Police practices and perceptions regarding juvenile interrogation and interrogative suggestibility

Meyer, Jessica; Reppucci, N. Dickon

doi:10.1002/bsl.774

Cited by 74 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…This could be partly explained by the relative homogeneity of the sample, composed mainly of adult male Caucasian offenders aged in their thirties. Different results might have been observed had we included juvenile offenders, who are more likely to confess than adults (Meyer & Reppucci, 2007;Phillips & Brown, 1998), although this finding has not been consistent Leo, 2006;Moston et al, 1992).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police

Deslauriers‐Varin¹,

Lussier²,

St‐Yves³

2009

Justice Quarterly

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Confessions are crucial to successful police investigations but scholars have significantly overlooked factors that contribute to an offender's decision to confess a crime. This study aims to examine a large array of factors that play a role in the offender's decision to confess a crime to the police and potential interaction effect among them. A total of 221 adult males incarcerated in a federal Canadian penitentiary were recruited. Correctional files, police reports, and offenders' self-reported data were collected and analyzed. Controlling for sociodemographic, criminological, and contextual factors, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted. Findings highlighted the predominant role of police evidence over and above other factors analyzed. Furthermore, sociodemographic and criminological factors played a more important role in the offender's decision to confess when police evidence was weak. Findings are discussed in light of the current scientific literature on the determinants of offenders' decision to confess their crime.Keywords police interrogation; confession; police evidence; adult offenders; police investigation Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nadine Deslauriers-Varin, Criminology Program, School of Social Work, Université Laval, Pav. Charles-de Koninck, 1030, Av. Des Sciences-Humaines, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, G1V 0A6. E-mail: nadine.deslauriers-varin@svs.ulaval.ca CONFESSING THEIR CRIME 2 Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender's Decision to Confess to the Police Police interrogation and the offender's confession are two important components of successful police investigations. The offender's confession has been a essential component in a substantial number of cases where criminal charges were laid against a suspect and a number of police interrogations included confessions that were crucial to the corroboration of incriminating facts and findings from the crime scene (Baldwin, 1993;Imbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2001;Phillips & Brown, 1998). For example, in the USA, Leo (1996) found that in 33% of the 182 interrogation cases analyzed, evidence was too weak to justify laying charges without the suspect's confession. As well, Phillips and Brown (1998) also found that in 11% of cases reviewed, additional confessions from the suspects contributed to solving crimes for which the suspects had not been arrested. The offender's confession is vital in laying criminal charges and also in proving guilt. For example, in 13% of cases reviewed by McConville (1993) in the UK, the only court evidence was a suspect's confession. However, considering its importance to the success of police interrogations, scholars and researchers have largely overlooked closer examination of the suspect's confession, and only limited empirical studies exist that reveal its prevalence and associated factors. Recent studies have mainly focused on the phenomena of false confession and police investigators' ability to detect deception and false confessions (Blair,...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police

Deslauriers‐Varin¹,

Lussier²,

St‐Yves³

2009

Justice Quarterly

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“…to truthfully confess or not confess to a crime committed, or to falsely confess or not confess to a crime not committed) because of comprehension and reasoning impairments (see, e.g., Goldstein, Kalbeitzer, Zelle, & Romaine, 2006) and heightened suggestibility-they are more vulnerable than nondisabled juveniles to even subtle psychological influence, persuasion, deception, and coercion (Clare & Gudjonsson, 1993;Henry & Gudjonsson, 1999;Milne, Clare, & Bull, 2002;Young, Powell, & Dudgeon, 2003; but see . In light of evidence that police often use the same coercive interrogation strategies with children and youth as they do with adults (Meyer & Reppucci, 2007), there is substantial cause for concern that innocent disabled juveniles are at risk for falsely confessing to crimes they did not commit.…”

Section: Confession Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Jurors' perceptions of juvenile defendants: the influence of intellectual disability, abuse history, and confession evidence

Najdowski¹,

Bottoms

Vargas³

2009

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Understanding jurors' perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors' perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile's crime was motivated by self-defense against the abuser. Jurors used disability as a mitigating factor, making more lenient judgments for a disabled than a nondisabled juvenile. Jurors also completely discounted a coerced confession for a disabled juvenile, but not for a nondisabled juvenile. In fact, compared with when it was portrayed as voluntary, jurors generally discounted a juvenile's coerced confession. Implications for public policy and directions for future research are discussed.

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“…This dimension can be described as tricking a suspect into a ‘voluntary’ confession. It should be noted that the cases we labelled as manipulation are different from the trickery and deceit used by American interrogators (Feld, ; Kassin et al , ; Meyer & Reppucci, ). We found that suspects were presented with hypothetical situations in an attempt to elicit a statement such as an interrogator presenting the suspect with the scenario that he did not mean to kill the victim with the screw driver but only meant to stop him with it.…”

Section: The Dutch Interrogation Practicementioning

confidence: 86%

The Lawyer in the Dutch Interrogation Room: Influence on Police and Suspect

Verhoeven

Stevens²

2012

Journal Invest Psychology

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In many European countries, providing a suspect in custody with legal aid before the first police interrogation is a heavily debated issue. In this paper, we report on an exploratory study on the use of coercion by the police and the use of the right to silence by suspects in 70 Dutch homicide cases and their relation to prior consultation and presence of a lawyer. Analysis of the data indicates that there is a relation between the presence of a lawyer in the interrogation room and the way in which police interrogators use coercion. To gain insight into whether the police use coercion and how this is achieved, we looked at the extent to which the interrogators make use of certain interrogation techniques and how the interrogation techniques are used to exert coercion. We found that legal advice from a lawyer before and during the interrogation corresponds with suspects more often using their right to silence. It also appears that the police are inclined to use 'hard coercion' when confronted with a silent suspect. The research thus raises the question as to whether the presence of a lawyer is an adequate way to prevent false confessions.

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Police practices and perceptions regarding juvenile interrogation and interrogative suggestibility

Cited by 74 publications

References 54 publications

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police

Jurors' perceptions of juvenile defendants: the influence of intellectual disability, abuse history, and confession evidence

The Lawyer in the Dutch Interrogation Room: Influence on Police and Suspect

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