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Interviewing High Value Detainees: Securing Cooperation and Disclosures
Abstract
Four types of coercive and noncoercive interview strategies (legalistic, physical, cognitive and social) used to facilitate disclosure by high value detainees were examined in an international sample of practitioners and detainees (N = 64). Predictive analyses confirmed that the accusatorial approach was positively correlated with physically coercive strategies (rs = .58) and negatively with forms of social persuasion (rs = −.31). In response to social strategies, detainees were more likely to disclose meaningful information [odds ratio (OR) = 4.2] and earlier in the interview when rapport-building techniques were used (OR = 14.17). They were less likely to cooperate when confronted with evidence (OR = 4.8). Disclosures were more complete in response to noncoercive strategies, especially rapport-building and procedural fairness elements of respect and voice. These findings augmented past theory on interactional processes and the evidence-base of international best practices in suspect interviews. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Understanding a suspected person's point of view is vital since they ultimately decide whether to confess, cooperate, or disclose information. Previous research has shown that suspected persons' experiences and perceptions do influence their (selfreported) interrogation-related decisions (e.g., Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Holmberg & Christianson, 2002;Kebbell et al., 2008Kebbell et al., , 2010. However, these studies have been almost exclusive to samples outside of the United States (but see Cleary & Bull, 2019, 2021, where interrogation methods may differ from those used within the United States (Miller et al., 2018). ...
... Rapport is built and maintained through strategies like finding common ground with the interviewee, showing respect, or meeting the interviewee's basic needs (Kelly et al., 2013). Strong rapport between an officer and person suspected of a crime is associated with more satisfactory outcomes (Walsh & Bull, 2012), as interviewees who perceive greater rapport are more likely to cooperate and, in turn, disclose information (Brimbal et al., 2021;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Importantly, rapport-building is a component of both accusatorial and information-gathering methods; however, rapport in an accusatorial context is used as a tactic of emotional manipulation to elicit a confession. ...
... Studies examining perceptions of interrogations from the perspective of persons suspected of a crime have provided further support for information-gathering approaches (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Holmberg & Christianson, 2002;Kebbell et al., 2008Kebbell et al., , 2010Snook et al., 2015;Wachi et al., 2016a). Holmberg and Christianson (2002) surveyed convicted persons in Swedish prisons to investigate their perceptions of interrogation styles used by their interrogating officers. ...
The techniques used to interrogate individuals suspected of a crime can profoundly impact their decisions to confess, cooperate , or disclose information. Research using different methods suggests that two prevailing interrogation approaches-accu-satorial and information-gathering-differentially impact interrogation outcomes. However, confession, cooperation, and information disclosure are ultimately the suspected person's decision, yet few studies directly examine their perspectives about how interrogation techniques affect their decisions, and none examine a U.S. sample. This study assessed how interrogation strategies characterized by humanity, rapport, confrontation, and dominance/control predicted interrogation outcomes in a sample of 249 individuals incarcerated in two U.S. jails. Respondents who reported experiencing humane strategies were more likely to confess, cooperate completely, and disclose incriminating information. Dominance/control-oriented strategies predicted partial confession (but not cooperation or disclosure), and rapport-based and confrontational techniques did not predict outcomes. Findings highlight humane interrogation strategies as likely the most productive strategies to adopt in criminal interrogations.
... Os estudos que avaliam o uso de rapport em entrevistas com suspeitos indicam que, nessas circunstâncias, há um maior número de informações coletadas (i.e., os suspeitos falam mais); estas informações têm maior usabilidade ou relevância investigativa, e os suspeitos são mais propensos a se comunicarem com o entrevistador (i.e., eles optam por se engajar e responder as perguntas propostas)(ALISON et al., 2021). Além disso, os próprios suspeitos consideram entrevistas baseadas na ética e no rapport como mais propensas a levá-los a colaborar com a investigação e fornecer informações relevantes(GOODMAN- DELAHUNTY;MARTSCHUK;DHAMI, 2014). Ainda que o senso comum preconize que uma postura agressiva com o suspeito tenda a ser mais produtiva que o rapport, as evidências científicas demonstram o contrário. ...
... Os estudos que avaliam o uso de rapport em entrevistas com suspeitos indicam que, nessas circunstâncias, há um maior número de informações coletadas (i.e., os suspeitos falam mais); estas informações têm maior usabilidade ou relevância investigativa, e os suspeitos são mais propensos a se comunicarem com o entrevistador (i.e., eles optam por se engajar e responder as perguntas propostas)(ALISON et al., 2021). Além disso, os próprios suspeitos consideram entrevistas baseadas na ética e no rapport como mais propensas a levá-los a colaborar com a investigação e fornecer informações relevantes(GOODMAN- DELAHUNTY;MARTSCHUK;DHAMI, 2014). Ainda que o senso comum preconize que uma postura agressiva com o suspeito tenda a ser mais produtiva que o rapport, as evidências científicas demonstram o contrário. ...
... Os estudos que avaliam o uso de rapport em entrevistas com suspeitos indicam que, nessas circunstâncias, há um maior número de informações coletadas (i.e., os suspeitos falam mais); estas informações têm maior usabilidade ou relevância investigativa, e os suspeitos são mais propensos a se comunicarem com o entrevistador (i.e., eles optam por se engajar e responder as perguntas propostas)(ALISON et al., 2021). Além disso, os próprios suspeitos consideram entrevistas baseadas na ética e no rapport como mais propensas a levá-los a colaborar com a investigação e fornecer informações relevantes(GOODMAN- DELAHUNTY;MARTSCHUK;DHAMI, 2014). Ainda que o senso comum preconize que uma postura agressiva com o suspeito tenda a ser mais produtiva que o rapport, as evidências científicas demonstram o contrário. ...
Em uma investigação criminal, as oitivas de vítimas, testemunhas e suspeitos possuem papel central na elucidação do caso. Estudos empíricos das últimas décadas apontam que estabelecer o rapport, um relacionamento positivo e livre de julgamento entre entrevistado e entrevistador, é uma técnica que aumenta a quantidade e a qualidade das informações coletadas de vítimas, testemunhas e suspeitos. Neste artigo, apresentamos uma revisão do estado da arte da literatura científica no que tange à utilização do rapport no contexto investigativo. São apresentados os diferentes componentes do rapport (atenção mútua, positividade e coordenação), para então discutir, por meio de evidências de estudos empíricos, como a entrevista com testemunhas, vítimas e suspeitos pode ser mais efetiva. Por fim, é exposto como o rapporté utilizado nos principais protocolos internacionais de entrevistas investigativas, assim como recomendações para aplicação na prática policial brasileira.
... One study examined the perceptions of both police interviewer practitioners (n = 34) and current or former detainees who had been interviewed (n = 30) for terrorism or other major crimes (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Participants from five countries (Australia, Indonesia, Norway, the Philippines and Sri Lanka) were interviewed and asked to reflect on a recent police interview and to respond to a series of questions about the presence of various types of techniques. ...
... By contrast, the use of noncoercive strategies, such as respectful treatment and a comfortable room, was associated with detainees revealing more personally incriminating information (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Admissions and confessions were four times as likely when practitioners adopted a neutral and respectful stance, and developed rapport with detainees (e.g., through establishing common ground, sharing humour and showing concern). ...
... It was found that information disclosed later in interviews was associated with reciprocity. This meant providing something to the detainee, such as sharing some information, offering refreshments or obtaining something of value for them (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). ...
Forensic behavioural approaches contribute to justice through research and practical applications. However, practical applications have often been introduced before a base of research evidence has been established. This chapter examines the current state of research and practice in several areas of forensic behavioural and social sciences. It begins by exploring the interesting but controversial area of offender profiling. It outlines research on the ways that offenders try to conceal crimes and evade police detection through the staging of homicides as other types of crimes or incidents. The chapter then turns to the incidence of wrongful convictions and research that contributes to reducing future occurrences by identifying and developing best practices in areas such as police investigative interviews and eyewitness identifications. Finally, the chapter considers the field of mental health assessment, such as fitness to stand trial, sanity determinations, and risk assessments for offender management and treatment purposes. It highlights that although a great deal of research has focused on validating assessment tools, far less research has examined the human factors that can introduce bias into assessment practices. From a critical forensic studies perspective, several common themes and issues can be drawn together to highlight emerging directions for research and practice.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429505782/critical-forensic-studies-roberta-julian-loene-howes-rob-white
... Along this continuum, some methods, such as certain confession-focused techniques, might be abusive, but not torturous. Another way to conceptualize the ethical continuum of interview practices is by strategy type (social relational, cognitive, legalistic, and physical), each of which can be applied more or less coercively (Goodman-Delahunty, 2016;Goodman-Delahunty, Dhami, & Martschuk, 2014). ...
... Strong practitioner support emerged for the effectiveness of noncoercive social relational strategies in high-stakes interviews, especially sincere mutual liking and reciprocity (Goodman-Delahunty & Howes, 2016). Interviews with a sample of 34 terrorist interviewers and 30 terrorist detainees disclosed faster, more complete disclosures and an increase in reliable incriminating admissions in response to noncoercive neutral and respectful methods that allowed detainees the opportunity to express their viewpoints (voice) (Goodman-Delahunty & Martschuk, 2018;Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014). ...
... Moreover, many law enforcement agencies around the world have long advocated a "confession culture," characterized by the use of accusatorial and often "persuasive" interrogation techniques in the quest of a confession (Kassin et al., 2007;Meissner et al., 2014). Such techniques may violate suspects' rights and are more likely to elicit false confessions (Garrett, 2010;Gudjonsson, 2018;. ...
National security priorities, result-oriented pressures, and cost sensitivity are common features of contemporary policing. While the global shift to evidence-based policing (EBP) increased police reliance on behavioral science research on interrogation and interviews, skepticism about the effectiveness of “soft” science is pervasive and “hard” sciences have been privileged. Psychologists have consequently been challenged to fulfill their roles in compliance with the four key principles that underpin psychologists' codes of ethics, namely, respect for rights and dignity, competent caring, integrity, and social responsibility. This chapter reviews the alignment of these principles with the relational skills implicit in the four tenets of the leading theory in international police practice, procedural justice (PJ). An analysis of research constructs applied in contemporary interviewing research demonstrated the integral connection between these relational skills and effective interviewing of high-value detainees. These links are present both in a “ticking bomb” scenario as well as less exigent contexts. By mapping the links between ethical principles, PJ tenets, relational research constructs and outcomes, this chapter offers a potential framework for behavioral scientists in policing contexts to develop their ethical literacy and better articulate and evaluate potential ethical issues in their practice. Adherence to PJ tenets can reduce psychologists' role conflicts and facilitate the ethical practice of psychology and EBP.
... Moreover, many law enforcement agencies around the world have long advocated a "confession culture," characterized by the use of accusatorial and often "persuasive" interrogation techniques in the quest of a confession (Kassin et al., 2007;Leo, 2008;Meissner et al., 2014). Such techniques may violate suspects' rights and are more likely to elicit false confessions (Garrett, 2010;Gudjonsson, 2018;Kassin et al., 2010;Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004). p0060 ...
... Although it may be difficult to estimate the precise incidence rate of false confessions, there exist a disturbing number of documented cases in which defendants were convicted at trial in cases that contained evidence of confessions later proved to be false (Drizin & Leo, 2004;Garrett, 2010;Leo, 2008;Leo & Ofshe, 1998). ...
... That said, when suspects are highly cooperative, though deceitful, in interviews, the SUE approach holds much potential in identifying statement credibility. Withheld evidence, on the other hand, that is subsequently revealed only later to suspects when being interviewed may disrupt either rapport or cooperation (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). s0045 Legal representation of suspects in interviews and evidence disclosure p0195 Sukumar, Wade, and Hodgson (2016) point out that this matter of disclosure to lawyers is not just an issue discrete to England and Wales. ...
