Making False Confessions Essay -- Psychology, Learning Disabilities, M

Psychological research and performance have established that it is not moreover community with learning disablement or major mental illness that ar susceptible to impinge on false confessions. In order for a confession to be false, a person must either confess to a crime that he or she is completely gratis(p) of or overstate his or her conflict in the crime. False confessions can be either voluntary or coerced. Although it is methodologically difficult to establish the frequency of false confessions, anecdotal test much(prenominal) as self-reports and case studies indicate that reported cases are only the tip of the berg. It appears that young people are particularly indefensible and often contact false confessions in order to protect others. standardise psychological tests have been devised in order to assess personality factors such as suggestibility and compliance that prove some people more vulnerable than others. The reason people make false confessions is typical ly due to a combination of factors such as psychological vulnerabilities, genius of the custodial project and the police interviewing tactics. Notorious cases of false confessions which have lead to the wrongful convictions of innocent people subsequently spending years in prison institute some of the worst cases of miscarriage of justice in Britain. One such cases, that of Engin Raghip of the so-called Tottenham three will be discussed in the context of admissibility of psychological evidence in order to demonstrate how the judiciary has increasingly abide by to accept the psychological notion that most people, under certain circumstances, are susceptible to making false confessions. In order to better ascertain why people confess to crimes they have not committed, Kassin an... ...expert testimony in assessing the reliability of disputed confessions. The reason people make false confessions is typically due to a combination of factors such as psychological vulnerabilities, n ature of the custodial confinement and the police interviewing tactics. Standardized psychological tests have been devised in order to assess personality factors such as suggestibility and compliance that render some people more vulnerable than others but these should never bee looked at in isolation. Studies indicate that reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg. It appears that young people are particularly vulnerable and often make false confessions in order to protect others. It is not only people with learning disability or major mental illness that are susceptible to make false confessions depending on the context, anybody can.