Feigned Miranda Impairment by Legally Involved Juveniles: The Vulnerability of Forensic Measures and the Development of Effective Screens

Abstract

Forensic studies have almost entirely neglected research on adolescent offenders and their abilities to engage in malingering and other forms of deception. The present research represents the first empirical investigation into feigned Miranda-specific impairment by legally involved juveniles. Feigners (n = 62) were compared with archival data (n = 245) under genuine conditions. With virtually no preparation, juveniles effectively feigned major impairment on the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (MRCI) and most aggregate scores of the Juvenile Miranda Quiz (JMQ). Based on established detection strategies, feigning scales were examined for both the MRCI and JMQ. Consistent with adult detainee research, the JMQ floor effect (JMQ FE) yielded good sensitivities and very high specificities. Low scale scores on the MRCI Comprehension of Miranda Rights-Recognition-II (CMR-R-II) evidenced strong promise at identifying potential feigners for more extensive evaluations. As discussed, forensic evaluators cannot afford to ignore feigned legal incapacities when examining pre-adjudicated adolescents.

How good are inpatients at feigning Miranda abilities?: An investigation of the Miranda Quiz, Inventory of Legal Knowledge, and Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology

“…However, relatively few studies have focused on identifying feigned Miranda abilities. The authors of the SAMA (Rogers et al., 2012) and their colleagues (Rogers, Henry, et al., 2017, Rogers, Robinson, et al., 2017, 2018) utilized one amplified detection strategy (FE) and one unlikely detection strategy described as the performance‐curve (PC) strategy (i.e., more errors as the item difficulty increases). While no genuine responders violated the PC strategy, it proved ineffective because substantial numbers of genuine responders also scored poorly, even on the easy items (Rogers, Robinson, et al., 2017).…”