Interviews conducted by the police with suspects form an important part of criminal investigations in helping establish if a crime has been committed, and if so, by whom. However, it is known that many countries across the world still undertake such interviews with a mindset to gain confessions from those whom they believe to be guilty. Research has found that techniques often used in such interviews have led to false confessions from innocent people, while those who did commit those crimes remain unpunished. In contrast, various countries have begun to adopt a different form of interviewing suspects where the goal is not to extract a confession, but to gain a reliable account from those who are considered as suspects. Characteristic of such interviews is an open-mindedness as to the suspect’s guilt, together with the goal of gaining detailed and reliable information. Research has consistently shown that these information- gathering approaches are more often associated with this goal than those confession-oriented ones that have been often found to be unsatisfactory in determining whether such gathered confessions (and indeed denials) are reliable. These findings support the belief that the effective interviewing of suspects does not rely on confessions as a means of resolving criminal investigations but upon searches for the truth, undertaken in a way that respects suspects’ human rights. The following chapter provides an overview of research (both historical and contemporary) that underpins the investigative interviewing approach. Suggested future directions of research in this area are also highlighted.
... From examining interviews with high-value detainees, Goodman-Delahunty and Sivasubramaniam [8] identified aspects that can be strategically used by investigators to exert coercion (e.g., the use of physical restraints, isolation, and extreme temperatures) or non-coercion (e.g., soft furnishings, having refreshments available). The authors found that detainees rated their disclosure to be higher when interviewed in a comfortable environment (i.e., with non-coercive physical aspects present), noting that the comfortable environment may have fostered better rapport, which in turn facilitated [9]. ...
... The finding that both groups preferred to be interviewed in the decorated room fits with recent interest in determining what constitutes effective police interview environments [9,19] and our qualitative data provides insight into what such an environment may be. Participants indicated that interview rooms should be made more comfortable, including a general population participant who indicated, "I'd be more open to speaking in a generally non-threatening location that is warm and promotes civil conversation" Notably, recent data also indicates that police investigators support making interview environments more comfortable and less sterile [20], suggesting that some current interviewing contexts should be improved. ...
... Participants indicated that interview rooms should be made more comfortable, including a general population participant who indicated, "I'd be more open to speaking in a generally non-threatening location that is warm and promotes civil conversation" Notably, recent data also indicates that police investigators support making interview environments more comfortable and less sterile [20], suggesting that some current interviewing contexts should be improved. Beyond perceptions of comfort, emerging research also suggests that detainee disclosure may be enhanced in a more physically comfortable environment [9]. Therefore, a more comprehensive examination of suspects' disclosure in different interviewing contexts is warranted. ...
Emerging research on how suspects perceive the physical environment during investigative interviews yields contrasting findings. While previous studies have suggested that a room made to be physically comfortable may be optimal for interviewing suspects, another study found it can instead lead to higher suspicion of the investigator’s intentions. The current study examined current detainees’ and general population participants’ beliefs about a room that resembled a “typical” interview room, and one decorated to be warm, inviting, and comfortable. Participants also provided descriptive information about their perceptions of police interview environments (e.g., preferences, expectations). We hypothesized that the decorated room would elicit higher ratings of suspicion and wariness compared to the “typical” room. Our findings showed that, overall, participants expected to be interviewed in the “typical” room but preferred the decorated one. Contrary to our expectations, they rated the “typical” room higher on feelings of suspicion than the decorated room. The decorated room also corresponded with what participants reported to be an environment that promotes disclosure. These results bode well for conducting investigative interviews in comfortable environments.
... For example, Russano et al. (2014) interviewed experienced military and intelligence interrogators, revealing that they believed noncoercive approaches to be superior to coercive approaches. Additionally, rapport has been shown to assist with securing disclosure from high-value detainees, which are deemed vital sources of information to identify emerging threats and disrupt terrorist planning (Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014). Goodman-Delahunty et al. (2014) found that when rapport (i.e. ...
... Additionally, rapport has been shown to assist with securing disclosure from high-value detainees, which are deemed vital sources of information to identify emerging threats and disrupt terrorist planning (Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014). Goodman-Delahunty et al. (2014) found that when rapport (i.e. noncoercive strategies) was employed in these particular contexts, information was more likely to be disclosed and disclosed in more detail, and was done so earlier within the interview. ...
... Russano et al., 2014;Semel, 2012), the benefits of establishing and maintaining rapport throughout an interaction (see Walsh & Bull, 2012), and previous perceptions of rapport from other professionals (e.g. Goodman-Delahunty & Howes, 2016;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Redlich et al., 2014;Russano et al., 2014). ...
Rapport is an integral part of interviewing, viewed as fundamental to the success of intelligence elicitation. One collection capability is human intelligence (HUMINT), the discipline charged with eliciting intelligence through interactions with human sources, such as covert human intelligence sources (CHIS). To date, research has yet to explore the perceptions and experiences of intelligence operatives responsible for gathering HUMINT within England and Wales. The present study consisted of structured interviews with police source handlers (N = 24). Rapport was perceived as essential, especially for maximising the opportunity for intelligence elicitation. Participants provided a range of rapport strategies while highlighting the importance of establishing, and maintaining, rapport. The majority of participants believed rapport could be trained to some degree. Thus, rapport was not viewed exclusively as a natural skill. However, participants commonly perceived some natural attributes are required to build rapport that can be refined and developed through training and experience.
... isolating the suspect), and social (e.g. use of threats and intimidation) in nature (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014a). Henceforth, we term these Reid tactics 'coercive', to highlight their reliance on psychological mechanisms that heighten the risk of false confessions and other negative outcomes for interviewees and interviewers. ...
... In response to the serious problems associated with the use of coercive interviewing practices, several countries around the world -including Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom -have shifted towards more inquisitorial, information-gathering practices (Clarke & Milne, 2016;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014a;Meissner et al., 2017;Méndez & Drummond, 2021;Miller et al., 2018;Russano et al., 2019). One such example is the PEACE model. ...
An online experimental survey examined the degree to which 377 international practitioners endorsed procedural justice principles in interviews. Participants were recruited through policing and intelligence agencies in 15 countries in the Asia Pacific and Europe. One section of the survey was administered as a 3 (Coercion: coercive, non-coercive, mixed) x 2 (Crime Harm: high, low) between-subjects experiment to test effects on practitioners’ evaluations of an interview vignette. We predicted that coercion and crime harm would interact to affect procedural evaluations, with tolerance of coercive procedures when the harm caused by a crime was high but not when crime harm was low. We also expected the effect of coercion on procedural evaluations to be mediated primarily by practitioner perceptions that the interview procedure would effectively gather useful information. Counter to these predictions, findings indicated that this sample of experienced practitioners strongly favoured non-coercive interview strategies, and their satisfaction with these procedures was driven equally by perceptions that these procedures were respectful of the detainee and effective in gathering useful information, and less strongly driven by perceptions that the detainee was treated as they deserved. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for best practice in investigative interviewing.
... Such approaches to interviewing have been shown to increase voluntary compliance (Goodman-Delahunty & Martschuk, 2020). For example, in suspect interviews, use of rapport and procedural justice were associated with more complete disclosures (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014) and led to more voluntary compliance and cooperation with authorities (Langley et al., 2021). ...
... The specific finding that practitioners' perception of procedural justice in risk-assessment interviews is associated with their perceptions of interview quality is novel and should inform the development of training programmes. Such training ought to consider: (a) quality interviewing and use of appropriate question types (Powell & Snow, 2007); (b) building rapport between interviewer and interviewee (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014); and (c) procedural justice in interviewing (Goodman-Delahunty, 2010). ...
Forensic risk assessments are used to determine sanctions, identify recidivism risk and inform implementation of risk reduction strategies. The best way to gather reliable data to inform decisions is important and the focus of this mixed-method study. Forty-five experienced professionals performed a risk assessment involving a young person who sexually offended (YPSO). They read a good-quality or a poor-quality interview and collateral information. Under half (42.2%) of participants provided the expected risk ratings. Some participants misidentified elements of good-quality interviewing (e.g. rapport, open questions). Ratings of fairness of the forensic interview were positively associated with increased sense of perceived interview quality. Confidence in risk-assessment decisions tended to be higher in the good-quality than the poor-quality interview group. Practitioners involved in the risk assessment of YPSO should receive effective/robust training in best practice interviewing so they can identify and implement empirically based interviewing
techniques for care provision for YPSO.
... As a result, they may only then decide to be uncooperative or remain silent during their interviews (Cleary & Bull, 2021). Such outcomes were reported from field studies by Goodman-Delahunty et al. (2014) and Kelly et al. (2016) who examined samples of interviews with high value detainees and suspects of serious crimes respectively. ...
... Nevertheless, the reported use of such behaviours was here found to be significantly associated with the perceived frequency of negative interview outcomes. This suggests that the use of these behaviours may enhance suspects' resistance (possibly due to psychological reactance) and supports the currently available research that questions the effectiveness of such an approach (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Kelly et al., 2015;Meissner et al., 2014). ...
Pre-interview planning is vital in interviews with suspects. Via a questionnaire administered to 596 police investigators in Singapore, the current study examined potential associations between pre-interview planning, interviewing behaviours and interview outcomes. Interviewing behaviours were hypothesised to mediate the relationship between pre-interview planning and interview outcomes. It is posited that pre-interview planning fosters an investigative mindset, which in turn, influences the nature of interviewing behaviours employed by investigators. The study also sought to provide insights into police interviews with suspects in Singapore, given the limited research from Singapore on the topic. Rapport-based interviewing behaviours were found to mediate the relationship between pre-interview planning and positive interview outcomes, contributing empirical support to the importance of pre-interview planning. In addition, accusatorial interviewing behaviours were associated with negative interview outcomes. This study also found that police investigators in Singapore reported frequent planning prior to their interviews and used rapport-based interviewing behaviours with suspects. These behaviours are in line with the interviewing model adopted in Singapore. Regression analyses showed that participants’ endorsement of rapport-based approaches was predicted by investigator experience, confidence, and interview length. Endorsement of pre-planning of interviews was also predicted by investigator confidence and interview length. Implications of these findings are discussed.
... Context manipulation research finds that elements relating to the physical environment in which an interview is conducted, such as lighting, decoration, and room size can have an effect on interpersonal communication, disclosure, and interview outcomes (Chaikin et al., 1976;Dawson et al., 2017Dawson et al., , 2017Dawson et al., , 2017Gifford, 1988;Kelly et al., 2013;Knapp et al., 2013). Some even demonstrate how such elementsincluding physical restraints-can be used strategically to exert or reduce coercive pressure (Goodman-Delahunty & Sivasubramaniam, 2013) and/or build rapport with interviewees (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Hoogesteyn et al., 2019). Similar effects of situational factors have also been reported in the counselling literature, where alterations to the environment are found to influence how forthcoming clients are towards their therapist (e.g., Chaikin et al., 1976;Okken et al., 2012). ...
... Such effects are especially pertinent in situations of judgement under uncertainty where external and contextual information often influence the perception of ambiguous or ambivalent information (Masip et al., 2009;Mobbs et al., 2006). In line with research on investigative interviewing, it would seem recommendable that the space and circumstances under which an interrogation takes place are comfortable and do not restrict the individual (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Kelly et al., 2013). ...
Veracity judgements are important in legal and investigative contexts. However, people are poor judges of deception, often relying on incorrect behavioural cues when these may reflect the situation more than the sender's internal state. We investigated one such situational factor relevant to forensic contexts: handcuffing suspects. Judges—police officers (n = 23) and laypersons (n = 83)—assessed recordings of suspects, providing truthful and deceptive responses in an interrogation setting where half were handcuffed. Handcuffing was predicted to undermine efforts to judge veracity by constraining suspects' gesticulation and by priming stereotypes of criminality. It was found that both laypersons and police officers were worse at detecting deception when judging handcuffed suspects compared to non‐handcuffed suspects, while not affecting their judgement bias; police officers were also overconfident in their judgements. The findings suggest that handcuffing can negatively impact veracity judgements, highlighting the need for research on situational factors to better inform forensic practice.
... Though there is a consensus among interrogators/ interviewers, interpreters and analysts that rapport is fundamental to a successful interview (e.g. Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Redlich et al., 2014;Russano et al., 2014;Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2015), actually identifying what rapport is and how to build it has been heavily debated (see Gabbert et al., 2021 for an extensive review). Neequaye and Mac Giolla (2022) suggest that difficulties in defining rapport are due to it being a higher order concept that consists of many different traits. ...
