Confessions that corrupt: evidence from the DNA exoneration case files

Basic psychology research suggests the possibility that confessions-a potent form of incrimination-may taint other evidence, thereby creating an appearance of corroboration. To determine if this laboratory-based phenomenon is supported in the high-stakes world of actual cases, we conducted an archival analysis of DNA exoneration cases from the Innocence Project case files. Results were consistent with the corruption hypothesis: Multiple evidence errors were significantly more likely to exist in false-confession cases than in eyewitness cases; in order of frequency, false confessions were accompanied by invalid or improper forensic science, eyewitness identifications, and snitches and informants; and in cases containing multiple errors, confessions were most likely to have been obtained first. We believe that these findings underestimate the problem and have important implications for the law concerning pretrial corroboration requirements and the principle of "harmless error" on appeal.     

False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications for Reform

ABSTRACT— Despite the commonsense belief that people do not confess to crimes they did not commit, 20 to 25% of all DNA exonerations involve innocent prisoners who confessed. After distinguishing between voluntary, compliant, and internalized false confessions, this article suggests that a sequence of three processes is responsible for false confessions and their adverse consequences. First, police sometimes target innocent people for interrogation because of erroneous judgments of truth and deception. Second, innocent people sometimes confess as a function of certain interrogation tactics, dispositional suspect vulnerabilities, and the phenomenology of innocence. Third, jurors fail to discount even those confessions they see as coerced. At present, researchers are seeking ways to improve the accuracy of confession evidence and its evaluation in the courtroom.     

虚假供述影响因素及法律控制

本文以虚假供述的研究方法为起点,结合案例,对自愿型、强迫—服从型和强迫—内化型三种类型的虚假供述进行介绍,从个人因素与情境因素两个方面,对虚假供述的影响因素加以分析。其中,着重阐述了虚假供述的实验室研究范式。在评析影响因素的基础上对我国刑事诉讼的修改提出立法建议,以期在法律上控制影响因素的作用。     

A conceptual framework for identifying various types of confessions

Considerable attention has been given to the psychology of confession evidence in recent years. While various factors have been used to define the types of confessions possible, most classification frameworks have focused on the various types of false confessions. An expanded framework is outlined using a decision-tree model in which confessions are defined according to a number of dimensions, including whether or not a confession is retracted, veracity or truthfulness, legal culpability of the suspect, voluntariness, and specific nature of the coercion that might produce a confession. A proposal is made for a new subtype of false confession, the coerced–reactive type, to supplement current theoretical approaches. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of this conceptual model for providing consultation and expert testimony in cases involving disputed confessions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the psychology of confessions: does innocence put innocents at risk?

The Central Park jogger case and other recent exonerations highlight the problem of wrongful convictions, 15% to 25% of which have contained confessions in evidence. Recent research suggests that actual innocence does not protect people across a sequence of pivotal decisions: (a) In preinterrogation interviews, investigators commit false-positive errors, presuming innocent suspects guilty; (b) naively believing in the transparency of their innocence, innocent suspects waive their rights; (c) despite or because of their denials, innocent suspects elicit highly confrontational interrogations; (d) certain commonly used techniques lead suspects to confess to crimes they did not commit; and (e) police and others cannot distinguish between uncorroborated true and false confessions. It appears that innocence puts innocents at risk, that consideration should be given to reforming current practices, and that a policy of videotaping interrogations is a necessary means of protection.     

Falsche Geständnisse

Although false confessions would seem to run counter to their own interests, innocent suspects do occasionally admit to having committed even serious crimes. This article describes individual differences in susceptibility to interrogative influence and mechanisms through which interrogation tactics can induce false confessions. It will also show that there is no simple way of distinguishing false from true confessions, which is partly due to the lack of verbatim records of interviews with suspects. In some cases false confessions can even negatively impact on the gathering and evaluation of further evidence and in turn this seemingly independent evidence seems to validate the false confession if this is later retracted. Psychological expertise may well help to clarify individual cases; however, any uncritical transfer of the credibility assessment developed to evaluate witness testimony, without taking the specific conditions of interviews with suspects into account, may well lead to false results.     

The prevalence of false confessions in experimental laboratory simulations: A meta‐analysis

We assessed experimental false confession studies using a meta‐analysis to evaluate the prevalence of false confessions across methodologies and several moderator variables. False confessions were more likely in typing task studies than in collaborative or individual cheating studies. In typing studies, speed of typing did not affect false confession rates, but placement of the forbidden key in locations that rendered errors less plausible lowered the false confession rates. False‐evidence ploys increased the likelihood of false confessions. We explore implications for courts, expert witnesses, scholars, and police interrogators.     

