Why confessions trump innocence.

Saul M. Kassin

151 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Psychologist

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Deception detection and forensic psychology Legal processes and jurisprudence Criminal Law and Evidence

Abstract

As illustrated by the story of Amanda Knox and many others wrongfully convicted, false confessions often trump factual innocence. Focusing on consequences, recent research suggests that confessions are powerfully persuasive as a matter of logic and common sense; that many false confessions contain richly detailed narratives and accurate crime facts that appear to betray guilty knowledge; and that confessions in general can corrupt other evidence from lay witnesses and forensic experts-producing an illusion of false support. This latter phenomenon, termed "corroboration inflation," suggests that pretrial corroboration requirements as well as the concept of "harmless error" on appeal are based on an erroneous presumption of independence among items of evidence. In addition to previously suggested reforms to police practices that are designed to curb the risk of false confessions, measures should be taken as well to minimize the rippling consequences of those confessions.

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References

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2013Do confessions taint perceptions of handwriting evidence? An empirical test of the forensic confirmation bias.2016Deception detection with behavioral, autonomic, and neural measures: Conceptual and methodological considerations that warrant modesty 2020Cumulative Disadvantage: A Psychological Framework for Understanding How Innocence Can Lead to Confession, Wrongful Conviction, and Beyond 2013Comparing the effects of explicit and implicit false-evidence ploys on Mock Jurors' verdicts, sentencing recommendations, and perceptions of police interrogation 2015The Social Psychology of False Confessions

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