I want you to sit there and think about what you did : an examination of isolation during police interrogations

Abstract

The literature on police interrogations is vast, but little to no research has explored isolation during interrogations. Police officers are trained to isolate suspects (Cleary & Warner, 2016), officers report “isolating suspects from their family and friends” as the technique they use most commonly (Kassin et al., 2007), and this research provides evidence of its use. This study examined 20 police interrogation videos, finding that 95% of cases utilized isolation. The amount of time spent in isolation throughout the interrogation ranged from zero minutes to 6.49 hours (M = 2.58 hours). The average amount of time spent in isolation during an interrogation differed significantly from the Reid Model recommendation of five minutes, however, no relationship between time spent in isolation and the interrogation outcome (confession/no confession) was identified. Police were found to interrupt isolation periods more than once per interrogation, on average. Nonverbal behaviours provided few cues to interrogation outcome.