Interviewing Of Suspects Research Articles

How Police Officers Experience Suspect Interviews: Beliefs and Practices in the Belgian Interview Room

AbstractThe current study focuses on the beliefs and practices of Belgian police officers (N = 177) concerning suspect interviews. Enhancing and safeguarding the quality of suspect interviews can prevent miscarriages of justice, and a comprehensive understanding of the process is crucial. While prior research has explored suspects’ perspectives on this issue, there has been no comprehensive study on European police officers’ beliefs and practices. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the attitudes of Belgian officers in two studies. Study 1 included Flemish-speaking police officers (N = 130), and Study 2 included French and German-speaking officers (N = 47). Using a self-report survey, officers were questioned about the duration, frequency, and recording of suspect interviews, suspects’ use of legal rights, deception detection ability, (false) confession rates, and the use of various interviewing techniques. The findings suggest a positive shift in the Belgian approach to suspect interviewing, with more adherence to guidelines for minimizing false confessions. However, some officers still reported using accusatorial tactics, indicating that interviewing training in Belgium could benefit from more uniformity. By understanding the beliefs and practices of police officers, we can work towards developing effective interviewing techniques that protect the rights of suspects and promote justice.

Investigative interviewing with suspects: Exploring current practices among Malaysian police

The interviewing of suspects is a key component in the investigation process. Although a great deal of research on interrogation and interviewing techniques has been conducted in the past, much of this work has been undertaken outside South East Asia. This new study examined Malaysian police officers’ reported rate of use of a large variety of investigative interviewing techniques categorised into six domains: rapport and relationship building, context manipulation, emotion provocation, confrontation/competition, collaboration and presentation of evidence. Eighty-eight police officers primarily from the criminal investigation department, narcotics crime investigation department, commercial crime investigation department, and traffic enforcement and investigation department participated in a pen-and-paper survey. Findings revealed that many police officers in the current study report adopting investigative interviewing techniques that are largely in line with ethical, non-coercive guidelines.

Unapređivanje pripreme za istražno ispitivanje osumnjičenih - multidisciplinarna perspektiva

Building and improving investigative interviewing standards is an important topic for police, citizens and finally society. This paper attempts to improve police interviewing of suspects. We further develop the concept of investigative interviewing by linking it to important insights by social movement scholars. Differences in theories reflect different approaches to the interviewing of suspects. In this article, we explore a variety of theories that may improve preparation for the interviewing of suspects. We provide a multidimensional quality and import theories from sociology, psychology and behavioural studies, modifying these to better fit the investigative interviewing of suspects. The main method applied in the paper is content analysis. The article and its conclusions also address the broader implications of understanding the importance of planning for the investigative interviewing of suspects. Results of the study indicate need for actively seeking of best practices of the investigative interviewing of suspects. Understanding what motivates person to commit a crime is also a crucial aspect of police investigation. Findings of the study may serve as impulse for evaluation and improvement of existing practices of interviewing of suspects and contribute to the broader knowledge in this area. The aforementioned represents a good basis for the development of simulation models for the training of investigators.

Lawyers and children: Is there a need for mandatory legal assistance in suspect interviews?

In 2016, Belgium introduced legislation mandating legal assistance for juvenile suspects. However, legal assistance can only serve as an effective procedural safeguard if it is provided appropriately. The current study examined how lawyers in Belgium fulfil this role in practice. Seventeen video-recorded police interviews of juvenile suspects were observed. The juveniles were aged between 12 and 17 years, and were suspected of various less serious, volume crimes. The findings of this study show that the ‘law in action’ does not always reflect the ‘law in the books’. The mere presence of a lawyer is insufficient: it is necessary for them to actively engage. Although police interviewers typically adopt an information-gathering approach, some interviews do require the lawyer’s intervention to protect the juvenile’s interests. Moreover, lawyers often restrict themselves to ‘legal’ assistance and offer limited (emotional) support. Because there is no ‘appropriate adult’ regime in Belgium, lawyers could take up this double role. The information-gathering approach also seems to enhance cooperation between lawyer and interviewer, resulting in a joint search for the truth in which neither adopts an antagonistic role when interviews are conducted properly.

