Vulnerability: what characteristics can predict a false confession?

Abstract

According to the Innocence Project, approximately 30% of all DNA exonerations involved a false confession on behalf of the defendant. Scholars have found these false confessions are attributed to contextual factors, such as abuse from interrogators, sleep deprivation, and isolation over extended periods of time. The current research will build upon the existing literature by examining individual factors that may show risk for providing a false confession. I analyzed a sample of 460 wrongful conviction cases accessed from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data ("Social Science Research of Wrongful Convictions and Near Misses, 1980-2012"). In the use of this data, I sought to answer the research question, "What suspect characteristics can predict a false confessor?” Beyond demographics, this study analyzed suspects’ prior criminal history, victim-offender relationship, the presence of a cognitive impairment, and the presence of a co-perpetrator’s confession. The study’s major findings included that those with a cognitive impairment or intellectual disability and those whose co-perpetrators gave a confession were more likely to give a false confession, while those suspects who had any relationship with the victims were less likely to give a false confession.