Good Interviewing Practice

Question 1

Holmberg & Christianson (2002)

Answer 1

convicted supects’ views about the police interviewing. Many indicated that their interviewers displayed impatient, condemning attitudes, and a lack of empathy - ‘dominating’ styles. However, other suspects reported experiencing a more humane approach, and it was these whose confession rate was higher. Call into question usage of a dominating style

Question 2

Des Lauriers-Varin & St-Yves (2006/2009)

Answer 2

men in a maximum security prison, 45% of whom had confessed. When asked what motivates suspects not to confess the inmates indicated that ‘negative attitude of the police officer’ and ‘lacking confidence in the police officer,’ were among the most important factors

Question 3

Kebbell & Hurren (2005/2006)

Answer 3

sex offenders, what interviewers should do to increase the likelihood of a (genuine) confession: being compassionate, netural, clear, honest, and not making false accusations. When asked what would make confessions less likely the most common response was officer aggression

Question 4

Soukara, Bull, Vrij, Turner & Cherryman (2009)

Answer 4

coded audio tapes of real interviews to see if the type of tactics employed (positive or negative) had an impact on changing position from denial to confession. They did gentle prods, not interrupting, handling mood, use of open questions, and disclosure of evidence. Negative tactics: emphasising contradictions, challenging suspect’s account

Question 5

Goodman-Delahunty & Natalie Martschuk (2020)

Answer 5

56% of noncoercive strategies were associated with cooperation, yielding reliable information in 49.4% and true admissions in 20.0% of the cases. In contrast coercive strategies were perceived as more ineffective (58.9%) than effective (14.6%) in securing information. Physical coercion, intimidation and deception were most frequently acknowledged to yield false information

Question 6

The 9 Steps of the Reid Technique

Answer 6

1. positive confrontation
2. theme development
3. handling denials
4. overcoming objections
5. retaining attention
6. handling mood
7. creating opportunity to confess
8. converting into written confession
9. oral confession

Question 7

Concerns with the Reid Technique

Answer 7

implications of pressuring suspects -> can cause distress, distrust of authorities, harbouring resentment
implications of deceit and manipulation -> trauma, unethical, false confession, inadmissable confessions

Question 8

two parts of the Reid technique

Answer 8

interview and interrogation

Question 9

purpose of interview in Reid technique

Answer 9

to gather information, watch for behavioural and linguistic cues of deceit, unstructured and non-accusatory

Question 10

purpose of interrogation in Reid technique

Answer 10

active persuasion to tell the truth, conducted when reasonable certain of guilt, suspect is most vulnerable to interrogation following interview

Question 11

purpose of conversation management

Answer 11

• facilitating the unwilling/resistant to disclose information
• commitment to ethical conversation
• goal is to obtain account of the events
• acknowledgement of barriers to disclosure

Question 12

two parts of conversation management

Answer 12

account and challenge

Question 13

what is conversation management and who created this technique

Answer 13

• Shepard, 1983
• ethical approach to interviewing, focus on rapport and conversation, developed for use on unwilling and resistant participants

Question 14

five key element of conversation management

Answer 14

1. control
2. contact
3. credibility
4. content
5. conduct

Question 15

challenge element of CM

Answer 15

• after account
• clarification requests
• challenging inconsistencies and inaccuracies identified from other sources

Question 16

account element of CM

Answer 16

• uninterrupted open questions
• clarify suspects account and obtain as much detail as possible
• suspect permitted to say what they want on their terms
• recollection of offence

Question 17

elements of setting to consider when interviewing

Answer 17

location
questioning strategies
language
stereotypes and assumptions
individuals

Question 18

setting: location

Answer 18

• avoid public crowded places
• privacy and surveillance
• presence of others who could influence or intimidate interviewee
• presence of other witnesses

Question 19

setting: individuals

Answer 19

• cultural and social roles in gender dynamics
• sensitivity of disclosure to men
• trust

Question 20

setting: language

Answer 20

• speak clearly and directly
• simple language, clarity
• conscious of tone and pacing

Question 21

setting: questioning strategies

Answer 21

• allow interviewees to tell the story in their own way
• repeat words, clarify
• consider age and background of interviewee

