Deaths in police custody in England and Wales

Worldwide deaths in police custody are causing public disquiet. An account is given of all the deaths occurring in police custody in England and Wales over a ten-year period from 1970 – 1979 with details of the causes of death and inquest verdicts.     

Police custody: deaths and medical attention

Information was obtained from all the county constabularies regarding deaths and medical attention given to those in police custody. It was presumed that this information covered all deaths in custody in Denmark during the period 1981 through 1985. There is no apparent increase in the absolute number of deaths during detention during the period 1969 through 1985. The number of deaths occurring in custody in relation to the annual number of persons incarcerated has fallen during the period 1955 through 1985. Simultaneously, a marked rise has occurred in the number of persons held in police custody. During the period 1981 through 1985, 7.9 persons were incarcerated per 1000 population per year. One homicide and nineteen other deaths occurred. The most frequent cause of death was asphyxiation as a result of aspiration of gastric contents during alcohol intoxication, drug poisoning, and intracranial hemorrhage. A physician had been consulted but had not diagnosed the seriousness of the condition in 42% of the deaths. All the deceased were men, and all suffered from the effects of social, psychiatric, and physical diseases. The lethality evaluated from hospitalized clients with the same type of life-threatening conditions was found to be 25%. A discussion is presented of the costs which will be incurred if a large group of those kept in police custody were admitted to hospital. Similarly, changes in the present arrangements are suggested that could ensure a greater certainty of avoiding deaths in detention.     

Health characteristics of older police custody detainees in London,UK

The number of older adults involved in the criminal justice system is rising. Little is known about the state of health in older people who are arrested. This study compared characteristics and health care needs of older police custody detainees with their younger counterparts. The health characteristics of 57 police detainees aged over 50 were compared with 543 younger detainees. Older detainees had significantly higher rates of physical illness and risk of alcohol withdrawal. Although there were equivalent rates of mental disorder and drug taking compared with younger detainees, a higher proportion had presentations consistent with cognitive impairment due to possible dementing processes. Over 80% of older detainees were recommended to have a health assessment in police stations based on their presentation. Police detainees over 50 should be considered to have a health assessment as routine procedure. Further investigation should also be conducted into cognitive impairment in this group.     

Demographic and clinical characteristics of 1092 consecutive police custody mental health referrals

The 43 police forces in England and Wales have made over 13 million arrests in the last decade. Yet, despite this high volume criminal justice system activity, and evidence of substantial health morbidity across the criminal justice pathway, mental health services in police custody have only been patchily developed, and the literature in this area is limited. Referrals (n = 1092) to a pilot mental health service operating across two police stations in a London borough were examined over an 18-month period in 2012/2013. The referred group had high levels of mental health and substance misuse problems (including acute mental illness, intoxication and withdrawal), self-harm, suicide risk and vulnerability (including intellectual disability), with some important gender differences. Although this work has limitations, the findings are broadly consistent with the small existing literature and they confirm the need for services that are sufficiently resourced to meet the presenting needs.     

The masking of racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force: The effects of gender and custody status

The purpose of the present study was to examine racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force. Data from the Phoenix, Arizona Use-of-Force Project was used to assess disparity between White, Black, and Hispanic citizens. Racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force was found only for male citizens not in custody. The findings suggest that assessments of racial and ethnic disparity need to be situationally orientated in the theoretical meaning that race and ethnicity play in modern American society. Simple overall tests of disparity may not be adequate to understand and address the complex effects of race and ethnicity in the criminal justice system; thus, these disparities may lead to situations that further exacerbate already strained minority-majority relations in America.     

Mental health at the intersections: The impact of complex needs on police contact and custody for Indigenous Australian men

Indigenous Australians experience significant social risk, vulnerability and disadvantage. Nowhere is this more starkly demonstrated than in the levels of contact that Indigenous Australians have with the criminal justice system, particularly the police. Utilizing a linked dataset of extant criminal justice, human and health service administrative data in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, this paper explores patterns of police contact and custody for a cohort of Indigenous males with complex needs. Four significant factors are identified that alone or in combination appear to impact on the frequency with which these men experience police contact and custody, including young age at first police contact, experiencing out of home care as a child, alcohol misuse, and limited locational mobility. Whilst it might be expected that the presence of mental ill-health and/or cognitive disability would be a key predictor of the frequency and intensity of police contact and custody, the findings suggest rather that the presence of multiple disadvantages beginning in the early years and compounding throughout individuals' lives, in which mental illness may or may not be a factor, is more significant than the presence of any one diagnosis in precipitating police contact and custody for this group.     

Policing wife-abuse: The contribution made by ‘domestic disturbances’ to deaths and injuries among police officers

This study examines the claim that domestic disturbances account for a disproportionate number of deaths and injury to police officers. The uses to which this claim was put and the shift to arresting wife abusers during the 1980s are described. The crises of hegemony faced by the state during the 1960s is used to explain the widespread implementation of a family crisis intervention program that did nothing to reduce deaths and injuries to police officers or family members. The emergence of the women's movement helps explain the state's shift in emphasis from crisis intervention to arresting wife abusers.     

