Revised Annotation 2: The Art of Interrogation

The main character of “The Closer”, Brenda, is a professional interrogator. After she collects necessary evident, she knows who the murder is, and then she talks to the suspect, walks out the interview room with confession and closes this case. Compare to the “CSI”, “The Closer” puts more emphasis on interrogation. Except for physical evidence, confession in fact is an essential part in investigation. To the suspects, interrogation gives them a chance to explain why they are involved in this case. To the law executors, they can piece the truth together by combination of evidence and confession. “Innocent people can confess things they didn’t do.” Not all the confession is stable and so do the evidence. Unarguably, forensic evidence is powerful, but here “The Closer” reminds us that we ignore the confession easily.

As the video says, interrogation is an art. Good interrogators have to equip with several abilities, not only the required knowledge range widely, but the highly mental intelligence. However, these are just previous preparation. During the interrogation, they act all the time. They may pretend to be provoked by the suspects and lose their temper. Or they may show consideration to suspects but actually they feel disgusting. To sum up in a word, they must be very good at controlling their emotions. Be flexible, objective, and observant. Their mood should shift rapidly to cater to the situation. The performance is diverse, from being agitated and patience. Owing to suspects maybe defective and intelligent, lying, silence, uncooperative are possible. It takes interrogators a lot of time to deal with them. Before the truth is exposed, they are not allowed to view suspects as formal criminal and behave in that way during the interrogation. Interrogators beating suspexts it is out of the question. If the confession is due to violence, the court will not use it. The process is not that soon on TV. Finally, these rules are accompanied with careful observation then the interrogator can do a good job. Just like the well-known book, “What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People”, when interrogators are ready, then observe suspects carefully to find out which part of conversation force them move their body. Nevertheless, careful observation is based on years of experience. That’s why it can be called an art. “It goes beyond anything that you can reduce to a formula put in a book and expect people mechanically to be able to follow. Human nature definitely is not so easy to know well.

Understanding the basic rule a good interrogator should follow, we may think about some questions. In Taiwan, it is hard to find a professional interrogator. Police officer may torture the suspect in both verbal and un-verbal ways. Suspects’ human rights are ignored, even though they are proved to be innocent, there must leave inestimable wounds. Such is the case in 蘇建和案, the way the police get confession from three suspects is extremely questionable. Begin at 1990, the suit has been lasted for almost 21 years, it hasn’t been settled until now. People related to the case are left with un-retrievable loss of time and energy. A proper interrogation wouldn’t bring such effect. “The Closer” shows us the basic rule of it, though it’s ultimate goal is entertainment, not all the scenes are real. It still tells us what a good interrogator should armed with, and what a legitimate interrogation can achieve.

Annotation 2 : The art of interrogation

This short video was collected in a famous crime series, "The Closer",third season, first disc. Its primary intention is to explain the truth behind interrogation, which is the main force of this series. The speakers are consisted of professors of law schools, lawyers, detectives, police officers and producer. Based on their professional background, they introduce the history first, and then tell the audience about some key points about interrogation. The video also contains some snatches of series, in order to prove their introduction practically. Overall, the explanation is persuasive. Here are some important information about interrogation below.


Skoobderski, The Closer Season 3 disk 4, The Art of Interrogation

1. The definition of interrogation- a non-coercive procedure in which a law enforcement officer systematically questions a suspect in order to elicit a confession(偵訊：執法者為求嫌疑犯招供而採取的非強制性訊問程序。)

2.Criminal interrogation has been involved a lot in the United States over the last twenty years. Before the Miranda Right took effect, most of police officers beat the suspect for confession.

Miranda Rights:You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.

3. The art( of interrogation) dimension really required years of experience as well as understanding of human nature or near psychology .It goes beyond anything that you can reduce to a formula put in a book and expect people mechanically to be able to follow.

4. Literally I think an interrogator has to be patient. When you interrogate somebody you can’t expect you can get the confession in two to three minutes like they do on TV. OK? It sometime takes hours and hours, repeated effort. Often time say something same over and over again.

5. Interrogators have to know the background of the suspects first, so they have the basic idea about who are they. During the process of interview, interrogators have to record every tiny facial expressions, gestures, or sound, so that they can know what part of the conversation move the suspects afterward.

The interrogate gesture- Leaning forward and elbows on the knees, palms up.Interview them from about four half to five feet away.

