Essay On False Confession

To develop an experimental paradigm to study the influence of psychologically based interrogation techniques on true and false confessions.

Determining a false confession proves difficult due to the multitude of dimensions involved. According to Kassin and Wrightsman’s (1985) survey of the literature, there are three main types of false confessions—voluntary, coerced-compliant, and coerced-internalized. Unlike coerced false confessions, voluntary false confessions arise as a result of someone willingly turning themselves into the police with an account of their crime (McCann, 1998). Voluntary false confessions can result from multiple motives, including an internalized need for punishment or to save someone else’s face. In contrast, coerced false confessions directly result from police interrogations. While coerced-compliant confessions are made to avoid interrogation, escape the stressful situation, or achieve some other reward, coerced-internalized confessions emerge when a suspects begins to

This literature review chapter will look at the findings from this initial research and define what is meant by a false confession in relation to the two distinct types of coerced false confessions, examining the historical contingency of false confessions including the sequential processes and the contributing situational and dispositional factors that elicit false confessions. The remainder of the chapter will look more specifically at the police interrogation process, paying particular attention to interviewing techniques, police questioning and plea- bargaining and the implications this has on individual suspect’s well being and vulnerability, the subject of this dissertation. The significance of

Police interrogate suspects on a daily basis, but how can they tell if the confession is real? We have all heard, at one time or another of someone confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. Then your next thought is “I would never confess to something I didn’t do”. The only way you can be a 100% sure of that is if you have been through an interrogation before. This paper is going to define “confession” and tell how an innocent person will confesses to a crime they didn’t commit. This paper will also show the history of interrogations.

Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.

Wrongful convictions are common in the court-system. In fact, wrongful convictions are not the rare events that you see or hear on televisions shows, but are very common. They stem from some sort of systematic defect that lead to wrongful convictions such as, eyewitness misidentification testimony, unvalidated or improper forensic science, false confessions and incriminating statements, DNA lab errors, false confessions, and informants (2014). Bringing awareness to all these systematic defects, which result in wrongful, is important because it will better adjust the system to avoid making the same mistakes with future cases. However, false confession is not a systematic defect. It does not occur because files were misplaced or a lab technician put one too many drops. False confessions occur because of some of psychological attempt to protect oneself and their family. Thus, the courts responsibility should be to reduce these false confessions.

However, it is not always the case that a confession is the end of a case, as there is always the chance that it was in fact a false confession. This is not something people usually suspect, as was mentioned previously that people assume no reasonable person would admit to guilt if they were innocent. Often times the false confession comes about through coercion and the tactics of police attempting to obtain a confession no matter if it is accurate or not. There is a vast array of options for police in trying to obtain a confession from a party that they feel is guilty – believing that the prospect of an accurate confession outweighs the possibility of obtaining a false one. It is very common for an officer to simply lie to a suspect who

The Antic Egyptian civilization believed in the afterlife and they needed to prove innocence to the Gods. The ‘’The Negative Confessions’’ were created in order to gain a position in the afterlife. Consequently, the common theme of the confessions in the Book of Dead is that all confessions are a representation of the everyday morality.

Perhaps the most advantageous aspect of a confession is the closure it gives to everyone involved in the case, especially the victims and their families. Having said that, I still believe that conducting a thorough investigation is the best way to ensure that the right person was held accountable for the crime committed. Investigators should not be dependent on confessions. It would be unjust if an innocent man were incarcerated for a crime he did not commit and the real culprit was able to walk free.

Hey, Melinda did you know “Deception can occur in any or all three stages of the detecting process during the investigation, interrogation, and court testimony” (Ciske, 2009). Criminals have every reason to expect that law enforcement officers are going to use deception against them, just as well as they lie to escape accusation. The law enforcement officers in this situation must take into account what sorts of methods are permissible and what the costs are. However, law enforcement officers have to take into account a confession is a substantial piece of evidence that can be presented in court. If the police have to lie to get a confession, it’s still up to the judge to determine if the suspect confession seems voluntary. People may disagree with police tactics during interrogation; however, police are not trained psychologist their deception during interrogating of a suspect has solved numerous of crimes. Therefore, law enforcement interrogations are videotaped inside the interrogation room to create an objective record of police questioning to which all interested and potentially interested parties may appeal, suspects, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and juries. (Wakefield & Underwager, 2014)

False confessions have been a leading factor in destroying the lives of many innocent people. Since the advances of technology, victims of false confessions have been exonerated from the charges previously placed on them while others are still fighting for innocence or died a criminal. One technological advance that has exonerated many individuals is DNA testing. According to Randy James, DNA testing was discovered in 1985 and was first used in court to convict Tommie Lee Andrews (Time, 2009). Today many Americans are convicted because of false confessions that have not yet been overturned with new evidence (Kassin, 2014). Although DNA testing has led to freedom for many innocent Americans, there are still many innocent people who are locked

When an admission is made it has to be proved. Admission tends to lean toward guilt however it is not sufficient enough to prove guilt. If there is no evidence to prove complete guilt at trial then more likely then not a judge will dismiss the case. On the other hand confessions are statements made by individuals who are taking responsibility for committing a crime.

The question of what constitutes morality is often asked by philosophers. One might wonder why morality is so important, or why many of us trouble ourselves over determining which actions are moral actions. Mill has given an account of the driving force behind our questionings of morality. He calls this driving force “Conscience,” and from this “mass of feeling which must be broken through in order to do what violates our standard of right,” we have derived our concept of morality (Mill 496). Some people may practice moral thought more often than others, and some people may give no thought to morality at all. However, morality is nevertheless a possibility of human nature, and a

False confessions is a major flaw in the criminal justice system that must be addressed through videotaping and audio recording with the help of outside viewers. There are a few cause to this problem and society as a whole can change them to solve the problem of false confessions. Throughout this paper, it will address the problem the cause and give a few solutions to fix this issue that is present.

Deception According to Hyman (1989) deception implies that an agent acts or speaks so as to induce a false belief in a target or victim. Deception can occur in everyday life. Whether it is telling someone they look nice or not telling them that they look fat. This is an important process for forming relationships and general social interaction.