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Guilty While Innocent: A Review on False Confession Phenomenon in the Criminal Justice System

Summary/Abstract: This paper reviews the false confession phenomenon, which refers to innocent suspects' detailed admissions to crimes they did not commit. The exact incidence rate of false confessions in the criminal justice system is not known and is estimated to be far more than what common sense and documented false confession cases so far would tell. Recent evidence showed that false confessions play a causal role in about one fourth of all exonerations, indicating that they are among the leading causes of wrongful convictions of innocent suspects. In this study, the false confession literature was reviewed from various aspects, with a particular focus on psychological dimensions of the problem. Specifically, first, the conceptual framework of false confessions was described. Second, the data on the presence and prevalence of false confessions were overviewed and discussed. Third, a number of individual differences and situational risk factors that lead innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit were examined. Finally, measures, policy recommendations and reform calls with regards to preventing and/or reducing false confessions were overviewed.

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