Ethics of Deceptive Interrogation

RUNNING HEAD : Deceptive Interrogation

The Ethics of Deceptive Interrogation

Introduction

When a crime is committed it is the law enforcement officers job to investigate and realize the events that took place and the reasons why the crime was committed in to solve the said crime and part of the investigation process involved aside from the collection of evidence at the crime scene is the identification and subsequent interrogation of suspects and even witnesses . And sometimes , the police find it is necessary to make use deceptive tactics if they believe it will

be of use in to get a suspect to confess to the felony or a witness to tell the truth

In this regard this intends to examine the interrogatory phase of police investigations , speaking in terms of the jurisprudence of interrogation , common deceptive interrogation practices , and the ethics of police deception . It can be surmised that three conflicting principles often motivate the laws of confessions , the rationale in truth-finding , due process and the deterrence principle (Skolnick Leo 1993 . One might realize that its importance lies in the sense that police interrogatory deception can undermine public confidence and social cooperation and may eventually result in the conviction of innocent people

Because physical force is no longer a suitable means to elicit confessions , the authorities make use of coercive psychological strategies employed in law enforcement (Lassiter , 2004 . According to Skolnick Leo (1993 ) the typology of interrogatory deception presented discusses interview versus interrogation , Miranda admonitions misrepresentation of the nature or seriousness of the offense , role playing , misrepresentation of the moral seriousness of the offense , the use of promises , the misrepresentation of identity , and fabricated evidence

Police Interrogations

One can note that coercive schemes were commonly administered in the American law enforcement . It was not strange for a suspect to be interrogated for hours with no food , water , or sleep . Confessions acquired through whipping and physical torture were customarily employed . `Third degree ' methods like torture that utilize physical and mental torment in to break suspects into pleading guilty (Leo 2004 . These types of psychological manipulation begin even before the interrogator even opens his mouth . The physical layout of an interrogation room is designed to maximize a suspect 's discomfort and sense of powerlessness from the moment he steps inside . This creates a sense of exposure , unfamiliarity and isolation , heightening the suspect 's sensation of wanting to bolt out all throughout the interrogation . According to Janofsky (2006 ) many police officers believe that obtaining psychological command over the suspect is a significant constituent used by police to obtain confession

Meissner and Kassin (2004 ) noted that it might be construed that confessions have such dominant and rippling effects within the justice system that investigations of the personal and situational factors that lead people , both guilty and innocent alike , to confess in response to various police interrogation practices are of interest to researchers

Pre-interrogation Interview

The pre-interrogation interview is a very important stage in the interrogation procedure . The rationale of this interview is...