Alibis and Corroborators: Psychological, Criminological, and Legal Perspectives
Authors: Joshua D. Behl & Megan Kienzle (Eds.)
Publisher: Springer, 2022. 169 pages.
Reviewer: Shiri Portnoy | June 2023
Research on alibi, and especially alibi provision, may be growing. However, this domain is still understudied and is in its infancy when compared to other investigative-interviewing domains (e.g., deception detection and eyewitness interviewing). Thus, this book’s editors wished to present the first organized outlet that would include structured discussions on the topics of alibi generation, provision, and corroboration. Consequently, this outlet should create order in the literature that has been published thus far about these topics. With these structured discussions, this book is aimed at reviewing what the existing literature on alibis can teach us about these important aspects of investigative interviewing. Moreover, the chapters comprising this book are aimed at proposing future directions to explore what is still to be uncovered about suspect alibis and corroboration. As such, the editors hope that this book, written by authors who have been conducting research in the domains of alibi generation, provision, and corroboration, inspires new researchers to use existing knowledge to expand their understanding of these topics. This book is aimed toward new and experienced alibi researchers, as well as practitioners in the field.
While the book is not organized into sections, the order of the 10 chapters corresponds with the ‘journey’ an alibi goes through in the criminal justice system—with it first being generated, then delivered, followed by it being potentially corroborated, evaluated by various evaluators for believability, and the impacts of it being believed (or not) on the suspect. Logically, the final chapter discusses future directions that alibi researchers are invited to pursue. As such, the order of the chapters is sensible and allows the editors to meet the aim of teaching the reader about alibis and research on alibis.
The editors ensured to have the chapters written around real cases of wrongful convictions. This step is admirable, as these are those cases that have inspired alibi research. By discussing such cases, including those of wrongfully convicted individuals who spent decades in prison for a crime that they did not commit, the reader easily understands the importance of research on alibis and their corroboration. Such authentic examples also help the editors focus their discussion on specific problems presented in each chapter. The plethora of examples also familiarizes the reader with relevant cases that might have been unknown to them, ultimately potentially opening the door for further potential research avenues. While each chapter can be read individually, the chapters do reference one another when related topics are discussed.
Chapter 1 provides the reader with a general overview of the book and its aims. The editors want to ensure that already when commencing reading the book, the reader adopts the viewpoint about alibis and alibi collaborators adopted by the editors, namely that alibis could be intentionally deceiving, are evaluated differently by different individuals, and are used differently in different justice systems. Given that this book is aimed at researchers in the field, this explicit statement is helpful as it allows the reader to set expectations about how alibis are going to be discussed in the upcoming chapters. Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive description of the first steps of research on suspects’ alibis, emphasizing the shift towards focusing on alibis as evidence provided by suspects rather than evidence dependent solely on eyewitness psychology.
In Chapter 3, the reader learns about the processes underlying the generation of alibis from a summary of relevant literature and theories. The chapter’s authors rely heavily on work already described in Chapter 2. Nevertheless, this time, this work is being discussed from the perspective of alibi generation. After an alibi is provided, it is then evaluated for believability. Thus, naturally, Chapter 4 discusses existing literature on the believability of alibis. Specifically, this chapter focuses on the characteristics of alibi corroborators and evaluators, as well as contextual factors (e.g., the type of crime for which an alibi was provided) that may affect the extent to which an alibi is believed and perceived to be strong. While the former provides an extension to some discussions made in previous chapters, the latter is a fresh addition that provides another layer to the understanding of the factors operating during the processes of alibi evaluation for believability.
