Originating from the Latin detentĭo, the term detention is linked to the verb to stop. This action consists of braking, paralyzing or suspending the march or something that is being done.
For example: “The stoppage of the works was decided by the municipal authorities due to the risk of collapse”, “He is a good goalkeeper, but he has problems stopping the ball when it arrives with a lot of parabola”, “The stoppage of the train out of control was only achieved one kilometer from the station”.
In these cases we can see that the notion of movement is always present, although sometimes in a more symbolic way than others. For example, while stopping a ball or a train in full motion are really interruptions in the progress of a material body, stopping a construction site refers to the cessation of a series of activities.
The concept of detention, however, usually appears associated with the action of a member of a security force that captures and arrests a person. Detention, in this sense, consists of depriving a subject of his liberty for a certain period of time. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to detention.
A competent authority is the one who can order the arrest of a person when he is suspected of having committed a crime. The goal is for the suspect to be brought before the Judiciary to determine her possible guilt.
Another possibility is that a police officer decides to arrest a person when he finds them committing a crime red- handed. If an agent walks past a store and notices a hooded man forcing the door open, he can stop him and thus momentarily deprive him of his freedom.
The length of detention depends on what is established by law and what is set by a judge. A person can be held in preventive detention until the court sentence arrives or be detained for the time established by an already confirmed sentence.
Arrest can be a very difficult time to go through and overcome for the arrested person, no matter how guilty. Whether or not she has committed the acts of which she is accused, it can be very violent when a group of police officers deprive her of her freedom in the middle of the street, in front of unknown people or even in the context of a meeting with family or friends..
Although most people know arrest through the screen as something alien, which will never happen to them “because they refrain from committing crimes”, no one is completely safe from it, since the police make several mistakes every day when judging suspects. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to hear of the wrong people being arrested or even murdered, simply because they ‘looked too much like the criminals’.
In any case, the lawyers recommend those who have to go through a police detention to remain calm and follow the recommendations to the letter, to prevent their situation from getting worse. Especially in mistaken arrests, the defendant’s reaction can be violent due to excessive resistance and lead to a second accusation, which he will have to face.
Once at the police station, depending on many factors, it is likely that the person must spend several hours or even more than a day waiting for a decision from the authorities. In an instance like this, he must demand his right to communicate with someone he trusts to ask for help, to call his lawyer or, at least, tell him not to worry and to wait for news from him.