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Validity and effectiveness of interrogation techniques: A meta-analytic review
Abstract
The gathering of information through the use of interrogation techniques in the context of human intelligence (HUMINT) has a long and elusive history within applied settings of law enforcement and the military and civilian intelligence/counterterrorism community. However, psychological research has yet to catch up to systematically address pressing matters regarding the validity and effectiveness of common interrogation methods and a conceptual framework for relevant psychological factors. A promising, comprehensive contribution is the Taxonomy of Interrogation Methods (ToIM), which aims to integrate multiple approaches within the field of interrogation. In this paper, we utilized the ToIM model as a foundation for a meta-analytic review on the validity and effectiveness of interrogation techniques. We systematically integrated the existing evidence from 60 studies in order to determine which techniques from six domains of the ToIM produce valuable information. The results indicate that Rapport and Relationship Building, Presentation of Evidence and Cognitive Facilitation (an additional domain beyond the ToIM) are valid approaches to optimize both the amount of information gathered as well as its accuracy. The evidence is insufficient to conclude the effectiveness of techniques from the other four domains. Overall, the results are in line with the general notion in the field that a positive relationship with a suspect/source is the key to gather valuable information.
Для ефективного проведення допиту як однієї з важливих слідчих (розшукових) дій, що дає змогу отримати необхідну інформацію про подію кримінального правопорушення чи перевірити вже наявну, слідчому, дізнавачу, прокурору необхідно встановити психологічний контакт із допитуваною особою. У контексті порушеної проблематики заналізовано застосування гумору суб’єктами розслідування як окремого тактичного прийому для встановлення психологічного контакту з допитуваною особою. Використано у процесі дослідження різні методи наукового пізнання, а саме: аналітичний – для аналізу поняття допиту, психологічного контакту та гумору; логічний дав змогу розглянути застосування гумору до або під час проведення допиту; метод моделювання використано для формування рекомендацій щодо ефективного застосування гумору як окремого тактичного прийому до або під час допиту; за допомогою соціологічного наукові висновки підтверджено результатами анонімного опитування працівників правоохоронних органів. Наукова новизна полягає в обґрунтуванні доцільності застосування гумору слідчим, дізнавачем, прокурором для встановлення психологічного контакту з допитуваною особою. Крім того, констатовано, що більшість (90 %) опитаних працівників правоохоронних органів вважає, що використання гумору до або під час допиту сприятиме налагодженню ефективної комунікації між суб’єктом, який проводить допит, і допитуваною особою, послабленню психологічного бар’єру допитуваної особи, що надалі дасть змогу отримати чітку та правдиву інформацію, а також установленню психологічного контакту між суб’єктами допиту. Запропоновані рекомендації щодо ефективного використання гумору як окремого тактичного прийому для встановлення психологічного контакту з допитуваною особою залежно від її темпераменту можуть бути використані суб’єктами розслідування у своїй професійній діяльності.
Legal decision-making is heavily influenced by cognitive processes like memory and judgment, which are vulnerable to biases such as false autobiographical memories, hindsight bias, and pretrial publicity. These flaws can lead to wrongful convictions, biased negligence assessments, and compromised impartiality, undermining legal fairness. This study examines these cognitive vulnerabilities, analyzing their mechanisms and proposing strategies to reduce their impact. A literature review of empirical research from 2018 to 2023 integrates findings from psychology, neuroscience, and law. The study highlights how these biases affect legal outcomes and suggests practical solutions like simplified judge instructions, structured interrogation protocols, and bias awareness training. The research uses Cognitive Load Theory, aiming to enhance the integrity of legal processes and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve the fairness and accuracy of legal decisions.
Hanns Scharff, an interrogator during the Second World War, was known for his remarkable effectiveness at collecting intelligence from prisoners of war using a friendly, conversational approach in which he led the prisoners to unknowingly reveal the information he wanted. In the last decade, psychologists have produced a body of experimental studies testing the effectiveness of Scharff’s interrogation technique. Here, I provide a meta‐analytic review of that experimental research. The existing data supports the conclusions that the present conceptualization of Scharff’s technique is effective at eliciting more new information, leading people to perceive the interviewer as more knowledgeable, and inducing people to underestimate how much information they have revealed. However, numerous unanswered questions and challenges for this program of research remain. For example, future research may benefit from examining unaddressed elements of the methods Scharff used in the field. Research would also benefit from the development of measures that more clearly correspond to practical outcomes.
