International Research Validates the Core Elements of the Reid Technique
Over the years, numerous international research studies have been conducted on the Reid Technique – here are a few that include research from Japan, Korea, Spain, Canada and the US. All of the studies establish the soundness and efficacy of various core elements of the Reid Technique.
- High Value Detainee Group research validates the core principle of The Reid Technique
From the Scientific American (Vol. 26, Issue 23; 2014) an article entitled, "How to Extract a Confession...Ethically" confirms the basic tenant of the Reid Technique - always treat the subject with understanding and empathy.
In 2009 President Barack Obama convened the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group(HIG), made up of cognitive and social psychologists and other experts.
The research concluded the following:
• Coming across as empathetic causes interrogation targets to open up more
Since 1947 the core principle of the Reid Technique has always been to treat the suspect with empathy and understanding. In our book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions (5th edition, 2013) in Chapter 6, Qualifications, Attitude, and General Conduct of the Investigator, we state the following:
"Treat the suspect with decency and respect, regardless of the nature of the offense. No matter how revolting or horrible a crime may be (such as a sexually motivated, brutal killing of a small child), the suspect should not be treated or referred to as a despicable, inhumane individual. A sympathetic, understanding attitude and interrogation approach is far more effective."
Many of the findings of the HIG research confirm the Reid Technique, including their conclusion that the investigator should "tell your target a story about what he or she did, leading the person to believe you already know what happened." This is exactly what we do in the development of our interrogation theme. In our training programs we describe theme development as describing the suspect's behavior in light of reasons and motives that will psychologically justify or excuse his behavior - reinforcing "the guilty suspect's own rationalizations and justifications for committing the crime."
- Japanese research confirms Reid approach
In the Reid Technique of Interviewing and Interrogation we have always espoused a nonjudgmental, neutral and objective demeanor by the investigator during the interview and an empathetic, understanding approach during the interrogation - building rapport with the suspect and letting the suspect now that anyone in similar circumstances might have done the same thing.
Recent research in Japan (2014) confirms that building relationships with the suspect "gets the best results" and minimizes the chances of a false confession.
- Research indicates a 97.8% accuracy rate at detecting deception
A recent study published in Human Communication Research (2014) by researchers at Korea University, Michigan State University, and Texas State University -- San Marcos found that using active questioning of individuals yielded near-perfect results, 97.8%, in detecting deception.
An expert using the Reid Technique interrogated participants in the first study, this expert was 100% accurate (33 of 33) in determining who had cheated and who had not. That kind of accuracy has 100 million to one odds. The second group of participants were then interviewed by five US federal agents with substantial polygraph and interrogation expertise. Using a more flexible and free approach (interviews lasted from three minutes to 17 minutes), these experts were able to accurately detect whether or not a participant cheated in 87 of 89 interviews (97.8%). In the third study, non-experts were shown taped interrogations of the experts from the previous two experiments.
These non-experts were able to determine deception at a greater-than-chance rate -- 79.1% (experiment 1), and 93.6% (experiment 2). Previous studies with "experts" usually used passive deception detection where they watched videotapes. In the few studies where experts were allowed to question potential liars, either they had to follow questions scripted by researchers (this study had no scripts) or confession seeking was precluded. Previous studies found that accuracy was near chance -- just above 50%.
"This research suggests that effective questioning is critical to deception detection," Levine said.
- Spain study demonstrates 97.9% accuracy for behavior provoking questions
- Research confirms detection of deception substantially better than chance if viewed in context
In their research article, "Content in Context Improves Deception Detection Accuracy" (2010) the authors (J. Pete Blair, Timothy R. Levine and Allison S. Shaw) report on 10 studies that they conducted regarding the investigator's ability to detect deception when the interview is placed in context. They conclude that " Nonverbal leakage in the studies presented here is constant across conditions because only contextual information was varied (except in Study 6). The results of the tests presented here are overwhelming.
When judges were asked to make deception judgments with some meaningful contextual information, they performed significantly better than chance and significantly better than 40 + years of research suggests they would. Clearly, knowledge of the environment in which deception occurs facilitates accurate deception judgments beyond what is possible based on observations of nonverbal leakage. Given the large amount of variation explained by the differences in environments (context), deception theories will be enhanced by explicitly recognizing the impact of context."
In the Reid Technique we teach that there are severl rules to be followed in the evaluation of a subject's behavior symptoms, including:
1. Establish the subject's normal behavioral pattern and then look for changes from that norm or baseline
2. Read all nonverbal behavior for timing and consistency
3. Read behavioral cluster - the overall behavioral pattern - not single, isolated observations
4. Always evaluate behavior symptoms in conjunction with the case evidence and facts
Clearly the high accuracy rates we achieve is based on the fact that a subject's behavior should never be evaluated as a single determining factor, but always in context - always in conjunction with the case facts and evidence.
Click here for a copy of the Blair, Levine and Shaw study.
- Research confirms Reid Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) structure
- In our book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, we devote Chapter 8, Formulating Interview Questions, to the topic of the importance of asking open-ended questions in the investigative Interview (BAI). The chapter contains such sections
- Asking an initial open question
- Phrasing open questions
- Eliciting a full response
- Evaluating the response to an open question
- Clarifying the open account
- Asking direct questions
- Asking follow-up questions
In the training manual that we provide to the students who attend our seminar on The Reid Technique of Interviewing and Interrogation we devote several pages to the Cognitive Interview process (which is designed to help enhance the victim and/or witness' memory of the event) as well as the importance of evaluating a witness orvictim's account by beginning with a broad, open ended question, such as:
"Pleas tell me everything concerning your injuries."
"Please tell me everything that you did after 6:00 p.m. last night."
Research has confirmed the value of these techniques. In a study conducted by Dr. Brent Snook and Kathy Keating of the psychology department at Memorial University of Newfoundland (2010), their results, which will be published later this year in the journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology, conclude, in part, that "officers interviewing witnesses are potentially reducing the amount of information retrieved by talking too much, asking too many closed-end questions, and failing to adhere to science-based methods for mining memory." The authors furthermore state that "only about 6% of the interviewers' questions were considered open-ended; that is, encouraging a broad range of response beyond a simple yes or no or other narrowly restricted replies. "We estimate that between 20 and 30% of all questions asked should be open-ended," the researchers state.
- Study of False Confession Cases Confirms Reid Position
- False confessions are a rare phenomena, but they have occurred. One of the interrogation techniques that the United States Supreme Court has sanctioned is the verbal
misrepresentation of evidence to a suspect during an interrogation. It has been the Reid position that misrepresenting evidence, in and of itself, was not going to make a "normal" person falsely confess (obvious care must be exercised with juveniles and mentally impaired individuals), but that it was always some other element that was the triggering
mechanism for the false confession, such as illegal interrogation tactics (physical abuse, threats, promises of leniency, denial of physical needs, denial of rights, etc) and/or excessively long interrogations. - A study published in the Criminal Law Bulletin, "A Test
of the Unusual False Confession Perspective: Using Cases of Proven False Confessions" confirms this position.
After reviewing numerous false confession cases the author, J.P. Blair, states that "This study failed to find a single false confession of a cognitively normal individual that did
not also include the use of coercive tactics by the interrogator." Earlier in the article the author defined coercive tactics as "the use of physical force; denial of food, sleep or the
bathroom; explicit threats of punishment; explicit promises of leniency; and extremely lengthy interrogations." In other words, if these illegal tactics are not employed then the likelihood of obtaining a false confession is almost nil.