Interrogation/ police interview: Myth, realities and challenges

The police interview or interrogation, one of the major
tools of criminal investigation is no longer confined to pre-trial
investigations, but transcends to forensic labs and the Court
rooms of learned Judges. The investigators, forensic experts and
prosecutors need to act in synergy to improve the performance of
the Criminal justice system. In this backdrop, the article examines
the subject of interrogation on a broad canvass of constitutional
and legal parameters, police professionalism and evidentiary
value and human- civil rights issues. It underlines the need of the
lead actors of the criminal justice system properly understanding
certain myths and challenges connected with interrogation so
that they can better appreciate the evidence or inputs generated
through interrogation, at professional plane. It also discusses
as how the science and technology have become a major aid in
overcoming many bottlenecks in the traditional
methods of interrogation or police interview.

1. (Endnotes)
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3. http://www.mha.nic.in/hindi/sites/upload_files/mhahindi/
4. files/pdf/criminal_justice_system.pdf last accessed on
5. October 25, 2016
6. The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or the HIG, is a
7. cooperative effort between the FBI, the CIA, the Department of
8. Defense, and other government agencies. Frazier Thompson, IV
9. was the first Director.
10. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Supreme Court ruled that
11. detained criminal suspects, prior to police questioning, must be
12. informed of their constitutional right to an attorney and against
13. self-incrimination.
14. Hans Gustav Adolf Gross was an Austrian criminal jurist and
15. an examining magistrate. He is believed to be the
16. creator of the field of criminalistics and is to this day seen as the
17. father of Criminal investigations. ...
18. William Walters Sargant was a British psychiatrist who is
19. remembered for the evangelical zeal with which he promoted
20. treatments such as psychosurgery, deep sleep treatment, electro-
21. convulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. His most popular
22. work is ‘ Battle for the mind”
23. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of
24. psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology
25. through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst
26. Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who was
27. awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for
28. pioneering vascular suturing technique. His most popular work
29. is “Man-the Unknown’