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Examples Of Confessions In The Crucible

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Ave Mince-Didier stated that, “The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits coercive questioning by police officers. So, confessions to crimes that are coerced, or involuntary, aren't admissible against defendants in criminal cases, even though they may be true.” Being forced to confess to a crime whether the suspect committed the crime or not, is not allowed to be used in court, so why do they still do it? Forced confessions are when people, suspected of a crime, are put under methods of torture, threats, and violence, in order to get a confession whether the suspect did the crime or not. The concept of forced confessions, and having to confess to crimes fearing consequences has been around for generations, you can also find this concept while reading Arthur Miller’s 1953 play, The Crucible. We are able to examine the research question: What ways can we compare the events in the Salem Witch trials in The Crucible to forced confessions? To start, when getting a confession from a suspect, it is more prioritized to get the confession rather than accurate information and the truth. A technique called the Reid Technique, which is an accusatory interrogation, makes someone essentially believe they committed a crime and can force them to confess to a crime they didn't do. With this technique, 80% of the time they get a confession, but the outcome that the confession was the truth is not very high (Loevy). Loevy & Loevy talks about the comparison between the Reid technique and techniques

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