6. Most of the time interrogators are acting. They use may tactics, such as motherly approach, pressing their hands, patting them on the shoulders, and also displayed fully anger, lost control that was contrived. Even though they know the suspects are merely perverted people, they have to pretend they can understand how they feel. But sometime they can go straight, especially when they deal with the gangsters. Police

7. Back to 1969, the Supreme Court say trickery and conceive is ok. Because it won’t in their view by itself cause in missable or involuntary confession. So can a interrogate lie to a suspect? Absolutely. Should he or she lie to a suspect? That’s depends. Interrogators must know their lies pretty well or it will cease the interview when the suspects find out they are deceived.

8. The first thing an good interrogators have to do is getting past about the Miranda issue. Once the suspects ask to have lawyers, interrogators will in a very dangerous water if they try to get the suspects change their minds.

9. Whatever interrogators do, they would not physically abuse or torture people, to get them tell them the truths.

10. People can say a lot of thing, but interrogators still need the independent evidence. Finger prints help. DNA help. Forensic evidence certainly comes a long way. Confession alone is very very dangerous. Innocent people can confess things they didn’t do.

Annotation 1: "CSI reality" by Max M. Houck

This article can only be read in NCU. Here is the website of database:http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v295/n1/full/scientificamerican0706-84.html

Max M, Houck (2006). CSI reality Scientific American295, 84-89 


1.Such programs give the impression that forensic laboratories are fully staffed with highly trained personnel, stocked with a full complement of state-of-the-art instrumentation and rolling in the resources to close every case in a timely fashion.


2.Whether the CSI effect truly exists as a quantifiable influence on courtroom behavior is still a subject of debate.

3.2005 Oregon district attorney Josh Marquis, vice president of the National District Attorneys Association, told CBS News, “Jurors now expect us to have a DNA test for just about every case. They expect us to have the most advanced technology possible, and they expect it to look like it does on television.”


4. But to argue that ‘C.S.I.’ and similar shows are actually raising the number of acquittals is a staggering claim, and the remarkable thing is that, speaking forensically, there is not a shred of evidence to back it up. There is a robust field of research on jury decision-making but no study finding any C.S.I. effect. There is only anecdotal evidence.”

5.The actors playing forensic personnel portrayed on television, for instance, are an amalgam of police officer/detective/forensic scientist—this job description does not exist in the real world.

6.University of Maryland forensic scientist Thomas Mauriello estimates that about 40 percent of the forensic science shown on CSI does not exist.

7.Similarly, working investigators cannot be quite as precise as their counterparts on the screen.

8.Police detectives who at one time might have gathered five pieces of evidence from a crime scene say they are collecting 50 to 400 today.

9. A consequence of the new trends, then, is exacerbation of the already disturbing backlog problem.

10.Another side effect of the increased gathering of physical evidence is the need to store it for various lengths of time, depending on local, state or federal laws.

11.Enrollment in forensic science educational programs across the U.S. is exploding.

12.Two thirds of forensic science laboratory management personnel are currently male, a figure sure to decrease as the newer women workers advance.

13.The best result of public interest in forensics, though, would be increased investment in forensics research.







This article, which I found it on Science American, is taking a multi-faceted approach in introducing “CSI effect”. The author confirms that CSI series, the most popular crime series, has caused some effects among our society. Here are five paragraphs summarize this article.



Firstly, CSI’s influence in the Courtroom.As result of the CSI series, now juries hoping prosecutors submit more DNA evidence to them, which they don’t know what time is right to use it. DNA evidence is hard to collected, moreover, it doesn’t exist. Also, the juries don’t understand its complexity. Since the jury rely more on DNA evidence, they doubt other evidence, such as witness, besides DNA. So some suspects are acquitted.The biggest problem of CSI series is they are too real. When it comes to reality, it is hard to recognize whether the plots on TV can also function. We should bear it in mind that CSI series’ ultimate goal is not to turn every audience into a detective after all.



Secondly, the truth about the detectives-it is impossible that one detective can be a detective, police and a forensic scientist at the same time. These occupations required different training and education. Besides, it is also impossible for these detectives pay a full attention on a case. They have numerous cases waiting for them. Finally, not all the portrait of technology machines is correct. Some machines are just fabricated. Even though some technologies are indeed exist; the searching speed and the range of evidence’s materials are not as perfect as they are on TV.Again, CSI’s ultimate goal is to entertain audience. It won't allow too much actors show on the screen or their identities confused. Also, it has to narrow down the required time of solving cases to approximately fifty minutes or the audience will tired. Of course the true required time is lengthy.



Thirdly, Labs are overloaded with cases.Owing to CSI, now the number of items which brought back by police detectives is ballooned. Along with demand for more DNA analysts, there also needs more space to defense evidence; some of them play an important role in old and cold cases. This new trend forces government face backlog problem, reflects serious lack in equipment, personnel and warehouse. If we decide to peruse the success CSI shows, we have to better our laboratories. CSI reminds us there are many reliable and fast ways to prove one’s innocent and guilty.



