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Purpose: Proximal humerus fractures (PHFs) are among the most common fractures in elderly patients, but there is still inadequate knowledge about mortality risk factors after such injuries. In order to provide the best possible therapy, individual risk factors have to be considered and evaluated thoroughly. There is still controversy regarding treatment decisions for proximal humerus fractures, particularly for the elderly. Methods: In this study, patient data from 522 patients with proximal humerus fractures were obtained from 2004 to 2014 at a Level 1 trauma centre. After a minimum follow-up of 5 years, the mortality rate was assessed, and independent risk factors were evaluated. Results: A total of 383 patients (out of 522) were included in this study. For our patient collective, the mean follow-up was at 10.5 ± 3.2 years. The overall mortality rate was 43.8% in our respondent group and was not significantly impacted by concomitant injuries. The binary logistic regression model showed an increased risk for mortality by 10% per life year, a 3.8 times higher mortality risk for men as well as for conservative treatment. The most powerful predictor was a Charlson Comorbidity Index of more than 2, with a 16 times higher mortality risk. Conclusions: Outstanding independent predictors of death in our patient collective were serious comorbidities, male patients, and conservative treatment. This patient-related information should influence the process of decision making for the individual treatment of patients with PHFs.

Biased decisions in criminal investigations can have severe consequences. Research has only examined the quality of detectives' decision-making while neglecting public prosecutors' decision making. Based on Fahsing and Ask (2016), we want to compare the number of reported gold-standard investigative hypotheses made by public prosecutors and law students in a case with a missing person. Furthermore, we are interested in whether the extralegal factor 'gender of the missing person' would influence the number of reported gold-standard investigative hypotheses.

Mock interviews (also known as “role play” or “simulations”) can be very effective in trainings of investigative interviewing. Participants can directly practice their communication skills. However, it is important that role players provide answers that support learning. For example, they need to know that open questions and prompts should lead to useful and complete responses. Nevertheless, it is unclear how role players should be trained and whether a short interactive training is appropriate for training role players to correctly answer questions and prompts in investigative interviewing exercises.

Research has shown that active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics compared to traditional lecturing (Freeman et al., 2014). In the current quasi-experimental study, we want to examine whether this effect holds when teaching police about memory psychology in an investigative interviewing course. We want to compare the performance in a knowledge test about memory psychology in an active learning group vs. a traditional lecturing group.

Fragestellung: Proximale Humerusfrakturen (PHF) gehören zu den häufigsten Frakturen bei älteren Patienten, aber noch immer gibt es unzureichende Kenntnisse über die Risikofaktoren zur Mortalität nach derartigen Verletzungen. Um die bestmögliche Therapie zu gewährleisten, [zum vollständigen Text gelangen Sie über die oben angegebene URL]

Studies have mainly looked at the impact of retracted coerced confessions on guilt assessment (e.g., Appleby & Kassin, 2016; Kassin & Sukel, 1997). There is little to no research about the guilt assessment after retracted voluntary confessions to protect someone else that are likely to be false. To test whether voluntary false confessions lead to higher guilt assessment than coerced false confessions, we conducted one experiment and assigned participants randomly in a 3 (confession type: coerced vs. voluntary to protect a family member vs. none) x 2 (DNA evidence: exculpatory vs. ambiguous) between-subject design. The present study is a follow-up study where we want to include a new confession condition (voluntary confession to protect a group-member) and a new evidence condition (exculpatory eyewitness evidence) instead of the ambiguous DNA evidence condition.

Based on Weiner's attribution-affect model of helping behavior, this study aims to examine the influence of responsibility for an offense on willingness to voluntarily take the blame for the guilty person. Specifically, we want to investigate whether the effect of responsibility for an offense on voluntary blame-taking is mediated by anger vs. sympathy.

With this survey we want to investigate attitudes and believes of legal practitioners (lawyers, prosecutors, judges) and laypeople in Germany regarding false confessions. It is not yet known how informed these groups in Germany are about false confession behavior. Do they know that false confessions are a real phenomenon? Are they aware of possible risk factors? Internationally, there are several studies that investigated attitudes and opinions regarding false confessions of potential jurors: Researchers were able to show that the respondents did not recognize the influence of certain risk factors or considered them to be low (e.g. Henkel et al., 2008; Leo & Liu, 2009; Mindthoff et al., 2018). However, it is still unclear what legal practitioners and lay people in Germany know about false confession.

Case studies have shown that confession evidence can be as persuasive as to overrule physical evidence and even DNA evidence suggesting innocence (Appleby & Kassin, 2016; Kassin, Bogart, & Kerner, 2012). These cases entailed coerced false confessions. But how are voluntary false confessions perceived, when they are retracted or very likely to be wrong, as suggested by other evidence? According to Attribution theory and the empirical evidence on perceptions of coerced false confessions, we expect that people believe retracted voluntary false confessions even more than retracted coerced false confessions.

Individuals cannot distinguish between true and false confessions (Kassin et al., 2005). There are cases where someone falsely confessed and was convicted of a crime, even when exculpatory evidence was found (Appleby & Kassin, 2016). There are two reasons why people believe retracted (false) confessions: People tend to accept self-reports as true (especially when they contradict self-interests as in confessions; Bond & DePaulo, 2006) and tend to explain actions in terms of dispositional factors (e.g., personality traits), viewing behavior as a fixed measurement, and neglecting the causal role of situational factors (Kassin, 2012). Studies have only looked at the impact of retracted coerced false confessions on the guilty verdict (e.g., Appleby & Kassin, 2016; Kassin & Sukel, 1997). There is no research about the guilt perception of retracted voluntary false confessions to protect someone else. However, it can be argued that in the case of voluntary false confessions there is no situational pressure in the interrogation present and situational factors are taken into account even less than in the case of coerced false confessions. Therefore, the study wants to assess whether the guilt perception differs between different types of retracted confessions when they are false as suggested by exculpatory evidence.

In this follow-up study, we wanted to investigate the moderating effects of relationship status on the influence of responsibility for an offense on willingness to voluntarily take the blame for the guilty person.

This study examines voluntary false confessions to protect someone else. Based on self-report studies, it can be assumed that they occur often in the general and the prison population (Gudjonsson & Sigurdsson, 1994; Willard et al., 2015). Unfortunately, little is known about what situational risk factors increase the likelihood of such confessions. Theories of prosocial behavior can be applied to study possible situational risk factors. With the present study, we want to investigate whether relationship status, offense severity, and different criminal consequences have an influence on voluntary blame-taking.

Based on results regarding the relationship between mood and prosocial behavior, we want to examine if gratitude and guilt feelings have an impact on voluntary false confessions to protect someone else.

Inspired by theories of prosocial behavior, we tested the effect of relationship status and incentives on intended voluntary blame-taking in two experiments (Experiment 2 was pre-registered). Participants (NE1 = 211 and NE2 = 232) imagined a close family member, a close friend, or an acquaintance and read a scenario that described this person committing a minor traffic offense. The person offered either a monetary, social, or no incentive for taking the blame. Participants indicated their willingness to take the blame and reasons for and against blame-taking. Overall, a sizable proportion of participants indicated to be willing to take the blame (E1: 57.8%; E2: 34.9%). Blame-taking rates were higher for family members than close friends or acquaintances in both experiments, as expected. Unexpectedly, there was no difference between a close friend and an acquaintance in Experiment 2. Social incentives did not have an effect on voluntary blame-taking in either experiment. Neither did we find an interaction between relationship status and incentives. The results highlight the importance of kin relationships in the context of voluntary blame-taking.