Fit to be Interviewed by the Police — An Aid to Assessment

Abstract

The assessment of a suspect's fitness to be interviewed by the police is becoming an increasingly important part of a police surgeon's workload. This paper discusses the assessment in terms of the various factors that may render a person prone to providing an involuntary or false confession and proposes an aide memoire to assist the examining doctor.

Fitness to be interviewed: decision-making in the mental health in-patient setting

“…The lack of training and guidance in assessing fitness to be interviewed was highlighted in the late 1990s by Protheroe & Roney (1996). Since then, detailed guidance has been produced for forensic physicians (Norfolk 2001;Stark 2020) and psychiatrists (Rix 1997(Rix , 2011Rix et al 2020, Ventress 2008. However, there has not been any specific guidance tailored to the assessment of fitness to be interviewed and its practicalities in the context of adult mental health in-patient settings.…”