1 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results André F.R.M. Braz ForensicLab Carlos Delgado Laboratorio de Acústica Forense de la Policia Científica de Madrid M. Teresa Turell ForensicLab

2 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Present practices and protocols in Police Interrogation in Spain

3 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Criminal Law Procedure (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal-LECrim.):  Proceedings of Inquiry or Investigation: What? Complex and formal proceedings Where? Police station Who? 3 Participants: 1)Instructor: directs the interrogation 2)Secretary: take notes and writes the proceedings 3)Suspect: answers the questions Current legislation

4 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results How are the Proceedings organized? 1. Generalities of the Law (general questions). 2. Reading of suspect’s rights. 3. Police Interrogation (Non recorded electronically). 4. Suspect’s declaration (comment on the facts). 5. Writing of Acta de Declaración. (Suspect’s statement under caution) Reference: Pérez et al (2004).

5 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Acta de Declaración(1) Written by the Secretary. Describes chronological order of the proceedings. Juridical-administrative Language: conservative lexicon and use of formulaic expressions; Indirect speech. Fixed format of Questions-Answers: ”PREGUNTADO para que diga si no es cierto que…, DICE…” (“ASKED to say if it is [not] true that..., [the suspect] SAID:…”) All participants sign in conformity at the end. Inserted in a case file to the consideration of judges/lawyers. Reference: Anneré & Pastor (2000). Acercamiento al español jurídico a través del atestado. Actas del primer CIEFE,November:Amsterdam

6 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Previous literature: Figueras (2001): Two linguistic mechanisms of modality: (1)Epistemic- influence the inferential processes of the police when writing the Acta de Declaración; (2)Deontic - influence the judge’s inferential processes of interpretation. Taranilla (2006, 2007): Existence of Double enunciation*: (1)Production of Acta de Declaración; (2)Spoken interaction between Instructor and Suspect; Linguistic polyphonic character (multiplicity of voices in discourse) * Ducrout’s Enunciation theory says “that the utterances of a discourse inevitably contain traces of the act that produced them (enunciation), the context in which they were produced and the subjectivity of the producer.” (Marnette, 2001:244) Acta de Declaración(2)

7 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results The current reality Spain is a Civil Law tradition where the Police Interrogation process is considered a reliable investigative instrument which does not find the need to be recorded electronically, as opposite to what occurs in with some countries with Common Law tradition like England, USA, Australia. Spanish police forces are not very open. Most studies consider a legal approach at the proceedings. Police manuals are superficially descriptive. IN CONCLUSION: it is a real difficulty to obtaining relevant and substantial data.

8 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results The present study

9 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results First attempt to “look” inside the interrogation room. Describe the practice and protocols in Police Interrogation currently in use in Spain. Particularly, identify, describe and compare the most prominent linguistic features of: 1) Acta de Declaración; 2) Recorded Police Interrogation. The present study: aims

10 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Corpus (1): 1 Acta de Declaración. Corpus (2): 1 audio recorded Police Interrogation(PI) However, corpus (1) and corpus (2) are not from the same case. Both corpus refer to cases investigated in 2010 by the Brigada de Delincuencia Económica y Fiscal (Economic and Tax Crime Brigade) of the Comisaría General de la Policía Judicial. The corpus have been anonymised for confidentiality reasons. Methodology: corpus

11 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Macro perspective: a) Structure; b) Main discursive features. Micro perspective: c) Type and sequencing of Questions and Answers; d) tactic features; e) Mechanisms used for the distribution of the participant’s role. Methodology: the analytical approach

12 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Results

13 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results “Superstructure” (van Dijk, 1982) Acta de Declaración: a) structure

14 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results - Formal language “el Sr. Instructor dispone se proceda a oír en declaración y en relación a los hechos que motivan las presentes” - Indirect speech: verbum dicendi: “DECLARA” (declare),“MANIFIESTA” (manifest), “PRESTAR”(give or swear),“CERTIFICA” (certify) - perform illocutionary speech acts (Searl, 1969) subordinating conjunction “que” (that) past tense of the verbs: “dice” (said), “ha sido” (has been), “fue” (was) grammatical person of pronouns: “le” (him), “su” (his) Demonstrative elements: “estas dependencias” (these headquarters) instead of “aqui” (here) Acta de Declaración: b)Main discursive features

15 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Questions (Quirk et al, 1985) Examples Yes/NoPREGUNTADO para que diga si… Wh- PREGUNTADO para que diga que/cuando/en que/cual(es)/cómo… AlternativePREGUNTADO para que diga si…o… Acta de Declaración: c) Type of Questions

16 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Short Answers (max 3 lines) Yes/No DICE: que no/si. Direct DICE: que tarjetas de crédito, transferencias bancarias o domiciliaciones. Don’t know/ remember DICE: que no sabe. Long Answers (at least 4 lines) Simple DICE: Que el declarante recibe una nomina de unos Euros netas mensuales, por catorce pagas, de Consulting Management, que es donde esta asegurado. Que esporádicamente, cuando FUCSA tiene beneficios, el los percibe, y tributa por ello, que en el 2007, cree que ha recibido Euros. Elaborated DICE: que desconoce las posiciones bancarias de xx, que escuchó decir a xx que tenía dinero en Suiza y que participó con una persona que se llama xx que es un broker suizo en una reunión en el Hotel HESPERIA, que la mayor parte de la conversación trascurrió en francés y no se enteró de la conversación que al parecer hablaron de las inversiones que xx realizaba para xx. Que xx le presentó a xx ese día. Que no ha vuelto a reunirse con esta persona y que no ha vuelto a tener una relación con esta persona. Acta de Declaración: c) Type of Answers

