ABSTRACT
The significance of confessions within the investigation and trial process is historically established through the perceived association between confession and redemption within religious trials, which assumed all confessions sincere and reliable. This chapter shows that the environment is critical to the level of influence empirical evidence is capable of exerting. Shepherd identified the core requirement for conversation management and investigative interviewing – in contrast to interrogation. J. Walkley surveyed detectives regarding their preferred interrogation tactics. Psychologists have demonstrated that one of the reasons why police, prosecutors and judges sometimes fail to distinguish genuine from false confessions, is that false confessions often appear true because they contain content cues associated with truthfulness. Professional investigative interviewers seek to establish trust and rapport through professional, empathic behaviour. The essential components within the ethos of investigative interviewing will increase detectives' ability to gather and test accurate and reliable information and hence increase the likelihood of solving the case at hand.
