Text for Reading. The interrogation of criminal suspects and interviewing witnesses is the greatest source of direct information in the general administration of criminal

INTERROGATION

ДОПРОС

The interrogation of criminal suspects and interviewing witnesses is the greatest source of direct information in the general administration of criminal justice. The line of distinction between an interrogation and an interview is very thin. Both involve questioning and more important, listening. Interviewing is the process of general questioning of victims, witnesses and others who may have knowledge about the criminal activity and who are "non-suspects" at the time of the encounter. The interrogation concerns the legal aspect of questioning and is the systematic questioning of a criminal suspect or a person who is reluctant to disclose information in his possession which is relevant to the investigation. In some respect interrogation refers to special police facilities and procedures of sleuthing. During the interview a "non-suspect" may become a suspect, the questioning then becomes interrogation.

Police and investigators depend on interrogation as a principal means of determining facts and resolving issues. Thus interrogation is a part of an investigation but it does not substitute for the investigation. The object of interrogation is to discover the truth and to prepare a criminal case for the prosecution in court, that is to develop evidence of guilt, to prove this guilt and to punish the person responsible for the crime and to recover the stolen property.

The success of any interrogation depends primarily on the efforts and specialized abilities of the investigator, a good decision-making judgement being quite indispensable for a technique of a successful interrogator. Every good investigator should be patient, tactful, composed, persistent and sympathetic, but he should be firm if it is necessary.

There is not one method of interrogation. Every good investigator learns to acquire a technique of interrogation which best suits his temperament and his talents. Although a special list of "do's" and "don't's" is quite available in the practice of interrogation, it often happens that some good investigators do not recognize certain general rules and use their own methods. We don't describe here such dramatic interrogation technology as the polygraph or so-called lie-detector and hypnosis because there is still no complete agreement by psychologists on the validity of these methods, and their results are not always admissible in court.

The subject of interrogation may be any person who has relevant information concerning the case. It may be a victim, a complainant, an accused, a witness and a criminal. They may be cooperative or uncooperative, willing or unwilling. In any case the officer should choose and follow the right line of interrogation.

A successful investigator never forgets that his attitude to the subject of interrogation may be the key to the solution of a case. When a witness does not want to take part in criminal investigation he falsely denies the facts he knows and the officer fails to get the information. In this case the interrogator should neither threaten nor intimidate him. He tries to persuade the witness that he is shirking his duty as a citizen if he does not reveal the truth and without its discovering it will be impossible to solve the crime.

As a rule initial questioning by a police officer obtains a description of a suspect. In addition to inquiry about sex, race, age, height, clothing, glasses, hair length and facial appearance, the officer asks about the distinctive marks of the suspect, i.e. the most unusual features of his appearance. These questions force a subject to think about the overall appearance of the suspect and often result in establishing important information, e.g. the suspect has an ear missing, an artificial leg, gold teeth, or a scar running from one eye to the corner of his mouth. Such details may appear the most vital in the total process of identification, location and apprehension of the criminal.