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Challenges of a “toolbox” approach to investigative interviewing: A critical analysis of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) Phased Interview Model.
... International hat teilweise ein Umdenken stattgefunden (Snook et al. 2020). Beispielsweise haben sich Unternehmen wie Wicklander und Zulawski (www.w-z.com) ...
... reid.com). Snook et al. (2020) beschreiben jedoch, dass dies in Kanada zu einem "Werkzeugkasten" bei Ermittelnden führt: In diesen nehmen sie wissenschaftlich-fundierte und effektive Vernehmungstaktiken auf, wenn sie ihren Bedürfnissen entsprechen; jedoch greifen sie auch weiterhin bei Bedarf auf Taktiken wie Minimierung und Maximierung zurück. Die subjektive Notwendigkeit zum Rückgriff auf diese Taktiken dürfte besonders dann vorliegen, wenn Vernehmende von der Schuld der Beschuldigten überzeugt sind, weitere belastende Beweise fehlen und sie mit einem offenen Vernehmungsvorgehen kein Geständnis erzielen können (May 2021). ...
... Die subjektive Notwendigkeit zum Rückgriff auf diese Taktiken dürfte besonders dann vorliegen, wenn Vernehmende von der Schuld der Beschuldigten überzeugt sind, weitere belastende Beweise fehlen und sie mit einem offenen Vernehmungsvorgehen kein Geständnis erzielen können (May 2021). Dabei scheint es zu einer Abnahme in der Anwendung von Maximierungstaktiken zu kommen, wohingegen Minimierungstaktiken weiter angewendet werden (Snook et al. 2020). Ähnliche Muster ergeben sich teilweise auch in Gesprächen mit Polizist*innen aus Deutschland. ...
Einzelberichte deuten auf die Verwendung von Vernehmungstaktiken in Deutschland hin, die die Schwere der Tat und die Konsequenzen eines Geständnisses herunterspielen (Minimierung) und die vorhandenen Beweise und die Schwere der Konsequenzen von bestreitenden Aussagen übertreiben (Maximierung). Forschungsarbeiten zeigen jedoch, dass solche Taktiken die Rate falscher Geständnisse erheblich erhöhen. Es wird im vorliegenden Beitrag argumentiert, dass Minimierungs- und Maximierungstaktiken darauf abzielen, eine Aussagemotivation bei Beschuldigten (Zwischenziel) herzustellen, die in
eine Geständniserlangung übergehen soll (Hauptziel). Diese Annahme gründet auf einer vorgenommenen Systematisierung und Abgrenzung einzelner Vorgehensweisen dieser Taktiken. Außerdem erklärt der Beitrag kursorisch die sozialpsychologischen
Wirkungsweisen dieser Taktiken auf Geständnisentscheidungen. Dies soll helfen, zukünftig Wirkungsweisen einzelner Vorgehensweisen differenzierter wissenschaftlich zu untersuchen, besser zu verstehen und theoretisch zu begründen.
... Two decades of research have built a firm foundation for the notion that strategically disclosing evidence to suspects fosters the gathering of reliable and often incriminating information in an ethical and effective way Hartwig and Granhag 2015;Hartwig et al. 2016;Oleszkiewicz and Watson 2020;Sandham et al. 2020), and helps to obtain comprehensive accounts (Bull and Soukara 2010;Soukara 2005;Walsh and Bull 2012). Criminal investigators in a growing number of countries have been trained in several models of strategic interviewing (van Beek and Hoekendijk 2016;Clemens et al. 2019;King (2002) in Sukumar et al. 2016;Luke et al. 2016;Nilsson, personal communication, 2019, November, 27;Rachlew, personal communication, 2020, March, 3;Snook et al. 2020b). However, as stated in our introduction, the strategic interviewing research thus far has implicitly assumed that the evidence/information that is to be disclosed to the suspect is all correct information. ...
... Further research into the potential effects of unwittingly disclosing incorrect evidence/information to suspects is therefore required, especially since it is well established that consciously disclosing false evidence in criminal investigations can have enormous consequences on not only in what it tells guilty suspects about the strength of the interviewer's case (Bull 2014), but also on the likelihood of innocent suspects making false confessions (Cabbell et al. 2020;Gudjonsson 2003;Kassin and Kiechel 1996). Snook et al. (2020b) explicitly warn the police to not abuse strategic interviewing by disclosing inaccurate or hypothetical information. Follow-up research could address topics such as (i) what is the critical threshold for evidence/ information being accurate enough to be used safely within a model of strategic interviewing (see for example the findings of Smith and Bull 2013, regarding there currently not being much guidance on pre-interview information assessment), (ii) what corrective mechanisms need to be in place when preparing, conducting or evaluating the interview, and (iii) what happens subsequently in the investigations when a suspect contradicts the information that was collected earlier. ...
In criminal investigations, it may happen that the police will collect and use information that is actually incorrect. Making sure that such error is detected and corrected is part of the legal and operational burden placed on any investigating officer, but especially on the Senior Investigative Officer (SIO). This present study explored to what degree different interview styles will affect SIO decision-making, since interviewing witnesses and suspects is an important source of information for the police. A sample of 115 Dutch and Norwegian SIOs therefore performed an online vignette task. They read about a fictitious, but realistic case and received a report of an interview with the suspect. In this interview, the suspect had provided an alibi for one of the pieces of information that were disclosed to her and that actually was an incorrect piece of information. In the report the SIOs received, the interviewer either picked up the alibi (adaptive style), reacted indifferently to it (neutral) or discredited it right away (maladaptive). A significant effect was found for interview style being associated with SIOs’ responsiveness: the SIOs who read the adaptive or neutral interview report were significantly more responsive to the alibi than those who read the maladaptive report. The implications of this finding are discussed.
