Breaking Point: When the Criminal Justice System Fails - Hardcover

Dahlberg, Robin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3969002222 ISBN 13: 9783969002223

Publisher: Kehrer Verlag, 2026

Synopsis

13 percent of all individuals exonerated in the United States between 1989 and 2024 were wrongfully convicted because of a false confession

Why do innocent people confess to crimes that they did not commit? This question has confounded the public for decades. Most of us believe that we would never admit to something we did not do—especially if that admission could lead to prison. Yet, false confessions are one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in the United States. Research and anecdotal evidence show that coercive police interrogations are often to blame.  

In her book, Breaking Point, Robin Dahlberg sheds light on the powerful and often devastating tactics used in these interrogations. Collaborating with six exonerees—each of whom falsely confessed and served time for a crime they did not commit—Dahlberg reveals the human cost of these tactics.  Each exoneree endured pressure so intense that telling a lie felt safer than holding onto the truth.

About this title

About the Authors

Robin Dahlberg is a visual artist and arts educator based in New York City. With a background in law and social justice, she uses her camera to explore issues of identity, place and resilience and their influence upon each other. Sharing her passion for photography with others is fundamental to her work. Dahlberg has taught photography to people of various ages, backgrounds and capabilities. In 2018, she co-founded the teaching and exhibition collaborative, Five Corners Collective,  to teach photography to underserved and geographically isolated communities.

Caleb Cain Marcus (b. 1978, Colorado), is an American photographer, living in New York City. He runs the Brooklyn design studio Luminosity Lab. His photographs are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Museum. Cain Marcus has an MFA from Columbia University.

Dr. Sara C. Appleby is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Mercer University in the College of Liberal Arts, focusing on psychology and the law. She teaches Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods and Statistics, and Forensic Psychology. Her research interests include deception detection, police interrogations and confessions, and legal decision-making. Appleby holds a Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, an M.A. from Boston University, and a B.A. from Rhodes College. 

Edition details

• Publisher: Kehrer Verlag
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3969002222
• ISBN 13: 9783969002223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184