Arrest in the United States
The placing of a person under government custody. Arrests deprive people of their liberty because once under arrest, people are no longer free to move about as they please. The objective of arrest is to detain a person for the purpose of bringing criminal charges. An arrest is a seizure and is covered by provisions of the Fourth Amendment. Arrests may be affected with or without a warrant. If a suspect has been named in a formal complaint and arrest is the culmination of an investigative process, a warrant is required. An arrest warrant is issued by a judicial officer authorizing police to detain someone. Such warrants are issued upon a showing of probable cause and specifically name the person to be arrested.
See Also
Probable Cause (Criminal Process) Warrant (Criminal Process).
Analysis and Relevance
Absent some kind of emergency or exigent circumstance, police must obtain a warrant before making an arrest. Lawful arrests can be made without warrants, however. Indeed, this is a common occurrence. There must be probable cause for an officer to arrest without a warrant. Such cause can be provided by an officer’s personal observation of a criminal act. Similarly, officers may act upon tips from informants or reports from other law enforcement agencies. The warrant process was designed to minimize arbitrary behavior by law enforcement authorities. If a warrant has been obtained, it is presumed that the police have acted reasonably. If action is taken without a warrant, the adequacy of the police conduct may be a question for judicial consideration. Actions determined to be unlawful taint—and may nullify—everything that comes later.
Notes and References
- Definition of Arrest from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
Arrest Definition
(Pr. mreter, to stay, to stop, to detain). To deprive a person of his liberty by legal authority. The seizing a person and detaining him in the custody of the law. As ordinarily used, the terms arrest and attachment coincide in meaning to some extent; though in strictness, as a distinction, an arrest may be said to be the act resulting from the service of an attachment. And in the more extended sense which is sometimes given to attachment, including the act of taking, it would seem to differ from arrest in that it is more peculiarly applicable to a taking of property, while arrest is more commonly used in speaking of persons. The terms are, however, often interchanged when speaking of the taking a man by virtue of legal authority. Arrest is also applied in some instances to a seizure and detention of personal chattels, especially of ships and vessels, but this use of the term is not common in modern law. In Civil Practice. The apprehension of a person by virtue of a lawful authority to answer the demand against him in a civil action. In Criminal Practice. The apprehending of a person to answer for an alleged or suspected crime. The word arrest is said to be more properly used in civil cases, and apprehension in criminal. In Admiralty Practice. The seizure of a vessel on process in an action in rem.
Arrest in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Arrest | Arrest in the World Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the European Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the UK Legal Encyclopedia. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Australian Legal Encyclopedia. |
Browse the American Encyclopedia of Law for Arrest
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| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Arrest | Arrest in the Family Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the IP Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Commercial Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Criminal Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Antritrust Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Bankruptcy Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Constitutional Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Tax Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the and Finance and Banking Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Employment and Labor Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Personal Injury and Tort Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
| Arrest | Arrest in the Environmental Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law. |
Explore other Reference Works
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Arrest in the Dictionaries | Arrest in our legal dictionaries |
| http://lawi.us/arrest | The URI of Arrest (more about URIs) |
| Arrest related entries | Find related entries of Arrest |
Legal Issue for Attorneys
(Pr. mreter, to stay, to stop, to detain). To deprive a person of his liberty by legal authority. The seizing a person and detaining him in the custody of the law. As ordinarily used, the terms arrest and attachment coincide in meaning to some extent; though in strictness, as a distinction, an arrest may be said to be the act resulting from the service of an attachment. And in the more extended sense which is sometimes given to attachment, including the act of taking, it would seem to differ from arrest in that it is more peculiarly applicable to a taking of property, while arrest is more commonly used in speaking of persons. The terms are, however, often interchanged when speaking of the taking a man by virtue of legal authority. Arrest is also applied in some instances to a seizure and detention of personal chattels, especially of ships and vessels, but this use of the term is not common in modern law. In Civil Practice. The apprehension of a person by virtue of a lawful author
ity to answer the demand against him in a civil action. In Criminal Practice. The apprehending of a person to answer for an alleged or suspected crime. The word arrest is said to be more properly used in civil cases, and apprehension in criminal. In Admiralty Practice. The seizure of a vessel on process in an action in rem.
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Notice
This definition of Arrest Is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This definition needs to be proofread..
Plain-English Law
Arrest as defined by Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (p. 437-455):
situation in which the police detain someone in a manner that would lead a reasonable person to believe that he or she is not free to leave.
Practical Information
Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982
See provisional remedies (in U.S. law).
What is Arrest?
