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Why Police Shouldn't Be Allowed to Lie to Suspects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2022
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.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association
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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