Introduction: Investigative interviewer training has increasingly focused on enhancing interviewers’ ability to build rapport with subjects; however, trainers currently lack a consistent and efficient method to assess individuals’ competence in using rapport-based skills. To address this, we have developed a self-report scale – the Rapport Based Inventory (RBI), which is a scenario-based assessment intended to measure interviewers’ recognition of the correct use of rapport-based skills in interviewing contexts. The original scale consisted of four vignettes with 16 items requiring free text and multiple-choice responses in which core rapport concepts are tested. The current study aims to examine the scale’s psychometric properties, underlying factor structure and construct validity.Methods: To test the instrument’s psychometric properties, the RBI was administered online to 225 participants (140 practitioners and 85 university students). To assess convergent (construct) validity, additional data was collected from a subsample of 60 practitioners taking part in interview training to examine whether RBI scores were associated with practitioners’ interview performance during mock interviews. Performance was coded using the rapport skills scales from the Observing Rapport Based Techniques (ORBIT) coding framework (Alison & Alison, 2012).Results: The final short form version of the RBI scale (RBI-SF) contains eight items across four investigative interviewing vignettes, comprised of two factors – reflective listening (six items) and developing discrepancies (two items) with good internal reliability. One item relating to adaptability was also retained as a separate item that should be administered alongside the RBI due to its theoretical and statistical significance. Correlational analyses revealed that the scale demonstrated convergent validity with behavioural measures of rapport-based skill, with RBI scores positively correlated with interviewers’ effective use of rapport-based behaviours and negatively correlated with rapport-inconsistent behaviours during mock interviews.Conclusions: We conclude that the newly developed instrument appears to be a promising tool to support the identification of interviewers’ accurate comprehension of rapport-building skills in the context of law enforcement and intelligence interviewing.
... Hoogesteyn et al., 2020a). For example, interrogators can believe that interviewing a suspect in a comfortable environment is helpful in eliciting information, and suspects may have the same view (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Hoogesteyn et al., 2020b). ...
Interrogators can hold various types of evidence that influence investigative decisions. This study examined the effect of evidence type on interrogators’ tactic selection. A mixed design was used, randomly assigning 106 South Korean police interrogators to one of five evidence conditions (DNA, CCTV, fingerprint, eyewitness, or no evidence). Participants read a homicide case report where the critical evidence was manipulated with one of the five evidence types, but all other details remained consistent. They selected tactics from a list of 27 tactics, categorized as evidential (e.g. gradual evidence disclosure) or non-evidential (e.g. rapport-building). The proportion and number of tactics chosen served as dependent variables. Results show that South Korean interrogators in this experimental setting preferred non evidential tactics, such as active listening and identifying basic needs and emotional state, more frequently than evidential ones. Additionally, these non-evidential tactics were reported to be commonly employed in their routine interrogations.
... Crime investigation is performed by diff erent techniques such as interviewing and interrogation, physical and electronic surveillance, auditory, forensic science, undercover operations, and other methods (Knoke & De Lise, 2010). Interviewing and interrogation stand out because they are accessible, economic, simple, and effective to obtaining information from witnesses, suspects, or victims, all of whom can be cooperative or hostile (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). We assume almost all suspects of feminicide are hostile, in this sense, CM is a technique to investigate feminicide without coercion, allowing case resolution respecting human rights, and avoiding evidence that is obtained illegally, also known as the fruit of the poisonous tree (Dressler et al., 1991). ...
In Latin America, the investigative interview is still in its beginnings. Currently, most public and private investigators use interview and interrogation techniques aimed at obtaining admission or confession, instead of applying Investigative Interview techniques focused on information gathering. This document provides an overview of the Conversation Management Approach. This is an investigative interview technique used to interview uncooperative criminal suspects, such as those accused of feminicide. An example of how to apply the technique in a case of feminicide is shown, to serve as a guide to good practices. This technique consists of three phases that must be considered when administering and applying the interview. In the first, the behavior before the interview is reviewed, in which the planning and preparation of the interview was carried out. The second phase is the interview to elicit information, which consists of a variety of questioning style techniques, explanation of procedures and instructions to follow, rapport building, and clarification of information. The third phase is called the post-interview phase, which consists of closing and evaluating the entire interview process. The objective of this work is to provide Latin American interviewers with information on the best practices in investigative interviews used in other countries, to raise their aware of the need for training in this area. The correct application of investigative interview techniques is essential to investigate crime, and training of interviewers in this type of technique is necessary to improve the results obtained through interviews.
... The development of rapport is an often cited and much celebrated aspect of interrogation practice (Abbe & Brandon, 2012, 2014; for a systematic review, see Gabbert et al., 2021). Surveys and interviews of law enforcement investigators demonstrate wide support for belief in the efficacy of rapport-based approaches (e.g., Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Kassin et al., 2007;Redlich et al, 2014;Russano et al., 2014;, and these methods are associated with increased perceptions of liking and positivity toward an interviewer (Kieckhaefer et al., 2014;Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2011), more complete and accurate accounts (e.g., Collins et al., 2002;Holmberg & Madsen, 2014;Kieckhaefer et al., 2014;Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2011;Walsh & Bull, 2012a), reduced counter-interrogation strategies (e.g., Alison et al., 2014;, and indirectly, with increased cooperation and information disclosure from suspects (e.g., Brimbal et al., 2021;Brimbal et al., 2019;Dianiska et al., 2021; for a similar account of trust-building, see Oleszkiewicz et al., in press). ...
As accusatorial approaches to interrogation in the United States have increasingly come under scrutiny, interest in science-based methods of interviewing and interrogation has risen. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of a 5-day science-based interrogation course delivered by the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group to U.S. federal, local, and state law enforcement investigators. Core aspects of the training included the use of productive questions, developing interrogator–suspect rapport, and conducting a cognitive interview. Ninety investigators who participated in the training submitted pre- and posttraining recordings of real-world suspect interviews. As hypothesized, investigators increased their use of science-based approaches after training and decreased their use of unproductive questions. Training did not influence how frequently they employed customary accusatorial techniques. Using a path model analysis, we also explored the relationships between use of science-based techniques and accusatorial approaches on the key outcome variables of cooperation, information disclosure by the suspect, and confession. We found positive indirect effects of training on cooperation and information disclosure via the use of science-based approaches. Moreover, science-based approaches were positively associated with increased cooperation and information disclosure and, indirectly, confession rates. In contrast, accusatorial approaches were associated with increased use of suspect counter-interrogation strategies and decreased cooperation and information gain. Implications for future training programs are discussed.
... 22 Research has also shown that interviewers use a variety of social influence strategies to increase liking and prompt reciprocity. 23 Although such findings lend support to reciprocity as a valuable strategy in building relationships, 24 this research will examine how the reciprocity principle itself could be used to develop trust. Based on the extant research literature and operational case studies that exemplify how trust building is critical in mitigating resistance, two basic trust-building tactics are hypothesized to facilitate cooperation in an intelligence elicitation context. ...
... Greater disparity between the AFM and psychological science is found in descriptions of rapport -which has been found in numerous experimental and field studies to increase the amount of information provided by sources or informants, increase trust, and produce cooperation (Collins, Lincoln, & Frank, 2002;Fisher & Geiselman, 1992;Fisher, Milne, & Bull, 2011;Goodman, Delhunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014;Geiselman, Fisher et al., 1984;Roberts, & Higham, 2002;Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2011). Rapport has been universally recognized as the "heart of the interview" (St.-Yves, 2009, p. 104) in intelligence and law enforcement communities both nationally (e.g., Geiselman et al., 1984) and internationally (e.g., Clarke & Milne, 2001;Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014;Gudjonsson, 2003;Kebbell, Milne, & Wagstaff, 1999). Rapport is recognized as important in the AFM but descriptions are too brief to be either meaningfully descriptive or adaptable to operational requirements. ...
Details the growth, roles, and applications of this new specialty aiming to protect American national and public well-being in the face of increasing and novel threats both inside and outside the United States.
In this age of asymmetric warfare, increasing home-grown terrorism, and continuing threats from abroad, a new specialty has emerged and expanded—operational psychology.
Operational psychology plays a unique role in supporting issues of national security, national defense, and public safety. In this book, authors Mark A. Staal and Sally C. Harvey, both operational psychologists and retired military colonels, lead a team of experts explaining the field, its many roles, and how it is expanding. Topics include its application in intelligence, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism activities, consultation in high-risk training, criminal investigations including those of internet crimes against children, threat assessment, interrogations, aviation, personnel selection, and leadership development.
The text addresses the ethical questions and controversies that surround some of these roles, such as those associated with interrogation techniques. It also describes the role of operational psychologists in activities ranging from assessing and training people for maximum resiliency and hardiness to profiling people and groups of concern in national security investigations.
... Th e acquisition of information can be done by persuasive or inquiring approaches. Th erefore, we can apply two fundamental strategies: persuasion and coercion, which utilize means of legal, physical, cognitive, or social tactics (Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk & Dhami, 2014). Although other investigation techniques exist, none of them are as enriching as an interview, where live conversation allows the investigator to observe, analyze, and defi ne the objectivity and precision of the information. ...
Criminal investigation in Mexico is performed by the investigation triad, which is made up of police and experts in different areas such as medicine and prosecutors. They all use interview and interrogation techniques to do their work. Unfortunately, in Mexico, there is no culture of training in governmental institutions responsible for investigating crimes, and results in ignorance of techniques for obtaining objective and reliable information that guarantees the protection of fundamental rights. This chapter illustrates the scope and limits of interview and interrogation techniques and their objectives, with emphasis on the cognitive interview (CI). The CI, which has been validated scientifically, is one of the best tools to obtain useful information, that is, results of a CI that have been conducted in the field can be used in a court of law. This technique can be used with victims, witnesses, or suspects. The current chapter also describes the most utilized techniques, cognitive interview, mnemonic techniques, Strategic Use of Evidence, and Verifiability Approach.
... According to Hofstede [69]'s model of national culture, Australia has been described as obtaining a relatively low score on the power distance value dimensions. This suggests that there is relative equality in societal and organisational authority structures [72]. The hierarchy culture suggests that the work environment is formalised and structured, with procedures governing actions which suggest that there is relative inequality in societal and organisational structures [73]. ...
This study explores the relationship between organisational culture and total quality management (TQM) implementation in Australia, with the purpose of identifying the particular culture that dominants the Australian construction industry, and distinguishing which cultures determine the successful implementation of TQM. Although the application of the competing values framework (CVF) for evaluating organisational culture (OC) in the construction industry has been studied by some scholars, research into OC and its impact on TQM procedures in connection to the CVF in project-based industries such as construction has received less attention. Thus, this research intends to determine the relationship between OC and TQM regarding the CVF in the Australian construction industry. The research methodology used the validated organisational culture assessment instrument (OCAI) CVF to frame OC, and TQM practices identified from the literature review. An online questionnaire was distributed through Qualtrics, whereby 42 valid responses representing various construction organisations in Australia were analysed through IBM SPSS Statistics 26 through endorsing k-means cluster analysis, and analysis of variance. The findings support that Australian construction organisations are dominated by the market and external focused cultures according to the CVF of organisational classification. Furthermore, the findings acknowledge that organisations that are dominated by hierarchical cultural characterises could provide an unfavourable environment for the successful implementation of TQM. Whilst an organisation that obtains a mix of cultures, specifically with the adhocracy and market cultures dominating could provide a favourable environment for the successful implementation of TQM.
... The mentions occur because 6 articles (e.g. Abbe and Brandon 2013;Bull and Soukara 2010;Goodman-Delahunty et al. 2014;Houston et al. 2017;Moraes 2013;Vallano and Compo 2011) are mentioned in multiple DV*IV combination. From the table, research efforts are concentrated on rapports skill and tactics, degree of rapport, and social persuasion by 22%, 14%, and 14% of the total mentions. ...
The paper reports a study space analysis (SSA) of 117 published investigations of the need for interpretation services and approaches to their optimisation. The study explores literature on the adequacy and ecological validity of interpretation service and interpretation optimisation. Research on rapport building appears to be the most investigated issue. Studies on interpretation services need and planning are infrequently researched, and there exist little or no study investigating police diversity effects on interpretation service needs and the planning effects. Studies investigating cognitive load, language, and gender effects on interpreting accuracy are sparse, with most research effort concentrated in conference interpreting settings.
