Questioning Techniques and Deception Detection When we talk about the process of interviewing or interrogating persons of interest, we must keep in mind that this requires a blend of artistic and scientific approaches.
From the artistic perspective, this involves continuous creativity. From science, we talk about the careful collection of evidence, facts, documents and research.
As an investigator, you must always keep in mind that with every investigation your approach may require more and more creativity, while the search for evidence and facts will sharpen your skills in successful interviews.
Interviewing and interrogation processes differ widely in history from present practices. Centuries ago, persons of interest were guilty as charged and needed to prove their innocence.
Today, in most countries around the world, innocence is presumed, and guilt must be proven.
An interview involves meeting people, persons of interest or witnesses face to face, and discussing event, facts, or evidence. It should not be accusatory, but still relatively formal.
An interrogation involves the questioning of persons of interest or suspects by law and government agencies officials, where the intention is for a person accused of crime to confess. It is highly formal and often accusatory. Properly structured questioning is a hallmark of successful investigations.
A skilled investigator will combine the golden questions of criminalistics in conjunction with different types of questioning: open, closed, recalling, clarification, precise, narrowing, leading, complementing, multiple, hypothetical, sequencing, topic-based or specialty questions. As a corporate investigator who conducts investigations or a claims officer who talks over the phone, it is preferable to master a couple of questioning techniques, rather than attempt to use all of them.
Hence, we now elaborate on a few strategic questioning techniques that we believe can be mastered for any conversation, regardless of whether it is in person or over the phone.
Thank you all, Mario.
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