In Canadian criminal law, a suspect’s confession to police almost always ensures the Crown will file charges, charge “high” and make the confession central to its case.  But if the suspect is a youth with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) there’s a distinct possibility that confession will be false.

That’s one of the surprising conclusions of an FASD study co-authored by Kaitlyn McLachlan, winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic excellence, who graduates this month with a clinical forensic psychology PhD and a 4.26 grade point average.

McLachlan is now doing post-doctoral work at the University of Alberta, collaborating on a national FASD study with NeuroDevNet, a Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence-funded project that studies children’s brain development.

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