Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

INTERROGATING YOUNG SUSPECTS: THE LAW IN ACTION

This book represents the second and final part of a larger research project financed by the European Commission under the title Protecting young suspects in interrogations. This project – which is a joint eff ort of several partners (Warwick University, Antwerp University, Jagiellonian University, Macerata University, Defence for Children and PLOT Limburg) and led by Maastricht University – concerns a legal comparative and empirical study that attempts to shed more light on what actually happens when juvenile suspects are interrogated in the investigative stage. The project sprung from the observation that existing knowledge on the level of procedural protection off ered to juvenile suspects throughout the EU during this crucial phase of proceedings is limited. This gap in existing knowledge is astonishing to some extent, since the vulnerability of juvenile suspects is probably greatest during these early interrogations. Not only do these interrogations oft en constitute the juveniles’ first contact with law enforcement authorities but they also confront the juvenile with many difficult questions and decisions. For this reason, the aim of the project has been to fill at least part of the aforementioned gap by gaining insight in existing procedural rights for juveniles during interrogation from a legal as well as an empirical perspective in five selected Member States representing diff erent systems of juvenile justice in Europe (Belgium, England and Wales, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland).

The first part of the project – the legal comparative research addressing the ‘law in the books’ – provided an in-depth analysis of the existing rules and safeguards in the law of the five selected Member States. On the basis of the legal findings laid down in the five country reports a transversal analysis using a cross-national functional approach was carried out resulting in the identification of a number of common patterns with a view to harmonising the systems and improving the protection of juvenile suspects’ safeguards when interrogated. The five country reports discussing the relevant national legal frameworks together with the aforementioned common patterns have been published in a separate volume (volume I).