Offender
Profiling Series: Vol 1
Interviewing and Deception
Edited by David Canter & Laurence Alison
(1999)
back to Interviewing
& Deception
Interviewing and Deception
Lydia Sear & Tom Williamson
British and American Interrogation Strategies
Although the American criminal justice system is
based on English law, the interrogation methods of British and American
police are vastly different. Since the introduction of the Police and
Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and following the shock of a number
of miscarriages of justice, police forces in England and Wales have
developed a new ethos of "open-mindedness" in police interrogations.
Officers are trained to adopt a neutral position to facilitate the gathering
of accurate and reliable information. However, the change from an inherent
confession-driven police culture to one of a "search for the truth"
has proved difficult as officers are still expected to function within
an adversarial system. In stark contract American police are trained
to use sophisticated psychologically-manipulative techniques such as
trickery and deceit in order to induce confessions. These techniques
are sanctioned by the courts with the belief that the safeguard of "due
process" of the criminal justice system will deflect any possibility
of a miscarriage of justice. However, it may only be a matter of time
before America is forced, from the aftermath of a major shock to their
judicial system, to review their existing investigative framework and
to adopt a more neutral "search for the truth" ethos similar to that
provided by PACE.
