Vulnerable Suspects and Arrest and Investigative Processes

This chapter considers how Australian laws recognise and deal with the vulnerabilities of particular groups of suspects in encounters with the police during criminal investigations. The focus of this chapter is on juvenile suspects, Indigenous suspects and suspects with mental disorders or cognitive impairments. While this focus is narrower than the widely accepted definition of vulnerable people in the criminal justice context, it is chosen because these groups are significantly overrepresented in criminal justice statistics.