Join us on Thursday, August 8, at 12:00 p.m. ET, as we welcome Melissa Russano, Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Justice Studies at Roger Williams University, to discuss false confessions, interrogations, and investigative interviewing. She will discuss the various types of false confessions, such as voluntary false confessions, coerced-compliant false confessions, and coerced-internalized false confessions, as well as individual and situational risk factors for false confessions. Dr. Russano will also discuss how to mitigate these risk factors, including the use of science-based interview practices (e.g., rapport-based information-gathering approaches, good questioning tactics, and strategic use of evidence).

Presenters:

Melissa Russano, Ph.D.

Melissa Russano is a Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Justice Studies at Roger Williams University. She holds a B.A. in Psychology (1999) from the University of Virginia, and a M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004) in Psychology (with a legal psychology specialization) from Florida International University. Her research addresses various psychological and criminological aspects of investigative interviewing, including the processes of interrogation and confession. Since 2007, Dr. Russano has received continuous extramural funding for her investigative interviewing/interrogation-related research, totaling > $1.9 million from the U.S. Departments of Defense and Justice. She has published numerous peer-reviewed publications in scholarly outlets relevant to investigative interviewing, including the publication of a very influential, widely utilized paradigm for studying interrogations in the laboratory. In addition, she regularly presents to academic and practitioner audiences on the topics of investigative interviewing, interrogations, and confessions.