Skip to main content

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

Preferred term

competency to confess  

Definition

  • Competency to confess refers to a suspect's ability to make a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of the Miranda warnings at the time of police questioning. Confessions that are given after a suspect waives his or her Miranda rights are sometimes challenged on the basis that the suspect was not competent to confess, meaning that the suspect was not capable of making a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of the Miranda rights and therefore could not have understood, appreciated, and willingly waived those rights. [Source: Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law; Competency to Confess]

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/competency_to_confess

Download this concept: