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Toward a Sociology of Public Confessions by Stephanie K. Decker Submitted to the Graduate Degree Program in Sociology and the Gr

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Toward a Sociology of Public Confessions by Stephanie K. Decker Submitted to the Graduate Degree Program in Sociology and the Gr Toward a Sociology of Public Confessions By Stephanie K. Decker Submitted to the graduate degree program in Sociology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson William G. Staples ________________________________ Carol A. B. Warren ________________________________ Robert J. Antonio ________________________________ Ebenezer Obadare ________________________________ Christian Crandall Date Defended: August 31, 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Stephanie K. Decker certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Toward a Sociology of Public Confessions ________________________________ Chairperson William G. Staples Date approved: August 31, 2012 ii Abstract An analysis of transcripts from three very different sets of public confessions—the Moscow Show Trials, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Hearings, and Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Winter Soldier—identifies the common characteristics of public confessions. These confessions all occurred after deviant acts demonstrated an inconsistency within the social order—typically violent behavior that was formally condemned but was also encouraged, accepted, and even ordered by officials, reflecting a larger lack of consensus as to what was acceptable and what was unacceptable within the societies. The confessions addressed the nature of the deviance, assigned responsibility for the deviance, discussed the implications of the deviance for political legitimacy, and sought closure. Historically, power holders have organized public confessions to acquit the social order of any responsibility for deviant acts, to legitimize their authority, and to delegitimize their challengers. However, with the advent of new forms of media that allow for user-generated content, individuals and social movements may now intentionally organize public confessions to challenge the legitimacy of power holders and the social order. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank William Staples for his invaluable guidance throughout this process and for the many, many opportunities he has given me to develop as a scholar; Carol Warren for her inspiring words and careful attention to detail; Robert Antonio, Ebenezer Obadare, and Christian Crandall for their thoughtful feedback; Jack Decker, Sara Decker, Kirk Decker, Barbara Decker-Lindsey, and Stacia Decker for their continuous support; and my partner in life, Pooya Naderi, for his love, encouragement, and unwavering belief in my ability to succeed. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: The Trial of Sixteen .....................................................................................................22 Chapter 3: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission ..........................................53 Chapter 4: Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Winter Soldier .........................................................91 Chapter 5: Conclusion………………………………………………………………………......115 Appendix A: Signers of the Statement by American Progressives on the Moscow Trials………………………………………………………….……......148 Appendix B: Show Trials………………………………………………….………….…….......149 Appendix C: Truth Telling Initiatives…………………………………………………..………….150 v Introduction Public confessions refer to narratives, made accessible to the public, in which individuals take responsibility for wrongdoing.1 Public confessions are profoundly sociological—they create a bridge between the private and the public, self and society, an individual’s beliefs and the legitimacy of the government, deviance and the moral order, and the backstage area and the spectacle. Furthermore, public confessions can be found in one form or another, often organized by government officials, in a variety of different cultures—including Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, South America, and the United States—in the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern eras. Public confessions may be volunteered, influenced, or coerced, and may be followed by forgiveness, amnesty, rehabilitation, punishment, or execution. In 1982, Hepworth and Turner wrote, “Confession...remains a sociologically and culturally ambiguous phenomenon” (174). Since that time, public confessions have become even more pervasive— with televised public confessions in Iran, an increase in the number of confessions made by American politicians and celebrities, and the advent of new forms of media allowing for online confessions—and yet the topic of public confessions has remained largely untouched in the field of sociology. What are the basic characteristics of public confessions and what do these characteristics reveal about the use of public confessions? To answer this question, I examined the transcripts of three very different sets of public confessions: the Moscow Show Trials, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Amnesty Trials, and Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Winter Soldier event. While these sets of public confessions are dissimilar, they all highlight an inconsistency in the 1 Confessors may or may not be responsible for the wrongdoing to which they confess. However, for the purposes of the confession, the confessor assumes responsibility for the wrongdoing and plays the role of the deviant. 1 social order, explore the nature of the deviance and assign responsibility for it, discuss the implications of the deviance for the legitimacy of political figures and the status quo, and seek closure concerning both the deviance and the inconsistency in the social order. In the Moscow Show Trials, a power holder whose legitimacy was threatened by other members of his own political party forced his opponents to confess publicly to taking part in terrorism, treason, and an assassination in order to redefine their opposition as illegitimate and reinforce his own legitimacy. In the South African Truth and Reconciliation Amnesty Trials, a new power holder used public confessions to define widespread human rights violations as fundamentally tied to policies of the previous regime and to bolster the legitimacy of the ideology linked to his own regime. In the third set of public confessions, the Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Winter Soldier Event, a social movement organization used confessions of war crimes and similar acts of deviance in order to challenge the legitimacy of the government and the Iraq war. Public confessions signal that not only are the deviant individuals on trial but the social order as well. A confession may legitimize the social order and repair the damage done by the deviant act, or further highlight the link between inconsistencies in the social order and the deviant act and thereby send a message that the government and the social order are illegitimate. Historically, the former outcome was more common, because authority figures had more power than deviant individuals to define the situation. Today, the advent of “democratizing” social media may facilitate the use of public confessions by those who previously would not have the means to organize large events attended by the public. STUDYING CONFESSIONS 2 Much of the social science and historical literature on confessions is concerned with confessions made within the context of court trials and police interrogations. While a small percentage of these confessions become public, they are framed for the legal system rather than the public. The fields of psychology, the social sciences, and history have all studied legal confessions. For example, some psychological work on confessions examines police interrogation processes, suggestibility, and other factors that may lead to false confessions (Clare & Gudjonsson 1993; Gudjonsson 1984; Gudjonsson 1991; Gudjonsson 1992; Kassin & Kiechel 1996; McCann 1998; Wakefield & Underwager 1992; Wrightsman & Kassin 1993). Other work focuses on the effects of confessions on mock jurors: how confessions are received, how the confessors’ characters are perceived based on the confession (Spencer 1983; Robinson, Smith- Lovin, and Tsoudis 1994), and how one’s confession—and its apparent sincerity—affects conviction rates and sentencing (Kassin and Sukel 1997; Kassin & Nuemann, 1997). For instance, Robinson, Smith-Lovin, and Tsoudis (1994) found that when individuals listen to confessions, they focus on the emotional state of the confessor in order to ascertain the confessor’s sincerity and evaluate his or her character. Similarly, Kassin and Sukel (1997) found that confessions have a strong effect on juror decision-making and are perceived to be the “most incriminating form of evidence (442).” Scholars in the sociology of law have also studied the processes and results of judicial interrogations, often examining false confessions or inadmissible confessions in the judicial system (Kaci & Rush 1988; Leo 1992; Leo 1994; Leo 1996; Moreland 1969; Ofshe & Leo 1997; Spencer 1983). Leo (1996) also examined the circumstances that lead suspects to confess their crimes to detectives despite the fact that they are not legally obligated to do so. 3 In the field of anthropology, Jackson (1975) and Kratz (1991) studied the cultural grounding of public confessions. Jackson found that while accusations of witchcraft in West Africa are rare, confessions of witchcraft are not. Confessions of witchcraft are tied to social location, involving women of
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