Interrogation in sex crime cases: towards a differential approach to police practices

The main objective of the proposed project is to improve understanding of confession in the context of police interrogation, and of the factors influencing (positively or negatively) the level of suspect cooperation (e.g., full confession, partial confession, denial of facts) and the conduct of interrogations in the case of sex crimes. The proposed project will thus aim more specifically to: Specific objective 1: Determine the prevalence of confession among sex offenders and its respective subgroups (i.e., cyber sex offenders and contact sex offenders). Specific Objective 2: Identify common and unique explanatory factors (e.g., individual, offense and situational) of sex crime (non)confession for these two subgroups of sex offenders. Specific aim 3: To better understand the police interrogation process and the influence of situational factors that may lead to a change in the suspect's cooperation during interrogation.

Preliminary results show (1) higher confession rate among this specific group of sex offenders; (2) factors associated with a confession similar to what was identified in prior studies (relational/situational factors more determinant); (3) factors influencing change of decision still not well understood.