From: The Washington Post
Examining why false confessions occur in the U.S. criminal justice system
If you were under interrogation, would you confess to a crime you didn’t commit?
It’s more common than you might think. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 27 percent of people in the registry who were accused of homicide gave false confessions, and 81 percent of people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities did the same when they were accused of homicide.
But why?
Scientists are working to understand more about the psychology of false confessions. In “The confession,” an article in the journal Science, journalist Douglas Starr focuses on one of them. Starr features Saul Kassin, a psychologist and interrogation expert who is changing the way law enforcement thinks about interrogation.
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Washington Post
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