Barry Feld
Centennial Professor Of Law, University Of Minnesota Law School
Key Findings
- Two-thirds of juvenile girls with felony charges lived in urban counties whereas about half of juvenile males with felony charges lived in urban counties.
- Officers questioned a larger portion of girls within the 24-hour period after arrest and had stronger evidence during questioning than they had for boys questioned during the same period.
- Both boys and girls waived their Miranda rights at statistically similar rates after being arrested.
- Officers were more likely to use maximization tactics (tactics to emphasize the seriousness of a crime) during interrogation with boys than they were to use those tactics with girls.
- Under interrogation, boys were more than twice as likely to be accused of lying than girls.
- Under interrogation, boys were urged to speak the truth three times more than girls were.
- Boys and girls were questioned for similar lengths of time.
- During interviews with juvenile justice personnel, juvenile females were described with negative traits such as manipulative, confrontational, and emotional.
Description
In the article, “Questioning Gender: Police Interrogation of Delinquent Girls,” Feld examines the way police officers interact with delinquent girls. Feld analyzed data from the Minnesota County, which included more than 30 records of 16- and 17-year-old juvenile girls and more than 300 records of juvenile boys that had been charged with a felony. Feld also interviewed police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges to gain insight on their perception of differences in treatment of juvenile girls and boys. The results showed that the juvenile males and females convicted of felony crimes were very similar in but only terms of crime types. Two-thirds of juvenile girls with felony charges lived in urban counties whereas about half of juvenile males with felony charges lived in urban counties. Officers questioned a larger portion of girls within the 24-hour period after arrest and had stronger evidence during questioning than they had for boys questioned during the same period. Both boys and girls waived their Miranda rights at statistically similar rates after being arrested. Through observation research, an officer noted that girls were less likely to refuse to speak during interrogation than boys. Officers were more likely to use maximization tactics (tactics to emphasize the seriousness of a crime) during interrogation with boys than they were to use those tactics with girls. Under interrogation, boys were more than twice as likely to be accused of lying than girls. Under interrogation, boys were urged to speak the truth three times more than girls. Boys and girls were questioned for similar lengths of time. During interviews with juvenile justice personnel, juvenile females were described with negative traits such as manipulative, confrontational, and emotional. Feld notes that despite these minor differences, police questioned boys and girls similarly, and the techniques officers used were fairly constant regardless of age or gender, as there were no significant gender differences in state-level conviction based on interrogation. Feld also noted that juvenile justice personnel should be aware of their perceptions of juvenile females to reduce implicit biases in their judgements.