Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan is an esteemed forensic psychologist, expert witness, and research fellow at Carleton University. Since 2019 he has consulted as an expert witness in psychology on more than 125 criminal and civil cases from 28 American states, Canada, and the U.S. military’s judicial system. Past clients include the Innocence Project, and to date he has been involved in two successful exonerations. Specializing in false confessions and mistaken eyewitness identifications, Dr. Kaplan provides psychometrically based evaluations that are both scientific and compelling to legal decision makers.
About Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan
Efficient and Cost Effective
Legal aid attorneys often have to make do with limited resources. Dr. Kaplan believes that every defendant deserves the best representation possible regardless of their income. He understands your financial constraints and will work to ensure that he can provide his services in a way that fits your budget. Special discounts are available to advocacy organizations, and expedited evaluations are available for those on a tight deadline.
Highly Qualified Interrogation Expert
Dr. Kaplan holds a Bachelors of Honor’s degrees in psychology and criminal justice from the University of Winnipeg, a Master of Science in forensic psychology from Ontario Tech University, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in forensic psychology from Ontario Tech University.
Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan
Dr. Kaplan is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS). Dr. Kaplan has also been trained and received certification to conduct suspect interviews and interrogations from Wicklander- Zulawski and Associates.
False Confession Researcher
Dr. Kaplan is on the leading edge of conducting psychological research in the area of interrogations and confessions, including developing the world’s first standardized psychometric measure of coercion and risk factors for false confession. The recipient of more than a quarter million dollars in research funding, he has published numerous peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters, and presented findings at professional conferences.
FAQs
On occasion people voluntarily confess crimes to the police unsolicited, but most false confessions are the result of coercive interrogation practises. While anyone is vulnerable to coercive interrogation tactics and practises, juveniles and those with mental illness or intellectual disability are at a particularly high risk of making a false confession
There are several different methods that psychologists use to study false confessions, each with its own strengths and limitations. One method is to review known cases of false confessions and search for commonalities, another is to survey suspects who confessed and police who elicit confessions. We also conduct experiments where we interrogate suspects to determine what factors will make them more likely to falsely confess, and we also conduct studies where we observe real-life interrogations.
If you are being questioned as a suspect of a crime you should ask for a lawyer and say nothing else. Interrogation is a game that you can only lose, your best option is to refuse to play.
Defendants who make confessions face a cumulative disadvantage. Once police receive a confession, they seek to corroborate that confession, which often results in evidence being interpreted in a way that is consistent with that confession while disconfirming evidence may be ignored. Defendants who confess are more likely to be convicted, charged at higher levels, and receive longer sentences.
Trends in judicial decision-making can be difficult to decipher, but case law is filled with examples of suppressed confessions and juries acquitting defendants who have confessed. Psychological studies have shown that defendants who confess after highly coercive interrogations are less likely to be convicted, and that expert testimony can improve jurors’ understanding of false confessions and affect their verdicts.
Each case is unique. Most expert witnesses will charge an hourly rate, and the number of hours spent on a case can be determined by the length of the interrogation, number of interrogations, size of the discovery package, and if travel is necessary to give testimony.
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