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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.
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.
This review begins with the historical context of harsh interrogation methods that have been used repeatedly since the Second World War. This is despite the legal, ethical and moral sanctions against them and the lack of evidence for their efficacy. Revenge-motivated interrogations (Carlsmith & Sood, 2009) regularly occur in high conflict, high uncertainty situations and where there is dehumanization of the enemy. These methods are diametrically opposed to the humanization process required for adopting rapport-based methods–for which there is an increasing corpus of studies evidencing their efficacy. We review this emerging field of study and show how rapport-based methods rely on building alliances and involve a specific set of interpersonal skills on the part of the interrogator. We conclude with 2 key propositions: (a) for psychologists to firmly maintain the Hippocratic Oath of “first do no harm,” irrespective of perceived threat and uncertainty, and (b) for wider recognition of the empirical evidence that rapport-based approaches work and revenge tactics do not. Proposition (a) is directly in line with fundamental ethical principles of practice for anyone in a caring profession. Proposition (b) is based on the requirement for psychology to protect and promote human welfare and to base conclusions on objective evidence.
This thesis is on how to elicit intelligence from human sources with the principal aim being to examine the efficacy of the tactics employed by the renowned WWII interrogator Hanns Scharff. A novel experimental set-up (as well as new dependent measures) was introduced to evaluate the efficacy of different human intelligence gathering techniques. Participants were given information about a planned terrorist attack, asked to take on the role of “sources”, and instructed to be semi-cooperative in a subsequent interview.
In Study I (N = 60), interviews were conducted over the phone. The Scharff technique (conceptualized to include five tactics) was compared to the direct approach (a combination of open-ended and specific questions). The Scharff technique resulted in relatively more new information and led sources to underestimate how much new information they revealed. With the Direct Approach, sources overestimated how much new information they revealed.
In Study II (N = 119), interacting parties met face-to-face and the sources were allowed to lie. Two versions of the Scharff technique were compared to the direct approach. The Scharff confirmation technique made use of claims that included the correct alternative while the Scharff disconfirmation/confirmation technique made use of a mix of correct and incorrect claims. The Scharff confirmation technique resulted in more new information than the Scharff disconfirmation/confirmation technique and the direct approach. Sources interviewed using the Scharff techniques had a more difficult time reading the interviewer’s information objectives and underestimated their contribution of new information. Sources interviewed using the direct approach overestimated how much new information they revealed.
In Study III (N = 200) the interview techniques were used with four different types of sources varying in both their levels of cooperation and capability to provide information as follows: (a) less willing/less able, (b) less willing/more able, (c) more willing, less able, and (d) more willing/more able. The Scharff technique was compared to the direct approach. Overall, the Scharff technique resulted in relatively more new information, particularly when interviewing less cooperative sources. Furthermore, sources interviewed using the Scharff technique had a more difficult time reading the interviewer’s information objectives and consistently underestimated their contribution of new information.
This thesis provides a psychological framework for and a conceptualization of the Scharff technique. Furthermore, the thesis introduces an experimental set-up mirroring a human intelligence interaction and offers a new set of dependent measures for mapping the efficacy of intelligence gathering techniques. In sum, this thesis provides support for the Scharff technique as an effective tool for eliciting information from human sources.
