Any type of action that compromises the liberty of the victim, can be termed as false imprisonment. Depending on the nature of “boundary” or restriction imposed on the victim, cases of false imprisonment come under different types. In most cases of false imprisonment filed in court, the restriction consists of physical boundaries such as an enclosed room with closed doors and windows that the victim is unable to escape from or that the victim is bound to a chair or any other piece of furniture. Sometimes, the perpetrators may use false legal authority to impose boundaries that confine the victim within the restricted area. In simple words, this means that the they pose as lawmakers and threaten hapless people, turning them into victims of false imprisonment. Another way of imposing false imprisonment is by threat, as we saw in the example of the robbers in the bank. Note that false imprisonment does not only include restricting a person within the confines of a building but also modes of transport such as cars and even airplanes.

Exceptions to the Law of False Imprisonment

The laws for false imprisonment have a few exceptions, which means that not every forceful detention is against the law. But why so, you may ask. Well, this is to aid legal procedures and ensure that they are faster. What are they and how in the world do they help the law? Read ahead to find out.

Law enforcement exception
Have you ever seen police personnel detain people who they suspect to have committed a crime? Now, the police do not have sufficient proof against these guys when they arrest them, do they? Yet, if they release them and these people go on to prove guilty later on, it would be next to impossible to find them. It is due to this reason that police have been bestowed with the power to detain people they suspect till the time they are proved innocent. The objective is to prevent the miscreants from escaping the police and the law.

Shopkeeper’s Privilege
Well, you must have heard of this term before. Shopkeeper’s privilege refers to the power bestowed to businessmen and shop owners that gives them the authority to detain a person they suspect of shoplifting i.e. stealing merchandise from their shops. However, they are not entitled to detain the person for infinite time but only for the time required for conducting a thorough search on the individual and his belongings and find out if indeed anything was stolen.

A case of false imprisonment can be tried in a civil court as well as a criminal court. If it is a civil case, the accused is entitled to pay compensation to the plaintiff, for the damages caused. On the other hand, a criminal case of false imprisonment results in the accused getting arrested and he is sentenced to prison. Kidnapping is an example of false imprisonment that is tried in a criminal court.