Investigative Interviews with Suspects and Witnesses: A Survey of Perceptions and Interview Practices Among Malaysian Police

Interviewing of suspects, victims, and eyewitnesses contributes significantly to the investigation process. While a great deal is known about the investigative interviewing practices in the United Kingdom and the Nordic region, very little is known about the framework used by Malaysian police officers. A survey was administered to 44 Royal Malaysian Police interviewers serving in the Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division (D11) of the Crime Investigation Department. Respondents were asked about the investigative interviewing techniques they use with suspects, witnesses, and victims; how effective they think these techniques are; and the training they had received. Findings revealed that many police officers currently possess limited knowledge of best practice investigative interviewing. More training, feedback, and supervision is needed and desired.

Police interview of suspects in China: Developments and analyses

This article investigates the power dynamics in police interviews with suspects in China by examining a real-life sample. It first overviews some recent developments and legislation in China regarding police interviewing of suspects, followed by outlining the linguistic and psychological research upon which the analyses are based. The interviews are examined using critical discourse analysis that reveals the high-power position of the Chinese police in suspect interviews. However, the large proportion of open questions found in the interviews is encouraging, as this suggests that regulations outlawing use of evidence obtained by torture or other illegal means are taking effect. This article is the first to empirically examine actual Chinese police interviews with suspects, providing valuable insights for theories and practice.

Untapped Potential? A Survey Study with German Police Officers into Suspect Interviewing Practices and the Strategic Use of Evidence

ABSTRACTThe Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique is a promising suspect interviewing approach that takes the potentially incriminating information against a suspect (i.e., the evidence) into account and aims at actively eliciting diagnostic cues to deception and truth. The technique was successfully tested in multiple research studies and has been introduced to practitioners in different parts of the world (including Germany). However, not much is known about German police officers’ state of practice, their knowledge, as well as how they perceive and evaluate SUE. The current survey study is the first attempt to generate knowledge on this topic by collecting data from police officers from the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The majority of police officers kept a balance between applying non-standardized/standardized interviewing approaches, discussing preplanned/spontaneous themes in the interview and making analytical/gut decisions on when and how to use evidence during suspect interviews. Regarding their suspect interviewing training, only a minority of the officers reported to have received training on how to use evidence during an interview. These findings – in combination with the observation that the majority of the officers did not see potential obstacles with the applicability of the SUE technique – suggest a major untapped potential of strategic evidence disclosure techniques within current suspect interviewing in Germany.

“You keep telling us different things, what do we believe?”

AbstractQuotation and reflective interpretation of previous statements are common features in police interviews. Of particular importance is the uncovering of apparent contradictions between earlier and current responses in interviews of suspects. Conflicting statements can be used by officers as triggers to elicit new responses that explain inconsistencies. In linguistic pragmatics, such reflective commenting on utterances is categorised as metacommunication, i.e. ‘communication about communication’, which includes metarepresentation, i.e. second-order representation of another representation through some form of quotation. Such instances of metacommunication are key instances of negotiating the communicative interests of its chief participants, which in suspect interviews consist on the one hand in the interviewers’ purpose of establishing grounds for a potential criminal charge and, on the other hand, the interviewee’s interest in avoiding such a charge. This article analyses exemplary cases of metacommunication in multilingual police interviews from the perspective of quotation pragmatics. The results suggest that police interview training should pay special attention to this area in order to optimise cognitive results.

Japanese public opinion about suspect interviewing techniques

PurposeThe new citizen judge system in Japan was implemented in 2009. Further, a revision to the Code of Criminal Procedures, announced in 2016, stipulated that, from 2019, police interviews of suspects tried by citizen judges had to be recorded. Anticipating these changes to the criminal justice system in Japan, this study investigated public perceptions of the various suspect interviewing techniques in use.MethodsA total of 761 jury‐eligible Japanese participants completed an online survey that included items about five suspect interviewing techniques (Presentation of Evidence, Confrontation, Active Listening, Rapport Building, and Discussion of the Crime). The participants were asked to rate the fairness of these techniques and the likelihood that they would elicit true and false confessions from guilty and innocent suspects.ResultsParticipants believed that Active Listening was the fairest of the five interviewing techniques, most and least likely to elicit true and false confessions, respectively. Contrastingly, they viewed Confrontation as the most unfair interviewing technique, least and most likely to elicit true and false confessions, respectively. The fairer the participants perceived the interviewing techniques, the more likely they were to believe these techniques would elicit true confessions.ConclusionsThese findings could have important implications for decisions regarding the interviewing techniques used to elicit confessions admitted as evidence in Japanese courts.