... Two decades of research have built a firm foundation for the notion that strategically disclosing evidence to suspects fosters the gathering of reliable and often incriminating information in an ethical and effective way Hartwig and Granhag 2015;Hartwig et al. 2016;Oleszkiewicz and Watson 2020;Sandham et al. 2020), and helps to obtain comprehensive accounts (Bull and Soukara 2010;Soukara 2005;Walsh and Bull 2012). Criminal investigators in a growing number of countries have been trained in several models of strategic interviewing (van Beek and Hoekendijk 2016;Clemens et al. 2019;King (2002) in Sukumar et al. 2016;Luke et al. 2016;Nilsson, personal communication, 2019, November, 27;Rachlew, personal communication, 2020, March, 3;Snook et al. 2020b). However, as stated in our introduction, the strategic interviewing research thus far has implicitly assumed that the evidence/information that is to be disclosed to the suspect is all correct information. ...
... Further research into the potential effects of unwittingly disclosing incorrect evidence/information to suspects is therefore required, especially since it is well established that consciously disclosing false evidence in criminal investigations can have enormous consequences on not only in what it tells guilty suspects about the strength of the interviewer's case (Bull 2014), but also on the likelihood of innocent suspects making false confessions (Cabbell et al. 2020;Gudjonsson 2003;Kassin and Kiechel 1996). Snook et al. (2020b) explicitly warn the police to not abuse strategic interviewing by disclosing inaccurate or hypothetical information. Follow-up research could address topics such as (i) what is the critical threshold for evidence/ information being accurate enough to be used safely within a model of strategic interviewing (see for example the findings of Smith and Bull 2013, regarding there currently not being much guidance on pre-interview information assessment), (ii) what corrective mechanisms need to be in place when preparing, conducting or evaluating the interview, and (iii) what happens subsequently in the investigations when a suspect contradicts the information that was collected earlier. ...
Skillfully presenting evidence/information to suspects is one of the few interviewing techniques that increases the likelihood of guilty suspects providing information or making a confession, without making innocent ones do so as well. It is important that this evidence/information is correct, since deliberately disclosing incorrect evidence poses some risks. Also, in real-life interviews, police interviewers may unwittingly disclose incorrect evidence, for example when a witness was mistaken and provided the police with incorrect information. The present study examined the behavior of fifty police interviewers in interviews with “suspects” of a scripted crime: what is their response when the interviewees try to explain to them that some of the evidence/information just disclosed by them is incorrect? Eleven interviewers responded adaptively (by actively picking up on this new information), 35 responded in a neutral way and four responded maladaptively (by discrediting the interviewee’s claim). Experience and a full interview training had a significant negative relationship with adaptiveness. These results indicate that, when preparing and conducting interviews with suspects, greater awareness is needed of the possibility that some of the evidence/information that is to be disclosed could be incorrect, and therefore it is crucial that suspects’ responses which suggest such may be the case are taken into account.
... The positive association between reported rapport-based interviewing behaviours and positive interview outcomes also adds to the growing body of research on the benefits of a rapport-focused, information-gathering interviewing approach. Not only has the approach and its elements been linked to positive outcomes such as quantity of investigation relevant information and reduced resistance (Alison et al., 2013(Alison et al., , 2014Baker-Eck et al., 2021;Collins & Carthy, 2018;Nunan et al., 2020;Walsh & Bull, 2010), increased potential for deception detection (Granhag & Vrij, 2010;Sandham et al., 2022;Vrij, 2014) and accurate confessions (Leahy-Harland & Bull, 2017;Meissner et al., 2014;Wachi et al., 2018), the approach has generally been perceived to be fair, research-informed and ethical (Snook et al., 2020). This in turn, contributes to enhancing the trust and confidence of the public in law enforcement and security agencies. ...
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.
... For instance, a survey of active practitioners found that American and Canadian practitioners were more likely to endorse the use of accusatorial techniques, while practitioners from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand were more likely to adopt science-based approaches (Miller et al., 2018). In the transition to science-based approaches, seasoned practitioners may adopt a "toolbox" approach that includes the continued use of accusatorial tactics (Snook et al., 2020). Such an approach can undermine the investigative value of science- ...
Interviewing and interrogation practices have evolved over the past century. “Third degree” methods of physical and psychological coercion were replaced by psychologically-manipulative tactics that seek a confession; however, it was not until instances of false confession that led to wrongful conviction came to light that investigative interviewing begin to transition from accusatorial methods to science-based approaches. In this chapter, we review the coercive interrogation methods of the past and their influence on false confessions. We then explore science-based interviewing, discussing the benefits of productive questioning tactics, memory-based tactics, rapport-based approaches, strategic presentation of evidence, and strategic questioning to assess credibility. To conclude, we discuss the need for collaborations between practitioners and researchers as the field shifts to a comprehensive science-based interviewing model.
... Still, significant barriers remain in the adoption of science-based investigative interviewing practices. Among the most vexing is what scholars refer to as the 'toolbox approach' (Snook et al., 2020), a form of resistance to organizational change in which practitioners engage the piecemeal adoption of some evidence-based practices while retaining the use of problematic customary practices. In this context, supporting change requires that scholars offer a holistic model of investigative interviewing that negates any reliance upon accusatorial practices -one that can address resistance to cooperation absent the coercive strategies that can lead to false confessions and that incorporates strategies for reducing the influence of investigative biases and problematic questioning approaches. ...
Investigative interviews are an essential tool for any criminal investigation and are conducted across a variety of contexts and subject populations. In each context, key psychological processes function to regulate communication between an interviewer and a subject – from developing rapport and trust, to facilitating memory retrieval, to assessing credibility. Over the past 50 years, research on investigative interviewing has dramatically increased to include assessing cooperative interviews with witnesses/victims, interviews with more resistant suspects and sources, and interviewing to detect deception. We review the various topics that have been examined and discuss three fundamental challenges to eliciting the truth: (i) investigative biases, (ii) the frailty of human memory, and (iii) resistance to providing information. We then introduce a model of science-based investigative interviewing that encompasses both relational and informational tactics shown to be effective in developing rapport and trust, eliciting accurate information, and facilitating judgments of credibility. Finally, we discuss the policy and practice implications of this research, including recent efforts at reform around the world.
