admission narrative (Leo & Ofshe, 1998)—that contextualizes and attempts to explain the did “I transforming the into a confession. A detailed post-admission narrative it” statement, is what makes the story appear to be a compelling account of the guilt. The content suspect’s and structure of a post-admission narrative goes a long way toward explaining why suspect’s confessions are treated as such powerful evidence of guilt and sometimes lead to the erroneous conviction of the innocent (Leo, 2008). Police detectives use the post-admission phase of interrogation to influence, shape, and sometimes even script the narrative. The is to elicit a suspect’s detective’s ultimate objective persuasive account of what happened that successfully incriminates the suspect and leads to his conviction. For example, in false confession cases interrogators have sometimes invented, suggested, or elicited an account of the motivation. They often use scenario-based suspect’s inducements as a method of attributing a minimizing motive to the suspect—which the suspect agrees to and then repeats back, even if it is completely inaccurate, because he comes to believe that it will reduce his culpability. Police interrogators also will encourage suspects to attribute their decision to confess to an act of conscience, to express remorse about committing the crime, and to provide vivid details of the crime scene that appear to corroborate the guilty suspect’s knowledge and thus confirm his culpability. In addition, interrogators will try to make the appear voluntarily given, portraying the suspect as the agent of his own confession and themselves merely as its passive recipients (Leo, 2008). Police detectives help create false confessions in the post-admission narrative phase of interrogation by pressuring the suspect to accept a particular account and suggesting crime facts to him, thereby contaminating the post-admission narrative. Unless the suspect has suspect’s learned the crime scene facts from the media, community gossip, or overheard conversations, an
narrative (Leo & Ofshe, 1998)—that contextualizes and attempts to explain the “I did it” statement, transforming the into a confession. A detailed post-admission narrative is what makes the story appear to be a compelling account of the suspect’s guilt. The content and structure of a suspect’s post-admission narrative goes a long way toward explaining why confessions are treated as such powerful evidence of guilt and sometimes lead to the erroneous conviction of the innocent (Leo, 2008). Police detectives use the post-admission phase of interrogation to influence, shape, and sometimes even script the suspect’s narrative. The detective’s ultimate objective is to elicit a persuasive account of what happened that successfully incriminates the suspect and leads to his conviction. For example, in false confession cases interrogators have sometimes invented, suggested, or elicited an account of the suspect’s motivation. They often use scenario-based inducements as a method of attributing a minimizing motive to the suspect—which the suspect agrees to and then repeats back, even if it is completely inaccurate, because he comes to believe that it will reduce his culpability. Police interrogators also will encourage suspects to attribute their decision to confess to an act of conscience, to express remorse about committing the crime, and to provide vivid details of the crime scene that appear to corroborate the suspect’s guilty knowledge and thus confirm his culpability. In addition, interrogators will try to make the admission appear voluntarily given, portraying the suspect as the agent of his own confession and themselves merely as its passive recipients (Leo, 2008). Police detectives help create false confessions in the post-admission narrative phase of interrogation by pressuring the suspect to accept a particular account and suggesting crime facts to him, thereby contaminating the suspect’s post-admission narrative. Unless the suspect has learned the crime scene facts from the media, community gossip, or overheard conversations, an
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