Three False Convictions, Many Lessons : The Psychopathology of Unjust Prosecutions.

Front cover -- Copyright and publication details -- Table of Contents -- About the authors -- Acknowledgements -- Dedication -- Publisher's note -- Glossary of relevant terms -- Dramatis Personae -- Introduction -- Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito -- Stefan Kiszko -- Darlie Routier -- A reluctance to acknowledge mistakes -- Human psychology, superstition and belief -- The internet age and mass media -- Avoiding mistakes -- The Law, The Human Brain and Psychopathy -- Medicine and law: How both need to be controlled -- The science of empathy, psychopathy, and modern concepts of evil -- Gender differences in empathy and systemising -- Testosterone effects on the brain/specific syndromes -- The Psychopathy Checklist -- High functioning (non-criminal) psychopaths -- Are there psychopaths within the justice system? -- The danger of relying on confessions -- Trust and exploitation in unjust prosecutions -- The importance and dangers of trust -- On WYSIWYGs and WYSIJACs -- The cancer of collective psychopathy -- Witch-burning and exploitation of sympathy and horror -- Some provisional thoughts -- Murder in Perugia: An Improbable Conviction -- The Kercher case -- Occam's Razor versus dietrologia -- Inspector Occam's reconstruction of Meredith's murder -- Rudy Guede's troubled past -- Rudy Guede's troubled present -- Criminal profiling -- Dietrologia: An improbable case is constructed -- Romance and classical music -- Amanda first on the crime scene -- The strange case of the missing phones -- Meredith's body discovered -- Occam applied to Perugia's polizio-judicial system -- Psychopathy and the justice system -- The Monster of Florence -- Prejudicial effect of the civil case in Italian law -- Forensic shortcomings -- Abuse of DNA evidence -- Errors of omission and the time of Meredith's death -- The necessity that the break-in was simulated not real.

False and contrived witnesses -- Destruction of important evidence -- The unfortunate case of the shoe prints -- Human rights issues -- Willing exploitation of the press -- A crime within a crime? -- Italians in Court: One Man's View From No Man's Land -- A hard time seeking to convince the press and media -- Observations from court during the appeal -- Courtroom ritual -- An invitation to meet the prosecutors -- John Follain: A critique -- Press and media when the court was in session -- Two years later: The appeal against the appeal -- 'A nonsensical pile from Nencini (viz a nonsencini)' -- Postscript: A week after the declaration of innocence -- Six months later - The 'motivation' report -- The Psychopathology of the Press -- The nature of corporations and the press -- Press coverage in Italy -- The UK press -- The USA press -- Internet Trolls -- Attacks on Knox are 'all for Meredith' -- Why do trolls matter? -- The followers - and what drives the trolls -- Trolls harass and threaten offline as well -- Hijacking of the Wikipedia page -- The curious case of Harry Rag -- Anonymous blogging -- A brush with Harry -- Harry Rag's exultation at the Nencini verdict -- The baiting of Harry Rag -- The pernicious effect of anonymous pseudonyms -- The Murder in England of Lesley Molseed -- The Kiszko Case -- Existing works on the Kiszko case -- My first contact with Stefan Kiszko -- Lesley Susan Molseed -- Overwhelmed by spurious raw data -- Important witnesses ignored -- Police pressurised to solve the crime -- A disjointed sequence of police interviews -- Final interrogation -- Kiszko's false confession and retraction -- Understanding the mind-set of the police -- The author's memories of the case -- Trial, conviction and eventual release -- DNA and the real killer -- Analysis of the elements that led to false conviction -- The new investigation.

Confirmation bias and the false 'confession' -- Sucked into a judicial black hole -- Misconception about hormones and aggression -- Weaknesses in Kiszko's defence -- The role of press sensationalism -- The horror for Stefan -- The long road to innocence and freedom -- Finally a sound police investigation -- What is the current relevance of the Kiszko case? -- Weaknesses in investigation, the false confession, and confirmation bias -- Postscript: The quest for the Yorkshire Ripper -- Injustice in Texas: The Case of Darlie Routier -- Fairytale turned nightmare -- Conviction: Justice or 'just is'? -- Weaknesses in confrontational judicial systems -- Crime author Barbara Davis: A shaft of light -- Tampering with witnesses -- Failure, omission, negligence or incompetence? -- Might the investigation be compromised? -- Convicted because of silly string? -- Why, and how, could a mother do this? -- Death Row -- Alteration of transcripts -- What was the role, if any, of Darin Routier? -- Main lessons from the case -- Darlie's role in her own conviction -- The USA's most prolific killer -- So might there just be a connection? -- The Psychopathology of Victims and Victimisation -- Trust and its exploitation by others -- The hypothetical psychopathic policeman or prosecutor -- Supposed lack of emotion: A standard prosecution trick -- Manipulation of witnesses -- The false confession -- The plea bargain -- Fast track trials -- False and contrived witnesses -- The so-called 'prison snitch' -- Confirmation bias and the exploitation of family anguish -- Exploitation of sympathy for the family -- Lesley Molseed's family -- The family of Darlie Routier -- The David Camm case -- The murder of Anni Dewani -- The strange case of Dr Jeffrey MacDonald -- Conclusions -- Sex, Hormones, and Crimes of Physical Aggression -- Hormones.

The critical role of the testes in determining gender -- The differences in male and female gonadal function -- Sex hormone priorities in men and women compared -- Acts of physical aggression -- gender differences -- Gender differences in manifestations of psychopathy -- Darlie Routier and her improbable biology -- Sex hormones and Stefan Kiszko -- Some conclusions -- Witch-hunts Through the Ages -- From shamanism to monotheism and Christianity -- Heresies and the origins of witch-hunting -- The witch-burning epidemic -- The Black Death and two misogynistic psychopaths -- Heinrich Kramer's catch-all formulae -- The modern-day witch trial of Amanda Knox -- Arthur Miller defines the witch-burning phenomenon -- Witch-hunts continue today -- Belief fosters invention -- The prosecutorial psyche revealed -- Evil as a force -- The witchcraft delusion extends to others -- The sexist nature of the witchcraft fantasy -- Total control -- Witnesses, Evidence and Forensic Science -- The scientific method -- Forensic science -- The vital importance of high quality, uncontaminated crime scene data -- The role of science in the trial process itself -- Intrinsic unreliability of certain forms of evidence -- Tampering with witnesses -- Undue weight given to a confession, even if retracted -- The question of the paid court expert -- Filming all aspects of the collection of evidence -- Conclusions -- Preventing Injustice: A New Psychopathological Approach -- A less pejorative term -- The purpose of the criminal justice systems -- Can justice systems be improved? -- The need for a modern understanding of science -- Recognising the empathy system and its defects -- The violent criminal -- Psychopathology of press and public -- Italian problems -- American problems -- British problems -- Problems that affect all three jurisdictions -- 'Cloning' -- Intrinsic problems.

What can and should we learn -- Some of our tentative suggestions summarised -- Conclusion -- Select Bibliography -- Index.

A new perspective on the roles of psychopathology, confirmation bias, false confessions, the media and internet (amongst other causes) of unjust accusations. Putting lack of empathy at the fore in terms of police, prosecutors and others, it considers a wide range of other psychopathological aspects of miscarriages of justice.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.