Psychological heuristics are an adaptive part of human cognition, helping us operate efficiently in a world full of complex stimuli. However, these mental shortcuts also have the potential to undermine the search for truth in a criminal investigation. We reviewed 30 social science research papers on cognitive biases in criminal case evaluations (i.e., integrating and drawing conclusions based on the totality of the evidence in a criminal case), 18 of which were based on police participants or an examination of police documents. Only two of these police participant studies were done in the USA, with the remainder conducted in various European countries. The studies provide supporting evidence that lay people and law enforcement professionals alike are vulnerable to confirmation bias, and there are other environmental, individual, and case-specific factors that may exacerbate this risk. Six studies described or evaluated the efficacy of intervention strategies, with varying evidence of success. Further research, particularly in the USA, is needed to evaluate different approaches to protect criminal investigations from cognitive biases.

心理启发法是人类认知的适应性部分，可帮助我们在充满复杂刺激的世界中高效运作。然而，这些心理捷径也有可能破坏刑事调查中寻求真相的过程。我们回顾了 30 篇关于刑事案件评估中的认知偏差的社会科学研究论文（即根据刑事案件的全部证据整合和得出结论），其中 18 篇基于警察参与者或对警察文件的检查。这些警察参与者的研究中只有两项是在美国完成的，其余的则是在不同的欧洲国家进行的。这些研究提供的支持证据表明，非专业人士和执法专业人员都容易受到确认偏见的影响，而且还有其他环境、个人、以及可能加剧这种风险的特定案例因素。六项研究描述或评估了干预策略的有效性，成功的证据各不相同。需要进一步研究，特别是在美国，评估保护刑事调查免受认知偏见影响的不同方法。