Humane Interrogation Strategies Are Associated With Confessions,Cooperation,and Disclosure: Evidence From a Field Study of Incarcerated Individuals in the United States

Abstract

The techniques used to interrogate individuals suspected of a crime can profoundly impact their decisions to confess, cooperate, or disclose information. Research using different methods suggests that two prevailing interrogation approaches—accusatorial and information-gathering—differentially impact interrogation outcomes. However, confession, cooperation, and information disclosure are ultimately the suspected person’s decision, yet few studies directly examine their perspectives about how interrogation techniques affect their decisions, and none examine a U.S. sample. This study assessed how interrogation strategies characterized by humanity, rapport, confrontation, and dominance/control predicted interrogation outcomes in a sample of 249 individuals incarcerated in two U.S. jails. Respondents who reported experiencing humane strategies were more likely to confess, cooperate completely, and disclose incriminating information. Dominance/control-oriented strategies predicted partial confession (but not cooperation or disclosure), and rapport-based and confrontational techniques did not predict outcomes. Findings highlight humane interrogation strategies as likely the most productive strategies to adopt in criminal interrogations.

Keywords

interrogation confession cooperation disclosure suspect

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Appleby

S. C.

Hasel

L. E.

Kassin

S. M.

(2013). Police-induced confessions: An empirical analysis of their content and impact. Psychology, Crime & Law, 19(2), 111–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2011.613389

Appleby

S. C.

Kassin

S. M.

(2016). When self-report trumps science: Effects of confessions, DNA, and prosecutorial theories on perceptions of guilt. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 22(2), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000080.supp

Brimbal

Meissner

C. A.

Kleinman

S. M.

Phillips

E. L.

Atkinson

D. J.

Dianiska

R. E.

Rothweiler

J. N.

Oleszkiewicz

Jones

M. S.

(2021). Evaluating the benefits of a rapport-based approach to investigative interviews: A training study with law enforcement investigators. Law and Human Behavior, 45(1), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000437

Bull

Milne

(2004). Attempts to improve police interviewing of suspects. In Lassiter

G. D.

(Ed.), Interrogations, confessions and entrapment (pp. 181–196). Plenum.

Bull

Rachlew

(2020). Investigative interviewing: From England to Norway and beyond. In Barela

S. J.

Fallon

Gaggioli

(Eds.), Interrogation and torture (pp. 171–196). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190097523.001.0001

Cleary

H. M. D.

Bull

(2019). Jail inmates’ perspectives on police interrogation. Psychology, Crime & Law, 25(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2018.1503667

Cleary

H. M. D.

Bull

(2021). Contextual factors predict self-reported confession decision-making: A field study of suspects’ actual police interrogation experiences. Law and Human Behavior, 45(4), 310–323. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000459

Cleary

H. M. D.

Warner

T. C.

(2016). Police training in interviewing and interrogation methods: A comparison of techniques used with adult and juvenile suspects. Law and Human Behavior, 40(3), 270–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000175

Crough

Dion Larivière

Snow

M. D.

Eastwood

(2022). Reflections on the nature of rapport within suspect interviews. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 34(2), 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2021.2018814

10.

Deslauriers-Varin

Beauregard

Wong

(2011). Changing their mind about confessing to police: The role of contextual factors in crime confession. Police Quarterly, 14(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611110392721

11.

Evans

J. R.

Meissner

C. A.

Ross

A. B.

Houston

K. A.

Russano

M. B.

Horgan

A. J.

(2013). Obtaining guilty knowledge in human intelligence interrogations: Comparing accusatorial and information-gathering approaches with a novel experimental paradigm. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 2(2), 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2013.03.002

12.

Fenn

Grosz

Blandón-Gitlin

(2019). Interviewing and interrogating minority suspects: Psychological science can help improve the process and outcomes. In Bull

Blandón-Gitlin

(Eds.), The Routledge International handbook of legal and investigative psychology (pp. 116–132). Routledge.

13.

Field

(2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics. Los Angeles: Sage.

14.

Gabbert

Hope

Luther

Wright

Oxburgh

(2021). Exploring the use of rapport in professional information-gathering contexts by systematically mapping the evidence base. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(2), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3762

15.

Goodison

S. E.

(2022). Local police departments personnel, 2020. Bureau of Justice Statistics: U.S. Department of Justice. https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/lpdp20.pdf

16.

Goodman-Delahunty

Martschuk

Dhami

M. K.

(2014). Interviewing high value detainees: Securing cooperation and disclosures. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(6), 883–897. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3087

17.

Häkkänen

Ask

Kebbell

Alison

Granhag

P. A.

(2009). Police officers’ views of effective interview tactics with suspects: The effects of weight of case evidence and discomfort with ambiguity. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(4), 468–481. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1491

18.

