Juveniles and the Mentally Disabled More Likely to Give False Confessions

Studies and sur­veys have found that both minors and the men­tal­ly impaired are more like­ly to make false con­fes­sions, in part because they are more vul­ner­a­ble to sug­ges­tion. A recent study con­duct­ed by Northwestern University law pro­fes­sor Steve Drizin and UC Irvine crim­i­nol­o­gist Richard Leo exam­ined 125 cas­es in which indi­vid­u­als were exon­er­at­ed after giv­ing false con­fes­sions. The researchers found that 32% of the cas­es involved minors and 22% of the cas­es involved indi­vid­u­als with men­tal retar­da­tion. ​“They are more like­ly to go along, agree and com­ply with author­i­ty fig­ures — to say what the police want them to say — than the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion,” notes Emory University pro­fes­sor Morgan Cloud, who co-wrote anoth­er study that found that the men­tal­ly impaired — even those who with mild forms of men­tal retar­da­tion — are large­ly inca­pable of under­stand­ing police admo­ni­tions of their right to remain silent and to have an attor­ney.

A study pub­lished in the University of Chicago Law Review exam­in­ing com­pre­hen­sion of Miranda rights found that only 27% of dis­abled per­sons under­stood that con­fes­sions can be used against a sus­pect, while 91% of nondis­abled per­sons under­stood this con­cept. Disabled sub­jects were also found to be far less like­ly to under­stand that police can­not threat­en sus­pects, that police and judges can­not force sus­pects to talk, and that there is no penal­ty for remain­ing silent. While juve­niles and those with men­tal impair­ments are most like­ly to suc­cumb to psy­cho­log­i­cal pres­sure and make erro­neous admis­sions dur­ing intense police inter­ro­ga­tions, experts note that even the able-mind­ed are at risk. Social sci­en­tists and legal experts say the best way to ensure that con­fes­sions or admis­sions are truth­ful is to require detec­tives to tape them from the Miranda warn­ing in the first inter­view until the end of all sub­se­quent inter­views. Some states, includ­ing Alaska and Minnesota, already require this type of video­tap­ing. UC Berkeley soci­ol­o­gist Richard Ofshe notes that video or voice record­ings of con­fes­sions would reduce false con­fes­sions by as much as 90% because it would stop coer­cive tac­tics that are some­times used by police. (Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2004). See Innocence, Juveniles, and Mental Retardation.