Wk 4 Reading - eliciting reliable information in investigative interviews

Question 1

What makes interviewing witnesses challenging

Answer 1

 Interviews are an important part of the investigative process; however, even cooperative victims and witnesses do not disclose all information and may have some inaccuracies in their reports
o Psychological factors relating to the social dynamics (rapport) with the interviewer and interviewee, the cognitive processes of both parties and their communication can influence the efficacy of these interviews in terms of accuracy and quantity of information disclosed

Question 2

What are the two methods of interviewing generally used

Answer 2

o Two methods of interviewing are typically used;
 1. An information-gathering style, which seeks to establish rappot with interviewees and uses open-ended exploratory questions to elicit information and establish guilt
 2. An accusatorial style, which uses closed-ended confirmatory questions to elicit confessions

Question 3

What should be the goal of an interviewer?

Answer 3

The main goal of an investigative interviewer should be to elicit a complete and accurate account from the interviewee.

Question 4

Factors that influence interview quality in adult witnesses and victims

Answer 4

• trust, cooperation and rapport
• promotion of a detailed account
• promotion of accuracy
• context reinstatement
• multiple and varied retrieval
• capacity restraints
• communication

Question 5

Role of rapport in interviews

Answer 5

o Rapport is the heart of the interview, and the most effective way to obtain accurate information from interviews
 It consists of mutual attention ( the degree of involvement that both interviews and interviewees experience, signaled by directly facind, codding and verbal back-channel responses), positivity (the friendliness and carding but also liking, respecting and competence) and coordination (how much the people’s behaviour in the interview is synchronised
 The effects of rapport could be motivational (the interviewee tries harder) or could assist memory retrieval more directly, eg. Enhanced coordination may minimise disruption by the interviewer, allowing the witness to generate a narrative.
 Effectively building rapport uses verbal and non-verbals (eg. Relaxed posture and asking questions to generate interest)

Question 6

Promoting detailed accounts

Answer 6

o Promoting detailed accounts
 It’s important qitnesses give full narratives (rather than simply answering questions)
 This is often misunderstood, so it’s important interviewers explicitly inform interviewees their expected role in giving a detailed account. Also open asking open questions and not interrupting can help with this

Question 7

Promoting accuracy

Answer 7

 Meta-cognition is required in interviewees who are competing the pressure of giving large accounts of a story, without including incorrect information about the event.
 Interviewers should tell interviewees it’s okay to say they do’t know (than to give a false answer) and should avoid excessive questioning as this can place pressure on giving an answer.
 Interviews should also be sensitive to cognitive processes. It should a) facilitate the interviewees search through memory and b) not overload either parties limited capacity to process information

Question 8

o Context reinstatement

Answer 8

Encoding-specificity principle – suggests a match between the original context and the recall context facilitates memory. Mental reinstatement of context draws on this principle by asking people to mentally re-visit the encoding context. This promotes the recall of additional accurate information, and is particularly effective following a long delay

Question 9

Multiple and Varied Retrieval

Answer 9

 Attempting to remember a detail on multiple occasions can lead to new found recollections nor mentioned earlier
 Remembering an event with different strategies, like in reverse order, or from a different mental perspective can assist in this process

Question 10

Capacity Restraints

Answer 10

 Both parties have a limited capacity for information so it is important not to overload one another.
 One strategy is to avoid asking too many questions as this redirects the interviewees attention outwardly to the source of the interviewer, rather than inwardly to the source of his or her memory and b forces the interviewer to think about the next series of questions, rather than to listen to the interviewees response.

Question 11

Role of communication

Answer 11

 Interviewess have to remember what they experience and communicate it
 This can be hard at times through the verbal medium, so people should be allowed to draw or sketch a location, or use a timeline to improve a temporal ordering of events

Question 12

CI interviews

Answer 12

= a face to face format that incorporates the principles of social dynamics, cognition and communication already noted
- CI elicits considerably more information than standard interviews whilst maintaining accuracy according to 100 lab studies and 3 field studies
- It is robust and effective for a variety of investigative tasks, interviewees and nationalities

Question 13

 The NICHD

Answer 13

= Is an interviewing protocol developed specifically for young children who are vulnerable to forensic interviews
o This protocol has 3 stages
 The initial stage
* Establishing rapport, preparing the child and emphasising the need for truth, and expressing the child can say they don’t know or don’t understand if needs be
 The substantive second stage
* Concerning details of the incident, starts with open-minded questions like what happened yesterday
 The third stage focuses on any previous disclosures about the incident to other people and ensures the child has said all they want to
 The interview then needs to end with a neutral topic
o Analysis of sexual abuse data, showed this technique was associated with more guilty pleas and verdicts than nonprotocol interviews