Case File 066 · Investigation and Psychology

Interview Versus Interrogation: What Is the Difference?

How information-gathering interviews differ from accusatorial interrogations, from the PEACE model to the Reid technique and the research on confessions.

By Murder Book Editorial TeamPublished 16 September 2026Updated 16 September 2026

An interview is a conversation aimed at gathering information, while an interrogation traditionally means accusatory questioning of a suspect aimed at getting a confession. The difference is less about the room or the person being questioned and more about the starting assumption. In the accusatorial tradition associated with the Reid technique in the United States, questioning moves from a non-accusatory interview into an interrogation once an investigator believes the suspect is lying, and it opens with a confident assertion of guilt. In England and Wales, police instead use the PEACE framework of investigative interviewing for victims, witnesses and suspects alike, with the aim of obtaining accurate and reliable accounts. Research reviews suggest that information-gathering approaches keep or increase true confessions while producing fewer false confessions than accusatorial methods.

Key takeaways

An interview gathers information; an accusatorial interrogation starts from a presumption of guilt and seeks a confession.
The Reid approach moves from a behaviour-based interview to a nine-step accusatorial interrogation.
PEACE, introduced in England and Wales in 1992, treats suspect questioning as investigative interviewing.
Meta-analyses link accusatorial methods with more false confessions than information-gathering methods.
Terms and practices vary between countries and agencies, so the words alone do not tell you how questioning is done.

What is the basic difference?

In everyday use, "interview" and "interrogation" often overlap. Researchers and police trainers tend to separate them by purpose and assumption:

	Information-gathering interview	Accusatorial interrogation
Main aim	An accurate, reliable and complete account	A confession or admission
Starting assumption	Keep an open mind about what happened	The suspect is believed to be guilty
Typical questions	Open questions, then probing and clarification	Accusations and rejection of denials
Use of evidence	Accounts tested against what is known	Evidence presented to overcome resistance
Example model	PEACE (England and Wales)	Reid technique (United States)

The table simplifies a spectrum. Real questioning can mix elements, and agencies use the words differently. The research distinction, however, is well established. A 2014 meta-analysis by Christian Meissner and colleagues in the Journal of Experimental Criminology was built around exactly this contrast: accusatorial versus information-gathering methods.

What is an accusatorial interrogation?

The best-known accusatorial model is the Reid technique. A 2025 scientific review paper on police-induced confessions by Saul Kassin and colleagues, published in Law and Human Behavior, describes the process at a high level.

It usually begins with a pre-interrogation interview, the Behavior Analysis Interview, which aims to decide whether a suspect is lying or telling the truth. If a Reid-trained investigator decides the suspect is being deceptive, the process shifts to a nine-step accusatorial interrogation. According to the review, this is designed to overcome resistance by increasing the stress associated with denial and decreasing the stress associated with confession. It opens with a "positive confrontation", an unequivocal assertion of guilt.

The review identifies two tactics as particular risks: presenting false evidence and "minimisation" themes that make an offence seem less serious or imply leniency. It also points out a basic weakness in the first step. Research indicates that judging deception from a suspect's verbal and nonverbal behaviour does not offer a reliable basis for inferring deception, and can instead create a presumption of guilt. The article Why There Is No Single Reliable Sign of Deception explains why.

The review also notes that the landscape has changed. In 2017, Wicklander-Zulawski and Associates, a large interrogation training firm, stopped training in the Reid technique, citing the risk of false confessions and advances in evidence-based interviewing.

What is the PEACE model?

PEACE is the framework used for investigative interviewing in England and Wales. According to the Kassin review, it grew out of reforms in Britain that followed miscarriages of justice involving confessions, and the first national training programme came after the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six cases. It was developed by law enforcement officers, psychologists and lawyers and introduced in 1992. Variants have since been adopted in several other countries.

