ABSTRACT
Reconceptualisation would also bring with it the additional benefit of removing issues with identification, definition and discretion. A reconceptualisation of vulnerability would require the widening of the appropriate adult provision to include all who are subject to police investigation under suspicion of committing a criminal offence. A picture of how custody officers approach the task of identifying vulnerability and implementing the appropriate adult safeguard, and why they approach their task in the manner explored has emerged. Vulnerability is also constructed in a manner that best makes sense to the custody officer; it is interpreted through his frame of reference. Essentially, vulnerability and the appropriate adult safeguard are interpreted pursuant to police objectives. Vulnerability may arise through detention in police custody, the unequal power relations between the detainer and the detained, and through the police exercise of ‘physical, territorial and information control’.