In Chapter 5, the reader is familiarized with the modest body of research that exists on approaches that can be used to assist truth-telling suspects and provide accurate alibis and corroborating evidence–while also considering the potential effects of such approaches on lie-telling suspects. Then, Chapter 6 represents a shift toward a more general discussion on alibis by focusing on alibi research across different legal systems (e.g., Anglo-Saxon vs. non-Anglo-Saxon; adversarial vs. inquisitorial). Here, the reader learns who evaluates alibis in several different legal systems, who oversees searching for corroborating evidence in those systems, and the likelihood of an alibi to be presented at trial. Crucially, this chapter alerts alibi researchers to use ecologically-valid samples in order for the findings of alibi research to be applied to real-world protocols and scenarios as easily as possible.
Chapter 7 then discusses children as alibi corroborators. It focuses on children’s memory in relation to recalling information that may be crucial to supporting others’ alibis—their parents’ alibis, in particular. Moreover, it discusses perceptions of children as alibi corroborators. Throughout the chapter, useful comparisons are made between adult and child alibi corroborators. Chapter 8 moves forward from the processes involved in generating, providing, and corroborating alibis into the process of using alibis defenses, with a focus on the United States (US). This process is referred to in this chapter as a strategic one, as using alibis as evidence has different implications for suspects depending on the different stages of the US criminal justice system. The reader learns about factors that different decision-makers (defense attorneys, in particular) in this criminal justice system must consider when deciding whether or not to use an alibi.
As preparation for the book’s ending, Chapter 9 brings the focus back to alibi generation and provision by discussing the reasons behind the provision of erroneous alibis and their ability to lead to miscarriages of justice. By doing so, this chapter sends the reader with high motivation to continue and expand the under-researched domain of alibi generation and provision. This motivation then receives helpful direction in Chapter 10. Although all the chapters in this book provide the reader with research questions that one could examine, this summarizing chapter provides a denser discussion on several such questions and the importance of asking and attempting to answer those questions. The subsequent Appendix includes a myriad of specific research questions, divided into different topics discussed throughout the book, such as alibi generation across different ages.
Already during the first chapters of the book, the authors’ aims of providing a comprehensive review of the alibi literature are clearly met. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of literature relevant to alibis in general and to the chapter’s topic in particular, including unpublished research. Moreover, this book has done an exceptional job in meeting its aims of proposing future directions for alibi researchers from all academic levels. Although the Appendix is dedicated specifically to research questions one could research, such research avenues are provided abundantly throughout the book. It is without a doubt that this book will inspire new and even experienced researchers to tackle questions relevant to alibis. Moreover, with the need for more collaborations between end-users and researchers, this book could provide practitioners with a theoretical understanding of the issues revolving around suspect alibis and corroboration. This understanding could encourage such practitioners to agree to engage in collaborative research on alibis, in particular, and legal matters, in general.
In this book, already in its Preface, the editors ask the reader to imagine a situation in which the police came to their house and asked them to describe their whereabouts during a specific timeframe. The editors explain that this is actually a request from the reader to provide their alibi, namely that they were not present at the crime scene during the crime. However, in future editions, I suggest a move towards a broader definition of an alibi, whereby we consider one’s attempt to exculpate themselves even if one has been at the crime scene, but could not have committed the crime due to being occupied with other tasks. While this statement is not an alibi in its ‘classic’ meaning (i.e., ‘I was elsewhere’), it is still used by suspects to exonerate themselves. This broader alibi definition is relevant to instances in which people are asked to explain their presence at the crime scene or nearby to convince the police that they could not have committed the crime that occurred at that location.
Thus, when planning research on suspect alibis, we should consider all contexts in which innocent suspects may be asked to provide their alibi, and not limit research and practice to the traditional alibi definition. These considerations should be communicated to researchers and practitioners in future editions of books on alibis. More technically, it would be beneficial to divide future editions of this book into separate sections—one for alibi generation and provision and one for alibi corroboration. This would allow an even more organized evaluation of the existing literature.
In sum, this book is a very welcomed contribution to the relatively developing domain of alibis and corroborators. It is a must-read for any alibi researcher.
Dr. Shiri Portnoy is a lecturer in forensic psychology at the Department of Psychology in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law at Teesside University, United Kingdom.
