NCJ Number
143249
Journal
State Peace Officers Journal Volume: 341 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 57-63
Date Published
1992
Length
7 pages
Annotation
There exists a gross misperception among the public and even police officers that a guilty suspect will, after a brief period of interrogation, admit to his crime. However, in real life, confessions are usually elicited only after a skilled questioner employs non-endangering, psychologically effective tactics and techniques.
Abstract
In recent years, several confessions have been suppressed by the courts because the defendants claimed that the psychologically sophisticated nature of the interrogation techniques deceived them into confessing. These authors maintain that sophisticated techniques should be used to induce truth telling by a criminal suspect. Interrogation should be aimed at ascertaining the probability that the suspect is or is not the offender, eliminating innocent suspects, and obtaining a confession from the guilty suspect or information leading to other suspects. Obtaining a confession is accomplished by reducing the suspect's resistance to confess and increasing his desire to tell the truth. The interrogator shuts down the suspect's defenses by developing a theme in which external factors are blamed for the decision to commit the crime. Other techniques used include expressing high confidence in the suspect's guilt, preventing the suspect from verbalizing denials, sympathizing with the suspect's position, and indicating there is evidence implicating the suspect in the commission of the crime. An interrogation based on these techniques should not be characterized as brainwashing, coercion, compulsion, duress, or hypnosis.