Martha Komter
The interactional dynamics of eliciting a confession
in a Dutch police
interrogation
This article examines the step-by-step unfolding of the interaction in a
police interrogation, where an initially denying suspect is eventually persuaded
to change her story and confess to a theft. The analysis follows the steps
that are taken from the moment that the interrogator articulates his disbelief
of the suspect's story, to the suspect's final admission to having lied,
and confession to the theft. This allows us to show how the interrogator
builds an incremental case, how he gains the suspect's agreement to progressively
more incriminating acts, how he makes it progressively difficult for the
suspect to deny the accusations, and how he manages to interaction so, that
the suspect's eventual confession is hearable as her own, individual, and
voluntary production.
It is part of my ongoing study of police interrogations. I am particularly
interested in how police interrogators record the interaction in the interrogating
room.
Martha L. Komter is senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Amsterdam, and at the Free University of Amsterdam.
