Friday, December 9, 2011

Criminal Psychology and Interrogation Techniques




I have been acting dean at my high school for the past few days. It has been a good experience. Psychology is the key ~ getting into the brain is very important.




Some links i have found helpful.




1. A broad definition of criminal psychology.

Criminal psychology is the study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals. It is related to the field ofcriminal anthropology. The study goes deeply into what makes someone commit crime, but also the reactions after the crime, on the run or in court. Criminal psychologists are often called up as witnesses in court cases to help the jury understand the mind of the criminal. Some types of Psychiatry also deal with aspects of criminal behavior.





Main article: Offender Profiling


A major part of Criminal psychology, known as offender profiling, began in the 1940s when the United States Office of Strategic Services asked William L. Langer's brother Walter C. Langer, a well renowned psychiatrist, to draw up a profile of Adolf Hitler. After the Second World War British psychologist Lionel Haward, while working for the Royal Air Force police, drew up a list of characteristics which high-ranking Nazi war criminals might display, to be able to spot them amongst ordinary captured soldiers and airmen.


In the 1950s, US psychiatrist James A. Brussel drew up what turned to be an uncannily accurate profile of a bomber who had been terrorizing New York.


The fastest development occurred when the FBI opened its training academy, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), inQuantico, Virginia. It led to the establishment of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and the violent criminal apprehension program. The idea was to have a system which could pick up links between unsolved major crimes.


In the United Kingdom, Professor David Canter was a pioneer helping to guide police detectives from the mid-1980s to an offender who had carried out a series of serious attacks, but Canter saw the limitations of "offender profiling" - in particular, the subjective, personal opinion of a psychologist. He and a colleague coined the term investigative psychology and began trying to approach the subject from what they saw as a more scientific point of view.






2. Criminal interrogation















INTERVIEW AND INTERROGATION IN THE INVESTIGATION OF CRIME


The three major aspects of criminal investigation are (1) to identify the criminal, (2) to locate and apprehend


him (3) and to prove his guilt in the court. During the course of investigation an investigator depends on three


major tools available to him which are instrumentation, information and, interview and interrogation.


Instrumentation helps him to identify or eliminate a suspect by the use of scientific technology thereby


analyzing the collected physical evidences whereas the information is transformed into intelligence to


identify, locate and apprehend him. But the significance of interview and interrogation cannot be discarded as


it plays major role in investigation whenever there is little or no physical evidence.


The difference between interview and interrogation is that an interview is conducted in a cordial atmosphere


where a witness is more comfortable physically and psychologically. On the other hand, whenever a person is


questioned in an uncomfortable atmosphere (interrogation room) where he is under the psychological


pressure, it is an interrogation. Interrogator, in this case, has more psychological advantage than his suspect.


Interrogation is a kind of psychological warfare between interrogator and suspect. Only when an interrogator


overpowers a suspect psychologically, he gets a confession or the fact of a case which is not possible


otherwise.


Interrogation is an art. You can master it through your study and experience. A good investigator is not


necessarily a good interrogator. To be a good interrogator you need to be a good actor and must have an


insight of human psychology. You should be able to act according to age, profession and intellect of the


individual suspect because a suspect could be a lawyer, doctor, scientist, professor, manager or an unskilled


laborer and, could be a child, teenager, adult and senior.


Prerequisites of an interrogation:


Before conducting interrogation an interrogator should have the information about:


Suspect:


(i) Name, age, profession, occupation


(ii) Social and financial situation


(iii) Criminal history


(iv) Relation with the victim if any


Victim:


(i) Name, age, profession, occupation


(ii) Social and financial situation


(iii) Criminal history if any


Scene of crime:


(i) Time and place of occurrence


(ii) Modus operandi


(iii) Physical evidence collected


(iv) Information collected


Approach


Place of Interrogation:


(i) At the spot when a suspect is apprehended at the scene of crime


(ii) In an interrogation room where the interrogator has more psychological advantage.





1Time of Interrogation:


(i) As soon as the suspect is apprehended and information collected





You should always remember that a suspect is innocent and not a criminal unless his guilt is proved in


court.





• Don't ever use third degree method.


• Always maintain courtesy.


• Be a good listener.


Control your anger because in anger you loose reasoning and the judgment made without reasoning is


mostly incorrect.





• Never be in hurry to finish the interrogation.


Method of Interrogation


We can classify criminals into two major categories:


• emotional offender


• non−emotional offender


The purpose of classification is to vary your approach and methods during the interrogation of a suspect.


