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In a growing number of countries, crime investigators, such as the police, are moving away from using oppressive and coercive tactics with suspected persons toward a more humane, information-gathering approach. This chapter describes the evolution and content of such an approach devised by detectives with input from psychologists more than 25 years ago. A key element of this approach, now supported by extensive research world-wide, is the use of rapport. However, as with many of the most important aspects of life, rapport is not easy to define and operationalize. Furthermore, one key component of rapport in the obtaining of discourse from suspects is the ethical use of empathy – which itself is also far from easy to define. Nevertheless, in a very substantial 2016 United Nations report the use of rapport is emphasized. This chapter examines the use of rapport in police interviews using a discursive and psychological approach.

Over the past decades, the research on police interviews has produced a number of different categorizations of questioning techniques and question typologies. However, one aspect that remains largely ignored is the impact of two interviewers. Having two officers conduct the interview creates unique interview dynamics and distinct co-operation patterns, which ultimately influence the questioning process and interview strategies. In the UK, the official guidelines on co-operation between the interviewers are vague and it is thus up to individual officers how they manage the interview and their co-operation during the interview. The analysis of interview dynamics and co-operation patterns (e.g., turn-taking patterns, ratio of questioning turns between the two interviewers, coherence links between the interviewers’ turns) from twenty investigative interviews with suspected sex offenders illustrates the different approaches to co-operation adopted by interviewers. The chapter comments on turn-taking management between interviewers and the function of second interviewers’ questions. The authors argue for clearer guidelines on co-operation between the interviewers for investigative interviews.

In many places throughout world, suspects (and sometimes witnesses and victims) are still interrogated in a coercive, pressurizing manner. The beliefs underlying such practices are examined in this chapter, as is the emerging body of research on offenders’ opinions about effective interviewing, which actually supports the efficacy of a more humanitarian approach. A seismic shift away from coercive interrogation that seminally commenced in 1992 in England and Wales—involving the “PEACE” investigative interviewing approach—is described, together with the research that underpinned this (then novel) method. Later scientific work in the United Kingdom on its effectiveness is then presented and discussed. After these studies are reviewed, more recent research from various countries are put forward that have also found a rapport-based, humane approach to be effective. Building on this emerging science, a number of investigative organizations in a variety of countries have replaced coercive interrogation techniques with investigative interviewing (e.g., the Norwegian Police and the New Zealand Police), and a greater number are in the process of doing the same. The Norwegian Police experience is exemplary on this point, and will be described in detail. The chapter will then conclude with an account of the recent United Nations initiative to establish a Universal Protocol that adopts this type of non-coercive approach based on study and practice.