Dancing Around Miranda:  The Effects of Legal Reform on Homicide Detectives in the US and the UK

Fiona Brookman; Sophie Pike; Edward Maguire

Dancing Around Miranda: The Effects of Legal Reform on Homicide Detectives in the US and the UK

Fiona Brookman, Sophie Pike, Edward Maguire

Criminology, Policing and Security Research and Innovation Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during fieldwork at homicide units in the USA and UK, this paper explores how detectives in both settings have responded to legal reforms intended to protect suspects’ rights. Our analyses reveal that homicide detectives in the USA routinely engage in procedures intended to circumvent these rights, typically to enhance the likelihood of eliciting a confession. We explore in particular the tactics adopted by detectives in the USA to circumvent suspects’ Miranda rights immediately prior to and during the interrogation of homicide suspects. We discuss how and why detectives in the USA and UK, two nations with ‘adversarial’ legal systems, appear to have responded differently to legal reforms designed to enhance suspects’ rights during interviews and interrogations (Miranda, 1966 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	725
Number of pages	47
Journal	Criminal Law Bulletin
Volume	55
Issue number	5
Publication status	Published - 31 Jul 2019

Keywords

suspects' rights
interrogation
homicide
suspect interviews
homicide detectives UK and USA
detective culture
Miranda
PACE
Justice

UN SDGs

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Access to Document

Dancing Around Miranda 10th April 2019 Brookman et alAccepted author manuscript, 131 KBLicence: CC BY-NC
CLB Miranda Article 2019Final published version, 4.26 MBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Dancing Around Miranda: The Effects of Legal Reform on Homicide Detectives in the US and the UK",

abstract = "Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during fieldwork at homicide units in the USA and UK, this paper explores how detectives in both settings have responded to legal reforms intended to protect suspects{\textquoteright} rights. Our analyses reveal that homicide detectives in the USA routinely engage in procedures intended to circumvent these rights, typically to enhance the likelihood of eliciting a confession. We explore in particular the tactics adopted by detectives in the USA to circumvent suspects{\textquoteright} Miranda rights immediately prior to and during the interrogation of homicide suspects. We discuss how and why detectives in the USA and UK, two nations with {\textquoteleft}adversarial{\textquoteright} legal systems, appear to have responded differently to legal reforms designed to enhance suspects{\textquoteright} rights during interviews and interrogations (Miranda, 1966 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984).",

keywords = "suspects' rights, interrogation, homicide, suspect interviews, homicide detectives UK and USA, detective culture, Miranda, PACE, Justice",

author = "Fiona Brookman and Sophie Pike and Edward Maguire",

note = "The accepted manuscript does not include some minor amendments to the text or 2 footnotes added at a later point in the publication. The published version does include these and they are the author's preferred version. ",

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T1 - Dancing Around Miranda: The Effects of Legal Reform on Homicide Detectives in the US and the UK

AU - Brookman, Fiona

AU - Pike, Sophie

AU - Maguire, Edward

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PY - 2019/7/31

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N2 - Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during fieldwork at homicide units in the USA and UK, this paper explores how detectives in both settings have responded to legal reforms intended to protect suspects’ rights. Our analyses reveal that homicide detectives in the USA routinely engage in procedures intended to circumvent these rights, typically to enhance the likelihood of eliciting a confession. We explore in particular the tactics adopted by detectives in the USA to circumvent suspects’ Miranda rights immediately prior to and during the interrogation of homicide suspects. We discuss how and why detectives in the USA and UK, two nations with ‘adversarial’ legal systems, appear to have responded differently to legal reforms designed to enhance suspects’ rights during interviews and interrogations (Miranda, 1966 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984).

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KW - suspects' rights

KW - interrogation

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KW - suspect interviews

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KW - detective culture

KW - Miranda

KW - PACE

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