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Interrogation techniques introduction
Interrogation methods and if they should be allowed
Interrogation techniques introduction
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Interrogation is a conversation, between a law enforcement officer and a person who is suspected of committing a crime or assisting others to commit a crime (AIU Online, 2007). Interrogations are used in many occasions. They are done to get someone to confess to something, weather it is a crime or giving out information of a crime or someone. When conducting an interrogation the interrogator has to have confidence and creativity. If you do not feel confident in interrogating someone it will show and the person will not give up on information that you want. They will sense that you do not know what you are doing. The creativity skills that are used will help you to get the information that you need to solve a case. If an interrogation goes the way the interrogator planned then they might end up with a confession that they don’t. Scholars estimate that somewhere between 42% and 55% of suspect confess to a criminal during integration ( Layton, 2008).
My priorities to help detectives in their interrogation techniques would be for them to get an understanding of the interrogation proces...
The use of eyewitness statements and testimony’s can be a great source of information, but can also lead to wrongful convictions. Due to eyewitness testimony, innocent people are convicted of crimes they have not committed. This is why the wording of a question is important to consider when interviewing witnesses. Due to the fact that eyewitness testimony can be the most concrete evidence in an investigation, witnesses may feel they are helping an officer by giving them as much information as possible, therefore they may tell them information that is not entirely true, just to please them. This is why there are advantages and disadvantages to using open and close ended questioning at different durations of an interview. The way you word a question may impact the memory of a witness, this is because a person cannot completely memorize the exact occurrences of an event.
Because police investigators are usually under pressure to arrest criminals and safeguard the community, they often make mistakes. Sometimes, detectives become convinced of a suspect 's guilt because of their criminal history or weak speculations. Once they are convinced, they are less likely to consider alternative possibilities. They overlook some important exculpatory evidence, make weak speculations and look only for links that connect a suspect to a crime, especially if the suspect has a previous criminal record. Picking Cotton provides an understanding of some common errors of the police investigation process. During Ronald Cottons interrogation, the detectives did not bother to record the conversation “But I noticed he wasn 't recording the conversation, so I felt that he could be writing anything down”(79) unlike they did for Jennifer. They had already labelled Ronald Cotton as the perpetrator and they told him during the interrogation “Cotton, Jennifer Thompson already identified you. We know it was you”(82). Jenifer Thompson 's testimony along with Ronald Cotton 's past criminal records gave the detectives more reason to believe Ronald committed the crime. Ronald Cotton stated “ This cop Sully, though, he had already decided I was guilty.”(84). Many investigative process have shortcomings and are breached because the officials in charge make
...themselves interrogating. Often, people who are in such situations are trained and prepared to withstand the pain. This results in the inability to acquire any or little factual and useful information.
The Central Park Jogger case is one of false confessions to a crime, with a little help from police, which the defendants did not commit. Evidence taken at the crime scene did exclude the defendants, however, because of videotaped confessions they were sentenced to prison for a crime they admitted to committing even though they did not. It was not until many years later did the original perpetrator step forward from prison to admit he was the one who committed the crime with evidence (DNA) and firsthand knowledge of the scene. The five original defendants were released from prison but until serving a lengthy term. There are cues that can be noticed when investigators are conducting preliminary interviews that have a very high rate of success in determining the guilt or innocence of an individual. Some of these cues may be verbal such as a rehearsed response (Kassin, 2005). Other types of cues may be nonverbal body language such as a slouching (Kassin, 2005).
The first appearance of the notion of silence or lack of silence occurs at the first presence of the criminal justice system: the initial meeting with a police officer. During the War on Drugs, it became common for police officers to stop and frisk people, including those without suspicious behavior, in search of drug violations. Although, not against the law, the majority of people do not know that they have the option of declining such a search and refuse to answer any questions. Professor Tracey Maclin conducted a study regarding this phenomenon concluding, “the overwhelming majority of people who are confronted by police and asked questions respond, and when asked to be searched, they comply. This is the case even among those… who have every reason to resist these tactics because they actually have something to hide” (Alexander 66). Therefore, the finding suggests that only a few people do not fear a supposed consequence of not abiding by a police officer’s request. Hence, people remain silent and do n...
The Reid Technique was born out of a compassionate man, John Reid, who had an interest in human behavior. In the 1930s, the primary tools used for interrogation consisted of intense and intimidating questioning, with the use of the very rudimentary polygraph technique. (Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2013, p. vii) On a quest to find a technique that was more effective, Reid began to observe the behaviors of subjects who were interviewed or interrogated, and realized a distinct pattern of behaviors and a routine succession of those behaviors. (Inbau, Reid, Buckley, & Jayne, 2...
