Measuring and Predicting Police Caution Comprehension in Adult Offenders

Abstract

We measured the level of comprehension of two police cautions in a sample of adult Canadian offenders and predicted comprehension with three measures of cognitive ability (i.e., working memory, vocabulary knowledge, and listening comprehension). Participants (N = 60) were asked to listen to both a right to silence and right to legal counsel caution and then interpret them. Results showed that the offenders understood 30% of their rights, and the measures of cognitive abilities were weak predictors of comprehension. The implications of these findings for understanding the factors related to caution comprehension and the administration of justice are discussed.