The Biggest Mistake We Make When Interviewing Job Applicants

Nov 22, 2021

In today's environment we are all experiencing some difficulty in finding people to staff the open employment positions in our organization. In fact, just recently the Wall Street Journal published an article...

Don't Overlook The Person Who Reported The Crime

Jan 01, 2002

A guideline we teach during our seminars is that the first person interviewed during an investigation should be the individual who reported the crime. The primary reason for this is because that...

Screening New Employees: Part II

Dec 01, 2001

The importance of a face to face interview with a job applicant to evaluate their recent past behavior was emphasized in the last web tip. One reason employers are reluctant to ask...

Screening New Employees: Part I

Nov 01, 2001

Screening New Employees: Part I

In light of the tragic events of September 11th, there is a heightened awareness to properly screen new employees. The terrorist=s attack on the...

Evaluating Omissions within a Suspect's Statement

Oct 01, 2001

An earlier web tip discussed the evaluation of inconsistencies within a suspect's statements. Inconsistencies represent factual changes in an account whereas omissions represent expected information not included within a response...

The Polygraph Technique Part II: Value During an Investigation

Sep 01, 2001

Each year in the United States hundreds of thousands of polygraph examinations are administered. The primary value of the polygraph technique is to eliminate innocent suspects early during an investigation. This greatly...

The Polygraph Technique, Part I: Theory

Aug 01, 2001

The polygraph instrument, erroneously called a 'lie detector', is nothing more than a monitoring device to record different physiological systems. The first polygraph was developed in 1908 by a British Doctor to...

Interrogations of Children

Jul 01, 2001

National statistics would readily support the claim that, in the last decade, children are increasingly involved in more serious crimes. It no longer shocks the average listener to learn that a 12-year-old...

Interviewing vs. Interrogation

Jun 01, 2001

A concept we teach in our basic course is, "If you're going to interview, interview. If you're going to interrogate, interrogate." There are two important parts of this lesson. The first is...

Evaluating Inconsistencies Within an Account

May 01, 2001

It is a common trial strategy for an attorney to attack inconsistencies within testimony offered by a victim, witness, or an investigator. And yet most victims, witnesses and investigators tell the truth...

Mirroring and Its Values During Interviews and Interrogations

Apr 01, 2001

What is Mirroring?

Recently I was talking to one of my sons about a possible location to spend our spring vacation. My left hand was in my pocket and...

Selecting the Proper Issue in a Child Physical Abuse Investigation

Mar 01, 2001

The nature of most crimes involve a central criminal behavior such as stealing money, starting a fire, selling drugs or having sexual contact with another person. Under these circumstances, the focus of...

Question Formulation Guidelines: Part II

Feb 01, 2001

This web tip offers a continuation of the January tip. The emphasis of this information is that how a question is asked often dictates the ease at which a deceptive subject can...

Question Formulation Guidelines: Part I

Jan 01, 2001

Asking questions is one of the first language skills a child develops. However, almost all of our question asking skills are developed under the assumption that the person answering our question will...

Miranda, Article 31 and Constitutional Advisements

Dec 01, 2000

During training seminars frequently the issue comes up as to the best time to advise a suspect of his constitutional rights. There are both legal and psychological considerations in answering this question...

Creating A Temporary Interviewing Room

Nov 01, 2000

In an ideal world, an interview or interrogation would always be conducted in a room specifically designed for that purpose. Most businesses, however, do not have a room set aside for interviewing...

Behavior Provoking Questions: The Punishment Question

Oct 01, 2000

The Behavior Analysis Interview is a structured interview, developed by John E. Reid and Associates, designed to elicit behavior symptoms indicative of truthfulness or deception. The core of the interview consists of...

Assessing Attitudes: The Victim Mentality

Sep 01, 2000

A suspect guilty of a crime often displays attitudes during an interview which are typically quite different from those attitudes exhibited by an innocent person. During an investigation, an investigator may note...

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EMPLOYMENT APPLICATION

Aug 01, 2000

It is often impractical for an employer to personally interview every person applying for a particular position. For this reason, most job applicants are initially screened by reviewing a written summary of...

The Use of Follow-up Questions to Elicit Admissions

Jul 01, 2000

An earlier web tip offered guidelines to interpret a subject's verbal behavior (Sept. 1999). In addition to assessing the truthfulness of a response, verbal behavior also provides insight for asking follow-up questions...

The Use of Trickery and Deceit During an Interrogation

Jun 01, 2000

During an interrogation, an investigator attempts to persuade a suspect to tell the truth, oftentimes to provide incriminating evidence that will be used in a subsequent prosecution. Further, interrogations are generally conducted...