What makes sex offenders confess? An exploratory study.
This study examines correlates of offender confession in criminal sexual conduct cases involving children. The cases consist of all closed court files (N=318), spanning the last 10 years from a single jurisdiction. This jurisdiction has a community-wide protocol for handling child sexual abuse cases, a high rate of charging (69%), a high rate of confession (64%), and high rates of pleas to sex crimes (77%). To determine what factors were associated with suspect confession before adjudication, we examined characteristics of the suspect, the child, the abuse, and the system using bi-variate and multi-variate analysis. The following four variables are associated with suspect confession: (1) having the state police conducting the law enforcement part of the investigation, (2) more serious abuse, (3) younger age of the suspect, and (4) having a court appointed (as opposed to a retained) attorney.
Faller
K C
KC
University of Michigan School of social Work, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106, USA. kcfaller@umich.edu
Birdsall
W C
WC
Henry
J
J
Vandervort
F
F
Silverschanz
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019548:Crime Victims; D030881:Disclosure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012742:Sex Offenses; D014743:Videotape Recording