Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder, which is associated with a number of psychiatric conditions, mostly personality disorder, substance misuse, anxiety and depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and associated psychiatric conditions among prisoners. The participants were 90 male prisoners in Iceland who were assessed within 10 days of admission to the prison. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and the Standardised Assessment of Personality-Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS) were administered. Childhood ADHD symptoms were screened by the Wender-Utah Rating Scale and current adult symptoms by the DSM-IV Checklist for ADHD. Half of the prisoners (50%) were found on screening to have met criteria for ADHD in childhood and of those over half (60%) were either fully symptomatic or in partial remission of their symptoms. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the MINI Antisocial Personality Disorder scale was the single best predictor of current ADHD symptoms. Many prisoners are either fully symptomatic or in partial remission of their ADHD symptoms and have serious co-morbid problems, primarily associated with antisocial personality disorder and substance dependence. Prisoners should routinely undergo screening for ADHD in order to identify those who would benefit from a comprehensive assessment to determine who may have ADHD and associated problems.

Purpose. The main aim of the study was to examine the reasons and personality factors associated with confessions and denials. It was hypothesized that antisocial personality traits and active involvement in criminal behaviour would distinguish true confessors and true deniers from false confessors and false deniers.Method. The participants were 1,080 students in further education in Iceland. Each was asked about false admissions made to teachers and parents in the past, as well as about confessions or denials (true and false) made to the police during questioning, and the reasons for having responded in the way they did. The participants also completed questionnaires relating to offending, personality and self-esteem.Results. One-quarter (25%) of the participants stated that they had in the past been interrogated by the police in relation to a suspected offence, of whom 59% said they had confessed. A small minority of those interrogated (3.7%; 1% of the total sample) claimed to have made false confessions to the police, whereas 10% claimed to have made false confessions to teachers or parents. Males were signi cantly more likely to report false confessions than females. False confessions and false denials were signi cantly associated with antisocial personality traits, with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Psychoticism being the single best predictor. Those participants who made true confessions and true denials were most normal in their personality. Conclusions.Personality is a signi cant predictor of who makes false confessions and false denials. It is only in recent years that much research has been carried out into the psychological aspects of confessions (Gudjonsson, 2001). Gudjonsson (2003) reviewed five theories of what makes suspects confess to crimes they have committed during police questioning. These, combined with the empirical evidence (Moston, Stephensen, & Williamson, 1992), suggested that there are three main reasons why suspects confess to crimes they have committed (Gudjonsson & Sigurdsson, 1999;Sigurdsson & Gudjonsson, 1996a). These are suspects' perceptions of the strength of the evidence against them, external pressure (e.g. pressure during interrogation, fear of custody) and internal pressure (e.g. wanting to 'clear their conscience'). Usually more than one of these factors are present when suspects confess, but the empirical evidence suggests that it is the perception of the evidence against them that is the most powerful reason for suspects confessing to the offence. As far as false confessions are concerned, these are psychologically more complicated than true confessions. Kassin and Wrightsman (1985) and Wrightsman and Kassin (1993) suggest three psychologically distinct types of false confession, which they refer to as 'voluntary', 'coerced-compliant' and 'coerced-internalised' types. More recently, Ofshe and Leo (1997a, 1997b) have proposed a modified five-level model which distinguishes between coerced and noncoerced compliant and persuaded confessions. The model, as presented b...

The findings raise important questions about the potential vulnerability of adults with ADHD symptoms in terms of their ability to cope with interrogation.

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship of compliance with Eysenck's three personality dimensions: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism. Three groups of participants (prison inmates, college students, and university students) completed the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). As predicted, compliance correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion in all groups, whereas for psychoticism the correlation was positive among the prison inmates, negative for college students, and non‐significant for university students. A quadrant analysis according to Eysenck's original two‐dimensional framework (neuroticism–stability and introversion–extraversion) showed that compliance was highest among unstable introverts and lowest among stable extraverts. The findings are discussed in relation to recent work on person‐type approaches. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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