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Phenomenon Of False Confession

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Generally, it is difficult to fathom the rationale behind a false confession. False confession is commonly defined as an admission of guilt to a particular crime even though the confessor is not accountable for the crime. The phenomenon of false confession have been dated back into the past, during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, where a large numbers of individuals were accused of witchcraft on a basis of confession extracted using physical torture and threats. (Kassin, 2010). In addition, even after a few centuries, the phenomenon of false confession continues. However, as opposed to the Salem Witch Trials, majority of the false confession today are confessed under psychological duress. Furthermore, according to Horgan, Russano, Meissner and Evans (2012), individuals have a tendency to …show more content…

This also demonstrates that most individuals have no idea on the potential influence of the interrogation atmosphere. Therefore, this phenomenon arise a research question that this study is intended to unravel, which is the psychology behind why individuals confess to the crimes that they had not committed.
According to Kassin and Wrightsman (1985), false confession consists of mainly three types. The first type of false confession is voluntary false confession is characterized by confession made in the absence of police interrogation. This type of confession is commonly made to with the desire to protect the criminal (Deffenbacher, 1996), due to the inability to differentiate one’s fantasy and the reality, or to satisfy the need for attention (Gudjonsson, 2003). As an illustration, high-profile cases such as Nicole Brown Simpson murders in 1994, tends to attract a larger amount of voluntary false confession cases (Corwin, 1996). Another type

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