... During these exercises, students worked in groups of four to analyze one randomly assigned scientific article that presented experimental studies in psychology that focused on a social influence theoretical concept, respectively covered in Persuasion Wars. Scientific articles were chosen respectively to seminar topic (i.e., №1 persuasion models - Chaiken & Maheswaran, 1994;Nairn & Fine, 2008;Petty et al., 1981;Zhang et al., 2014;№2 reciprocity & commitment and consistency -Cialdini et al., 1978;Friedman & Rahman, 2011;Guéguen & Pascual, 2014;Strohmetz et al., 2002;№3 scarcity & social proof -Brannon & Brock, 2001;Goldstein et al., 2008;Milgram et al., 1969;Worchel et al., 1975;№4 liking & authority -Bickman, 1974;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Milgram, 1963;Seiter & Dutson, 2007). The given task instructed students (see OSF page for an example of an instruction script) to analyze the experiments presented in the article from the perspective of their advantages and limitations. ...
Background: Persuasion Wars are exercises for teaching social influence that have not been directly assessed with the use of students’ knowledge gain as an indicator.
Objective: This study aimed to establish the extent to which these exercises led to students’ knowledge increase in comparison to traditional teaching method.
Method: In a between subject design, 142 undergraduate students participated in two exercises: Persuasion Wars or Article Analysis. Pre-test and post-test measurements of students’ knowledge were collected to compute knowledge gain scores. At the end of the study, an exercise evaluation survey was distributed among students.
Results: Both teaching methods increased students’ knowledge about social influence. Regardless of the topic, students from Persuasion War group gained more knowledge when compared to students from Article Analysis group. Students assessed both teaching methods to a similar extent.
Conclusion: Persuasion Wars may serve as a useful teaching method in familiarizing students with the basic concepts of social influence despite being rated similarly to a more traditional activity.
Teaching implications: To improve the teaching outcomes of classes concerning basic topics of social influence, teachers should consider the use of Persuasion Wars exercises as well as should incorporate the use of a direct assessment of pedagogical effectiveness to avoid misleading predictions.
... point of view (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). It is important to understand suspects' confession decision-making for several reasons. ...
Objective: This study examined incarcerated persons’ self-reported interrogation experiences and confession decision-making by investigating which sociodemographic, criminological, and contextual factors were associated with their decisions to deny the allegations, partially admit wrongdoing, or fully confess to the crime. Hypotheses: We expected that respondents in this field study would report a wide range of interrogation experiences. Given mixed prior findings, we did not formulate hypotheses for sociodemographic or criminological factors, but based on contextual variable research, we predicted that suspects who perceived the evidence against them as strong and who had already decided to confess prior to their interrogation would be more likely to confess. Method: Participants were 249 individuals (86% male; M age = 34.8 years; 49% Black, 41% White, 10% other racial identities) incarcerated in local jails in the United States who completed a questionnaire about their most recent interrogation. Respondents described their interrogation experiences (e.g., location, duration, custody), perceptions of police evidence against them, and thoughts about confession prior to the interrogation. We examined group differences according to confession decision and used multinomial logistic regression to examine how sociodemographic, criminological, and contextual factors relate to suspects’ self-reported confession decisions. Results: Suspects’ interrogation experiences varied considerably, as did their perceptions of custody, beliefs about incriminating evidence, and preinterrogation intent to confess or deny. Sociodemographic characteristics and criminological factors were unrelated to self-reported confession decision-making, but several contextual factors predicted confession outcome. Signing away one’s Miranda rights and already planning to confess predicted suspects’ self-reported confessions, whereas being physically restrained, believing that police had no evidence of one’s guilt, and intending in advance to deny the allegations predicted suspects’ self-reported denials. Suspects who were undecided about confession prior to interrogation were about as likely to eventually confess as deny. Conclusions: Most suspects followed through with their initial intention to confess or deny, and suspects’ perceptions about evidence predicted their self-reported confession. These findings complement existing work focused on interrogation techniques and inform both police interrogation training and practice.
... The relationship between challenging posture or authoritative behaviour and the provision of case-specific information was also analysed. Based on the literature we expected a negative relationship (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Kelly et al., 2015;Meissner et al., 2014;Walsh & Bull, 2015). The results showed a different effect on the outcome of interviews, with a challenging posture correlated positively with obtaining case-specific information while displaying authoritative signals showed a more ambiguous relationship. ...
While earlier studies of investigative interviews with suspects have primarily been conducted within the context of police work, few have considered the interview practices with high‐status suspects in the financial area. This article aims to provide insight into distinctive features of interviewing these suspects. The study focuses on the impact various interviewing techniques can have on suspects’ disclosing information. To this end, 205 h of audio‐recorded actual interviews with 28 high‐status suspects were examined. Next to rapport building and confrontation, displaying authoritative behaviour can be considered a separate interviewing category. A positive correlation between rapport building and information disclosure was found. Finally, challenging the accounts of suspects results in more case‐related information than an authoritative approach.
... Although not universally practised, three out of six participants (50%) encouraged witnesses to recall events; however, if witnesses did not appear to tell the truth, one participant stated that he presented them with evidence to the contrary. Confronting witnesses with evidence can be seen as a coercive interview strategy (Goodman-Delahunty et al. 2014;Gaines 2018); however, it would not be coercive if the investigator presented the evidence in an ethical way (see Bull 2014). ...
Numerous miscarriages of justice have come to light in Indonesia that result from poor police interviewing practices. In response, Indonesian police are developing training in cognitive interviewing (CI), which serves as an international benchmark for witness interviewing practices. However, little is known about how Indonesian police investigators perceive different witness interviewing practices. Without this baseline data and the appropriate adaptation of CI to the Indonesian context, the new CI method might never be embraced by Indonesian police forces. The present study examines such data collected in a large-scale survey involving 222 Indonesian police investigators and supporting in-depth interviews with six police investigators. Findings indicate that Indonesian police hold positive attitudes towards some principles of CI, but nonetheless value their existing interviewing practices, which lack evidence-based techniques of questioning. We conclude that CI has potential, but the training needs to address practices that are inconsistent with good practice interviewing.
... For example, contextual factors that are independent of an interviewer's tactics can influence the reporting of information by interview subjects (Dawson et al., 2017;Dianiska et al., 2019;Hoogesteyn et al., 2019;Hoogesteyn et al., 2020aHoogesteyn et al., , 2020b. Goodman-Delahunty et al. (2014) examined an international sample of practitioners and high-value detainees (N = 64) and concluded that noncoercive physical interview settings were associated with an increase in disclosures of incriminating information by the detainees. The authors noted that the comfortable setting may have fostered rapport, which in turn facilitated disclosure. ...
A significant number of individuals detained and interrogated by law enforcement agencies present psychopathic personality characteristics. However, despite the numerous studies conducted in recent decades in the fields of psychopathy or investigative interviewing, there are not many studies in the literature on the particularities of questioning psychopaths. If previously, interviewing techniques based on an accusatory model were more accepted, especially with suspects of more serious or violent crimes; currently the use of a methodology based on the scientific evidence and respectful of human rights is something essential, even with psychopaths. This chapter seeks to compile the various contributions in the field of investigative interviewing and integrate them into knowledge about the behavioral characteristics of psychopaths, to present an evidence based model for conducting investigative interviews with psychopaths.
... In addition, Hoogesteyn et al. (2020a) reported that interrogators perceived using their interviewing environment to be important as a tactic. For example, they believed that interviewing a suspect in a comfortable environment was helpful to elicit information, and suspects may have the same view (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014;Hoogesteyn et al., 2020b). With reference to all the findings in the extant literature, I suppose that the lack of strong evidence will provide extra momentum to make use of a wide array of tactics during interrogation. ...
When conducting an investigation, police officers collect evidence from various sources (e.g., humans, objects, areas). The type of evidence (i.e., physical vs. personal) can affect the investigators’ beliefs about the suspect and how the evidence can be used. In turn, how the evidence is used during the interrogation can impact the suspect’s perception of how much evidence the police hold. To date, no study has systematically examined the extent to which types of collected evidence affect investigative decision-making and suspects’ perceptions of evidence. This thesis examined the effects of evidence on the two parties (i.e., police investigators and suspects). In Study Ⅰ, police officers in South Korea (N = 202) read four crime reports where one suspect and one piece of critical evidence were given. The critical evidence was manipulated by four different evidence types (DNA, CCTV, fingerprint, and eyewitness evidence). Then, they rated the suspect’s culpability and the reliability of the critical evidence. Significant differences were found between the conditions in the predicted directions, such that eyewitness testimony (vs. DNA, CCTV, and fingerprint evidence) significantly decreased officers’ ratings of the suspect’s culpability and the reliability of critical evidence. Moreover, experienced (vs. inexperienced) officers tended to perceive most types of criminal evidence as less reliable. Study Ⅱ was designed to examine the effects of available evidence on interrogators’ selection of specific tactics to use when interrogating a suspect. Police
interrogators (N = 106) were randomly allocated to one of five homicide scenarios in each of which only one type of critical evidence (DNA, CCTV, fingerprint, eyewitness, or no evidence) identified a suspect. Officers were then asked to imagine what tactics they would use when interrogating a suspect. A list of 27 tactic names and descriptions was given for their selection, which was classified into five types of tactics. No significant differences were observed between the conditions – that is, the evidence type did not affect the type of interrogation tactics chosen. Study Ⅲa was conducted with prisoners (N = 59) to examine how suspects’ perceptions of the evidence would vary depending on the type of interrogation tactics applied to them. Participants rated their perceived evidence for five interrogation tactic types: (a) Evidential/Substantiated,
(b) Evidential/Unsubstantiated, (c) Nonevidential/Crime-Relevant, (d) Nonevidential/CrimeIrrelevant, (e) Context-Manipulation. Prisoners tended to infer that the interrogator held more evidence when the tactics that related to using substantiated (reliable) evidence were employed. Study Ⅲb surveyed laypersons with no prior criminal experience (N = 117). The same design, procedure, and materials were adopted. As with prisoners, laypersons’ ratings were significantly higher for the tactics with substantiated evidence than for the other four types. Additional group comparisons in evidence perception show that prisoners’ ratings fluctuated much more across the 27 individual interrogation tactics than did laypersons’ ratings. In summary, the results suggest that evidence appears to be influential with respect to investigators’ judgments about the culpability of a suspect before interrogation. Also, some of the interrogation tactics may be more effective than others in affecting the suspect’s perception of the evidence; further research is needed into factors associated with diverse police tactics affecting the perception of evidence. The present findings supplement our understanding of the effects of evidence on investigators’ and suspects’ decision-making in a police investigation.
... Recent research has extended this knowledge in the area of investigative interviewing (see Meissner, Kelly, & Woestehoff, 2015, for a review). For example, rapport has been associated with positive interview outcomes (Walsh & Bull, 2010), the disclosure of meaningful and complete information earlier in an interview (Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2014), reduction of counter-interrogation tactics (Alison et al., 2014), and more accurate information in eyewitness testimony (Kieckhaefer, Vallano, & Schreiber Compo, 2013;Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2011). Experiments have shown rapport to have both direct and mediational effects on informational elements produced in investigative interviews (Hwang & Matsumoto, 2020;Matsumoto & Hwang, 2018b, 2019b and as effective in interviews with suspects and witnesses (Vallano & Schreiber Compo, 2015). ...
Research on investigative interviewing has highlighted the role of rapport in non‐confrontational, evidence‐based interviewing procedures, but questions remain about the nature and function of rapport in such interviews. Across three samples drawn from multiple previous studies involving very similar methodologies, we addressed four issues: a potential role of working alliance as a rapport component, differences among different sources of rapport data, interrelationships among rapport components, and cultural/ethnic moderation. Rapport was coded from videos of introductory segments of interviews concerning a mock theft involving interviewees of different cultures/ethnicities. The rapport components were intercorrelated, converged on a single factor, and were associated with interviewer but not interviewee self‐assessments of rapport. Rapport differentially predicted the informational elements interviewees produced: working alliance predicted relevant details and plausibility, but coordination predicted irrelevant details, with some culture/ethnicity moderation. We discussed these findings in relation to future theory and research on rapport in investigative interviews.