The first step of the interrogation begins with direct positive confrontation. This is where the interrogator confronts the suspects in a manner that creates an understanding that there is evidence against them. This evidence may or may not be true but the evidence is exaggerated so that it i...
Mental retardation or suspects with low intelligence quotients (IQ) are easily manipulated by police comments and interrogation tactics. Those suspects usually do not understand the law or the consequences of a confession. They may want to please the police officer by being accommodating or agreeable. They may just wa...
Voluntary false confessions, compliant false confessions, persuaded false confessions. A voluntary false confession is one that is given in the absence of police interrogation (Kassin & Wrightsman, 1985). These may be the result of a psychological disturbance, desire for notoriety or fame, need to expiate guilt over imagined or real acts, desire to protect a criminal, provide an alibi for a different crime, or for revenge (Kassin & Wrightsman, 1985). Compliant false confessions are given in agreement to police coercion or pressure. These are typically to escape from the stress of an interrogation, to take advantage of a perceived suggestion or promise of leniency, or to avoid an anticipated harsh punishment (Ofshe & Leo, 1997). Persuaded false confessions are those which occur when “ police interrogation tactics cause an innocent suspect to doubt his memory and he becomes temporarily persuaded that it is more likely than not that he committed the crime, though he has no recollection of committing it (Leo, 2009). These types of false confessions cause suspects to suffer cognitive dissonance because of the accusers telling him that he committed a crime but the innocent suspect has no memory of it, so he believes that he just does not remember committing the crime. These types of false confessions occur much less than compliant false
As stated by Bartol and Bartol (2008), investigative psychology is the application of psychological research and principles to the investigation of criminal behavior (Bartol & Bartol, 2008). Investigative psychology is closely associated with criminal profiling, but there are other areas in which a forensic psychologist can participate in this particular subspecialty. An investigative psychologist maybe asked to perform a psychological autopsy, forensic hypnosis, or produce a geographical mapping. Psychological autopsies are generally performed in suspected suicide cases where the insurance company or family member questions the cause of death. Forensic hypnosis is an interview or interrogation method used by trained and credentialed professionals. Lastly, geographic mapping is a method of research “concerned with analyzing spatial patterns of crimes committed by numerous offenders over a period of time (Bartol & Bartol, 2008).” Geographic profiling is the analysis of a single serial offender’s geographic movement.
12 Essential Skills for the Professional Investigator. Retrieved from http://pi-telegraph.com/12-essential-skills-professional-investigator/. N / A. a. The adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of #23: What is it like to be a private investigator? The 7 things I wish I knew before becoming a private investigator. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from www.privateinvestigatoradvicehq.com:
Leo, R and Ofshe R. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions. 16 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 189,
Since the inception of this niche in psychology, there has been a greater appreciation for the use of police psychological services. Now almost every police department has a separate psychology department with a number of psychologists working with its other employees. This specialized subset of psychology delivers a number of services to its employees, from assessing qualified applicants, counseling, to suspect profiling and providing expertise during hostage situations. The field has grown tremendously, especially over the last 40 years and has developed into its own sub-specialty with its own dedicated research, journals and professional organizations. During that time, there have been great strides made in developing this relationship betwe...
When an investigator is conducted an interrogation, they will use every tactic necessary to get the suspect to tell the truth. Also, when there is an interrogation the investigator is not confident that there are insufficient evidence and the suspect’s guilt is not one hundred percent certain, so the interrogator may fabricate the truth or even lie to the suspect to get them to confess (Hall, 2015). The investigators have to use tactics that will deceive the suspect although it is not right to do so because if deception is not used the suspect will not voluntarily say that, they committed the crime. if a suspect commits a crime and writes a statement that was not true we as law enforcement officers we would charge the suspect with falsifying
Beyond that, there are three main methods, tactics of questioning used to achieve visible changes. The first, and most common, method is called the relevant-irrelevant tactic. The subject is first asked a very specific question about the focus of the interview, then they are asked a totally unrelated question. The unrelated question provides very little reason to lie. If the subject exhibits stronger responses to the relevant questions than they do to the irrelevant ones indicates deception. The second tactic, the control-comparison tactic, involves asking the subject questions very much alike to those one would ask in the relevant-irrelevant, only replacing the irrelevant questions with ones meant to cause a reaction. In a situation where the subject responds to the relevant questions with more concern, it will be shown through a much stronger physical response. The final method is referred to as the guilty knowledge tactic. This tactic differs from the others quite a bit. The subject is asked very detailed multiple choice questions about very specific information. Said information will only be known by investigators, direct witnesses, and those who participated in the committing of the crime in question. In the event that the subject denies knowledge of the event, and has a strong