This week we are looking at the psychology behind why a person would confess to a crime that they never committed. We discuss the categories of false confessions including voluntary, persuaded or internalized, and compliant false confessions. We also discuss examples of cases where someone has falsely confessed including the JonBenet Ramsey case, the murder of Hartmut Hagan, the Satanic abuse case against Paul Igram, the West Memphis 3 case and the Central Park 5.  

Sources: 

Johnson, Ruth, “The Psychology of False Confessions”, Psychology Today, Sept 8, 2020, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/so-sue-me/202009/the-psychology-false-confessions, accessed Mar 21, 2025. 

Soury, Lonnie, “West Memphis 3”, FalseConfessions.org, Jan 5, 2010, https://falseconfessions.org/fc_cases/west-memphis-3/, accessed Mar 21, 2025. 

Anglis, Jaclyn, “The Story Of John Mark Karr And The JonBenét Ramsey Case”, All That’s Interesting, Oct 21, 2024, https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-mark-karr, accessed Mar 21, 2025.  

“Gunther Kaufmann”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Kaufmann, accessed Mar 21, 2025. 

“Thurston County Ritual Abuse Case”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_County_ritual_abuse_case, accessed Mar 21, 2025. 

“Central Park Five: The true story behind When They See Us”, BBC, June 12, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-48609693, accessed Marc 21, 2024. 

Nesterak, Evan, “Coerced to Confess: The Psychology of False Confessions”, Behavioural Scientist, Oct 21, 2014, https://behavioralscientist.org/coerced-to-confess-the-psychology-of-false-confessions/, accessed Mar 21, 2025.