Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

186 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
THE BROADER CONTEXT OF FALSE CONFESSIONS
It is important to be aware of the broader context in which false confessions
occur. In fact, false confessions may arise in a variety of social, religious and
political contexts (see e.g. Berggren, 1975; Hepworth & Turner, 1980; Sargant,
1957). They can also occur in the context of memories of childhood abuse recovered
in adulthood (see e.g. Gudjonsson, 1997b; Ofshe & Watters, 1994; Leo,
1997; Ost, Costall & Bull, 2001).
Two specialized contexts are particularly theoretically relevant to this
book, because of the types of psychological coercion utilized by the interrogators
in order to extract a confession. These are the ‘show’ trials and public
confessions in Stalin’s Russia (Beck & Godin, 1951; Hinkle & Wolff, 1956;
Leites & Bernaut, 1954) and the ‘coercive persuasion’ of American Military
personnel and Western Civilians by Chinese communists (Hunter, 1951, 1956;
Lifton, 1956, 1961; Orwell, 1951; Schein, 1956; Schein, Schneier & Barker,
1961).
The importance of the interrogation techniques of the Chinese Communists
in eliciting false confessions is well expressed by Hinkle and Wolff
(1956):
The Communists are skilled in the extraction of information from prisoners and
in making prisoners do their bidding. It has appeared that they can force men to
confess to crimes which they have not committed, and then, apparently, to believe
in the truth of their confessions and express sympathy and gratitude toward those
who have imprisoned them (p. 116).
Beck and Godin (1951), whose book Russian Purge and the Extraction of Confession
is based on their personal experiences of victimization during the Yezhov
period, estimate that between 5 and 10% of the Soviet population was arrested
between 1936 and 1939. The reasons for these arrests were political and served
to overcome any opposition to the existing political regime. The extraction of
confessions functioned to justify these arrests and was intended to reassure the
public of these persons’ guilt. The interrogation techniques applied were individualized
according to the characteristics and resistance of the arrested person.
Interrogations were typically carried out at night and combined beatings,
extensive sleep-deprivation, deprivation of social contact, physical discomfort,
threats and intimidation.
The book by Beck and Godin emphasizes the psychological aspects of these
interrogations. In many instances beatings were not required. Nevertheless, almost
everybody confessed:
Years of experience had enabled the NKVD to develop a technique of protracted
interrogation which practically no one was able to resist (p. 53).
One of the authors of the book, who was a history professor at the time of his
arrest, had been prepared for his arrest and was determined not to confess.
After 50 days of interrogation he eventually broke down and confessed falsely
to armed revolt and acts of terrorism: