False Confessions: Sociological and Psychological Processes

The essay discusses the role of sociological and psychological processes in understanding false confessions, using the case of Stefen as an example.

Sociological and
Psychological Processes

Sociological and Psychological Processes
Sociological and psychological processes play an important role in understanding various
factors that leads an innocent individual to falsely confess a crime which is not actually
performed by him. The essay makes a comprehensive discussion regarding the incident that took
place with Stefen who was convicted for raping and murdering an 11 year old girl, named Lesly.
The essay will focus upon various factors that lead the individual to make false conviction and its
dependence on social and psychological factors.
The incident took place with the girl named Lesley Molseed, who was 11-year-old. Her
mother stated that she went to buy some bread from her home and before she could reach to the
bakery, Lesley was snatched and taken to a place, named, Rishworth Moor. Crime scene
presented that the girl was stabbed in the upper back, neck and chest. On examining her body,
semen was also found in her underwear suspecting sexual assault. Her body was found 3 days
after she actually died. The case discusses regarding Stefen Kiszko, who is a 24-year-old tax
clerk and prime suspect of the situation that took place with Lesley. He belongs to the category
of people who have an extra Y chromosome hence having a set of XYY chromosomes. Some
mild abnormalities in his behaviour was also addressed which makes an individual a clear
suspect to any irregular activity that takes place in the environment (Meissner and et.al., 2014).
Moreover, it has been stated by the researchers that an individual carrying XYY chromosomes
are characterised to be criminals. Stefen used to like making note of the registration plate number
as his hobby. He noticed one near the area of crime scene, prior to any murder.
Stefen was interrogated for what has happened with Lesley as he was the prime suspect
of the cases, due to his abnormal behaviour and his belongingness to XYY chromosome
category. To give fume to the case, three pre-pubescent girls claimed that Stefen exposed himself
in front of them, a few days before Lesley’s murder took place. Without adequate investigation
and due to these circumstances and personality of Stefen, they suspected him at quite a high note.
Fitting perfectly to the profile of someone who can kill and masturbate over child, he was
brought to rigorous interrogation (Gudjonsson and et.al., 2012). Intense grilling and interrogation
took place for next 3 days rather than making investigation and find other suspects that could
have performed murder. His case was taken on every statement he made during these
interrogation sessions that could prove him a convict. His mental abnormalities were not
considered by investigators at that time. He was not given right to get a legal advisor who could
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have helped in dealing with the case in the most appropriate manner. After repetitive
interrogation, he falsely confessed the crime with the hope that he will be taken to home then.
It reflects inadequacy of legal team that was appointed for the case, who were not able to
consider certain crucial points which could have proved Stefen to be innocent. It was not known
to the team that his ankle got broken through which he could not have been able to walk up to the
hill, where Lesley was actually killed. Other important aspect that was not considered by the
team was that Stefen did not had the tendency to produce sperm heads but there was adequate
amount of sperms in the semen which was found on Lesley’s clothing (False Confessions, 2014).
After moulding all the evidences and proving Stefen a convict, he was sentenced to life
imprisonment for the false confession he made. Living in the prison made him mentally
disturbed affecting stability in behaviour. Hence, various incidences related to childlike
behaviour, verbal and written death threats to the colleagues. He also attempted to attack four
times in the duration of 4 years of prison (Houston, Meissner and Evans, 2014). He did not get
any sympathy from the side of guards and prisoners due to the type of crime he committed as per
their perception. It affected his mental stability and induced behavioural changes in him
In 1978, Stefen’s mother launched an appeal of re investigation but the same was
dismissed on 25th May 1978 based on the grounds that they did not find any evidence which can
prove that Stefen has not performed murder. Due to constant pressure on his mind and prolonged
stay in prison, in 1979, he went through delusions, schizophrenia and deep depression. One of
the forensic scientist stated that he facing the state of “delusions of innocence”. In the year 1983,
the person in charge stated that admitting murder will help him in getting rid of the prison.
However, he maintained his innocence and his mental condition deteriorate to the maximum
(Kassin, 2017).
In 1991, Stefen’s innocence was demonstrated with the help of medical evidence which
proved his infertility. Moreover, advanced investigation performed stated that he went to grave
of his father at the time of murder. The evidence was simply ignored at the time when he was
proved convict by the team. However, the new findings of the case were then transferred to the
court of appeal so as to demand justice for the case.
Stefen was left from the prison on parole on the condition that he must admit the crime
that he has not made. However, after hearing all the evidences, he was immediately cleared by
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the courts from any criminal records. However, his cognitive and behavioural disabilities were
affected to the great extent.
