A First Look at the Plea Deal Experiences of Juveniles Tried in Adult Court

Abstract

While there is a large body of research on the legal capacities of adolescents, this research largely has neglected the plea-deal context. To learn about adolescents’ understanding of the plea process and their appreciation of the short- and long-term consequences of accepting a plea deal, we conducted interviews with 40 juveniles who were offered plea deals in adult criminal court. Participants displayed limited understanding of the plea process, were not fully aware of their legal options and appeared to be overly influenced by the short-term benefits associated with accepting their plea deals. Limited contact with attorneys may have contributed to poor understanding. Although preliminary, our results suggest that these youth might be at increased risk for due-process rights violations. We use these data to point to several open research questions on the plea-deal process for youth charged as adults.

Keywords:

• juvenile offenders
• plea bargaining
• plea deals
• juvenile competency
• legal decisions
• adolescent decision making

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Author order determined by coin toss. We would like to acknowledge our student research assistants Rose Aime and Brian Logan for their assistance with data collection.

Notes

¹ While the exact number of cases that are resolved through plea bargaining is unknown, scholars estimate that 90 to 95 percent of both federal and state court cases involving juveniles are resolved through plea deals (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005).

² All participants in our study were charged, in criminal court, before age 16. In New York State, the upper limit of the juvenile court is 16 years; juveniles between the ages of 13 and 16 are waived to adult court automatically if they are charged with one of 17 designated offenses that mandate adult adjudication.

³ Sections one and two of our interview protocol were influenced by Bonnie's (1993) conceptualization of competency to stand trial in that these sections address basic legal knowledge and appreciation of the outcomes for one's own situation.

⁴ The broad definition of a guilty plea also includes waivers of other rights granted by the fifth and sixth amendment, such as the right against self-incrimination and the right to confront witnesses. We limited our legal understanding variable to these basic elements because we did not want to bias legal understanding scores in in the direction of our initial expectations.