Psychological Reasons And Prevention Of False Confession ——From The Perspective Of Guilty Plea And Punishment Cases

Under normal circumstances,we think that it is impossible for an innocent person to make a guilty confession,and this behavior is simply puzzling.However,a large number of judicial practices have shown that the phenomenon of false confessions is not only widespread,but also has complex causes,which has become the main cause of unjust cases.The particularity of the form of evidence and the force of proof of the oral confession has caused the judicial organs to rely on it to a certain extent,while ignoring the reasons for the formation of false confessions and the serious consequences that it may cause to a certain extent.Of course,we have also seen that with the advancement of a series of criminal justice reforms,our country has also achieved significant results in preventing torture to extract confessions and excluding illegal evidence.This has effectively curbed the illegal acquisition of criminal suspects through violence to a certain extent.The occurrence of the confession by the person or the defendant.However,it should be deeply realized that the reasons leading to false confessions are diverse,including subjective reasons for criminal suspects and defendants,and objective reasons such as the use of coercive measures by investigators.The reasons behind are quite complex.A confession is a behavioral way for criminal suspects and defendants to express their inner thoughts.It is expressed through the carrer of language.The content of the confession depends on the inner psychological state of the interrogated person when he is interrogated.Environmental factors such as overdue custody and torture to extract a confession are only the reasons for the psychological deviation of the interrogated,and even strengthen the existing psychological deviation and cause the interrogated to take the initiative to falsely confess.On the other hand,the reason why investigators use torture to extract confessions and use illegal means to obtain confessions is,of course,the unreasonable assessment mechanism,low professional quality,and presumption of guilt are the direct reasons,but they are not the root cause.The fundamental reason is that the case-handling personnel are affected by various psychological deviations（such as "tunnel vision","result deviation",etc.,see below for details）.Various environmental factors have futher strengthened this deviation,leading to the use of illegal methods and violence by the case-handling personnel.Forensics.Therefore,it is necessary to deeply study the psychological causes of false confessions,understand the mechanism of various psychological deviations,so as to effectively prevent and identify false confessions,and prevent the occurrence of unjust and wrong cases.Under the leniency system of pleading guilty and punishing,it is particularly necessary to study the psychological causes of false confessions.Leniency in confessing guilt and punishing can not only give criminal suspects and defendants physical leniency,but also facilitate the formation of an effective procedural diversion mechanism,which improves judicial efficiency.Under this mechanism,the interrogated person is motivated by "substantial leniency" to actively make false confessions,and case handlers based on "procedural leniency" may also increase their reliance on confessions,leading to illegal investigations and the occurrence of unjust cases.In addition,the interrogated person is in a weak position of information asymmetry,and the lawyer’s role in this process is limited,which further expands the risk of false confessions.Therefore,exploring the psychological causes of false confessions and proposing reasonable and effective countermeasures in confession and punishment cases will also help to implement the policy of "leniency and strictness",simplify litigation procedures,and give better play to the system advantages of the confession and punishment system.Apart from the preface,this article is mainly segmented into four parts.The first part mainly introduces the manifestation of false confessions.Through combing and integrating the views of scholars,from the reasons for the formation of false confessions,false confessions are divided into active false confessions and passive false confessions.The second part explores the psychological reasons for the formation of false confessions,starting from the interrogated and investigators respectively,to study the psychological reasons for the formation of different types of false confessions.The psychological reasons for the interrogated person to actively make a false confession include the suspect’s hierarchy of needs theory,time discounting,and probability selection,while the psychological reasons for the illegal interrogation behavior of the investigator include role conflict and self-positioning,tunnel vision,and result deviation.The third part uses confessions and punishment cases as the starting point to explore the special factors in the formation of false confessions in cases of confession and punishment.The confession and punishment mechanism may not only increase the dependence of investigators on confession,but also induce the interrogated person to take the initiative to confess guilt,improper use not only Failure to take advantage of the system also risks expanding false confessions.The fourth part combines the actual confession of guilty and punishing cases,and further proposes several countermeasures to prevent false confessions,including the classified review of the voluntary and authenticity of confessions in confessions and punishing cases,and the improvement of a reasonable audio and video system,so as to accurately identify and prevent false confessions.,To better give play to the due role of the confession and punishment system.