Police interrogation attracts debate and controversy around the world. Audio-visual recording is widely regarded as a panacea for problems in police questioning of suspects. Interrogating Images presents the first empirical study of the routine use of audio-visual recording anywhere in the world, focusing on New South Wales, Australia where such recording has been required for more than a decade. Its introduction is set in a historical account of disputes and concerns about police questioning of suspects. There is a detailed study of the participants in the interrogation process. Various styles of police interviewing are identified, showing that many assumptions about the nature and purpose of interrogation are inaccurate. A chapter assesses the impact in NSW of ‘investigative interviewing’, a questioning style very different from that used in the USA. The penultimate chapter examines the experiences and perceptions of criminal justice professionals – judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors, and police. Interrogating Images concludes by pointing to some dangers of misusing audio-visual recording. If the complete questioning process is not recorded, confessions may be rehearsed and unreliable. A second danger is the misreading of images, particularly by those who overestimate their ability to identify deception from a suspect’s ‘body language’. Audio-visual recording can be a useful tool, but it must be one part of a broader process of effectively regulating investigative practices. Interrogating Images is informative and thought provoking reading for lawyers, police investigators, academic researchers, policy-makers, legislators, students and those with an interest in police interrogation and its implications for criminal justice processes.

Explores how suspect statements are elicited in police interrogations, written down and transformed into a document that is cited in court.

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Coerced confessions have long been a staple of TV crime dramas, and have also been the subject of recent news stories. The complexity of such situations, however, is rarely explored even in the scientific literature. Now in softcover, Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment remains one of the best syntheses of the scientific, legal, and ethical findings in this area, uncovering subtle yet powerful forces that often compromise the integrity of the criminal justice system. Editor G. Daniel Lassiter identifies the exposure of psychological coercion as an emerging frontier in legal psychology, citing its roots in the "third degree" approach of former times, and noting that its techniques carry little scientific validity. A team of psychologists, criminologists, and legal scholars asks—and goes a long way toward answering—important questions such as: - What forms of psychological coercion are involved in interrogation? - Are some people more susceptible to falsely confessing than others? - What are the effects of psychological manipulation on innocent suspects? - Are coercive tactics ever justified with minors? - Can jurors recognize psychological coercion and unreliable confessions? - Can entrapment techniques encourage people to commit crimes? - What steps can law enforcement take to minimize coercion? Throughout this progressive volume, readers will find important research-based ideas for educating the courts, changing policy, and implementing reform, from improving police interrogation skills to better methods of evaluating confession evidence. For the expert witness, legal consultant, or student of forensic psychology, this is material whose relevance will only increase with time.

Forensic linguistics, or the study of language and the law, is a growing field of scholarly and public interest with an established research presence. The Discourse of Police Interviews aims to further the discussion by analyzing how police interviews are constructed and used to investigate and prosecute crimes. The first book to focus exclusively on the discourses of police interviewing, The Discourse of Police Interviews examines leading debates, approaches, and topics in contemporary police interview research. Among other topics, the book explores the sociolegal, psychological, and discursive framework of popular police interview techniques employed in the United States and the United Kingdom, such as PEACE and Reid, and the discursive practices of institutional representatives like police officers and interpreters that can influence the construction and quality of linguistic evidence. Together, the contributions situate the police interview as part of a complex, and multistage, criminal justice process. The book will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners in a variety of fields, such as linguistic anthropology, interpreting studies, criminology, law, and sociology.

The objective of this book is to review the position of investigative interviewing in a variety of different countries, with different types of criminal justice systems, and consists of chapters written by leading authorities in the field, both academics and practitioners. A wide range of often controversial questions are addressed, including issues raised by the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, The Reid model for interviewing and miscarriages of justice, the role of legislation in preventing bad practice, the effectiveness of ethical interviewing, investigative interviewing and human rights, responses to miscarriages of justice, and the likely future of investigative interviewing. The book also makes comparisons between British and American approaches to detention without trial, and the role of confession evidence within adversarial legal systems. It also develops a set of proposals to minimise the risks of miscarriages of justice, irrespective of jurisdiction.

This volume, a sequel to The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony which is widely acclaimed by both scientists and practitioners, brings the field completely up-to-date and focuses in particular on aspects of vulnerability, confabulation and false confessions. The is an unrivalled integration of scientific knowledge of the psychological processes and research relating to interrogation, with the practical investigative and legal issues that bear upon obtaining, and using in court, evidence from interrogations of suspects. * Accessible style which will appeal to academics, students and practitioners * Authoritative integration of theory, research, practical implications and vivid case illustration * Coverage of topical issues like confabulation, false memory, and false confessions Part of the Wiley Series in The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law