The promises and perils of non-invasive brain stimulation

Non-invasive brain stimulation promises innovative experimental possibilities for psychology and neuroscience as well as new therapeutic and palliative measures in medicine. Because of its good risk-benefit ratio, non-invasiveness and reversibility as well as its low effort and cost it has good chances of becoming a widespread tool in science, medicine and even in lay use. While most issues in medical and research ethics such as informed consent, safety, and potential for misuse can be handled with manageable effort, the real promise of brain stimulation does raise one prominent moral worry: it may lay the foundation of reliable, precise and stable manipulations of the mind. This article addresses this worry and concludes that it is not the possibility of manipulation, but the shift in our understanding of our mind which stands in need of careful consideration.     

Blood alcohol concentrations of sudden unexpected deaths and non natural deaths.

This study reports on the relationships between the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and the cause of death - which is of course common knowledge for forensic scientists! Our special aim was to gain unselected data for generalizing conclusions. The blood of 2465 consecutive cases (86% of all 2852 sudden unexpected and unnatural fatalities investigated at the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg during the year 1989) was analysed. The BAC was evaluated according to sex, age, cause of death and place of death. In natural causes of death there were 80% cases under 0.05% BAC. Endocrine and digestive system diseases in particular were associated with positive BAC values. In unnatural death cases the BAC under 0.05% was found in 64% of the suicides, 62% of the accidents, 54% of the homicides and 51% of the drug intoxications. The drowning cases showed higher BAC's than traffic accidents. In suicides middle aged males had high BAC's.     

Youth justice conferencing and police referrals: The gatekeeping role of police in Queensland, Australia

Youth justice conferencing in Queensland, Australia relies on the discretionary referral of young offenders by the police. The low rate of police referrals to conferencing is an ongoing concern for conference organizers. The research presented in this study explored Queensland police officers' training, experience, understandings of youth justice conferencing, and their individual discretionary policing style. The impact of these factors on officers' attitudes towards conferencing and their reported likelihood of referring to conference were examined. One hundred eighty-four Queensland police officers stationed in police regions where conferencing was available participated in the study. Of these officers, 15 percent had never heard of conferencing. Of officers who had heard of conferencing, 35 percent had received training, 21 percent had referred a young person to a conference, and 20 percent had attended a conference. Officers' understandings of conferencing were significantly related to their reported likelihood of referring a young person to a conference. The results indicated that to increase police referrals of young people to conferences, police need to be exposed (both through training and attendance) to the philosophy of and procedures involved in conferencing.     

Variation in the perception of desired qualities of police officers among trainees and senior police officers. Insights into the process and efficacy of police training

Police training is the process of imparting knowledge, skills, and values to police personnel. The study analyses a survey data on the perception of trainees and senior experienced officers regarding desired professional qualities in police officers. There is a high degree of congruence, in the assessment of values which are important for police, among the two groups. There are also differences among the two groups regarding the evaluation of the importance of interpersonal skills and human qualities. The study attempts to explain the similarities and the differences in perception by examining the conservative and innovative nature of police training, and the role of experience in developing an appreciation of human qualities. The study underlines the importance of police training as a mechanism to maintain the stability of operations in the organisation and its pivotal role in bringing about change in the police.     

Detection of injuries in traumatic deaths. The significance of medico-legal autopsy

A material of 218 medico-legal autopsies on persons with traumatic injuries was analysed. All these persons had been admitted to hospital. In 75 (34%) injuries had been missed in hospital. In 11 (5%) the overlooked injuries were the sole cause of death, while in 51 (23%) they were contributory. The missed injuries were found in all regions: 27% were moderate (AIS 2), 28% serious (AIS 3), 40% severe (AIS 4), and 5% critical (AIS 5). It is concluded that medico-legal autopsies are necessary for an exhaustive evaluation of traumatic deaths. They are of significance not only to legal security, but also to the social need for analysing injury mechanisms and the consequent possibility of preventive efforts.     

The importance of police contact in the formulation of youths' attitudes toward police

The central focus of this study was to examine types of contact between adolescents and police as determinants of attitudes toward these authority figures. Three value or group expressive determinants — race, deviance, and parental defiance — were used as control variables to specify conditions under which the importance of actual contact with police is enhanced or diminished. Positive contact with police was found to be predictive of positive attitudes and negative contact was predictive of negative attitudes toward police. Further investigation revealed that the relationship between positive contact and positive attitudes toward police became significantly stronger among youths who had experienced negative encounters with police, as well as among those who reported being frequently involved in deviance, and among those who had been defiant of parental authority. The effects of negative contact with police were most significant among whites, those who report infrequent deviant behavior, and those youths who had experienced little or no positive contact with police.