Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

198 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
important mediating variables, which will be illustrated by case reports in
Chapter 9, are related to the depressed person’s personality.
False voluntary confessions that arise because the person is unable to distinguish
between fantasy and reality are most likely to arise in cases of mental
illness, such as schizophrenia. Here the person’s perceptions of reality are distorted
and their thought processes are adversely affected. These people’s false
confessions result from a false belief without there necessarily being a strong
feeling of guilt attached to the perceived criminal act. This type of false confession
can occur without the presence of a major mental illness, as it did in the
case of Andrew Evans (see Chapter 18).
Kassin and Wrightsman (1985) highlight two potentially important implications
concerning differences between coerced–compliant and coerced–
internalized false confessions. The first refers to the timing of the suspect’s
subsequent retraction of the confession. The other relates to the types of interrogation
technique that are most likely to elicit compliant and internalized
false confessions.
Coerced–compliant false confessors are likely to retract or withdraw their
false confession as soon as the immediate pressures are over (e.g. when seen by
a solicitor or a relative after being charged). Coerced–internalized false confessors,
on the other hand, will typically only retract after they themselves have
become convinced, or suspect, that they are innocent of the crime they are accused
of. How long this takes depends on the individual case. In a case reported
by Ofshe (1992), it took months before the defendant realized that he had not
committed the crime of which he was accused. The critical issue is to what extent,
if at all, the suspect’s original memory for events becomes permanently
distorted as the result of coercive and manipulative police interviewing.
Kassin and Wrightsman (1985) state that what is most concerning about
coerced–internalized false confessions
...isthat the suspect’s memory of his or her own actions may be altered, making
its original contents potentially irretrievable (p. 78).
If the internalized false confessor’s memory is potentially permanently altered
during police interrogation, as Kassin and Wrightsman argue, then the implications
are very serious. That is, innocent people potentially remain permanently
convinced that they have committed a crime of which in fact they are innocent.
Gudjonsson and Lebegue (1989) provide some evidence that the original memory
may not necessarily be as permanently distorted as Kassin and Wrightsman
suggest. This is supported by the evidence of a number of cases discussed later
in this book.
Ofshe (1989) also reports cases in which suspects were induced to make
coerced–internalized false confessions that were repudiated as soon as the
social environment that supported them was disturbed. The limited empirical
evidence that is available suggests that coerced–internalized false confessions
are believed when they are made but, like other externally generated perceptions,
are highly unstable (Ofshe & Leo, 1997a, 1997b).
Kassin and Wrightsman discuss two separate processes whereby coerced–
internalized false confessions can occur. One type of process involves