COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Understanding Youth Engagement in the Plea Process: Predictors and Consequences

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Engagement in court proceedings is legally required, expected, and helps to ensure that the judicial process is equitable and fair to all participants. Engagement generally refers to defendants' understanding and appreciation of their legal situation, their ability to participate, and their interactions with legal actors. Engagement can also refer to court actions that promote or deter defendants' involvement. Despite substantial attention focused on engagement in adult defendants, very little is known about engagement among juvenile defendants. Because of the large number of youth who come into contact with the legal system as defendants, and because of their potential vulnerabilities in general legal understanding and ability to participate, it is crucial to evaluate the depth of youth engagement in court proceedings and determine whether adverse consequences (e.g., recidivism) emerge as a result of a lack of engagement. The goal of this collaborative research is to conduct a comprehensive, multi-method investigation of youth engagement in one critical hearing in which virtually all youth defendants participate: the plea hearing. Findings will lay a much-needed foundation for understanding not only how engaged youth are in the plea process and their legal case generally, but also of how specific characteristics in youth or the case (e.g., in which court setting it is prosecuted) affect engagement. Findings will also inform existing models of procedural justice and therapeutic jurisprudence beliefs, which posit that higher levels of engagement lead to better outcomes, such as improved compliance with the court and reduced recidivism. Because offending often begins in adolescence, determining the degree to which youth legal engagement affects these outcomes is important to prevention and intervention efforts with this population. Finally, findings have the potential to ensure that youthful defendants--processed in juvenile and criminal courts--comprehend and participate in their legal situation (as legally mandated), by highlighting practices and policies that serve to augment or inhibit legal engagement.In the study, engagement in the plea process will be examined in two court setting--juvenile and adult criminal court--among youth aged 14 to 18 years. Specific objectives are to: (1) Identify the degree to which youth in the different court settings are engaged in their case and plea hearing; (2) Determine how interactions between the youth and key legal professionals influence the youth's level of engagement; (3) Evaluate how the culture and climate of the court affects youth engagement; and (4) Examine the links between youth engagement in the plea process and outcomes (court/probation compliance, recidivism). In juvenile and criminal courts in Orange County, CA, and Albany County, NY, 400 plea hearings of youth will be observed and coded; interviews/surveys will be conducted with attorneys, judges, and juvenile defendants; and documentation on youth outcomes a year post-plea will be collected and analyzed. Using advanced statistical procedures, youth characteristics, social interactions, and court contexts will be analyzed to determine how they relate to youth engagement, and in turn how engagement relates to youth outcomes.