Latent class analysis of sexual offending - extracting offender and offense characteristics for investigative interviewing and interrogation process

The purpose of this study was to explore how offender-related and victim-related case characteristics in a sexual assault impact offenders’ decisions to confess or not during interrogation. Five offender and five victim profiles were identified and then offender by victim profile combinations were assessed to see how specific case characteristics influenced offenders to make a decision trade-off of admitting to or denying their involvement in a sexual assault event. The implications of these results for sexual assault investigations and offender profiling are discussed. In addition, interrogation strategies are provided for each offender-victim combination that is related to a decision not to confess during interrogation.