Residents of Fort Lauderdale and other nearby areas of Florida may want to learn more about a tactic used by police; it involves telling a lie to a juvenile in order to get a confession. Some countries, such as Germany, England and Australia have put a ban on this practice.
According to Psychology Today, the young brain is not equipped to handle this type of police interrogation. It often leads to false confessions.
Fabrication of evidence
In 48 states, it is allowable to fabricate evidence, by the police, when questioning juveniles. Due to developing brains, juveniles often give false confessions. This affects the safety of the public.
Youths agree to interrogation
A detective might say that they found the person’s DNA at the scene, which would be a lie. Police pretend to have incriminating evidence. Psychology is now beginning to understand that youths may confess to a crime that they did not commit.
Wrongful convictions of juveniles
One experiment gave evidence that juveniles were 27 percent more likely to falsely confess overall. In fact, they were 61 percent more likely to confess if shown fabricated evidence of their guilt.
Some states take action
Illinois and Oregon became the first states to enact legislation that bans this type of interrogation tactic. Other states considering this type of law are Utah, Colorado and Nebraska. Although this is progress, there are many states where this act of telling lies to children enters the interrogation room.
Recognition of immaturity
These children may not buy cigarettes, sign contracts or do other things due to their age and immaturity, so when it comes to juvenile crimes, it would seem reasonable that avoiding children’s rash and self-destructive decisions is a move that legislators should recognize. Trusting children to make good decisions under the pressure of interrogation is not wise.
Police often use lying as a tactic when interrogating children or juveniles, who have not reached mental maturity. Some countries put a ban on this tactic, and some states in the U.S. are following suit.
