NCJ Number
188895
Journal
Journal of the Center for Children and the Courts Volume: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 151-160
Date Published
1999
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article examines current protections afforded young children confronted with police interrogation procedures.
Abstract
Police procedures that encourage innocent children to confess undermine the integrity of the juvenile justice system. Psychological research on children's memory, suggestibility, and understanding of "Miranda" leads the authors to believe that children, especially those 12 and younger, are particularly susceptible to police interrogation procedures designed to elicit confessions from adults. Young children more easily succumb to suggestion, trickery, and coercion, resulting in false, self-incriminating statements. Such techniques may even alter children's recollections, depriving fact-finders of an unadulterated narrative of the events under investigation. Given the increasingly punitive sanctions applied to younger children throughout the United States, policymakers can no longer afford to ignore the impact of even well-intentioned interrogation procedures designed for adults but used with children suspected of committing serious crimes. The preferred interview situation is one in which children are interviewed one time, in a neutral environment, free from pressure to produce a given response, asked developmentally appropriate questions, and are given permission to disagree with interviewers and to state that they do not know or do not remember when indeed they do not. This interview format prepares the child for the interview and aids in the resistance to suggestion. 83 notes