... In line with other informationgathering approaches like the PEACE method (Bull, 2020), here we experimentally demonstrated benefits to interrogation outcomes with techniques that contrast with traditional and problematic methods used in countries such as the United States and Canada. Given the now substantial body of research demonstrating the utility of evidence-based interviewing in eliciting reliable, diagnostic information (Brandon et al., 2018;Meissner et al., 2015), it is time that we press for policies that explicitly prohibit the use of demonstrably problematic techniques and instead require the training and use of evidence-based interviewing approaches (Snook et al., 2020). ...
Rapport-based approaches have become a central tenet of investigative interviewing with suspects and sources. Here we explored the utility of using rapport-building tactics (i.e., self-disclosure and interviewer feedback) to overcome barriers to cooperation in the interviewing domain. Across two experiments using the illegal behaviors paradigm (Dianiska et al., 2019), participants completed a checklist of illegal behaviors and were then interviewed about their background and interests (the interpersonal interview) as well as about their prior participation in an illegal act (the illegal behavior interview). During the interpersonal interview, we manipulated whether the participant’s disclosure was unilateral or reciprocal (Experiment 1; N = 124), and whether the interviewer self-disclosed and/or provided the participant with verifying feedback in response to the participant’s disclosures (Experiment 2; N = 210). Participants were then asked to provide a statement about the most serious illegal behavior to which they had admitted. For both experiments, participants provided more information about the prior illegal act when the interviewer provided information about themselves. Further, there was a significant increase in the amount of information elicited from the participant when the interviewer highlighted similarity with the participant. In line with prior work, we found support for an indirect relationship between the use of rapport-building tactics and disclosure that was mediated by the participant’s perception of rapport and their decision to cooperate.
An online magazine article published in the February 2021 issue of the BlueLine Police Magazine https://www.blueline.ca/re-visiting-a-decade-old-call-for-reform-in-interview-training/
The current study is the first phase of a larger evaluation of the Vermont State Police (VSP) PEACE Model interview training program. This evaluation measures the impact of the program on trainees’ interviewing knowledge and attitudes, and opinions about the program. VSP Members participating in Tier 1 (N = 72) and Tier 2 (N = 46) PEACE interview training completed a questionnaire, both before and after training, about (1) their knowledge of interviewing and related concepts, (2) their attitudes about various interviewing practices, and (3) their beliefs about the training session. Results showed that training had a large effect on knowledge for participants in both training courses. As well, a majority of Tier 1 and Tier 2 trainees reported attitudes in line with scientific consensus after training. Specifically, most items related to eyewitness testimony, memory, and coercion were endorsed post-training by the majority of officers, while items covering deception detection and interrogation rights were endorsed less frequently. Additionally, trainees reported that their training experience was quite positive. Implications for the program and future directions for training are discussed.
Minimization is a cohort of common interrogation tactics in which an interrogator attempts to alleviate a suspect’s anxiety associated with confessing to a crime. Although American courts have ruled that promising leniency is coercive but minimization is not, previous psychological research suggests that minimization pragmatically implies that the suspect will receive a more lenient sentence in exchange for a confession. In six experiments (Ns = 413, 574, 496, 552, 489, 839), MTurkers read an interrogation transcript in which the suspect was (1) promised leniency, (2) subjected to moral minimization (or an honesty theme, Studies 4-6), or (3) questioned about the evidence (a control condition). We tested whether warnings about the impermissibility of promises of leniency and the interrogation tactic of minimization induce people to adjust their expectations of how severely a suspect will be sentenced. Warnings about leniency were effective at repairing sentencing expectations when participants read an interrogation with a direct promise, but such warnings were ineffective when they read an interrogation that used minimization. Information about the tactic of minimization had no effect on sentencing expectations. Planned mediation analyses suggest that moral minimization techniques decrease sentencing expectations after a confession by influencing perceived crime severity. Themes about the importance of honesty are similar to illegal direct promises in that they decrease confession sentence expectations by implying that leniency will be forthcoming in exchange for a confession. The effects of minimization on sentencing expectations are robust. Therefore, there may be cause to review the legality of such tactics.
The concept of minimization has been a focal point of research on police interrogations in part because of its widespread use and endorsement in interrogation training. Minimization, however, refers to a wide range of specific techniques, and research into it has tended to focus almost exclusively on suspect admissions at the expense of other suspect behaviors. Our purpose in the present study was to scrutinize and closely examine minimization as a concept and an interrogation method. Using a sample of approximately 45 hr of recordings of American police interrogations of suspects later convicted of serious, violent crime, we operationally defined and measured three minimization techniques-appealing to the suspect's self-interest, appealing to the suspect's conscience, and offering rationalizations-and examined them in relation to three "suspect engagement" measures-crying, making excuses, or seeking information-and how each were related to suspect admissions. Descriptively, the minimization techniques were among the most commonly observed techniques in the sample and in bivariate analyses, appealing to the suspect's conscience was related to the suspect crying and appealing to self-interest was associated with seeking information. None of the techniques was positively associated with suspect admissions, but suspect crying and making excuses were. The final mediated models showed that several minimization techniques indirectly influenced admissions through suspect engagement variables. In short, this study presents a more complete picture of the relationship between common interrogation techniques and suspect admissions. Future research should account for these and other engagement measures to fully understand interrogation as the complex phenomenon it is.
Suspect interviewing and interrogation practices have been studied in many different countries, including those in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. These studies have produced useful and interesting findings, while also leaving an opening for future inquiry. Specifically, previous research has noted that we might expect interrogation and interviewing practices to vary among different countries or regions, due to distinct approaches to suspect questioning. However, to our knowledge, few previous studies have examined the comparative use of tactics, techniques, and procedures employed to elicit confessions and information from criminal suspects across multiple countries. In the present study, using a consistent survey, we contrasted the interviewing and interrogation practices of 185 practitioners from America, Canada, and Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In large part, we found that American and Canadian interrogators were similar to one another, and conformed to an accusatorial approach (in both deception detection and questioning techniques). In contrast, interviewers from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand conformed more to an information-gathering approach.
