Citizen's Arrest and Race

Authors

Ira P. Robbins, American University Washington College of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Journal

Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law

Volume

20

Issue

1

First Page

133

Last Page

150

Abstract

I begin with a mea culpa. In 2016, I published an article about citizen’s arrest. The idea for the article arose in 2014, when a disgruntled Virginia citizen attempted to arrest a law school professor while class was in progress. I set out to research and write a “traditional” law review article. In it, I traced the origins of the doctrine of citizen’s arrest to medieval England, imposing a positive duty on citizens to assist the King in seeking out suspected offenders and detaining them. I observed that the need for citizen’s arrest lessened with the development of organized and widespread law-enforcement entities. I surveyed developments across the United States and highlighted numerous problems with the doctrine that led to confusion and abuse. I concluded by recommending abolition of the doctrine in most instances and proposed a model statute to address appropriate applications of citizen’s arrest.

Recommended Citation

Ira P. Robbins, Citizen's Arrest and Race, 20 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 133 (2022).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev/2213