In a survey of confession experts, 94% agreed that youth is a risk factor for false confession, but only 37% felt that jurors understand this. To date, no study has tested the latter by comparing laypeople’s perceptions of juvenile and adult suspects. To address this gap, Experiment 1 participants read a lengthy (i.e. interrogation and confession) or abridged (i.e. confession-only) transcript of an ostensibly juvenile or adult suspect’s interrogation. Transcript length affected perceived pressure but not guilt judgments. Suspect age had little effect, with 75% of participants misjudging the juvenile as guilty. Experiment 2 then tested how expert testimony affects judgments of juvenile suspects. Participants read a lengthy or abridged interrogation transcript, with or without testimony from a juvenile confession expert. Expert testimony somewhat impacted guilt judgments but did not influence perceptions of the interrogation. Implications for interrogation practices, trial procedure and future research are discussed.

在对口供专家的调查中，94% 的人认为年轻是虚假供述的一个危险因素，但只有 37% 的人认为陪审员了解这一点。迄今为止，还没有研究通过比较外行对少年和成年嫌疑人的看法来测试后者。为了弥补这一差距，实验 1 的参与者阅读了表面上是少年或成年嫌疑人审讯的冗长（即审讯和供述）或删节（即仅供述）的记录。成绩单长度影响感知压力，但不影响内疚判断。嫌疑人的年龄影响不大，75% 的参与者误判了少年有罪。然后，实验 2 测试了专家证词如何影响未成年嫌疑人的判断。参与者阅读一份冗长或删节的审讯笔录，有或没有少年认罪专家的证词。专家证词在一定程度上影响了有罪判决，但不影响审讯的看法。讨论了对审讯实践、审判程序和未来研究的影响。