Swedish and Norwegian Police Interviewers' Goals, Tactics, and Emotions When Interviewing Suspects of Child Sexual Abuse.

Mikaela Magnusson,Timothy J Luke,Malin Joleby,Karl Ask,Marthe Lefsaker Sakrisvold

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606774

Mikaela Magnusson, Timothy J Luke + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606774

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Abstract

As the suspect interview is one of the key elements of a police investigation, it has received a great deal of merited attention from the scientific community. However, suspect interviews in child sexual abuse (CSA) investigations is an understudied research area. In the present mixed-methods study, we examine Swedish (n = 126) and Norwegian (n = 52) police interviewers' self-reported goals, tactics, and emotional experiences when conducting interviews with suspected CSA offenders. The quantitative analyses found associations between the interviewers' self-reported goals, tactics, and emotions during these types of suspect interviews. Interviewers who reported experiencing more negative emotions were more likely to employ confrontational tactics. Specifically, anger was positively associated with the goal of obtaining a confession and with aggressive tactics like raising one's voice and emphasizing the seriousness of the crime. Frustration and disgust displayed similar patterns. Somewhat contrasting these quantitative results, the thematic analysis identified a strong consensus that emotions should not and do not affect the police interviewers' work. Furthermore, the police interviewers described a range of strategies for managing emotions during the interview and for processing their emotional reactions afterwards. The present findings highlight the relevance of emotional processes in CSA suspect interviews and provide an initial exploration of the potentially complex relationship between the goals, tactics, and emotional experiences of police interviewers who question CSA suspects.

Highlights

Criminal investigations concerning alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) presents a challenge for legal practitioners worldwide
We aimed to address this gap by examining Swedish and Norwegian police interviewers’ selfreported goals, tactics, and emotions when questioning suspects of sexual abuse against a child
Despite the findings described above, the use of empathy in police interviews with suspects of sexual abuse has shown no direct effect on the amount of information elicited (Oxburgh and Ost, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

Criminal investigations concerning alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) presents a challenge for legal practitioners worldwide. During the last four decades, a considerable amount of research has increased our knowledge of forensic child interviewing during CSA investigations (see e.g., Brubacher et al, 2019). A large body of psychological research on suspect interviewing has developed over the last several decades. Much of this literature is focused on risk factors for false confessions (Kassin et al, 2010). Other parts of the literature have been aimed at developing interviewing methods that increase the amount of accurate information obtained while questioning suspects

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