With the broadcast of the Netflix series “When They See Us,”  more attention than ever has been focused on juvenile interrogations and more specifically false confessions by youth. At the heart of this issue is the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which provides us with the right to remain silent when questioned by law enforcement. In 1966 the Supreme Court said in its Miranda decision that this right cannot be waived unless it is determined that someone has done so knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.

Long before the Miranda decision, the court said in Haley v. Ohio that events that “would leave a man cold and unimpressed can overawe and overwhelm a lad in his early teens”. In the years since Miranda, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that youth are different from adults and that the nature of those differences means that youth require greater protection under the law. In 2011, the court stated in JDB v North Carolina that youth tend to lack the maturity and sense of responsibility of adults and that they haven’t the experience, perspective or judgment necessary to recognize and avoid potentially detrimental choices. And perhaps most significantly the court found that youth are more likely than adults to be influenced by pressure from others.