Citation

LaKind ED, Sussman DW, Gross R. J. Crim. Justice 1977; 5(4): 329-337.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(77)90065-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data were collected measuring knowledge of procedures and civil liberty protections in the juvenile justice system. In addition, questions from the Rundquist-Sletto Respect for Law Scale were used to assess attitudes toward the system. Three hundred ninety-six subjects, selected through stratified random sampling, were instructed to answer twenty-eight forced-choice questions on procedures and six Guttman-type scale questions on attitudes toward authority, all presented in the context of a brief scenario. Subjects were also asked to indicate age, sex, race, and previous arrest. Several questions were identified as applications of the Miranda decision, and the hypothesis was confirmed that these would be most often answered correctly by all subjects. A brief survey of the development of a separate juvenile justice system is presented. The authors concluded that by relying on informal channels of communication about its role, the court does not meet its obligation to educate the public.