The youngest minority: are they competent to waive their constitutional rights?

S. T. Brewer

Expert InsightsPublished 1978

Discusses the constitutional rights accorded to juvenile offenders. The author asserts that concern for a juvenile's needs rather than his rights deprives him of the constitutional right to fairness and due process of law accorded to adult offenders. A defense often raised in juvenile confession cases is that a minor is not competent to waive his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. The rationale behind this proposition is that a minor is generally regarded as unable to enter into legal transactions and is presumed to lack the requisite intelligence to make a valid waiver. The author urges that stricter criteria should be established for a waiver to be held valid. A juvenile often doesn't know the importance of confessions in gaining convictions until he has provided the state with its best evidence against him.

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Brewer, S. T., The youngest minority: are they competent to waive their constitutional rights? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1978. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P5948.html.
BibTeX RIS

This publication is part of the RAND paper series. The paper series was a product of RAND from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.