Interview and Interrogation

The Reed Method is the primary method of interrogation in the United States. It was created by an individual named John Reed in the 1940s, who co-wrote a textbook entitled, “Criminal Interrogation and Confessions”, a textbook which has become the bible of all police interrogation training in America.

The Chicago-based training firm, Reed and Associates, goes around the country, putting on seminars to teach police officers and detectives the Reed Method of Interrogation. Virtually every detective in American police has either been trained in the Reed Method directly through Reed and Associates or through similar interrogation training put on by someone else or by the police department to which they belong.

The first thing to know about the Reed Method, is that there’s a big difference between interviewing and interrogation. Interviewing is something police do to witnesses, victims and potential suspects. It involves asking friendly open-ended questions in a non-accusatorial and non-confrontational manner. The purpose of an interview is to get the truth and as much information as can be helpful in figuring out the truth and getting investigative leads.

By contrast, an interrogation is a very different activity. Police interrogate suspects only when they presume the guilt of the suspect and the purpose of the interrogation is to get incriminating statements and admission or a full confession. It is not necessarily to get the truth. Remember, the idea is that police detectives already know the truth or the detective thinks he knows the truth; in other words, that the suspect is guilty. And so, the purpose of interrogation is to confirm what the interrogator believes, not necessarily the truth. As a result, the interrogation is accusatory and confrontational. The detective is supposed to do most of the talking and the detective uses specialized interrogation techniques whose purpose is to manipulate a suspect’s perception. And these techniques include leading suggestive, sometimes even, coercive questioning methods.

The ultimate goal of an interrogation is to move the suspect from denial on the one hand to admission or confession. The Reed Method is simple to understand. The main idea as put forward by the Reed School is that the interrogator needs to change the suspects mindset by raising their anxiety and changing their perceptions about what will happen to them, depending on whether or not they confess.

The Reed Method seeks to accomplish this through a few primary interrogation techniques. First, the interrogator seeks to isolate the suspect from the environment in which the suspect feels comfortable and from any social networks for outside support to show the suspect that he, the interrogator, dominates and controls the interaction.

Second, the interrogator accuses the suspect of committing the crime in a competent unwavering manner. The interrogator will not only repeat his accusations often but he will also cut out the suspect’s denial.

Third, the interrogator will attack the suspects alibis or denials as either illogical, impossible, inconsistent or simply contradicted by case facts, even if it is not and the interrogator will confront the suspect with real or fabricated evidence, a technique that is known as “the evidence ploy”.

The purpose of attacking the suspect’s alibi or denials and confronting the suspect with real or fabricated evidence is to convince the suspect that he’s caught; that there’s no way to escape the fact that everyone will think he is guilty and no one will believe his alibis or his denials. In short, it is to convince the suspect that he has no choice but to cooperate with the interrogator.

Fourth, the interrogator in the Reed Method confronts the suspect with what are called “themes”. A theme is a psychological excuse or justification for why someone would have committed an act. So, for example, in a murder case the interrogator may suggest the theme of an accident or perhaps self defense; that the suspect committed the crime accidentally; that it was a mistake, not intentional or in self defense, to make the suspect feel that he is less blameworthy or less culpable for the underlying act – the death of the victim and therefore trying to make it easier for the suspect to admit to the killing.

The Reed Method of Interrogation can lead individuals who are completely innocent to sometimes either come to doubt themselves and their memory and/or to make false statements, false admissions or false confessions. The reason the Reed method can lead innocent suspects to do this is because once the suspect is moved to the point of hopelessness, he may come to perceive that he has very little choice in the matter. If the suspect believes the interrogator, whether or not he continues to deny committing the crime, he will perceive that he is trapped, caught and powerless; that no matter that he is innocent, he will get convicted.

An innocent suspect can be lead to say and possibly believe that it must have happened while he was asleep because he has no memory of it. It must have happened while he was blacked-out or drunk because he has no memory of it… or lead to believe, or made to believe that if he just agrees with something, that something accidentally happened, it will be in his self-interest.

The Reed Method of Interrogation can be very psychologically coercive on both suspects that are guilty as well as suspects who are innocent.

Слова к тексту 3:

1. a confession [kənˊfeʃən] - признание вины

2. open-ended - открытый

3. to presume [prɪˊzju:m] - предполагать

4. incriminating - инкриминирующий

5. an admission [ədˊmɪʃən] - признание

6. to confirm [kənˊfə:m] - подтверждать

7. accusatorial [əˏkju:zəˊtɔ:rɪəl] - обвинительный, обличительный

8. confrontational - конфронтационный

9. perception [pəˊsepʃən] - восприятие

10. a denial [dɪˊnaɪəl] - отказ, отрицание

11. an anxiety [æŋˊzaɪətɪ] - беспокойство, тревога

12. an interaction - взаимодействие

13. unwavering - непоколебимый

14. inconsistent [ˏɪnkənˊsɪstənt] - непоследовательный

15. blameworthy [ˊbleɪmˏwə:ðɪ] - заслуживающий порицания

16. culpable [ˊkʌlpəbl] - виновный

17. to perceive [pəˊsi:v] - воспринимать

18. to be blacked-out - быть в обмороке

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ

Поиск по сайту: