March 1993
·
104 Reads
·
58 Citations
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health
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)