Building on a substantial body of literature examining interrogation methods employed by police investigators and their relationship to suspect behaviors, we analyzed a sample of audio and video interrogation recordings of individuals suspected of serious violent crimes. Existing survey research has focused on the tactics reportedly used, at what rate, and under what conditions; observational studies detail which methods are actually employed. With a few notable exceptions, these foundational studies were static examinations of interrogation methods that documented the absence or presence of various approaches. In the present study, we cast interrogation as a dynamic phenomenon and code the recordings in 5-min intervals to examine how interrogation methods and suspect cooperation change over time. Employing the interrogation taxonomy framework, particularly 4 discrete domains-rapport and relationship building, emotion provocation, presentation of evidence, and confrontation/competition-we found that the emphasis of the domains varied across interrogations and were significantly different when suspects confessed versus when they denied involvement. In regression models, suspect cooperation was positively influenced by the rapport and relationship building domain, though it was negatively impacted by presentation of evidence and confrontation/competition. Moreover, we found that the negative effects of confrontation/competition on suspect cooperation lasted for up to 15 min. The implications of the findings for practice and future research include the benefits of a rapport-based approach, the deleterious effects of accusatorial methods, and the importance of studying when, not just if, certain interrogation techniques are employed. (PsycINFO Database Record
The purpose of this chapter is to review the available research on Human Intelligence (HUMINT) interrogations. We will argue that there has been a recent paradigm shift in the approach to HUMINT interrogations. We will describe the conceptual, methodological, and practical implications of this paradigm shift. The chapter will be structured as follows. First, we will describe the defining characteristics of HUMINT interrogations and outline the scope of our discussion. We will describe how the challenges of HUMINT interrogations may be similar as well as different from interrogations in criminal settings. Second, in order to provide a context for our claim of a paradigm shift, we provide a historical overview of practice and research on HUMINT interrogations. Third, we offer a review of the current state of knowledge about the psychology of HUMINT interrogations, with a particular focus on methods that have been shown to be effective. Finally, we will outline several challenges for future research in this domain, and discuss how research on HUMINT may proceed to fill the gap in current knowledge.
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 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.
In 1989, Steller and Kohnken presented a systematic compilation of content characteristics for distinguishing between truthful and fabricated testimonies (criteria-based content analysis – CBCA) designed to be applied within a more comprehensive overall diagnostic procedure known as statement validity assessment (SVA; Steller, 1989). The subsequent 25 years have seen a marked increase in knowledge about the distinction between experience-based and non-experience-based statements. This supports the SVA approach and permits a better explanation of the underlying processes. The rationale of CBCA is that a true statement differs in content quality from a fabricated account because (a) a truth teller can draw on an episodic autobiographical representation containing a multitude of details, whereas a liar has to relate to scripts containing only general details of an event; and (b) a liar is busier with strategic self-presentation than a truth teller. The present article proposes a modified model of content cha...
The impact of rapport-based interview techniques on suspect use of counter-interrogation tactics (CITs)
was examined in an operational field sample of 181 police interrogations with international (Al-Qaeda
and Al-Qaeda-inspired), paramilitary, and right-wing terrorists. The observing rapport-based interpersonal
techniques (ORBIT) framework was used to code rapport-based interrogator skills along 2
dimensions: motivational interviewing skills and interpersonal competence (use of adaptive interviewing
behaviors and absence of maladaptive interviewing behaviors). Two components of suspect behavior
were measured using the ORBIT tool: interpersonal behavior and counter-interrogation techniques
(passive, verbal, passive verbal, no-comment, and retraction). Structural equation modeling revealed that
adaptive interviewing was directly associated with decreases in passive CITs but, counter to expectations,
increased the prevalence of passive verbal responding. Interrogator use of motivational-interviewingconsistent
skills was directly associated with improved adaptive interviewing; reduced maladaptive
interviewing; and decreases in passive, verbal, and no-comment CITs, but was associated with higher
rates of retraction. Motivational interviewing skills also had a significant indirect effect on reducing
passive and increasing passive verbal CITs through its indirect effect on adaptive interviewing. Overall,
findings indicate that adopting an adaptive rapport-based interrogation style in which suspects are treated
with respect, dignity, and integrity is an effective approach for reducing suspects’ use of CITs.
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)
The Cognitive Interview (CI) is a well-established protocol for interviewing witnesses. The current article presents a study space analysis of laboratory studies of the CI together with an empirical meta-analysis summarizing the past 25 years of research. The study space comprises 57 published articles (65 experiments) on the CI, providing an assessment of the boundary conditions underlying the analysis and application of this interview protocol. The current meta-analysis includes 46 published articles, including 20 articles published since the last meta-analysis conducted a decade earlier (Köhnken, Milne, Memon, & Bull, 1999). Reassuringly for practitioners, the findings of the original meta-analysis were replicated with a large and significant increase in correct details and a small increase in errors. In addition we found that there were no differences in the rate at which details are confabulated. Importantly, the effect sizes were unaffected by the inclusion of recent studies using modified versions of the CI. The CI appeared to benefit older adult witnesses even more than younger adults. We highlight trends and gaps in research and discuss how our findings can inform policy and training decisions.
