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The incidence, antecedents and consequences of the use of the right to silence during police questioning
Author(s) -
MOSTON STEPHEN,
STEPHENSON GEOFFREY M.,
WILLIAMSON THOMAS M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1993.3.1.30
Subject(s) - conviction , silence , psychology , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , criminology , law , political science , communication , philosophy , aesthetics
This paper is in three parts: (1) the incidence of the use of the right to silence in the Metropolitan Police and the case characteristics (such as offence severity and use of legal advice) statistically associated with its use; (2) the effects of silence on the decision to charge or release suspects; and (3) the effects of silence on the conviction of suspects. The data are derived from a study of over 1000 cases in which suspects were questioned by police officers. Silence was used in about 16% of cases; however, it had very little effect on the prosecution and conviction of suspects. Contrary to expectations, suspects who used silence were more likely to be charged than suspects who did not exercise the right. This may be due to the possibility that police officers appear to equate the use of silence with perceived guilt. The use of silence did not affect the chances of conviction in court; however, it was linked to how suspects pleaded in court. Suspects who had earlier used their right to silence were more likely to plead guilty at the outset of a trial than those who had not used this right.