Holmberg

Christianson

S.-Å

. (2002). Murderers’ and sexual offenders’ experiences of police interviews and their inclination to admit or deny crimes. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 20(1–2), 31–45. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.470

19.

Inbau

F. E.

Reid

J. E.

Buckley

J. P.

Jayne

B. C.

(2013). Criminal interrogation and confessions (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

20.

Jones-Brown

Williams

J. M.

(2021). Over-policing Black bodies: The need for multidimensional and transformative reforms. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 19(3–4), 181–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2021.1992326

21.

Kassin

S. M.

Drizin

S. A.

Grisso

Gudjonsson

G. H.

Leo

R. A.

Redlich

A. D.

(2010). Police-induced confessions: Risk factors and recommendations. Law and Human Behavior, 34(1), 3–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-009-9188-6

22.

Kebbell

Alison

Hurren

(2008). Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity, dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study. Psychology, Crime & Law, 14(5), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/10683160801950523

23.

Kebbell

Alison

Hurren

Mazerolle

(2010). How do sex offenders think the police should interview to elicit confessions from sex offenders? Psychology, Crime & Law, 16(7), 567–584. https://doi.org/10.1080/10683160902971055

24.

Kelly

C. E.

Miller

J. C.

Redlich

A. D.

Kleinman

S. M.

(2013). A taxonomy of interrogation methods. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 19(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030310

25.

Leo

R. A.

(2008). Police interrogation and American justice. Harvard University Press.

26.

May

Gewehr

Zimmermann

Raible

Volbert

(2021). How guilty and innocent suspects perceive the police and themselves: Suspect interviews in Germany. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 26(1), 42–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/lcrp.12184

27.

Meissner

C. A.

Redlich

A. D.

Michael

S. W.

Evans

J. R.

Camilletti

C. R.

Bhatt

Brandon

(2014). Accusatorial and information-gathering interrogation methods and their effects on true and false confessions: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 459–486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9207-6

28.

Meissner

C. A.

Surmon-Böhr

Oleszkiewicz

Alison

L. J.

(2017). Developing an evidence-based perspective on interrogation: A review of the U.S. government’s high-value detainee interrogation group research program. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 23(4), 438–457. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000136

29.

Mendez

(2021). Principles on effective interviewing for investigations and information gathering. https://interviewingprinciples.com/

30.

Miller

J. C.

Redlich

A. D.

Kelly

C. E.

(2018). Accusatorial and information-gathering interview and interrogation methods: A multi-country comparison. Psychology, Crime & Law, 24(9), 935–956. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2018.1467909

31.

Milne

Bull

(1999). Investigative interviewing: Psychology and practice. Wiley.

32.

Redlich

A. D.

Yan

Norris

R. J.

Bushway

S. D.

(2018). The influence of confessions on guilty pleas and plea discounts. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 24(2), 147–157. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000144

33.

Scherr

K. C.

Redlich

A. D.

Kassin

S. M.

(2020). Cumulative disadvantage: A psychological framework for understanding how innocence can lead to confession, wrongful conviction, and beyond. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(2), 353–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619896608

34.

Shaked-Schroer

Costanzo

Berger

D. E.

(2015). Overlooking coerciveness: The impact of interrogation techniques and guilt corroboration on jurors’ judgments of coerciveness. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 20(1), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/lcrp.12011

35.

Snook

Brooks

Bull

(2015). A lesson on interrogations from detainees: Predicting self-reported confessions and cooperation. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(12), 1243–1260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815604179

36.

Vallano

J. P.

Schreiber Compo

(2015). Rapport-building with cooperative witnesses and criminal suspects: A theoretical and empirical review. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 21(1), 85–99.

37.

Vrij

Hartwig

Granhag

P. A.

(2019). Reading lies: Nonverbal communication and deception. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 295–317. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103135

38.

Wachi

Watanabe

Yokota

Otsuka

Kuraishi

Lamb

(2014). Police interviewing styles and confessions in Japan. Psychology, Crime & Law, 20(7), 673–694. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2013.854791

39.

Wachi

Watanabe

Yokota

Otsuka

Lamb

M. E.

(2016a). Japanese interrogation techniques from prisoners’ perspectives. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(5), 617–634. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815608667

40.

Wachi

Watanabe

Yokota

Otsuka

Lamb

M. E.

(2016b). Japanese suspect interviews, confessions, and related factors. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 31(3), 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9179-0

41.

Walsh

Bull

(2010). What really is effective in interviews with suspects? A study comparing interviewing skills against interviewing outcomes. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 15(2), 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1348/135532509X463356

42.

Walsh

Bull

(2012). Examining rapport in investigative interviews with suspects: Does its building and maintenance work? Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 27(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-011-9087-x

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.06 MB