THOMAS M. WILLIAMSON’s research while affiliated with University of Kent and other places

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Publications (2)


The incidence, antecedents and consequences of the use of the right to silence during police questioning
  • Article

March 1993

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104 Reads

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58 Citations

Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health

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Geoffrey M. Stephenson

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Thomas M. Williamson

Investigates the use of the right to silence (RTS) by suspects in the context of police interrogation and its effect on the decision to prosecute and on trial outcome. Data were gathered from 1,067 police interviews from 9 London police stations. Suspects exercised their RTS in 174 cases. Of these 174 cases, 111 were charged. A matched comparison of silence and control groups suggests that there was no effect of use of silence on the decision to prosecute. However, a comparison of silence and control cases that went to court suggests that silence cases are more likely to plead guilty (67%). A total of 80% of the silence group was eventually found guilty, compared to 77% of the control group. Evidence suggests that there is no clear advantage to the use of silence at the police station with respect to the ultimate verdict in court. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)


TABLE 1 Numbers of Primay Offences Types
TABLE 3 .Numbers of Suspects by Criminal Histoy and Legal Advice Legal advice Criminal history Totals
TABLE 6 Numbers and Percentages of Admissions,
TABLE 8 Strength of Evidence and the Outcomes of Interviews
The effects of case characteristics on suspect behaviour during police questioning
  • Article
  • Full-text available

December 1992

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3,118 Reads

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264 Citations

British Journal of Criminology

Presents a model to illustrate how characteristics of a suspect and case have a bearing on interviewing styles and on suspect behavior. A sample of 1,067 cases from 9 police stations was used to determine a link between case characteristics and the behavior of suspects and which characteristics are associated with admissions and denials. Three case characteristics had a bearing on the outcome of the interviews: strength of evidence, severity of offense, and legal advice. Different interviewing strategies did not affect the number of confessions, thus supporting the arguments in favor of a more information gathering and nonmanipulative approach to questioning rather than an overtly persuasive approach in which success is defined in terms of admissions obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

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Citations (2)


... Research undertaken in the 1980s and 1990s highlighted that only a minority of suspects were entirely uncooperative during police investigations, as most answered questions and made statements 'either to admit or to deny the accusations' (Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, 1993: 50). For those who remained silent in interviews, the strongest predictor was the legal advice they had received, with other factors including the severity of the offence and previous criminal convictions ( Moston et al., 1993). Many of those who remained silent in police interviews went on to plead guilty and were convicted (Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, 1993), demonstrating that the right to silence did not prevent the gathering of information or conviction of suspects. ...

Reference:

Silence, joint enterprise and the legal trap
The incidence, antecedents and consequences of the use of the right to silence during police questioning
  • Citing Article
  • March 1993

Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health

... More specifically, when police evidence is weak, interrogators can employ non-evidential and crimeirrelevant tactics, because interrogators who do not have any proof of guilt need to gather information with which to confront the suspect (e.g. asking suspects about their basic needs in police custody, finding something in common with them, or listening actively to what they say; Moston et al., 1992). Rather than questioning them about crime-related or specific information, interrogators can avoid stressing suspects by not mentioning any crime-relevant topics, and such tactics are easy to redirect to any desired topic (Moston & Engelberg, 1993). ...

The effects of case characteristics on suspect behaviour during police questioning

British Journal of Criminology