The Psychology of Confession Evidence - Article Example

The background of Saul M. Kassin’s study, which was detailed in his article “The Psychology of Confession Evidence,” is centered on confession evidence in a courtroom setting and how unreliable it tends to be. Kassin believed that enough attention was not being given to this topic and that more research needed to be undergone to show the psychological aspects of police interrogation to obtain confessions. In their attempt to get confessions, police officers put pressure on their witnesses by implementing deception and psychologically coercive methods of interrogation, which can lead to innocent people confessing to crimes or the jury not discount the evidence when reaching a verdict.

            The method that was utilized by Kassin and McNall was a series of observations to view and comprehend the different techniques used to interrogate individuals. They were able to see how the techniques were implemented and considered them in regard to the responses that were given by those being interrogating. By doing this, Kassin and McNall were able to see how the police interrogators pulled answers out of their suspects, victims, and witnesses, and how reliable those answers were.

When an innocent man or woman’s freedom is on the line because of a false confession, then the system needs to be revamped.