Explores how suspect statements are elicited in police interrogations, written down and transformed into a document that is cited in court.

What suspects tell the police may become a crucial piece of evidence when the case comes to court. But what happens to 'the suspect's statement' when it is written down by the police? Based on a unique set of data from over fifteen years' worth of research, Martha Komter examines the trajectory of the suspect's statement from the police interrogation through to the trial. She shows how the suspect's statement is elicited and written down in the police report, how this police report both represents and differs from the original talk in the interrogation, and how it is quoted and referred to in court. The analyses cover interactions in multiple settings, with documents that link one interaction to the next, providing insights into the interactional and documentary foundations of the criminal process and, more generally, into the construction, character and uses of documents in institutional settings.

How did the United States, a nation known for protecting the “right to remain silent” become notorious for condoning and using controversial tactics like water boarding and extraordinary rendition to extract information? What forces determine the laws that define acceptable interrogation techniques and how do they shift so quickly from one extreme to another? In Confessions of Guilt, esteemed scholars George C. Thomas III and Richard A. Leo tell the story of how, over the centuries, the law of interrogation has moved from indifference about extreme force to concern over the slightest pressure, and back again. The history of interrogation in the Anglo-American world, they reveal, has been a swinging pendulum rather than a gradual continuum of violence. Exploring a realist explanation of this pattern, Thomas and Leo demonstrate that the law of interrogation and the process of its enforcement are both inherently unstable and highly dependent on the perceived levels of threat felt by a society. Laws react to fear, they argue, and none more so than those that govern the treatment of suspected criminals. From England of the late eighteenth century to America at the dawn of the twenty-first, Confessions of Guilt traces the disturbing yet fascinating history of interrogation practices, new and old, and the laws that govern them. Thomas and Leo expertly explain the social dynamics that underpin the continual transformation of interrogation law and practice and look critically forward to what their future might hold.

The manner in which criminal investigators are trained is neither uniform nor consistent, ranging from sophisticated training protocols in some departments to on-the-job experience alongside senior investigators in others. Ideal for students taking a first course in the subject as well as professionals in need of a refresher, Introduction to Criminal Investigation uses an accessible format to convey concepts in practical, concrete terms. Topics discussed include: The history of criminal investigation in Western society Qualifications for becoming an investigator, the selection process, and ideal training requirements Crime scene search techniques, including planning and post-search debriefing Preparing effective field notes and investigative reports Interviewing and interrogating Types of evidence found at the crime scene and how to collect, package, and preserve it The contributions of forensic science to criminal investigations and the equipment used in crime labs Investigative protocol for a range of crimes, including property crimes, auto theft, arson, financial crimes, homicide, assault, sex crimes, and robbery Specialized investigations, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, and gang-related crime Legal issues involved in criminal investigations and preparing a case for trial Bringing together contributions from law enforcement personnel, academics, and attorneys, the book combines practical and theoretical elements to provide a comprehensive examination of today‘s criminal investigative process. The accessible manner in which the information is conveyed makes this an ideal text for a wide-ranging audience.

Author Holmes is well qualified to write a book on the subject of criminal interrogation and has lectured about it in many organizations including the FBI, CIA, the Secret Service, the Canadian Police College, and the Singapore Police Department. He has also conducted polygraph examinations in such nationally known cases as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Watergate. Drawing on current knowledge and his own extensive experience, the author provides a thorough overview of the techniques and procedures of interrogation. The main purpose of this book is that it will give you the tools to combat the criminal suspect and to attain the most satisfying outcome of criminal investigation: obtaining a confession through astute interrogation. Ideally, to learn how to interrogate, one should be exposed to talented interrogators in action. Any book about criminal interrogation can never be a complete substitute for the daily or weekly experience of interrogating criminal suspects. Recognizing this fact, it is the author's plan to write a 'how-to' book that provides a framework for enhancing one's personal experience. It will help guide the interrogator through the inherent difficulty that is manifested by the margin of error in perceiving guilt or innocence as well as in the length of time it takes an average person to become sufficiently experienced to reach an acceptable degree of proficiency. The scope of this book includes a step-by-step procedure for interrogation from the moment the suspect enters the interrogation room to the time he leaves. It will also help interrogators to keep from running out of things to say to a suspect by providing suggested interrogational arguments for specific crimes. Sex crimes, murder cases, espionage cases, and miscellaneous crimes are explored with various suggested arguments to be employed while handling these different types of cases. The three types of closure, the handling of the confession, and the formal confession as court evidence are discussed in detail, which also includes the interrogation of the accomplice and the potential witness. By reading this book, you will learn how to obtain confessions not by asking the suspect questions, but by convincing a suspect to confess by using persuasive interrogational arguments.

Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard is the definitive book on conducting a complete investigation of a cybercrime using digital forensics techniques as well as physical investigative procedures. This book merges a digital analysis examiner's work with the work of a case investigator in order to build a solid case to identify and prosecute cybercriminals. Brett Shavers links traditional investigative techniques with high tech crime analysis in a manner that not only determines elements of crimes, but also places the suspect at the keyboard. This book is a first in combining investigative strategies of digital forensics analysis processes alongside physical investigative techniques in which the reader will gain a holistic approach to their current and future cybercrime investigations. Learn the tools and investigative principles of both physical and digital cybercrime investigations—and how they fit together to build a solid and complete case Master the techniques of conducting a holistic investigation that combines both digital and physical evidence to track down the "suspect behind the keyboard" The only book to combine physical and digital investigative techniques

Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques, Second Edition, is completely revised and updated so as to cover all the information a student needs to know to obtain answers from a witness, a victim, or a suspect and how to interpret these answers with the utmost accuracy. Building on the previous edition’s ground-breaking search for truth in criminal and non-criminal investigations, this book contains five new chapters which include coverage of false confessions, interviewing the mentally challenged, and the ethics of interrogation in a post 9/11 world. This new edition includes highly illustrated chapters with topics ranging from the psycho-physiological basis of the forensic assessment to preparation for the interview/interrogation; question formulation; projective analysis of unwitting verbal clues; interviewing children and the mentally challenged; and pre-employment interviewing. Also included are several model worksheets and documents, case studies, and complete instructions for using the authors’ Integrated Interrogation Technique, a 10-point, highly successful approach to obtaining confessions that can stand up in court. The book concludes with an insightful look at the future of truth verification. This book will be of benefit to attorneys, coroners, detectives, educators, forensic psychophysiologists (lie detection), human resource professionals, intelligence professionals, and investigators as well as journalists/authors, jurists, medical professionals, psychological professionals, researchers, and students. - Expanded coverage of Statement Analysis, including actual statements from real cases.- New photos to aid in assessing nonverbal behavior.- Added section on assessment of written statements.