Lesson learned? Mothers’ legal knowledge and juvenile rearrests.

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined how mothers' personal characteristics, experience with, and attitudes toward the juvenile justice system are associated with their knowledge of the juvenile justice system over time. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that additional exposure to the system (via sons' rearrests) would be associated with greater legal knowledge. We predicted that White women, women with higher educational attainment, and women who had been arrested would experience greater gains in legal knowledge over time, relative to non-White women, women with lower educational attainment, and women who had not been arrested. Finally, we predicted that mothers' attitudes toward the legitimacy of the justice system would not be associated with their change in legal knowledge. Method: Mothers (N ϭ 234) of male youth (majority non-White) completed a questionnaire of their knowledge about the juvenile justice system after their sons' 1st arrest (T1) and again 2.5 years later (T2). Results: Knowledge did not improve over time, regardless of whether the youth was rearrested. Black mothers displayed less knowledge of the juvenile justice system when their sons were rearrested multiple times. Attitudes toward the justice system were not associated with legal knowledge. Conclusions: These results illustrate the importance of a family educational component to juvenile probation, especially as a vehicle to reduce disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system. Public Significance StatementEducating families about their rights and responsibilities in the juvenile justice system could reduce racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice system contact. Black women whose sons were rearrested several times displayed less legal knowledge over time. These results suggest that continued exposure to the juvenile justice system is not associated with greater knowledge of the system and may be associated with existing racial and ethnic disparities within the court. Education in areas of persistent deficits in legal knowledge (the roles of probation officers and attorneys, youth plea decisions) may be particularly useful.

Parents’ interrogation knowledge and situational decision-making in hypothetical juvenile interrogations.

“…When parental knowledge and personal experience were both entered into the model, parents’ interrogation knowledge, rather than experience, was associated with advisements. This finding is consistent with prior work showing that parents’ general legal knowledge did not improve after system contact (Cavanagh et al, 2020) and provides preliminary evidence that interrogation experience may not translate to greater dexterity in future interrogations. In other words, perhaps what matters is not merely experiencing prior system contact, but actually learning something more about interrogation policies or practices as a result of the contact.…”

“…Cleveland and Quas (2018) found that parent age was associated with greater legal knowledge but annual household income was not; Cavanagh and Cauffman (2017) found that household income was associated with greater legal knowledge but did not measure parent age. In a follow up study, Cavanagh et al (2020) found that legal knowledge did not increase with additional system experience. In fact, for Black mothers specifically, those whose sons had been rearrested more than once between study waves demonstrated less legal knowledge at follow-up than Black mothers whose sons had been rearrested only once or not at all.…”

“…Despite the policy effort to involve parents in the process, surprisingly few studies have examined what parents know about police interrogation or even the juvenile justice or child welfare systems more broadly. Recent studies with parents have found substantial gaps in parents’ knowledge of the juvenile justice and dependency systems (Cavanagh & Cauffman, 2017; Cavanagh et al, 2020; Cleveland & Quas, 2018). Cleveland and Quas (2018) reported that parents involved in ongoing juvenile dependency cases demonstrated limited comprehension of both system processes and actors in general, as well as processes and decisions in their child’s specific case.…”

“…What do parents know about juvenile interrogation practices and their rights as legal guardians? Based on prior work suggesting that adults’ knowledge of the legal system in general is limited (Cavanagh & Cauffman, 2017; Cavanagh et al, 2020), we hypothesized that parents would demonstrate substantial misconceptions about parents’ interrogation rights and police interrogation practices. Additionally, we expected that parents would display relatively better understanding of Miranda rights compared to specific interrogation practices (Cleary & Warner, 2017; Woolard et al, 2008).…”

Adolescent Contact, Lasting Impact? Lessons Learned From Two Longitudinal Studies Spanning 20 Years of Developmental Science Research With Justice-System-Involved Youths

“…Nonetheless, although there are admittedly many legal and extralegal factors that should be weighed, policymakers should seriously consider available diversion programs for appropriate youths and young adults and champion continued funding of these specialized programs. Finally, policymakers should consider ways to engage additional advocates for youths who enter the justice system, as analyses with the Crossroads data have shown that parents of justice-system-involved youths may have limited legal knowledge ( Cavanagh et al, 2020 ).…”