An exploratory examination of intellectual disability and mental illness associated with alleged false confessions

The National Registry of Exonerations tracks cases of individuals who have been wrongly convicted and exonerated since 1989. Their most recent report revealed that 12% of those exonerated gave false confessions. The current study used data from the National Registry of Exonerations and focused on a sample of 2,378 individuals convicted of felonies with a focus on sexual offenses, as such crimes tend to be viewed as particularly heinous with increased consequences for those convicted. After examining various legal and extralegal factors, the results showed that those accused of sexual offenses, particularly sexual murders, had a greater likelihood of giving a false confession than those accused of non-sexual offenses. The likelihood of falsely confessing was higher among juveniles, those with mental illness and intellectual disabilities, and cases with multiple suspects. Females had a greater odds of falsely confessing to murder than males. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

(In)accuracy at Detecting True and False Confessions and Denials: An Initial Test of a Projected Motive Model of Veracity Judgments

Absent a perceived motive for deception, people will infer that a message source is honest. As a consequence, confessions should be believed more often than denials, true confessions will be correctly judged as honest, and false confessions will be misjudged. In the first experiment, participants judged true and false confessions and denials. As predicted, confessions were judged as honest more frequently than denials. Subsequent experiments replicated these results with an independent groups design and with a sample of professional investigators. Together, these three experiments document an important exception to the 50%+ accuracy conclusion, provide evidence consistent with a projected motive explanation of deception detection, and highlight the importance of the content‐in‐context in judgmental processes.     

Guilt assessment after retracted voluntary and coerced-compliant confessions in combination with exculpatory or ambiguous evidence

We investigated how voluntary confessions, coerced-compliant confessions, and no-confessions influenced guilt assessments in combination with other exculpatory or ambiguous evidence. In three experiments (total N = 808), participants studied case information and provided guilt assessments. As expected, in Experiment 1 and 2a, (i) voluntary confessions to protect a family member elicited stronger guilt attributions than no-confessions and (ii) ambiguous evidence led to stronger guilt attributions than exculpatory evidence. In Experiment 2b, voluntary confessions to protect a group-member (but not to protect a family-member) elicited stronger guilt attributions than no-confessions. Exculpatory eyewitness evidence elicited stronger guilt attributions than exculpatory DNA evidence and participants assigned more weight to exculpatory DNA than eyewitness evidence. Participants were able to discount coerced-compliant confessions when they received information about the interrogations (Experiments 2a/b), but did not consistently consider risk factors for (voluntary) false confessions outside the interrogation room when assessing guilt.     

The relationship between false confessions and perceptions of parental rearing practices

The main aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between a history of having made a false confession and reported parental rearing practices. It was hypothesized that the reporting of rejection and absence of warmth by parents would be associated with the making of a false confession. The participants were 804 college students in Iceland. Each was asked about false confessions made to teachers and parents in the past, as well as about false confessions made to the police during questioning. The participants completed questionnaires relating to perceived parental rearing practices (EMBU), proneness to antisocial behavior (the Gough Socialization Scale), personality (EPQ), self-esteem (Rosenberg), and compliance (GCS). Only eight participants (1% of those interrogated) claimed to have made false confessions to the police, whereas 10% claimed to have made false confessions to teachers or parents. False confessions were significantly associated with proneness to antisocial behavior and the EMBU Rejection and Warmth scales for both fathers and mothers.     

A survey of people's attitudes and beliefs about false confessions

The attitudes and beliefs of jury eligible individuals regarding false confessions were investigated in order to uncover potential biases. Survey respondents provided perceptions of factors related to false confessions (e.g. their frequency and likely situational and dispositional risk variables). Results indicate that people possess an awareness that false confessions can occur and believe that a confession should not be taken as an absolute indicator of guilt. However, their understanding of predisposing and situational factors that contribute to false confessions was incomplete, as was their understanding of interrogation practices. Furthermore, respondents showed a marked bias against believing that they personally would ever falsely confess, which is discussed in the context of potential inconsistencies between people's self-report and their actual behaviors in naturalistic situations.     

