Understanding the Impact of Youth Engagement During the Plea Process

When processed through the juvenile justice system, the majority of youth must attend a plea hearing in which they admit guilt and accept consequences for their actions in exchange for a formerly negotiated, agreed upon outcome. Plea decisions must be made knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently in order for a plea to be considered legally valid. Yet, little is known about juvenile’s engagement during their plea hearings, and whether it facilitates their ability to make a valid plea decision. To investigate this, youth (N = 82) who had recently pled guilty were interviewed about their engagement during the plea hearing, their perceived and actual plea knowledge, attitudes surrounding their legal experiences, and a series of other relevant legal-system and demographic variables. Results revealed that youths' perceptions of their attorneys were positively associated both with youths’ psychological and behavioral engagement during the plea hearing. Procedural justice attitudes also emerged as a positive predictor of behavioral engagement. Turning to youths' understanding of the plea, findings surprisingly revealed that measures of youths reported plea knowledge, and actual plea knowledge were not correlated. While most youth reported a decent understanding of the plea, performance on two separate measures of plea understanding were generally poor. Predictors of perceived and actual knowledge also diverged. Youth’s psychological engagement, and perceptions of their attorney were both positively correlated with youth’s perceived understanding while age, and behavioral engagement emerged as predictors of youth’s actual plea knowledge. Taken together, results suggest that youth’s reports surrounding their plea knowledge may not always reflect their actual plea knowledge, and that behavioral engagement during the plea hearing as well as advances in age may help to facilitate the understanding necessary for youth to make a valid plea decision