A Field evaluation of training in three methods of witness/victim investigative interviewing

Abstract

Abstract Using serving policemen and policewomen with real-life witnesses/victims of mime, this study explored the relative merits of three training methods in investigative interviewing. Police personnel of five or more years' experience were trained in either the enhanced Cognitive Interview technique (CI), Conversational Management (CM), or a combination of both (CI+CM). The efficacy of these three forms of training was compared with an untrained (control) group of police, in a before-after design. Both the nature of the interviewers; behaviour (number, rate and type of questions asked) and the relative amounts of relevant information elicited before and after training were looked at. Twenty eight police were randomly allocated to one of the four conditions of training. It was found that the interview-behaviour of the CI-only trained officers changes much mote than any of the other trained or control groups between pre- and post-training phases (p < .001). These findings offer support for the ecologica...