommendations are provided to successfully accomplish this objective. Others, unfortunately, are not as easily sidestepped, and in these instances criminal-justice practitioners should heed the adage "Forewarned is forearmed" when making use of video-recorded interrogations.