The College of Policing's Authorised Professional Practice, the official source of professional practice for policing in England and Wales, describes five phases:

Planning and preparation: reviewing the investigation, establishing what material is available and setting objectives.
Engage and explain: engaging the interviewee, building rapport through active listening and explaining the reason for the interview.
Account, clarification, challenge: obtaining the account with open prompts and active listening, then clarifying and, where needed, challenging it.
Closure: a planned ending that accurately summarises what the interviewee has said and explains what happens next.
Evaluation: deciding whether further action is needed, how the account fits the rest of the investigation, and reflecting on the interviewer's performance.

The same guidance sets out principles that show how PEACE differs from an accusatorial model:

The aim is to obtain accurate and reliable accounts from victims, witnesses or suspects.
Investigators must act fairly, not approach any interview with prejudice, and be prepared to believe the account they are given.
Accounts should be tested against what is already known or can reasonably be established.
Investigators are not bound to accept the first answer, and questioning is not unfair merely because it is persistent, but it must not be unfair or oppressive.
Investigators should not assume that all suspects are going to lie, say nothing or give a self-serving version of events.

When accounts are challenged, the guidance says interviewers should not use a raised voice or inflammatory language. For more on the account phase, see How Investigators Find Inconsistencies in a Story.

What does an information-gathering approach involve?

The Kassin review describes a science-based, rapport-based, information-gathering approach built on four elements:

developing rapport and trust to encourage cooperation;
productive and memory-supporting questioning methods, such as the Cognitive Interview, to increase the information obtained;
assessing credibility through the strategic use of evidence and evaluation of verbal cues;
strategic and truthful presentation of evidence.

Some of the research behind the credibility element is covered in What Is Cognitive Load in an Interrogation? The questioning element depends heavily on the difference explained in Open-Ended Versus Leading Questions.

What does the research say about confessions?

Two systematic reviews are especially useful.

Meissner and colleagues (2014) analysed 5 field studies and 12 experimental studies. In field studies, both information-gathering and accusatorial approaches were more likely to produce a confession than direct questioning. In experiments where the truth was known, the information-gathering approach preserved, and in some cases increased, true confessions while reducing false confessions. The accusatorial approach increased both true and false confessions. The authors called for caution because of the small number of studies.

Catlin and colleagues (2024) updated and extended that review for the Campbell Collaboration, using 29 experimental studies with mock suspects. On average, accusatorial conditions produced more false confessions than direct questioning and more than information-gathering approaches. Information-gathering produced significantly more true confessions than direct questioning. The authors concluded that the results support calls to prohibit accusatorial approaches and adopt science-based ones.

Both reviews rely heavily on experimental studies, and the 2024 update notes that most were conducted with college students in the United States, so the results are not a direct measure of every real interrogation. The direction of the evidence is nonetheless consistent. For the human side of this research, see Why Innocent People Sometimes Confess.

Does it matter which word is used?

Not on its own. Some agencies call accusatory questioning an "interview", and some writers use "interrogation" for any questioning of a suspect. What matters is the approach: whether questioning starts with an open mind and seeks a full account that can be checked, or starts with a conclusion and seeks agreement with it. Rules on questioning also differ by country, and nothing here is legal advice.

How does Murder Book approach interrogation?

Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, based in Zagreb, Croatia, and inspired by real police footage and psychological interviews. Development screenshots show a technique menu with Build Trust, Futility, Bluffing, Baiting, Demonstration and Confrontation. Build Trust is described as "fostering an environment where the suspect feels comfortable and secure enough to communicate openly".

As fiction, the game can put very different styles side by side, which makes the real-world debate easy to picture. The research above is a helpful lens for players: what a suspect does under questioning is a reason to look closer, not proof. A denial, a silence or a sudden change in tone can have innocent explanations, and a statement is only as useful as what it reveals when checked against everything else in the case.

Murder Book is in development for PC (Steam) and mobile, with release currently planned for the end of Q2 2027. For games in the same genre that are already available, see Best Interrogation Games for PC.