Memory distortions in coerced false confessions: a source monitoring framework analysis

Confessions are routinely offered as evidence and are potentially damning to defendants. However, not all confessions are truthful. Suspects can be coerced into falsely confessing to crimes that they did not commit, and in a subset of cases, the confessors come to genuinely believe they committed the crimes and sometimes create vivid ‘memories’ of their activities. Against the backdrop of a model of cognitive processes involved in correct and incorrect remembering known as the source monitoring framework, this paper examines how coercive tactics routinely used in interrogations may give rise to memory illusions and distortions that can contribute to false confessions in which individuals believe they are guilty and create false memories to support those beliefs. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating true and false confessions within a novel experimental paradigm

The primary goal of the current study was to develop a novel experimental paradigm with which to study the influence of psychologically based interrogation techniques on the likelihood of true and false confessions. The paradigm involves guilty and innocent participants being accused of intentionally breaking an experimental rule, or "cheating." In the first demonstration of this paradigm, we explored the influence of two common police interrogation tactics: minimization and an explicit offer of leniency, or a "deal." Results indicated that guilty persons were more likely to confess than innocent persons, and that the use of minimization and the offer of a deal increased the rate of both true and false confessions. Police investigators are encouraged to avoid interrogation techniques that imply or directly promise leniency, as they appear to reduce the diagnostic value of any confession that is elicited.     

Coerced or nonvoluntary confessions

Police may engage in deceptive and coercive interrogations to obtain confessions. When a confession is later retracted, judges and juries must assess the totality of the circumstances surrounding the confession, including the interrogation techniques used and the effects of these tactics on the particular defendant. A suspect who is vulnerable and confused or who is given false evidence by a coercive interrogator may produce a false confession. Expert testimony may be necessary to help jurors understand the circumstances that lead to nonvoluntary confessions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How confession characteristics impact juror perceptions of evidence in criminal trials

A confession is one of the most impactful pieces of evidence that can be presented in a criminal trial, yet very little is known about how perceptions of evidence change based on characteristics of the confession. While researchers know that “circumstances of the setting”, such as length of interrogation, number of interrogators, and lack of sleep, increase the likelihood of false confessions, less is known about whether juror perceptions of the confession are impacted by these factors. The current research builds on the existing literature by evaluating the impact of these situational confession factors to determine whether jurors give weight to characteristics that are known to increase the likelihood of a false confession. Two experimental surveys were conducted, one using a sample of undergraduate students and one using a sample of jury‐eligible adults, in order to determine how respondents perceived a confession's strength. Results showed that confessions arising from lengthy interrogations were perceived to be weaker than those arising from short interrogations. However, multiple interrogators and a lack of sleep had little impact on evidence perceptions; these factors indicate a questionable confession to experts, but not to jurors. The implications for criminal justice theory, criminal trials, and future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in the interplay between exposure to trauma and parental disturbances within the home,stress-sensitivity and reported false confessions in adolescents

The principal aim of this study is to investigate the interplay between the reported experience of physical/psychological trauma and disturbances involving parents within the home, latent stress-sensitivity, and the likelihood of reporting false confessions in females. This study also investigates gender differences by fitting the hypothesised partial mediation model to the male data. A multiple group structural equation model was fitted to data obtained from both female (N = 5426) and male (N = 5394) further education students in Iceland. The direct effect from reported physical/psychological trauma to reported false confessions emerged as the only significant effect in females. In males, the direct effect of latent stress-sensitivity on false confessions is significant, but also the indirect effect from both reported experience of physical/psychological trauma and disturbances involving parents through latent stress-sensitivity to false confessions is significant. This study has solidified the notion that a history of physical violence in particular at home may be a critical susceptibility factor amongst females. In males, self-report stress-sensitivity may be the critical susceptibility factor, both explaining the effect of physical/psychological trauma in the home on false confessions, and increasing sensitivity to exogenous interview pressure.     

The therapeutic nature of confessions

Since Janet and Freud, confessions have been a vital part of the psychoanalytic armamentarium. While confessions were originally cast primarily in oedipal terms, this paper examines confessions in the light of recent developments in self psychology and object relations. The central thesis presented is that confessions contribute both to the development of self-identity and to the strengthening of object relations. Clinical and literary examples are used to illustrate how individuals who choose to confess are redeemed and transformed; those who opt for conscious concealment or unconscious self-deception are destroyed. Confessions made during therapy provide valuable information on historical antecedents as well as on the vicissitudes of the self.