Learn English – the difference between being taken into custody vs being detained

word-choice

In an environment where word choice matters (news, journals etc) what would be recommended for each usage:
Does being taken into custody lend its usage to the surrounding context to fit its roll or does it lean to one side, detain or arrest, more than the other?

I looked up in the dictionary:

Detain: (HOLD), apprehend, arrest, take into custody, put into custody, take(in), seize, confine, keep back, delay, jail, etc

(Take into) custody: put under arrest, apprehend, arrest, seize, , incarceration, remand, detention, etc

It also seems that both words have similar synonyms.

In an example I found in the paper:

A Kurdish journalist, Arin Sheikhums, 30, said he had visited three camps where Arab, Asian and European "war prisoners" were being held. He said he had seen as many as 100 women and children who had been taken into custody to be turned over to their home countries, including Russia, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. In at least one of the camps, a large number of the prisoners were suspected fighters from Tunisia, a United States official said.

In this news article it feels like the women and children have been taken against their will and are going to be deported. In this case it feels less like arrest and more like detaining.

If it were an article about people commiting crimes and being arrested would the criminals have been taken into custody be synonymous with arrested or synonymous with detained? Or would this, in this case, be used when someone might become arrested but because of lacking information said person is being detained.

Best Answer

Though the two terms can be analagous, being detained, as illustrated in your examples, is less formal and does not necessarily indicate you are under arrest or will be taken into custody.

It is used as a way to protect your 5th ammendment rights, some recommend asking if you are being detained or if you are free to go when stopped by the police.

If the officer says you are not under arrest, but you are not free to go, then you are being detained.

https://www.aclu.org/files/kyr/kyr_english_2.pdf

In the news there has been quite a bit of scrutiny over the military detaining prisoners without due process during the so called "War on Terror". The difference in this case is that while the individuals have been taken into custody, for long periods of time, they are technically not under arrest, and in many instances have not been charged with a crime but are instead being detained indefinately.

The detentions at Guantanamo Bay have given rise to at least three major concerns. First, the United States made the alarming decision that the detainees are beyond the reach of any authority other than their military. Based on this conclusion, the military originally denied the detainees even the most basic rights, including prisoner-of-war status, access to the courts and to attorneys, and contact with their families.

https://jjlp.law.ucdavis.edu/archives/vol-9-no-1/03_jamison.pdf

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