Imagine yourself as an expert on your topic of choice. You hold a position in which communities and lawmakers rely on your knowledge and expertise. As an expert, you know your topic in great depth. Yo
Topic: False confessions
False confessions is an issues because it lead innocent people to go to prison and ultimately guilty people stay in society.
About 13% of wrongful convictions are false confessions, it is the second most powerful cause of guilty verdicts after DNA.
There are some reforms states should implement to tackle this issue, like recording the FULL interrogations, that way it cannot be taken out of contest and it can be correctly analyzed.
False confections are particularly more made by younger adults and teenagers. The fact is that younger people are easier to persuade into a confection even when they did not commit the crime.
A lot of people find it hard to believe that false confessions are a thing, Why would someone confess to a crime they did not commit? but recent TV shows like Making a Murderer, The Central Park Five, and When They See Us, have brought some public knowledge and popularity to the topic.
The main issue of false confections it is in fact the goal, while the interrogation officer need to find closure to cases the suspects get persuaded into confessing and end up giving interrogation officer what they have been looking for the whole time.
False confection affect society a great deal, since innocent people get charged for crimes they did not committed while guilty people get away with it.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/psychologist-explains-why-people-confess-crimes-they-didn-t-commit
Psychologist explains why people confess to crimes they didn’t commit
This article explains why people confess to crimes they did not commit with the specific example of Huwe Burton, a 16-year-old boy that confessed to killing his mother while still in shock. The boy was released from prison after 20 years on parole, but still guilty. The article also explains how about 365 people have been recently released from prison thanks to the Innocent project.
http://jaapl.org/content/37/3/332
False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications
This article gets deep into the causes, consequences and implication of false confections. Explaining how there is not only one single cause that ultimately leading to this issue, but it includes psychology state of the suspect, the interrogation conditions as well as the interrogation officers’ approach. They later go on to explain the misclassification Error, which happens when offices mistakenly assume that the suspect is guilty, leading to confirmation bias. The article really gets in deep with almost every bit of the issue and details every possible cause know to date for false confessions
https://www.ted.com/talks/lindsay_malloy_why_teens_confess_to_crimes_they_didn_t_commit
Why teens confess to crimes they did not commit?
This is a Ted Talk by Lindsay Mallow, a psychologist that had dedicated her life to improve justice for vulnerable people, explains why juveniles falsely confess to crimes. Using the example of Making a Murdered a Netflix documentary she breaks down the underlaying science of false confessions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSTW5OAMp68
Making a Murderer
Making a Murderer is a very popular Netflix show, relating the stories of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey. Both accused and incarcerated for the murdered of Teresa Halbach, a local photographer. Brendan Dassey confessed to the crimes incriminating his uncle. Experts believe the confession is not reliable, and even though that is the only prove that incriminates them they are both still in prison.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1348/135532507X193051
Effects of personality, interrogation techniques and plausibility in an experimental false confession paradigm
This is a study by Jessica R. Klaver form 2010, that examines how personality variables, interrogation techniques and plausibility level could ultimately lead to a false confession. The findings of this research offer insight into false confessional conduct, indicating that people who appear to alter their responses in the presence of adverse criticism may be more vulnerable to false confessional behavior.
