Explain why, according to the research discussed, innocent people confess to crimes they didn't commit. Provide examples for each type of situation
What will be an ideal response?
Researchers divide proven false confessions into three categories:
1 . voluntary false confessions
Some innocent people confess without police prompting or pressure. Innocent people confess because of: (1) a desire for notoriety; (2) a need for self-punishment to remove guilt feelings; (3) an inability to separate reality from fantasy; and (4) a desire to help and protect the real criminal. But there are more reasons. In one case, an innocent man confessed to murder to impress his girlfriend. Another innocent man, angry with the police for arresting him while he was drinking at a party, confessed to murder to get revenge by misleading the police (49).
2 . compliant false confessions
Some innocent people confess because of police pressure during custodial interrogation. Compliant confessions are "mere acts of public compliance by a suspect who comes to believe that the short-term benefits of confession . . . outweigh the long-term costs.". Suspects give in to demands for admissions and confessions for instrumental reasons: to escape an uncomfortable situation, to avoid a threat, or to receive a reward. Specific incentives for compliant false confessions include being allowed to sleep, eat, make a phone call, or go home (49–50).
3 . internalized false confessions
Innocent, but vulnerable, suspects subjected to "highly suggestive interrogation tactics" come not just to give in to get the situation over with but to believe that they actually committed the crime. One frequently cited tragic example of internalized false confession is the case of 18-year-old Peter Reilly. Although Reilly called the police immediately after he discovered his murdered mother, the police suspected that Reilly murdered her. After they gained his trust, his interrogators told Reilly that he failed his lie detector test (a lie), and that the test indicated that he was guilty even though he couldn't remember killing his mother.
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Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).