Customer Reviews

Principles of Kinesic Interview and Interrogation (Practical Aspects of Criminal & Forensic Investigation)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a police officer for ten years, the last five as an Investigator. I came across this Stan Walters masterpiece in 1996 durring a search for Forensic Psychiatry books. The ability to recognize deception is extremely important in my field, and there are many manuals of instructions on the subject. Mr. Walter's, however, gives the reader/researcher the keys to EXTRACTING the verbal (speech) and non-verbal (Body) reactions the body has when stressed. It also covers what happens to the body and speech when a person is ready to confess. Everything is covered from how to approach a suspect initially to the personality types you may run across. Since my introduction to Mr. Walter's book (and subsequent Law Enforcement classes offered on this subject), my confession rate has sky rocketed! I obtain solid witness statements and when conducting Internal Investigations, officers come right out and "fess up" rather than be Interrogated. All my awards over the last three years including the 1998 Officer of the Year for my agency, I owe to this book. The only warning I can give is if you are a close minded cop who makes pre-judgements about people, you will waste your time with this book. Otherwise, for the benefit of your community, study hard!

This book contains basic methods for interviews/interrogations, mostly in relation to criminal investigations by authorities. It is not by any means an intensive academic/scientific/military study, although there are such references to past studies and references, namely one by Rand Corp. in relation to the importance of interviewing victims and witnesses.

The book is seriously lacking in deeper interrogation/intel gathering methods and/or advanced strategies during interviews, although Chapter 4 has some interesting takes on "Verbal Content", along with Chapter 5's "Information Recovery and Statement-Credibility Assessment".

One seriously negative aspect is the author's failure in defining VAST cultural kinesic differences, behavioral and linguistic/verbal differences amongst varying cultures, and especially failing to address backgrounds of pathological liars and career criminal manipulators of human interaction. There wasn't even an index listing for either "pathological liars" or "cultural uniqueness/definitions of kinesic behaviors".

I tend to believe that ANY novice who has no prior investigative training and/or skills and uses this book alone, would very easily misread many natural innocent human behaviors, as well as that same novice who might easily be taken in by "professional" career criminals.

Upside: The ABSOLUTE BEST STATEMENT IN THIS BOOK, as quoted from chapter one, "The first and most important of all Basic Practical Kinesic Prinicples is: No single kinesic behavior, verbal or nonverbal, proves a person is truthful or deceptive."

Chapter 6 provides at least 92 photographs of kinesics examples in relation to nonverbal behaviors with descriptions and discussions of the examples.

Downside: Most basic negative connotations would be the interrogator's inability to REALLY discern guilt from kinesics alone, but in the ability to collect behaviors, statements, interviews, evidence, etc, that might help LEAD an investigator "closer to the truth". The other downside is the dry writing style, along with what could have been better organized materials and cultural differences, especially noting the MANY unique behaviors amongst our myriad of foreign residents in this country that could EASILY be misinterpreted by an interrogator with no prior outside cultural experiences!

Principals of Kinesic Interview and Interrogation is a well written and well researched look into the physical and physcological traits of a deceptive person. As a criminal investigator with a large Department I have found it to be an invaluable resource. Stan Walters insights and experiences are related in understandable easy to read terms. An excellent book.

This thoroughly researched and practical book was written by Stan Walters, a retired police interrogation specialist with over 25 years' experience. The purpose of his book is to help interrogators rely on highly successful and proven techniques in recognizing deceptive behaviors in speech quality, speech content, and especially body language.

Too often, Walters observed other questioning officers depend on 'gut instinct', racial bias, intimidation, or pre-conceived notions of the interviewee's guilt. Walters admits that police are surprisingly able to solicit false confessions, especially from mentally deficient or emotionally weak interviewees. So, his ultimate goal is to help police identify the real perpetrators of crimes via the perpetrator's own truthful confession of guilt.

In the first theoretical half of the book, Walters introduces kinesic theory (i.e. recognizing non-verbal signals) and the five stages of stress response (anger, depression, denial, bargaining, acceptance). Then he goes on to explain how these stress response stages can be identified in interviewee subjects and provides 90 photographs of subjects' body language movements.

In the second practical half of the book, Walters gives specific instructions on how to conduct interrogations, especially by customizing each interview according to the interviewee's personality type. He also explains the pitfalls of what many 'traditional' interrogators do wrong and how to avoid them. In addition, the interviewer and interviewee must speak the same native language and come from the same culture - often a problem for military interrogators.

This is an excellent practical textbook on how to conduct and secure a (truthful) confession, given a patient, practiced, and conscientious interviewer. Walters admits, however, it still takes practice and involves a lot of hard work - always reading interviewees' behaviors.

