The criminal history of ‘false confessors’ and other prison inmates

Abstract

In this study 56 Icelandic prison inmates who claimed to have made a false confession to the police sometime in their lives were compared on various criminological variables with 423 other prison inmates. The ‘false confessors’ were found to have a significantly more active criminal life-style than the other inmates, including having obtained a criminal conviction younger and having spent more time in prison. They had also had significantly more experience of police interrogations than the other inmates. The authors conclude that among this sample false confession was very much a part of their criminal lifestyle. The ‘false confessors’ in the present study appear to be quite different from those suspects who confess falsely due to unfamiliarity and inexperience with police interrogations and procedures.

Key Words:

• false confession
• criminal life-style
• previous convictions
• police interrogations