Steven A. Drizin

Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and Recommendations

Recent DNA exonerations have shed light on the problem that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Drawing on police practices, laws concerning the admissibility of confession evidence, core principles of psychology, and forensic studies involving multiple methodologies, this White Paper summarizes what is known about police-induced confessions. In this review, we identify suspect characteristics (e.g., adolescence; intellectual disability; mental illness; and certain personality traits), interrogation tactics (e.g., excessive interrogation time; presentations of false evidence; and minimization), and the phenomenology of innocence (e.g., the tendency to waive Miranda rights) that influence confessions as well as their effects on judges and juries. This article concludes with a strong recommendation for the mandatory electronic recording of interrogations and considers other possibilities for the reform of interrogation practices and the protection of vulnerable suspect populations.

Police-Induced Confessions, Risk Factors and Recommendations: Looking Ahead

Reviewing the literature on police-induced confessions, we identified suspect characteristics and interrogation tactics that influence confessions and their effects on juries. We concluded with a call for the mandatory electronic recording of interrogations and a consideration of other possible reforms. The preceding commentaries make important substantive points that can lead us forward—on the effects of videotaping of interrogations on case dispositions; on the study of non-custodial methods, such as the controversial Mr. Big technique; and on an analysis of why confessions, once withdrawn, elicit such intractable responses compared to statements given by child and adult victims. Toward these ends, we hope that this issue provides a platform for future research aimed at improving the diagnostic value of confession evidence.

Tales from the Juvenile Confession Front

Children in the United States are regularly subjected to police interrogations. The modern police interrogation, except in rare circumstances, no longer involves the physical abuse, extreme isolation, and sleep deprivation commonly known as the “third degree” but instead involves more psychologically based interrogation techniques (see Leo, this volume). These techniques, which combine “minimization” techniques like feigning friendship, flattery and false sympathy, with “maximization” techniques like lying about or exaggerating the strength of the evidence, are designed with one purpose in mind: to get the suspect to confess guilt. The leading interrogation manual, Criminal Interrogations and Confessions (2001) by Inbau, Reid, Buckley, and Jayne instructs police officers to use these same techniques with children and adults.