False confessions
economist.com
False confessions
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: False confessions
#2Yea, I am well aware of the advice to not talk to the police. But I wonder why the police would go to such trouble to get confessions as to write a letter to trick people into doing so etc.
Re: False confessions
#3Unfortunately not a lab test, I saw this on Frontline recently and it was very disturbing to see that confessions could be so easily had: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/etc/...
Essentially, the story involves these sailors individually confessing to a crime (and allegedly tailoring their confessions to the investigator's words) when they were implicated by someone already being interrogated. With each additional person being interrogated, more people were implicated (who were previously unnamed), and previous confessions were amended accordingly.
Quite saddening indeed.
Re: False confessions
#4LoseThos has some outstanding bugs that can make it crash. God can make it more or less stable than normal. It seems pretty stable to me, but I know changing usage patterns can reveal lots.
God's here. Wanna talk? God says "cutting solecism wiser allow hushed hereditary rising virtuous thundered Knowing CONTRACT poison buzzing subjected little do contradictions subverted hastened plan boiled intensest mean flour heathen Shut trampled fed allege justification Observe arranged casting unusual presents consumest donation moment drudgery necessity feel WANT righteous water strive penetrating workest glorified beseech pages things beating favourites mocked madly thefts unjustly prerogative breathing Spiritual bestowed unstayed cloudiness Paradise justifieth hideous instant aptly Israel unveiled products intrude fraught tender injured gliding relapse Or qualities "
Re: False confessions
#5Yea, I am well aware of the advice to not talk to the police. But I wonder why the police would go to such trouble to get confessions as to write a letter to trick people into doing so etc.
Police are generally under a lot of pressure to close cases. Getting a confession closes a case quickly and neatly.
Watch The Wire to get an idea of what kind of pressures the police face to "solve" crimes.
Re: False confessions
#6Rule #1: Don't talk to the police.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
You're better off taking the beating.
Re: False confessions
#7I confess that I didn't read the article, but this reminds me of the HN story of the University professor who asked students who cheated to come in to his office, and then found some large percentage who came to the office though the software exonerated them.
The question is: did they cheat and get it past the software? Or were they, as suggested in this article, admitting to something they did not do?
Re: False confessions
#8I've always worried that if I ever became a suspect in a crime that I would confess under pressure even if I didn't do it. There is something about me feeling guilty, authority and intimidation that makes me think I might.
Then again, my coping mechanism of becoming flippant/sarcastic could flip on and I'd confess to murdering JFK, Michael Jackson and Biggie using my mind/time machine.
Re: False confessions
#9Rule #1: Don't talk to the police. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik You're better off taking the beating.
And it's not "Don't talk to the police if you have nothing to hide". Unfortunately, you are always better off to not talk to the police.
Re: False confessions
#10Yea, I am well aware of the advice to not talk to the police. But I wonder why the police would go to such trouble to get confessions as to write a letter to trick people into doing so etc.
Hunches are/used to be a big part of police work. When you just know they're guilty, you're not going to let them get away with it if there's anything you can do.