Self-reported false confessions and false guilty pleas among offenders with mental illness.

Abstract

Persons with mental illness may be at risk for false admissions to police and to prosecutors because of the defining characteristics of mental illness, but potentially because of heightened recidivism rates and increased opportunities. We surveyed 1,249 offenders with mental disorders from six sites about false confessions (FCs) and false guilty pleas (FGPs). Self-reports of FC ranged from 9 to 28%, and FGPs ranged from 27 to 41% depending upon site. False admissions to murder and rape were rarely reported. We also examined differences between those claiming false admissions and those not. Minorities, offenders with lengthier criminal careers, and those who were more symptomatic were more likely to have self-reported false admissions than their counterparts.

Taking Blame for Other People's Misconduct

“…Furthermore, once in that situation, delinquency was associated with an increased likelihood that college students would actually take the blame. This pattern is consistent with the idea that blame‐taking behavior may be part of the delinquent lifestyle (Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson & Einarsson, ; Redlich, Summers, & Hoover, ).…”

“…The rates of blame taking reported here must be interpreted with caution. Despite these limitations, as Redlich et al () and others have argued, self‐report data can be meaningful in our understanding of false confessions for several reasons. These reasons include the unavailability of objective measures, the value of participants’ perceptions of their experiences, and research suggesting that social desirability measures do not discriminate between those who report false confessions and those who do not (Gudjonsson et al ; Sigurdsson & Gudjonsson, ).…”

Interrogation and the Minority Suspect: Pathways to True and False Confession

“…Gudjonsson and colleagues (e.g., Drake, Gudjonsson, Sigfusdottir, & Sigurdsson, 2015 ;Gudjonsson et al, 2012 ) have surveyed largely northern European populations, and have yet to take race into consideration in their analyses. However, one survey of mentally ill respondents conducted in America did fi nd a greater incidence of self-reported false confession and/or false guilty pleas among Blacks and other racial/ethnic minorities, controlling for age and severity of mental disorder and symptomolog y (Redlich, Summers, & Hoover, 2010 ).…”

“…This is most problematic, of course, when the suspect is innocent and the confession is false. Indeed, others have also proposed such a link (Gross, Jacoby, Matheson, Montgomery, & Patil, 2005 ;Redlich et al, 2010 ;Taslitz, 2006 ), suggesting that ethnic minorities (particularly Blacks) are disproportionately represented among the proven wrongfully convicted (Parker, Dewees, & Radelet, 2001 , in part due to heightened risk of false confession during interrogation.…”

Behavioral Law and Economics: Empirical Methods

“…Typically questionnaires are handed out to members of that same population whose behavior one wants to understand. One such study was interested in inpatients falsely confessing or falsely pleading guilty (Redlich et al 2010).…”