The complex relationship between interrogation techniques, suspects changing their statement and legal assistance. Evidence from a Dutch sample of police interviews

ABSTRACTThis study aims to provide more insight in the complex and dynamic relationships between interrogation techniques, changes in suspects’ statements and the presence of a lawyer. In doing so, it shows the importance of taking into account the conditions under which interrogation techniques can elicit statements from suspects. Based on a Dutch sample of 168 police interviews of suspects in homicide cases structural equation modelling is used to analyse (1) the extent to which interrogation techniques mediate suspects changing their statement and (2) the extent to which the presence of a lawyer moderates the relationship between interrogation techniques and suspects changing their statement. The results show that manipulative interrogation techniques mediate the changing statement of silent suspects compared to suspects who give a statement on personal matters or deny only during interviews without a lawyer. Based on the findings it can be concluded that the presence of a lawyer can change the dynamics of police interviews of suspects. This is an important conclusion given the European developments in strengthening the safeguards of the rights of suspects in police custody. The presence of a lawyer might contribute to reducing false confessions, avoid tunnel vision, and prevent miscarriages of justice.

Japanese Suspect Interviews, Confessions, and Related Factors

Two hundred and ninety-one new adult male inmates convicted of murder, robbery, arson, rape, forcible indecency, and kidnapping completed questionnaires about their pretrial interviews. Logistic regression analyses revealed that marital status, feelings of guilt, and perceptions of the strength of the evidence significantly affected the likelihood of confession by those who had already decided to confess prior to interview. By contrast, prior arrest history and interview style affected the likelihood of confession by those who had not previously decided to confess. Suspects who had no previous arrests and had undergone either Undifferentiated-high or Relationship-focused interviews were more likely to make full confessions. In Undifferentiated-high interviews, police officers employed all of the interviewing techniques examined: they listened closely to the suspects’ accounts, attempted to build good relationships, and discussed the crimes, while also presenting evidence and confronting the suspects. In Relationship-focused interviews, police officers listened attentively to the offenders’ accounts, tried to build good relationships, and discussed the crimes directly. Prisoners who experienced Relationship-focused interviews felt satisfied with their confessions and admitted guilt at trial.

Interviewing suspects: examining the association between skills, questioning, evidence disclosure, and interview outcomes

The interviewing of suspects is an important element in the investigation of crime. However, studies concerning actual performance of investigators when undertaking such interviews remain sparse. Nevertheless, in England and Wales, since the introduction of a prescribed framework over 20 years ago, field studies have generally shown an improvement in interviewing performance, notwithstanding ongoing concerns largely relating to the more demanding aspects (such as building/maintaining rapport, intermittent summarising and the logical development of topics). Using a sample of 70 real-life interviews, the present study examined questioning and various evidence disclosure strategies (which have also been found demanding), examining their relationships between interview skills and interview outcomes. It was found that when evidence was disclosed gradually (but revealed later), interviews were generally both more skilled and involved the gaining of comprehensive accounts, whereas when evidence was disclosed either early or very late, interviews were found to be both less skilled and less likely to involve this outcome. These findings contribute towards an increased research base for the prescribed framework.

Rapport‐Building During Witness and Suspect Interviews: A Survey of Law Enforcement

SummaryBuilding rapport with adult witnesses and suspects is recommended by major investigative interviewing protocols (e.g., Cognitive Interview and the Army Field Manual in the USA and PEACE in the UK). Although recent research suggests that building rapport can sometimes benefit police investigations by increasing the accuracy of adult eyewitness reports and potentially enhance the diagnosticity of evidence obtained from suspects, little data exist regarding how law enforcement interviewers actually define and build rapport in real‐world investigations. To fill this void, the present study distributed a questionnaire containing open and closed‐ended questions to 123 law enforcement interviewers in police training courses to determine how they conceptualize and build rapport with adult interviewees. Results indicate that a majority of law enforcement interviewers define rapport as a positive relationship involving trust and communication, with a strong minority defining rapport as a ‘positive or negative’ relationship. Further, law enforcement interviewers reported building rapport with adult witnesses and suspects in a similar manner, often by using verbal techniques (e.g., discussing common interests via small talk) and non‐verbal techniques (e.g., displaying understanding via empathy and sympathy). Theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

“You don't expect me to believe that, do you?” Expectations influence recall and belief of alibi information

AbstractPresumptions of guilt could bias criminal investigators' interviews of suspects, reducing recall of exculpatory alibi information, and the label “alibi” could be enough to create a presumption of guilt. Participants (n = 285) viewed a videotaped narrative account; some participants knew prior to viewing that the account was an alibi whereas others discovered this after viewing. Also, some participants were given an expectation that the alibi provider was guilty or innocent. Results indicated participants with a presumption of guilt before viewing the alibi recalled less alibi‐relevant information, found the alibi less believable, and viewed the alibi provider more negatively than did participants without such an expectation, and that a label of “alibi” was not enough to create a presumption of guilt.

