NCJ Number
143873
Date Published
1993
Length
267 pages
Annotation
This book discusses the principles, dynamics, procedures, techniques, and knowledge base for police interviewing and interrogation.
Abstract
The opening chapter distinguishes between interviewing (the obtaining of information) and interrogation (the obtaining of an admission or confession to a crime), reviews the legal factors that set the parameters for interrogations, and outlines the tactics for interrogation explained in detail in the remainder of the book. These tactics are to exhibit confidence in the interrogatee's responsibility, to use circumstantial evidence to convince the interrogatee to be truthful, to use the interrogatee's behavioral symptoms as examples of deception indicators, to empathize with the interrogatee to assist rationalization and face saving, to reduce and minimize the significance of the matter under investigation, to use nonjudgmental acceptance when communicating with the interrogatee, and to point out the futility of not telling the truth. The second chapter discusses the dynamics of interview participant stress and the importance of relieving such stress to achieve an effective interaction between the interrogator and the interrogatee. The emotional and psychological needs of the interrogatee are discussed in chapter three, followed by chapters that address deception, the selection of interviewers, attitude, authority, interviewer acceptance, self-fulfilling prophecy, polyphasic flow chart, communication, interviewee types, question formulation, intuition, rapport, listening, polygraphy as an investigative tool, and polygraphy in courts of appeals. The concluding chapter presents a case review. 91 references and a subject index