Confessing to a crime you didn't commit
5/15/202631 min
Imagine police are interrogating you over a crime you didn't commit.
If you're innocent, you're safe, right? Wrong.
Sometimes, being innocent can make you more likely to confess. How is that possible?
In part two of our four-part series, Forensic, we learn about the police interviewing techniques that make false confessions more likely, and the bizarre cases in which people come to believe they really, truly did commit a crime – despite being innocent.
Guests:
Saul KassinDistinguished Professor Emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Emeritus at Williams College
Lisanne Adam Lecturer in Law, RMIT University School of Law
Celine van GoldeAssociate Lecturer in Legal Psychology, University of Sydney
Credits:
- Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
- Senior producer: James Bullen
- Producer: Rose Kerr
- Sound engineer: Roi Huberman
You can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Annabel Crabb0:05
[upbeat music] Why do humans hold on to stuff? Oddments we don't use and yet can't quite throw out. It's not just you and me. Australia's oldest library is crammed with stuff that isn't books. Terrible paintings, old menus, human hair. Is this history or hoarding? I'm Annabel Crabb. Come and have a rummage through the story of us told by our stuff. Search for the History or Hoarding podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sana Qadar· Host0:36
[gentle music] In the late 1970s, Saul Kassin was a graduate psychology student at the University of Kansas, and he got involved in research looking at jury trials and confession evidence.
Saul Kassin· Guest0:51
I'm looking through the law school book in evidence, and there's a chapter on confession evidence and a footnote to that chapter, and the footnote was to the leading manual of interrogations and how it is that police interrogate suspects to get confessions.
Sana Qadar· Host1:06
Saul was intrigued, so he took the book out of the library, and then he read it cover to cover.
Saul Kassin· Guest1:13
And I was horrified. I, I was horrified. The social psychologist in me who studies social influence, who studies compliance and obedience to authority, I looked at those tactics that police are trained to use to get confessions,