Project Summary

Allison D. Redlich, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2007) of Policy Research Associates, Inc., will study the phenomenon of false confession among persons with psychotic, bipolar, and mood disorders. She notes three types of false confession, made in the context of the U.S. criminal justice system: voluntary (offered to protect the true perpetrator), coerced-compliant (offered in response to intense police pressure), and coerced-internalized (offered because the suspect is led to “remember” committing the crime). She wants to determine whether persons with serious mental illness are at risk for all three forms of false confessions. This is important, she maintains, because persons with serious mental illness are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. She proposes to interview a known sample of persons with criminal justice experience and serious mental illness who are self-reported false confessors. Insight gained would be used to develop larger, more rigorous studies on the influence of different forms of serious mental illness on police interrogation and false confession experiences.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS\Mood Disorders/Schizophrenia\Bipolar/Schizophrenia\Schizoaffective

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