Fortune C1, Brown D1, Fawzy C1, Ryan J1, Talbot L1
1Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Of Wellington
Biography:
Clare-Ann Fortune has a PhD and a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology from the University of Auckland. She has previously worked in research roles in New Zealand and Ireland. She worked as a Clinical Psychologist in a youth forensic service prior to commencing at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in 2011. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Forensic Psychology and primarily teaches on the forensic and clinical psychology postgraduate programmes. Her research focuses on risk assessment, rehabilitation, and ethical issues associated with the justice system. She has published nationally and internationally on a range of topics.
Legal rights are intended to provide protection to individuals when they are being questioned or interrogated by Police. However, individuals need to understand these rights in order to benefit from the protections they offer.
Many jurisdictions have child/youth versions of the rights in recognition of the developmental differences between children/youth and adults. However, international research has found child/youth versions tend not to operate as intended with child/youth versions often containing additional rights (such as the right to a support person) and explanation, meaning they are also often longer, contain difficult and infrequent words and complex sentences, and require a high reading level (Eastwood et al., 2012; Eastwood et al., 2015). Difficulties in rights understanding has implications for due process and procedural justice.
In this project we were interested in whether three interventions (e.g., rewording, video and visual), that had ecological relevance in Aotearoa New Zealand, improved young people’s rights knowledge and understanding. Approximately 200 young people (10-18 years) were randomly assigned to one of the three intervention conditions, or a control condition, and assessed using a structured interview about their rights knowledge and understanding. Results will be presented, along with consideration of the implications for research, policy and practice.