Atlantica - 01.11.2000, Qupperneq 47

A T L A N T I C A 45
required. The main considerations for me are whether the case is sufficiently
challenging to require my scarce skills and whether I will be able to learn
something from the case,” explains Gísli.
This emphasis on learning is very strong, and one perhaps surprising from
a specialist as widely recognised for his work within his field. But, for Gísli,
his field is one that is far from done and dusted. The science is developing at
a faster rate than its benefits can be accepted and absorbed by the legal
professionals and police. Gísli’s job is therefore not only to be constantly dis-
covering new findings, but also to be educating the people he works with in
the legal forum to understand that psychology has an important, and in some
cases vital, role to play.
Gísli explains that the UK has witnessed tremendous advancements as far
as legal and scientific developments are concerned in the last 20 years – a rate
of progress unparalleled anywhere else in the world. This has been reflected
in the application of psychology, so that it now comes hand in hand with the
legal system. However, he adds as an afterthought that it is always most
difficult to begin something.
“If you look at changes in legal procedures and in the attitudes of people in
the legal profession and the medical profession, there has been a tremendous
change, and that change has come about because people have worked and
been prepared to fight to do this kind of cutting edge work. They have kept
pushing the frontiers. They have had the confidence and the knowledge to
actually do the research that demonstrates that psychology has a contribu-
tion to make and then pushing its frontiers to have bearing in the legal
cases.”
“THE COVERING UP OF DECEPTION IS OFTEN MUCH MORE
DAMAGING THAN THE DECEPTION ITSELF.”
Establishing the rightful place of psychology within the legal forum is only
half the battle. The other half is convincing all those concerned that things
can go wrong.
And when things go wrong there is often a cover-up.
“Rather than own up to a mistake they have made,” explains Gísli, “the
police and other professionals may work unscrupulously. There is no doubt
that there are such people in every profession there is. Things go wrong, and
when they commonly do, the temptation is to cover it up, and for evidence to
be suppressed. The covering up of deception is often much more damaging
than the deception itself,” he adds.
Britain’s developments have led to Gísli witnessing a strong contrast
between the work he does in the UK and his experiences of other countries:
“The Criminal justice systems in different countries (by that I mean politicians
and judges and lawyers) are very reluctant to accept that there is a problem;
that there are miscarriages of justice and that people are wrongfully convict-
ed or even wrongfully executed. There is often this denial. A governor might
say: ‘I’ve never executed an innocent man in my life.’
But how does he really know?”
The fact is that people are sometimes wrongfully convicted. “In the UK,
there are somewhere in the region of 300,000 police interviews a year and of
that 300,000, 50–60 per cent will involve a confession. A small minority of
those people will have confessed to crimes that they did not commit, for
various reasons.
“Some of these offences could be fairly minor, for example an admission
of shoplifting when the person in question had in fact no intention of stealing
the goods. Unfortunately this type of false confession can also occur with
more serious cases like homicide and sexual offences. There is a particular
problem with genuinely innocent prisoners who deny their offences, since
prison works on a rehabilitation basis and someone who persists in denying
their offences cannot be rehabilitated. This means they will be denied an
earlier release date because they have shown no change in their attitude, no
remorse and no interest in improving themselves.”
PUSHING THE FRONTIERS
...some police
officers have
blind faith in
their ability to
know who is
guilty and who
is not."
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