Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Emily Haney-Caron

Committee Members

Maureen Allwood

Kelly McWilliams

Erika Fountain

Hayley Cleary

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Other Psychology

Keywords

interrogation, Miranda waiver, adolescent, juvenile justice

Abstract

Youths’ developmental immaturity negatively impacts their ability to meaningfully understand and appreciate their Miranda rights, raising questions about the validity of their waiver decisions. Moreover, most Miranda warnings are long, written at advanced reading levels, and contain complex sentence structure and vocabulary, which further hinders comprehension. In response, several jurisdictions have begun to use developmentally informed Miranda warnings for youth. However, research has yet to determine whether this improves youths’ ability to make informed Miranda waiver decisions. As such, the current research study explored whether simplified Miranda warnings increased youths’ comprehension of their rights, whether Miranda comprehension was related to youths’ waiver decision, and whether factors of psychosocial immaturity (i.e., future orientation, compliance, reward responsiveness, and behavioral inhibition) influenced the relationship between Miranda comprehension and Miranda waiver decision. Eighty-two youth between 13 and 17 years old answered questions about hypothetical Miranda waiver decisions and completed measures of Miranda comprehension, psychosocial maturity, and sociodemographic characteristics. During measures of Miranda comprehension, half of participants were presented with original warnings and half were presented with a simplified version. Results demonstrated that using simplified Miranda warnings with youth did not improve participants’ comprehension of their rights, nor did it impact their waiver decisions. Psychosocial maturity factors did not significantly predict Miranda comprehension, nor did they interact with Miranda comprehension to predict waiver decision. Results indicate that developmentally informed Miranda warnings may not protect youth from making uninformed waiver decisions. Therefore, policymakers should consider alternative reforms, such as providing lawyers to all youth or eliminating interrogation in juvenile legal processes.

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