Interrogation practices in the United States have been roundly criticized both for their accusatorial
ethos, at times leading to false confessions by the innocent, and for a history of applying physical
and psychological coercion in law enforcement, military, and intelligence contexts. Despite decades
of psychological research demonstrating the failures of such approaches and despite recent positive
advances in countries such as the United Kingdom moving to an information-gathering framework,
little change has occurred in the training or practice of U.S. interrogation professionals over the past
50 years. This paper describes recent historical events that have led to the development of the first
unclassified, government-funded research program on the science of interviewing and interrogation.
Since 2010, the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) Research Program has identified
effective approaches for developing cooperation and rapport, eliciting information, challenging
inconsistencies by presenting evidence or information strategically, and assessing credibility using
cognitive cues and strategic questioning tactics. The program has also examined the influence of
culture and language, and has facilitated the translation of research from the laboratory to the field.
In this context, we review the significant contributions of psychologists to understanding and
developing ethical, legal, and effective interrogation practices, and we describe important future
directions for research on investigative interviewing and interrogation.
Bait questions—where an investigator questions a suspect about the existence of hypothetical evidence—are a widely employed interviewing tactic. We examined whether these bait questions are a vehicle for misinformation to enter a criminal case, leading mock jurors to misremember the evidence. Adapting the misinformation effect paradigm, participants read a police report describing several pieces of evidence, then watched a police interview including bait questions that provided misleading information about the collected evidence. In Studies 1 and 2, participants’ memory for evidence they were misled about was significantly less accurate than control evidence. Indeed, participants came to believe the hypothetical evidence proposed in the bait questions actually existed. In Studies 3 and 4, participants read warnings—varying in their specificity—about the misleading bait questions. These warnings were ineffective at mitigating the misinformation effect. Bait questions may, therefore, be a source of error in juror's decision-making, leading to wrongful convictions.
The ability to predict confessions and cooperation from the elements of an interrogation was examined. Incarcerated men (N = 100) completed a 50-item questionnaire about their most recent police interrogation, and regression analyses were performed on self-reported decisions to confess and cooperate. Results showed that the likelihood of an interrogation resulting in a confession was greatest when evidence strength and score on a humanitarian interviewing scale were high, and when the detainee had few previous convictions or did not seek legal advice. We also found that the level of cooperation was greatest when the humanitarian interviewing score was high, and when previous convictions were low. The implications of the findings for interrogation practices are discussed. © 2015, 2015 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology.
Legal decision-making studies often demonstrate context effects: People's initial beliefs about a suspect's guilt influence their evaluation of subsequent evidence. We examine three potential moderators of these context effects: Order of evidence presentation, ability to ruminate, and valence of the initial belief (innocence or guilt). College students (n = 382) were presented with DNA evidence (incriminating or exonerating) and an ambiguous alibi in one of two orders (or just the alibi), and then evaluated how strongly the alibi incriminated the suspect and the suspect's likelihood of guilt. Results indicated that alibi evaluation exhibited context effects when (i) initial beliefs were of guilt (but not of innocence) and when (ii) evaluating subsequent evidence (but not when retroactively evaluating prior evidence). Rumination failed to moderate any effects. The integration of evidence exhibited recency effects: DNA had a greater impact on participants' beliefs in the suspect's guilt when presented last rather than first. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this chapter, the authors frame their review of American interrogation practices with a brief history of how control-based, accusatorial methods became the hallmark of law enforcement interrogation in the United States. The most popular training manuals and courses, such as the Kinesic Interview, the Reid Technique, and Wicklander-Zulawski and Associates, tend to focus on the psychological manipulation of suspects in order to elicit confessions. The research conducted on American interrogation practices reviewed in this chapter supports the notion that police investigators regularly do, in fact, employ these techniques (though not exclusively). These practices are then examined in light of the growing body of experimental research that has found such an accusatorial approach to interrogation to be less effective at eliciting true confessions from criminal suspects when compared with other rapport-based elicitation models. The authors conclude the chapter with a look to a future of American interrogation, across law enforcement, military, and human intelligence (HUMINT) contexts, that is based on scientific validation and assessment.
Recent controversies over the use of psychologically manipulative interrogation methods by U.S. law enforcement, and public concerns regarding the use of physically coercive interrogation methods, have highlighted the need for evidence-based, ethical approaches to facilitate the collection of diagnostic information during interrogation. Over the past few years, our laboratory has sought to better understand the psychological processes that might distinguish true and false confessions from guilty and innocent persons, respectively. Various psychological or decision-making models have been proposed to account for the role of social, cognitive, and affective factors which may lead to a suspect truthfully or falsely confessing. Of note is that little empirical data has sought to assess the validity of these proposed theories. We present here a meta-analysis of the social, cognitive, and affective factors leading to confession across experimental laboratory studies we have conducted using the Russano et al. (Psychological Science 16:481–486, 2005) paradigm. We synthesize this research by proposing a process model that highlights key differences in the psychological states that lead to true and false confessions, focusing on the role of internal and external pressures to confess as the principle mediating mechanism. Specifically, truthful confessions were found to be associated with affect or the emotional response to the interrogation, perceptions of the strength of evidence regarding involvement in the incident, feelings of guilt and the perceived consequences of confessing. In contrast, false confessions were associated with the perceived external pressures originating both from the interrogator and the interrogative context, as well as a perception of the consequences of confessing. Thus, a conception of the role of internal and external psychological mechanisms leading to variation in true and false confessions will be discussed, including the implications of such findings for the development of interrogative approaches that can lead to the elicitation of diagnostic confession evidence.
Objectives: We completed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available empirical literature assessing the influence of accusatorial and information-gathering methods of interrogation in eliciting true and false confessions.
