When suspects ask questions: Rhetorical questions as a challenging device

•A CA study of suspects' rhetorical questions in police interrogations.•Suspects' rhetorical questions appear as responses to detectives' damaging turns and are heard as challenges.•Detectives can treat suspects' rhetorical questions as “no answer” or as “genuine questions”.

This article explores the use of rhetorical questions by suspects in police interrogations, a practice which departs from the norm whereby detectives are the ones who ask questions. Suspects' rhetorical questions occur in an argumentative sequential environment as a response to the detectives' initial damaging turns. They oppose the detectives by means of the suspects' primary access to what they are being accused of and are heard as strong statements of opposite polarity which issue a challenge. Contrary to the commonly held opinion that rhetorical questions do not need to be answered, most of the suspects' rhetorical questions are treated as challenges and are counter-challenged by the detectives.