A Study On The Question Designs In Criminal Interrogation

The question design during the criminal interrogation refers to the activities in which investigators lawfully and reasonably arrange the questions that need to be raised in terms of logic,word choice and order,based on issues such as the suspect’s situation,evidence,interrogation strategies,and the actual feedback from criminal interrogation.The question design mainly serves for the interrogation strategies so that the investigators can choose the correct way to design questions and obtain the true confession or defense of suspects.The quality of the question design determines the result of the interrogation.This dissertation mainly uses the literature research method,the interdisciplinary research method and the empirical research method to carry out the following research on the relevant topics.The first chapter explains the research background and the research purpose,research status,research ideas and methods of this paper.It points out that the investigators in the current criminal interrogation need to adapt to the trial-centered litigation system reform requirements to promote the standardization of their question design,but the current research on the question design in the criminal interrogation lacks in-depth research,and they are insufficient to guide the practice.Doing research on the question design is an important way to improve the investigators’ interrogation ability,the quality of evidence collection and to promote the standardization of interrogation.It is necessary to start from the ways of question design,and carry out research under the guidance of linguistic pragmatic principles.The second chapter compiles an overview of the question design in the criminal interrogation.The concept of question design is defined,and the basic elements,characteristics,and the relationship between question design and question ways are analyzed,and it is pointed out that the ways of questioning are the orientation of question design,and the question design is the core of questioning ways in criminal interrogation.The third chapter discusses the basis for question design in the criminal interrogation.It analyzes the actual basis of the question design（the case information that has been identified,the evidence that has been obtained,the attitude of the criminal suspect,the interrogation strategy and method）,the legal basis and the pragmatic basis（the principle of purpose and the principle of adaptation）.It is pointed out that the question design in the criminal interrogation should be based on the analysis of the actual basis,under the framework of the law,in accordance with the principles of purpose and adaptation in pragmatics.The fourth chapter explains the question design process in the criminal interrogation.This chapter visually shows the analysis process and specific design process of question design in the criminal interrogation through diagrams.Firstly,the purpose of question design at all levels is determined based on the analysis of the actual basis.Secondly,the adaptive questioning ways are selected based on the legal basis and the pragmatic purpose.Finally,interrogators should adjust the questioning purposes according to the changes of the suspect’s real-time attitudes and the response feedback during the criminal interrogation,then prepare specific questions.The fifth chapter is the question design methods of several questioning ways in the criminal interrogation.Based on the principle of purpose,the principle of adaptation in pragmatics and the frequency of questioning methods applications in practice,five questioning methods are selected:verification,persuasion,direct communication,roundabout communication,and jumping communication.The purposes of questioning and the conditions of using different methods will be discussed to present the question design as well as the comprehensive use in case analysis,corpus analysis to assist the discussion.The innovation of this dissertation is to refine the research on the question design through study the question ways in criminal interrogation in detail,and introduce pragmatic principles in linguistics for analysis in the theory,which realizes the combination of pragmatics and criminal interrogation to a certain extent.The limitations are that the research is only a preliminary attempt and the amount of corpus involved is limited.