A Guide to the Professional Interview

The world is loaded with information. We enjoy immediate access to most of it through laptops, smartphones and the Internet. There is, however, a great deal of information that professionals cannot reach unless they talk to their clients, patients, job applicants and others. In fact, the number of professions in need of accurate and reliable information through professional conversations is huge. The way professionals approach these interpersonal meetings will have profound impact not only on the subsequent decisions the information-gathering is intended to support but also equally on the clients' trust in the interviewer and their organisations. No interview setting has been subjected to more systematic and critical research than police detectives in their interpersonal encounters with victims, witnesses and suspects of crime. This research has provided the police with innovative interviewing techniques. The knowledge and principles underpinning the concept of Investigative Interviewing, its models and techniques, provide more accurate and reliable information than any other known interview technique. It is founded on ethical, interpersonal communication theories and informed by cognitive and social psychology. Equally important, it is designed for practitioners and delivered through a practical step-by-step model a model we are confident is of great utility value, far beyond police stations.

“"The authors of this volume make a decisive contribution to the practice of rapport-based interviewing, a methodology that is revolutionizing the way suspects, witnesses and victims are questioned in criminal investigations and other information gathering. This revolution is long overdue: human dignity of all persons demands an end to confession-driven interrogation that all too often results in torture and illegal coercion. This book provides answers from professional experience and from rigorous scientific research."--Juan E. Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence, Washington College of Law, US”

“The authors of this volume make a decisive contribution to the practice of rapport-based interviewing, a methodology that is revolutionizing the way suspects, witnesses and victims are questioned in criminal investigations and other information gathering. This revolution is long overdue: human dignity of all persons demands an end to confession-driven interrogation that all too often results in torture and illegal coercion. This book provides answers from professional experience and from rigorous scientific research.”—Juan E. Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence, Washington College of Law, US

“In this highly informative book three very experienced and open-minded professional interviewers fully describe an evidence/research-based method of obtaining in interviews information that is as accurate, relevant, and reliable as possible.”—Ray Bull, DSc, Professor of Criminal Investigation, University of Derby, UK

“A Guide to the Professional Interview takes knowledge acquired from the police experience of interviewing victims, witnesses and suspects and illustrates how this can be generalized and applied to different professional contexts. This book has both new things to say, as well as familiar but important things said in an interesting new way.” —Dr. Mary Schollum, Policing and Criminal Justice Consultant, UK 

“‘Time is short, stakes are serious. We’ll trust our experience. Do you think I can afford time for a book?’ The truth is you can’t afford not to. We know what works and Rachlew, Løken, and Bergestuen explain clearly what to do even when time is short.”—Darius Rejali, Author of Torture and Democracy (2007)

Asbjrn Rachlew is a police superintendent with a PhD on "Errors of Justice" and a guest researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo.

Geir-egil Lken is a police superintendent at NCIS Norway. Educated as an instructor in investigative interviewing and in advanced investigation, he is also a consultant.

Svein Tore Bergestuen is a writer, consultant and instructor in journalistic interviewing techniques.

The world is loaded with information. We enjoy immediate access to most of it through laptops, smartphones and the Internet. There is, however, a great deal of information that professionals cannot reach unless they talk to their clients, patients, job applicants and others. In fact, the number of professions in need of accurate and reliable information through professional conversations is huge. The way professionals approach these interpersonal meetings will have profound impact not only on the subsequent decisions the information-gathering is intended to support but also equally on the clients' trust in the interviewer and their organisations. No interview setting has been subjected to more systematic and critical research than police detectives in their interpersonal encounters with victims, witnesses and suspects of crime. This research has provided the police with innovative interviewing techniques. The knowledge and principles underpinning the concept of Investigative Interviewing, its models and techniques, provide more accurate and reliable information than any other known interview technique. It is founded on ethical, interpersonal communication theories and informed by cognitive and social psychology. Equally important, it is designed for practitioners and delivered through a practical step-by-step model - a model we are confident is of great utility value, far beyond police stations.

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