Caught in Language. The importance of speech and language therapy for the Youth Justice System is the result of a PhD research project examining how juveniles with speech, language, and communication needs participate in the criminal justice system. The research’s findings have important implications for health law, including informed consent and shared decision-making in health care.
The research focuses on combining different perspectives, including criminal law, speech therapy, and health law, also known as forensic speech therapy (science involving speech and language disorders, providing testimony in legal cases on diagnoses, treatment protocols, and patient prognoses). This multidisciplinary approach, combined with the unique findings, makes this book highly relevant to legal professionals in law enforcement, the judiciary, and juvenile care institutions in the Netherlands and abroad. The book’s bilingual approach makes it accessible for non-Dutch readers. For most lawyers, forensic speech therapy is currently uncharted territory. It is a relatively new discipline, primarily known in common-law countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
Literature reviews show that juveniles face significant language impairments and problems in contact with the criminal justice system. For example, language research on delinquent youths in the United Kingdom shows that 73% of them struggle with a language disorder, i.e. persistent difficulties in understanding or using spoken language, (P. 222.) Outcomes in different legal systems confirm the high prevalence of language disorders in this group. It appears that language disorders and learning and behavioral problems hinder a young person’s ability to navigate the juvenile justice system successfully. Also, language disorders are generally overshadowed by other issues such as low literacy and comorbidities (i.e., mental health, fetal alcohol syndrome, and traumatic brain injury, P. 223).
Juveniles with a language disorder often struggle to understand the jargon commonly used in the criminal justice system. Juveniles can also make the wrong decisions that can change the outcomes of the criminal process (to their detriment). Language expression disorders can lead to problems with so-called narrative skills, which can cause a juvenile to be misunderstood or even disbelieved by interrogators. Finally, the literature review shows that juveniles with a language disorder are more than twice as likely to recidivate as their delinquent peers without a language disorder. A language disorder thus appears to be a strong predictor of recidivism, in addition to and on top of other known risk factors (P. 223). The author’s empirical research among juvenile detainees in the Netherlands confirmed findings from recidivism in the international literature.
Based on the frequent use of jargon during hearings, the lack of experts in the criminal process, and the lack of specialized training and knowledge among professionals, the author concludes that the Dutch interrogation situation of juveniles does not respect juvenile’s procedural rights under both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 12 CRC, the right to be heard and the use of “Child-Friendly Language”), General Comment No 24, and European Directive (EU) 2016/800 on procedural safeguards for children who are suspected or accused in criminal proceedings (P.225). As a result, young people with language problems cannot participate effectively in a way that does justice to the concept of “Child-Friendly Justice”, regardless of whether “Child-Friendly language” is used at all (P. 225).
Finally, the book addresses how to enhance and facilitate communication with juvenile defendants who have speech, language, and communication disorders. Here, the book concludes with several meaningful recommendations related to developing training, changing procedures or regulations, and conducting new research. Speech, language, and communication disorders (SLCN) are common among young people who encounter the criminal justice system, but they can be challenging to identify.
Given the absence, the author recommends developing specialized training for all criminal justice professionals to recognize SLCN in juvenile defendants. Although lawyers can take their clients’ language problems into account, bottlenecks often occur during interrogations. Therefore, training in skills and methods has been recommended to help interrogators, judges, and other professionals within the criminal justice system recognize SLCN (P. 231).
As the research focuses on forensic speech therapy in the criminal justice process, it may have significant consequences for the entire detention and treatment chain, including forensic care in youth care institutions. Relevant questions to be addressed include defining mandatory care plans, understanding recommended therapies and optional remedies, respecting the concept of informed consent, and promoting shared decision-making in youth care. Clearly, this research has opened new avenues of multidisciplinary research, also relevant to health lawyers.
