Lilian Stein is a member of the Méndez Principles Steering Committee. William Cecconello is a Regional Champion of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group.
- Evidence-based investigative interviewing can improve the quality of information collected while reducing the risk of torture, coercion and wrongful convictions.
- In Brazil, collaboration between researchers, police academies and international partners is helping to institutionalize non-coercive interviewing practices aligned with the Méndez Principles.
- Training, supervision and standardized protocols are proving essential for sustainable reform in criminal investigations.
Across many criminal justice systems, interviews with victims, witnesses and suspects remain one of the most important sources of information. Yet decades of research have shown that the way information is collected can profoundly affect both reliability and fairness. Poorly formulated questions, coercive approaches and suggestive interviewing techniques may contaminate memory, generate inaccurate accounts and, in some cases, contribute to false confessions or wrongful identifications.
In Brazil, these concerns have become increasingly visible. There has been a growing recognition among police professionals, researchers and justice institutions that investigative interviewing must move away from confession-oriented models and toward approaches grounded in science, human rights and procedural fairness.
This is precisely the context in which CogJus – Laboratory for Teaching and Research in Cognition and Justice – is an initiative maintained by the Meridional Foundation, with support from the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. It is also a research group linked to the Graduate Program in Law at Atitus Education. Since 2021, the initiative seeks to strengthen evidence-based interviewing and identification practices across Brazil.
What makes this experience particularly relevant for torture prevention is that the reform effort is not focused only on prohibiting abusive practices. It is also focused on building practical alternatives. The experience demonstrates that preventing torture and ill-treatment requires more than legal safeguards alone: it requires professional training, institutional support, standardized procedures and a culture of ethical interviewing.
Why investigative interviewing matters
The principles behind investigative interviewing are strongly aligned with the Méndez Principles. Rather than relying on intimidation, pressure or accusatory questioning, investigative interviewing emphasizes rapport-building, open-ended questions, active listening and careful evaluation of information. In practice, this means that ethical interviewing is not only a human rights issue; it is also a question of investigative effectiveness.
One of the most powerful lessons from the Brazilian experience is that police professionals themselves often become strong advocates for reform once they are exposed to evidence-based approaches. During advanced training activities conducted in São Paulo and Santa Catarina, participants repeatedly highlighted how techniques such as rapport-building and open-ended questioning improved both communication and the quality of information obtained.
As one participant reflected: “I learned not to try to obtain a confession right away. I should gather as much information as possible through open-ended questions before moving to closed questions.”
Another participant emphasized how audiovisual recording supported more reliable practices: “Recording is liberating because it allows me to focus on what is essential and irreproducible: the interviewee’s non-suggestive memory.”
These testimonies illustrate an important shift. Investigative interviewing is increasingly being understood not as a limitation on police work, but as a professional tool that strengthens investigations while protecting rights.
Building a national training network
One of the central challenges in implementing non-coercive interviewing is sustainability. Short-term workshops alone rarely produce lasting institutional change specially in a large and culturally diverse country as Brazil.
To address this issue, CogJus helped create the “Group of Instructors and Supervisors” (GPS), a national network of police academy instructors responsible for disseminating investigative interviewing practices within their states. By 2025, the network included 52 participants across 24 Brazilian states from all five regions of the country. The strategy combines standardized teaching materials, instructor training, peer support and ongoing supervision. Importantly, the curriculum was organized into progressive levels, ranging from introductory conceptual training to advanced supervised practice involving complex interviews and real-case supervision.
This approach reflects a broader lesson for torture prevention initiatives: reforms become more sustainable when they are institutionalized within professional education systems rather than treated as isolated projects. The results are already significant. Between 2023 and 2025, more than 16,000 professionals from the states police forces received training using evidence-based materials developed through the project. At the same time, the initiative also introduced standardized evaluation instruments to measure learning outcomes. In São Paulo, for example, endorsement of investigative interviewing techniques increased from 32.8% before the course to 70% after completion of an introductory training.
The importance of partnerships
Another aspect of the Brazilian experience has been the role of interinstitutional cooperation. Throughout 2025, seminars and workshops brought together police representatives, prosecutors, judges, public defenders, researchers and international experts to discuss investigative interviewing, torture prevention and evidence-based practices.
These collaborations helped generate consensus around several priorities:
- strengthening legal safeguards during the first hours of custody;
- improving supervision and monitoring mechanisms;
- standardizing protocols;
- incorporating gender and racial perspectives into interviewing practices; and
- expanding audiovisual recording of interviews.
Importantly, these discussions were not framed as abstract academic debates. They focused on practical implementation challenges and institutional solutions.
The partnership between CogJus and APT also contributed to technical discussions on how the Méndez Principles can be operationalized in the Brazilian context, particularly within police education and investigative procedures.
Looking ahead
Brazil still faces substantial challenges in transforming investigative culture nationwide. Institutional change is gradual, and disparities remain between regions and agencies. Yet the experience developed over recent years offers an important example of how torture prevention can move from principle to practice. The key lesson is that ethical, evidence-based interviewing provides a viable and effective alternative.
When police professionals receive structured training, supervision and institutional support, it becomes possible to improve both the protection of human rights and the quality of criminal investigations. That is a hopeful message, not only for Brazil, but for broader international efforts to prevent torture and strengthen justice systems grounded in dignity, science and accountability.
For more information, see the CogJus website