In the law of criminal evidence, a confession is a statement by a suspect in crime which is adverse to that person. Some secondary authorities, such as Black's Law Dictionary, define a confession in more narrow terms, e.g. as "a statement admitting or acknowledging all facts necessary for conviction of a crime," which would be distinct from a mere admission of certain facts that, if true, would still not, by themselves, satisfy all the elements of the offense. The equivalent in civil cases is a statement against interest. History This specific form of testimony, involving oneself, is used as a form of proof in judicial matters, since at least the Inquisition. The value of confessions, however, are discussed, and law generally request cross-checking them with objective facts and others forms of evidence (exhibits, testimonies from witnesses, etc.) in order to evaluate their truth value. Confessions were first developed in the Roman Catholic Church under the Sacrament of Penance, where the confession of a sin is considered to be enough to absolve oneself. This aspect concerning moral guilt has been carried on in various legislative codes, in which a criminal is considered worse if he does not confess to his crimes. Reliability Conditions In Japan, the legal requirements dictate that confession is admissible as evidence only if it contains elements only the guilty could have known. However, many miscarriage of justice cases in Japan are due to the police faking the confession of guilty secrets. Torture On one hand, confessions obtained under torture have often been considered to be not objective enough, since the use of such means may lead to the suspect in confessing anything. However, when the confession reveals secrets only known to the perpetrator (such as the location of the body or murder weapon), the confession is reliable. On the other hand, even without torture, various cases of averred false confessions demonstrate that, in itself, one person's confession is not a sufficient proof. False memory (including memory biases, etc.) or privileges granted under plea bargaining might lead to such false confessions. Forced confession A forced or coerced confession is a confession obtained from a suspect or a prisoner by means of pressure, torture (including enhanced interrogation techniques) or other forms of duress, whether physical or psychological. Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession is not valid in revealing the truth. The person being interrogated may