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== Film ==
* Subverted in ''[[For Your Eyes Only (Filmfilm)|For Your Eyes Only]]'': After [[Big Bad|Kristatos]] has taken the [[MacGuffin|ATAC]] from Bond, Bond goes into a confessional at a Greek Orthodox church and says "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned...", and it turns out the Priest is actually Q, who says "That's putting it mildly, 007.".
* This is the central plot of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s film ''[[I Confess]]''.
 
 
== Literature ==
* A minor plot point in ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (Literature)|Memory Sorrow and Thorn]]'' is [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] Camaris' confession of his <s>sins</s> role in the plot to Father Strangyeard. Camaris is asked to do this because he refuses to reveal his secrets in the open, but the heroes desperately need to know if what he knows has any bearing on their struggle with the Storm King. Although Strangyeard confirms that Camaris knows nothing useful, the confession devastates him, making him admit that for once, he understands why people might wish to [[Drowning My Sorrows|drown their sorrows]]. It's also a convenient narrative way to hide Camaris' secret until after the climax, when Josua (to whom Camaris also confessed) reveals it.
* In ''[[Literature/The Gadfly|The Gadfly]]'', the protagonist loses all faith after he learns that his confessor leaked the secret to the police.
* In ''[[Earth the(The Book)]]'' this is double subverted. There is a transcript of a confession where the person confesses to: speeding, a hit-and-run, hitting a cop in the hit-and-run, robbing a bank, and murdering people in the robbery. This causes the priest lots of discomfort. It seems completely played straight, until you realize it was transcribed. This is lampshaded, saying the transcriptions were for 'insurance purposes.'
* In E.F. Benson's "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham", a murderer confesses to a priest-- to be sure that the priest's the only other one who knows an innocent man is going to die for the confessor's crime-- and that he can't do anything about it.
 
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** In his defense, the plan he came up with as a result hinged on providing the confessor a chance to do the right thing and make the confession in public.
* ''[[CSI]]'' - A Catholic priest, bound by his confidentiality, at least tries to steer the investigators in the right direction.
* ''[[Poltergeist (Filmfilm)|Poltergeist]]: [[Recycled: Thethe Series|The Legacy]]'': A priest denounced a serial killer that confessed not only his recent murders, but also some future ones. He later rationalized it because the killer didn't actually repent for his crimes.
* ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' - On at least two occasions evil Immortals use confessions as opportunities to gloat and the priests involved are unable to report their "confessions."
* [[Private Eye|Ian]] [[Have I Got News for You|Hislop]] has claimed in interviews that at one point during his long-standing feud with Piers Morgan, his vicar told him that the ''Daily Mirror'' had called wanting to know if he'd confessed "anything good."
* In one episode of ''[[Law and& Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'', a murder case hinges on whether a priest will break confidence and finger the man who confessed to him. And in case the decision wasn't hard enough, the victim in the case was also a priest.
* Father Mulcahey has had to figure out ways to resolve issues that he learns about in a confessional without violating the seal of the confessional on multiple occasions on ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]''.
* [[Zig Zagged]] in the Italian series ''Don Matteo''. The title character, a priest and amateur sleuth, is convinced that a man is a killer, and the man gets so annoyed of Don Matteo investigating that he goes to him in confession and says, basically, "Yes, I killed that bastard, and now you won't be able to do anything about it because of the secret of confession!". Don Matteo is stumped for a bit, but then tells the culprit that he would gladly be excommunicated if it meant putting the culprit behind bars. Then the culprit sees Don Matteo talking to the police and attacks him with a hammer, screaming "I'll kill you so you won't tell them I did it!". Don Matteo, however, wasn't telling on him, but simply [[Xanatos Gambit|having a nice chat with his policeman friend...]]
* An episode of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' opened with a woman confessing to murder, and the priest having to decide what to do about it. Of course, this being ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', the woman ''hadn't'' committed the murder after all.
* In the ''[[Diagnosis Murder]]'' episode "Confession" the killer confesses to a priest and then [[Silent Scapegoat|frames the same priest for the crime]].
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' "[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)/Who Shot Mr. Burns/Recap|Who Shot Mr. Burns?]] Part 2" Smithers goes to confession.
{{quote| '''Smithers:''' Father, I'm not a Catholic, but...well, I ''tried'' to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade. But anyway, I've got a...rather large sin to confess. ''sniffles'' I'm the one who...shot Mr. Burns!<br />
'''Wiggum:'''( ''pokes head out, cocks gun'') That's all I needed to hear! Boy, this thing works great. }}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Black Jack (Manga)|Black Jack]]'' has run into this a few times. Of course, since he's an unlicensed surgeon, he usually only worries about patient confidentiality when it suits him, but he occasionally finds inventive ways around it... like charging a bank robber all the money he stole for a life-saving operation, and then turning the money in to the police.
 
