To browse Academia. False confessions are a serious problem in the USA criminal justice system, playing a role in about a quarter of all known wrongful convictions. False confessions can be differentiated based on whether they are voluntary or coerced and whether they are authentic or instrumental. Although the "third degree" was once common in the United States, police now rely on psychological techniques to extract confessions from criminal suspects.
During interrogation, police strive to convince the suspect that the evidence against him is compelling and that admitting guilt is the only sensible course of action. When innocent suspects are subjected to psychologically powerful interrogation techniques, some will falsely confess. The vulnerabilities of individual suspects can also play a role in producing false confessions. Methods of reducing the risk of false confessions and identifying false confessions once they occur include mandatory electronic recording of interrogations, allowing expert testimony at trial, modernizing interrogation training, and reforming the interrogation process itself.
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