NCJ Number
171363
Date Published
1997
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This chapter explains the techniques that correctional personnel who work in community and institutional correctional settings should use in interviewing and interrogating offenders and victims.
Abstract
An introduction discusses the purposes of the criminal justice interview and explains the techniques of active listing, questioning and probing, listening with the "third ear," resisting the temptation to interrupt, and responding. It emphasizes that workers should prepare for the interview by becoming familiar with all the pertinent information available. They should begin the interview by establishing rapport and encourage offenders to explore themselves and their behavior through the frequent use of probes and open-ended questions. Interviewing victims requires a special sensitivity to their victimization; any reluctance on their part to be interviewed or to approach certain topics should be respected absolutely. When interrogation techniques are required, the worker should approach the interrogation in a calm, clinical, and professional manner. The interrogation differs from the interview in that the correctional worker controls the content and pace. Exercise in listening and interviewing, evaluation form for the exercise, and article on crisis intervention in prison