I am in the Human Resources field so knowing about body language and knowing how to interview effectively is a tremendous asset. I really enjoyed reading this book. Although it was focused on the criminology side of things, I found it applicable to what I do for a living every day. Because of this book I am very interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement.

I'm up to page 200 and while I usually wait for the end of any book to write a review, I felt compelled to write one now.-----------

I want to open this review by clearly stating that no person should ever agree to be interviewed by law enforcement, guilty or innocent. No lawyer worth his hourly should ever suggest that his client be interview by law enforcement unless he is granted full immunity. The Unites States unlike our European brother countries can legally use deception to get a confession. Police investigators are powerless within the court systems. There is no reason to speak with them directly. If something needs to be confessed, it should be between your attorney and the district attorney.------------

I have law enforcement experience with the NYPD and have read most of the "lie detection" literature available. I've read the Eckman books, the Wiley Series books, and references to studies included and referred to in the Walters book which I found shortly after reading "Detecting Lies and Deceit : The Psychology of Lying and the Implications for Professional Practice" by Vrij. The Vrij book is a good read and you'll be flipping pages to get a good understanding of tests results.-------------

Let me first state from experience, that unfortunately, the NYPD uses the Lieberman approach of pop science, which the Walters book (Kinesic) accurately states, is not an effective tool. The Lieberman book titled "Never Be Lied to Again" is what appears to be on law enforcements guide on "how to" interview and interrogate. I've also witnessed interviewing where arrested persons were denied council for nearly 10 hours as multiple detectives hammered away at them while being cuffed to wooden chairs in a forced slumped position. Bathroom breaks are a privilege and only in trade if you gave them something incriminating. Under these circumstances, people will eventually break even if they did not commit the crime. When the documents were passed to the ADA, I was astonished to read that the perp had never requested a lawyer although I witnessed some of them near crying to speak to a lawyer. Interviewing tactics seem to vary and no formal rules exist. Direct accusation of suspects and a poorly played hand of poker is the method of questioning. Exactly what the above literature states NOT to do, is what appears to be commonplace. ---------

This book is not a bad book, but is misleading. The author calls quotes of research papers and studies to support his claims. The part that really annoyed me is that I read these papers prior to reading this book and his claims of support are not in context with the results of research. Research has show that law enforcement at its best was only able to detect deceit at most 50% of the time. Actually, law enforcement scored lower because overall, the national average IQ of law enforcement was 106 while the standard college test subjects IQ was higher. Law enforcement was unable to fully utilize the information provided to them either because of skepticism or because of their impeded mental dynamics.----------

This book claims in some instances that the suspect is likely to not be truthful by observation of speech and motion, which include clustering. This assumption at best can be 50% accurate. Body language is subjective and is clearly and statistically analyzed in the Vrij book, which also refers to the same authors as Walters uses. An investigator should expect an adversarial encounter, fidgeting, grooming, and other signs of normal and stress induced activities. The author does make some good points about items that manifest themselves under stress. He also points out some conversation clues that a perp could literally hand to an experience investigator that can be followed up on.-------------

Overall, this book can be used as a guide of what not to do as pointed out by the author. The author bases conclusions on lies based on stress related clustering of actions and discretion on observing these actions. The author clearly states that the interviewer should not have a bias toward the subject, but this is clearly not the case as the book progresses. The objective in this book is to get a confession although it states that a false confession is not the objective. True confession or false confession, most police departments just want the confession. Let the DA handle the specifics.-----------

Why do American police have the highest confession rates? The simple fact that the person in the "hot seat" is a suspect resulting from an investigation. The subject is law enforcements most probable perpetrator. There is a high probability that this person is guilty. With the lax rules in questioning and because criminals as a whole are not usually intelligent, confessions are not that difficult to extract. Criminals that are more affluent know enough to request an attorney as soon as they are approached by law enforcement.--------------

This book can help the pop science culture of police investigators realize their mistakes. The book will help the reader identify patterns of a subject. I would not take Walters word on "this subject is probably being deceptive" with actions pointed out in his book because most of his stressed and supposedly deceptive subjects were showing "normal" behavior under stress. His idea of changes in patterns is noteworthy. This book can also help perps derail interviews by tossing in false body language and slips to create an environment where the investigator is running in circles. This idea struck me as unique. What would happen if the interviewee were more polished on interviewing tactics then the interviewer? ------------

Being a Stan Walters devotee I was pleased to find yet another rivetting publication by the guru of kinesics. Stans writing is refreshing and makes for interesting reading. The content itself is on the button. Excellent reference material for those in the business of detecting deception. I integrated the techniques described by Stan Walters with Statement Analysis techniques and find that I am now far more successful at what I do.