Handcuffing the Cops? A Thirty-Year Perspective on Miranda's Harmful Effects on Law Enforcement

After the Supreme Court's 1966 decision in Miranda v. Arizona, critics charged that it would "handcuff the cops." In this article, Professors Cassell and Fowles find this claim to be supported by FBI data on crime clearance rates. National crime clearance rates fell precipitously in the two years immediately after Miranda and have remained at lower levels in the decades since. Multiple regression analysis reveals that other possibly confounding factors-such as the rising crime rate and baby boom children reaching crime prone-years in the 1960s-do not account for much of the post-Miranda decline in clearance rates. Rather, the cause of the decline was most likely the Supreme Court's broad new restrictions on police questioning. The authors conclude that Miranda has in fact "handcuffed" the police and that society should begin to explore ways of loosening these shackles. Language: en