Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

Over 42% of subjects interviewed said they had experienced considerable relief
after confessing and 40% said they had confessed because they felt guilty. 383 In
relation to the third facilitative factor, perception of proof, 55% of subjects said
that they had confessed because they strongly believed at the time that the police
would be able to prove they had committed the crime. 384 Gudjonsson identified
fear of the consequences of confessing as an inhibitory factor. 385 Of the three
facilitative factors, Gudjonsson concluded that the single greatest incentive to
confess related to the strength of the evidence against the suspect. 386
Section 3. Interrogation Techniques in the Literature
Turning from the theoretical and empirical literature to the practical, there are
numerous guides available to the public concerning interrogation techniques. The
majority of interrogation manuals, or “how-to” texts, are produced in the United
States and are generally based on the practical experience of interrogators. 387 The
most influential of these practical interrogation manuals is Criminal Interrogation
and Confessions, written by Inbau, Reid, Buckley, and Jayne. 388 It is also perhaps
the most comprehensive, unified approach to interrogation, laying out an overall
schema for the entire interaction with the suspect. Inbau et al. take over 600 pages
to describe the stages and requirements of a successful interrogation according to
the Reid Technique. The Reid Technique was originally developed in the 1940s
and 1950s by John E. Reid and the text has continually evolved since then, with
the fourth and most recent edition published in 2004. 389 Other classic texts include
Royal and Schutt’s The Gentle Art of Interviewing and Interrogation, as well
as Aubry and Caputo’s Criminal Interrogation. A newer text that seems to be
garnering some attention is Stan Walters’s Kinesic Interview and Interrogation.
These, combined with a number of other, lesser known “how-to” guides, provide
a basic outline of successful interrogation. To some degree, almost all cover the
same aspects of the successful interrogation: 1) characteristics/qualifications
of the interrogator; 2) pre-interrogation fact gathering and analysis; 3) the
interrogation setting; 4) pre-interrogation interview and rapport-building; 5)
analysis of behavioral symptoms; 6) interrogation of the suspect; 7) detection of
deceit; and 8) securing the confession.
While some criticize the Reid Technique and most of the other available
interrogation guides as relying too heavily on overly coercive persuasion
methods, 390 those critics also acknowledge that some persuasion pressure is
necessary, since most suspects are reluctant to admit their crimes or often even
383
Id.
384
Id.
385
Id., p. 152.
386
Id., p. 157.
387
Id., p. 7.
388
Id.
389
Inbau, see note 109, p. ix.
390
Gudjonsson, see note 110, p. 7.
174