Abstract
Black children are often viewed as older and more responsible than their White counterparts (Epstein et al., 2017). The effect of adultification can be seen in many different
domains of life, but especially within the criminal justice system. Studies show that Black boys
are sentenced to longer terms than White boys of the same age (Goff et al., 2014). Using the
Elaboration Likelihood Model, I hypothesize that higher-level processing may disrupt the
adultification process; using language that is stereotype incongruent may increase elaboration
and decrease adultification. Results support past findings that adultification is taking place in
legal decision-making. There are some benefits to using stereotype incongruent language to refer
to defendants. Referring to Black defendants as children rather than juveniles results in
significantly lower lengths of community service hours recommended to the defendant,
suggesting that increasing elaboration, induced with a one-word manipulation, can reduce bias
use while making decisions within the context of the criminal justice system