Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques

Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques, Third Edition is a practical manual which provides the forensic practitioner/investigator critical insight into human behavior, enabling one to become a better interviewer, interrogator and, most importantly, an expert detector of truthful and deceptive behavior. The Forensic Assessment Interview Technique (FAINT) and the Integrated Interrogation Technique (IIT) were developed at the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training and are used by forensic practitioners and investigators to detect truthful or deceptive behavior. FAINT is applicable to all forensic type interviews and incorporates the assessment of nonverbal behavior, projective analysis of unwitting verbal cues, statement analysis and the Morgan Interview Thematic Technique (MITT). This volume teaches how to combine, apply and quantify these techniques to reach a numerical conclusion to the truthfulness of the interviewee. The third edition expands chapters on torture, assessing the interview, statement analysis, MITT, and interrogation. It contains new chapters on passenger screening, and report writing, along with new case studies. Also covered are ways to maximize the collection of information from a prospective employee, and legal considerations. Gordon and Fleisher have created a one-stop guide to mastering the art of credibility assessment during an interview, with successfully tested techniques for obtaining a confession from guilty suspects. Forensic practitioners, law enforcement, the intelligence community, the private security sector, attorneys, and forensic and criminal justice students will all find this volume a valuable resource.

Criminal investigations are all about the search for truth -- from the first field interview by the officer on the street, to the interrogation of a suspect by a detective, to the questioning of a witness during trial. What really happened? Who committed the crime? Who is telling the truth? This book shows how to use interviewing and interrogation techniques to find the answers to these questions with a high degree of accuracy.

Law enforcement personnel spend a great deal of time asking questions, and an entire case can rest on how they interpret the answers, who they believe, and how they obtain a confession. Unfortunately, most of these individuals do not receive proper training to know how to get to the truth.

Effective Interviewing & Interrogation Techniques presents a practical, straightforward method for interviewing witnesses and victims, interrogating suspects, and accurately identifying them as truthful or untruthful. Instead of relying on intuition or a "gut feeling," interviewers will learn how to utilize four types of questions and apply accurate assessments of nonverbal behavior and verbal clues. They will also learn how to quantify their observations and numerically assess the truthfulness of each suspect, to minimize subjectivity.

Readers will also learn how to use the authors' Integrated Interrogation Technique, a 10-point, highly successful approach to obtaining court upheld confessions. The advantages and disadvantages of recording an interview or interrogation are discussed in detail, as well as some of the current legal aspects of these processes.

Effective Interviewing & Interrogation Techniques includes numerous illustrations and pictures to enhance the reader's understanding as well as model worksheets and forms including: Consent Forms, Forensic Assessment Interview Technique Form, Numerical Evaluation Form, Sample Confession, and a Pre-employment Security Booklet. Investigators will turn to this book again and again to help find the truth in each person they interview.