False confession

A false confession is an admission of guilt made by someone who did not commit the alleged offense. It may be voluntary or produced through psychological pressure, deception, or coercion.

Coercive interrogation: An interrogation approach that uses pressure, threats, or deprivation to obtain information or an admission. Intense pressure can make confession seem like the quickest way to escape an interrogation.
Voluntary false confession: A false confession made without direct pressure from law enforcement. Some false admissions arise from attention-seeking, a wish to protect another person, or psychological disturbance.
Central Park jogger case: A 1989 New York criminal case in which five teenagers were convicted after giving disputed confessions and later exonerated. The case illustrates how recorded admissions can appear persuasive despite contradictions and lack of corroboration.
Wrongful conviction: A criminal conviction of a person who did not commit the offense. A false confession can become the central evidence leading to conviction of an innocent person.
Reid technique: A U.S. interrogation method built around confronting a suspect and seeking a behavioral admission of deception. Its accusatory steps can increase the risk of an innocent suspect complying with investigators.
Coerced-compliant false confession: A false confession made under pressure while the confessor privately knows it is false. It distinguishes short-term compliance from actually believing the admission.
Norfolk Four: Four U.S. Navy sailors convicted in a 1997 rape and murder case involving disputed confessions; their convictions were later overturned or pardoned. Their case shows how multiple admissions can still be unreliable when accounts conflict with evidence.
Tunnel vision (law enforcement): An investigative fixation on one suspect or theory that causes contrary evidence to be overlooked. Once investigators obtain a confession, they may interpret later evidence to support it.
Compliance: Behavior that conforms to a request or demand, whether or not the person privately agrees. A compliant suspect may confess to end questioning without believing the confession is true.
Confabulation: The production of inaccurate memories without deliberate intent to deceive, often to fill gaps in recall. A suspect may report invented details as memories rather than knowingly fabricate an account.

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