False Confessions: A Case Study

Confessions are a very important and crucial piece of evidence in any given case. The weight put into these one little portion of a case is incredible. Confessions are extremely powerful in the court of law, not only because it facilitates a conviction, but because it saves the criminal justice system money on investigations and many other investigative procedures that might of have to be done. Due to the importance of confessions, the concept of false confessions and wrongful convictions has been studied by many researchers, in an effort to have an understanding of why they happen and how can the criminal justice system in general minimize the number of false confessions. When an individual admits to committing a crime that she or he has not
The purpose of the study was to determine if personality characteristics are a reflector or predictor of who would more likely to falsely confess and make false denials, there were four categories of such: false denials, false confessions, true denial and true confession. (CITE) The researchers administered a variety of questionnaires in relation to the different aspects such as personality and self-esteem, and also conducted interviews asking for such events. They selected students from universities who had falsely confessed or made denials to the police, parents and teachers. As results, there were several important findings in Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson, Bragason, Einarsson and Valdimarsfottir study, but for the purpose of the current discussion, only the key findings will be presented. First, it was recognized that false confessions to teachers, parents and police officers do happen. Secondly, that males are more likely than females to make false confession. Thirdly, the vast majority of false confessions given to teachers, parents and the police were voluntarily, in order to protect someone else, with a 60%. The study mentions the importance of police taking a closer and more look to confessions, and to recognize the fact that a confession might not necessarily be from a guilty person, but from an innocent one. Also, those who confess do under their own means and intentions and gains to it given their current situations. Finally, the researchers found support that personality, in this case abnormal, is a high predictor in those who are most likely to falsely confess and give false denials. It is to be mentioned that in the study as to future implications was mentioned that due to the lack of research in this issue, there should be more studies looking into voluntary