With a few notable exceptions, the research on interrogation, suspect interviewing, and intelligence collection has been predominantly focused on either broad categories of their methods (e.g., information gathering vs. accusatorial models) or very specific techniques (e.g., using open-ended questions, appealing to the source's conscience). The broad categories, however, are not meaningful enough to fully describe the dynamic between interrogator and subject, whereas the specific techniques may be too detailed to understand and research the process of interrogation. To remedy this and advance the academic and operational fields, we identified 71 unique techniques and sorted them into six domains: Rapport and Relationship Building, Context Manipulation, Emotion Provocation, Collaboration, Confrontation/Competition, and Presentation of Evidence. The resulting three-level structure consisting of broad categories, the six domains, and specific techniques form a taxonomy of interrogation methods. In addition, we propose a testable model of how the domains may interact in the process of interrogation. The taxonomy and theoretical model offer heuristic devices for both researchers and practitioners searching for a parsimonious and more meaningful way to describe, research, and understand the interviewing and interrogation of those accused of wrong-doing or possessing guilty knowledge.

Building on a substantial body of literature examining interrogation methods employed by police investigators and their relationship to suspect behaviors, we analyzed a sample of audio and video interrogation recordings of individuals suspected of serious violent crimes. Existing survey research has focused on the tactics reportedly used, at what rate, and under what conditions; observational studies detail which methods are actually employed. With a few notable exceptions, these foundational studies were static examinations of interrogation methods that documented the absence or presence of various approaches. In the present study, we cast interrogation as a dynamic phenomenon and code the recordings in 5-min intervals to examine how interrogation methods and suspect cooperation change over time. Employing the interrogation taxonomy framework, particularly 4 discrete domains-rapport and relationship building, emotion provocation, presentation of evidence, and confrontation/competition-we found that the emphasis of the domains varied across interrogations and were significantly different when suspects confessed versus when they denied involvement. In regression models, suspect cooperation was positively influenced by the rapport and relationship building domain, though it was negatively impacted by presentation of evidence and confrontation/competition. Moreover, we found that the negative effects of confrontation/competition on suspect cooperation lasted for up to 15 min. The implications of the findings for practice and future research include the benefits of a rapport-based approach, the deleterious effects of accusatorial methods, and the importance of studying when, not just if, certain interrogation techniques are employed. (PsycINFO Database Record

A great deal of research in the past two decades has been devoted to interrogation and interviewing techniques. This study contributes to the existing literature using an online survey to examine the frequency of use and perceived effectiveness of interrogation methods for up to 152 military and federal-level interrogators from the USA. We focus on the who (objective and subjective interrogator characteristics), the what (situational and detainee characteristics), and the why (intended goal of interrogation). Results indicate that rapport and relationship-building techniques were employed most often and perceived as the most effective regardless of context and intended outcome, particularly in comparison to confrontational techniques. In addition, context was found to be important in that depending on the situational and detainee characteristics and goal, interrogation methods were viewed as more or less effective.

The current study sought to examine the 6 domains conceptualized in a recent taxonomy of interrogation methods (Kelly, Miller, Redlich, & Kleinman, 2013): rapport and relationship building, context manipulation, emotion provocation, confrontation/competition, collaboration, and presentation of evidence. In this article, the domains are first situated in the existing literature that has similarly examined a limited number of constructs used to describe and explain interrogation methods, and the analyses aimed to lend empirical support to what were previously only conceptual constructs. Using data from both a survey of interrogators and investigative interviewers and a content analysis of actual recorded interrogations, we examined reported and actual rates of use of the domains, the relationship of the domains to one another, and their association with suspect confession or denials. We found that the domains were reportedly used at significantly different rates, with rapport and relationship building being the most used domain and confrontation/competition the least. We found significant, positive associations between confrontation/competition, emotion provocation, and presentation of evidence in both sources of data, and these 3 domains were also significantly more likely to be used where the suspect denied involvement. The implications of the study are that the domains are meaningful, independent constructs that can be used in future research to describe and explain interrogation.