Methods: We conducted two separate meta-analyses. The first meta-analysis focused on observational field studies that assessed the association between certain interrogation methods and elicitation of a confession statement. The second meta-analysis focused on experimental, laboratory-based studies in which ground truth was known (i.e., a confession is factually true or false). We located 5 field studies and 12 experimental studies eligible for the meta-analyses. 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.
Results: Field studies revealed that both information-gathering and accusatorial approaches were more likely to elicit a confession when compared with direct questioning methods. However, experimental studies revealed that the information-gathering approach preserved, and in some cases increased, the likelihood of true confessions, while simultaneously reducing the likelihood of false confessions. In contrast, the accusatorial approach increased both true and false confessions when compared with a direct questioning method.
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.
The last two decades of research on interrogation were spurred, in large part, by the specter of false confessions and the resulting miscarriages of justice. More recently, interest in the topic has been fueled by the need for developing evidence-based methods that improve the collection of diagnostic confession evidence and accurate intelligence from human sources. In this review, we update the research on false confessions and describe recent assessments of scientifically validated approaches for obtaining cooperation, eliciting confessions, and detecting deceit. Studies are summarized through the prism of accusatorial versus information-gathering approaches to interrogation – the former rely upon psychological manipulation and control-based methods, whereas the latter focus on developing rapport and cooperation to elicit an account that can be strategically addressed via evidence presentation. The review concludes with recommendations for additional research to further improve the effectiveness of interrogations across a variety of contexts.
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)
We propose that suspects' counter-interrogation strategies vary as a function of their perception of the interrogator's knowledge about the events in question. The present study investigates the verbal behavior of guilty and innocent suspects when they are aware that there may be incriminating evidence against them. Participants (N = 143) took part in either a simulated act of terrorism or a benign task. They were then interviewed about their activities. Participants were randomly assigned to receive no additional information or to be informed that an investigative team may have collected evidence from surveillance cameras. Results suggest that when alerted to possible evidence against them, guilty suspects adopt either extremely withholding or extremely forthcoming verbal strategies. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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)
Persons who witnessed an automobile accident involving a green car were exposed to information that the car was blue. On a subsequent color recognition test, most subjects shifted their color selection in the direction of the misleading information and away from the actual perceived color. Shifting was greater for subjects who did not initially commit themselves to a color selection. Control subjects, who were not exposed to misleading information, distributed their chokes around the true color, and did not show a systematic color shift over time.
The real-life questioning practices of Canadian police officers were examined. Specifically, 80 transcripts of police interviews with suspects and accused persons were coded for the type of questions asked, the length of interviewee response to each question, the proportion of words spoken by interviewer(s) and interviewee, and whether or not a free narrative was requested. Results showed that, on average, less than 1% of the questions asked in an interview were open-ended, and that closed yes–no and probing questions composed approximately 40% and 30% of the questions asked, respectively. The longest interviewee responses were obtained from open-ended questions, followed by multiple and probing question types. A free narrative was requested in approximately 14% of the interviews. The 80–20 talking rule was violated in every interview. The implications of these findings for reforming investigative interviewing of suspects and accused persons are discussed.
As illustrated by the mistaken, high-profile fingerprint identification of Brandon Mayfield in the Madrid Bomber case, and consistent with a recent critique by the National Academy of Sciences (2009), it is clear that the forensic sciences are subject to contextual bias and fraught with error. In this article, we describe classic psychological research on primacy, expectancy effects, and observer effects, all of which indicate that context can taint people's perceptions, judgments, and behaviors. Then we describe recent studies indicating that confessions and other types of information can set into motion forensic confirmation biases that corrupt lay witness perceptions and memories as well as the judgments of experts in various domains of forensic science. Finally, we propose best practices that would reduce bias in the forensic laboratory as well as its influence in the courts.
Chapter reviews police interrogation tactics and the social influence principles underlying them, and considers their role in the production of false confession.
Despite the commonsense belief that people do not confess to crimes they did not commit, 20 to 25% of all DNA exonerations involve innocent prisoners who confessed. After distinguishing between voluntary, compliant, and internalized false confessions, this article suggests that a sequence of three processes is responsible for false confessions and their adverse consequences. First, police sometimes target innocent people for interrogation because of erroneous judgments of truth and deception. Second, innocent people sometimes confess as a function of certain interrogation tactics, dispositional suspect vulnerabilities, and the phenomenology of innocence. Third, jurors fail to discount even those confessions they see as coerced. At present, researchers are seeking ways to improve the accuracy of confession evidence and its evaluation in the courtroom.
An experiment demonstrated that false incriminating evidence can lead people to accept guilt for a crime they did not commit Subjects in a fast- or slow-paced reaction time task were accused of damaging a computer by pressing the wrong key All were truly innocent and initially denied the charge A confederate then said she saw the subject hit the key or did not see the subject hit the key Compared with subjects in the slow-pacelno-witness group, those in the fast-pace/witness group were more likely to sign a confession, internalize guilt for the event, and confabulate details in memory consistent with that belief Both legal and conceptual implications are discussed
In their study, Kassin and Kiechel (1996) falsely accused students of causing a computer crash and found that 69% of them were willing to sign a false confession, 28% internalized guilt, and 9% confabulated details to support their false beliefs. The authors interpreted these results to mean that false confessions can be easily elicited. However, in their study, false confessions were explicitly not associated with negative consequences. The current study examined whether false incriminating evidence may elicit false confessions in undergraduate students when such confessions are explicitly associated with financial loss. We also explored whether individual differences in compliance, suggestibility, fantasy-proneness, dissociation, and cognitive failures are related to false confessions. The large majority of participants (82%) were willing to sign a false confession. In about half of the participants, false confessions were accompanied by internalization and confabulation. There was no evidence that individual differences modulate participants' susceptibility to false confessions. Taken together, our study replicates previous findings of Kassin and Kiechel.
