History of Interrogations in the U.S.

Interrogation in the United States has faced many eras of reform. When interrogation was first used, violence and torture were common strategies to obtain a confession. However, in 1936 the Supreme Court ruled (after Brown vs Mississippi) that confessions produced by violent interrogations would no longer count as evidence.

Then, interrogators reverted to less obvious forms of violence to obtain confessions, and this is known as the “third degree” (McInnis). Slowly, police began to focus less on violence and more on psychological manipulation when interrogating. Through this, the Reid technique was born. The Reid technique uses many psychological forms of isolation and confrontation in combination with other factors to produce confessions, and this technique is still used heavily across the country. 

Still though, coercion was an issue. Psychological manipulation sometimes includes lying about evidence to the suspect, and the subjective judgment of the police to determine when a suspect is lying. In an effort to decrease coercion, the Supreme court began requiring police to read suspects the Miranda Rights before questioning after the 1966 court case Miranda vs. Arizona.

Current Interrogation Strategies

In addition to the Reid Technique, the PEACE model, Cognitive approach, and Kinesic method are also being used in today’s interrogations. These interrogation techniques were crafted in an effort to increase the amount of true confessions. 

The PEACE model emphasizes the use of five steps when interrogating suspects. They are: preparation and planning, engage and explain, account clarification and challenge, closure, and evaluation. When developing the PEACE model, police wanted their interrogators to follow these steps with an open mind willing to seek out the truth. Many studies suggest that the PEACE model is just as effective as the Reid model when it comes to obtaining confessions from guilty suspects (Hood & Hoffman). 

The cognitive approach focuses more on the psychological considerations of interrogation, with an emphasis on memory and cognition, social dynamics, and communication. The approach outlines two sets of steps, one for interrogating witnesses, and one for interrogating suspects. The steps more so guide the person being interrogated to reveal the “richest relevant information” and “facilitate communication” (Hood & Hoffman). Overall, the interrogator is more of a listener in this approach and is non-confrontational. The cognitive approach also includes many mechanisms to make it difficult for suspects to lie, including the reverse-order technique, in which the interviewee retells their story backwards.

The Kinesic method considers self-initiated statements by interviewees, specific verbal responses, and body language (including physiological changes or gestures) when conducting interrogations. This technique can be effective, but also problematic due to the fact that studies have shown that humans are not the best at interpreting body language and verbal cues. This critique can also be applied to the Reid method, since it involves the interpretation of similar behaviors. 

Push for Reform

Despite the intensive efforts of police to produce an effective interrogation method, 27% of people in the National Registry of Exonerations gave false homicide confessions (Blakemore). Many researchers believe that these false convictions are coming from misconduct and coercion by police. 

The Innocence Project specifically, is working to combat the amount of false confessions by requiring police to record their interrogations, and the time leading up to the interrogation spent with the suspect. Not only would this deter police from using coercion, but would also be an extremely valuable resource during trials. Recording interrogations would also allow police to re-examine interviews, and perhaps catch details they may have missed initially. To the suspect, a recording would act as protection of their rights, and their speech from being tampered with at the police’s interest.

 Overall, requiring an electronic recording of interrogations would be beneficial to both parties, and improve the reliability and validity of interrogations conducted in the criminal justice system. More than half of the United States already requires an electronic recording of their interrogations, and many major federal law enforcement agencies do as well, including the FBI (False Confessions).

Interrogations have long been corrupted in our criminal justice system. Even though the scale of their misconduct has decreased, false confessions are still very prevalent, and lead to thousands of false convictions each year. Reform is still needed, in order to decrease false confessions, and ensure greater trust in our criminal justice system.

  

Works cited: 

Blakemore, E. (2019, June 23). Examining why false confessions occur in the U.S. criminal justice system. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/examining-why-false-confessions-occur-in-the-us-criminal-justice-system/2019/06/20/10128bb4-9207-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html 

Hood, M. B., & Hoffman, L. J. (2019, November 6). Current state of interview and interrogation. FBI. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/current-state-of-interview-and-interrogation 

McInnis, D. E. (n.d.). The history of the American system of interrogation. History News  Network. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172588 

False Confessions & recording of custodial interrogations. Innocence Project. (2022, January 11). Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://innocenceproject.org/false-confessions-recording-interrogations/