Police Interview of Mentally Vulnerable Suspects

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380100
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Criminal law
• Research Institution: Kwansei Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: KYO Akira 関西学院大学, 司法研究科, 准教授 (90513375)
• Research Collaborator: ELLIS Tom ポーツマス大学, 刑事司法研究所, 主任講師
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 被疑者取調べ / 知的障害者 / イギリス / 適切な大人

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research examined practices and implications of the Appropriate Adult (AA) scheme in England & Wales in order to evaluate the pilot scheme in Japan for mentally vulnerable adults suspects. The research findings include the facts that there are significant shortcomings in current AA provision for mentally vulnerable adult suspects, particularly in terms of inadequate police practices with respect to identification of suspects’ vulnerabilities and need for AAs, and that many vulnerable adults do not receive the support of an AA or receive it for part of the custody process.
Those findings suggest that the pilot scheme in Japan will inevitably face those problems in E&W if it needs to be developed into a new legal system. We have to take those problems seriously just in case of future reform.

Free Research Field

刑事法学