differences: A national study among Icelandic youth

www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Personality and Individual Differences 41 (2006) 49–590191-8869/ $- see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The main aims of the study were twofold. Firstly, to ascertain a national base rate of custodial interro-gation, confession, denial and false confession among Icelandic youth (age group 16–24 years), and sec-ondly, to investigate psychological and criminological factors associated with false confession. The participants were 10,472 students in further education in Iceland. All colleges of secondary education in Iceland were represented. As a part of a large national study into the background, behaviour, and mental health of adolescents, each pupil was asked about custodial interrogation, confessions, denials, and false confessions. Almost one-fourth (18.6%) of the participants stated, that they had been interrogated by the police in relation to a suspected offence, of whom 53 % said they had confessed truthfully. A small minority of those interrogated (7.3 % of those interrogated and 1.6 % of the total sample) claimed to have made false confessions to the police. The false confession rate was highest (12%) among those interrogated more than once and lowest (3%) among those interrogated only once. A Discriminant Function Analysis found that false confessions during interrogation were mostly associated with the extent of involvement i