Arrest means that you are taken into custody (legal protection or control) by the police, most often because of a suspicion of having committed or about to commit a crime. You will be questioned by the police who will ask probing questions about your whereabouts and activities (although you have the right not to answer these) and the police can search your belongings.
If the police have reasonable cause to believe that you are about to commit an offence, they can arrest you without a warrant in a public place. They must also give you adequate notice of their intention to do so unless they have reasonable cause to believe that you are about the commit a crime immediately.
People who are arrested for minor offences such as petty theft can be detained by the police and have their case heard in court. They are often put on the ‘fleeing offender list’ and their bail is denied which can result in them being held in pre-trial detention or extradited to another country.
Our nationally representative study demonstrates that many young people are being arrested repeatedly and at a younger age than in the past, and this is having adverse health consequences for them later in life. For example, in adolescence, people who were arrested frequently had worse general health and more depressive symptoms, and, by adulthood, those who experienced youth arrests had higher mortality rates. Our research highlights the need for reform of policies governing supervision of police, and for improvements in how arrest data are collected and analyzed.