Tag: criminals

EPS 56: Implanted Memories, False Memories, and False Confessions

Welcome to Spark My Muse.

Today my guest is
Dr Stephen Porter who is the Founding Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science & Law at the University of British Columbia and he is a Registered Forensic Psychologist.

Click on image to visit Dr Porter's website

Dr Stephen Porter

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SHOWNOTES
(Scroll down to find links, highlights, and details from the show)

MIN 1
Dr Porter started his career among the prison population in the field of forensic psychology.

His two main topics of research in the last 15 years: The nature and fallibility of memory (false memories) and deception detection.

He wanted do study memory empirically and he set up the Centre.

MIN 3:30

Why would somebody ever confess to a crime they haven’t done?

1,000 years of judicial systems have held the assumption that a confession of guilt is to be believed unless the person is deranged or they have been tortured.

In the last 30 years we now know this to be very false.

MIN 5:00
Studying people who believe they have actually committed a crime (and have a false memory of the crime) when they haven’t down any such thing.

Elizabeth Loftus – Implanted Memory studies (click for info)

Lost in the shopping mall studies (25% could be convinced of and falsely remember this frightening childhood event that never happened to them).

Julia Shaw (click for info)

70% of study participants were implanted with memories. They were convinced and falsely remembered committing a serious crime when they were teenagers in just 3 interviews for an hour each.

MIN 8:00

Events we remember are slightly or majorly different from the last time we recalled it.

A true memory is recalled almost exactly the same way in the brain as a false memory.

The systemic issue in the criminal justice system arises when a lot of time has elapsed and also when interrogators can and are allowed to ask [questions] in very inappropriate ways that really mess with a person’s memories.

MIN 12

The implanting of memories studies.

The 1990s “repressed memory era”

MIN 14

The role of emotion, negative events, and authority figures in implanted memories.

MIN 19

The Innocence Project

In 25% of wrongful convictions the accused confessed to the crime.

In 63% of wrongful murder convictions, the accused confessed to the crime.

MIN 23:30

The 3 major types of false confessions.

MIN 28

The details within the false memories are analogous to real memories.

MIN 30: Psychopathic people who implant memories and destroy reality for their victims.

MIN 34:30

The surprising ways the experts detect deception –
What to look for in a liar. (It is not what you’ve heard.)

To access this bonus material GO HERE – support Spark My Muse.

• Visit Dr Porter’s website HERE

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Thoughtful Thursday: An Almighty, Good God Allows an Evil World?

Human Brutality, one of the World's worst evils.

Here is a response to a difficult subject: Evil and human suffering. Your comments are valuable here. Thanks for reading.

The following are comments from a former classmate Marty Schoffstall as placed within the comment section on blog site of Theology Professor Ken Miller.

From Marty:

Dr. Dorsey [professor of Old Testament Studies] says that the story of the prophets (a rather large portion of the canon) looks like this:

(1) God Is Allowing Wickedness…
For a season…. and the wicked to succeed in their opposition to Him to temporarily triumph over Him (and over those loyal to Him). He may allow them to spurn Him, mock Him, humiliate him, or persecute those who remain loyal to Him.

(2) God is redirecting their evil….
to accomplish his own good purposes. The deeds of the wicked play into God’s hands and are used by God to further his own semi-secret agenda. [During this time when evil appears to prevail], God’s children are encouraged to: (a) Trust God, (b) Wait patiently for the time when God will intervene and right all wrongs, (c) Remain loyal and obedient to him.

(3) Finally, God dramatically intervenes…
to defeat his enemies. God is vindicated the wicked are punished; and those loyal to God are rewarded.

Now as my old friend friend Dr. Cunningham from UVA who was a very competent Roman Catholic Theologian on the side used to say:

“…mercy and justice are always in tension. We want mercy for ourselves, and justice for the other…”

Eventually we grow a little wiser and want some mercy for the other as well; however, we can never give up the concept of justice completely. Some decisions are so revolting (like genocide) that they must rigorously opposed, some people are so broken (like serial killers, serial kidnappers, etc) that we invest enormous time and money in the criminal justice system to stop them, they are horribly corrosive to society, they must be stopped.

How do you respond?

Hell's Angels, Drug Dealers, and Bad Asses: A Mission Field

Guess who’s on the margins when it comes to hearing about God’s grace?

Sure, Harley Davidson has mainstreamed, and its product logo is on everything from sunglasses to underwear, but a big segment of the riders are unreached by genuine Christian love. Some riders are just bad-boy posers who take their expensive bikes out after a hard day in the cubicle, but other riders have lives filled with pain, substance abuse, violence, crime, and are looking hard for hope, or have all but given up in despair. Plenty more, are somewhere in the middle.

My mom’s church has a special ministry for those who ride.

Each Spring they hold a big gathering called The Blessing of the Bikes. It’s a time to gather, talk shop, and pray for a safe riding season. A gospel message is preached, “Blessing” shirts are sold, riding buddies are made, Bibles are given out, and folks from all over come in hopes that prayer will keep them safe. Thousands attend.

Each week, the Murrysville Alliance Church has a few scheduled group rides (MAC riders: They even have their own patches. woe.). The ministry has been so helpful, and well-received, that ashtray receptacles have had to be installed outside the church, the building expanded, and they’ll soon have to go to three services on Sundays. You should see all the tattoos, beards, bandanas, and leather in that place on a Sunday morning. It’s a place awash in the grace and Spirit of God in there, and awfully noisy when they start up their bikes to leave after the service too!

WPXI Channel 11 in Pittsburgh has video of the event this year. It’s worth a look!