Things can get very complicated when minors get arrested. This happens consistently in the United States, and many of them spend time behind bars. It’s important for these minors and their parents to understand how to approach a situation like this so that they can set the child up for the best possible future.
One thing to keep in mind is that it may not be wise for juvenile offenders to talk to the police, at least without their legal team present. There are many things that they could say to accidentally incriminate themselves or make themselves look guilty of crimes they never committed. They may feel like they are just trying to explain the situation or make the whole issue go away, but they are really just making it worse.
Treating them like adults
One potential problem is that the police tend to treat children the same way that they treat adults. That can create a lot of issues and can lead to inaccurate results in the case. Children can easily be intimidated to make a false confession, for example. They may also be confused about the law or not even really understand what they have been accused of doing wrong. At their age, they just don’t have all of the information an adult would.
Manipulation and lies
Another thing to remember is that the police are allowed to lie to those who have been arrested. If they do this with a child, the child may not have the life experience to realize that what they’re being told is inaccurate.
For example, a police officer may tell the child that all the charges will be dropped if they will just admit what they did. The child may then claim that they did something illegal, just trying to get those charges dropped, when they didn’t even do it. The police then take this confession to court and get a conviction, but it’s all just based on the fact that they manipulated a child during an interrogation.
What options do you have?
If your child has been arrested and you’re concerned about this difficult situation, as you should be, take the time to look into all of your legal options.