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... Relational techniques generally attempt to build rapport by facilitating a relationship between the interviewer and subject through the exchange and validation of personal information. For example, self-disclosure on the part of the interviewer can increase rapport, while prompting self-disclosure from the subject (Dianiska et al., 2020;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Highlighting similarities between themselves and the subject or offering affirmations (shining a positive light on a subject's self-esteem by underlining positive aspects of their identity) or verifications (displays EVIDENCE-BASED TRAINING 10 of an accurate understanding of the subject's self-concept -whether positive or negative) can also increase rapport (Davis et al., 2016;Dianiska et al., 2020). ...
Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a rapport-based approach to interviewing that includes productive questioning skills, conversational rapport, and relational rapport-building tactics. Hypotheses: We predicted that training police investigators in a rapport-based approach would significantly increase the use of rapport-based tactics and that such tactics would directly influence the interviewee’s perceptions
of rapport and indirectly lead to increased cooperation and disclosure of information. Method: We trained federal, state, and local law enforcement investigators (N = 67) in the use of evidence-based interviewing techniques. Both before and after this training, investigators interviewed semi cooperative subjects (N = 125). Interviews were coded for the use of various interview tactics, as well as subjects’ disclosure. Participants also completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the interviewer and their decision to cooperate with the interviewer. Results: Evaluations of the training were positive, with high ratings of learning, preparedness to use tactics, and likelihood of use following the training. In posttraining interviews, investigators significantly increased their use of evidence-based tactics, including productive questioning, conversational rapport, and relational rapport-building tactics. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that investigators’ use of the evidence-based interview tactics was directly associated with increased perceptions of rapport and trust and indirectly associated with increased cooperation and information disclosure. Conclusions:We demonstrated that rapport-based interview tactics could be successfully trained and that using such tactics can facilitate perceptions of rapport and
trust, reduce individuals’ resistance to cooperate, and increase information yield.
... Research findings also show that rapport building approaches are more effective at eliciting true admissions than accusatory or coercive approaches (e.g. Evans et al., 2013;Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Both information-gathering and accusatorial methods can increase the likelihood of obtaining a true confession from a guilty suspect, but only the accusatorial method significantly increases the probability of obtaining a false confession from an innocent suspect (Meissner et al., 2012). ...
Examining interview and interrogation practice of the police in Slovenia
... It may well be possible that the effects of environment on interview quality in healthcare settings translate to investigative interview scenarios. For example, in a study evaluating high-value detainees' perceptions of coercive and non-coercive strategies for eliciting cooperation, the physical setting was linked to perceptions of non-coercion (Goodman-Delahunty et al., 2014). Detainees self-reported that interviews that were conducted in a comfortable setting were associated with an increase in their disclosure of incriminating information. ...
The literature on information elicitation in psycholegal settings has predominantly focused on the investigator–interviewee dynamic, with little attention to the environment in which the interview takes place. The present study compared the impact of two interview locations on the disclosure of crime‐related information and perceptions of rapport building. Participants experienced a virtual reality mock crime, and 1 week later were interviewed at either their homes, or a formal room akin to a real‐world police interview room. Participants in the home setting reported feeling more at ease and in control compared to participants interviewed in the formal room. However, we found no differences between conditions on the quantity and quality of information disclosure and participants' perceptions of rapport building. Based on our findings, we found no advantages or disadvantages for conducting witness interviews at their homes. However, these results underscore the practicality of interviewing witnesses outside the police interview room if deemed as more convenient.
Courts are making increasing use of audiovisual links (AVL) for many purposes, including taking evidence from witnesses. However, there has been little in the way of research to provide guidance for courts and judges on conditions or standards that should apply to their use. Participant expert and lay witnesses in a mock trial were randomly assigned to AVL experiences that varied (a) the quality of the technology and supporting physical environment, and (b) the way witnesses were informed, supported and orientated. After providing their testimony, mock witnesses answered questions about their experience. We found that high quality technology and appropriately designed supporting physical environments increased perceived respect. Similarly, enhanced information and support improved perceived voice and rapport. Further, the combination of advanced environment and process had a compounding effect on perceived voice and respect, suggesting that courts seeking the best outcomes will implement both aspects. These results have significant implications for judicial officers and court administrators making decisions about AVL use, and implementing the AVL design and operation.
This contribution discusses the problems associated with using coercive interrogation methods and the benefits of utilising counselling approaches when interrogating high-value detainees (i.e. individuals suspected of terrorism). It focuses first on the context of terrorism and the use of harsh interrogation methods (including torture) by both US and UK interrogators. It then outlines the move from interrogation to interviewing in the UK and the adoption of non-coercive approaches. Lastly, it gives an overview of ORBIT—an empirically based model of police interviewing, based on counselling approaches, developed from analysis of real-world police interviews with terrorism suspects. Furthermore, it discusses research conducted over the last 12 years that provides empirical support for using the ORBIT model of interviewing.
This review organises the literature on presenting evidence in police interviews for researchers and practitioners to capture the breadth of the topic, and it is organised around the question of why evidence is presented during an interview. The literature was also coded for what type of evidence is presented and with what technique, when evidence is presented, and how it is presented. We found no support for the notion that presenting evidence will overcome resistance and is likely to increase it, presenting evidence gradually and in a challenging manner is the most effective approach to credibility assessment and information disclosure.
As a core component of legal language used to draft, enforce and practice law, legal terms have fascinated lawyers, linguists, terminologists and other scholars for centuries. Third in the series, this Handbook offers a comprehensive compendium of the current state of knowledge on legal terminology. It is the first attempt to bring together perspectives from the domains of Terminology, Translation Studies, Linguistics, Law and Information Technology in a single place. This interdisciplinary endeavour comprises systematic reviews, case studies and research papers which overview key properties of legal terms and concepts, terminological tools and resources, training aspects, as well as translation in national contexts and multilingual organizations. The Handbook attests to the complex multifaceted nature of legal terminology and showcases its cultural, communicative, cognitive and social contexts in diverse legal systems. It is a rich resource for scholars, practitioners, trainers and students, presenting vibrant research and practice in this area.
This chapter describes the evolution of suspect interview training at the US Department of Homeland Security Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). This evolution reflects recent advances in empirical understanding of harmful and beneficial interview practices along with the development of new evidence-based techniques. This chapter firsts present an overview of FLETC’s previous training, which centered around the Five Step Interview Model. Next discussed are several challenges and facilitators associated with the transition of research findings into practice. The chapter concludes with a description of research that influenced FLETC’s transition to their current evidence-based interview training along with a summary of this current training.
Psychological torture, in its broadest sense, is the intentional infliction of suffering without resorting to direct physical violence, in what is known as 'no-touch' torture. While several other definitions of psychological torture have been suggested, there is no one precise definition. Given the rapidly evolving current global political climate and the intensification of conflict, war and asylum seeking, the need for better recognition of psychological torture among clinicians, followed by the provision of appropriate treatment support for victims, has become increasingly pertinent. This article raises awareness of the concept of psychological torture among clinicians, through an overview of its debated definitions, the modalities which constitute this form of torture, and its clinical sequelae and treatment approach.
This chapter explores non-violent responses to terrorism. It notes the main failures and limitations of violent or force-based counterterrorism, before examining alternative non-violent approaches used to reduce the incidence of terrorism and transform violent conflict into political conflict. The most common alternative approach in an effort of conflict resolution and promoting a political settlement is the use of dialogue and negotiations. The chapter also discusses the literature on suggestions and guidance for further developing approaches to non-violent counterterrorism such as non-violent resistance, unarmed peacekeeping, non-warring communities, and social defence. Sondre Lindahl's critical theory of counterterrorism is based on principles such as needing to treat terrorism as a political phenomenon and aiming for more than the elimination of terrorists.
Introducción La investigación delictiva en México es realizada por la tríada de investigación, que involucra a la policía, expertos en diferentes áreas como la medicina, y fiscales. Todos utilizan técnicas de entrevista o interrogatorio para realizar su trabajo. Es desafortunado que en México la mayoría de los casos no se resuelvan por diversas causas, entre ellas, destacan la corrupción, la falta de recursos económicos y el uso de técnicas de investigación obsoletas, por ejemplo, el uso de la brujería para resolver investigaciones (Olmos 2012). Esto resulta en la eventual libertad de los sujetos culpables. Este capítulo ilustra al lector sobre una forma de realizar investigaciones a través de entrevistas de investigación (ei) mediante la técnica denominada Gerencia de la Conversación (gc), la cual mediante estudios científicos ha probado ser una de las metodologías más efectivas para obtener información útil procedente de testigos o sospechosos no cooperadores, y por lo tanto se espera pueda ser utilizada en la investigación de feminicidios. Feminicidio o femicidio, un crimen de odio El feminicidio es un homicidio agravado por razones de género. Esta conducta está legalmente sancionada en América Latina Investigación del feminicidio en México.
La investigación criminal en México se lleva a cabo por la "tríada de investigación", la cual está conformada por policías, expertos en diferentes disciplinas, artes u oficios (peritos) y fiscales. Para realizar investigaciones, usan técnicas de entrevista e interrogatorio (tei) que no gozan de validez científica. No existe la cultura de capacitación continua y especializada para el personal de las instituciones gubernamentales responsables de la investigación delictiva; por lo tanto, desconocen las técnicas para obtener información objetiva, confiable y que garantice la protección de derechos fundamentales. En este capítulo se detallan el alcance y límite de las técnicas de entrevista e interrogatorio, así como sus objetivos, con énfasis en la entrevista cognitiva (ec). La ec es uno de los mejores medios para obtener información útil, lo cual significa que la información obtenida por medio de esta técnica se puede utilizar en un juicio como evidencia testimonial.
This chapter synthesizes the key influence focused information presented in this book. It does this using several case examples to provide insight into the planning and delivery of both direct and indirect interventions, interventions based on the assessment of the individual involved, and the case’s unique context and operational environment. Detailed information is provided regarding considerations for creating an environment that allows for enhanced influence. This includes explanations of the placement and set up of the interview room, dress of the interviewer, the interviewer’s nonverbal and verbal demeanor, the flow of the interview, and the reframing of the interviewee’s goals to allow the introduction of alternative pathways to reach their goals.
This chapter will provide a brief literature review that explores the historical, empirical, and commercial literature regarding influence and persuasion. This includes focus on the works of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Carnegie, Cuddy, and Berger, which covers human interest in this subject from 360 BC to 2020. Each of the works discussed draws out their salient points and then addresses those points in relation to their value in violence interventions. The reader is provided a deeper understanding of how philosophers, social psychologists, law enforcement personnel, and interested lay people have approached influence and persuasion for both personal and professional purposes.
A growing body of research illustrates consensus between researchers and practitioners that developing rapport facilitates cooperation and disclosure in a range of professional information gathering contexts. In such contexts, rapport behaviors are often intentionally used in an attempt to facilitate a positive interaction with another adult, which may or may not result in genuine mutual rapport. To examine how rapport has been manipulated and measured in professional contexts we systematically mapped the relevant evidence‐base in this field. For each of the 35 studies that met our inclusion criteria, behaviors associated with building rapport were coded in relation to whether they were verbal, non‐verbal, or para‐verbal. Methods to measure rapport were also coded and recorded, as were different types of disclosure. A Searchable Systematic Map was produced to catalogue key study characteristics. Discussion focuses on the underlying intention of the rapport behaviors that featured most frequently across studies.
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) provide unique access to criminals and organised crime groups, and their collection of intelligence is vital to understanding England and Wales' threat picture. Rapport is essential to the establishment and maintenance of effective professional relationships between source handlers and their CHIS. Thus, rapport-based interviewing is a fundamental factor to maximising intelligence yield. The present research gained unprecedented access to 105 real-life audio recorded telephone interactions between England and Wales police source handlers and CHIS. This research quantified both the rapport component behaviours (e.g., attention, positivity, and coordination) displayed by the source handler and the intelligence yielded from the CHIS, in order to investigate the frequencies of these rapport components and their relationship to intelligence yield. Overall rapport, attention and coordination significantly correlated with intelligence yield, while positivity did not. Attention was the most frequently used component of rapport, followed by positivity, and then coordination.
