Crime-Topic 3-Collection of evidence (cognitive)

Question 1

What did Inbau and Reid create?

Answer 1

A police manual in 1962, still used today in the US, covering techniques for inetrviewing and interrogating suspects-known as the Reid Techniques and including the Reid 9 steps of Interrogation

Question 2

What is teh difference between suspect interviews and interrogation?

Answer 2

Interviews-identitify a situation, talk through crime
Interrgoate- trying to foce info out (presuming they are guilty) presumptive and accusatory

Question 3

what is step 1 of Reid’s nine steps of interrogation

Answer 3

Positive confrontation: Support is issolated in a small, bare, sound proofed room. The interogator confronts the suspect with a strong assertion of guilt often accompanied by incriminating evidence, real or contrived.

Question 4

What is step 6 of Reid 9 step interrogation?

Answer 4

handling the suspects mood- This is doen by showing sympathy and understanding to get the suspect to cooperate.

Question 5

What is step 9 of Reid’s 9 step interrogation?

Answer 5

Get written/audio/ videotaped confession- This is coverted into a full written confession deatiling what, how and why, this will prove credible in court.

Question 6

how does Inbau explain the order of the 9 step interrgoation?

Answer 6

he explains that all 9 steps will not always be used, apart from teh first step (confrontation) and the final step (admission of guilt/confession) the order used is not relevant.

Question 7

how does reid explain the order of the 9 step interrgoation?

Answer 7

Argued that no guilty person would go past stage 3 on his 9 steps of interrogation- thus info obtained should be reliable and false confession unlikely.

Question 8

how does the reid technique aim to gain a confession?

Answer 8

Tries to increase anxiety in the suspect and motivate them to want to leave the interrogation room (by confessiong). Although situational factors may result in a coearced compliant confession, Inbau argues that these steps are necessary since you ar einterogating someone who eveidence suggests is guilty.

Question 9

What does Gudjonsson (2013) argue about factors that lead to false confessions?

Answer 9

4 factors that need to be considered to find ou if a confession has been coerced.
-the defendant; false confessions are more likely in people who are very young/old, low IQ, mental helath problems, highly suggestible
-The arrest: those arrested suddenly/interrogated at night/ for long times more likely to confess.
-Mental/physical state: confessions are unreliable if suspect is very anxious/stressed/ill/intoxicated
-the interrogation:coercive/biased or leading interview tactics can encourage false confessions.

Question 10

What did Kassin et al (2010) argue about factors that lead to ‘false confessions’?

Answer 10

Conformation bias- interrogators only look for behaviours in a suspect that confirm their pre-existing expectations.
Age- adolesents are more complianyt and suggestible than adults, their judgements may be poor and they may be more immature leading to impulsie behaviour.

Question 11

What are some features of the standard interview?

Answer 11

-No/little training is requires.
-Ask any Qs interviewers feels are relevant
-Inappropriate sequencing of qs.

Question 12

What are some problems that Fisher identified with the standard interview?

Answer 12

Numerous interruptions and an over-reliance on short answer questions at the expense of long-answer qs designed to elicit more detail and to improve recollection.

Question 13

What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview?

Answer 13

-context reinstatement
-in-depth reporting
-narrative re-ordering
-reporting from different perspectives

Question 14

What did Fisher and Geiselman’s research in context dependent memory show?

Answer 14

A person will best recall and retrieve information if they are in the same setting where the incident happened. Can take them back physically or emotionally.
different cues may retrieve different info, so using various ways to help a person recall info.

Question 15

What was the aim of Memom and Higham’s review?

Answer 15

To review the cognitive interview

Question 16

What is a review article?

Answer 16

A way of looking at an area of research by describing, comparing and evaluating the key themes and main evidence in that area.

Question 17

State the 4 themes are that Memom and Higham considered

Answer 17

-components of the cognitive interview
-isolating the effective components of the CI
-the advanced CI
-Comparison interviews

Question 18

Which component of the cognitive interview can be seen as being most effective?

Answer 18

Reinstate context. M+H found that there were no sig difference in the recall performance across the 4 groups. Milne (1997) confirmed this. however, found that the full CI led to more recall than any of the single components apart from the CR condition which suggests that context reinstatement is the most effective component of the CI

Question 19

What form of interview did M+H conclude would be a useful comparison tool?

Answer 19

The guided memory interview (GMI). This uses contextual reinstatement and encourages the witness to mentally reinstate contexts. Since CI is made up of three other techniques as well as the CR, therefore the GMI may be a good comparison for determining whether the CI effects are due to CR alone.

Question 20

What did M+H conclude about the role of police interviewers in the cognitive interview?

Answer 20

the effectiveness of the CI is still inconclusive and further research is required into the particular effects of the CI on memory and how the different components work. The effectiveness depends on the ability and motivation of the interviewer which may vary.

Question 21

What are the main recommendations made in using the CI in its best capacity?

Answer 21

-motivated police officer
-trained interviewer
-using every component of the CI

Question 22

Evaluate the validity of M+H study

Answer 22

the review article includes studies of CI that are lab based so have high internal validity, but perhaps memory in a lab when a ‘to-be-remembered-event’ is fake is different to memory of real life event. e.g. the latter may be far more emotionally stimulating.

Question 23

Evaluate the reliability of M+H’s research

Answer 23

In M+H review, a large body of research is reviewed and it is doubtful whether consistent themes ad suggestions would emerge from a replication of the review- this would depend upon which research was included in the repeat review (i.e. same or different) and also whether findings under review are able to be objectively interpreted or not. We also know that different studies looked at different aspects of CI or gave different amounts of training- pointing towards unreliability between the studies reviewed.

Question 24

What is the enhanced cognitive interview(ECI)?

Answer 24

It contains the same 4 techniques as the CI, but adds social aspects to the setting and procedure which appear to improve communication. this includes ensuring that distractions are kept to a minimum, allowing pauses, and being as sensitive as possible to the needs of the interviewee. the interviewee is also encouraged to strengthen the context reinstatement by the use of focused memory techniques such as imagery.

Question 25

What is the PEACE model of interviewing (UK based)?

Answer 25

Technique used with suspects and witnesses
Preparation and planning
Engage and explain
Account, clarification, challenge
Closure
Evaluation

Question 26

What is forensic hypnosis?

Answer 26

there are two purposes for using forensic hypnosis. the most common purpose is to induce relaxation when anxiety and stress may be obstructing a witnesses’ ability to recall as much information as possible. the second use of forensic hypnosis occurs when retrieval of information from witnesses cannot be acquired through any other means.

Question 27

What did Dwyer (2001) state about forensic hypnosis?

Answer 27

sites Calat (1993) in which a boy was hypnotised about his mother’s disappearance, he said he saw his dad kill her. But months later she showed up unharmed.