Ethical Interviewing Flashcards
Ethical Interviewing
Traditional interigation Interviews Issues
• Contaminated witness statments
• (pre 30s) May threaten physical violence on subject
• confession seeking - leads to false Confessions
• Persuasive model of design used = borderline manipulation into confession
• Interviewers were aggressive and reluctant to change techniques
• Confirmation Bias - Question/ interperate info given from interview as confirmation of interviewers excisting beleifs and theorys, even if its not
this causes halm to the Rep of the investigation agency, public faith in the judiceral system and the victim themselfs
Ethical Interviewing
Atempting to fix Traditional interigorative interviewing
In England and Wales in the 70s and 80s
The National Court of Appeal decided a number of high profile cases who were convicted of serious crimes were made from non volentary confessions
so in the early 90s the law enforcment and Psychologists did a colab in Eng and Wales and developed an investigative interviewing framework to make interviews less confrontational and more transparent
they introduced recording of interviews for saftey and evidence and to see if it was a false confession :D
in 1992 Prof. John Baldwin
part of the colab
published a report based on police interviews
id weaknesses: lack of prep, general ineptitude, poor technique, assumtion of guilt, repetitive, persistant, labourd questioning, failed to establish relevant facts and exerted to much pressure
therefore highlighted the need of training unterviewers to do interviews proffesionaly
Ethical Interviewing
The Dawn of an Ethical interview
☮
SAVAGE AND MILNE (2007)
puts forward issues to be covered in an ethical interview
this is summed in the acronym: PEACE
P laning and preperation
E ngage and explain
A ccount, clarification ans challenge
C losure
E valuate
Ethical Interviewing
Background overview
Ethical interviewing came about in response to concerns about standard police interviewing
it was found to be accusatory and persuasive
The problem was those being interviewed did not know what would happen to them or what the police wanted
which gave moral and ethical implications but also have implications in regard to an interview getting a lot of correct details a stress can affect recall
Interviewers should treat Suspects with respect as equals the same rights, indignity, self-determination and choice
and it was fought using the peace model of ethical interviewing to achieve this
So after John Baldwin in 1993 layout the issues that were wrong with standard police interviewing
And Savage in Milne 2007 put forward what should be covered in nephew interview by introducing the PEACE method
then badda bing badboom we’ve got an ethical interview
Ethical Interviewing
Planing and Preperation
Planing and Preperation
• Plan what investigating
• where meet subject
• record it? y/n
• if have enough time for the subject and enough time for a complete interview
• What language to use in questioning (acount for language differences, special needs, interpriters ect)
• Decide on info need to collect to complete case and fix any plot holes
• plan rapport building (relationship w/ subject)
E.g. whether or not you are going to meet the suspect at the police station or a prison
and plan how long the interview should be
and whether or not it should be recorded
Ethical Interviewing
Engage and Explain
Engage and explain
• Build a rapport w/ subject e.g. discuss unrelated things over a tea to build a relationship and trust
• make them feel comfortable
• respect them
• explain to them the interview purpose for example: “we need to clear you as a subject”
• we have the information but it’s important to get it from them ( no bias as it must be in their words as it may be wrong if you say it without them saying it, (so they give the info first, dont introduce no info in this stage)
• this is so the participant can correct the interview as they may be wrong this ensures open and honestly will be maintained
Ethical Interviewing
Account, Challenge and Clarify
Account, Challenge and Clarify
• make timelines of the event with the participant
• open ended questions
• use cues to reinstate the contacts such as senses as smell and sound
• use reverse sequencing so ask them to repeat the events in reverse (to reduce schema effect on order (no story))
• participants narrate their experience and interviews only interrupt this to clarify information and when they do this they must only use their own words e.g: so you said you heard a shot?
