| This dissertation examines the impact of psychological interrogation tactics on juvenile suspects and concludes that such tactics, when used by police in questioning adolescents, are inherently coercive and thus unconstitutional. I first lay out the legal framework for determining the admissibility of confessions in the United States, with an emphasis on judicial treatment of psychological interrogation tactics and on police interrogation of juveniles. Focusing on one particularly troubling instance of such questioning, I then construct a typology of psychological methods and detail the effects of these methods on juvenile targets. After canvassing research on juvenile decision-making from the social and biological sciences, I conclude that adolescents are more vulnerable to psychological interrogation tactics than adults, and more likely to confess to serious crimes out of impulse, fear, or submission, rather than free and rational choice. I thus advocate a prohibition on the use of the most dubious psychological methods against juveniles and severe restrictions on less coercive tactics. |
