Recently a judge threw out a confession in court due to "strong evidence that the confession obtained from the defendant was under duress". The reasoning for this was in relation to the time taken and the heavy handed interrogation witnessed in the video footage.
When interviewing a suspects there are a number of rules and regulations that need to be adhered to and as forensic accountants, we do not have the same power as police in these situations. Below is outlined some "Do Nots" in regards to interviewing;
DO NOT MAKE PROMISES
Making promises to your interview in order to persuade them to confess will result in the confession being inadmissible in court. This is due to confessions not standing if they are said under hope of advantage. Although the police do have the authority to provide incentives, as forensic Accountants we need to stay objective and make no attempt to convince the suspect to own up to the crime.
DO NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS
It is the forensic accountants duty to stay objective and only care about the facts. The importance of not jumping to conclusions can save a lot of time and resources by chasing false leads.
For an interview, I would suggest using the PEACE model approach. I believe that the conversation management based framework would be most effective through keeping a calm environment and making the interviewee feel comfortable and able to think rationally. Due to those characteristics of the framework, its is also very useful in not providing inadmissible confessions.
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