Self Reports of Being Falsely Accused of Criminal Behavior

Abstract

The occurrence of false accusations of illegal behavior is investigated using cross-sectional, long-term recall data for two generations of a national probability sample of individuals. The analysis examines whether being a “usual suspect” based on past criminal behavior; “guilt by association” based on the illegal behavior of one's friends; academic achievement based on self-reported grades in school; and sociodemographic variables including gender, ethnic majority/minority status, and socioeconomic status have an impact on the likelihood of being falsely accused of illegal behavior. The results indicate some consistency across the different subsamples in the characteristics of those most likely to be falsely accused of illegal behavior. Implications for policy and future research are considered.

Notes

¹There is also a large body of research concerning false confessions and witness misidentification. Studies concerning false confessions are examining characteristics that would make an individual falsely confess to a crime, or other lesser misdeed, in both official and unofficial settings (Horselenberg et al. 2006; Steingrimsdottir et al. 2007; Van Bergen et al. 2008). Studies on witness misidentification are concerned with two ideas: (1) false identifications lead to false arrests and to false convictions and (2) if the victim or witness is trying to identify an individual of a different race, the chances are even higher for a misidentification. This is because people commonly do not register the unique characteristics of individuals who are a different race than their own (Rutledge 2000–2001). While this research is very interesting and important, it is not relevant to the current article. Research concerning false confessions is examining a process that generally occurs after someone is accused. Therefore we cannot assume that predictors of false accusations would necessarily be related to predictors of false confessions. Where witness misidentification is concerned, the current study cannot address this topic because NYSFS data does not contain information on whether respondents were formally accused because they were identified by someone (either correctly or incorrectly). In addition, there is no information regarding the racial characteristics of victims or witnesses.

²The question about whether the respondent had been blamed for a crime they had not committed followed a series of questions asking whether they had actually committed a wide range of offenses (and also included a small number of questions about whether they had engaged in several prosocial acts such as helping others), so from the context it should be clear that “blame” indicates an accusation that the respondent has engaged in criminal behavior (as opposed, for example, to causing someone else to commit a crime). No distinction was made between formal and informal accusations in the question, so either or both formal and informal accusations could be included in any affirmative response.

³Limiting the results to a comparison of white and African American does not affect the substantive findings reported here. Because this sample was drawn in the mid 1970s, over 90% of each subsample was composed of white and African American individuals. All other races together (including Mexican American, Spanish American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, Asian American, and “other” classifications) comprised only 6% of the original respondents, 7.2% of the adult offspring, and 8.5% of the youth offspring. This is consistent with the U.S. population in 1976.

The Crime Index Score is lagged by one wave in the OR analyses, but is concurrent in the AO and YO.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Menard

SCOTT MENARD is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. He received his A.B. at Cornell University and his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder, both in Sociology. He is the most recent principal investigator on the National Youth Survey Family Study, a national study of prosocial behavior, substance use, criminal victimization, and offending over the life course and across generations. His publications include books, monographs, and articles on quantitative methods and statistics (particularly logistic regression and longitudinal research), criminological theory testing, and studies of victimization, illicit substance use, crimes of trust, and criminal behavior in adolescents and adults.

Wendi Pollock

WENDI POLLOCK is an Assistant Professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. She received her B.S. and M.S. in criminal justice from Sul Ross State University, and her Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University. Her current research focus includes the correlates of disproportionate police contact both longitudinally and across generations, the disproportionate treatment of offenders from contact to release from the criminal justice system, perceptions of police fairness, and the correlates of claims of false arrest.