False images and videos can induce people to believe in and remember events that never happened. Using a novel method, we examined whether the timing of false evidence would influence its effect (Experiment 1) and determined the relationship between timing and repetition (Experiment 2). Subjects completed a hazard perception driving test and were falsely accused of cheating. Some subjects were shown a fake video or photograph of the cheating either after a 9-min delay (Experiment 1) or more than once with or without a delay (Experiment 2). Subjects were more likely to falsely believe that they had cheated and to provide details about how the cheating happened when the false evidence was delayed or repeated-especially when repeated over time-relative to controls. The results show that even a strikingly short delay between an event and when false evidence is disclosed can distort people's beliefs and that repeating false evidence over a brief delay fosters false beliefs more so than without a delay. These findings have theoretical implications for metacognitive models of autobiographical memory and practical implications for police interrogations.
Examines an often neglected aspect of human communication—its probabilistic nature, which frequently is reflected in semantic misinterpretations of the language-producer's message by the language comprehender. In a review of the psycholinguistic, linguistic, and philosophical literature dealing with this aspect of language, it is demonstrated that misinterpretation of the speaker's message due to the probabilistic nature of language is in fact related to a basic process of the hearer's information-processing system. Inferences that follow logically and necessarily from the speaker's directly asserted message are logical inferences. Pragmatic implications occur when utterances of the speaker strongly suggest (rather than directly assert or logically imply) another piece of information and may lead the hearer to make a pragmatic inference. Recent research has demonstrated in a variety of tasks that information that has been pragmatically inferred is recalled and recognized as if it had been directly asserted. This evidence is used to argue against performance theories that do not take the probabilistic nature of communication into account and to support a construction hypothesis that emphasizes the storage rather than the retrieval process as the locus of inference construction. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 1992, the police service of England and Wales adopted PEACE as a framework for interviewing suspects. This study was to evaluate the impact of PEACE interview training, workplace supervision and the presence of a legal advisor on the performance of police officers' interviewing suspects. One hundred seventy-four real-life interviews with suspects were obtained from six police forces in England and Wales. Officers trained and untrained in PEACE, and from police forces that did or did not have an interview supervision policy conducted the interviews. Interviews in this sample were generally of average standard. Whilst PEACE-trained officers conducted longer interviews, there were no other statistical differences dependent on training. Nor were there any statistical differences dependent on the presence of a legal advisor. A workplace supervision policy was found to be related to performance, particularly during the engage and explain phases of the interview. Supervision also appeared to provide some safeguards for suspects who did not have a legal advisor. Because the performance of PEACE-trained officers did not differ from those who had not received this training, further improvement in training is needed, especially regarding a number of communication skills. It is argued that such improvement would be facilitated by a more consistent approach to interviewer training and to the effective supervision of interviews.
Basic questions are raised concerning police interrogations, the risk of false confessions, and the impact that such evidence has on a jury. On the basis of available research, it was concluded that the criminal justice system currently does not afford adequate protection to innocent people branded as suspects and that there are serious dangers associated with confession evidence. The specific problems are threefold: (a) The police routinely use deception, trickery, and psychologically coercive methods of interrogation; (b) these methods may, at times, cause innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit; and (c) when coerced self-incriminating statements are presented in the courtroom, juries do not sufficiently discount the evidence in reaching a verdict. It is argued that the topic of confession evidence has largely been overlooked by the scientific community and that further research is needed to build a useful empirical foundation.
During suspect interviews, police will sometimes ask about hypothetical incriminating evidence to evoke a cue to deception – a technique known as a bait question. Previous research has demonstrated such questions can distort peoples’ memory for what evidence exists in a case. Here, we investigate whether such memory distortion can also cause people to see the suspect as more likely to be guilty. Across three experiments, we find exposure to bait questions led to participants hold inflated views of a suspect’s guilt. Further, we demonstrate bait questions cause reliable, robust memory distortion, leading participants to believe non-existent, incriminating evidence exists. However, we found no evidence to support the speculated mechanisms for this inflation – namely, (1) that source monitoring errors could lead people to misremember false evidence as real evidence and (2) that bait questions provide ‘key evidence’ to fill in the gaps of an incomplete theory of a case. In sum, bait questions have the problematic potential to shift jurors towards guilty verdicts. We suggest future research directions on bait questions, including the need for different designs to clarify why bait questions inflate guilt, and recommend practitioners avoid the use of bait questions.
This article describes an ethical and effective science-based model of interviewing. An initial planning phase assists the investigative team in separating facts from inferences, decreases the likelihood of errors based on cognitive biases, and prompts careful preparation of the environment. The interview begins with an explanation of why the subject is being questioned. The interviewer then metaphorically hands the interview over to the subject, making him the talker and the interviewer the listener. The interviewer engages in active listening, soliciting as much information from the subject as possible by deploying tactics that enhance memory based on science, including elements of the cognitive interview. Cues to deception are found in the details of the story, rather than in signs of anxiety or nonverbal behaviours, and by deploying Strategic Use of Evidence. This model has been shown to increase cooperation, decrease resistance, and provoke useful information in real-world criminal interviews.
Eighty-seven experts on the psychology of confessions—many of whom were highly published, many with courtroom experience—were surveyed online about their opinions on 30 propositions of relevance to deception detection, police interrogations, confessions, and relevant general principles of psychology. As indicated by an agreement rate of at least 80%, there was a strong consensus that several findings are sufficiently reliable to present in court. This list includes but is not limited to the proposition that the risk of false confessions is increased not only by explicit threats and promises but by 2 common interrogation tactics—namely, the false evidence ploy and minimization tactics that imply leniency by offering sympathy and moral justification. Experts also strongly agreed that the risk of undue influence is higher among adolescents, individuals with compliant or suggestible personalities, and those with intellectual impairments or diagnosed psychological disorders. Additional findings indicated that experts set a high standard before judging a proposition to be sufficiently reliable for court—and an even higher standard on the question “Would you testify?” Regarding their role as scientific experts, virtually all respondents stated that their primary objective was to educate the jury and that juries are more competent at evaluating confession evidence with assistance from an expert than without. These results should assist trial courts and expert witnesses in determining what aspects of the science are generally accepted and suitable for presentation in court.
