Richard Ofshe is a social psychologist and Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, whose research has centered on decision-making and influence. For nearly 30 years his particular focus has been on decision-making under the most extreme of circumstances. Although his principle interest has been police interrogation, he is widely published on the topics of cult violence - how the social organization of some ideologically focused groups can be used to promote violence (See: The Light On Synanon with David and Cathy Mitchell, 1980) and on the "recovered memory "public health problem. (See Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy and Sexual Hysteria with Ethan Watters, 1994).

Since the middle of the 1980's, Professor Ofshe's principle research interest has been the problem of police interrogation leading to false confessions. In a series of law review and social science articles, often written with his colleague Professor Richard Leo of the University of California at Irvine, Professor Ofshe has explored both how interrogations can elicit true confessions and how interrogation-driven false confessions result from a mixture of modern, legally appropriate methods of psychological interrogation with certain prohibited tactics. Two of their articles have received considerable attention - "The Decision to Confess Falsely,"(Denver University Law Review, 1997) and "The Consequences of False Confession" (Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1998).

Professor Ofshe has testified in more than 150 suppression hearings, trials, and post-conviction proceedings on behalf of victims of police coercion.

Last updated April 16, 2002