THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONFESSION EVIDENCE

Basic questions are raised concerning police interrogations, the risk of false confessions, and the impact that such evidence has on a jury. On the basis of available research, it was concluded that the crimina l justice system currently does not afford adequate protection to inno cent people branded as suspects and that there are serious dangers ass ociated with confession evidence. The specific problems are threefold (a) The police routinely use deception, trickery, and psychologically coercive methods of interrogation; (b) these methods may, at times, ca use innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit; and (c) when coerced self-incriminating statements are presented in the courtr oom, juries do not sufficiently discount the evidence in reaching a ve rdiet. It is argued that the topic of confession evidence has largely been overlooked by the scientific community and that further research is needed to build a useful empirical foundation.