Essay Question 1 - How to interview a witness and a suspect? Flashcards
What to consider for Interviewing witness?
Suspect Line Up ADVOKATE Eyewitness Witness Characteristics Confidence of Witness Questioning Technique/Style Standard interview Cognitive Interview Hypnotic Interview
What to consider for interviewing suspect?
False Confession Detecting Deception Qualities of Detective 9 Step approach to getting a confession (FBI) Importance of Evidence Police Interviewing Techniques
Witness - Four Rules Photo Line Up
1) Who Conducts the line-up
(Should not know who witness is, preventing conductor feedback)
2) Instructions on viewing
(Witness told suspect may not be in the line-up, Witness told conductor don’t know who suspect is, prevent witness looking for cues from conductor and less likely to make false identification)
3) Structure Line-Up
(Suspect should not stand out, Distractors that look to similar to suspect unhelpful, influence of suspect unique features
4) Obtaining Confidence Judgement
(Obtained before feedback, confidence importance in determining accuracy)
Witness - Eyewitness Testimony
Major risk factor for false convictions
Eyewitness aim to identify offender, identify crime, remove inappropriate defence (Discount invalid responses from suspect)
Witness - ADVOKATE Eyewitness
A - Amount of time spent observing the crime
D - Distance - further away you are from the crime, less remembrance of details
V - Visibility - Time of day and quality of lighting
O - Obstructions - Something preventing witness from seeing, encoding and retrieving information
K - Known or seen before to witness - more likely to remember offender details
A - Any reason to remember - memorable information more likely to be remembered
T - Time Lapse - More time that in between offence and reporting = less complete and more inaccurate memory
E - Errors or material discrepancies - Peripheral vision
Witness - Weapon Focus
High memory for weapon but less memory for other things occurring in the offence
Characteristics of Suspect
Children - Recall worse and more sensitive to way in which they are interviewed
- Confabulate to fill gaps in memory
Older adult - Perceptual abilities have decreased (Ears and eyes)
-Encode information less well and cycle of
remembering impaired
Learning Disability - Poorer memory cycle
- Heavily influenced by interview
questions
- Tend to remember the important
details
- Confabulate to fill gaps in memory
Mental Illness - Schizophrenia confuse hallucinations
with reality
- Depression may lack the attention to
properly encode and remember
information
Alcohol - memory impairment
Drugs - If alter perception, likely alter memory
Head Injury - Loss consciousness lead to memory
problems
Confidence of Witness
Perceived to be more accurate information if more confident (Not always the case)
Repeated questioning can falsely increase confidence
Witness - Questioning Consequences
Impact accuracy of responses
Specificity = less accuracy
Children and people with intellectual disability more susceptible to suggestibility (due to pressure from interview, uncertainty and expectations)
Witness - Questioning Techniques
Open Questioning - increased accuracy of response
Free recall - increase accuracy, low quantity
Leading Questions - lowered accuracy, increased quantity of information
Witness - Standard Interview
If effective interviewer, can use retrieval cues to unlock additional information in the witness
Witness - 3 Major Problems with Standard Interview
1) Interrupting the witness (Break witness concentration, shorten witness responses)
2) Excessive use of question-answer format (Less concentrated, only provide the information that is requested)
3) Inappropriate sequencing of questions
- Questions incompatible with mental representations from the witness
- Checklist Questioning - disrupt witness memory
- Lagging order - focus on one aspect of conversation, disrupts flow
- Shifting modalities - disrupt witness concentration
Witness - Other Problems Standard Interview
- Negative phrasing (you don’t remember?
- non-neutral wording ( was he wearing this…)
- Inappropriate language (Did you do this?)
- Staccato Style Questioning (1 sec b/w questioning)
- Distractions
- Judgement comments (Why did you do that?)
- Lack follow up leads ( He looked like a gangster)
- Under emphasis auditory cues
4 Main Instructions witness cognitive Interview
1) reinstate mental context (recall better in same environment where learnt)
2) Report everything
3) recall events in different order (backwards)
4) Change perspectives (What would another person have seen)
Witness - Benefits Cognitive interview
Enhance recall by providing several paths to memory
Increased quantity of information recalled
