Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

THE VULNERABILITY OF SUSPECTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES DURING POLICE INTERVIEWS: A REVIEW AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DECISION‐MAKING

THE VULNERABILITY OF SUSPECTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES DURING POLICE INTERVIEWS: A REVIEW... The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (England and Wales) recognised that suspects with intellectual disabilities were ‘vulnerable’ during interviews with the police. However, no attempt was made to specify the disadvantages which might contribute to this vulnerability. This paper reviews the experimental evidence relating to two possible areas of disadvantage—impaired understanding of the caution and legal rights, and susceptibility to acquiescence, suggestibility, compliance and confabulation. A pilot study relevant to a third area, that of decisionmaking, is presented. A fictional film was made of a police interrogation, depicting a male suspect making a true and a false confession. At scheduled pauses during, and just after, the film, items from a semistructured interview schedule were presented. Compared with their average intellectual ability counterparts, the participants with intellectual disabilities (Full Scale IQ: 60–75) were less likely to think that a police interview and false confession might have serious consequences for the suspect. Their views reflected the importance they placed on the suspect's actual, rather than professed, guilt or innocence. Moreover, they believed that an innocent suspect might be protected because his or her innocence would be evident to others. The possible impact of these views on the decision‐making in police interviews of suspects with intellectual disabilities is discussed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities Wiley

THE VULNERABILITY OF SUSPECTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES DURING POLICE INTERVIEWS: A REVIEW AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DECISION‐MAKING

Download PDF
19 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/the-vulnerability-of-suspects-with-intellectual-disabilities-during-eUWs408IZy

References (56)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
"Copyright © 1995 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company"
ISSN
1360-2322
eISSN
1468-3148
DOI
10.1111/j.1468-3148.1995.tb00149.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (England and Wales) recognised that suspects with intellectual disabilities were ‘vulnerable’ during interviews with the police. However, no attempt was made to specify the disadvantages which might contribute to this vulnerability. This paper reviews the experimental evidence relating to two possible areas of disadvantage—impaired understanding of the caution and legal rights, and susceptibility to acquiescence, suggestibility, compliance and confabulation. A pilot study relevant to a third area, that of decisionmaking, is presented. A fictional film was made of a police interrogation, depicting a male suspect making a true and a false confession. At scheduled pauses during, and just after, the film, items from a semistructured interview schedule were presented. Compared with their average intellectual ability counterparts, the participants with intellectual disabilities (Full Scale IQ: 60–75) were less likely to think that a police interview and false confession might have serious consequences for the suspect. Their views reflected the importance they placed on the suspect's actual, rather than professed, guilt or innocence. Moreover, they believed that an innocent suspect might be protected because his or her innocence would be evident to others. The possible impact of these views on the decision‐making in police interviews of suspects with intellectual disabilities is discussed.

Journal

Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities – Wiley

Published: Jun 1, 1995

There are no references for this article.