UC Irvine

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Measuring Youth’s Knowledge, Comprehension, and Appreciation of Miranda Warnings: Do Words Matter?

Less than 10% of adolescents have a basic understanding of Miranda warnings, a U.S. Supreme Court mandate to provide information of constitutional rights against self-incrimination and the right to legal representation to arrested individuals, yet they waive them nearly 96% of the time. While valid waivers require arrestees to waive their rights knowingly and intelligently, almost all juvenile waivers fall short of meeting these criteria, with potentially disastrous consequences. I created a version of Miranda, incorporating developmentally appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures for adolescent listeners. I examined the impact of language complexity on adolescents’ knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation of Miranda utilizing video presentations of two versions of Miranda currently used with juvenile arrestees and my original version. 289 adolescents accessed an on-line survey including questionnaires, video presentations, and a set of tasks following each presentation. I hypothesized: 1) improved knowledge over multiple exposures to Miranda language, 2) greater improvement in Miranda knowledge after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions, 3) greater comprehension of Miranda language after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions, and 4) greater appreciation of the consequence of waiving their rights after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version than the other two versions. Our data supports hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Hypothesis 4 is partially supported with the developmentally-adjusted version yielding better appreciation than one of the two control versions, but not both. Findings from our sample suggest this developmentally-adjusted version of Miranda improves knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation of Miranda warnings. Clear, intelligible, and developmentally-appropriate police language presented to adolescents affords the opportunity to knowingly and intelligently self-advocate, meeting the original intent of Miranda. Three exploratory aims examine 1) adolescents’ recall of Miranda information, 2) the relationship of adverse childhood experiences as potential predictors of Miranda knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation, and 3) specific knowledge about police practices and Miranda. I examined which of the five individual components of Miranda were recalled most frequently following a video presentation of the warnings. Data reveals that the right to remain silent is the component most often repeated after the Miranda presentation, while the idea that legal services and rights are available at any time is the least often repeated and least understood. Additionally, participants recalled four of the five components more frequently after viewing the developmentally-adjusted version of Miranda than other experimental groups. A second exploratory aim focused on the impact of various adverse childhood experiences on our study outcome variables, finding no significant relationships. Last, I offered a descriptive analysis of adolescents’ specific police practices and Miranda knowledge. Frequency of accurate of responses ranged from knowing the consequence of lying to the police in an interrogation (79% of our participants) to knowing that police officers may legally lie in an interrogation (12%). Implications for public impact with key-stakeholders in juvenile justice are offered, including policy reform, police education, adolescent education and continued scientific research. The findings from this study suggest language complexity plays a vital role in knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation of Miranda warnings and should be a factor considered in judging the validity of waiver. Police and juvenile education programs would offer opportunities to pair their knowledge and language, enhancing their communication and minimizing potential barriers. Lastly, scientific research will further identify risk-factors for juveniles who fail to waive their rights knowingly and intelligently, especially those with language and learnings impairments.