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Why Police Shouldn't Be Allowed to Lie to Suspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

SAMUEL DUNCAN
SAMUEL DUNCAN*
Affiliation:
TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE sld24688@email.vccs.edu
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Abstract

In this essay, I argue that it is morally wrong for police to lie to suspects in interrogations and that it should be legally prohibited. I base my argument on broadly Kantian considerations about respect for autonomy: Respect for rational agency forbids lying to suspects and there is no plausible and compelling rationale for allowing police to lie to suspects in typical cases of interrogation.

Keywords

ethics of policinglyinginterrogationsKantianism
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 268 - 283
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association

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Footnotes

I thank the two anonymous referees at the Journal of the American Philosophical Association and David Sackris, Michael Gifford, and Derek Shiller for comments on earlier drafts of this essay.

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