False Confessions

Voluntary confession

without lots of pressure or maybe any pressure at all, you voluntarily say that you committed the crime even though you didn't

Instrumental confession

you're giving the confession in order to achieve something- falsely confessing may help you get out of the interrogation or maybe you want to guarantee the protection of someone or you want a shorter sentence

Accusatorial methods

1. Establish control 2. Use psychological manipulation 3. Employ closed-ended, confirmatory questions 4. Primary goal is to obtain a confession

Information-Gathering methods

1. Establish rapport 2. Use direct, positive confrontation 3. Employ open-ended, exploratory questions 4. Primary goal is to elicit info

Types of false confessions

1. Instrumental 2. Internalized 3. Voluntary 4. Coerced

Brenden Dassey

16 yrs old with a low IQ arrested and convicted as a co-consipirator of rape/murder. He was interrogated 3x in a 24 hr period using the Reid Technique. He had no legal rep, parent, or adult present. Claimed his confession was coerced. (Instrumental-coerced confession). None of the info given in his confession was new info.

example of internalized-coerced confession

Tom Sawyer was interrogated for 16 hours, was an alcoholic, and lived next door to the victim. He confessed because he came to believe that he did it. He didn't know how but the police told him he was probably drunk and didn't remember and that he had failed his polygraph test even though he didn't

results of PACE

no obvious change in guilty pleas. Can't be sure of the validity though because even if you pass laws saying that you can't lie, how many of these situations have "off the record conversations"?

Internalized confession

some people have an internalized authentic belief that they committed the crime- after 16 hrs of interrogation you may not know how you did it, but you've internalized the guilt

example of instrumental-voluntary confession

someone confesses to get famous (wants notoriety)

example of coerced-instrumental confession

someone wants relief fro the interrogation so they confess

example of internalized-voluntary confession

they have a false belief that they committed the crime, so they confess right away even though it's not true. (May have a mental illness and suffer from delusions)

Steven Avery

Wrongly convicted of rape and attempted murder due to inaccurate eyewitness testimony despite many alibis and much testimony. After being exonerated, he was convicted again two years later in a second rape/murder which also implicated his nephew, Brenden Dassey

Coerced confession

a false confession due to intense physical or psychological pressure

most common type of false confession is

instrumental-coerced

England and Wales Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1986

-made it illegal for interrogators to lie. -a witness must be present (a third party of some sort and adult support for the vulnerable) -interrogation must be audio-recorded -intimidation is not permitted

Solutions to false confessions

-video recordings of interrogations -time limits on interrogations -witness for vulnerable subjects -expert testimony on confessions