Psychologists have been an integral part of national security agencies since World War I, when psychological science helped in personnel selection. A robust infrastructure supporting wider applications of psychology to military and intelligence problems developed further during World War II and the years following, primarily in the areas of testing, human factors, perception, and the decision sciences. Although the nature of the attacks on 9/11 raised the level of perceived need for increased human-based intelligence, the impacts of psychologists on the policies and practices of national security agencies in the decade since have not increased significantly.
This paper deals with the unbiased estimation of the correlation of two variates having a bivariate normal distribution (Sec. 2), and of the intraclass correlation, i.e., the common correlation coefficient of a p-variate normal distribution with equal variances and equal covariances (Sec. 3). In both cases, the estimator has the following properties. It is a function of a complete sufficient statistic and is therefore the unique (except for sets of probability zero) minimum variance unbiased estimator. Its range is the region of possible values of the estimated quantity. It is a strictly increasing function of the usual estimator differing from it only by terms of order 1/n and consequently having the same asymptotic distribution. Since the unbiased estimators are cumbersome in form in that they are expressed as series or integrals, tables are included giving the unbiased estimators as functions of the usual estimators. In Sec. 4 we give an unbiased estimator of the squared multiple correlation. It has the properties mentioned in the second paragraph except that it may be negative, which the squared multiple correlation cannot. In each case the estimator is obtained by inverting a Laplace transform. We are grateful to W. H. Kruskal and L. J. Savage for very helpful comments and suggestions, and to R. R. Blough for his able computations.
Recent DNA exonerations have shed light on the problem that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Drawing on police practices, laws concerning the admissibility of confession evidence, core principles of psychology, and forensic studies involving multiple methodologies, this White Paper summarizes what is known about police-induced confessions. In this review, we identify suspect characteristics (e.g., adolescence; intellectual disability; mental illness; and certain personality traits), interrogation tactics (e.g., excessive interrogation time; presentations of false evidence; and minimization), and the phenomenology of innocence (e.g., the tendency to waive Miranda rights) that influence confessions as well as their effects on judges and juries. This article concludes with a strong recommendation for the mandatory electronic recording of interrogations and considers other possibilities for the reform of interrogation practices and the protection of vulnerable suspect populations.
We explored interviewing practitioners’ views about the effectiveness of a range of diverse interview strategies in the field. An online survey examined 73 interviewing practices comprising six broad strategy types and their perceived effectiveness. Interview practices were rated by a multinational sample of 324 criminal investigators and intelligence operators. Experienced interviewers reported preferences for cooperative, non-coercive information-gathering approaches. Rapport-building was rated highly effective in securing reliable information. Interviewers reported some use of coercive techniques, but more commonly employed procedural justice elements of respect, kindness, genuine concern, and addressing basic interviewee needs to build rapport. They favoured non-coercive presentations of testimonial inconsistencies and evidence. Results demonstrate support by a large, experienced, international sample of interviewing practitioners for rapport-based techniques over coercive techniques and revealed broad consensus on effective strategies. Furthermore, findings demonstrated that this consensus centres around the effectiveness of rapport-based investigative interviewing, rather than coercive or accusatorial techniques.
Provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the development of the science behind the psychology of false confessions. Four decades ago, little was known or understood about false confessions and the reasons behind them. So much has changed since then due in part to the diligent work done by Gisli H. Gudjonsson. This eye-opening book by the Icelandic/British clinical forensic psychologist, who in the mid 1970s had worked as detective in Reykjavik, offers a complete and current analysis of how the study of the psychology of false confessions came about, including the relevant theories and empirical/experimental evidence base. It also provides a reflective review of the gradual development of the science and how it can be applied to real life cases. Based on Gudjonsson's personal account of the biggest murder investigations in Iceland's history, as well as other landmark cases, The Psychology of False Confessions: Forty Years of Science and Practice takes readers inside the minds of those who sit on both sides of the interrogation table to examine why confessions to crimes occur even when the confessor is innocent. Presented in three parts, the book covers how the science of studying false confessions emerged and grew to become a regular field of practice. It then goes deep into the investigation of the mid-1970s assumed murders of two men in Iceland and the people held responsible for them. It finishes with an in-depth psychological analysis of the confessions of the six people convicted. Written by an expert extensively involved in the development of the science and its application to real life cases. Covers the most sensational murder cases in Iceland's history. Deep analysis of the 'Reykjavik Confessions' adds crucial evidence to understanding how and why coerced-internalized false confessions occur, and their detrimental and lasting effects on memory. The Psychology of False Confessions: Forty Years of Science and Practice is an important source book for students, academics, criminologists, and clinical, forensic, and social psychologists and psychiatrists.
Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques, Third Edition is a practical manual which provides the forensic practitioner/investigator critical insight into human behavior, enabling one to become a better interviewer, interrogator and, most importantly, an expert detector of truthful and deceptive behavior. The Forensic Assessment Interview Technique (FAINT) and the Integrated Interrogation Technique (IIT) were developed at the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training and are used by forensic practitioners and investigators to detect truthful or deceptive behavior. FAINT is applicable to all forensic type interviews and incorporates the assessment of nonverbal behavior, projective analysis of unwitting verbal cues, statement analysis and the Morgan Interview Thematic Technique (MITT). This volume teaches how to combine, apply and quantify these techniques to reach a numerical conclusion to the truthfulness of the interviewee. The third edition expands chapters on torture, assessing the interview, statement analysis, MITT, and interrogation. It contains new chapters on passenger screening, and report writing, along with new case studies. Also covered are ways to maximize the collection of information from a prospective employee, and legal considerations.Gordon and Fleisher have created a one-stop guide to mastering the art of credibility assessment during an interview, with successfully tested techniques for obtaining a confession from guilty suspects. Forensic practitioners, law enforcement, the intelligence community, the private security sector, attorneys, and forensic and criminal justice students will all find this volume a valuable resource. . The only book to address FAINT, IIT, and MITT in one source. Enables the interviewer to obtain a confession that can stand up in court. Includes an online workbook with practical exercises to assist the reader. Assessment Interview Technique (FAINT) and Integrated Interrogation Technique (IIT) developed at the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training and used by forensic practitioners and investigators to detect truth or deceptive behavior. "FAINT" is applicable to all forensic type interviews where the interviewer is attempting to make a determination of the interviewee's truthfulness concerning a specific area of inquiry. It is used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, parole and probation officers, psychologists and therapists, security and private investigators, the legal and business communities. The 3 rd edition will expand chapters on Torture; Assessing the Interview; Statement Analysis and the Morgan Interview Thematic Techniques and Interrogation. New chapters will be added on Interviewer appearance and demean report writing and additional examples present in the second edition. In addition the authors will create an online workbook as a supplement to the book, which will provide the reader with practical exercises to enhance the skills acquired from reading the book. . Will teach the reader how to ask the right questions and recognize truth and deception in an interviewee. Enables the interviewer to obtain a confession that can stand up in a court using a proven interrogation technique. Explains when to record interviews and interrogations to accurately document information.
Between news stories of coerced confessions and the over-the-top interrogations shown in crime dramas, there seems to be no end of wrong ways to question suspects. And as wrong as these methods are, they are equally counterproductive when the resulting statements are based on questioners’ assumptions rather than the truth. The expert pages of Investigative Interviewing model an approach that reflects an ethical base –emphasizing persuasion rather than coercion –as well as the evidence base. International in scope, this innovative volume reflects sophisticated new interview methods and often surprising findings on the psychology of suspects, victims, witnesses, and law enforcement personnel. Topics cross criminal justice settings and contexts, such as when information should be disclosed to suspects, how interviews are conducted in international tribunals, and the emerging concept of human intelligence interviewing. Taken together, these chapters are a leading-edge guide to obtaining statements that stand up as reliable evidence. Included in the coverage: Investigative interviewing of sex offenders. Psychological processes underlying true and false confessions. Between investigator and suspect: the role of the working alliance in investigative interviewing. A training program for investigative interviewing of children. A systematic review of different types of consistency in truth tellers and liars. Prosecutors’ perceptions on improving child witness interviews about abuse. Suited to the researcher and the educator as well as the frontline professional, Investigative Interviewing heralds a major advance in forensics: education and training programs rooted in best practices for more effective interviewing--and consigning excessive interrogations to the fiction writers.
