UC Foundation Professor of Psychology Amye Warren’s research was highlighted at the College of Arts and Sciences’ annual Spotlight on Faculty Excellence event on March 20. Photo by Noah Camacho.
Among colleagues and friends at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the College of Arts and Sciences honored Dr. Amye Warren—a UC Foundation professor of psychology and graduate faculty member—during its fourth annual Spotlight on Faculty Excellence event on Thursday, March 20.
The spotlight gave Warren the opportunity to share some of her research on vulnerable witnesses with the campus community.
Four decades ago, Warren walked onto UTC’s campus with the job of teaching students and conducting research through the Department of Psychology. After receiving her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and moving to Chattanooga to start her career, she attended a summer social policy institute in Austin, Texas, where she became interested in how language development impacts child witnesses.
“A lot of work at the time was on memory development and how that impacted children’s abilities to testify, but I knew that children’s language development was equally important in their ability to tell their stories,” Warren said.
“I started working on how children’s language skills apply to questioning in courtroom testimony, preparing children to be questioned in courtroom testimony, and training interviewers and attorneys in how to question children.”
Through her research, Warren learned more about how people can be negatively affected by legal questioning and began to think about other vulnerable witnesses.
“It’s not just children. Adolescents … have different needs, but they have new challenges that come about and they are more likely to be suspects as well as victims,” Warren said. “Then autistic adults have unique challenges when it comes to dealing with the system.”
With each new piece of research, Warren found more questions to ask as well as aspects of the legal questioning process to further explore. She explained that people’s rights are often misunderstood or unknown, reiterating why it is important to learn about the judicial system and how it works.
In an effort to help inform and remind attendees of their rights, copies of the United States Constitution and pamphlets about knowing your rights from the American Civil Liberties Union website were laid on each table.
As someone who has studied juvenile justice for 40 years, Warren has devoted her career to learning how to improve the system. She discovered that the language used in legal questioning is often too complex for most people to understand—and it is even more challenging for minors and those with mental or intellectual disabilities.
“We need to train interviewers, attorneys and judges to use appropriate language,” Warren said. “We need to videotape so we can show people what they did and what they could do instead the next time. We need to require attorneys to rephrase difficult questions.”
Warren continued to provide ideas for how to improve the system, including educating jurors on memory abilities and bringing in experts. She recognized that it is easier said than done to make these kinds of changes, but she emphasized that taking these steps is crucial to ensuring justice is secured in a way that protects witnesses from being traumatized and ensures that innocent people are not wrongly convicted.
“We’re moving from teaching the rules to changing the rules,” Warren said. “We need to change the rules to prohibit deceptive tactics, especially false evidence ploys or promises of leniency when confessing.”
For Warren, it is not enough to just recognize the problems with juvenile testimony. She believes that real change must be advocated for and implemented in order for the system to improve.
However, as she prepares to retire in June, she said it is time for others to carry the research forward.
“As we see efforts to change policies and laws, I will still be involved in that as well, but it is your turn,” Warren said.
After 40 years of dedication to her research, Warren is hopeful that people will continue to work towards changing the system and making a difference.
Warren concluded by inviting people to support the UTC Awe-some Mocs at the Chattanooga Autism Celebration Walk on April 12 in Coolidge Park, reminding everyone that one way to make an impact is to show support.
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Spotlight on Faculty Excellence photo gallery by Noah Camacho