The guilt and crime of Stefen was constructed by the team involved in the investigation
solely based upon his behavioural and psychological setting. He was questioned without a lawyer
as it has already been planned to prove him the convict (Shaw and Porter, 2015). The Police and
Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984, which is the investigation team which holds the power of
arresting, detention, entry and search of premises, interrogation, sample collection, etc. However,
proper inquiry and examination was not made by the team in case of Stefen which made it
difficult to reach to the real offender. Legal proceeding that took place in the country were based
upon the PACE code and conducts. Much of the speculations regarding falsified acceptance of
crime was due to pressure that was created by the investigation team on him based on which he
accepted the crime which was not actually committed by him. Moreover, another important
aspect is that the team which are responsible to make the investigation does not consider all the
aspects of and they were sure enough, without analysing all the evidence, that murder has been
performed by Stefen. It is due to the psychological disorder possessed by him and belonging to
the category of XYY chromosomes whose probability of being a criminal is bit high (Appleby,
Hasel and Kassin, 2013).
It displays the thinking and psychological mindset possessed by people for an individual
having certain psychological disabilities. It becomes important to analyse the opinion of offender
as well. As in the case of Stefen, the same was not considered by the team. False accusation can
disturb an individual mentally. He confessed for the crime which was not performed by him only
to get rid of the pressure that was made by the members of investigation team for continuously
three days. Due to lack of cognitive thinking present in Stefen, He mistook his false confession
that he will then be allowed to go home. It is due to his lack of thinking abilities and issue that he
was facing due to psychological misconduct that he confessed the crime which was not
performed by him. Due to his lack of understanding regarding facts and figures and how false
confession can lead him to prison, the activity was conducted by Stefen.
The real crime setting mostly suspect the individuals who confess their crime at the time
of interrogation being made to them. All their activities are then connected to the criminal and he
is then made as the most suitable candidate to be acclaimed as criminal. Cognitive personality
and mental health are the two main causes based on which these types of falsified confessions
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are actually made by the individual. It can be the result of psychological make up of the suspect
and situational factors. If both the aspects get aligned to each other, then in that case, police
interrogation setting is framed in a certain manner where their motive happens to be to prove the
individual whom they are interrogating to be the prime suspect and ultimate criminal pf the
crime (Gould and et.al, 2013).
There is strong influence of police interrogation setting on the individual. As in the case
of Stefen, he was grilled by them continuously for 3 days and in the end, he found it rather easy
to confess the crime which is not performed by him. Increase in the vulnerability of individual is
another main reason of this step being taken by them. In certain years, the interrogation process
of police has rather shifted from being a psychological one than being physical. In such cases,
the primary goal of people in the team of investigation is to get the confessions from prime
suspects. Deceitful technique was used by the team in case of Stefen. Manipulating the
individual psychologically, presenting false evidences, confronting the denial of guilt, etc are the
strong tools that are generally used by the team during their investigation (Malloy, Shulman and
Cauffman, 2014).
It is due to false confessions, it has become leading cause of false conviction of the
innocent. It involves three sequential processes of false conviction. These are, misclassification,
coercion and contamination. In UK, false confessions have raised the issue for mental health
professionals, social scientists, policy makers and public (Williamson, 2013). Misunderstanding
the errors and convicted other individual raises the concern of better implementation of
behavioural therapy that can help in understanding that the same is not a false confession as it
happened in the case of Stefen.
Long interrogation generally results in fatigue and sleep deprivation which increases
impairment in the decision made by them. Psychological stress, activeness of sympathetic system
and less act of self-control lead them to perform such actions (Harkins, 2012).
Convincing someone that he or she has committed a crime is not a simple task. The fact is
that, long interrogation process sometimes leads the detectives to convict the crime from people
which have actually not committed the crime at all. Their expertise in psychological
manipulation, manipulates the mind of an individual and make them believe that they have
committed the crime, irrespective of the fact that whether the crime has been committed by them
or not. The weakness of individual is a result of experience gathered by them due to two
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extremely contrasting experiences. They can be in the form of dominance and submission,
maximization and minimization, dominance and submission. Even the most hardened criminal
can confess the crime if right kind of combination of circumstances and techniques has been
used (Gergen, 2012). It has strong dependence on personality and experiences of the suspect.
However, it must adequately be considered by the team that, there are certain suspects who have
not actually committed the crime and not choosing right kind of circumstances may result in
convicting those who have actually not committed the crime. The same took place in case of
Stefen, where he has to confess the crime which was not actually performed by him. It was the
result of harsh interrogation technique, used by the police, which led him to confess the crime
which was not actually performed by him.
