Brendan Dassey False Confession Analysis

In this assignment, you will be asked to think critically and apply your knowledge from Module
4 to the case of Brendan Dassey. This assignment will not only improve your written
communication and research skills, but it will also allow you to apply course content to a real-
world application.

Instructions:
You will first watch the police interrogation of Brendan Dassey. Please note that the
interrogation is quite long, and you do not need (but are more than welcome) to watch the entire
interrogation to complete this assignment. I would suggest watching a minimum of 30 minutes
(does not need to be the first 30 minutes) or until you feel you have enough information to
complete the assignment.

After watching the interrogation, you will be asked to write an amicus brief* to educate a judge
about relevant social psychological concepts and research related to Brendan Dassey and false
confessions.

An effective amicus brief* is:

• Persuasive in the research that is presented
• The purpose of the brief should be clear early on
• Background information should be covered
• Does not present a biased view
• Written for the lay person (i.e., assume they have no previous knowledge of your issue)

*NOTE: These papers are to take on the spirit of the amicus brief without taking on the
format of an amicus brief. That is, you do not need to look up and learn how to format a
proper amicus brief. Instead, format your paper as outlined below and address all of the
information outlined in the next section in your paper.

In your amicus brief*, you will:

• Present an introduction to the issue and state how your issue is directly relevant to the
Brendan Dassey case (worth 5 points, see rubric below; should be a brief
introductory paragraph). Choose one (and only one!) aspect of/issue from Brendan’s
case to focus on. Your brief will be about false confessions in particular – but what aspect
of false confessions you want to discuss is up to you. Specifically, based on the literature
and interrogation video, why do you think Brendan falsely confessed? This could be
related to an individual characteristic or systemic issue. There are, of course, a number of
reasons but choose one (and only one!). If you are not sure if the issue you chose is
appropriate or if it counts as more than one issue, you can email Dr. Arndorfer.
o Remember this section is supposed to introduce the issue you’ve identified. That
is, the focus should be on the issue and not on providing a description of the
Brendan Dassey case.
 • Present a summary of the psychological research related to the issue you are raising in
your brief. You do not need to present specific details of individual studies (e.g.,
participants, methods), but this section should be more of a comprehensive synthesis of
the research findings in your specific area. Note: This section will require you to conduct
a literature search to identify empirical research articles. You can use the module contents
to get an idea for your topic and perhaps what research area you want to investigate
further, but your amicus brief should not be limited to the research covered in the
module. If you are only using the content materials for this section, you will not receive
full points. You should be using at least 3 empirical research articles to include in your
brief (worth 10 points, see rubric below; this will be the bulk of your paper – aim for
about 2-3 pages).

o What is an empirical research article? An empirical research article reports the

results of a study that uses data derived from actual observation or
experimentation. Empirical research articles are examples of primary research.
Empirical research articles are published in scholarly or academic journals. These
journals are also called “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” publications. The following
databases (selected list only) contain empirical research: PsycINFO and
PsycARTICLES. You can find a list of databases for Psychology here.
▪ Need additional help/practice? Complete the following ASU Library
tutorials below:
• Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
• Scholarly Research Articles
• See other tutorials here for help with general research skills, citing
sources, using databases, etc.

• Present a conclusion about what the research suggests and the limitations of the research.
Additionally, provide a recommendation about what the judge should do in this case (i.e.,
should the judge admit the confession evidence at trial or not). If you have taken
Advanced Forensic Psychology by now, you know that the expert should never provide a
recommendation on the ultimate issue (is Brendan guilty or not guilty), but your
recommendation will be based on whether you think the confession should be admissible
or not (worth 5 points, see rubric below; this should be about 1 to 2 paragraphs to
conclude your paper).

Assignment Formatting:

• Page length requirement: Your assignment should be about 4-5 pages

• Page formatting:
o double spaced
o 1-inch margins
o Times New Roman
o size 12 font
o you can use headings and subheadings (format them in APA)
• Other formatting requirements:
o Full sentences and paragraphs must be used, bullet form is not acceptable
o You must cite your sources using proper APA 7th edition style and format
o Be sure to include an APA style title page and references page (neither count
towards the 4–5-page length expectation)
o You are NOT allowed to include quotes in your papers
o The online system does not handle documents created in Pages program, so please
only submit documents as a .doc or docx file
Rubric: