The Use of Criminal Interrogation Methods Within a Postmodern America

Postmodernism affects and further explains the use of interrogation methods in American military court-martial investigations. Postmodernism is a term used by sociologists to define the era after modernity and structuralism (around 1960s onward to present). Sociologist and postmodernist, Jean Baudrillard, in his book America, described American society as a collection of rootless, circulatory fictions that have no ultimate meaning. Postmodernists are skeptical about meaning, and they see the present social world as a simulacrum of reality. Sociologist Richard Rorty believed that postmodernism was full of irony, where someone could use wording alone to spin just about anything into a good or bad light. Because of this, no one thing is true or solid in society because irony deconstructs solidarity. For this research, I will analyze the record of trial (Leahy ROT) of US v Michael Leahy, a court-martial that involved a challenge to the use of standard interrogation techniques with the argument that they constitute a coerced confession, the videotape of Leahy’s interrogation that was shown in its entirety during the court-martial, and the testimonies as well as cross-examination of the two interrogators. To be able to analyze these videotapes, I will be using Pauline Rosenau’s glossary from her book, Post-modernism and the Social Sciences, as the primary instrument to analyze these videotapes. I will be looking at selected terms from the glossary such as decentering, deconstruction, privileged, simulacrum, and hyperreality. I will also be using Fred Inbau and John Reid’s book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, to be able to clearly outline routinized methods and practices used by the United States government. This book includes step-by-step instructions to interview (interrogate) and gather a confession from the viewpoint of the interviewer (interrogator). By use of the glossary and the book as tools for understanding postmodernism, I plan to clearly show the ways in which interrogation techniques have been affected, for the worse, by a postmodern society.Through this research, my goal is to understand how postmodern terms accurately explain the current trends in American interrogation techniques. I will apply postmodern concepts to typical interview and interrogation techniques such as ego up, we know everything, fake rapport, and fake empathy, among others. It is important to note that none of these techniques can be finally and ultimately reduced to any one, single, method of interrogation or interview. The use of the many of these techniques is ubiquitous in all United States police departments as well as military investigations, and most use psychological tactics to make the suspect incriminate themselves. These techniques are controversial methods, and some are banned in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia where many are seen as a form of coercion. The importance of my research is that it uses primary source data drawn from the actual videotape and record of trial where the use of investigation techniques were prominent in the preparation for the military court-martial. This data will illuminate some of the controversies surrounding the use of the techniques. I have found that, because of postmodernism, the distinction between right and wrong in the interrogation room has been blurred.

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