ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the complex interactions can be understood through the lens of criminal justice and policing theory. It provides the penultimate piece of the appropriate adult puzzle. Custody officers were often provided with information through which to ascertain whether the suspect had a mental disorder or a mental vulnerability and thus required an appropriate adult but it is what they chose to do with this information that resulted in non-implementation of the safeguard. Custody officers have a tendency to focus on the suspect’s capacity when deeming him or her ‘appropriate adult vulnerable’. The main aim for custody officers is to ensure that ‘everybody that comes in leaves alive’. Culturalism helps illuminate the characteristics influencing custody officer decision-making and also assists with understanding the custody officer’s approach to how vulnerability is defined and identified. Police culture thus has an influence on how police officers interpret rules and how they exercise discretion.
