ABSTRACT
Although the American criminal justice system is based on English law, the interrogation methods of British and American police are vastly different. Since the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and following the shock of a number of miscarriages of justice, police forces in England and Wales have developed a new ethos of “open-mindedness” in police interrogations. Officers are trained to adopt a neutral position to facilitate the gathering of accurate and reliable information. However, the change from an inherent confession- driven police culture to one of a “search for the truth” has proved difficult as officers are still expected to function within an adversarial system.
In stark contract American police are trained to use sophisticated psychologically-manipulative techniques such as trickery and deceit in order to induce confessions. These techniques are sanctioned by the courts with the belief that the safeguard of “due process” of the criminal justice system will deflect any possibility of a miscarriage of justice. However, it may only be a matter of time before America is forced, from the aftermath of a major shock to their judicial system, to review their existing investigative framework and to adopt a more neutral “search for the truth” ethos similar to that provided by PACE.
