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Power of Arrest: Definition, Legal Justification, and Authority

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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management

Definition

Although there is no consensus over the definition of arrest, the US common law draws that arrest takes place when a legally authorized person, such as the police, private security, or citizen, puts an individual under custody, especially because of his/her involvement in a crime.

Introduction

In criminal justice, arrest is an important outcome since it produces serious consequences on people’s liberty and the criminal justice process. Arrestees, in many instances, are subject to searches on their persons and immediate surroundings. Arrest policies and how they are performed are highly associated with the level of the correctional population (Bittner 1967; Engel et al. 2017). For example, mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence are expected to increase the jail or prison population of this crime. Also, arrest decisions, when they are false or unlawful, can lead to wrongful imprisonments, as well as civil cases and criminal charges against responsible parties. As...

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References

Further Reading

  • Button, M. (2019). Private policing. London: Routledge.

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  • Engel, et al. (2019). Power to arrest: Lessons from the research. Cham: Springer.

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  • Fay, J. J. (2016). Key terms and concepts for investigation: A reference for criminal, private, and military investigators. New York/London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Troy University, Troy, AL, USA

    Halil Akbas

Authors
  1. Halil Akbas
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Correspondence to Halil Akbas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA

    Lauren R. Shapiro

  2. Dept. of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA

    Marie-Helen Maras

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Akbas, H. (2020). Power of Arrest: Definition, Legal Justification, and Authority. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_8-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_8-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Law and CriminologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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