The Criminal Psyche

A month ago, The Criminal Brain was my subject. Since then I have been thinking about something I learned years ago, an insight into the making of a criminal. The Keynote speaker at a Mystery Writers of America Edgar-Week Symposium was a gentleman from The Fortune Society, an organization that defines itself like this:

The Fortune Society is a nonprofit social service and advocacy organization, founded in 1967, whose mission is to support successful reentry from prison and promote alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities.

The speaker at the symposium was an executive of the Society who was also an ex-convict. A man of about sixty, he described his life before he found The Fortune Society. He had been raised in New York City in several different foster homes, in many of which he was abused physically and sexually. As soon as he turned twelve years old, he started to run away from those toxic environments and from orphanages that were similarly horrifying. At the age of eighteen, he told us, he was “released to the streets of New York” without any preparation, support, or continuing guidance. Within a short time he was arrested for robbing a gas station. He spent the next twenty-five or thirty years in and out of jail for robbery, his final conviction as an accessory to murder, after he robbed a convenience store with a fellow ex-con who shot and killed the proprietor.

The Fortune Society’s counselors turned him around in his middle years. Eventually, he became one of those counselors himself. By the time he got to the stage of the MWA Symposium, he was an executive of the organization and very proud to tell us that he had a daughter who was starting college that year.

During the Q&A after his presentation, a member of the audience asked him if he had, in prison or as a counselor at the Fortune Society, ever met a violent criminal who had not been abused as a child. He said,”No.” He hadn’t. Not ever.

For the rest of that day-long symposium, cops, lawyers, FBI agents, criminal psychologists paraded across the stage, speaking on panels, telling us how to make our works of crime fiction more authentic. One or another member of the audience asked that same question of all of them: have you ever met a violent criminal who was not abused as a child. All of them, even the toughest New York cops, said, “No.” They hadn’t.

This is not a bleeding heart “they’re-depraved-on-accounta-they’re-deprived” argument; no rationale that society needs to go soft on criminals. It’s about insight. First and foremost about the possible causes of the kinds of crimes that get harshly punished in our society. (Unlike the unjustly lenient desserts doled out to greedy crooks who steal with a pen or a computer.)

Also, knowing this might help us crime writers infuse our bad guys with a dollop of childhood realism.

Annamaria Alfieri

The Do’s and Don’ts of Interrogating a Suspect

Our guest today is Cathi Stoler, award-winning advertising copywriter and author of Telling Lies, her first novel, published by Camel Press, dealing with stolen Nazi art. Others in this series will include Keeping Secrets, exploring hidden identity, and The Hard Way, about the international diamond trade. Her short stories include Fatal Flaw, published online in April at Beat To A Pulp, and Out of Luck, to be included in the upcoming New York Sisters in Crime anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices. In addition to Sisters in Crime, Cathi is a member of Mystery Writers of America. Find Cathi at www.cathistoler.com.

According to Detective Sergeant Joe Giacalone, Commanding Officer of a New York City Cold Case Squad, the guilty always sleep. Literally. The instant they sit down in the interrogation room, they put their heads down and fall asleep. And, while there’s no scientific evidence to explain this behavior, it’s become part of police lore and something not to be ignored.

Detective Giacalone shared this insight along with many others at a recent meeting of the New York chapter of Sisters in Crime. Wanting to make sure our group of mystery and crime writers would get it right, he described the interrogation process from setting up the room, or ”the box”, to arresting and booking the suspect.

The interrogation is the last part of the investigation, conducted after all the interviews and canvassing of witnesses is completed. The goal in this psychological game of cat and mouse is to get an admission or confession.

The box is small. Very small. With no windows, clock, posters or any distractions. The suspect’s chair is hard and he is seated with his back to the door … another psychological ploy that helps preclude the thought of being able to walk away a free man.

An interrogation is not a fishing expedition. It’s meant to test information the police already know. At this point, based on physical evidence and eyewitness reports, as well as means, opportunity and motive, they are sure they have the right person for the crime. The case investigator is the one who asks the questions and an associate takes notes. Once the suspect is taken into custody and Mirandized, the questioning can begin.

According to Detective Giacalone, it’s important to keep the suspect talking and not do anything that will close him down. The detective may ask open-ended questions such as: “Do you know why you’re here?” and let the suspect tell the story his own words, or ask close-ended questions, such as: “Where were you on such and such a date?” to establish a time frame. One strategy is to ask the suspect to repeat his story backward. It’s a good way to tell if he’s lying.

Investigators can lie and use trickery but cannot fabricate information. Telling a suspect that his fingerprints were found a scene is fine, but showing him actual false fingerprints is not acceptable.
Investigators are also careful to avoid words that could upset or stun a suspect.

Instead of saying “murdered”, “raped” or “killed”, they substitute phrases such as “something happened”, “someone got hurt”, or they’ll talk about “the incident”.

If you want to know more about how to conduct a true-to-life investigation for your story or novel, grab a copy of Detective Giacalone’s book: Criminal Investigative Function: A Guide for New Investigators.

Cathi Stoler