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Preferred term

totality of the circumstances test  

Definition

  • While in some areas courts attempt to establish bright-line rules that leave little to individual police discretion, in other areas they apply a totality of the circumstances test that allows for the weighing of multiple factors. Prior to the decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), in which the Supreme Court specified that officers needed to inform individuals of a wide variety of specific rights, like the right to counsel and the right to remain silent, it applied a totality of the circumstances approach to ascertain whether defendants had made confessions voluntarily. [Source: Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment; Totality of the Circumstances Test]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/totality_of_the_circumstances_test

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