How Do Authorities Deal With False Confessions?

False confessions are very common. People who give out false confessions do not necessarily mean to fool police, but rather they may be confused, angry, tired, or want to leave the room. They could have psychiatric problems and believe they actually committed a crime, or they may have dreamt up the crime over and over that they can not recall whether they did it or dreamt it.

False confessions occur all the time though they may not make any sense to anybody. Whenever a murder is reported in the media, there are perhaps ten or so people who will come forward and confess to it.

Many false confessions are fabricated because criminals think they can distract police from investigating another crime. For instance, a suspect may confess to a carjacking or robbery of a convenience store but have no knowledge about the murder that occurred simultaneously at another location. If guilty of a robbery, the suspect may not be the killer. Similarly, a friend or family member may confess to a crime to protect the real perpetrator. For this reason, specific details regarding a crime are withheld from the media and known only to police in order to find the real perpetrator who will know something about the details of that crime.

Some people simply confess for no real reason. Several psychological factors are involved in such a confession. They include low self-esteem, fear of the police, search for fame, or a need to please authorities or impress another person. John Mark Karr, for example, sought his fame when he claimed to be involved in the murder of Jon
Benet Ramsey only for investigators to discover that his DNA did not match the DNA found at the crime scene. Many people find the need to make a false confession because they have a long term feeling of guilt and may need to confess to something so they can be punished for that guilt.

Furthermore, alcohol and/or drugs may contribute to a person's willingness to make a false confession by clouding their judgment and leading to confusion, false memories, and false stories, which in turn may make the person unsure of his guilt. If a suspect was inebriated and told by police that he was the only person in the house during a homicide, he may believe that he committed the murder and not even have any recollection of it. This may result in a false confession.

Certain law enforcement interview methods can contribute to a false confession. Excessive isolation and fatigue can break down a suspect's composure such that a false confession seems like an easy way out than going on with the interview. If investigators use a good cop/bad cop technique, the suspect may confess, falsely thinking that the good cop will protect him from the bad cop and from the legal system.

Investigators also employ techniques used to trip up lying suspects. They may repeatedly ask different forms of the same question or go off in tangent on a completely different topic and suddenly revert back to a particular line of questioning. Sometimes, these methods also confuse an innocent individual to the point that he mistakenly gives out a false confession.

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