Comprehension of Miranda Rights by Urban Adolescents with Law-Related Education

Abstract

Law-related education has been recommended to improve juveniles' inadequate comprehension of Miranda rights. Whether such training results in adequate comprehension was assessed in this study of 48 urban, primarily black adolescents in a Street Law course. While students reported an unwillingness to waive their rights and their recognition-comprehension of the Miranda warnings was adequate on true-false and multiple-choice tests, these high-school juniors and seniors showed inadequate comprehension of Miranda vocabulary and misperceived the significance of the right to silence. The socioeconomic status and reading and listening abilities of students were related to their comprehension of Miranda rights. Implications for law-related education and protection of juveniles' rights in interrogations are discussed.