LS272 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Reid Technique, Soft Sell, Confabulation
14 May 2018
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Chapter III: Psychology of Police Investigations
Police Interrogations
• process whereby police interview a suspect for the purpose of gathering evidence and obtaining a
confession
• more physically coercive tactics used before replaced with psychologically based interrogations
• lying about evidence, promising lenient treatment, implying threats to loved ones
• a necessary evil to obtain confessions from guilty persons unlikely to cooperate
Reid Model of Interrogation
• Reid model: nine-step model of interrogation used frequently in NA = extract confessions from suspects
• consists of a three-part process:
• first stage: gather evidence related to the crime and to interview witnesses and victims
• second: conduct non-accusatorial interview of suspect to assess evidence of deception
• third: crux of the Reid technique, conduct an accusatorial interrogation of the suspect if he/she
perceived to be guilty, then nine-step process is implemented
• based on idea that “people make choices that they think will maximize their well-being given the
constraints they face”
• such interrogation techniques can be broken down into two general categories:
• minimization techniques: soft sell tactics used by police interrogators that are designed to lull
suspect into false sense of security (ex; “victim had it coming”
• maximization techniques: scare tactics used by police interrogators designed to intimidate
suspect believed to be guilty
• ex; making an accusation, interrupting denials, overriding objections, citing evidence
• use of Reid Model in Actual Interrogation: many techniques of Reid are used, but frequency varied
across techniques
• more confessions being extracted when interrogations contained more Reid techniques
Potential Problems with the Reid Model of Interrogation
• deception detection: detecting when someone is being deceptive
• focuses on informing people about objective (empirically evaluated) cues to deception
• not as effective
• more promising approach = teach people how to increase behavioural diffs. b/w truth tellers and
liars
• procedural safeguards: resembles US’ Miranda’s rights (ind.’s rights like our Charter)
• certain populations vulnerable when it comes to misunderstanding their rights
• young people and those with impaired intellectual capacity, John Lee
• investigator bias: bias that can result when officers enter interrogation setting w/ belief suspect is guilty
• bias that can result when police officers enter an interrogation setting already believing that the
suspect is guilty
• mock interrogation study: interrogators with guilty expectations = asked questions indicating
their belief in suspect’s guilt
• used higher frequency of interrogation techniques
• interrogators exerted more pressure on suspects to confess
• suspects = accurate perceptions of interrogator behaviour
• neutral observers = interrogators with guilty expectations more coercive esp against
innocent suspects, viewed suspects in the guilty expectation as more defensive
Interrogation Practices and the Court
• key issues that judge face with questionable confession: whether confession was made voluntarily,
whether defendant was competent when person provided confession
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