TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Measuring the reading complexity and oral comprehension of Canadian youth waiver forms
JO  - Crime and delinquency
A1  - Eastwood, Joseph
A1  - Snook, Brent
A1  - Luther, Kirk
SP  - 798
EP  - 828
VL  - 61
IS  - 6
N2  - The reading complexity of a sample of Canadian police youth waiver forms was assessed, and the oral comprehension of a waiver form was examined. In Study 1, the complexity of 31 unique waiver forms was assessed using five readability measures (i.e., waiver length, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, Grammatik sentence complexity, word difficulty, and word frequency). <br><br>RESULTS showed that the waivers are lengthy, are written at a relatively high grade level, contain complex sentences, and contain difficult and infrequent words. In Study 2, high school students (N = 32) were presented orally with one youth waiver form and asked to explain its meaning. <br><br>RESULTS showed that participants understood approximately 40% of the information contained in the waiver form. The likelihood of the rights of Canadian youths being protected and the need to create a standardized and comprehensible waiver form are discussed. KW: police; legal rights; reading complexity; juvenile justice<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0011-1287
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011128712453689
ID  - ref1
ER  -