Does police coercion change suspects' statement?

• In Event: Police Interrogations and Investigations

Abstract

A recent meta-analysis on the effectiveness of interrogation techniques in eliciting confessions concluded that current field studies lack sophisticated statistical analyses. Based on a Dutch sample of 166 interrogations of 93 suspects in 70 criminal cases this paper attempts to contribute to the existing literature by analyzing the relation between two clusters of coercive interrogation techniques and suspects’ willingness to give a statement using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM ). The analyses show that criminal investigators more often use influencing techniques when suspects remain silent at the beginning of the interrogation than when suspects give a statement. Criminal investigators more often use accusatorial techniques when suspects give a statement on personal affairs at the beginning of the interrogation than when suspects give a statement on the offense. Furthermore, suspects who give a statement change their willingness to give a statement more often than suspects who choose to remain silent at the beginning of the interrogation. Suspects who give a statement on the offense at the beginning of the interrogation change their willingness to give a statement less often than suspects who give a statement on personal affairs. Only the usage of accusatorial techniques coincides with changing suspects’ willingness to give a statement.

Author

• Willem-Jan Verhoeven, Erasmus University Rotterdam