The Psychology of Testimony and the Interrogation of Children: Contesting the Expertise of Teachers and Female Police Officers, circa 1922-1944

Abstract

In this case study, I focus on two previously underresearched groups in the history of police interrogation: officers of the Female Criminal Police, established around 1926, and schoolteachers who, beginning in 1924, collaborated with the Leipzig Criminal Office as so-called criminal aides (Kriminalhelfer). Both the Female Criminal Police and the criminal aides of the Leipzig Criminal Office claimed a distinct niche within the domain of interrogation practices. They publicly asserted a superior aptitude for questioning children and adolescents, particularly in cases involving the sexual abuse of minors (then classified as Sittlichkeitsdelikte, that is, “moral offenses”) under §176 of the Imperial Penal Code. The article situates these two groups within a broader discourse about interrogation methods that emerged around 1900, a debate increasingly shaped by new psychological approaches—above all, by the emerging field of the psychology of testimony (Aussagepsychologie). The question of which epistemic persona could most competently interrogate minors reflected, on one level, professional interests—the pursuit of new occupational opportunities for women and for teachers—and, on another, the contested epistemic authority and social recognition tied to particular forms of subjectivity. In the longer run, female police officers succeeded in establishing their legitimacy because they offered a model that could be integrated into existing police structures: a model of psychologically trained, empathetic officers responsible for cases involving children and young people. Teachers, by contrast, were unable to articulate a comparable epistemic or administrative framework, and their involvement in interrogation practices remained highly localized and short-lived.