Interviewing Witnesses Flashcards
Social psychology to interviewing witnesses
Childs POV, rapport building and can work together
Limitations to current interviewing witnesses
Limited resources for training
After training, may slip into inappropriate interview habits e.g. Confirmation bias
Approx population of learning disability
1%
What are the increased risks that people with LD’s have?
Victims of physical attacks, sexual abuse and exploitation, emotional and social insecurities, lack of education on sexuality and sexual abuse
Examples of some vulnerable witnesses
Children, children with learning difficulties, adults with learning difficulties, intimidated, older adult, English as a second language.
People with LD and the CJS
Lack of interviewing guidelines, professionals aware of lack of skills, stereotype that people with LD are suggestible, little research to base training on
Milne and Bull (2001) model of intellectual disability
- slower and reduced processing capacity across memory processes
- lower intelligence, poorer memory, increased uncertainty= increased suggestibility
- leads to confabulation and less accuracy
Percentage of offending population with learning difficulty
5-10% (Talbot and Johnson, 2010)
Categories of LD
Adults with learning difficulty
Youth with learning difficulty
Young children- difficulties with comprehension
Vulnerability with LD may increase _______
compliance
Newburn et al (2002) how many surveyed young offenders experienced coercion?
25% youth offenders
What was the old way police would interview witnesses?
Investigative mindset and taking notes
Cognitive interview was developed by who and when?
Geiselman and Fisher (1984)
3 core principles of CI
Memory, communication and social dynamics
CI training is part of Professional Investigation Programme, why?
To improve professional competence of all police officers and staff tasked with conducting investigations
What research is CI based on?
Memory processes- encoding, storage and retrieval
What are the phases of the CI?
Establish rapport, explain aims of interview, initiate free report, questioning, varied extensive retrieval, closure.
Why is establishing rapport important in the cognitive interview?
Personalises the interview which reduces anxiety and creates a relaxed atmosphere
Why is explaining aims of the interview important? (CI)
Report everything and transfer control as they have the important details
Why is initiating free report important? (CI)
Mental context reinstatement, open ended questions, interviewer non-verbal behaviours
Questioning in CI
Probe for questions after recall, open ended, can take time
Varied extensive recall in CI
Change the temporal order (recall backwards/other perspectives- person or location)
However, witness may speculate
Closure in CI
Want them to feel connection so they may come back (thank you), positive first impression
Additional interviewer behaviours in CI
Sit in relaxed manner, principle of synchrony, express friendliness and support, use eye contact frequently but don’t stare, speak slowly and short sentences, express attention and interest
Evaluation of CI on adults (Gieselman et al., 1985)
Correct recall: 41% CI, 29% standard interview
Evaluation of CI on adults (Fisher et al, 1989)
Trained vs untrained detectives: before training 26%, after= 40%
The CI and child witnesses positives
Overall high accuracy (81-93%)
Imagery enhances children’s recall
The CI and child witnesses limitations
Increase in incorrect details, confabulations, lack of theory of mind
The Cognitive interview today
Adaptive, flexible, available face to face and written form, can be used with many different types of witnesses/victims
Why is modification important in CI with kids?
Ability to recall chronologically develops gradually with age (Piaget, 1969)
Ability to make inferences develops gradually with age (Flavell, 1986)
Self administered interview
Use pen and paper. Ask questions for witness to fill out
Benefits of SAI?
Time and resource efficient
Reduces demand characteristics
(Gabbert et al 2001): just as effective as CI
More information than simple free recall
What do we know about older people and memory?
Age related changes, older adults free recall less complete and accurate, age related increases in false recollection, older adults need more retrieval support
Gawrlylowitcz et al (2013) SAI study details
2 groups (SAI and FR). Mean age= 70. Event 1: date rape vs gas man robbing house- filler then (SR or FR) Event 2: 1 week delay then FR
Gawrlylowitcz et al (2013) SAI results
SAI group more correct details without decrease in accuracy
Experiences SAI ptps more correct details for new event
Gawrlylowitcz et al (2013) SAI summary
SAI had positive effect on older adults’ immediate recall;
SAI a enhances episodic process (transferable skills for future event)
Benefits of the transferable skills of SAI
Facilitates retrieval through spontaneous use of mnemonics, effects at encoding through focused attention, improves narrative style, changes in metacogniton with SAI instructions
Applied implications of SAI
Older adults are vulnerable to face to face offences
Underperformance by older adults might be partly due to lack of support at retrieval
Memory training programs for older adults- components of SAI may be used to develop solutions to the everyday memory concerns of older adults
Male to female ratio of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
4:1
ASD characteristics
Deficits in social interaction and communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities
Prevalence of ASD in general population (Baird et al, 2000)
1%
Memory recall in ASDm
Tends to feature less social elements than typical people’s (Maras and Bowler, 2010)
Difficulty binding time and spatial information in one context
Difficulty monitoring the source of memories
Maras and Bowler (2010)
Correct details: no beneficial effect for ASD between CI and structured interview.
Errors: ASD made more in both interviews
Maras and Memon (2013) CI and ASD
ASD do not benefit from mental context reinstatement, no better with CI compared to free recall
Intimidated witnesses Asylum Aid briefing (2016)
EU wide
All women provided with relevant info, comparable standards, assumption of belief and culture of protection
Interviewing asylum cases
Typically little hard evidence so interviewing is KEY
Challenging role of interview for asylum cases
Trauma affects memory quality: only their statement, gaps in memory, reluctance to explain details
Moving forward in interviewing
Collab between researches and policy makers
Identifying researched based policy changes
Evidence based interviewing practices that are sensitive to needs of vulnerable witnesses and those who are traumatised
