<Emphasis Type="Italic">Commentary</Emphasis>: A Critical Review of Published Competency-to-Confess Measures

The development of standardized assessments for competency-to-confess evaluations has remained largely neglected for the last several decades. Groundbreaking research was conducted on Miranda waivers during the late 1970s, but researchers have failed to sustain programmatic research. This critical review focuses on four published Miranda measures (Comprehension of Miranda Rights, Comprehension of Miranda Rights-Recognition, Comprehension of Miranda Vocabulary, and Function of Rights in Interrogation). When evaluated by contemporary standards, the validation of these measures is very limited. Major improvements are needed for interrater reliability, test–retest reliability, content validity, construct validity, and criterion-related validity.     

Knowing and Intelligent: A Study of Miranda Warnings in Mentally Disordered Defendants

A conservative estimate is that 695,000 mentally disordered offenders are arrested and Mirandized annually in the United States. Past research has focused almost exclusively on cognitive factors affecting the comprehension of Miranda rights. The current study broadens the scope by including diagnostic variables and by extending the investigation to basic elements of Miranda reasoning. A sample of 107 mentally disordered defendants was administered two research measures, the Miranda Statements Scale (MSS) and Miranda Rights Scale (MRS), in addition to standardized tests. Most defendants lacked good comprehension of all but the simplest (Flesch-Kincaid<6th grade) Miranda warnings. Defendants with the poorest understanding (i.e., comprehending about 25% of the warnings) had marked deficits in multiple domains including cognitive abilities (intelligence and comprehension) and general adjustment. Different background and clinical variables predicted defendants' abilities to generate reasons either to exercise or waive their Miranda rights.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Miranda Vocabulary Scale

Miranda vocabulary forms the essential foundation for Miranda comprehension and subsequent decisions to exercise or waive Miranda rights. The purpose of the current study is the development of the Miranda Vocabulary Scale (MVS), designed to evaluate key vocabulary words found in Miranda warnings and waivers across American jurisdictions. A preliminary list of MVS words was refined by expert ratings and by each word’s discriminability between failed and good Miranda comprehension. Miranda and other measures were collected at multiple sites on 376 pretrial defendants. With further refinements, the MVS is composed of 36 words with excellent scale homogeneity and interrater reliability (r = .99). It also demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity for cognitive abilities and psychological impairment.     

Decrements in Miranda Abilities: An Investigation of Situational Effects via a Mock-Crime Paradigm

Programmatic research has made important advances during the last decade in understanding how cognitive and psychological variables affect Miranda comprehension and reasoning. However, the effects of situational stressors are largely overlooked in determining the validity of Miranda waivers. As the first systematic investigation, this study uses a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design on 123 undergraduate participants to examine the effects of being apprehended via a mock crime (i.e., stealing a watch from a Plexiglas case) paradigm on Miranda comprehension and reasoning. Besides the mock-crime condition, the mode of advisement (oral or written) and the length of the warning (124 vs. 228 words) were also investigated. When compared to controls, the mock-crime scenario produced moderate to large effects (ds from .58 to .75) on both Miranda recall and subsequent reasoning. In addition, oral advisements resulted in non-significant trend for decrements in Miranda recall. No main effects were observed for length and no significant interactions were found. Interestingly, specific components (e.g., right to counsel and free legal services) were generally more affected than the more familiar first two components (i.e., right to silence and evidence against you). Within the crime-scenario condition, participants with substantially increased state anxiety predictably performed more poorly than those participants whose state anxiety remained relatively stable. Directions for future research and the implications of these findings on our understanding of Miranda abilities are discussed.     

Competence to Waive Interrogation Rights and Adjudicative Competence in Adolescent Defendants: Cognitive Development,Attorney Contact,and Psychological Symptoms

Although there is growing evidence of developmental differences in competency to waive interrogation rights and adjudicative competence, the correlates of adolescents' legal capacities remain unclear. This study examined the relationship of legal capacities to cognitive development, legal learning opportunities, and psychological symptoms. Participants were 152 male and female defendants aged 11–17, who completed Grisso's Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights, the Fitness Interview Test (Revised Edition), the Woodcock-Johnson III Cognitive Assessment Battery, and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children. Legal capacities relevant to interrogation and adjudication increased with age. These developmental differences were partially mediated or explained by cognitive development. Of the specific cognitive ilities examined (general intellectual ability, verbal ability, reasoning, long-term retrieval, attention, and executive functioning), verbal ability was a particularly strong predictor of performance on competency measures. Also, defendants obtained lower scores on competency measures if they showed evidence of attention deficits or hyperactivity, had spent limited time with their attorneys, and/or were from low socioeconomic backgrounds.     