Interrogation of emotional offender:


Interrogation of an emotional offender is much easier than non−emotional offender.


1) An emotional offender is usually a first time offender and can be broken down easily when played with his


emotion, ie, love, hatred, anger, frustration etc.


i) By showing sympathy towards him.


ii) By telling him that anybody could do what he has done in the similar situation.


iii) Blaming the society for his action.


iv) Being friendly with him and offering him coke or cigarettes, which an offender never expects from a


police officer.


v) Observe his physical reaction to the crime related and non−related questions. When someone is lying he


will be under tension. The anti−diuretic bio−chemical substance released by his body leads to the dryness of


his mouth and lips. Again in tension he may be tapping his foot, playing with his fingers, looking blankly


somewhere else.


2) Emotional offender easily come clean when confronted by the evidence.


Interrogation of non−emotional offender:


Non−emot iona l of f ende r s a r e ha rdened c r imina l s . They a r e prof e s s iona l who have ga ined expe r i enc e


committing series of crime and either subsequently have evaded the apprehension or served many jail terms.


They don't like to talk much or at all.


2Question and Answer Method: This is a common form of interrogation where an interrogator ask


several questions to get the facts of a case. He develops his questions based on the fact of the case and


the answers given to him by the suspect.





Narrative Method: Let the suspect tell his side of story without interruption. Ask him to repeat it three


or four times. He will have to tell more and more lies just to cover up one lie. The more he lies, the


more you have a chance to detect untruthfulness of his story. Verify his story and re−interrogate him.





Alibi: Ask where he was and what he was doing at the time of occurrence of the crime. Verify his


alibi and re−interrogate him.





Factual method: The best way to interrogate a hardned and professional criminal is to confront him


with the physical and circumstantial evidence, which will eventually lead to his confession.





Sweet and sour method: Interrogation conducted by two different interrogators, one being soft spoken


and other being harsh towards the suspect could be fruitful in some case.





Overheard conversation method: Whenever there is more than one offender this method works well.


One suspect while being interrogated should be viewed but not heard by another suspect from outside


of the interrogation room. When his turn of interrogation starts, tell the offender that his associate has


already confessed about the crime and now it is his turn to confess.





Hypothetical situation: Ask a suspect that even he has not done it, how would he have done it in the


similar situation. May be some important clue could come out of this.





Telling the story backward: Sometimes you could ask a suspect his side of story backward. If he has


told you what he has done from yesterday 6AM to today 10PM, then let him start from today 10PM to


yesterday 6AM





Bluff Method: Interrogators have used this method for extracting truth from suspects.In this method an


interrogator tells a suspect that he has been seen by witness while committing crime or that his


fingerprint, footprint or physical evidence have been found at the scene of crime, so there is no choice


but to tell the truth. You may be successful extracting the fact in exceptional case but this is not the


right method because if the suspect is innocent, the situation is ridiculous.





There is no hard and fast rule as to what method you apply to extract the fact or the confession. It is upto you


and, your experience will guide you to interrogate various kind of suspects. But one should always keep in


mind that a confession even in writing is nothing more than a piece of paper unless it is supported or


corroborated by other independent physical or circumstantial evidence.


Interview of Witnesses


There are various kinds of witnesses such as indifference witness, interested witness, hostile witness and child


witness. Indifference witness is the best kind of witness for a case because the witness does not have any


interest in success or failure of the case. He will always prefer to tell whatever he knows about the case


without lying, whereas the interested witness may be a friend, a relative or a potential beneficiary in the case


and may exaggerate the fact. As for the hostile witness, he may have close relation or friendship with the


suspect and do want to lie to protect the suspect. You may need to interrogate him rather than interview him.


Child is a volatile witness who does not lie but is prone to the suggestions.


3It is worth to have an eyewitness to support a case but you should also know that his education, technical


knowledge, physical condition, profession and emotion influence his observation. Don't expect him to tell


everything of what happened when the incident took place. He does not observe as what a police officer needs


to observe. His information is valuable if it corroborates to the physical or circumstantial evidence collected.


Reconstruction of a case is important to verify the truthfulness of the information of an eyewitness.


Detecting a lie


Polygraph and Computer Voice Stress Analyzer are being used to detect lies. While the Polygraph measures


changes in person's body associated with stress of deception− alterations in heart rate, breathing, emoional


sweating, the Computerized Voice Stress Analyzer measures changes in voice frequency in the human voice


that occur whenever someone is lying. The use of both of these tools are helpful to an investigator to narrow


down the area of investigation even though the results are not admissible in the court of law due to the


probability of evading a deception.