Distinguishing Between Admissions and Confessions December, 1998

An admission represents a statement that tends toward proving guilt. On the other hand, a confession is a fully
corroborated statement during which the suspect accepts personal responsibility for committing a crime. This distinction
is important for legal and procedural reasons. For example, a theft suspect who agrees to reimburse the victim for the
$1000 stolen has offered an admission, not a confession. While a willingness to pay back an amount of money stolen is
very typical of the guilty suspect, we have had at least one occurrence of a verified innocent person who agreed to do
this also. The principle to keep in mind is that an admission does not accept personal responsibility for committing the
crime.

In a second example, a suspect who was questioned concerned the death of his infant child acknowledged picking the
child up in a manner that was somewhat consistent with the probable cause of death. However, the father maintained
that when he put the child back down the child was alive and not in distress. Based primarily on this admission, the
father was charged with homicide. During the trial, when the prosecutor was unable to present any further evidence of
the father's guilt, a motion was granted to dismiss the charge.

Many interrogations result in admissions, rather than a confession. A homicide suspect who states, "I'm sorry about
what I did" has offered an admission; the child molester who states, "If I did touch her bare vagina, it would have been
for just a few seconds" has similarly offered merely an admission. So too has the suspect who, after hours of
interrogation, acknowledges for the first time that he was present during a drive-by shooting. Under these
circumstances the investigator needs to pursue the issue further during the interrogation in an attempt to see if the
suspect will accept personal responsibility for committing the crime.

There are suspects, of course, who refuse to go beyond the admission stage -- regardless of the investigator's efforts,
the suspect simply will not accept personal responsibility for committing the crime. Under that circumstance the
investigator must consider the possibility that the suspect may be innocent of the crime and pursue other investigative
techniques to resolve the suspect's status. In the case of the earlier mentioned suspect who agreed to pay back stolen
money, but did not admit stealing it, we decided to interview the only other suspect on the case. The second suspect
displayed deceptive behavior symptoms and was interrogated. The subsequent interrogation resulted in a full
acknowledgment of the theft including corroborative details of how the money was spent.

Many suspects who make admissions during an interview or interrogation (admitting that proper procedures were not
followed, lying about an alibi, or acknowledging the possibility that they may have committed the crime) are, in fact,
guilty of the crime under investigation. However, to use such an admission as grounds for dismissal or as the linchpin of
a prosecution may result in a wrongful discharge suit or an unsuccessful prosecution.