 
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* Non-criminal example in ''[[Scrubs]]''. JD is smitten with a girl and unintentionally agrees to treat her boyfriend. He diagnoses a man with an STD and he confesses that he probably got it from a girl he was seeing on the side, then invokes doctor-patient privilege to force JD not to share the diagnosis or the fact that he is cheating. JD has to choose between warning the girlfriend or his professional ethics.
** This is averted in some jurisdictions, as sexually-transmitted diseases need to be reported to the local health authority and/or the patient's sexual partners. In this specific example, the girl and her boyfriend had not had sex yet so JD couldn't use this loophole to tell her anyway. Fortunately, she figures it out before sleeping with the jerk, when her coworker (who her boyfriend slept with) develops the same symptoms and gets diagnosed with Gonorrhea too.
* In an episode of ''[[GreysGrey's Anatomy]]'', a woman confesses to purposefully ramming her car into her husband. The two doctors listening point out they only share confidentiality based on medical information, not criminal activities, and she's arrested.
* In an episode of ''[[Frasier]]'', the eponymous doctor finds a loophole in the psychiatrist/patient confidentiality agreement by becoming a patient to his brother (also a psychiatrist), allowing him to tell his brother his patient's troubles.
 
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== Film ==
* Part of the ending of ''[[Primal Fear (Filmfilm)|Primal Fear]]'': {{spoiler|A murderer who escaped justice boasts to his lawyer that he committed the crime but the lawyer can't tell anyone else because of attorney-client privilege.}}
* ''[[And Justice for All]]'' involves a lawyer being politically blackmailed into defending a judge (who he despises) who's been accused of beating and raping a young woman. {{spoiler|At one point the judge confesses to the crime.}}
 
 
== Live-Action TV ==
* One episode of ''[[Law and& Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'' has a lawyer who refuses to reveal the location of his client's victims' bodies. At first it seems like he wants to avoid introducing evidence that would damn his [[Complete Monster]] client. Then the client is convicted and they assume he doesn't want to get in trouble for break privilege or is trying to impress his bosses. So they basically have a judge tell him point blank he won't be arrested unless he doesn't tell them. {{spoiler|It turns out that he really doesn't want to break attorney-client privilege on principle, and he goes to jail for contempt of court.}}
* Subverted on ''[[The West Wing]]'', where it turns out the the White House Counsel is not actually the President's attorney:
{{quote| '''Bartlet''': Well, Oliver, it really boils down to this... I'm going to tell you a story, and then I need you to tell me whether or not I've engaged 16 people in a massive criminal conspiracy to defraud the public in order to win a presidential election.<br />
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== Visual Novel ==
* ''[[Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)|Ace Attorney]]'' ran into this, where {{spoiler|one of the protagonist's clients actually is guilty and admits it, but the hero can't tell anyone. The assassin who was hired by Engarde kidnapped Maya and threatened to kill her if Phoenix didn't get Engarde off the hook}}, so he couldn't say anything even if he was allowed to, or even drop the case.
 
{{reflist}}
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