Reflections on the nature of rapport within suspect interviews

Rapport building has been highlighted as an effective and ethical means of eliciting information from suspects within criminal investigations. The purpose of this contemporary comment is to distinguish between what we have termed 'interrogative rapport' from rapport-building practices that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current issues in criminal justice 2022-04, Vol.34 (2), p.219-228
Main Authors: Crough, Quintan, Dion Larivière, Cassandre, Snow, Mark D., Eastwood, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Criminal investigation
Criminal law
Interrogative rapport
Interviewing in law practice
persuasion
rapport
suspect interview
Suspects (Criminal investigation)
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Summary:Rapport building has been highlighted as an effective and ethical means of eliciting information from suspects within criminal investigations. The purpose of this contemporary comment is to distinguish between what we have termed 'interrogative rapport' from rapport-building practices that occur in other professional contexts. To support this distinction, we advance the following arguments: (1) interrogative rapport is actively and intentionally created by the interviewer; (2) the goal of actively building rapport is to persuade the suspect to comply with requests for information; (3) interrogative rapport is inherently deceptive; and (4) the interviewer's goal of rapport building-the elicitation of information from the suspect-is independent of, and often in opposition to, the suspect's best interests. We believe that by acknowledging the outlined elements of interrogative rapport, more nuanced discussions concerning both rapport and persuasion within suspect interviews will result.
ISSN:1034-5329
2206-9542
DOI:10.1080/10345329.2021.2018814