Samenvatting

Statements provided by suspects during police questioning often still play a central role in criminal proceedings. Partly in light of the inevitable pressures associated with police questioning, the procedural rights of suspects in the context of police questioning have been strengthened in recent years at both European and national levels. However, such strengthened procedural safeguards are useful in practice only if suspects actually (can) exercise their rights. The findings of (mainly Anglo-Saxon) criminological-psychological research demonstrate that the effective exercise of procedural rights is by no means self-evident. In fact, the exercise of procedural rights can be hampered in practice by numerous psychological mechanisms and the dynamics inherent to the interaction between a suspect and the police and judicial authorities. Therefore, purely legal measures are insufficient to improve the effective exercise of procedural rights in practice. Thus, in addition to purely legal initiatives, other measures – such as awareness-raising and science-based training – are needed to facilitate the effective exercise of procedural rights by suspects in practice.