Children and Young People in Police Custody: Building understanding and motivating change through children's perspectives.

这一博士后奖学金的目的是使我能够最大限度地发挥我的博士研究对儿童和年轻人在被警方拘留时的经历的影响。警方的逮捕和拘留是绝大多数年轻人与刑事司法系统的唯一实质性接触。我的博士研究是第一次对英格兰和威尔士的警察拘留过程作为一个整体如何运作进行实证思考，也是第一次与大量儿童和年轻人一起探索他们在拘留过程中从被捕到获释的经历。年轻嫌疑人在警方拘留期间的经历令人深感不安。许多年轻的研究参与者努力应对拘留经历，这种经历具有惩罚性，不必要的冗长，而且考虑到他们的年轻，调整得非常少。他们的叙述中充斥着不确定、无助和绝望的情绪，想要走出牢房。本应在整个过程中为他们提供支持的保护措施往往得不到落实，或者发挥不了作用。特别是，这项研究确定了年轻人在获得法律咨询方面面临的挑战，以及“合适的成年人”可以提供的支持方面真正有问题的限制。年轻参与者的反思，结合其他实地工作，引发了人们对儿童在拘留期间做出要求他们做出重大决定和有效参与警方面谈的能力的真正关切。这一调查结果令人质疑对年轻嫌疑人的拘留过程的公正性，以及所提供证据的可靠性。从更理论的角度来看，这项研究提出了一些根本性的问题，即在警察局对峙的环境下，是否有能力确保对脆弱嫌疑人的有效保护。我的研究具有重大的概念和工具影响范围。我的目标是利用博士后奖学金来制作这项研究的学术出版物。特别是，我计划从我的论文中撰写两篇期刊文章，并召开一次研讨会，让警察、从业人员、政策制定者和学者齐聚一堂，考虑有效参与警察拘留和后来的青年司法进程。这些活动将在我的博士研究中产生一本专著：《几乎看不见：被警方拘留的儿童和年轻人》。我希望在奖学金结束时完成专著的初稿。在过去的四年里，我一直在努力创造和最大限度地利用机会来改变人们对儿童和年轻人的警察拘留经历的理解，并影响政策和实践的变化。我与参与拘留过程的各种行为者--警察机构、独立拘留探视者、适当的成年人团体、青少年犯罪服务机构、法律从业人员和中间人以及司法部和内政部的政策制定者--进行了接触。这笔奖学金也将使我能够继续这项工作。

The aim of this post-doctoral fellowship is to enable me to maximise the impact of my doctoral research into the experiences of children and young people when detained in police custody. Arrest and detention by the police is the only substantial contact with the criminal justice system that the vast majority of young people have. My doctoral research is the first empirical consideration of how the police custody process functions as a whole for children and young people in England and Wales, and the first to explore with a substantial group of children and young people their experiences as they underwent the custody process, from arrest to release. The picture which emerges of young suspects' experiences in police custody is deeply troubling. Many young research participants struggled to cope with a detention experience which was punitive, unnecessarily lengthy and very minimally adjusted to account for their youth. Their accounts are dominated by feelings of uncertainty, helplessness and desperation to "get out" of the cell. The protections which should be in place to support them through the process are often not implemented, or function ineffectively. In particular the research identifies the challenges for young people in accessing legal advice, and the really problematic limitations on the support that can be provided by an 'appropriate adult'. Young participants' reflections, combined with the other fieldwork, raise real concerns about children's abilities to make the significant decisions required of them in custody and to participate effectively in police interview. The findings call into question the fairness of the custody process for young suspects and the reliability of the evidence produced. From a more theoretical perspective, the research raises fundamental questions about the ability to ensure effective protections for vulnerable suspects in the adversarial setting of the police station.My research has significant scope for conceptual and instrumental impact. I aim to use the post-doctoral fellowship to produce academic publications from the research. In particular I plan to produce two journal articles from my thesis and to convene a symposium bringing together police, practitioners, policy-makers and academics to consider effective participation in police custody and later youth justice processes. These activities will feed into work to produce a monograph from my doctoral research: "All but invisible: children and young people in police custody". I hope to complete a first draft of the monograph by the conclusion of the fellowship.I have throughout the last four years worked to create and maximise opportunities to shift understanding about the police custody experience for children and young people and to influence changes in policy and practice. I have engaged with a wide range of actors involved in the custody process - police bodies, Independent Custody Visitors, Appropriate Adult groups, Youth Offending Services, legal practitioners and intermediaries, as well as policy-makers within the Ministry of Justice and Home Office. The fellowship will also enable me to continue that work.