POLICE INTERVIEWING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES - PREDICTING THE LIKELIHOOD OF A CONFESSION

This paper is concerned with examining the differences between people who confess and those who deny offences during a police interview. The main hypothesis under investigation is that psychologically vulnerabl e suspects are particularly likely to confess. This paper is also conc erned with identifying variables that might be related to the confessi on process, One hundred and sixty suspects detained at two London poli ce stations were assessed psychologically prior to being interviewed b y the police. The results of this assessment, an analysis of the inter view procedure and biographic details were subjected to a logistic reg ression analysis. There was no evidence to support our main hypothesis . However, suspects were more likely to confess if they reported havin g consumed an illicit (non-prescribed) drug in the previous 24-hour pe riod, and less likely to confess when interviewed in the presence of a legal adviser or if they had experience of prison or custodial remand . In this study younger suspects were also more likely to confess. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.