The past decade has seen a new wave of research centering on strategic ways of interviewing suspects in order to elicit cues to truth and deception. The Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique has pioneered this new line of research. In this chapter, we will present a current conceptualization of the SUE technique. We will make clear the different conceptual levels of the technique and discuss the general principles on which the SUE technique rests. Furthermore, we will explain how these general principles are related and tie our reasoning to basic psychological theory. In addition, we will elaborate on the different SUE tactics and offer concrete examples of how these tactics can be implemented. Critically, empirical evidence in support for the psychological processes key to the SUE technique is provided. The conceptualization makes it clear that the SUE technique is an integrated system of principles; a system which may generate different outcomes, but which always draws on the same set of general principles. The conceptualization provides clarity regarding the processes behind the different SUE-tactics. We believe that such conceptual clarity allows for a more flexible use of the SUE technique.
Purpose. The gathering of human intelligence (HUMINT) is of utmost importance, yet the scientific literature is silent with respect to the effectiveness of different information elicitation techniques. Our aim was to remedy this by conducting the first scientific test of the so-called Scharff-technique (named after the successful German WWII interrogator).
Method. We developed a new experimental paradigm, mirroring some main features of a typical HUMINT situation. The participants (N = 93) were given information on a planned terrorist attack, and were instructed to strike a balance between not revealing too much or too little information in an upcoming interview. One third was interviewed with the Scharff-technique (conceptualized to include four different tactics), one third was asked open questions only, and the final third was asked specific questions only. The effectiveness of the three techniques was assessed by a novel set of objective and subjective measures.
Results. Our main findings show that (a) the three techniques did not differ with respect to the objective amount of new information gathered, (b) the participants in the Scharff-condition perceived (as predicted) that it was more difficult to read the interviewer’s information objectives, and (c) the participants in the Scharff- and the Open-question condition (incorrectly) perceived to have revealed significantly less information than the participants in the Specific-question condition.
Conclusions. We presented a new experimental paradigm, and new dependent measures, for studying the effectiveness of different information elicitation techniques. We consider the outcome for the Scharff-technique as rather promising, but future refinements are needed.
The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (the Handbook) has undergone a substantial update, and Version 5 of the Handbook is now available online at www.cochrane-handbook.org and in RevMan 5. In addition, for the first time, the Handbook will soon be available as a printed volume, published by Wiley-Blackwell. We are anticipating release of this at the Colloquium in Freiburg. Version 5 of the Handbook describes the new methods available in RevMan 5, as well as containing extensive guidance on all aspects of Cochrane review methodology. It has a new structure, with 22 chapters divided into three parts. Part 1, relevant to all reviews, introduces Cochrane reviews, covering their planning and preparation, and their maintenance and updating, and ends with a guide to the contents of a Cochrane protocol and review. Part 2, relevant to all reviews, provides general methodological guidance on preparing reviews, covering question development, eligibility criteria, searching, collecting data, within-study bias (including completion of the Risk of Bias table), analysing data, reporting bias, presenting and interpreting results (including Summary of Findings tables). Part 3 addresses special topics that will be relevant to some, but not all, reviews, including particular considerations in addressing adverse effects, meta-analysis with non-standard study designs and using individual participant data. This part has new chapters on incorporating economic evaluations, non-randomized studies, qualitative research, patient-reported outcomes in reviews, prospective meta-analysis, reviews in health promotion and public health, and the new review type of overviews of reviews.
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 the past two decades, hundreds of convicted prisoners have been exonerated by DNA and non-DNA evidence, revealing that police-induced false confessions are a leading cause of wrongful conviction of the innocent. In this article, empirical research on the causes and correlates of false confessions is reviewed. After a description of the three sequential processes that are responsible for the elicitation of false confessions--misclassification, coercion, and contamination--the three psychologically distinct types of false confession (voluntary, compliant, and persuaded) are discussed along with the consequences of introducing false-confession evidence in the criminal justice system. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of empirical research for reducing the number of false confessions and improving the accuracy of confession evidence that is introduced against a defendant at trial.
Meta-analysis: A comparison of approaches
- R Schulze
- Schulze R.
Schulze, R. (2004). Meta-analysis: A comparison of approaches.
Hogrefe & Huber.