Schoolhouse Interrogations: Current Practices and Perceptions

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

This panel explores how juveniles are questioned at school by principals or police officers (including SROs) who use accusatorial interrogation methods. Papers describe high school principals’ current questioning practices, perceptions, and training. They then experimentally compare laypeople and parents’ perceptions of the interrogations of students across various contexts, including at school vs. a police station, by a principal vs. SRO, and for serious vs. minor misconduct. Results will provide new theoretical and practical knowledge relevant to the bodies of literature on school discipline and juvenile interrogation.

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 51. The Juvenile Justice System

Individual Presentations

• From Classroom to Courtroom: Principals’ Questioning Practices and Perceptions of Student Confessions - Talley Bettens, George Mason University; Allison Redlich, George Mason University

• Perceptions of School and Custodial Interrogations - Hannah Hinterleiter, Allegheny College / Towson University; Christopher Normile, Allegheny College

• Accusatorial Interrogations in Schools: Parents’ Views on Coercion, Custody, and Juvenile Vulnerability - Christopher Normile, Allegheny College; Talley Bettens, George Mason University; Allison Redlich, George Mason University; Amye Warren, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Discussant

• Christopher Kelly, Saint Joseph's University