or to challenge what they say with evidence e.g. DNA and then ask why does the evidence differ to what the subject has said (dont use evidence before this point)
The goal is for 80% of the interview to be the subject talking
Ethical Interviewing
Closure
Closure
• summarize the interview
• ask if there is anything more that they could add or anything that they may have missed or to clarify something they’ve said
• ask them in the summary if there is anything that the interviewer has said that was incorrect and therefore what should it be to fix it this may result in going that to the account stage until this has been fixed
• close the interview making sure to leave them with a good frame of mind
e.g. I appreciate your cooperation and if you remember anything else please contact us
Ethical Interviewing
Evaluation stage
Evaluation
• check if everything on the plan has been completed if not organize another interview
• ask somebody else to look at the notes you’ve taken
• think of how the interview could have been better
Ethical Interviewing
Walsh and Bull (2010) +
Walsh and Bull 2010
• study analyzed in detail 142 actual suspect interviews set in the area of social security benefit fraud
• it was found that good interviewing in each of the stages of Peace generally led to better interviews
indicating The Importance that each stage contributes to the overall interview quality
• it was also found that skilled peace interviewing was associated with securing full accounts and confessions
• therefore the study that Walsh and Bull conducted is evidence supporting ethical interviewing being effective at getting accounts from suspects
Ethical Interviewing
Walsh and Milne 2010 +/-
Walsh and Milne 2010
• examined the interviewing ability of benefit fraud investigators and the effects of training in the peace model
• analysis of 99 audio tapes of real life interviews with benefit Fraud suspects
and comparing performance levels between trained and untrained investigators
• found improvements amongst train investigators in particular the use of open questions
good evidence to support effective use of ethical interviewing
BUT
• found little evidence of planning
and also shortfalls in rapport building
insufficient coverage of the points that were required
and failures to completely explore the subjects motive
and a lack of summarising during the interview
They therefore also concluded that the trained investigators may have needed more training
so may only need sertain aspects to be effective
or this result not show full effectivness
so may be unreliable as evidence supporting the effectivness of ethical interviewing
Ethical Interviewing
Kebbell et al 2010 +
Kebbell et al 2010
• study comparing the interviewing of sex offenders and violent offenders
• gave a questionnaire to convicted sex offenders and volunte offenders asking about the different interviewing techniques that had been used
• I wanted to see if there was a relationship between how sex offenders viewed the police interviews and whether they confess or not
• the interview types that were investigated were: evidence presenting strategies, ethical interviewing, displays of humanity, and displays of dominance amongst others
• they found that evidence presenting, ethical interviewing and displays of humanity were more likely to get a confession to the interviewer than dominance
• suggesting that interviews should be ethical not only on moral grounds but because they are also effective
meaning this is good evidence to support this for ethical interviewing
Ethical Interviewing
Clarke and Milne 2001 -
Clarke and Milne 2001
• evaluated 177 interviews
• ⅔ of which had been carried out under PEACE trained officers
• found little difference between the two groups of officers
• but argue that untrained officers were not completely naive to the nature of PEACE training
• comparisons of pre-PEACE and post PEACE interviews do seem to suggest clear improvement in Ethos and ethical approach to interviewing
• therefore this study shows that ethical interviewing is more ethical
• however with comparing trained and untrained PEACE officers that is not seem to be too great of a difference in the effectiveness of the PEACE interview ( this may be due to the untrained officers having an idea of what PEACE is anyway, so may be invalid comparison lowing internal validity)
Therefore this means that in terms of effectiveness ethical interviewing may not be so different compared to non-trained interviewing (standard)
Ethical Interviewing
milne and bull 2007 +/-
Milne and Bull 2007
• researched interviewing by the police and conducted a literature review and concluded that one way to improve the standards of interviewing was to provide appropriate training
• suggested officers need specific courses on investigative interviews and part of this should incorporate PEACE training
• they also point out training in skill assessments should be done so they know how to deal with vulnerable groups
• finally they also suggest that interview advisors should be trained and appointed to advise and plan interview strategy if at a local level?
• lastly they point out even with trading not everyone can be good at ethical interviewing showing a weakness of its effectiveness as not everyone can use it effectively
• on the other hand PEACE training was advised meaning the study suggests that it is important as it is effective at gaining information supporting ethical interviewing
Ethical Interviewing
Fisher and Geiselman 1992 +
Fisher & Geiselman 1992
They suggest that a rapport means showing empathy and active listening including paying attention to the needs of the witness or suspect
which not only improves the interview with regard to information yielded but adheres to ethical guidelines such as allowing self-determination
And due to ethical interviewing techniques such as the PEACE model including building a rapport it can be determined that this study is evidence supporting the effectiveness of ethical interviewing