Fourthly, The demographics of forensic science has changed. Enrolment in forensic science departments is exploding. More and more students decide to major in them because they are crazy for CSI. On the other hand, due to some CSI’s characters are female, more women devote themselves to be one of crime lab’s employee.Originally, forensics science is not in vogue at all. Now an increasing number of people are eager to know about it. It reflects some unspoken willing of the general- they find a way to contribute themselves to crime investigation without being a real police or studying in law schools. We are all hope that” Justice has a long arm” can be realized.



Fifthly, to ensure public safety in a just manner.CSI let us know that some framed sentences can be avoided by technology. The evidence submitted by forensic science is reliable and integral. Laboratories need more funds from government to improve themselves, so they can help people with crime. However, the needed fund is affordable only to government. On the other hand, if there is a way which is sure to protect citizen’s safety, surely the government should think highly of it.

Information on Wiki

1.CSI:crime scene investigation(CSI:犯罪現場)

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI%E7%8A%AF%E7%BD%AA%E7%8F%BE%E5%A0%B4

2. Criminal Minds(犯罪心理)

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8A%AF%E7%BD%AA%E5%BF%83%E7%90%86

3. Bones(識骨尋蹤)

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AF%86%E9%AA%A8%E5%AF%BB%E8%B8%AA

4. The Closer(結案高手)

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9C%9F%E7%9B%B8%E8%BF%BD%E6%93%8A

5. Numb3rs(數字追兇)

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B8%E5%AD%97%E8%BF%BD%E5%85%87

Issue Paper-2nd Rewritten vision

The changes I make:

Originally I intended to find out the unreasonable plots of crime series and point out how the accurate procedure would be in real world. But soon I know that this arrangement for issue paper is not appropriate. The room for discussion is limited, even not worthwhile.I am incapable of pointing out the mistakes in crime series because I am lack in special knowledge. So this purpose pushes me to change my subject. It may be better if I search the related knowledge from crime series. Owing to the intention is differ from before, I almost rewrite the whole article to make my point more clear. I try to make my goal more practically and worthy to discuss.

Crime Series Reveal More

Crime series have appeared for a long time, but not that famous, not that varied. Most of them only focus on police officer, how they capture criminals by their brilliant heads. Things changed rapidly in year 2000, the “CSI: crime scene investigation” soon drive audience crazy. Soon the similar topics are introduced in these crime series, “Criminal Minds”, “Bones” and “The Closer”. They are focusing on different part of crime investigation respectively, though taste differ, they are all welcomed by audience alike. A crime series fan may be everyone. They come from diverse occupations, ages, countries. They are not afraid of blood, bodies, and cruel murderers. Audience are satisfied when the criminals are exposed, amazed at the detectives as well as high technology’s intelligence. With this endorsement, crime series must have led some changes among our society. For example, jury ask prosecutor to present more accurate and detailed evidence because CSI tells them how powerful these evidence are. Students decide to major in departments which are relating to crime; they see another way to practice justice. Also, crime series expose many subject we hard to know, such as mentally defective children, illegal immigrants, missing people, even leaks in law. Human nature is unpredictable, so does the result of a case. Crime series bring audience diversity vibrations. However, except for examples above, crime series reveal more. Here I would like to emphasis on the professional knowledge of investigation. Crime has always been a mysterious but fascinated subject. Normal people are hard to get information about it unless they are one member of law schools. Now, it is a chance for us to peep at this knowledge. They show us part of the truth of investigation, though not the whole picture, it still useful. To solving a case, the police have to collect clues from different aspects, such as forensic evidence, interrogation or examination from coroners. That’s what crime series show us respectively; they introduce one specialty one time. By tracing the scenes they show us we are able to realize profound knowledge behind these exciting plots, and find out those unspoken but important details. Then, we think about ourselves. Is there any similar cases happened before? Though the crime series’ background is in United States, suppose it is happened in Taiwan? Do crime series show us another possible solution?

In this paper, I am going to discuss the influence of crime series first, make clear ambiguous concepts audience misunderstand. In these specious plots, what is real and what is just for suiting TV program’s requirement? Then, by introducing different kinds of crime series, we find out the hidden but necessary knowledge behind them. What does a real forensic scientist do when they are working? What the required qualities and knowledge an interrogator, a profiler, a coroner has to arm with? How do they overcome their difficulties when they are doing their jobs? Finally, I present my opinion toward Taiwan base on these materials. I believe watching crime series can be more beneficial if we know more about their background. Hope this paper can achieve that goal.