Interviewing and Interrogation

The goal in an interrogation, or in any situation where a person with information might be uncooperative, is to effect a transition in willingness - ethically and legally. A successful interrogation becomes, in fact, an interview when the subject grows willing to yield details freely and honestly. In order to initiate this transition, the interrogator/interviewer must understand the subject's motivation, the basics of effective inquiry, and techniques of ethical and legal persuasion. They must also recognize the process by which those interviewed can deceive - and how deception can be detected. This book demonstrates to interviewers the fundamentals of effective inquiry.

Rabon has divided the text into six chapters. Each chapter is organized around the concept of process, which indicates that there is a way to proceed and that the procedure involves specific steps. Each of the first five chapters is followed by a series of questions and is accompanied by an appendix containing exercises designed to reinforce the concepts contained in the chapter. The sixth chapter provides an opportunity to apply the inquiry and persuasion techniques developed in previous chapters to the transcript of an actual interview.

Don Rabon is a professor at the North Carolina Justice Academy.