False confession undermines the justice which ultimately lead to innocent people
convicting the price which has actually not being performed by them. It can result in increasing
false confession if the susceptible individual is a juvenile, people suffering from any cognitive
impairment or dealing with certain mental health issue. Police and investigators, allotted for
certain cases use certain interrogation techniques that are not even lawful. These are, lengthy
interrogation for days, lying regarding various evidences, minimizing the techniques that can
provide certain degree of leniency to the individual, etc (Giorgi, 2012). Research have stated that
various people, who were not actual convicts, have been imprisoned, sometimes sentenced to
death and also been punished severely.
The study of false confession is actually confined to psychological science. To understand
why actually people, indulged in false confession, it becomes important to recognize the effect of
reward and punishment, memory and forgetting, social influence, self-regulation, childhood and
adolescence, human decision-making aspects, personality and psychopathology, etc. In order to
fully understand the concept of confession evidence, it is important to assess the process of
police interrogation, the problems that are directly related to false confession and the
consequences related to false confession taken up even if they are false (Strauss, 2017).
The process of interrogation taken up first begins with pre-interrogation interview. In this
process, the police are often involved in witnessing suspects of interrogation with the help of
informants and tangible evidences assailable at the crime scenes. In order to analyse that whether
the suspect is telling truth or not, a preliminary interview is conducted with behaviour provoking
questions, observing verbal and non-verbal behaviour of suspects, attending various episodes of
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eye contacts, qualified denials, fidgeting and various other postures referring the situation that
whether crime has been conducted by that individual or not (Bentley, 2017). The pivot
interrogation conducted help in understanding that if the individual must be further interrogated
or released. Trained interrogators can judge the individual based upon various aspects which can
result in high level of accuracy. Relating the same to the case of Stefen, it was assessed that he
was convicted by focusing upon his mental condition and XYY set of chromosomes possessed
by the individual, which are criminal in nature. Another important issue that can be seen in the
case is that the interrogator and investigator was not trained enough where they did not consider
various incident which could have proved that Stefen has not conducted the crime. It was due to
pre-assumptions made by the interrogators regarding the criminal behaviour of Stefen and tried
their best to prove him a convict (Goffman, 2017).
Voluntary false confession arises where individual or the suspected convict confess the
crime without pressure being built by the police. It is actually performed to protect some one else
or gain attention in some high-profile crimes. Other type of false confessions, which are
involuntary in nature are generally induced through the process of interrogation. Other type of
false confession is Coerced-compliant false confessions, where an innocent individual tends to
accept the crime which is not actually conducted in order to order to escape from any type of
harsh interrogation and thinks that confession will help them in less punishment rather than
having an episode of continual denial (The Psychology of Confessions, 2012). However, in
contrast to this, there is another form present, where there is another form present, called as,
coerced internalized false confessions, when innocent individual is made believe that he only has
conducted the crime based on misleading claims of evidences collected by the team. It such
cases, confusing questions, inferring their own guilt, questioning their own innocence and other
false memories are used to prove them a convict. These activities are not actually true but people
with low self esteem and confidence may believe that they have committed the crime even if
they have not been involved in the episode at all (Folkman, 2013).
Considering the case of Stefen, it can be assessed that, he got involved in Coerced compliant
false confession. He was interrogated for the crime for 3 days which made it difficult for him to
combat the fear and torture he was getting at the time of denial. Hence, he thought, he will be
sent back home if confess the crime. With this misconception, he falsely confessed the crime.
However, he was then given imprisonment for years.
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Some people may not be able to resist when some senior authorities are involved at the time
of confession session. Researchers have been able to state that there are basically three situations
of vulnerability. These are, youth, intellectual disability and psychological disorders which can
be in the form of autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Rothbart, 2015).
They lack impulsive controlling factors and are not able to take their own decisions. These
people are not able to understand the cruciality of moment and make false confession with the
hope that they will be able to run from difficult situation with the help of this act. False
confession leads them in rather more difficult situation.
People without having any cognitive disability also tends to capitulate as and when they are
kept for long investigation and interrogation. However, in case of people having any type of
learning and decision-making disability, they tend to capitulate early, especially when they are
given adequate time for stress. These types of people tend to seek out for others at the time of
stress. Stefen was not able to understand that what was actually going on in the investigation
room and was seeking out for his mother continuously. He was kept in prolonged isolation state
which is one common form of deprivation (Amabile and Pillemer, 2012). The length and
condition of interrogation makes the individual sleep deprived and also lacks physiological and
psychological support. Stefen’s distorted memories and complex nature of decision making
affected the overall outcome and resulted in false confession. It very well represents the form of
lowered resistance power after long continuous hours of interrogation. Impaired sustained
decision affected the answers he gave for suggested questions. It strongly impaired his human
functioning.
