Contemporary Sociology: A

Journal of Reviews
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Police Interrogation and American Justice

Geoffrey P. Alpert
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 2008 37: 465
DOI: 10.1177/009430610803700540
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Social Control, Deviance, and Law465

selves speak about the preliminary nature of
their analyses and conclusions which we
need to further investigate, with better comparative measures and more elaborate measures of institutional design (p. 179).
One major flaw in this regard is that none
of the authors in their chapters include the
possibility that feedback effects are of a second order. The suggestion that the U.S. welfare state does not stimulate concerns about
inequality and class divisions to become political, and the opposite suggestion about the
Swedish welfare state, could easily be
explained by a higher, first order effect,
which, moreover, fits in with the traditional
input-centered approach in political sociology.
The central thesis in PSWS is that culture is
influenced through feedback effects by structure. But what if that structure originates from
a specific, pre-existing culture? In that case,
the analysed feedback effects wither and
become second order manifestations of the
first order effect of culture on structure. This
chicken-and-egg problem certainly needs to
be addressed if political sociology wants to
make headway.
It is obvious that the analysis of these theories requires high qualitative and long-term
datasets. The International Social Survey Program and the European Social Survey, both
used in PSWS, certainly offer the best data
available. However, the reader is often left
with a feeling that these sources might not suffice for an adequate analysis of the theories.
To conclude, PSWS contains the seeds of a
very interesting turn in political sociology. All
concerned in this research field should look at
it. However, the theories and hypotheses are
not yet sufficiently elaborated and the analyses still lack robustness. Therefore, as the
authors seem to accept, PSWS will certainly
not become a standard work.

SOCIAL CONTROL,
DEVIANCE, AND
LAW
Police Interrogation and American Justice, by
Richard A. Leo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2008. 374pp. $45.00 cloth.
ISBN: 9780674026483.

GEOFFREY P. ALPERT
University of South Carolina
geoffa@gwm.sc.edu
Professor Richard Leo rings the bell with his
brilliant analysis of police interrogations. In
this rich tome, he analyzes police interrogations in the broad context of the adversarial
system of American criminal justice. He presents a thorough look at interrogations as a
truth-seeking tool as well as a manipulative
means to coerce suspects to say what they
should not say, and do not necessarily want to
say. Professor Leos approach of using case
studies to supplement his scholarly arguments
makes this an interesting and valuable read for
anyone interested in police work.
The book is about contradictionsespecially the governments need to solve crimes
and the suspects right to silence. It provides
more than a contemporary insight into the
issues faced by police interrogators and suspects; it gives the reader a historical understanding of how these seamy practices developed and why many of them remain accepted
and essential police tactics. Importantly, he
shows how in the world of policing, interrogations target the innocent and the guilty with
the same vigor and callousness.
One of the books many contributions is its
focus on areas of policing about which we
know very little. He has a way of educating
and entertaining the reader at the same time.
Leo has been able to pull together information
on how police interrogate suspects that is
often overlooked or inaccessible. Most of our
knowledge of police interrogations is from
anecdotal accounts or a small number of
observations. Here, Leo has integrated a large
set of observations with interviews, historical
documents, contemporary legal documents,
and personal experiences as an expert witContemporary Sociology 37, 5

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466Social Control, Deviance, and Law

ness. The result is a well-organized, well-written social scientific account of police interrogations.
Professor Leos thesis is that a police interrogation is strategically manipulative and
deceptive because it occurs in the context of
a fundamental contradiction (p. 5). He makes
the point that these interrogations are rooted
in fraud (p. 25) because the police are
allowed to lie to suspects, and that they share
a common interest of helping the suspect. He
makes these points by walking the reader
through an introduction of the role of the
interrogation and a chapter on the historical
methods used to obtain a confession. The second chapter, The Third Degree, shows how
the police developed the current psychologically coercive techniques from the vicious and
often torturous practices outlawed decades
ago. The older practices may have been physically brutal, but the modern practitioners are
able to achieve similar results working behind
a dark pretense of professionalism. The interrogators continue to exercise immense and
unchecked power that influences outcomes in
the criminal justice system. He points to the
belief that only the guilty confess, and that
confession statements are reliable. He makes
the argument that this assertion often prevents
fact finders from understanding that psychological coercion can influence most suspects
to believe they are helpless, and will falsely
confess to whatever charges are leveled.
Leo explains the following steps as part of
the interrogation process: (1) Softening Up the
Suspect; (2) Interrogation: Preadmission; (3)
Interrogation: Postadmission. One contribution of the book is the discussion of the
postadmission phase, where the confession is
often written by the police in such a way that
a fair trial is virtually impossible. Leo points to
the historical roots of the human lie detectors as a strategy helpful to exact the story
needed to infer guilt once the ability to use
legal physical coercion was removed. Understanding why people confess is another
important contribution of the book.
Leo does not address the ethical issue of
having police officers lie to suspects, although
his discussion in chapter 5 on police deception is excellent. One can only wonder what
Professor Leo would say about the broader
issue of police officers who learn to lie to suspects in interrogations and then take that trait
to the street and lie to supervisors and even in

court. Although beyond the scope of this

book, street lying is a natural product of being
rewarded for lying in the interrogation.
Leo brings the argument of interrogations
into todays and tomorrows world with his
discussion of the Era of Innocence, which
includes the use of DNA and scientific tests of
eyewitness testimony. He notes that DNA testing has exonerated hundreds of innocent persons, and its use along with other reforms can
help transform police interrogations from their
adversarial character to a truth-finding practice.
He concludes the book with proposed
reforms that include mandatory recording of
interrogations and protecting vulnerable populations such as the mentally challenged and
juveniles. Fortunately, progressive police
departments have already adopted many of
his suggested changes. He also suggests that
police should only interrogate individuals after
they have developed a set standard of suspicion, and that expert witness testimony should
be allowed in court proceedings about coercive interrogation techniques. Whether you
agree with Professor Leo or not, his book is an
important contribution to the workings of the
police in America.

Crime and Social Control in Asia and the

Pacific: A Cross-Border Study, by Victor N.
Shaw. Lanham, MD: University Press of
America, 2007. 360pp. $75.00 Cloth. ISBN:
0761836799 0761836802.

BRGE BAKKEN
The University of Hong Kong
bakken@hkucc.hku.hk
The book starts with bold generalizations
about the century of Asia and the Pacific,
which will bring transitions from socialism to
capitalism, from ideological fanaticism to
social pluralism, from totalitarian dictatorship
to coalitional alliance, and from authoritarianism to a democratic form of goverment (p. 2).
Shaw then goes on to claim that social control is simply inadequate in many developing
countries across Asia and the Pacific (p. 18).
Does he mean inadequate in the sense that
there are a lot of questionable practices of
control in the region? He adds: It is often lack
of control that spawns deviant acting and
criminal offending (p. 18). Does Shaw mean

Contemporary Sociology 37, 5

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