What the Netflix Documentary “Making a Murderer” Shows us about Youth Confessions

by | January 12, 2016

Home 9 Youth Justice 9 What the Netflix Documentary “Making a Murderer” Shows us about Youth Confessions ( Page 2 )

If you have been living in a cave or have been transfixed watching only football over the last two weeks – let’s hope neither is the case – you perhaps have missed the extensive main media and social media attention that has been given to the controversial Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer. The murder of Teresa Hallbach in the fall of 2005 was followed by the arrest and eventual conviction of Steven Avery and his 16-year-old nephew Brandon Dassey.

Controversy will continue as efforts to get a new trial for Steven Avery continue, but less attention has been paid to the so-called “confession” of his nephew, Brandon Dassey. Aside from guilt or innocence, a recent Rolling Stone on-line article about the Netflix piece illustrates what child/youth advocates have been talking about for a long time, namely the high rate of false confessions that can be obtained through interviews with young alleged offenders.

Youth rarely, if ever, truly understand the implications of talking with law enforcement at the time of arrest and/or other questioning, and most have some misplaced sense that the police are there to “help” them in some way. They have every right to invoke constitutional protections against self-incrimination, seek the support of a qualified attorney, and sometimes just say nothing at all about the crime that they may or may not have been involved in.

What would you want for your own child? If you were 16, what protections would you want? For him or her? Watching the Dassey “confession” should cause everyone to pause and think about what you would say and how you would hold up to the skilled and extensive “interview” that Mr. Dassey submitted to – or more importantly, what you would have done if you were in his shoes. I don’t know what happened back in 2011 – what I do know is that youth are easily susceptible to the pressures of law enforcement combined with the short-sighted nature of their adolescent thinking and will confess to things they did not do – along with things they did do?

Today, probably as you are reading this, somewhere in our state there is a youth confessing to something he/she did not do. Thanks to rulings in the past, interviews with youth are required to be taped. Whatever happens in this case, we should think and talk about how to reassure youth that the system is far.

By Jim Moeser

Kids Forward
Kids Forward

Join us to build a Wisconsin where every child and family thrives.

Recent

Wisconsin Health Insurance Eligibility

Wisconsin Health Insurance Eligibility

Below are infographics detailing how different groups are affected by the health insurance landscape in Wisconsin, and which programs each group is eligible for by income. They have been updated with the new 2024 Federal Poverty Levels (FPL). ACA Eligibility and FPL...

Immigrant Taxpayers Deserve Dignity and Justice

Immigrant Taxpayers Deserve Dignity and Justice

Undocumented Immigrants Pay $198.9 Million in Taxes in Wisconsin By Liliana Barrera & William Parke-Sutherland Immigrants have been and continue to be vital to our communities. Nearly 300,000 immigrants in Wisconsin—about 76,000 of whom are undocumented—have put...

Back-to-School Means Language Access More Important than Ever

Back-to-School Means Language Access More Important than Ever

Better access to services and resources for multilingual community members begins with proactive approach to language barriers Contacts: Emily Miota, emiota@kidsforward.org or Lisa Cruz, lisa@ourmci.org  Madison, WI – With kids heading back to the classroom and many...

Sign up for Emails

Your address helps us identify your legislators and the most relevant messages to send you.