Department of Criminal Justice, Anthropology, Sociology and Human Rights, Georgian Court University, 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood, NJ, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2020 Jul;38(4):299-316. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2463. Epub 2020 Apr 12.
The National Registry of Exonerations tracks cases of individuals who have been wrongly convicted and exonerated since 1989. Their most recent report revealed that 12% of those exonerated gave false confessions. The current study used data from the National Registry of Exonerations and focused on a sample of 2,378 individuals convicted of felonies with a focus on sexual offenses, as such crimes tend to be viewed as particularly heinous with increased consequences for those convicted. After examining various legal and extralegal factors, the results showed that those accused of sexual offenses, particularly sexual murders, had a greater likelihood of giving a false confession than those accused of non-sexual offenses. The likelihood of falsely confessing was higher among juveniles, those with mental illness and intellectual disabilities, and cases with multiple suspects. Females had a greater odds of falsely confessing to murder than males. Implications and recommendations are discussed.
国家无罪释放登记处自 1989 年以来一直追踪那些被错误定罪和无罪释放的个人的案件。他们最近的报告显示，12%的无罪释放者曾作出虚假供述。本研究使用了国家无罪释放登记处的数据，并将重点放在了一个由 2378 名被判犯有重罪的人组成的样本上，其中重点是性犯罪，因为此类犯罪往往被视为特别恶劣，对被定罪者的后果也更为严重。在研究了各种法律和法律以外的因素后，结果表明，被指控犯有性犯罪的人，特别是性谋杀罪的人，比被指控犯有非性犯罪的人更有可能作出虚假供述。在有多名嫌疑人的情况下，青少年、有精神疾病和智力残疾的人以及有多名嫌疑人的案件中，虚假供述的可能性更高。女性比男性更有可能对谋杀作出虚假供述。讨论了相关的影响和建议。
