Workshop: Criminal Interrogation, Past and Present

The project Interpsy: Psychology, Criminal Interrogation and the Impact of Knowledge, 1880-1940 organises the workshop ‘Criminal Interrogation: Past & Present’ on 13 September. In this workshop, the current practice of criminal interrogation is placed in a long-term historical context.

Interrogation through the centuries

Why we interrogate in criminal justice, and why we do it the way we do, is the result of ideas and practices that date back to the Middle Ages. By tracing continuities and changes over the past centuries, we aim to elucidate this history, both in order to understand its historical role in criminal justice and society, and to make sense of present-day practices.

Criminal interrogation has evolved from medieval suspect questioning by the Inquisition to psychological approaches in the nineteenth century and advancements like 'lie detectors' in the twentieth century. Around 2000, ‘interrogation’ was renamed ‘interview’, in the hope of leaving behind the baggage of abuse and false confessions.

Various interests

Throughout all these major developments, individuals tried to balance their various interests. Suspects confessed or refused to confess, or followed the rules or tried to subvert them. Interrogators stuck to traditions or ignored them, pushed for a confession, or they settled for a statement they did not believe. In the workshop, we will discuss rules, institutions, and ideas about interrogation as well as concrete practices and methodological considerations.

Workshop

The aim of the workshop is to foster a dialogue between people from different disciplines and working on different times and places. There are limited spaces available for people who want to participate (online or in person) without presenting their own paper. Please contact Elwin Hofman at e.l.hofman@uu.nl if you are interested in this.

The workshop is an event of the Research Network for Culture, Law and the Body and is organised as part of the InterPsy project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe MSCA programme.