Legitimate Police Interrogations of Young Suspects and the Need for Children's Rights: The Belgian Case

• In Event: Police Decision-making Considerations For Enforcement Behaviors

Abstract

A police interrogation is an important police practice in the process of criminal investigation of the police. The person interrogated is directly confronted with police ‘power’, which the police exploit in their search for the truth. This makes a police interrogation vulnerable concerning legitimacy.
According to US-research, specifically juveniles under 15-16 years old are sensitive to the various manipulative and potentially coercive techniques the police uses to get suspects to incriminate themselves. Youngster’s vulnerability would not be taken sufficiently into account. This can lead to false confessions that easily undermine police’s legitimacy. One can wonder whether even true confessions delivered in a “procedural injust” way do not undermine police’s legitimacy.
This contribution presents empirical data collected through ethnographic fieldwork observations in two Belgian police Youth Units. During these observations the researcher witnessed police interrogations of young suspects and subsequently interviewed police investigators. We specifically analyse what interactions take place between the police investigators and the youngsters and what role (children’s) rights play in these interrogation practices. We end our contribution with a discussion on the need for, but also the pitfalls of doing children’s rights during police interrogations. How and when can children’s rights increase (or not?) police’s legitimacy?

Authors

• Sofie De Kimpe, VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Els Dumortier, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Camille Claeys, VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel