Abstract
This study investigated whether defendants’ ages and levels of psychosocial maturity would affect judges’ ratings of juveniles’ adjudicative competence in juvenile and criminal court. Three hundred forty two judges reviewed a forensic psychological report about a hypothetical defendant; only the defendant’s age (12–17) and maturity level (mature, immature) varied across reports. Results revealed a main effect of age, with older juveniles generally deemed more competent, and a main effect of maturity, with mature juveniles generally deemed more competent. No interaction was found. Results suggest that age and maturity play major roles in judicial determinations of juvenile competency.
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Notes
Confidence intervals were calculated with the square root of R2 for the model and threshold values.
By convention, effect sizes of d = .2, .5, and .8 are considered small, medium, and large, respectively (Cohen, 1992).
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Cox, J.M., Goldstein, N.E.S., Dolores, J. et al. The Impact of Juveniles’ Ages and Levels of Psychosocial Maturity on Judges’ Opinions About Adjudicative Competence. Law Hum Behav (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9256-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9256-y