三个术语均与被告招认违法或犯罪事实有关。confession多限于刑事犯罪领域（在加拿大民事诉讼程序中，其可等同于formal admission)，指刑事被告完全承认其被指控的犯罪及有关定罪所需的所有事实，或至少是主要事实，并承认有罪（acknowledgement of guilt) , 有供认不讳的含义，陪审团根据其招供则可作出有罪裁定，故为“供认”[1]。相比之下，admission常用作指对民事责任行为的承认。在刑事领域，admission多指对无犯罪故意的刑事责任行为的招认，多表示承认一个或数个事实， 此种招供远没有达到足以定罪的程度；与confession相比，admission 主要的区别在于被告无认罪表示(An admission is a confession that an allegation or factual assertion is true without any acknowledgement of guilt with respect to the criminal charges，whereas a confession involves an acknowledgement of guilt as well as of the true of predicate factual allegations[2] )，故 admission 应译为“供述”而不能是“供认”，因其没有“认”，即认罪的含义。在刑事诉讼中，statement主要是指警方在侦破犯罪过程中对某人， 尤指疑犯的招供所作的记录和报告[an account of a person's (usually a suspect's) acknowledgement of a crime，taken by the police pursuant to their investigation of the offense[3]]，故应译为“供述记录”。

[1 ]有关 confession 的各种定义：“ A criminal suspect's acknowledgement of guilt, usually in writing and often including details about the crime." Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 293, West Group (1999). "A written or oral statement by an accused party acknowledging the party's guilt (as by admitting commission of a crime) • ” Cf. Linda Picard Wood，J. D. Meniam Webster's Dictionary of Law, at pp. 94 —95，Merriam- Webster, Incorporated Springfield, Massachusetts (1996). “A statement made by an accused person, whether before or after he is accused of an offense, that is completely or partially self- incriminating with respect to the offense of which he is accused. ” Cf. Daphne Dukelow, The Dictionary of Canadian Law, at p. 195，A Carswell Publication (1991).
[2 ] Cf. James E. Clapp, Random House Webster's Dictionary of the Law，at p. 29, Random House, New York (2000).
[3 ] Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 1416, West Group (1999).