The Language of Miranda Warnings in American Jurisdictions: A Replication and Vocabulary Analysis

Miranda warnings are remarkably heterogeneous in their language, length, and content. Past research has focused mostly on individual Miranda warnings. Lacking in generalizability, these studies have limited applicability to both public policy and professional practice. A large-scale survey by R. Rogers et al. [2007b, Law and Human Behavior, 31, 177-192] examined Miranda warnings from across the United States and documented striking differences in the length, content, and reading comprehension. In moving from single jurisdiction studies to nationally representative research, the replication of the Rogers et al. survey is essential. With an additional 385 general Miranda warnings, most of the original findings were confirmed; this replication allows Miranda researchers to use findings based upon nationally-representative warnings for their subsequent research. Beyond reading comprehension, the study makes an original contribution to the understanding of Miranda vocabulary that is often infused with abstruse words and legalistic terms. It provides the first analysis of sentence complexity, which affects both Miranda comprehension and retention. As a result of these analyses, preliminary guidelines are provided for increasing the comprehension and understanding of Miranda warnings.     

Reassessing the reliability and validity of self-report delinquency measures

Several issues related to the reliability and validity of self-report delinquency measures are raised and discussed. These include problems associated with the use of internal consistency as the measure of reliability, the level of reliability or precision required for different types of analyses, problems with the content validity of self-report measures, problems of overreporting and underreporting, problems with the use of official records as a validity check on self-reports, and the lack of any good criterion as a major obstacle in assessing the empirical validity of self-report measures. In the light of these problems, some cautions about the use of self-report measures are made.     

An Analysis of Miranda Warnings and Waivers: Comprehension and Coverage

Miranda warnings enshrine the constitutional rights of custodial suspects against self-incrimination. However, the wording and sentence complexity of Miranda warnings and waivers vary dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This study is the first extensive investigation of Miranda warning variations examining 560 Miranda warnings from across the United States. With Flesch-Kincaid reading comprehension as a useful metric, Miranda warnings varied from very simple comprehension (i.e., grade 2.8) to requiring postgraduate education. Miranda warnings are composed of five components (e.g., silence and evidence against you); marked variations were also observed in the comprehensibility of individual components. On average, the Miranda warning component on "continuing rights" requires a reading comprehension level six grades higher than the comparatively simple expression of the right to silence. Similar analyses were conducted on Miranda waivers. The content of these warnings differed on such issues as communicating (a) when access to an attorney would be granted (e.g., 45.9% specified only "during questioning") and (b) explicitly that indigent legal services were free (e.g., 31.8% directly informed suspects). Finally, the study identified representative Miranda components at different levels of reading comprehension as a template for further research.     

You have the right to understand: The deleterious effect of stress on suspects' ability to comprehend Miranda

Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 1966) required that suspects be explicitly warned of the right to avoid self-incrimination and the right to legal representation. This research was designed to examine whether stress, induced via an accusation of wrong-doing, undermined or enhanced suspects' ability to comprehend their Miranda rights. Participants were randomly assigned to either be accused (n = 15) or not accused (n = 15) of having cheated on an experimental task in a two-cell between-subjects experimental design. Results supported the hypothesis that stress undermines suspects' ability to comprehend their Miranda rights. Participants who were accused of cheating exhibited significantly lower levels of Miranda comprehension than participants who were not accused of cheating. The theoretical processes responsible for these effects and the implications of the findings for police interrogation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Importance of Establishing Reliability and Validity of Assessment Instruments for Mental Health Problems: an Example from Somali Children and Adolescents Living in Three Refugee Camps in Ethiopia

Assessing mental health problems cross-culturally for children exposed to war and violence presents a number of unique challenges. One of the most important issues is the lack of validated symptom measures to assess these problems. The present study sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of two measures to assess mental health problems: the Achenbach Youth Self-Report and the Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale. We conducted a validity study in three refugee camps in Eastern Ethiopia in the outskirts of Jijiga, the capital of the Somali region. A total of 147 child and caregiver pairs were assessed, and scores obtained were submitted to rigorous psychometric evaluation. Excellent internal consistency reliability was obtained for symptom measures for children and their caregivers. Validation of study instruments based on local case definitions was obtained for the caregivers but not consistently for the children. Sensitivity and specificity of study measures were generally low, indicating that these scales would not perform adequately as screening instruments. Combined test–retest and inter-rater reliability was low for all scales. This study illustrates the need for validation and testing of existing measures cross-culturally. Methodological implications for future cross-cultural research studies in low- and middle-income countries are discussed.     

Measuring violence risk and outcomes among Mexican American adolescent females

Central to the development of culturally competent violence prevention programs for Hispanic youth is the development of psychometrically sound violence risk and outcome measures for this population. A study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of two commonly used violence measures, in this case for Mexican American adolescent females. The Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) and the Past Feelings and Acts of Violence Scale (PFAV) were analyzed to examine their interitem reliability, criterion validity, and discriminant validity. A sample of 150 low-risk and 150 high-risk adolescent females was studied. Discriminant validity was indicated by the perpetrator negotiation scale and by the victim psychological aggression and sexual coercion scales of the CTS2 and the PFAV. Analysis indicates that the CTS2 scales and the PFAV demonstrate adequate reliability, whereas strong criterion validity was evidenced by eight of the CTS2 scales and the PFAV.     

