Eunkyung Jo Junho Cha Department of Psychology Hallym University Republic of Korea ekjo@hallym.ac.kr

1. Comprehension of Miranda Rights Among Korean Juvenile Offenders Eunkyung Jo Junho Cha Department of Psychology Hallym University Republic of Korea ekjo@hallym.ac.kr 4th Annual Conference of iIIRG 1-3 June, 2011

2. Miranda Rights • U.S. Supreme Court case: Miranda v Arizona, 1966 • Criminal defendants’ rights to avoid self-incrimination and be represented by counsel. • Criminal defendants’ rights are provided by the Constitution. • A suspect must waive their rights knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. • Otherwise, a suspect’s confession is legally not valid.

3. You do not have to make a statement and have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You are entitled to consult with an attorney before interrogation and to have an attorney present at the time of the interrogation. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

4. Korean Legal Contexts of Miranda Rights • Constitution Article 12, Clause 2 & 4 • A suspect has a right to remain silent and obtain assistance by an attorney. • Constitution Article 12, Clause 5 • When arrested, a suspect should be informed of the reason and the right to be assisted by an attorney. • Criminal Procedure Law, Article 200, Clause 2 • When a police officer or prosecutor interrogate a suspect, the right to remain silence should be informed.

5. Differences in Miranda Rights between USA and Korea

6. In Korea: Another False Confession Case… • In 2008, four runaway teenagers (ages 16(2), 18, 19) were arrested for beating a runaway girl to death. • Teenager suspects made confessions during interrogation at a prosecutor’s office. • Teenager suspects were read the the Miranda rights and signed the waiver. • First trial: Guilty of inflicting bodily injury resulting in death. • Appeal Court: Not guilty. “… lack of credibility in their statements. … made false confessions due to coercive tactics …” • Supreme Court: Not guilty

7. Comprehension of Miranda Rights (MR) • A suspect’s capacity to waive MR is related to the comprehension of MR. (Grisso, 1981) • Various suspect characteristics have been researched (Goldstein & Goldstein, 2010): • Age • IQ • education • Background • Developmental factors • mental illness • prior experience with police • Age and IQ seem to be the important factors.

8. Assessment of Miranda Comprehension • Grisso (1998), “Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights” • 4 distinct instruments: • CMR (Comprehension of Miranda Rights) • Asking examinees to paraphrase the meaning of each right in their own words • CMR-R (Comprehension of Miranda Rights – Recognition) • Asking examinees to identify whether preconstructed sentences are the same in meaning to each of the Miranda warning statements • CMV (Comprehension of Miranda Vocabulary) • Asking examinees to define each key word in Miranda warning statements • FRI (Function of Rights in Interrogation) • Examinees are asked to explain four pictures relating to interrogation

9. Age and Comprehension of MR • Juveniles under the age of 16 showed significantly poorer understanding of the right to silence and counsel than those who are aged 20 years and over.(Grisso, 1981) • Juveniles are less able to define critical Miranda vocabulary than are adults. • Juveniles are less able to appreciate the consequence of waiving MR than are adults. • In adulthood, age was unrelated to understanding of MR (Everington & Fulero, 1999; Grisso, 1981).

10. Intelligence and Comprehension of MR • IQ is strongly associated with comprehension of MR.(Goldstein et al, 2003, Grisso, 1981) • Verbal IQ seems to be particularly strongly related with Miranda understanding. • IQ may be most influential in the 14 to 16 year old age group (Grisso, 1981). • Younger juveniles’ understanding of MR was far more dependent on IQ than older juveniles (Viljoen & Roesch, 2005).

11. Purpose of Study • To explore Korean juvenile offenders’ comprehension of Miranda rights. • To develop a MR comprehension measure suitable to use in Korea • To compare juvenile offenders with non-offending adolescents • To explore the relationship between age, IQ, experience with the police with comprehension of Miranda rights • To examine how Miranda rights are presented to juvenile offenders

12. Participants • 50 youths, age: 12 to 19 • 24 juvenile offenders who were under probation (for burglary, assault, robbery, sexual assault) • 26 middle - high school students • IQ measure: K-WAIS • Semi-structured interview: • Family structure, social economic status, how much they heard about Miranda rights

13. Participant Characteristics

14. Juvenile Offender Sample 19 / 24 (79.17%) had prior arrest experience.

15. Juvenile Offender Sample

16. Measurement of Comprehension of MR • Modeling after Grisso’s(1981) instruments, we reconstructed CMR-R and CMV to suit Korean law enforcement purposes. • Reasons for reconstructing only CMR-R and CMV: • Time limitation • Not focusing on the function of Miranda rights • Cultural difference

17. K-CMR-R • Recognition test of each of Miranda warning statements • Reason for suspicion • Right to remain silent • Right to Counsel • Right to excuse • Each right was followed by three statements • Participants were asked to answer whether or not each statement had same or different meaning. • Number of correct answer for each right was given as a score • Total score range 1-12

18. K-CMR-R Item Example <Reason for Suspicion> 귀하는 언제, 어디서, 00죄를 범한 혐의를 받고 있습니다. 1. 당신이 oo죄를 저질렀을수도 있다는 것이다 (같다, 다르다) 2. 당신이 oo죄를 저질렀다는 것이다. (같다, 다르다) 3. 당신이 oo죄를 저지르지 않았을 수도 있다는 것이다. (같다, 다르다)

19. K-CMV • 7 vocabularies of Korean Miranda rights were presented • Suspected, reason, statement, right, attorney, appoint, excuse • Participants were asked to explain what each vocabulary meant in their own words. • Each answer was coded as 0-1-2 • Total score range 0-14

20. K-CMR-Total • K-CMR-R score + K-CMV score • Score range 0-26

21. Result: Comprehension of Miranda rights

22. Individual K-CMR-R item

23. Differences between juvenile offenders and non offenders in K-CMV

24. Correlation Among Variables

25. Stepwise Regression Analyses

26. Discussion • Comprehension of Miranda rights was significantly associated with intelligence and prior arrest experience, but not with age. • Korean juvenile offenders’ comprehension of Miranda rights was lower than that of non offending youths. • Korean juvenile offenders especially had difficulty in understanding Miranda warning statements containing vocabularies such as ‘suspected’ and ‘statement’. • It might be necessary to develop a guideline for presenting Miranda rights to juvenile suspects. • Limitations of Study: • Too small sample size, small age range

27. Thank you