Justice Under Fire: Reforming Investigative Interviewing in Wartime Ukraine

In this episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Paulo Barbosa Marques — Inspector at Portugal's Polícia Judiciária, forensic psychologist, and one of Portugal's leading advocates for science-based investigative interviewing — about what it takes to implement that ethos in a country without a national training framework, without published interviewing guidelines, and without systematic recording of suspect interviews.

Fernando Guzzi spent the first half of his career as what colleagues called a 'good confession obtainer'. Then he was asked to teach interrogation at the police academy — and started reading the research. What he found changed everything. In this episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Fernando Guzzi, a Police Commissioner from Santa Catarina, Brazil, about the journey from confession-centred policing to investigative interviewing — and what it means to make that shift inside a system still shaped by the legacy of military dictatorship. They discuss what happens to trust when the interview dynamic breaks down; why public cooperation with police is an acute problem in Latin America; what 61% of investigators getting confessions right actually means for justice; and how recording technology is now transforming accountability in Brazil's police stations — not just for evidence quality, but for the officers themselves.

In Ireland, suspects have been recorded on video since 1997. Interviewers are still required to write down everything by hand at the same time. Dr Adrian Gates spent his career as the national lead on investigative interview training in An Garda Síochána — and his doctoral research has now quantified the cost of that contradiction.In this episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Dr Adrian Gates about his journey from confession-focused detective to Ireland's foremost advocate for the Enhanced Cognitive Interview; the moment a Detective Superintendent asked him, in front of the assistant commissioner, 'Are you telling me we have been doing it wrong all this time?' — and what he said; and the findings from his research: an accuracy rate of 39%, 4,481 omitted items across 15 interviews, and a process in which interviewers are actively stopping people from talking in order to keep up with their own pen.

Recorded live at the Davidhorn Police Interview Summit 2026 in Manchester, Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Vasylyna Yavorska — Ukrainian lawyer, criminal justice reformer, and CEO of JUST Group — about what it means to try to transform a criminal justice system in the middle of a war. Vasylyna has coordinated Ukraine's national team of investigative interviewing experts since 2017. In this conversation, she talks candidly about the challenge of shifting practitioners away from confession-focused thinking, the structural barriers to scaling investigative interviewing across a large and complex justice system, and the moment in March 2022 — Kyiv still partly occupied — when her team was asked to develop guidelines for interviewing prisoners of war.

In this episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, host Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Therese Maria Rytter, international human rights lawyer and outgoing Vice-President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), about the critical intersection of legal safeguards, investigative interviewing, and the prevention of torture across Europe. After nearly 12 years with the CPT and 30 years dedicated to protecting human rights internationally, Ms Rytter brings unparalleled insight into what actually prevents torture and ill-treatment in police custody, prisons, and other detention settings across the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. As Director of Prevention and Accountability at DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture, and co-author of the landmark Mendez Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information Gathering, she represents the bridge between international human rights standards and practical implementation in criminal justice systems. The conversation reveals the CPT's unique and powerful mandate: conducting surprise visits to police stations, prisons, and psychiatric hospitals throughout Europe, sometimes arriving at midnight on Friday nights when cells are fullest. Therese Maria Rytter describes how expert delegations - including lawyers, forensic doctors, psychiatrists, and former police commissioners - spend two weeks in each country, sitting inside cells to speak with detainees, examining injuries, reviewing CCTV footage, and assessing use-of-force records. This unprecedented access allows the CPT to make concrete, evidence-based recommendations tailored to each country's specific context.

What shapes an investigator's mindset — and does it matter more than their training? In this episode, Dr. Ivar Fahsing speaks with Ahmet Demirden, criminal justice academic and former Toronto Police Service officer, about the psychology behind investigative interviewing practice. Drawing on two decades of experience across Canada, Turkey, and international training contexts, Ahmet Demirden introduces regulatory focus theory as a lens for understanding why officers interview the way they do — and why knowledge alone is rarely enough to change behaviour. The conversation covers the gap between training and performance, the role of organisational culture and required drivers, the legal complexities of the Turkish inquisitorial system, and the emerging potential of AI and simulation technology to provide the feedback mechanisms that policing has long lacked.

Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Dr Julia Korkman — psychologist, researcher, and one of the leading voices in legal psychology in the Nordic region — about what investigative interviewing looks like in Finland: what works, what doesn't, and why the gaps matter.In this episode:- Why human memory is the core material of criminal justice — and why so few professionals are trained in it- How the desire to help children speak can introduce the very errors it's meant to prevent- The Kailinna wrongful conviction case and the cost of confirmation bias- Cultural humility in cross-border and multilingual interviews — from Finland's sauna culture to collective societies in Southeast Asia- What a nationwide survey of Finnish police officers revealed about knowledge of interviewing methods- Why Norway's shift to recording succeeded — and what Finland can learn from it- How AI is being used to generate alternative hypotheses in child abuse investigations- Remote hearings, automated transcription, and the future of technology in investigative interviewingGuest: Dr Julia Korkman, Docent in Psychology, Åbo Akademi UniversityHost: Dr Ivar Fahsing

Every major interviewing framework - PEACE, KREATIV, ORBIT - distils to the same essentials: stay nice, ask good questions, and listen.So why does confession-driven culture remain so deeply embedded, even in systems that have formally adopted investigative interviewing?In this episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, host Børge Hansen speaks with two leading members of iIIRG - the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group - about what actually makes reform stick, and what keeps pulling it back.

Denmark implemented investigative interviewing standards in 2015, yet officers were convicted of coercion in 2021. Thomas Skou Roer reveals why and what's next. In this candid and thought-provoking episode of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, host Ivar Fahsing speaks with Thomas Skou Roer, associate professor at University College Copenhagen and former Danish criminal detective with 18 years of service, about the complex realities of implementing investigative interviewing standards in Denmark—and why having good standards doesn't guarantee good practice.

What does it take to implement investigative interviewing across an entire nation's criminal justice system? In this episode, recorded in Hua Hin, Thailand, Dr Ivar Fahsing speaks with Ms. Santanee Ditsayabut — senior prosecutor at the Office of the Attorney General of Thailand and Director of the Secretariat of the Nitivajra Institute — about Thailand's landmark efforts to embed ethical, evidence-based interviewing practices across its justice system.Santanee shares the story of Thailand's PEACE Program Informity: a multi-year, multi-agency initiative bringing together prosecutors, police, special investigators from the DSI, judges, and officers from across government. She speaks candidly about the challenges of changing practitioner mindset, overcoming the myth that investigative interviewing is too time-consuming, and the critical role of policy-level support in sustaining real change.The conversation explores how Thai cultural values of respect and dignity align naturally with the ethos of ethical interviewing — and how understanding memory science and cognitive bias transforms the way practitioners approach evidence gathering. Santanee also discusses the important role of judges in evaluating evidence accurately, and why legislative reform may be needed to support long-term implementation.The episode marks a historic milestone: Thailand is certifying its first national PEACE trainers and champions, positioning the country as a leader in investigative interviewing across Asia.In this episode:Thailand's PEACE Program Informity and how it brings the full justice chain togetherWhy investigative interviewing must be understood as a skill, not a theoryConfirmation bias, tunnel vision, and the science of memoryThe role of judges in evidence evaluation — and what happens when they lack that knowledgeBuilding sustainable change by training future policymakers alongside practitionersHow technology, including recording and AI transcription, supports implementationThailand certifying its first national PEACE trainersBeyond a Reasonable Doubt is the podcast from Davidhorn, exploring investigative interviewing and digital evidence with experts from around the world.