Appropriate Adult
Definition
UK PACE Code C requirement: a responsible adult (parent, guardian, social worker, or independent person) who must be present during the detention and questioning of suspects with mental health conditions or intellectual disabilities, or suspects who are juveniles.
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Source
- PACE Code C
- Who qualifies
- Parent, guardian, social worker, or independent person
- Applies to
- Juveniles and suspects with mental health or intellectual disability
Common questions
What is the appropriate adult's role during questioning?+
They are present to advise the vulnerable suspect, observe whether the interview is being conducted fairly and properly, and facilitate communication between the suspect and police, not to act as the suspect's legal representative.
Can an interview proceed without an appropriate adult present for an eligible suspect?+
PACE Code C generally bars questioning a juvenile or vulnerable suspect without one present, and evidence obtained in breach of this requirement is vulnerable to exclusion under section 78 of PACE for unfairness.
Related terms
- Compliant False Confession
- A false confession given knowingly by an innocent suspect who yields to interrogation pressure to escape the immediate situation, to gain a...
- Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales
- Psychometric instruments (GSS-1, GSS-2) measuring Yield (acceptance of misleading suggestions) and Shift (changing answers under pressure). Used to assess whether a suspect's...
- Internalised False Confession
- A confession in which the suspect has come to believe they committed the act, often as a result of intense questioning that...
- Kathi Kalu Oghad Principle
- The Indian Supreme Court's 1961 ruling interpreting Article 20(3) as prohibiting compelled testimonial statements. Combined with BSA provisions rendering police confessions inadmissible,...
- Miranda Warning
- The statement of rights that US police must deliver to a suspect before custodial interrogation, required by the Supreme Court's 1966 decision...
- PEACE Model
- A structured interview framework used by UK law enforcement and increasingly by private investigators: Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure,...
- Reid Technique
- The dominant North American police interrogation method developed by John E. Reid and Fred Inbau (1962; 5th edition 2013). Characterised by a...
- Selvi V. Karnataka
- Indian Supreme Court 2010 ruling holding that compulsory narcoanalysis, polygraph, and BEAP procedures violate Article 20(3) as testimonial compulsion. Governs the admissibility...