Snow Mark D, Crough Quintan, Dion Larivière Cassandre, Ogunseye Funmilola, Eastwood Joseph
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2023 Apr 20;31(2):179-188. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2023.2175074. eCollection 2024.
In many Western jurisdictions, criminal suspects undergoing police interrogations have the right to remain silent. In this experiment, we examined the effects of remaining silent during police questioning on laypersons' perceptions of a suspect. Participants ( = 126) read one of three mock-interview transcripts (i.e. admission, denial or silence) and indicated the extent to which they agreed or disagreed that a male suspect in a missing person case was guilty, cooperative, trustworthy and rational. Participants expressed stronger agreement that the suspect was guilty when he admitted guilt than when he denied involvement or remained silent. When the suspect remained silent, participants viewed the suspect as less cooperative than when the suspect denied or admitted guilt and as less rational than when the suspect denied committing the crime. Our findings provide some support for the notion that remaining silent during police questioning may be viewed unfavourably by external observers.
在许多西方司法管辖区，接受警方讯问的犯罪嫌疑人有权保持沉默。在本实验中，我们研究了在警方讯问期间保持沉默对普通民众对嫌疑人看法的影响。参与者（(n = 126)）阅读了三份模拟访谈记录之一（即承认、否认或沉默），并表明他们在多大程度上同意或不同意一名失踪人员案件中的男性嫌疑人有罪、合作、值得信赖且理性。与否认涉案或保持沉默相比，当嫌疑人承认有罪时，参与者更强烈地认同嫌疑人有罪。当嫌疑人保持沉默时，参与者认为该嫌疑人比否认或承认有罪时更不合作，且比否认犯罪时更不理性。我们的研究结果为以下观点提供了一些支持，即在警方讯问期间保持沉默可能会被外部观察者负面看待。
