The book dispels common misconceptions about interviewing victims, witnesses, and suspects. Guidelines for conducting forensic interviews focus on the basic tools of a working outline, a functional polyphasic flow chart, and a forensic formula. The discussion features the six phases of the flow chart: historical, personal preparation, initial, primary, terminal, and followup. The historical phase pertains to the background and personality characteristics of the interviewer and interviewee. The initial phase involves precontact, strategy, and contact aspects. The primary phase implements interview or interrogation strategies, followed by the terminal phase, when the interviewer decides about the interviewee's degree of deception. The followup phase attempts to resolve inconsistencies in the interviewee's responses. The book also examines interviewer attitude and acceptance, participant stress, communication, question formulation, intuition, rapport, listening, interviewee types, and deception. 88-item bibliography and subject index. (Publisher abstract modified)