Question 22

PEACE model

Answer 22

Preparation and planning
Engage and explain
Account
Closure
Evaluation

Question 23

types of questions

Answer 23

free narrative
open questions
multiple questions
leading questions
closed questions
probing questions

Question 24

which question types are poor practice and why

Answer 24

leading and multiple questions
multiple: too much demand on cognitive resources (overwhelm)
leading: suggesting the answer

Question 25

which question type produces the most accurate data/information

Answer 25

open questions (rely on recall with little influence and interruption)

Question 26

uses and applications of cognitive interview

Answer 26

- attempts to improve witness memory performance by using various techniques - derived from cognitive psychology to gain as much correct info without jeopardising quality

Question 27

two components of cognitive interview

Answer 27

multicomponent memory traces encoding specificity principle

Question 28

multicomponent memory traces

Answer 28

there are several paths to retrieve a memory, info accessible by one route may be available by another (Tulving, 1974)

Question 29

encoding specificity principle

Answer 29

a memory contains several features and a retrieval cue is effective to the extent that there is overlap between the encoded input trace and the retrieval cue (Thomson and Tulving, 1970)

Question 30

techniques used in cognitive interview

Answer 30

- recreating original context - encouraging recall of all details - encouraging recall in different orders and from different perspectives - listening skills

Question 31

advantages of cognitive interview

Answer 31

- significantly more accurate information obtained through this application - allows interviewee to be in control and present their information in a way that is more compatible with their memory

Question 32

disadvantages of cognitive interview

Answer 32

- limited in events where violence plays a significant part in the event - may not influence the recall of highly emotive events because the use of some techniques may be too traumatic - may only be significantly effective for events which are rich in detail

Question 33

types of disclosure of evidence

Answer 33

early (evidence disclosed at the start of the interview before questioning) late (gathering the whole of the story from the suspect before presenting the evidence) gradual (phased presentation of information/evidence, provided in a drip feed fashion throughout the interview)

Question 34

early disclosure (names)

Answer 34

Sellers & Kebbell, 2009

Question 35

gradual disclosure (names)

Answer 35

Grahag et al, 2012

Question 36

late disclosure (names)

Answer 36

Hartwig et al, 2005

Question 37

effectiveness of early disclosure

Answer 37

- may result in suspects incorporating evidence/information presented into their portrayal of events (Gudjonssen, 2003) - knowledge of what evidence police possess may allow for the creating of false accounts which incorporate this information (Read et al, 2009) - rarely achieves PEACE objectvies

Question 38

effectiveness of gradual disclosure

Answer 38

- less effective over time with repeat offenders (Grahag et al, 2015) - incremental disclosure may lead to passive compliance and in the worst case, can elicit false confessions (Sorochinksi et al, 2014) - deferred gradual vs reactive gradual (Walsh & Bull, 2015)

Question 39

effectiveness of late disclosure

Answer 39

- mixed research: is late disclosure even feasible? - investigators frequently fail to cover all information and alibis in their preceding questioning before presenting evidence (Walsh & Bull, 2015)

Question 40

most effective type of disclosure and why

Answer 40

gradual: Walsh & Bull (2015) found that less experienced interviewers used late and early disclosure

Question 41

% of suspects that make a confession (Memon et al, 2003)

Answer 41

49-61%

Question 42

most frequent tactic that elicits confessions (Pearse & Gudjonssen, 1996)

Answer 42

introduction of evidence, 75%

Question 43

three types of false confession

Answer 43

voluntary false confession coerced-compliant false confession coerced-internalised false confession

Question 44

voluntary false confession

Answer 44

- need for notoriety - cover up for someone else - avoid further investigation - need to relieve guilt

Question 45

coerced-compliant false confession

Answer 45

- suspect makes a confession that they know not to be true and continue to believe so - change in behaviour without change in attitude

Question 46

coerced-internalised false confession

Answer 46

- a suspect comes to believe during the interview that they must have committed the offence - change in attitude and behaviour - more convinced of their guilt

Question 47

how to avoid a false confession

Answer 47

- avoid psychological manipulation and deceit - solicitor presence - recording interviews - identify vulnerable people - corroborative evidence

Question 48

detecting a false confession

Answer 48

- critical evaluation - intimate knowledge - consistencies and impossibilities