THE VULNERABILITY OF SUSPECTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES DURING POLICE INTERVIEWS - A REVIEW AND EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF DECISION-MAKING

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (England and Wales) recognis ed that suspects with intellectual disabilities were 'vulnerable' duri ng interviews with the police. However, no attempt was made to specify the disadvantages which might contribute to this vulnerability. This paper reviews the experimental evidence relating to two possible areas of disadvantage-impaired understanding of the caution and legal right s, and susceptibility to acquiescence, suggestibility, compliance and confabulation. A pilot study relevant to a third area, that of decisio n-making, is presented. A fictional film was made of a police interrog ation, depicting a male suspect making a true and a false confession. At scheduled pauses during, and just after, the film, items from a sem i-structured interview schedule were presented. Compared with their av erage intellectual ability counterparts, the participants with intelle ctual disabilities (Full Scale IQ: 60-75) were less likely to think th at a police interview and false confession might have serious conseque nces for the suspect. Their views reflected the importance they placed on the suspect's actual, rather than professed, guilt or innocence. M oreover, they believed that an innocent suspect might be protected bec ause his or her innocence would be evident to others. The possible imp act of these views on the decision-making in police interviews of susp ects with intellectual disabilities is discussed.