Grisso's Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights

Development and Purpose

Grisso organized an expert panel of lawyers and psychologists to offer comments about, and reach a consensus on, the organization of the instruments, item structure, and scoring criteria. In 1980, Grisso published the results of a large-scale study employing these instruments and, in that article, included the instruments' norms and psychometric properties.

Although the instruments were designed for research purposes, their clinical utility quickly became apparent. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Miranda v. Arizona(1966), established that a valid waiver of rights must be [Page 337]provided knowingly (i.e., the suspect must demonstrate a factual understanding of the rights' meanings), intelligently (i.e., the suspect must demonstrate an appreciation of the consequences of waiving those rights), and voluntarily (i.e., the defendant must waive his or her rights without police coercion or intimidation).

Courts typically apply the totality of circumstances test to determine the validity of a suspect's waiver by considering multiple factors related to interrogation conditions (e.g., length of the interrogation) and suspect characteristics (e.g., age, intelligence, prior criminal history). The Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights may be used to provide a standardized assessment of a suspect's capacities related to the knowing and intelligent requirements of a valid waiver.

In addition to providing a reliable measure of an examinee's understanding and appreciation of Miranda rights through the use of standardized administration and scoring criteria, the Instruments for Assessing Understanding and Appreciation of Miranda Rights were created with sensitivity to developmental and contextual factors. For instance, visual stimuli are used for many items to maintain examinees' attention. In addition, because of the limited reading and verbal expressive skills of many adolescent and adult offenders, all items are read aloud, and examinees are offered multiple ways of demonstrating their knowledge.

Descriptions of Instruments

The measure is composed of the following four discrete instruments:

• 1.
  Comprehension of Miranda Rights (CMR) assesses an examinee's basic understanding of the four Miranda warnings. Each warning is read allowed to the examinee, and the examinee is asked to paraphrase each warning. Examinees' responses are scored 0 (inadequate), 1 (questionable), or 2 (adequate), and standardized questions are provided to probe questionable and inadequate responses. Total scores can range from 0 to 8, and administration requires approximately 15 minutes.
• 2.
  Comprehension of Miranda Rights–Recognition (CMR–R) also assesses an examinee's basic understanding of the four Miranda warnings but does so without relying on verbal expressive skills. Each warning is presented with three preconstructed sentences, and an examinee must determine whether the meaning of each preconstructed sentence is semantically identical to the associated warning. Scoring is bimodal, 0 for incorrect responses and 1 for correct responses. Total scores can range from 0 to 12. Administration requires approximately 5 to 10 minutes.
• 3.
  Function of Rights in Interrogation (FRI) assesses more than basic understanding by targeting an examinee's appreciation of the significance of the Miranda warnings. Four separate illustrations of police, legal, and court proceedings are each accompanied by a short vignette. After reading each vignette, the examiner asks questions about the boy in the vignette (e.g., what he should tell his lawyer, what would happen if he does not talk to the police). There are 15 standardized questions that assess appreciation of three areas: the adversarial nature of police interrogation (NI subscale), the advocacy role of attorneys (RC subscale), and the entitlement to the right to silence (RS subscale). Scoring for the FRI employs the same 0-to-2 scale as the CMR; total scores can range from 0 to 30. Administration requires about 15 minutes.
• 4.
  Comprehension of Miranda Vocabulary (CMV) assesses understanding of six vocabulary words that are typically used in Miranda warnings: consult, attorney, interrogation, appoint, entitled, and right. Initially, nine words were included in the CMV. However, the vast majority of participants in a pilot study adequately understood three of the words, and consequently, those three words were discarded. To administer the CMV, the examiner shows a vocabulary word to the examinee while reading it aloud, using it in a sentence, and repeating it. The examinee is then asked to define the word. Scoring procedures are identical to those of the CMR and FRI, and the total score may range from 0 to 12 points. Administration time is approximately 10 minutes.

Application, Interpretation, and Acceptability

The instruments are appropriate for delinquent and nondelinquent youths aged 10 to 17 and for offending and nonoffending adults. There is no overall Miranda comprehension score, because the instruments were designed to assess different aspects of comprehension. Instead, scores on each instrument can be compared with the established absolute or relative standard. To meet the minimal absolute standard, an examinee must not have any inadequate, or 0-point, responses. To meet a higher absolute standard, an examinee must achieve all adequate, or 2-point, responses. To assess [Page 338]an examinee's scores using a relative standard, scores can be compared against norms.

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