“We Will Protect Your Wife and Child, but Only If You Confess”

Abstract

(From the chapter) Reviews and compares literature published in England and the Netherlands concerning methods police use to obtain crucial information from a suspect. There is more information available about interview techniques in England than about Dutch interview techniques. Since 1986 all police interviews at police stations with suspects are audio taped in England. A substantial number of English audiotapes are available to scholars for research purposes. The major part of the review therefore deals with police interviewing in England, particularly with reasons why suspects confess and which aspects of a police interview make it a good interview (search for the truth, open-mindedness, fairness and the use of tactics). I also address the presence of legal advisers or other "third parties" during police interviews. With the Dutch police keeping the interrogation room doors locked for observers, the review of Dutch police interviews is necessarily purely anecdotic. However, Dutch police literature contains guidelines about how to interview suspects. I briefly discuss some of these guidelines, together with a recent English manual about police interviewing. The chapter begins with discussion of attitude change in the interrogation room and concludes with some guidelines for police interviewing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA )