Analysing Police Interviews

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Forensic linguistics, or the study of language and the law, is a growing field of scholarly and public interest with an established research presence. The Discourse of Police Interviews aims to further the discussion by analyzing how police interviews are constructed and used to investigate and prosecute crimes. The first book to focus exclusively on the discourses of police interviewing, The Discourse of Police Interviews examines leading debates, approaches, and topics in contemporary police interview research. Among other topics, the book explores the sociolegal, psychological, and discursive framework of popular police interview techniques employed in the United States and the United Kingdom, such as PEACE and Reid, and the discursive practices of institutional representatives like police officers and interpreters that can influence the construction and quality of linguistic evidence. Together, the contributions situate the police interview as part of a complex, and multistage, criminal justice process. The book will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners in a variety of fields, such as linguistic anthropology, interpreting studies, criminology, law, and sociology.

Police interviewing is a critical part of the justice process, and more attention is now being paid to training in interview techniques. This new study uses tools drawn from interactional sociolinguistics and conversation analysis for a detailed study of some police questioning of adult suspects, and work undertaken in the training of police in interviewing children. Critical discourse analytic techniques are used in interpreting the outcome and the implications for training are explored.

Police interviewing is a critical part of the justice process, and more attention is now being paid to training in interview techniques. This new study uses tools drawn from interactional sociolinguistics and conversation analysis for a detailed study of some police questioning of adult suspects, and work undertaken in the training of police in interviewing children - in which quite different approaches seem to be adopted. Critical discourse analytic techniques are used in interpreting the outcome and the implications for training are explored.

Winner of the British Society of Criminology 'Criminology Book Prize 2012' This book uses transcripts from real UK police interviews, investigating previously unexplored and under-explored areas of the process. It illustrates the way in which police and suspects use language and sounds to inform, persuade and communicate with each other. It also looks closely at how interactional tools such as laughter can be used to sidestep the legal boundaries of this setting without sanction. The work reveals the delicate balance between institutional and conversational talk, the composition and maintenance of roles and the conflicts between the rules of interaction and law. The analyses offer detailed insights into the reality behind the myth and mystique of police interviews and contain findings which have the potential to inform and advance evidence-based police interview training and practice.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,4, University of Würzburg (Philosophisches Institut), course: Forensic Linguistics, language: English, abstract: To raise more awareness on this sensitive subject, this paper is going to deal with how policemen carry out suspect interrogations in order to obtain a suspect’s confession. Special attention is dedicated to the so called ‘vulnerable suspects’, which should be treated with a lot of care and sensitivity while conducting police interviews. In reality, some interrogation methods used by the police include accusations and are coercive, which tends to force vulnerable suspects to confess to a crime he or she has never committed. The consequences an innocent suspect has to face due to a forced confession can be far-reaching and, in the worst case, deadly. In order to go more into detail, the following main section is subdivided into two main parts. The first one serves as an introductory part in which the theoretical frame of this paper is to be constructed. At first, there will be some basic information on the field of forensic linguistics and its origins. This explanatory section will contain definition approaches of the discipline of forensic linguistics and furthermore point out when and how it first came up and how it has developed since then. In addition, the wide range this discipline covers will be examined in more detail. The second chapter in this section will give an overview of the development of police interviews regarding its early approaches until now. Furthermore, this paragraph will also deal with the methods used by policemen in order to make a suspect confess, the interrogation techniques. Particular attention will be payed to the so-called ‘third degree’ methods and the ‘Reid Technique’, as well as the arising problem of false confessions, which is going to be pointed out in the last point of the explanatory part. The second part of the main section serves as a practical part in which the before explicated theoretical frame will be applied to a selected sample text. At first, this paper will exemplify the worst case result of forced confessions. Based on some of the most popular cases up until now, the very harmful or even deadly consequences of miscarriages of justice for the affected person will be demonstrated. In the first paragraph, the paper will give an overview of the Steven Avery Case. This highly controversial case is a textbook example for miscarriage of justice and therefore is center of the Netflix series Making a Murderer.

This book shows how participation of interpreters as mediators changes the dynamics of police interviews, particularly with regard to power struggles and competing versions of events. The analysis of interaction offers insights into language in the legal process.

Police interviews with suspects and witnesses provide some of the most significant evidence in criminal investigations. Frequently challenging, they require special training and skills. This interaction process is further complicated when the suspect or witness does not speak the same language as the interviewer. A professional reference that can b