Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

Why do Suspects Confess? Empirical Findings 141
not be interviewed for a variety of reasons (Phillips & Brown, 1998). The proportion
of these who are juveniles (i.e. under the age of 17) is about 15%. Phillips
and Brown (1998) found that out of 4250 detainees, 635 (15%) were juveniles.
In a major study at all Metropolitan (London) Police Stations over a one month
period in 1997 (73 charging stations in total), Medford, Gudjonsson and Pearse
(2000) found that out of 26 835 custody records, 3514 (12.6%) concerned juveniles.
Moston, Stephenson and Williamson (1992) found that out of 1067 suspects
interviewed by CID officers, 164 (15.3%) were juveniles. These studies
illustrate the important point that a sizeable number of arrested persons detained
at police stations are juveniles, who by law are considered to require
special safeguards in view of their immaturity.
Background Characteristics of the Suspect
Are certain types of suspect more likely to confess than others? There is evidence
from various studies that this is indeed the case.
Age and Confessions
Age is often considered as an indirect measure of maturity, and as Neubauer
(1974) points out more mature suspects would be expected to cope better with
the unfamiliarity and demands of police interrogation than less mature suspects.
Is there a relationship between age and the readiness to confess? Yes,
there is some evidence that younger suspects are more likely to confess to the
police during interrogation than older suspects, but this has not been found in
all studies.
Leiken (1970) found in Colorado that 42.9% of suspects under the age of 25
had made confessions under police interrogation compared with 18.2% of older
suspects. Softley (1980), in an English study, found that 53% of suspects over
21 years of age made admissions or confessions, compared with 68% of those
below the age of 21. The difference was statistically significant. Most important,
however, was the frequency with which juveniles confessed. Of 38 juveniles in
the study, 30 (79%) made admissions or confessions. Phillips and Brown (1998)
found that the admission rate for juveniles was 62% in contrast to 54% for
adults. Leng, McConville and Sanders (1989) (cited by Evans, 1993) found that
60.7% of juveniles made a full confession and a further 20% made incriminating
admissions, giving a total admission/confession rate of over 80%. The corresponding
figures for adults were 42.2 and 27.7%, giving a total rate of 69.9%.
The clearest example of a negative linear relationship between frequency of
confessions and age comes from the British study of Baldwin and McConville
(1980). The study was carried out in two major English cities, London and
Birmingham. The samples comprised Crown Court cases. It is clear from the
figures given by Baldwin and McConville that there is a consistent and significant
trend for suspects to make fewer confessions the older they are. This trend
was the same in the two cities studied and for both verbal and written confessions.
Pearse et al. (1998) found that the mean age for confessors was 27 years
in contrast to 30 among deniers, a statistically significant difference. However,