For a meaning
of it, read Arrest in the Legal Dictionary here. Browse and search more U.S. and international free legal definitions and legal terms related to Arrest.
Arrest
United States Constitution
According to theEncyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled ARRESTThe constitutional law of arrest governs every occasion on which a government officer interferes with an individual’s freedom, from full-scale custodial arrests at one end of the spectrum to momentary detentions at the other. Its essential principle is that a court, not a police officer or
(read more about Constitutional law entries here).
Some Constitutional Law Popular Entries
- Constitutional Law Outline
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Resources
See Also
Civil Rights and Liberties ; Police Power ; Search and Seizure, Unreasonable
Accusation; Charge; Civil Procedure; Contraband; Criminal Action; Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure; De Facto; Evidence; Felony; Fourth Amendment; Hot Pursuit; Liability; Probable Cause; Seizure; Tort Law.
Further Reading (Books)
LaFave, Wayne R. Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment. Rev. ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West, 1996.
LarryYackle
Further Reading (Articles)
DUI ARRESTS REACH 449 FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE HOLIDAY, US Fed News Service, Including US State News; January 10, 2007
Arrests, Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States; January 1, 2011
Arrests in 2004 increased for all types of crime, report says, The Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY); August 15, 2005; Thomas J. Prohaska
Arrest statistics at high schools trigger debate, New Haven Register (New Haven, CT); June 11, 2007; Chris Rhatigan
OUI Arrests Now Rare in Boston ; City Lags Others; Drunken-Driving Activists Decry Trend, The Boston Globe (Boston, MA); April 7, 2013; Schworm, Peter
Arrest Warrant, Encyclopedia of the American Constitution; January 1, 2000
YOUTH ARRESTS RISE FOR WEAPONS, DRUGS, The Record (Bergen County, NJ); December 8, 1993; DAVID GLOVIN, Staff Writer
JUVENILE ARRESTS SHOW SLIGHT DIP.(Local/State), The Capital Times; June 6, 1998; Nowlen, Chuck
NEARLY 400 DUI ARRESTS MADE IN NEW YEAR’S EVE ENFORCEMENT EFFORT, US Fed News Service, Including US State News; January 23, 2006
Cardiopulmonary Arrest Occurring in the Radiology Department: Patient Characteristics, Incidence, and Outcomes, The American Surgeon; March 1, 2011; Hope, William W
ARREST MADE IN ’06 MILFORD SLAYING; Man Charged in Killing of Aspiring Actress, New Haven Register (New Haven, CT); September 6, 2012; Scinto, Rich
Arrests Down in Connecticut Schools, New Haven Register (New Haven, CT); September 13, 2013; Chedekel, Lisa
ARRESTS BY RACE BLACKS MAKE UP JUST 3.8 PERCENT OF MADISON’S POPULATION BUT ACCOUNT FOR 35.7 PERCENT OF 1997 ARRESTS. WHY?(Front), The Capital Times; June 6, 1998; Nowlen, Chuck
DUI arrests up in crackdown, Oakland Tribune; January 3, 2008; Roman Gokhman
Arrests for War Resistance Increase Again, Nuclear Resister; July 3, 2008; Quigley, Bill
Arrests of Ships under Article 3.4 Brussels Convention 1952 in Two Recent Decisions of Italian Courts, Mondaq Business Briefing; February 5, 2013
SHOCKABLE CARDIAC ARRESTS ARE MORE COMMON IN PUBLIC THAN HOME., States News Service; January 27, 2011
Shockable cardiac arrests are more common in public than home., Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week; February 13, 2011
Arrest of Ships in Thailand., Mondaq Business Briefing; May 28, 2012
Arrests., Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States; January 1, 2008
Disproportionate Arrests in relation to Crime and Race
Disproportionate Arrests is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: African Americans and members of other racial minorities are arrested at rates disproportionate to their numbers in the U.S. population. Criminologists have debated whether this pattern can be explained by such factors as disparities in rates of offending or whether it reflects racial discrimination in law enforcement. Law enforcement officials have considerable discretion to decide in which geographical areas they will focus their activities and how to deal with individuals that they apprehend in the course of these activities, including whether to arrest and charge them. For much of U.S. history, legal structures upheld slavery, segregation, and discrimination against racial minorities. Because the role of the police was to enforce these laws, some scholars argue that this established a pattern of police behavior and attitudes toward minority communities that still persists.
Resources
Notes and References
- Entry about Disproportionate Arrests in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime
See Also
Arrest in Juvenile Law
In this context, Arrest information is available through this American legal Encyclopedia.
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