The efficacy of principles of persuasion and influence in aiding uncooperative individuals to become more cooperative has been well documented in the basic science literature. Less known is their effects in investigative interviews. This study examined the effects of liking (positivity) on informational elements produced in investigative interviews. Interviewees participated in a mock theft experiment and were randomly assigned to tell the truth or lie about the potential theft. Half the interviews were conducted in a high liking condition, the other half in a low liking condition. High liking produced less relevant details in both the interviews and written statements for truthtellers. Rapport had direct, positive effects on relevant and irrelevant details in the interviews but not the written statements and mediated the association between liking and relevant and irrelevant details in the interviews. Veracity condition moderated the association between liking and informational elements; liking had negative effects on relevant details for truthtellers in the interviews and written statements but positive effects on irrelevant details for liars in written statements. These findings suggested the need to examine how and when liking as a social influence tactic may be effective in investigative interviews.
We conducted a systematic review of the published and unpublished literatures on the interview and interrogation of suspects. Our focus was to examine the impact of accusatorial versus information gathering approaches on the elicitation of confessions.
Two meta‐analytic reviews were conducted: one that focused on observational and quasi‐experimental field studies of actual suspects in which ground truth (i.e., veracity of the confession statement) was unknown, and another that assessed experimental, laboratory based studies in which ground truth was known. To be eligible, field studies must have included 1) at least one coded and quantified interviewing/interrogation method and 2) data on confession outcomes tied to the questioning style. Experimental studies must have included 1) at least two distinct interviewing or interrogation styles (e.g., direct questioning and accusatorial approach) and 2) sufficient data on true and/or false confession outcomes.
Following an exhaustive search, 5 field studies and 12 experimental studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in the analyses. Results revealed that while both information‐gathering and accusatory methods were similarly associated with the production of confessions in field studies, experimental data indicated that the information‐gathering method increased the likelihood of true confessions, while reducing the likelihood of false confessions. Given the small number of independent samples, the current findings are considered preliminary, yet suggestive of the benefits of information‐gathering methods in the interrogative context.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The interviewing and interrogation of suspects can be particularly important to securing convictions against the guilty and freeing the wrongly accused. There are two general methods of questioning suspects: information‐gathering and accusatorial. The information‐gathering approach, used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere, as more generally in Western Europe, is characterized by rapport‐building, truth‐seeking, and active listening. The accusatorial approach, used primarily in the United States and Canada, is characterized by accusation, confrontation, psychological manipulation, and the disallowing of denials. Which method is more effective has become a hotly debated topic as the number of false confessions identified continues to rise.
OBJECTIVES
Our objective was to systematically and comprehensively review published and non‐published, experimental and observational studies on the effectiveness of interviewing and interrogation methods. We focus on the questioning of suspects using information‐gathering and accusatorial methods seeking to elicit confessions.
SELECTION CRITERIA
We conducted two separate meta‐analyses. The first meta‐analysis focused on observational or quasi‐experimental field studies that assess the association between certain interrogation methods and elicitation of a confession statement. Field studies must have included: 1) at least one coded and quantified interviewing/interrogation method; and 2) data on confession outcomes tied to the questioning style. The second meta‐analysis focused on experimental, laboratory‐based studies in which ground truth is known (i.e., whether the confession is factually true or false). Experimental studies must have included: 1) a comparison of at least two distinct interviewing or interrogation styles (e.g., control method and accusatorial); and 2) sufficient data on either true and/or false confession outcomes. Both meta‐analyses focus on the interrogation of “criminal” suspects. We note that whereas the aim of the accusatorial methods is to obtain confessions, the primary aim of information‐gathering methods is to obtain information. Nevertheless, because of the importance placed on confessions in the extant literature and given the current focus on confessions in the analyses reviewed, our primary outcome measure was confession rather than the amount of information gained.
SEARCH STRATEGY
Several strategies were utilized to locate eligible studies: 1) keyword searches of more than 20 databases; 2) reviewing bibliographies of several relevant books and compendiums; 3) reviewing abstracts from recent conferences; and 4) requests of researchers and practitioners, individually and via listservs.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We located 5 studies eligible for the field study meta‐analysis and 12 studies eligible for the experimental study meta‐analysis. We coded outcomes from both study types and report mean effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals. A random effects model was used for analysis of effect sizes. Moderator analyses were conducted when appropriate.
MAIN RESULTS
We located 5 studies eligible for the field study meta‐analysis and 12 studies eligible for the experimental study meta‐analysis. We coded outcomes from both study types and report mean effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals. A random effects model was used for analysis of effect sizes. Moderator analyses were conducted when appropriate.
AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The available data support the effectiveness of an information‐gathering style of interviewing suspects. Caution is warranted, however, due to the small number of independent samples available for the analysis of both field and experimental studies. Additional research, including the use of quasi‐experimental field studies, appears warranted.
Summary
We conducted a systematic review of the published and unpublished literatures on the interview and interrogation of suspects. Our focus was to examine the impact of accusatorial versus information‐gathering approaches on the elicitation of confessions. Two meta‐analytic reviews were conducted: one that focused on observational and quasi‐experimental field studies of actual suspects in which ground truth (i.e., veracity of the confession statement) was unknown, and another that assessed experimental, laboratory‐based studies in which ground truth was known. To be eligible, field studies must have included 1) at least one coded and quantified interviewing/interrogation method and 2) data on confession outcomes tied to the questioning style. Experimental studies must have included 1) at least two distinct interviewing or interrogation styles (e.g., direct questioning and accusatorial approach) and 2) sufficient data on true and/or false confession outcomes. Following an exhaustive search, 5 field studies and 12 experimental studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in the analyses. Results revealed that while both information‐gathering and accusatory methods were similarly associated with the production of confessions in field studies, experimental data indicated that the information‐gathering method increased the likelihood of true confessions, while reducing the likelihood of false confessions. Given the small number of independent samples, the current findings are considered preliminary, yet suggestive of the benefits of information‐gathering methods in the interrogative context.
The discovery of many cases of wrongful conviction in the criminal justice system involving admissions from innocent suspects has led psychologists to examine the factors contributing to false confessions. However, little systematic research has assessed the processes underlying Human Intelligence (HUMINT) interrogations relating to military and intelligence operations. The current article examines the similarities and differences between interrogations in criminal and HUMINT settings, and discusses the extent to which the current empirical literature can be applied to criminal and/or HUMINT interrogations. Finally, areas of future research are considered in light of the need for improving HUMINT interrogation.
Examined the effects of 2 methods of police interrogation: maximization (MAX), a technique in which the interrogator exaggerates the strength of the evidence and the magnitude of the charges, and minimization (MIN), a technique in which the interrogator mitigates the crime and plays down the seriousness of the offense. In Exps 1 and 2, 111 undergraduates read interrogation transcripts in which an interrogator used 1 of 5 methods to try to elicit a confession: a promise of leniency, threat of punishment, MIN, MAX, or none of the above. MAX communicated high sentencing expectations as in an explicit threat of punishment, while MIN implied low sentencing expectations as did an explicit offer of leniency. Exp 3, with 75 Ss, demonstrated that although mock jurors discounted a confession elicited by a threat of punishment, their conviction rate was significantly increased by confessions that followed from promises or MIN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
With a few notable exceptions, the research on interrogation, suspect interviewing, and intelligence collection has been predominantly focused on either broad categories of their methods (e.g., information gathering vs. accusatorial models) or very specific techniques (e.g., using open-ended questions, appealing to the source's conscience). The broad categories, however, are not meaningful enough to fully describe the dynamic between interrogator and subject, whereas the specific techniques may be too detailed to understand and research the process of interrogation. To remedy this and advance the academic and operational fields, we identified 71 unique techniques and sorted them into six domains: Rapport and Relationship Building, Context Manipulation, Emotion Provocation, Collaboration, Confrontation/Competition, and Presentation of Evidence. The resulting three-level structure consisting of broad categories, the six domains, and specific techniques form a taxonomy of interrogation methods. In addition, we propose a testable model of how the domains may interact in the process of interrogation. The taxonomy and theoretical model offer heuristic devices for both researchers and practitioners searching for a parsimonious and more meaningful way to describe, research, and understand the interviewing and interrogation of those accused of wrong-doing or possessing guilty knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychological studies of suspects' confessions have been conducted mostly in English-speaking and European countries, and the results may not generalise to countries whose cultures and policing practices differ. In particular, the difference between Japanese and Western laws may affect the roles that police interviewers play in suspects' confessions. This study examined the interviewing techniques used by Japanese police officers and associated features of the suspects' confessions. An extensive questionnaire was completed by 276 police officers across Japan. Detailed ratings of their interview techniques were factor analysed, yielding five factors: Presentation of Evidence, Confrontation, Rapport Building, Active Listening, and Discussion of the Crime. Based on these five factors, we identified four interviewing styles: Evidence-focused, Confrontational, Relationship-focused, and Undifferentiated. When interrogators employed the Relationship-focused interviewing style, suspects were more likely to make full confessions and to provide new information. By contrast, suspects were more likely to make partial confessions and were less cooperative when the police officers employed an Evidence-focused style.
Presents a model to illustrate how characteristics of a suspect and case have a bearing on interviewing styles and on suspect behavior. A sample of 1,067 cases from 9 police stations was used to determine a link between case characteristics and the behavior of suspects and which characteristics are associated with admissions and denials. Three case characteristics had a bearing on the outcome of the interviews: strength of evidence, severity of offense, and legal advice. Different interviewing strategies did not affect the number of confessions, thus supporting the arguments in favor of a more information gathering and nonmanipulative approach to questioning rather than an overtly persuasive approach in which success is defined in terms of admissions obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
This field observation examines 58 police interrogators’ rapport-based behaviors with terrorist suspects; specifically, whether rapport helps elicit meaningful intelligence and information. The Observing Rapport-Based Interpersonal Techniques (ORBIT; Alison, Alison, Elntib & Noone, 2012) is a coding framework with 3 elements. The first 2 measures are as follows: (i) 5 strategies adopted from the motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2009) literature in the counseling domain: autonomy, acceptance, adaptation, empathy, and evocation and (ii) an “Interpersonal Behavior Circle” (adopted from Interpersonal theories, Leary, 1957) for coding interpersonal interactions between interrogator and suspect along 2 orthogonal dimensions (authoritative-passive and challenging-cooperative); where each quadrant has an interpersonally adaptive and maladaptive variant. The third (outcome) measure of ORBIT includes a measure of evidentially useful information (the “interview yield”) and considers the extent to which suspects reveal information pertaining to capability, opportunity and motive as well as evidence relevant to people, actions, locations and times. Data included 418 video interviews (representing 288 hours of footage), with all suspects subsequently convicted for a variety of terrorist offenses. Structural equation modeling revealed that motivational interviewing was positively associated with adaptive interpersonal behavior from the suspect, which, in turn, increased interview yield. Conversely, even minimal expression of maladaptive interpersonal interrogator behavior increased maladaptive interviewee behavior as well as directly reducing yield. The study provides the first well-defined and empirically validated analysis of the benefits of a rapport-based, interpersonally skilled approach to interviewing terrorists in an operational field setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
Objectives
We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesize the published and unpublished empirical evidence on the impact of police-led interventions that use procedurally just dialogue focused on improving citizen perceptions of police legitimacy.
Methods
The systematic search included any public police intervention where there was a statement that the intervention involved police dialogue with citizens that either was aimed explicitly at improving police legitimacy, or used at least one core ingredient of procedural justice dialogue: police encouraging citizen participation, remaining neutral in their decision making, conveying trustworthy motives, or demonstrating dignity and respect throughout interactions. The studies included in our meta-analyses also had to include at least one direct outcome that measured legitimacy or procedural justice, or one outcome that is common in the legitimacy extant literature: citizen compliance, cooperation, confidence or satisfaction with police. We conducted separate meta-analyses, using random effects models, for each outcome.
