TY - JOUR
T1 - Waiving goodbye to youth
T2 - Jurors perceive transferred juveniles differently from adults but render similar verdicts
AU - Katzman, Jacqueline
AU - Fessinger, Melanie B.
AU - Bornstein, Brian H.
AU - McWilliams, Kelly
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Johanna Hellgren and Daryl Wout for their assistance in data collection. We are also grateful to Adam Fessinger, Debbie Fessinger, Michael Fessinger, Billy Reed, Jet Reed, Krystia Reed, T.J. Reed, Steve Wirth, Nicholas Rekenthaler, Jeffrey Katzman, Miriam Lieber, Ellie Aronson, & Will Shawhughes for their assistance in making the audio‐recorded materials. The second author was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1610400 during the preparation of this manuscript. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the funding provider.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/11/1
Y1 - 2022/11/1
N2 - Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but are often treated similarly in the criminal justice system. In case processing, many juveniles are transferred to adult courts. Before case processing, many juveniles are interrogated with the same tactics used against adults. Limited research has examined jurors' decisions in juvenile transfer cases, particularly those involving confession evidence. In two studies, we built on this small line of research and extended it to examine whether jurors make different decisions for juvenile versus adult defendants with differing types of confession evidence. Participants listened to a trial that varied in defendant age (Study 1: 16, 23; Study 2: 13, 16, 23, 42), interrogation pressure (low, high), and interrogation outcome (denial, confession). They rendered a verdict and rated the defendant on dangerousness and maturity. Age did not affect verdict in either study, but it did affect perceptions of dangerousness and maturity in both studies. Study 2 replicated and extended our findings by showing that differences in dangerousness and maturity were driven by participants' preexisting stereotypes about juveniles as superpredators. Overall, jurors recognized juveniles' lesser maturity but did not account for it in their verdicts. The stigma associated with the superpredator stereotype may limit jurors' sensitivity to the developmental vulnerabilities of juvenile defendants.
AB - Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but are often treated similarly in the criminal justice system. In case processing, many juveniles are transferred to adult courts. Before case processing, many juveniles are interrogated with the same tactics used against adults. Limited research has examined jurors' decisions in juvenile transfer cases, particularly those involving confession evidence. In two studies, we built on this small line of research and extended it to examine whether jurors make different decisions for juvenile versus adult defendants with differing types of confession evidence. Participants listened to a trial that varied in defendant age (Study 1: 16, 23; Study 2: 13, 16, 23, 42), interrogation pressure (low, high), and interrogation outcome (denial, confession). They rendered a verdict and rated the defendant on dangerousness and maturity. Age did not affect verdict in either study, but it did affect perceptions of dangerousness and maturity in both studies. Study 2 replicated and extended our findings by showing that differences in dangerousness and maturity were driven by participants' preexisting stereotypes about juveniles as superpredators. Overall, jurors recognized juveniles' lesser maturity but did not account for it in their verdicts. The stigma associated with the superpredator stereotype may limit jurors' sensitivity to the developmental vulnerabilities of juvenile defendants.
KW - confessions
KW - interrogations
KW - juror decision making
KW - juvenile transfer
KW - juvenile waiver
KW - superpredator stereotype
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U2 - 10.1002/bsl.2601
DO - 10.1002/bsl.2601
M3 - Article
C2 - 36226574
AN - SCOPUS:85139619706
SN - 0735-3936
VL - 40
SP - 835
EP - 858
JO - Behavioral Sciences and the Law
JF - Behavioral Sciences and the Law
IS - 6
ER -