Another interrogation technique that can land the innocent individual to false confession is
in the form of false evidences presented by them to the suspect. It makes them believe that it is
futile to not to confess the crime and urge to escape from interrogation process convinces them
for false confession statement, there is another situational risk factor that is used by the
investigators during interrogation is theme development. In this process, the suspect is made top
believe that the crime that has been conducted by him or her is not big enough because it was
accidental and unintentional. It reduces he anxiety of individual and make them confess the
crime even if it has not been performed by them. With the hope that Stefen will get minimized
sentence as the crime is not big enough, he falsely confessed the crime. However, the set up was
actually made to ensure that crime is confessed by the suspect so that leniency can be implied on
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him. In case of Stefen, he was asked that if he will confess the crime, he will be taken to his
mother. It was the theme development activity performed by the investigator so as to ensure that
he at least confess the crime (Pennebaker, Páez and Rim, 2013). However, with the hope of
being taken to the mother, he falsely confessed the crime. He was then imprisoned for years
without any relaxation in his sentence due to his impatient, impulsive and violent behaviour in
the prison. No investigation as further made after his imprisonment and the case got closed on
wrong episode.
Researchers have been able to state that innocence of an individual increases the risk factors
and is generally accompanied by mental state leading to false confessions. These types of people
believe that truth and justice prevail in the environment and they achieve it at some point of time.
These types of people are quite open during their interrogation process rather than opting for
strategy that can help them in get relived from police. Due to their this type of nature, police
suspect them of being a convict. The psychological stress they face at the time of interrogation
process make them become more physiologically aroused. The general nature of innocence is
that they overestimate their inner state that their mind works based upon “illusion of
transparency”. It becomes difficult for Stefen, being an innocent individual, to make stories up
and strategically present in in front of investigators. In such cases, the individual become
suspected for the crime irrespective of the fact that if he has performed by murder or not.
Applying the same, Stefen was claimed convicted for the whole scenario. Inappropriate mental
stage and lack of de3cision making led him to conviction due to false confession (Uchino and
et.al., 2012).
The problem in social manner begin when the investigator is not able to assess that whether
the confessed conviction is true or has been falsely performed out of innocence. People are not
able to become accurate judges for the same. The persuasive power of evidence is also the result
of believing on false conviction. The girls in their interrogation stated that Stefen masturbated
two times on them supporting the incidence that he can be the convict for murdering and raping
the girl. When confession attach with persuasive evidences then in that case it becomes difficult
for the investigators to make right decisions. Reasonable doubt on Stefen also acted as an
instigating factor for the investigators to prove that Stefen is a convict of murder.
The basic research conducted on social cognition stated that confession made by the convict
corrupt all the other evidences which may have been available in some other sense. It modifies
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the statement of suspects, affect the statements of eyewitnesses, forensic examiners may not
perform heir duties well and make presumption of confessed individual being a verdict. The
ultimate results considered based upon all the aspects are biased enough affecting the perception
and behaviour of investigators (Eckes and Trautner, 2012).
It can be clearly stated that expectations assess the individual’s subsequent perception and
behaviours in a self-perpetuating cycle. Knowing that the suspect has already confessed his
crime, whether true or false, acts as a discriminating factor which spontaneously affect the
overall judgement of investigators. In case of Stefen, various evidences were not even considered
by the investigation team after he falsely confessed his crime. All the facts and figures gathered
regrading case were moulded to ensure that he get criminalised and sentenced for the crime that
ha not even being performed by him.
Various incidences, just like Stefen, have forced the law makers to eliminate false
confession so that vulnerable suspects can be prevented from false conviction. Proper
investigation from the side of team is required to be conducted without missing out any
evidences that could have helped to reach to the true convict so that innocence of an individual
does not act as a tool for mere solving of the case (Wilson, Gosling and Graham, 2012). Stefen,
being involved in framed false confession, where essence of the problem was linked to hostility,
confusion, fear, nervousness are the common signs noticed when an individual is kept in
interrogation room. These are the common signs found at the time of high stress level. The same
was noticed in case of Stefen which led him to opt for false confession. His eagerness to go
home and psychopathological state he was facing affected his overall thinking behaviour at the
time of interrogation process. Lack of collaborative evidences and inefficiency of the team to
reach to the real culprit affected the life of Stefen and he was sentenced for the crime, he actually
did not perform.
From the above essay, it can be concluded that, sociological and psychological behaviour of
an individual plays an important role. The individual may not be fit enough to take up decisions.
As in the case of Stefen, he opted to falsely confess the crime which was not actually performed
by him. Also, due to his confession, all the evidences were moulded so as to prove him a convict.
Also, the evidences, that could have proved him to be innocent were not at all considered. It is
due to the fact that investigation team works upon that anyone will not confess the crime which
is not actually being performed by them (Kadar and et.al., 2015).
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