死刑程序的正当化

死刑程序正当化的要求应高于非死刑案件,主要表现在对死刑的适用应有更严格的程序,对于面对死刑的人应赋予更多的诉讼权利。《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》以及《关于保护死刑犯权利的保障措施》从审判程序、诉讼权利、证明标准等方面确立了死刑案件程序正当化的最低标准。参照这一标准,并针对我国有关死刑程序的立法与司法现状,应采取相应的改革措施,即死刑案件的审理程序可分为定罪程序和量刑程序,应完善死刑复核程序和执行程序,应区分死刑案件和非死刑案件的证明标准,还要加强面对死刑的人强制辩护权的保护。     

Validity and reliability of the Self-Report Delinquency among a sample of at-risk youths

Self-Report Delinquency scales have formed the basis of much understanding of juvenile delinquency today, but further improvement and extensive measurement research on self-report measures of crime are needed. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the shorter general delinquency scale version of the classic commonly used Self-Report of Delinquency (SRD) measure created for the original National Youth Survey (NYS) using a sample (N = 412) of male (n = 200) and female (n = 212) at-risk Portuguese youths. The shorter version of the SRD demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability, namely in terms of its latent one-factor structure, internal consistency, convergent validity, divergent validity, concurrent criterion validity and discriminant groups validity that overall justifies its use among this population. The shorter general delinquency scale version of the SRD is a valid and reliable measure from a modern psychometric perspective that can be used with at-risk youths.     

国际人权与死刑──以国际人权法为线索的分析兼及中国的应对

国际人权法对死刑的态度经历了由放任到限制再到废除的转变。《世界人权宣言》对死刑以沉默显示放任;《公民权利与政治权利国际公约》等对死刑转向了限制;《旨在废除死刑的〈公民权利与政治权利国际公约〉第二议定书》等对死刑明令废除。中国现行死刑制度与国际人权法的要求尚存较大距离,应该采取必要的应对措施尽快缩短这一距离。     

The Role of Suggestibility in Determinations of Miranda Abilities: A Study of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales

Traditionally, high levels of suggestibility have been widely assumed to be linked with diminished Miranda abilities, especially in relationship to the voluntariness of waivers. The current investigation examined suggestibility on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales in a multisite study of pretrial defendants. One important finding was the inapplicability of British norms to American jurisdictions. Moreover, suggestibility appeared unrelated to Miranda comprehension, reasoning, and detainees’ perceptions of police coercion. In testing rival hypotheses, defendants with high compliance had significantly lower Miranda comprehension and ability to reason about exercising Miranda rights than their counterparts with low compliance. Implications of these findings to forensic practice are examined.     

An empirical assessment of Niederhoffer's police cynicism scale

For some time there has been an intensive effort among police scholars to determine the attitudes of law enforcement personnel. Their efforts have focused particularly on the determinants of police cynicism. However, to date, there has only been one attempt to construct an index estimating that attitude—Niederhoffer's in 1967. Thus, all discussions of police cynicism rest on that index.This paper examines for the first time the reliability and validity of that instrument on a separate population of police personnel. The results were significant. First, it is shown that the index has an extremely low reliability and validity. Then, it is revealed that the index is tapping at least five separate dimensions of cynicism—not one, as police scholars so frequently assert.The implications from this research are great. The most obvious is that it is time to stop discussing the “cynical cop.” Instead, social scientist can begin specifying toward which dimensions of the occupation officers with particular traits are likely to become cynical. Second, the findings indicate the need to develop additional measures of police cynicism that are more reliable and valid than the sole existing index.     

Spanish Translations of Miranda Warnings and the Totality of the Circumstances

Spanish-translated Miranda warnings are administered annually to thousands of Hispanic custodial suspects. In examining 121 Spanish translations and their English counterparts from 33 states, the lengths of Miranda warnings were generally comparable but marked differences were observed in the reading levels for individual Miranda components. The adequacy of Miranda translations varies markedly from minor variations to substantive errors. The most serious problems involved the entire omission of Miranda components; several omissions were observed in the Spanish translations for even the basic rights to silence and counsel. More commonly, Miranda discrepancies involved dissimilar content with a substantial trend toward more information in English than Spanish versions. Findings related to the Miranda translations, different word lengths, and varied reading levels are discussed using the totality of circumstances as its framework.

Support forMiranda among police chiefs: A qualitative examination

The U.S. Supreme Court recently grappled with the question of whether it should overturn the landmark case of Miranda v. Arizona. Abolitionists argued the warnings handcuffed the police and allowed many criminals to go free. Proponents maintained Miranda protected offenders and engendered a certain level of professionalism among police officers. Before the Court decided to uphold Miranda, 95 police chiefs from the Commonwealth of Virginia were surveyed about their perceptions concerning Miranda. While one could categorize many chiefs as conformists who wished to keep the warnings, a significant proportion were innovators who advocated various changes. Reasons for these beliefs and their implications are discussed.     

《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》中公正审判权的保留问题探析

《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》的执行机构人权事务委员会从提出保留的限制条件、保留是否有效的判断机关以及无效保留的法律后果等三个方面对公约的保留问题表明了自己的态度。为了不至于违反公约规定的国际义务,在批准公约时,有些国家根据自己的情况对公正审判权提出了保留。考虑到我国的实际情况,我国在批准公约时,应当对公正审判权的适用范围和得益于较轻刑罚的权利提出保留。