How the Police Generate False Confessions
An Inside Look at the Interrogation Room
By (author) James L. Trainum
Publication date:
30 November 2018Length of book:
328 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781538120033
Despite the rising number of confirmed false confession cases, most people have a hard time grasping why someone would confess to a crime they did not commit, or even why a guilty person would admit to something that could put them in jail for life. How the Police Generate False Confessions takes you inside the interrogation room, exposing the tactics that law enforcement uses to make confessions happen.
James L. Trainum reveals how innocent people can become suspects and then confessed criminals even when they have not committed a crime. Using real stories, he looks at the inherent coerciveness of the interrogation process and why so many false confessions contain so many of the details that only the true perpetrator would know. More disturbingly, the book examines how these same processes corrupt witness and victim statements, create lying informants and cooperators, and induce innocent people to plead guilty. Trainum also offers recommendations for change in the U.S. by looking at how other countries are changing the process to prevent such miscarriages of justice.
The reasons that people falsely confess can be complex and varied; throughout How the Police Generate False Confessions Trainum encourages readers to critically evaluate confessions on their own by gaining a better understanding of the interrogation process.
James L. Trainum reveals how innocent people can become suspects and then confessed criminals even when they have not committed a crime. Using real stories, he looks at the inherent coerciveness of the interrogation process and why so many false confessions contain so many of the details that only the true perpetrator would know. More disturbingly, the book examines how these same processes corrupt witness and victim statements, create lying informants and cooperators, and induce innocent people to plead guilty. Trainum also offers recommendations for change in the U.S. by looking at how other countries are changing the process to prevent such miscarriages of justice.
The reasons that people falsely confess can be complex and varied; throughout How the Police Generate False Confessions Trainum encourages readers to critically evaluate confessions on their own by gaining a better understanding of the interrogation process.
In this groundbreaking book on the U.S. criminal justice system, Trainum, a former Washington, D.C. police detective, argues for reform of police interviewing and interrogation practices. The confession is considered the gold standard for law enforcement, because 'most people believe that they would never confess to a crime they did not do.' Yet suspects, witnesses, and informants often feel that they have no other option. Trainum carefully demonstrates why in an era of minimum sentences, where the worst-case scenario can be significant jail time, registration as a sex offender, or even the death penalty, prosecutors have breathtaking power to hold a person's life in the balance. The best option for a suspect or witness may be a false confession, informing, or a plea bargain, especially when a long legal fight may drain a family bank account, or when a prosecutor offers a reduced sentence or jailhouse privileges as reward. Without reform, prosecutors, police, and investigators may soon discover that 'harsh and verbally abusive interrogation tactics that focused solely on obtaining confessions... not only [contribute] to false confessions but also to the negative perception of law enforcement by the public.' Using numerous examples and backed by persuasive academic research, Trainum proposes a better way that is already at work in countries with similar criminal justice systems. His book will hit a nerve with a public newly concerned with abuses of police power, and hopefully will influence those tasked with law enforcement and public policy as well.