""Does truth actually exist if no one believes it?" The new Hulu mini-series, "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox," has everyone wondering how an innocent college student could be convicted for a crime when the evidence pointed to another person. Research on legal psychology, specifically on a 20-year old theory known as the phenomenology of innocence, holds some of the answers."
"The mini-series follows the true story of Amanda Knox, who became an internationally known suspect in a homicide investigation at 20 years old. In September of 2007, Amanda left her university in Seattle, WA to study abroad in Perugia, Italy, where she shared a house with three roommates. That November, Amanda found her house broken into. She would eventually learn that one of her roommates, Meredith Kercher, was dead in her locked room. The Italian police, facing global pressure to close the case, set their sights on Amanda as the killer."
"In this case, the investigators had an initial theory that the break-in to the girls' house was staged. Under this theory, Amanda was a potential suspect. Police thought that Amanda was acting strangely-not how an average person would behave knowing that their roommate had been brutally murdered. She volunteered information, sought comfort and affection from her boyfriend, Raffaele, and used American phrases that didn't translate in Italian. These assumptions about how someone "should" behave in the wake of a tragedy, in part, led the investigators to interpret her actions"
Amanda Knox was a 20-year-old student studying abroad in Perugia when her roommate Meredith Kercher was found dead in her locked room. Police under pressure developed a theory that the house break-in was staged and focused on Amanda. Investigators misinterpreted culturally influenced behavior and emotional responses—comfort-seeking, volunteering information, and language differences—as signs of guilt. The phenomenology of innocence explains how innocence can paradoxically increase suspicion and result in false-positive errors. Investigative assumptions about how someone "should" behave after trauma contributed to Amanda becoming a prime suspect despite evidence pointing elsewhere. The mini-series illustrates these dynamics across eight episodes.
Read at Psychology Today
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