From the ivory tower to the interrogation room: Training and field evaluation research on suspect interviewing

The purpose of the current chapter is to survey training and field research that is helping to inform a new science of interrogation. Specifically, the chapter focuses on training and field studies that have documented and evaluated interview and interrogation methods for eliciting information from uncooperative individuals, including those suspected of crimes and individuals who may possess information of intelligence value for military and intelligence operations. The review considers three facets of existing training and field studies: (i) research that evaluates current practice in the field via self-report and observational studies; (ii) research that assesses the effectiveness of new training methods; and (iii) research that validates new methods when they are deployed in the field. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges and lessons learned with respect to conducting field and training studies, in the hope that they prove helpful to others who undertake this type of research in the future