Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

has not been found in all studies, there is some evidence that younger suspects
are more likely to confess than older suspects. 315 A 1970 U.S. study found that
42.9% of suspects under the age of 25 in Colorado made confessions under police
interrogation compared with 18.2% of older suspects. 316 A 1980 British study
found that 53% of suspects over 21 years of age made confessions, compared
to 68% of those below the age of 21. 317 Studies in 1989 318 and 1998 319 found a
difference of 10.8% and 8%, respectively, between confession rates of juveniles
and adults. Gudjonsson draws two interpretations from these findings: 1) the
younger the suspect, the easier it is to obtain a confession from him or her, and 2)
there appears to be no clear cut-off point with regard to age, i.e., suspects do not
seem to reach a ceiling of resistance after a certain age. 320
The literature reveals several factors that could be responsible for this
phenomenon. First, it might be that, due to greater life experience, older suspects
are better equipped psychologically to cope with the demand characteristics of
the interrogative situation. 321 Another possible explanation is that older suspects
are more likely to understand and assert their legal rights during interrogation. 322
Finally, Gudjonsson suggests that temperamental differences related to age may
also be important. 323 For example, factors such as neuroticism and impulsiveness,
which may make some suspects confess more readily than others, are negatively
correlated with age. 324 Another potential factor is that adolescents find negative
feedback and interrogative pressure from interrogators more difficult to resist
than adults. 325
However, the literature does not universally demonstrate this correlation
between age and willingness to confess. In a study of 248 criminal defendants in
Prairie City, California, Neubauer found no significant difference in confession
rates between minors (16–20 years old) and adults (21 years and older). 326
Similarly, Leo did not find age to be “significantly related to the likelihood of
obtaining incriminating information from the suspect.” 327
315
Id.
316
L.S. Leiken, “Police Interrogation in Colorado: The Implementation of Miranda,” 47 Denver
Law Journal 1 (1970), 19-20.
317
P. Softley, Police Interrogation. An Observational Study in Four Police Stations, Home Office
Research Study no. 61(London: HMSO, 1980).
318
R. Leng et al., Discretion to Charge and Prosecute, Report to the Economic and Social Research
Council (UK: 1989).
319
C. Phillips and D. Brown, Entry into the Criminal Justice System: A Survey of Police Arrests
and their Outcomes, Home Office Research Study no. 185 (London: HMSO, 1998).
320
Gudjonsson, see note 110, p. 142.
321
Leiken, see note 319, p. 19-21.
322
J. Baldwin and M. McConville, Confessions in Crown Court Trials, Royal Commission on
Criminal Procedure Research Study No. 5 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), 1980),
p. 195.
323
Gudjonsson, see note 110, p. 142
324
Id.
325
Id.
326
W. Neubauer, “Confessions in Prairie City: Some Causes and Effects,” Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology 65 (1974), 104..
327
Leo, see note 110, p. 291.
168