Costs and Consequences of Deception, Coercion, and False Confessions
This chapter introduces readers to the Norfolk Four, whose false confessions led to years in prison despite failure of their confessions to fit evidence and differences among their confessions. The authors examine the legal process by which investigators corroborate confessions. The authors then move from legal to psychological issues, including typical cognitive biases and social factors that interfere with corroboration of confessions. The authors next examine ways that confessions corrupt the subsequent investigations and evidence, particularly when officers, intentionally or unintentionally, contaminate and format a confession so that it appears to fit the evidence. The chapter concludes with a review of the ways the totality of the circumstances can increase the likelihood of mistaken conviction.