My service as professor of linguistics for 30 years at Georgetown University continues through my company, Roger W. Shuy, Inc., which was incorporated in 1982. This service includes linguistic analysis of: tape recorded conversation (bribery, solicitation, extortion, threats, etc.) tape recorded speeches (slander, fraud, etc.) tape recorded interviews (child sex abuse, police interrogations, confessions, etc.) written documents (reports, proposals, insurance policies, testimony, contracts, confessions, etc.) Over the past 40 years, I have consulted on some 500 cases and have testified as a linguistics expert witness 54 times in criminal and civil trials (in 26 states), as well as before the US Senate and US House of Representatives in impeachment trials of US Senators and Federal Judges and in International Criminal Tribunal trials. I have also provided sworn affidavits and depositions in some 75 law cases. Roger W. Shuy, Inc. is now informally affiliated with Dr. Robert A. Leonard of Robert A. Leonard Associates in New York.
Taking a linguistic perspective, this book is a practical explanation of how confessions work. Roger Shuy, author of the 1993 benchmark work, Language Crimes, examines criminal confessions, the interrogations that elicit confessions, and the deceptive language that plays a role in the actual confession. He presents transcripts from numerous interrogations and analyzes how language is used, how constitutional rights are protected (or not), and discusses consistency, truthfulness, suggestibility, written confessions and unvalidated confessions. He also provides specific advice about how to conduct interrogations that will yield credible evidence.
