Confession letter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A letter of confession , usually referred to as a letter of self- denial in police circles, is a document written by criminals in which they confess their crime . In the letters, the authors, who are usually identical with the perpetrators, identify themselves under a cover or group name and explain their motivation for the crime. In the case of politically motivated acts by underground organizations , the letters often contain a political justification, sometimes also political demands.

shape

Letters of confession are mostly written down on paper using a typewriter or computer. When typewriters are used, the perpetrators often photocopy them several times so that no individual features can be identified for forensic purposes. Another form of disguise is the use of cut-out and glued letters when making a letter. Letters of confession are no longer just printed on paper. With the advent of the Internet and e-mail in the 1990s, they were replaced by electronic forms. This includes sending as e-mail, publication on the Internet as a video or presentation on Internet pages.

distribution

The letters usually reach the respective addressee by sending them as a letter or by throwing the letter directly into the mailbox. The addressees are usually those affected by the crime, such as relatives of kidnapping victims as well as the police, authorities and media editors. Mass media mainly receive letters of responsibility when the perpetrators want to gain public attention. This is particularly the case with politically motivated crimes. The police often have a considerable interest in obtaining the original confession letters in order to investigate them for traces. The media can, however, refuse to publish them with reference to editorial confidentiality.

Content and perpetrator intentions

The content of letters of confession are the description of the crime, its circumstances and background. In order to enable recognizable identification, the authors of confessional letters often give details of the crime that only the perpetrators know.

Letters of confession are often produced by terrorists , assassins or hostage-takers . Due to the attention these acts attract, the explanations of the perpetrators are also intensely noticed. They offer the perpetrators the opportunity to present their own points of view and the reasons for their actions. Letters of confession are particularly important for terrorist underground organizations that rely on support from the population. In the letters they try to win the sympathy of the population. The fact that the letters confessing terrorist organizations usually do not reveal who actually committed the act or instigated it is due to the fact that the decision was made jointly.

Letters of confession developed out of the idea of ​​anarchist propaganda in fact and played a major role in social revolutionary terrorism in particular .

Multiple identifiers

Occasionally, several underground organizations confess to the same act although they did not commit it ( free riders ). If the real perpetrators have an interest in being recognized as the author of the act, they may submit another letter of confession. This then contains further proof of identity, such as fingerprints from assassins who are already known to the police.

It is also possible that the perpetrator or perpetrators wait so long to write a letter of confession until the media speculate about possible motives for the crime . The letter is then drafted in accordance with these published expectations in order to lure the investigators on the wrong track. Most of the time, letters of confession are not used to confuse investigators. Rather, the perpetrators hope that it will spark a public discussion on certain topics or point out grievances.

literature

  • Martin Hoffmann (Ed.): Red Army Fraction. Texts and materials on the history of the RAF . ID-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-89408-065-5 .
  • Walter Laqueur (Ed.): Evidence of political violence. Documents on the history of terrorism . Athenaeum, Kronberg 1978, ISBN 978-3-7610-8501-1 .
  • Bruce Lawrence (Ed.): Messages to the world. The statements of Osama bin Laden . Verso, London 2005, ISBN 978-1-84467-045-1 .
  • Hermann Lübbe : Letters of confession and friendlier consensus denials . In: Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics . tape 126 . Stuttgart 2002.
  • Bernhard Unterholzner: Letter of responsibility. Communication as an event . VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-0591-1 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Letters of responsibility  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter of confession: There is nothing to get from us . ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. taz home blog @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blogs.taz.de