NCJ Number
235482
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2011 Pages: 669-689
Date Published
July 2011
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article reviews two studies that examined the degree to which training could improve the ability to determine the authenticity of suicide notes.
Abstract
Two studies examined the degree to which training could improve participants' ability to determine the authenticity of suicide notes. In Study 1, informing participants about variables that are known to discriminate between genuine and simulated suicide notes did not improve their decision accuracy beyond chance, nor did this training allow participants to perform as accurately as a statistical prediction rule. In Study 2, the provision of additional training instructions did enhance participants' decision accuracy but not to a level achieved by the statistical prediction rule. However, training that included all instructions simultaneously resulted in a slight performance decrease attributable to the fact that certain instructions proved problematic when applied to the sample of suicide notes upon which decisions were being made. The potential implications of these findings for police decisionmaking and training are discussed. (Published Abstract)