Results
For every single one of our outcome measures, the effect of legitimacy policing was in a positive direction, and, for all but the legitimacy outcome, statistically significant. Notwithstanding the variability in the mode in which legitimacy policing is delivered (i.e., the study intervention) and the complexities around measurement of legitimacy outcomes, our review shows that the dialogue component of front-line police-led interventions is an important vehicle for promoting citizen satisfaction, confidence, compliance and cooperation with the police, and for enhancing perceptions of procedural justice.
Conclusions
In practical terms, our research shows the benefits of police using dialogue that adopts at least one of the principles of procedural justice as a component part of any type of police intervention, whether as part of routine police activity or as part of a defined police crime control program. Our review provides evidence that legitimacy policing is an important precursor for improving the capacity of policing to prevent and control crime.
Purpose
– Police interviews with terrorist suspects are perhaps one of the most challenging interviews a police officer will experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore the social context of these interviews and the impact that this might have upon the way in which police officers carry them out, including the use of robust, even aggressive tactics.
Design/methodology/approach
– Risks associated with police interview tactics are identified, including obtaining unreliable information, problems with suspect cooperation and the potential impact upon communities including problems with the perceived legitimacy of the police and community cooperation.
Findings
– Ways of mitigating the risks are considered including improving police officer cultural awareness, a consideration of interview tactics and the use of ethical interview approaches such as the planning and preparation, engage and explain, account, closure, evaluation interview model and conversation management.
Originality/value
– The impact of the use of ethical interviewing is considered from a procedural justice perspective, and the paper illustrates how this approach may give rise to improved reliability of information from interviews and may impact upon perceptions of police legitimacy from communities.
The interaction that takes place in a police interrogation room follows certain conventions which are not evident in other settings like the school or home domains. This study which uses data derived from the questioning the Australian police conducted with Dr Mohamed Haneef — a terrorist accomplice suspect — aims to show how the norms of interaction in the Australian police interrogation room are established through protocols and codes of conduct. Another aspect of norms of interaction analysed in this article is the way power relations are created and maintained by looking at recurring discourse markers like the use of address and referent terms, interruptions, topic switching and latching. By identifying these linguistic devices, we are able to see the patterns of interaction conducted by the Australian police with persons of interest.
This paper describes some of the basic questioning techniques employed in contemporary tape recorded interviews of suspects in criminal investigations. First it shows how detectives attempt to question for information and/or confessions. Two basic questioning strategies are identified, in which the aim is either to gather information or a confession. The implications of each strategy are discussed, for example, certain confession oriented strategies may invite defences based on the suggestibility of the suspect. The second part of the paper shows how detectives cope with suspects who use their right of silence. Five distinct strategies are identified, ranging from avoidance, where officers terminate questioning immediately after silence is encountered, to rationalization, where officers argue directly against the use of silence in interviews. The questioning techniques are discussed in relation to the need for officers to receive training in interviewing skills.
Australian researchers have recently applied procedural justice theory to examine the relationship between police practices
and public satisfaction and confidence in the police service. The four basic public expectations of police that contribute
to the procedural fairness effect are outlined: trust, respectful treatment, neutrality, and voice. Translating these key
relational variables into action can be challenging. Although the group values relational model provides the best account
for these data, reliance on this model in Australian studies is somewhat haphazard: many studies fail to mention any theoretical
framework; in others, the key elements of procedural justice are poorly distinguished. Achieving clarity and consistency regarding
these concepts as they apply to policing is the first step towards applying and testing these theories in practice. This review
clarifies these concepts. The significance of practices that focus on trustworthiness and respectful treatment is emphasized.
A systematic approach to test the group values model is recommended, using validated scales and labels that conform with commonly
applied definitions of those elements. In this way, advances in research on this topic will be more transparent and accessible
to practitioners, researchers, and end users.
Rapport is an important part of the interviewing of suspects, enabling them to supply information more freely. This study
examined 142 actual interviews with suspects, focussing on key tasks that aid rapport. Using an established framework to examine
rapport building skills in the early stages of interviews, the study also measured how skilled attempts at sustaining rapport
were when interviewers attempted to gather information from suspects and probe accounts for their reliability. It was found
that opportunities were often missed to build rapport in the initial stages as several tasks were overlooked. Also, where
any rapport had been initially built, it was not always maintained as tasks undertaken later in the interview which may well
have assisted rapport maintenance were often conducted unsatisfactorily. Thus, initial rapport building of itself, therefore, is not sufficient in influencing overall interview quality and outcomes, since rapport also has to
be maintained throughout the interview.
Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.
Using transcripts of 26 real-life interviews with suspected child sex offenders from England, this study examined the use of empathy and the impact of question type on the amount of investigation relevant information (IRI) obtained. There were no significant differences in the amount of IRI obtained in the interviews as a function of the use of empathy by police officers. The mean proportion of inappropriate questions was significantly higher than the mean proportion of appropriate questions and, as hypothesized, the responses to appropriate questions contained significantly more items of IRI than responses to inappropriate questions.
There exists very limited published research on what actually happens during police interviews with suspects, and the research which does exist has identified a number of weaknesses. In attempts to remedy this, some governments have brought in legislative changes and some police forces have sought to improve their training. The present study examined the extent to which a number of psychological tactics identified in the literature were actually used by a major police force in England. Audio tape recordings of interviews were assessed by a number of forensic psychologists. It was found that coercive tactics were used very infrequently but that tactics concerned with the seeking of information were common. There were relatively few correlations between (i) the extent to which suspects changed ‘position’ from denial toward confession and (ii) the degree of usage of each of the 17 tactics. Most of the tactics had a stronger degree of usage in interviews in which the suspects continued to deny/never confessed. The relationships between these findings and changes in relevant legislation and training are discussed.
We describe a study of more than 1000 interrogations by Metropolitan Police Officers. Obtaining a confession is found to be the paramount reason for interviewing a suspect. However, few suspects who did not initially confess changed their minds during the interview. 42% of suspects admitted their guilt—about the same number as obtained before tape recording of interviews was introduced. Strength of evidence and legal advice were the principal factors associated with confessing. The confession rate also varied according to which police station hosted the “interview”. An “accusatorial” style of questioning was associated with the possession of strong evidence against the suspect.
The purpose of this study is to explore sex offenders' perceptions of how the police should interview suspected sex offenders to facilitate confessions, and to investigate whether there is a relationship between sex offenders' perceptions of how the police interviewed them and their decisions to confess or deny. Fortythree convicted sex offenders were interviewed using two 35-item questionnaires that contained five questions on each of seven interviewing strategies. An additional 20 violent offenders were included for comparison purposes. The strategies were evidence presenting strategies, ethical interviewing, displays of humanity, displays of dominance, use of minimization and maximization techniques, and demonstrating an understanding of sex offenders' cognitive distortions. One questionnaire concerned how the police should interview sex offenders and the other concerned how they perceived the police who interviewed them. Generally speaking, evidence presenting strategies, ethical interviewing, and displays of humanity were perceived to increase the likelihood of a confession. Interviewer dominance was perceived to be associated with a reduction in the likelihood of a confession. Yes Yes
Despite the importance of eyewitness information in criminal investigation, police receive inadequate training to interview cooperative witnesses. They make avoidable mistakes that minimize the amount of eyewitness information elicited and contribute to inaccurate recollections. Interviewing techniques derived from laboratory research are provided to facilitate eyewitness recall. The effectiveness of these techniques is examined in laboratory and field research on a novel interviewing procedure (Cognitive Interview). Recommendations are made to improve the quality of interview training, to assign police personnel to the role of investigative interviewer, and to make psychological research more relevant for the legal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The discovery of wrongful convictions in Anglo-American systems over the last twenty years has shaken confidence in the adversarial system of criminal justice. The first part of this article will assess the main identified causes of wrongful convictions in Anglo-American systems through the lens of what they reveal about the limits of the adversary system. Six main causes will be discussed, namely mistaken eyewitness identification, lying witnesses, false confessions and false guilty pleas, faulty forensic evidence, tunnel vision or confirmation bias, and inadequate defense representation. The second part of this article will assess possible remedies for wrongful convictions in Anglo-American systems through the lens of the extent to which they attempt to improve the adversarial system and the extent to which they adopt practices that use inquisitorial methods of investigation.The third part of the article will discuss reform proposals for preventing and remedying wrongful convictions that explicitly or implicitly draw on inquisitorial ideals. It will be suggested that many adversarial systems can easily accommodate inquisitorially inspired reforms. Finally, this article will draw some conclusions about what wrongful convictions can tell us about adversarial and inquisitorial systems. The weaknesses and blind spots of each system will be examined as a prelude to suggesting that combining aspects of adversarial and inquisitorial systems can best prevent and remedy wrongful convictions. Each system can and should learn from the other in order to better prevent and remedy wrongful convictions.
Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart invites readers to embark on a new journey into a land of rationality that differs from the familiar territory of cognitive science and economics. Traditional views of rationality tend to see decision makers as possessing superhuman powers of reason, limitless knowledge, and all of eternity in which to ponder choices. To understand decisions in the real world, we need a different, more psychologically plausible notion of rationality, and this book provides it. It is about fast and frugal heuristics--simple rules for making decisions when time is pressing and deep thought an unaffordable luxury. These heuristics can enable both living organisms and artificial systems to make smart choices, classifications, and predictions by employing bounded rationality. But when and how can such fast and frugal heuristics work? Can judgments based simply on one good reason be as accurate as those based on many reasons? Could less knowledge even lead to systematically better predictions than more knowledge? Simple Heuristics explores these questions, developing computational models of heuristics and testing them through experiments and analyses. It shows how fast and frugal heuristics can produce adaptive decisions in situations as varied as choosing a mate, dividing resources among offspring, predicting high school drop out rates, and playing the stock market. As an interdisciplinary work that is both useful and engaging, this book will appeal to a wide audience. It is ideal for researchers in cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science, as well as in economics and artificial intelligence. It will also inspire anyone interested in simply making good decisions.
A two-phased experiment tested the hypothesis that the presumption of guilt that underlies police interrogations activates a process of behavioral confirmation. In Phase I, 52 suspects guilty or innocent of a mock theft were questioned by 52 interrogators led to believe that most suspects were guilty or innocent. Interrogators armed with guilty as opposed to innocent expectations selected more guilt-presumptive questions, used more interrogation techniques, judged the suspect to be guilty, and exerted more pressure to get a confession--particularly when paired with innocent suspects. In Phase II, neutral observers listened to audiotapes of the suspect, interrogator, or both. They perceived suspects in the guilty expectations condition as more defensive--and as somewhat more guilty. Results indicate that a presumption of guilt sets in motion a process of behavioral confirmation by which expectations influence the interrogator's behavior, the suspect's behavior, and ultimately the judgments of neutral observers.
This volume, a sequel to The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony which is widely acclaimed by both scientists and practitioners, brings the field completely up-to-date and focuses in particular on aspects of vulnerability, confabulation and false confessions. The is an unrivalled integration of scientific knowledge of the psychological processes and research relating to interrogation, with the practical investigative and legal issues that bear upon obtaining, and using in court, evidence from interrogations of suspects. Accessible style which will appeal to academics, students and practitioners. Authoritative integration of theory, research, practical implications and vivid case illustration. Coverage of topical issues like confabulation, false memory, and false confessions. Part of the Wiley Series in The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law.
With the introduction of recording facilities in police interview rooms, the techniques that officers adopt when questioning suspects are being increasingly subjected to scrutiny. The research reported in this article, based upon 600 audio and video tapes recorded in three police forces in 1989 and 1990, examines the way in which interviews with suspects were conducted. The study suggests that greater efforts will need to be made in the future if public concern about interview procedures is to be assuaged. © 1993 The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency.
