Understanding of the current police caution (England and Wales)

✍ Scribed by Isabel C. H. Clare; Gisli H. Gudjonsson; Philippe M. Harari

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 115 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-9284
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(1998090)8:5<323::aid-casp448>3.0.co;2-2

✦ Synopsis

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (England and Wales) modi®ed suspects' right to silence during police questioning and required a new police caution. The current 37-word caution was introduced after it was found that a proposed 60-word draft version was too complex. The results of the present study show that, although more succinct, the current caution is no easier to explain. Even under optimal conditions, when the participants could focus on each sentence in turn, only 1 in 10 of the general population (n 15), 6 in 10 of A-level students preparing for university (n 72) and 9 in 10 police ocers (n 21) demonstrated their understanding by explaining all three sentences correctly. For all groups, the diculties were more marked when the caution was presented in its entirety, as would happen in real life. The complexity of the caution has serious implications for suspects in police detention.