cognitive interviews and ethical interview techniques

Question 1

define cognitive interviews

Answer 1

a method of interviewing eye-witnesses aiming to help witnesses produce more accurate recall of a crime scene using techniques based on psychological research

Question 2

define ethical interviews

Answer 2

a method of interviewing that acknowledges that suspects are human beings and are more likely to cooperate with police if rapport is established and they are treated with respect.

Question 3

explain ethical interviews

Answer 3

• report everything: the witness is encouraged to report every single detail of the event
• reinstate the context: the witness is asked to imagine all aspects of the crime scene, such as what the weather was like, the time of day etc hoping that these context cues can aid recall by triggering further information
• reverse the order: the witness describes what they saw in a different chronological order e.g. from the end to the beginning, evidence suggests that witnesses are likely to give truer account under these circumstances, rather than relying on expectations of what they thought had occurred
• change perspective: the witness is asked to tell the story of the event from someone else’s perspective, this might be from the view of a different witness or someone who was directly involved

Question 4

explain the enhanced clinical interview

Answer 4

• developments of the original technique pay more attention to aspects of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee
• includes the interviewer maintaining eye-contact with the witness, reducing distractions, asking open-ended questions and getting the witness to speak slowly rather than rushing through their account

Question 5

explain why ethical interviewing techniques have been developed

Answer 5

• royal commission on criminal justice in 1991 concluded that false confessions and miscarriages of justice were the results of police using unethical interview techniques during questioning
• police would do things such as making threats, false promises and physical force to extract confessions
• there has been more of an emphasis on ethical interviewing which aims to teach officers to keep a more open mind and behave less aggressively towards suspects

Question 6

the PEACE model of ethical interviewing

Answer 6

• collaboration between law enforcement agencies and psychologists based on the idea that suspects are more likely to cooperate with the police and give a true confession
  1. preparation and planning - identifying key objectives of the interview
  2. engage and explain - active listening to promote rapport
  3. account, clarification, challenge - using open-ended questions to elicit information
  4. closure - giving the suspect chance to ask any questions
  5. evaluate - reflecting on the interviewers performance

Question 7

advantages of ethical cognitive interviews

Answer 7

• research support shows that ethical cognitive interviews produces higher success rates
• christianson carried out a study of murderers’ and sexual offenders’ experiences of police interviews and their inclination to admit or deny crimes
• the researchers found that interviews characterised by intimidation and dominance on the part of the police interviewer were most associated with denials
• in contrast, interviews marked by respect and positive attitude towards the suspect were most associated with confessions
• therefore ethical interviews result in more cooperative interviewees

Question 8

disadvantages of ethical cognitive interviews

Answer 8

• a weakness is that research support shows that it may lead to an increase in the recall of inaccurate information
• Kohnken recorded an 81% increase in correct information using cognitive interview techniques but this was offset by a 61% increase in incorrect information, compared with standard interview methods
• this suggests that the real strength of cognitive interviews is that more information is produced overall but a lot of it may be inaccurate

Question 9

application of ethical cognitive interviews

Answer 9

• research into cognitive interviews has shown which combinations of techniques are most effective
• milne and bull observed that any of the individual elements of cognitive interviews in isolation tend to be more effective in eliciting accurate information than standard interviewing techniques
• however, the researchers also noted a combination of reporting everything and context reinstatement particularly was most fruitful
• it is widely acknowledged that cognitive interviews are time-consuming so the police can use abridged versions of cognitive interviews in some circumstances