Interrogation

[ciphergoth]

Randomly reading HowStuffWorks for Sunday morning entertainment, and found this fascinating article on How police interrogation works. Vital reading in case you're ever picked up for a crime you didn't commit :-)

Comments

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. Next time we meet I will tell you how the Cuban police mistook me for a CIA-trained anti-Castro spy.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Are there published studies on how it goes wrong? A prudent man would look for ways of disrupting the 'goup-think' spiral of police officers convincing themselves that one suspect is guilty, and discounting everything that fails to reinforce that view.

A paranoid man would look for tell-tale signs that their post-arrest processing is a sham, and that they are being 'fitted-up'. But I doubt that anything would be published on that topic.

[foibey.livejournal.com]

The usual advice on the anarchist scene about dealing with arrest is not to make any sort of response at all, beyond saying "no comment" and giving your name/address/DoB, on account of the fact that the police will likely lie to you if they believe you've done something wrong, if you're being interrogated they presumably need some sort of input from you to be sure of a conviction, and all in all you're much better off fighting it out in court with some sort of legal aid than you are stuck in a room with people trained to get people to admit to things. That being unless you've got a trustworthy solicitor and they advise you to say something. Apparently some duty solicitors have been known to collaborate with the police during interrogations and advise their clients against their best interests to shop themselves.

[henry_the_cow]

Interesting. I believe the UK police have to tape interviews, but from this article it seems that isn't the case in the USA?

The only time I was interviewed by the police was because a van I'd hired for a day had (a) gone missing that night and (b) turned up as the getaway vehicle in an armed robbery some days later. This was back when I was a student. They only kept me for an hour - I assume that I was obviously too naive and clueless to be involved in any way.

[aster13.livejournal.com]

That was interesting :)

I do find it a tad worrying probably how easy it is to extract false confessions etc from someone....