England and Wales: Empirical Findings

Abstract

The target was amended in 2008 to encourage the police to concentrate their efforts on bringing more serious offences to justice and in 2010 it was abandoned -see Padfield et al. 2012 and Kemp 2014. 8 A more detailed account of the methodology is set out in ch. 2. 9 Non-lawyers can provide police station legal advice if they have been accredited to do so (see Hodgson and Kemp 2015, p. 139. 10 The cases were drawn from those pleading not guilty at court and so they had not been convicted at the time the tapes were examined. 17 This approach was observed in the four jurisdictions in the Inside Police Custody study: see Blackstock et al 2014, ch. 5, especially p. 243-255. Research has shown that suspects can become confused about their legal rights, particularly if read out quickly and/or unintelligibly by the police. This could be either due to the routine way in which custody officers regularly read out to suspects their legal rights or as a ploy designed to discourage them from having legal advice: see Kemp 2012, p. 28-33.

Exploring Children’s Understanding of the Legal Rights of Suspects in England and Wales

“…Watkins' work is informed by the socalled new sociology of childhood (James et al, 1998;James and Prout, 1997;Stainton-Rogers, 1989), purposely seeking to privilege the voice of the child when identifying key themes in the data. In addition to researching the legal rights of adult suspects, and developing an app to help inform suspects of their legal rights (Kemp, 2020), Kemp has also undertaken research with young suspects (Bottoms and Kemp, 2007;Kemp and Hodgson, 2016). Having a detailed knowledge of this research field, at least from an adult's perspective, Kemp was aware that issues raised by children would require further analysis.…”

“…16 Coupled with the sense of powerlessness, questions are raised about the extent to which young suspects are held for a long time in police custody, often without adult support, other than the contact they have with the police. Indeed, it has been noted that the appropriate adult and, if involved, the lawyer, tend to arrive at the custody suite when the police are ready to conduct the interview, which can be many hours following their detention (Bevan, 2019;Kemp and Hodgson, 2016). Apart from the mandatory involvement of an appropriate adult, which is often a parent or guardian who has little or no experience of police interviews, in a number of areas there is often no other support available for children while being dealt with at the police station.…”

“…Despite the importance of human rights standards and legal safeguards for children when detained and interviewed by the police, very few studies have examined the pre-charge criminal process from the perspective of children. From studies that have included interviews with young suspects, following their release from police custody (when recollections have faded), many are seen to be confused about what is happening, and about their legal rights, and some comment on being put under pressure to respond to police questions (Bevan, 2019; Kemp and Hodgson, 2016; Hazel et al, 2002). From analysis of what was said during police interviews, concerns have also been raised over the dominance of the police in interrogations, with little contributions from appropriate adults or lawyers, who are intended to enhance legal safeguards (Kemp and Hodgson, 2016; Medford et al, 2003; Evans, 1993).…”

“…From studies that have included interviews with young suspects, following their release from police custody (when recollections have faded), many are seen to be confused about what is happening, and about their legal rights, and some comment on being put under pressure to respond to police questions (Bevan, 2019; Kemp and Hodgson, 2016; Hazel et al, 2002). From analysis of what was said during police interviews, concerns have also been raised over the dominance of the police in interrogations, with little contributions from appropriate adults or lawyers, who are intended to enhance legal safeguards (Kemp and Hodgson, 2016; Medford et al, 2003; Evans, 1993). This lack of intervention by appropriate adults or lawyers is of concern, particularly when psychologists highlight how a child’s maturity can affect their ability to instruct lawyers, that they are more likely than adults to confess, and confess falsely (Kassin et al, 2010).…”

“…While we find that children fundamentally lack an understanding of their legal rights as suspects, and especially the inalienable nature of those rights, we also find non-compliance with international human rights standards required for children in trouble with the law. In particular, instead of children being dealt with separately from adults, an adult-centred approach is seen to be adopted when dealing with all suspects within the secure environment of police custody and the police interview (Bevan, 2019;Kemp and Hodgson, 2016;Panzavolta et al, 2016;Hazel et al, 2002). criminal process from the perspective of children.…”