17 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Acta de Declaración: c) Comparison of Questions and Answers

18 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Excessively long and complex sentences Formulaic style: “Que una vez personado”,”Que en presencia”, “a efecto de” Frequent use of: coordination “...y...y...y..” subordination(para que diga, dice que) Non personal-forms of the verbs: “siendo”, “teniendo”, “estando”, “poseyendo”, “leída” Use of technical words: “Acta”, “Colegiado”, “epigrafiado”, “detenido”, “encartado”, “Letrado”, “articulo”, “capital social” NO typical features of dialogue were found Acta de Declaración: d) Particular lexical, semantic, morphological and syntactic features

19 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Asymmetric distribution: Secretary: narrator Instructor: represented by Secretary’s words Suspect: -subordinated role- Pronoun “le” (him) and “su” (his),and omission of his/her own exact words -responsability for what is written: declarative verbs-“declara” (declares), “manifiesta” (manifest),and “certifica” (certifies) Symbolic signature Acta de Declaración: e)Mechanisms used for the distribution of the participant’s role

20 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results a) structure: 1)Opening: Informal introduction: - Inst.:”Que hay? Buenas Que tal? Sientese por favor” Generalities of the Law; Reading of rights (very fast and not really clear): Inst.:”Bueno eh…Vamos a tomar una pequeña declaracion en relación a todo este tema ¿vale? Vamos a hacer primeramente unas preguntas así generales que se las hacemos a todo el mundo…”- use of informal language, closer to Suspect Sect.: “eh, si hay alguna pregunta que no desee contestar está en su derecho.” 2)Body of Interrogation: varies (dependent on interaction) 3)Closing: Inst:”Alguna cosa más quiere hacernos constar?” Recorded PI: a) structure

21 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results - Informal language - to establish rapport ; - Direct speech; - markers:”Entonces”,”o sea”,”bueno…”,”oye”; - Acknowledgements of replies to questions: “ya ya”, “Vale!”,”val”; - Repetitions: “no no”, “si si”, “supongo que si, supongo que si”; - Several interruptions, pauses and hesitations from all participants; - Incomplete utterances; - Different intonation. PI: b) Main discursive features

22 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Yes/No questions “Y ustedes construyeron en ese periodo?” “Usted tenia conocimiento de que, quién era el propietario de la casa desde el primer momento?” Wh- questions “cuanto dinero ingresó usted..?” Tag-questions “…¿me ha dicho?” “estos querian reformarla, no?” Alternative questions: “mano de obra, materiales, ¿esto se lo decia?” “los pagos como se producían en efectivo, en cheque?” “recuerda si era por encima o por debajo?” PI: c) Type of Questions

23 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Asymmetric distribution: -The Instructor: Has the active role Use of informal language through out the interrogation Controls the interrogation: Make questions Allows the suspect’s narrative- “Aha..”,”Mhm..”, “Mhm mhm”, “y...”, “ya ya...” Interrupts the suspect’s narrative with a resume of what has been spoken Talks with the Secretary and corrects what has been written down. PI: e)Mechanisms used for the distribution of the participant’s role(1)

24 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Asymmetric distribution: - The Secretary: Talks while writing; Intervenes to ask for clarification and to help the Instructor; Is sometimes corrected by the Instructor. - The suspect: Very cooperative but speaks very fast; Interrupts the Instructor constantly, either in agreement, correcting, exculpating himself; Dominates the interaction but assumes a subordinating position before the authority. PI: e)Mechanisms used for the distribution of the participant’s role(2)

25 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Comparison of Acta de Declaración and recorded PI Acta de DeclaraciónRecorded PI Rigid and organized structureTypical 3 stages but unorganized structure Language:formal, technical, non personal Language: informal, commonly used, closer to the suspect Indirect and formulaic speech Direct speech Qs:Yes/No and WH-Qs:Yes/No, WH-,tag, alternative Asymmetric distribution of roles: 1) Secretary-active narrator 2) Suspect-subordinated but with responsibility 3) Instructor-only represented by Secretary’s voice Asymmetric distribution of roles: 1) Instructor-authority and active figure (asks the questions) 2)Suspect-main narrator but subordinated 3) Secretary-almost absent

26 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Conclusion and Future perspectives

27 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Conclusion and Future Perspectives The Instructor questions the suspect while the Secretary writes notes and then the Acta de Declaración. The Acta de Declaración summarizes the proceedings and represents the Suspect’s statement to the police. The suspect’s role is diminished in the Acta de Declaración and in the interrogation. The law requires the suspect’s words to be recorded, the language of the Acta de Declaración is very formal and formulaic. So, to which extent does this document really represent the suspect’s own words?

28 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Conclusion and Future Perspectives There is sufficient linguistic evidence to suggest that the current proceedings can potentially have very incriminating repercussions in case suspects are accused of criminal activity in the future rather than just being used as information- gathering. It is likely that suspects are not completely aware of these consequences. Further research is required and it will : Provide more information about the police’s interrogation methods, and their needs and difficulties. More cooperativeness between scholars and the Spanish police forces.

29 INSTITUT UNIVERSITARI DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA 3rd iIIRG Annual Conference 22nd – 24th June 2010 – Stavern Norway Police Interrogation in Spain: some preliminary results Thank you for your attention