Article

Murderers' and sexual offenders' experiences of police interviews and their inclination to admit or deny crimes†‡

  1. Ulf Holmberg M.D.*,
  2. Sven-Åke Christianson Ph.D.§

Article first published online: 17 APR 2002

DOI: 10.1002/bsl.470

Issue

Behavioral Sciences & the Law

Behavioral Sciences & the Law

Special Issue: Current Directions

Volume 20, Issue 1-2, pages 31–45, January - April 2002

Additional Information

How to Cite

Holmberg, U. and Christianson, S.-Å. (2002), Murderers' and sexual offenders' experiences of police interviews and their inclination to admit or deny crimes. Behav. Sci. Law, 20: 31–45. doi: 10.1002/bsl.470

Author Information

  1. Department of Behavioural Sciences, Kristianstad University, SE 291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden

  1. §

    The Research Unit for Forensic Psychology, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.

*Department of Behavioural Sciences, Kristianstad University, SE 291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden.

  1. †

    Professor David Carson served as action editor for this article.

  2. ‡

    The research was supported by grant No. F 0909/96 from the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences to Sven-Åke Christianson and by grants from The Swedish Association for Sex Education to Ulf Holmberg. This research was conducted after permission and by assistance of the Swedish Prison and Probation Administration, and we would like to thank the staff for their help with data collection.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 17 APR 2002
  2. Article first published online: 17 APR 2002

Funded by

  • Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities. Grant Number: F 0909/96
  • The Swedish Association for Sex Education

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Abstract

This research concerns murderers' and sexual offenders' experiences of Swedish police interviews and their attitudes towards allegations of these serious crimes. The explorative study is based on a questionnaire answered by 83 men convicted of murder or sexual offences. Results show that when police officers interview murderers and sexual offenders, the individuals perceive attitudes that are characterized by either dominance or humanity. Logistic regression shows that police interviews marked by dominance are mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity is associated with admissions. When suspects feel that they are respected and acknowledged, they probably gain more confidence and mental space, allowing them to admit criminal behaviour. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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