Motivating cooperation in official police interviews is a central professional challenge across jurisdictions and cultures. Rapport-building is regarded as a critical antecedent of interviewee cooperation, but relatively little is known about how rapport is developed in practice. A total of 123 experienced intelligence and investigative interviewers from five Asian-Pacific jurisdictions (Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea and Sri Lanka) participated in in-depth interviews (mean 68 min) about rapport-building techniques used with high-value interviewees. The majority of participants had more than 10 years' experience and 63% had conducted between 100 and 500 interviews. Responses were recorded, transcribed and de-identified for systematic deductive analysis according to the principles of persuasion outlined by Cialdini, to assess the nature and extent of forms of social influence strategies applied. Reported rapport-development techniques were classifiable as one or more of these six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. Results revealed that liking and reciprocity were the principles that encompassed the most ubiquitously and frequently reported rapport-development strategies across jurisdictions. Liking was established through similarity and humour, although at times dissimilarity was effective. Few practitioners simulated liking; the majority were sincere. Techniques encompassed by the principles of authority, commitment-consistency and social proof were culture-bound and more diverse. Results confirmed the generalisability of social influence theory to the policing context across diverse legal systems and cultures. By applying psychological theory to advance understanding of rapport-building, best practices and policies were identified in a field where few standards exist. Notwithstanding the limitations of self-reports, strong practitioner support emerged for the effectiveness of noncoercive social persuasion strategies in high-stakes police interviews.
WASHINGTON -The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials. The unusually expansive authority for the C.I.A. to operate independently was provided by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials said. The process, known as rendition, has been central in the government's efforts to disrupt terrorism, but has been bitterly criticized by human rights groups on grounds that the practice has violated the Bush administration's public pledge to provide safeguards against torture. In providing a detailed description of the program, a senior United States official said that it had been aimed only at those suspected of knowing about terrorist operations, and emphasized that the C.I.A. had gone to great lengths to ensure that they were detained under humane conditions and not tortured. The official would not discuss any legal directive under which the agency operated, but said that the "C.I.A. has existing authorities to lawfully conduct these operations." The official declined to be named but agreed to discuss the program to rebut the assertions that the United States used the program to secretly send people to other countries for the purpose of torture. The transfers were portrayed as an alternative to what American officials have said is the costly, manpower-intensive process of housing them in the United States or in American-run facilities in other countries. In recent weeks, several former detainees have described being subjected to coercive interrogation techniques and brutal treatment during months spent in detention under the program in Egypt and other countries. The official would not discuss specific cases, but did not dispute that there had been instances in which prisoners were mistreated. The official said none had died.
Research shows that rapport has a number of positive effects on interviewing. Defined here as a smooth, positive interpersonal interaction, rapport can increase the amount of information provided by witnesses and sources, increase trust, and produce more cooperation, and faster agreement in negotiations. Despite the importance of rapport, law enforcement and intelligence interviewers often fail to build rapport adequately. This study identifies seven tactics for rapport building supported by empirical research, such as nonverbal mimicry and self-disclosure. Other considerations for practitioners include potential trade-offs of rapport-building tactics, source resistance, and the use of interpreters. These topics also represent rich areas for future research.
Krippendorff’s alpha (α) is a reliability coefficient developed to measure the agreement among observers, coders, judges, raters, or measuring instruments drawing distinctions among typically unstructured phenomena or assign computable values to them. α emerged in content analysis but is widely applicable wherever two or more methods of generating data are applied to the same set of objects, units of analysis, or items and the question is how much the resulting data can be trusted to represent something real.
This Article reviews the law on deceptive interrogation practices, discusses empirical evidence of the role police deception plays in eliciting false confessions and argues that the law should circumscribe interrogation techniques that rely on misrepresentation to induce suspects into incriminating themselves. This Article also asserts that there are good policy reasons, in addition to the increasing exposure of wrongful convictions, which should encourage courts and legislators to proscribe the use of deception by law enforcement in a criminal justice system expressly designed to elicit the truth about a crime.
‘Society cannot afford investigative interviewing to be poor. This affects people's perceptions of the criminal justice system. The guilty get away, the innocent are convicted, justice for children and vulnerable adults is inadequate. Poor interviewing is of no value to anyone; it is a waste of time, resources and money. No one wins. People will not come forward if they have no confidence in the quality of investigators’ interviewing techniques.' Milne and Bull11.
Milne , R and
Bull , R . 1999. Investigative interviewing, psychology and practice, Chichester: Wiley. View all references
The Cognitive Interview (CI) was compared with a standard interview protocol (based on the National Transportation Safety Board) to interview witnesses of a videotaped traffic accident. Witnesses were tested twice, five minutes after viewing the accident and again two weeks later. The CI elicited approximately 70% more correct facts than did the standard interview, and at equivalent accuracy rates, at both the first interview and the second interview. The double-testing procedure generated novel data patterns that may allow us to identify incorrect recollections; other results lead us to question some legal assumptions about the diagnosticity of inconsistent recollections.
growing interest in decision making in psychology is evidenced by the recent publication of Edwards' review article in the Psychological Bulletin (1) and the Santa Monica Conference volume, Decision Processes (7). In this work, much attention has been focused on the characterization of rational choice, and because the latter topic has been a central concern in economics, the theory of decision making has become a natural meeting ground for psycho- logical and economic theory. A comparative examination of the models of adaptive behavior employed in psychology (e.g., learning theories), and of the models of rational behavior employed in economics, shows that in almost all respects the latter postulate a much greater complexity in the choice mechanisms, and a much larger capacity in the organism for obtaining information and performing computations, than do the former. Moreover, in the limited range of situations where the predictions of the two theories have been compared (see (7, Ch. 9, 10, 18)), the learn- ing theories appear to account for the observed behavior rather better than do the theories of rational behavior. Both from these scanty data and from an examination of the postulates of the economic models it appears probable that, however adaptive the behavior of or- ganisms in learning and choice situations, this adaptiveness falls far short of the ideal of "maximizing" postulated in economic theory. Evidently, organisms adapt well enough to "satisfice"; they do not, in general, "optimize." If this is the case, a great deal can be learned about rational decision making by taking into account, at the outset, the limitations upon the capacities and com- plexity of the organism, and by taking account of the fact that the environments to which it must adapt possess properties that permit further simplication of its choice mechanisms. It may be useful, therefore, to ask: How simple a set of choice mechanisms can we postulate and still obtain the gross features of observed adap- tive choice behavior? In a previous paper (6) I have put forth some suggestions as to the kinds of "approximate" rationality that might be employed by an organism possessing limited information and limited computational facilities. The suggestions were "hypothetical" in that, lacking definitive knowledge of the human decisional processes, we can only conjecture on the basis of our everyday experiences, our introspection, and a very limited body of psychological literature what these
This article will examine the nature of deportation as a logic that upholds state sovereignty and constructions of citizenship through technologies of exclusion, discipline, and `removal'. Regulations of immigrant populations by the state rely on notions of unwanted bodies that contaminate or threaten the national body politic and so must be cleansed from national territory. My research focuses on the impact of post-9/11 policies of surveillance, detention, and deportation of Muslim immigrants that were part of the US state's War on Terror and were bolstered by ideas of protecting `national security' from `internal' and `external' terrorist threats. The paranoia and nativism accompanying this siege mentality overlooks the ways in which deportation is, on the one hand, an economic policy of the neoliberal state that disciplines labor and depresses wages, and on the other, is also a political instrument for repressing movements that oppose US polices at home and abroad.
In this paper we provide a model of interviewer–respondent interaction in survey interviews. Our model is primarily focused on the occurrence of problems within this interaction that seem likely to affect data quality. Both conversational principles and cognitive processes, especially where they do not match the requirements of the respondent's task, are assumed to affect the course of interactions. The cognitive processes involved in answering a survey question are usually described by means of four steps: interpretation, retrieval, judgement and formatting. Each of these steps may be responsible for different overt problems, such as requests for clarification or inadequate answers. Such problems are likely to affect the course of the interaction through conversational principles which may cause, for example, suggestive behaviour on the part of the interviewer, which may in turn yield new problematic behaviours. However, the respondent may not be the only one who experiences cognitive problems; the interviewer may also have such problems, for example with respect to explaining question meaning to the respondent. Thus the model proposed here, unlike most of the other models which concentrate on the respondent, tries to incorporate cognitive processes and conversational principles with respect to both interviewer and respondent. In particular, the model looks at how cognitive processes and conversational principles affect both the interaction between interview participants and the quality of the eventual answers.
This article focuses on the interrogatory stage of police investigation, considering (1) how and why the rather muddled legal theory authorizing deceptive interrogation developed; (2) what deceptive interrogation practices police, in fact, engage in; and a far more difficult question (3) whether police should ever employ trickery and deception during interrogation in a democratic society valuing fairness in its judicial process.
This article takes the reader inside the interrogation room in order to analyze the characteristics, context and outcome of police interrogation practices in America. This study is the first in over twenty-five years to examine routine police interrogation practices in America through field research. The data is based on nine months of observation in a major, urban police department involving 122 interrogations and 45 detectives. It also relies on 60 videotaped custodial interrogations from two additional police departments. The article attempts to fill in the gap left by criminal interrogation scholars who have failed to employ empirical research on police interrogation practices in their studies. The article asserts that the techniques that Miranda was designed to address, such as undermining suspects' confidence in their denials and confronting suspects with fabricated evidence of their guilt, continue to be used in contemporary American police interrogations. It also suggests that interrogators have become increasingly successful at eliciting incriminating information from custodial suspects in the last thirty years. These findings confirm that interrogation methods exert a fateful effect on criminal cases at every subsequent stage in the criminal justice system.
Governments sometimes characterize torture as an indispensable interrogation tool for gathering strategic intelligence. In this article, we review the relevant social scientific research on the effectiveness, impact, and causes of torture. First, we summarize research on false confessions and examine the relevance of that research for torture-based interrogations. Next, we review research on the mental health consequences of torture for survivors and perpetrators. Finally, we explore the social-psychological conditions that promote acts of cruelty (such as those seen at Abu Ghraib) and examine the arguments typically offered to justify the use of torture. We argue that any hypothesized benefits from the use of torture must be weighed against the substantial proven costs of torture. These costs include the unreliable information extracted through interrogations using torture, the mental and emotional toll on victims and torturers, loss of international stature and credibility, and the risk of retaliation against soldiers and civilians.
Our police, with no legal sanction whatever, employ duress, threat, bullying, a vast amount of moderate physical abuse and a certain degree of outright torture; and their inquisitions customarily begin with the demand: If you know what's good for you, you'll confess. (Ernest Jerome Hopkins, 1931)1
Today, Ness Said, interrogation is not a matter of forcing suspects to confess but of conning them. Really, what we do is just to bullshit them (William Hart, 1981)2
There is an interesting irony at work here: restrict police use of coercion, and the use of deception increases. (Gary Marx, 1988)3
In both popular discourse and academic scholarship one continually encounters references to the tradition-bound police who are resistant to change. Nothing could be further from the truth. The history of the American police over the past 100 years is the history of drastic, if not radical, change. (Samuel Walker, 1977)4
This paper describes two fundamental modes of thinking. The experiential mode, is intuitive, automatic, natural, and based upon images to which positive and negative affective feelings have been attached through learning and experience. The other mode is analytic, deliberative, and reason based. I describe recent empirical research illuminating “the affect heuristic” wherein people rapidly consult their affective feelings, when making judgments and decisions. This heuristic enables us to be rational actors in many situations. It works beautifully when experience enables us to anticipate accurately how we will like or dislike the consequences of our decisions. However, it fails miserably when the consequences turn out to be much different than we anticipated. In the latter circumstances, the rational actor may well become the rational fool.
The tense security environment produced by 9/11 and subsequent terrorist bombings in Madrid, London as well as in Arab states from Morocco to Jordan had an impact on the understanding of various actors about political Islam, but this did not automatically entail a convergence of views or solutions to existing dilemmas. This article examines examples of security discourse towards Islam at three levels: at the level of the national member state (in the case of the United Kingdom), at the level of the European Union (EU) and at the level of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP.) It highlights that while there has been a progressive securitization of political Islam at the national level within the UK, there is an absence of a coherent agenda on the part of the EU, and between the EU and the Arab Euro-Mediterranean partners there is increasing divergence towards security issues.
This research concerns murderers' and sexual offenders' experiences of Swedish police interviews and their attitudes towards allegations of these serious crimes. The explorative study is based on a questionnaire answered by 83 men convicted of murder or sexual offences. Results show that when police officers interview murderers and sexual offenders, the individuals perceive attitudes that are characterized by either dominance or humanity. Logistic regression shows that police interviews marked by dominance are mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity is associated with admissions. When suspects feel that they are respected and acknowledged, they probably gain more confidence and mental space, allowing them to admit criminal behaviour.