title: What makes sex offenders confess? An exploratory study.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan School of social Work, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106, USA. kcfaller@umich.edu
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Faller
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Birdsall
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vandervort
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Silverschanz
mesh_terms: 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