Let ’em Talk!

The real-life questioning practices of Canadian police officers were examined. Specifically, 80 transcripts of police interviews with suspects and accused persons were coded for the type of questions asked, the length of interviewee response to each question, the proportion of words spoken by interviewer(s) and interviewee, and whether or not a free narrative was requested. Results showed that, on average, less than 1% of the questions asked in an interview were open-ended, and that closed yes–no and probing questions composed approximately 40% and 30% of the questions asked, respectively. The longest interviewee responses were obtained from open-ended questions, followed by multiple and probing question types. A free narrative was requested in approximately 14% of the interviews. The 80–20 talking rule was violated in every interview. The implications of these findings for reforming investigative interviewing of suspects and accused persons are discussed.

Justice will be done: Suspect interviews

Aggressive questioning or bluffing with fake evidence provides fertile ground for false confessions and can cloud other evidence presented at trial

Collective interviewing of suspects

When people are interviewed about possible wrongdoing that has been committed in groups, they typically are interviewed separately. Yet, in several settings it would be more intuitive and convenient to interview suspects together. Importantly, such collective interviews could yield verbal cues to deception. This is the first deception experiment to investigate collective interviewing. Twenty-one pairs of truth tellers and 22 pairs of liars were interviewed pair-wise about having had lunch together in a restaurant. Given that truth tellers adopt a “tell it all” strategy in the interviews while, in contrast, liars prefer to keep their stories simple, we predicted that pairs of truth tellers would (i) interrupt and (ii) correct each other more, and would (iii) add more information to each other's answers than pairs of liars. The results supported these hypotheses. Theory-driven interventions to elicit more cues to deception through simultaneous interviewing are discussed.

Improving the Legal Aspects of Police Interviewing of Suspects

The purpose of this paper is to provide some guidance to police interviewers and trainers in relation to improving the legal aspects of police questioning of suspects. The paper is written with reference to Victorian legislation. Sixteen professionals (defence barristers, academics, prosecutors, and detectives), all with extensive knowledge of the law and experience evaluating police interviews with suspects, took part in individual in-depth interviews (M = 100 minutes). The aim of the interviews was to discuss the limitations of police interviews with suspects and to provide exemplars of concerns from a set of de-identified transcripts that had been provided to the professionals prior to their interviews with us. Overall, four key limitations were raised: (a) inadequate particularisation of offences, (b) inappropriate phrasing of questions, (c) poor introduction of allegations, and (d) questions that unfairly ask the suspect to comment on the victim's perspective. These concerns and their practical implications are discussed.

Research on the Interviewing of Suspects

Research on the Interviewing of Suspects

Benefit Fraud Investigative Interviewing: A Self‐Report Study of Investigation Professionals' Beliefs Concerning Practice

AbstractPrevious studies into the quality of investigating interviewing of suspects conducted in criminal investigations in England and Wales have almost exclusively focused on the skills and tactics employed by interviewing officers during interviews. However, interviewing officers are trained in an interviewing framework that includes the importance of evaluating interviews as a means of improving skills. In light of the scarcity of research concerning the evaluation task, this study examined perceptions of benefit fraud investigation personnel. A questionnaire was answered by 114 respondents including investigators, investigation managers, investigation trainers, and investigation inspectors. From their responses, it was evident that there was an understanding of the necessary skills required to conduct interviews. However, after comparing these responses with the actual interviewing practice of benefit fraud investigators, there was found to be a gap between these beliefs and practice. The findings suggest that although it is agreed what interviewing skills are required to conduct interviews, investigators and managers do not accurately reflect upon whether these skills are actually employed in interviews. This suggests that evaluation of interviews is being neglected and may well explain why research reveals interviewing performance to be often mediocre. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.