NCJ Number
118649
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Dated: (April-June 1989) Pages: 105-106
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Giving offenders the opportunity to confess other crimes prior to sentencing for a particular crime could serve the ends of offender rehabilitation and provide reassurance to the victims of the other crimes that the offender has been caught and punished, albeit for another crime.
Abstract
Such a confession would only be attractive to the offender if immunity to prosecution for the other crimes were granted. This could be a problem if the other crimes were more heinous than the one for which punishment would be administered. In some cases, the confession may involve others not before the court. Despite these and other difficulties, however, the confession of other crimes has potential benefits that may outweigh the disadvantages. It would reduce the number of unsolved crimes, reassure many crime victims that the perpetrators of their victimizations had in some way been punished, and give offenders the opportunity to begin their rehabilitation with a public acknowledgement of their crimes, thus laying the foundation for beginning their lives anew.