Because most cases of alleged sexual assault involve few sources of evidence, the complainant’s testimony is crucial. In line with empirical research findings, the way in which police question sexual assault complainants has evolved to ultimately maximise both the completeness and accuracy of evidence. But has courtroom questioning changed over time? To answer this question, we compared the courtroom questioning of sexual assault complainants in the 1950s to that used in cases from the turn of the twenty-first century. Overall, lawyers in contemporary cases asked complainants more questions and uttered more words than they did historically. Complainants, too, appear to have become more vocal over time. Across the two time periods, the questioning style used by prosecuting lawyers has shifted towards a more open style. In stark contrast, the format of cross-examination questions has remained remarkably consistent over time, with leading questions still making up the bulk of the questions asked. These findings have important implications for future legal reform and legal practice.
A second wave of false confessions is cresting. In the first twenty-one years of post-conviction DNA testing, 250 innocent people were exonerated, forty of which had falsely confessed. Those false confessions attracted sustained public attention from judges, law enforcement, policymakers, and the media. Those exonerations not only showed that false confessions can happen, but did more by shedding light on the problem of confession contamination, in which details of the crime are disclosed to suspects during the interrogation process. As a result, false confessions can appear deceptively rich, detailed, and accurate. In just the last five years, there has been a new surge in false confessions — a set of twenty-six more false confessions among DNA exonerations. All but two of these most recent confessions included crime scene details corroborated by crime scene information. Illustrating the power of contaminated false confessions, in nine of the cases, defendants were convicted despite DNA tests that excluded them at the time. As a result, this second wave of false confessions should cause even more alarm than the first. In the vast majority of cases there is no evidence to test using DNA. Unless a scientific framework is adopted to regulate interrogations, including by requiring recording of entire interrogations, overhauling interrogation methods, providing for judicial review of reliability at trial, and informing jurors with expert testimony, the insidious problems of confession contamination will persist.
Rapport-building is perceived by law enforcement as an essential ingredient to a successful investigative
interview. Despite its professed importance and longstanding recommendation within major interviewing
guidelines (e.g., the Cognitive Interview, the Army Field Manual), empirical studies have only recently
examined its impact on cooperative adult witnesses and criminal suspects. To accommodate the
burgeoning interest and corresponding research on rapport-building, this article reviews recent empirical
literature on its role and effectiveness during investigative interviews. First, this review summarizes
different definitions of rapport in clinical and investigatory contexts and the various rapport-building
techniques recommended and used with witnesses and suspects. Second, this review synthesizes empir-
ical research that has investigated the effects of rapport-building on cooperative witness accounts and its
impact on the diagnostic value of information retrieved from criminal suspects. This review concludes
with a discussion of public policy implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners.
The issue of whether misleading postevent information affects performance on the modified recognition test introduced by McCloskey and Zaragoza (1985) was examined in a meta-analysis. Results indicated that a misinformation effect can be obtained with the modified test. The meta-analysis also revealed that recognition hit rates are higher in studies that yield a misinformation effect than in studies in which the misinformation effect is not significant. The data from the meta-analysis were also used to assess whether the misinformation effect is related to the length of the retention interval. Results showed that a misinformation effect is more likely to be obtained with long retention intervals, although in the available data there is a confound between the length of the retention interval and the recognition level obtained.
Mass transit users frequently experience crowding during their commutes. In this study of 139 urban passenger train commuters during rush hour, we found that the density of the train car was inconsequential for multiple indices (self-report, salivary cortisol, performance aftereffects) of stress whereas the immediate seating density proximate to the passenger significantly affected all three indices. When people had to sit close to other passengers, they experienced adverse reactions. These results are consistent with prior work indicating that individual spacing among persons that leads to personal space invasions is a more salient environmental condition than density per se. The findings also have implications for the design of mass transit vehicles.
We investigated whether guided imagery instructions would increase the likelihood of false
memory creation and of remembering previously unremembered true events. In three interviews,
participants repeatedly were asked to remember several true events (based on parent reports)
and one false event (created by the experimenters). In a guided imagery condition, if participants
could not recall an event (either a true of a false event) they were asked to form a mental image
of the event and describe the image to the interviewer. In a control condition, if participants
could not recall an event they were asked to quietly think about the event for 1 min. Participants
in the imagery condition were more likely to create a false event and recover memories of
previously unavailable true events (although it was unclear whether the recovered memories
were truly recalled or created in response to the interview demands). We argue that the creation
of false childhood memories involves both memory reconstruction and errors in source monitoring.
Despite the obvious importance of eyewitness information in criminal investigation, police receive surprisingly little instruction on how to conduct an effective interview with a cooperative eyewitness (Sanders, 1986). . . . Reflecting this lack of formal training, police often maintain a less-than-rigorous attitude toward this phase of investigation. . . . It is not surprising, therefore, that police investigators often make avoidable mistakes when conducting a friendly interview and fail to elicit potentially valuable information. The intent of this book is to provide the police interviewer (INT) or any other investigative INT with a systematic approach so that he can elicit the maximum amount of relevant information from cooperative eyewitnesses (E/Ws).
The language of this book is couched in terms of police investigations, primarily because our research has been conducted with police participants. However, since the Cognitive Interview is based on general principles of cognition, it should be useful to anyone conducting an investigative interview, whether a police detective, fire marshal, state-, defense-, or civil attorney, private investigator, etc.
