Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

D.W. Neubauer, “Confessions in Prairie City: Some Causes and Effects,”
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 65 (1974), 103-112.
J. Pearse et al., “Police Interviewing and Psychological Vulnerabilities:
Predicting the Likelihood of a Confession,” Journal of Community
and Applied Social Psychology 8, no. 1 (1998), 1-21.
C. Phillips and D. Brown, Entry into the Criminal Justice System: A Survey of
Police Arrests and their Outcomes, Home Office Research Study no.
185 (London: HMSO, 1998).
P. Softley, Police Interrogation. An Observational Study in Four Police
Stations, Home Office Research Study no. 61(London: HMSO, 1980).
M. Zander, “The Investigation of Crime: A Study of Cases Tried at the Old
Bailey,” Criminal Law Review (1979), 203-219.
Even a cursory study of these data makes clear that the admission/confession
rate is substantially (about 15%) lower in the United States than in England.
However, Gudjonsson cautions against drawing any conclusions from this disparity
for several reasons. First, he notes that generalizations from the available data
may be unwise given “the scarcity of recent studies in the United States and the
relatively low number of cases evaluated in each study.” 303 Second, differences
between England and the United States in confession rates “may relate to the
greater impact of the Miranda rules on the confession rate than the restrictions
imposed on British law enforcement.” 304 Third, Gudjonsson suggests that many
English legal representatives at police stations might be “passive and ineffectual in
their role.” 305 Finally, he notes that confession rate differences across nations “may
be related to cultural factors influencing both police and suspects.” 306 Additionally,
it should be noted that the data cited in Table 2 for the most recent U.S. study
(Leo, 1996) do not include suspects who made incriminating statements shy of
an admission or confession. As explained below, inclusion of these figures would
dramatically alter the results.
Richard Leo’s 1996 study of interrogation practices in the United States
involved nine months of observational work inside a major urban police
department in the United States, where he contemporaneously observed 122
interrogations involving 45 different detectives. 307 Leo also viewed 30 videotaped
custodial interrogations performed by a second police department, and another
30 videotaped interrogations performed by a third. 308 Generally, Leo sought to
303
Gudjonsson, see note 110, p. 139.
304
Id., 139-40.
305
Id., 140.
306
Id.
307
Leo, see note 110, p. 268.
308
Id.
166