Personality Disorders

Sep 01, 2019

(This Investigator Tip consists of selections from a chapter in our book, The Investigator Anthology)

While both psychologically healthy and psychologically impaired individuals can be guilty of a crime, in many...

Factual Analysis

Nov 01, 2017

Factual analysis can be defined as estimating the probability of a suspect's guilt or innocence based on investigative findings. Each investigator uses factual analysis to narrow the scope of suspects - to...

Cognitive Interviewing

Jul 01, 2017

Cognitive Interviewing

Cognitive interviewing is a memory retrieval procedure designed to enhance recall when interviewing a victim or witness. Unlike hypnosis, which involves placing the subject in an altered state of...

Over 300 What's new page entries

Aug 01, 2016

p> Over the last 14 years we have posted over 300 entries on our "What's New" page at www.reid.com. For this July/August Investigator Tip we have listed many of them that you...

Legal Cases Sorted by Category

Sep 01, 2015

On a regular basis over the last 10 years we have published on our website and through our quarterly newsletter legal updates of current cases which address relevant interview and interrogation issues...

The Reid Technique: A Position Paper

May 01, 2015

The Reid Technique: A Position Paper

Content

An Update on the Use of Deceptive Practices During Interrogation

May 01, 2014

An Update on the Use of Deceptive Practices During Interrogation
The landmark US Supreme Court decision addressing deceptive practices during an interrogation is Frazier v. Cupp (1969). In Frazier, the Court upheld...

The Feasibility of an Analytic Assessment to Identify False Confessions

Nov 01, 2012

The medical, psychiatric and therapy communities have a long history of using diagnostic "checklists" to evaluate the presence or absence of physiological or mental disease or degree of impairment. These analytic assessments...

Investigating Issues of Intent

Jul 01, 2012

Two recent news events have centered around a person's intentions. The first was the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. The second was a White house correspondent named Neil Munro who...

Research Review: The lie, the Bluff and False Confessions

Jan 01, 2011

One of the most controversial aspects of criminal interrogation involves the use of trickery and deceit. While Federal and State Supreme Courts routinely uphold confessions that were obtained from interrogations during which...

Responding to Defense Experts' Characterization of Interrogation

May 01, 2010

In 1998 David Lykken wrote a book titled, "A Tremor in the Blood: The Uses and Abuses of the Polygraph Technique". In it, he advocated the use of his own "Guilty Knowledge...

Designing an Interview/Interrogation Room

Mar 01, 2010

I recently taught at a newly constructed police department. The architecture was beautiful featuring a massive open community room. The detective's work area was equally impressive with state of the art computer...

The Esteem-Motivated Offender

Jan 01, 2010

It is human nature to seek acclaim and recognition. Given the choice, most people would rather be well known and respected than an obscure outsider who is unimportant and ignored. Typically, this...

Civil Liabilities Associated With False Confessions

Nov 01, 2009

Civil Liabilities Associated With False Confessions

Training in the field of interrogation teaches investigators not only how to conduct effective interrogations, but also the legal aspects of obtaining admissible confessions...

The Psychopathic Suspect

Mar 01, 2009

The Psychopathic Suspect

March-April, 2009

Imagine what it would be like to make everyday decisions without caring how your choices affected others and to live...

Are you a good listener?

Mar 01, 2008

An investigator's ability to solve cases relies extensively on his/her ability to develop rapport, ask the right questions, identify deceptive responses and...

Electronically Recorded Confessions

Mar 01, 2007

The topic of electronically recording interviews and interrogations comes up frequently during our seminars. Clearly, there is a national trend in which through state court decisions or legislative efforts police officers...

Guarding Against Claims of False Imprisonment

Nov 01, 2006

The concept of "false imprisonment" is usually associated with a criminal act relating to abduction or kidnapping. However, this web tip relates to false imprisonment as a civil suit. The definition varies...

The Role of Motivation in Detection of Deception Research

Jul 01, 2006

Early reports on the accuracy of the polygraph technique were largely anecdotal. For example, if ten suspects were administered a polygraph examination on a particular crime and one of them failed and...

The Use of an Interpreter During an Interview

Mar 01, 2006

A question that is frequently asked during our seminars concerns the proper use of an interpreter during an interview. This is particularly true when we train military personnel who regularly utilize translators...