IJSLL (print) issn 1748-8885 IJSLL (online) issn 1748-8893 The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law doi : 10.1558/ijsll.v17i1.45 IJSLL vol 17.1 2010 45–66 ©2010, equinox publishing Article The question of question types in police interviews: a review of the literature from a psychological and linguistic perspective Gavin E. Oxburgh, Trond Myklebust and Tim Grant Abstract he past two decades has seen a plethora of papers and academic research conducted on investigative interviews with victims, witnesses and suspected ofenders, with a particular focus on questioning techniques and typologies. However, despite this research, there still remain signiicant discrepancies amongst academic researchers and practitioners over how best to describe types of questions. his article considers the available literature relating to interviews with children and adults from both a psychological and linguistic perspective. In particular, we examine how diferent types of questions are described, and explore the discrepancies between competing deinitions. keywords investigative interviews; question typologies; legal language Ailiations Gavin E. Oxburgh: Teesside University, UK Trond Myklebust: Norwegian Police University College, Norway Tim Grant: Centre for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University, Birmingham, UK email: g.oxburgh@tees.ac.uk