The Language Of Police Interviewing

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.

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.

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 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

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 be used in police training or in any venue where an interpreter is used, Police Investigative Interviews and Interpreting: Context, Challenges, and Strategies provides solutions for the range of interview demands found in today’s multilingual environments. Topics include: What interpreting is, the skills required, and the role of interpreters in any job context Investigative interviewing in law enforcement Concerns about interpreter intervention and its impact on interview outcomes The value of word-based over meaning-based interpretation in police and legal contexts Nonlinguistic factors that can have an impact on the interpreting process The book explores the multi-faceted dynamics of conducting investigative interviews via interpreters and examines current investigative interviewing paradigms. It offers strategies to help interpreters and law enforcement officers and provides examples of interpreted interview excerpts to enable understanding. Although the subject matter and the examples in this book are largely limited to police interview settings, the underlying rationale applies to other professional areas that rely on interviews to collect information, including customs procedures, employer-employee interviews, and insurance claim investigations. This book is part of the CRC Press Advances in Police Theory and Practice Series.

This collection breaks new ground in police communication research. It involves the first instance of the same dataset being analysed from different theoretical and methodological perspectives as well as providing original and detailed insights into both monolingual and bilingual UK police interviews and US police interrogations of suspects. The topics include the role of metacommunication and its appropriate vs. inappropriate use in evidence elicitation, assessment of mitigation vs. aggravation strategies in questioning, identification of right vs. wrong empathy and the importance of getting it right, effects on complexity in police speak on quantity and quality of information obtained, and the multiple challenges that affect interpreter-mediated exchanges in this highly sensitive communicative context. All levels of linguistic meaning are covered, words, constructions, sentences, discourse, and contextualised within psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge about inferencing, emotion, and social interaction. This holistic approach helps us explain where, when and why communicative conflicts arise in this sensitive context and propose concrete practical solutions to resolve them. This volume will be useful and relevant to both academics, students and researchers, and to professionals in the domains of language and the law. Originally published as special issue of Pragmatics and Society 10:1 (2019).

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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.