lesson 10 - ethical interviews

Question 1

A01

Answer 1

• Interrogation is no longer intimidating, its now supportive and works with the person to gain as much information as possible.
• manipulation (such as false promises to the person) is no longer used as it leads to false confessions and wrongful convictions

P - planning and preparation
E - explain and engage
A - account, clarification and challenge
C - closure
E - evaluate

The first step of an EI is Planning and preparation.
- interviewer aware of all aspects of investigation and plan aim and objectives of interview. Characteristics of interviewee (age, culture, background should be considered and location e.g private room, two-way mirror

Explain and engage
Objectives of interview explained (reason for investigation and arrest)
Rapport made to encourage conversation -> why knowledge of interviewee is an important first step, interviewer should show empathy and identify with interviewee to build rapport, interviewer must also have good communication skills by using tone and non-verbal communication to avoid discomforting of the interviewee

Account, clarification and challenge
Questions should be short, simple and open-ended as misleading and multiple questions are ineffective. Obtaining an account of what occurred consists of prompting, supporting discussions -> e.g ‘tell me more’. Remain professional and not interrupt the interviewee and should ask for more details when necessary and be neutral with no bias

Closure
Accurately summarize what was discussed
The interviewee should be made aware when the interview is coming to and end before it does. Interviews should not end abruptly which will cause distress

Evaluate
Interviewer should evaluate the interview in terms of whether they achieved their aims
Decide whether any further action is required
Reflect on their interview practice

Question 2

strength/ weakness triplet

Answer 2

P: supporting research from Kebbell et al who looked at the perception of sex offenders regarding police interviewing.
E: The participants were 43 convicted sex offenders, interviewed using questionnaire about different interviewing strategies. It was found that evidence with strategies, ethical interviewing, and displays of humanity were more likely to get a confession. Interviewer dominance was seen to lead to reduction in likelihood of confession.
E: Therefore, the EI is more effective than other interrogation strategies.
HOWEVER
Questionnaires were used in Kebbell’s study so PPs may hav2 lied/exaggerated their answers, leading to social desirability bias, and lowering internal validity of Kebbell’s support for EI.

Question 3

Strength/weakness triplet

Answer 3

P: A strength of EI is support from objective studies.
E: Walsh and Milne looked at interviewing ability of investigators for benefit fraud. They found interviewers were better at using open questions in the Account, Clarification, Challenge step of the PEACE model. It led to more detailed accounts from interviewee.
E: It shows the that the EI is capable of obtaining a more accurate account compared to traditional, unethical interviews.
HOWEVER
researcher did not find much evidence of interviewers using the planning step in the IE, indicating that this interview technique may not always be used fully. Showing interviewers may not obtain a fully accurate and comprehensive account on the offender using the EI.
FURTHERMORE
Another weakness is, that the results obtained from this interview are not generalisable to more violent and impulsive crimes. Walsh and Milner investigated 99 audiotapes of interviews of benefit fraud suspects, a crime that is often planned out. This is a weakness because this study cannot be generalised to offenders of impulsive, potentially more violent, crimes, hence the results are not representative of the benefit of using the EI on impulsive criminals.

Question 4

weakness

Answer 4

P: A weakness for ethical interviews is that detectives may use multiple types of interviews at the same time.
E: CI uses Tulving and Bartlett’s theories on memory to allow for accurate recounts of crime. Done using contextual cues to reimagine the scene of the crime and reduce confabulations. During account clarification of an EI, detectives may incorporate elements CI such as context reinstatement and free recall.
E: So measuring the success of ethical interviews difficult as a cause and effect relationships between accurate EWT and using the ethical interviews cannot be established.
L: Thus, the ethical interview may lack internal validity and may not be appropriate to use for EWT.

Question 5

weakness

Answer 5

P: Challenged by Yerkes-Dodson Inverted-U theory of stress; it proposes that performance increases with mental arousal (stress) but only up to a certain point.
E: Task performance is best when arousal levels are in the middle range, with difficult tasks best performed under lower levels of arousal and simple tasks best performed under higher levels of arousal.
E: In the case of eyewitness testimonies, the Yerkes-Dodson effect states that eyewitness testimonies are less accurate if the interviewee has a low level of anxiety compared to if their anxiety is at a medium level.
L: Therefore, being ethical might not always be the best option because lacking any stress may prevent interviewees from giving their best ‘performance’.