The Cognitive Interview has evolved over the past several years and reflects a multidisciplinary approach. We have relied heavily on the theoretical, laboratory research in cognitive psychology (hence the name "Cognitive Interview") that we and other psychologists have conducted over the past thirty years. . . . The Cognitive Interview . . . is an eclectic approach, making use of ideas found across a variety of people, research approaches and disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In two studies we examined the effect of questioner expertise on the error rates of subjects who were asked misleading versus unbiased questions. A total of 105 introductory psychology students watched a videotaped clip of a bank robbery and were then questioned about the crime. The questioner was represented to subjects as either highly knowledgeable or completely naive about the events the subject witnessed. One half of the subjects in each expertise condition were asked misleading questions, and the other half were asked unbiased questions. In the knowledgeable questioner conditions, misleading questions were associated with error rates significantly higher than those obtained with the unbiased questions (
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Client ambivalence is a key stumbling block to therapeutic efforts toward constructive change. Motivational interviewing—a nonauthoritative approach to helping people to free up their own motivations and resources—is a powerful technique for overcoming ambivalence and helping clients to get "unstuck." The first full presentation of this powerful technique for practitioners, this volume is written by the psychologists who introduced and have been developing motivational interviewing since the early 1980s.
In Part I, the authors review the conceptual and research background from which motivational interviewing was derived. The concept of ambivalence, or dilemma of change, is examined and the critical conditions necessary for change are delineated. Other features include concise summaries of research on successful strategies for motivating change and on the impact of brief but well-executed interventions for addictive behaviors.
Part II constitutes a practical introduction to the what, why, and how of motivational interviewing. . . . Chapters define the guiding principles of motivational interviewing and examine specific strategies for building motivation and strengthening commitment for change.
Rounding out the volume, Part III brings together contributions from international experts describing their work with motivational interviewing in a broad range of populations from general medical patients, couples, and young people, to heroin addicts, alcoholics, sex offenders, and people at risk for HIV [human immunodeficiency virus] infection. Their programs span the spectrum from community prevention to the treatment of chronic dependence.
All professionals whose work involves therapeutic engagement with such individuals—psychologists, addictions counselors, social workers, probations officers, physicians, and nurses—will find both enlightenment and proven strategies for effecting therapeutic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Failure to identify potential psychological vulnerabilities of people entering the Criminal Justice System continues to present a serious problem for the police and other agencies. This paper reviews some of the problems involved which include: the nature of the handicap itself, current guidelines and definitions, and somewhat arbitrary legal interpretations by the courts. An experiment is described in which police officers chose not to identify someone as vulnerable or ‘at risk’, despite information in all conditions having been biased towards eliciting a positive judgement.
The Gudjonsson Suggestibility ScalesSuggestibility And Hypnotic SusceptibilityComplianceAcquiescenceCorrelations Between Suggestibility, Compliance And AcquiescenceSuggestibility and GenderSuggestibility and Ethnic Background
Suggestibility and AgeSuggestibility and IntelligenceSuggestibility and MemorySuggestibility and AnxietySuggestibility and ImpulsivitySuggestibility and the Mmpi-2Suggestibility and Sleep DeprivationSuggestibility: Dissociation And Fantasy PronenessSuggestibility and Instructional ManipulationSuggestibility and the Experimenter EffectSuggestibility and Social DesirabilitySuggestibility and Coping StrategiesSuggestibility and AssertivenessSuggestibility and Self-EsteemSuggestibility and Locus Of ControlSuggestibility and Field DependenceSuspiciousness and AngerSuggestibility and Test SettingSuggestibility and Previous ConvictionsPolice Interviewing and SuggestibilityResisters and Alleged False ConfessorsSuggestibility and False ConfessionsSuggestibility and Eyewitness TestimonySuggestibility and Recovered MemoryConclusions
This article (1) develops a social psychological decision-making model that describes the methods of influence through which interrogation proceeds and identifies the factors leading the guilty and the innocent to decide to confess; (2) Specifies the sequence and effects of the tactical moves through which interrogators influence suspects decisions; (3) Describes the variety of types of confessions and their differentiating characteristics; and (4) Develops and illustrates through case materials of a classification system for categorizing types of statements made in response to interrogation. Together, the decision-making model and the expanded classification system provide a framework for explaining the process of police interrogation as it is practiced in the United States.
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.
Over the past three decades much has been learned about the role and importance of psychological vulnerabilities in the context of unreliability of information obtained during police interviews. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge and explains why vulnerabilities are important. Psychological vulnerabilities are best construed as potential ‘risk factors’ rather than definitive markers of unreliability. They are important, because they may place witnesses, victims, and suspects at a disadvantage in terms of coping with the demand characteristics of the interview (and subsequent Court process) and being able to provide the police with salient, detailed, accurate, and coherent answers to questions. Early identification of relevant and pertinent vulnerabilities in the interview process helps to ensure fairness and justice. Currently, the identification of vulnerabilities is poor, and even when identified, they are not always acted upon. Nevertheless, England has taken the lead in improving the police interview process and the protection of vulnerable interviewees. More work needs to be done, but the Bradley Report recommendations represent an excellent opportunity for police and health care professionals to work together to improve justice for all. This is the key initial interface that will be vital for reducing future miscarriages of justice.
Although people often reminisce about their past experiences, little research has assessed how discussion might influence people's autobiographical memories. There were two major aims to this study: first, to assess how adults' memories for genuine childhood experiences might be affected by discussion, and second, to extend research on false memories by exploring how memories for false events might be affected by discussion. Siblings attempted to recall four childhood events—three true and one false—three times independently, and then discussed their memories with each other. Results showed that subjects incorporated elements from each other's reports into their own; 24% also reported details about the false event by the end of the individual phase, although false reports dropped dramatically after the discussion phase. Our research shows discussion can influence both true and false autobiographical memories. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The concept of resistance to change made its appearance in the literature more than six decades ago. The paper analyses how the concept was introduced in the 1950s and how it was integrated in economic analysis by Kenneth E. Boulding. Secondly, we discuss the recent literature on the topic in order to identify the multifaceted meanings that the concept has taken on in three main areas of research: problem solving, organizational studies and institutional economics. Finally, we turn to methodological issues; the historical nature of change will be considered in order to clarify the relationship between resistance to change and path dependence.