PSYCH 3CC3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Active Listening, Cold Hearted, Behaviorism
13 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Interviewing and Interrogation
Lecture 2
Interview vs. Interrogation (Reid)
Interview
Interrogation
- Non-accusatory (no assumption of
guilt by the individual)
- Purpose is gathering information
- Conducted early in investigation
(usually right after event happens)
- Conducted in variety of environments
(wherever the event occurred)
- Free-flowing & relatively unstructured
(no scripted questions)
- Interviewers takes written notes, slows
down pace
- Accusatory (believes individual has
knowledge or are guilty)
- Purpose is to learn the truth (getting a
confession)
- Conducted only when investigator is
almost certain of suspect’s guilt
- Conducted in controlled environment
(set up by interrogator to make
individual open up)
- Involves active persuasion to admit
guilt (rather than free-flowing
reception of information)
- Notes taken only when suspect has
admitted they are involved
• Police interviews are done poorly on TV because: they are not appropriately trained on
proper interview techniques, techniques are seldom used (forget to use), and good
interviews are not interesting/dramatic
• Protocols for a Good Interview:
o Establish rapport w/ interviewee
▪ Mutual understanding/trust/respect between individuals interacting
▪ Want the interviewee to do most of the talking & in charge of
conversation
▪ Interviewer should convey understanding & acceptance (no judgement,
evaluating behaviours, passively receiving info)
▪ Interviewer should be non-coercive (no leading questions)
▪ Create a relaxed, informal context
o Interviewee understands the “rules” of the interview
▪ Give instructions to report everything that was seen/remembered (even if
they think it may be irrelevant/known/embarrassing)
▪ Don’t guess or fabricate information if they don’t know
▪ Ask if the question is unclear
▪ Correct interviewer’s errors if inconsistent w/ experience/memory
▪ Use comfortable language (allow them to speak the way they do)
▪ Repeated questions may be asked again to prevent errors, not because
answer was wrong/unacceptable
o Use open-ended questioning
▪ Allow them to tell what happened during a period of time, in their own
words
▪ Provides more information, fosters greater memory retrieval, greater
accuracy
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▪ Avoids problems w/ specific questions (leads to more errors, leading
questions, overestimates language abilities b/c they will answer the way
question was asked which makes language seem better than actual)
o No interviewer bias
▪ There should be no pre-conceived notions of what happened
▪ Interviews based on bias should be reported
▪ Bias may lead to overlooking of inconsistent info, asking of misleading
questions, distort witness testimony
• U.S. Department of Justice Interview Guidelines (1999)
o Ask open-ended questions, avoid leading questions, caution witness not to guess,
ask witness to imagine circumstances of event, encourage non-verbal
communication (gestures, drawings, use of objects), avoid interrupting witness
o Ask witness not to discuss incident w/ other witnesses, avoid contact w/ media,
encourage witness to make contact again if more remembered, thank witness for
cooperation
• Publication bans exist in Canada where reporters aren’t allowed to find info about a case
until trial is over (unlike the U.S. where it’s allowed)
• Cognitive Interview – involves asking the interviewees to re-imagine the situation they
will be providing information for
o Reinstate the original context – recall and re-imagine the situation
o Report everything – that was seen, heard, smelled with respect to the crime. Ask
using open-ended questions (people trained in cognitive interviews are better at
asking open-ended questions)
▪ May bring person back to original location to promote memory recall
o Vary order of retrieval – after asking them to explain from beginning to end,
begin asking what someone did just before an event (you did x, but what did you
do before x?)
▪ Varies order in which information is recalled; helps trigger additional
memories
o Change perspectives – controversial. Ask them what they would’ve seen if they
were in a different perspective/location
▪ Issue: elicits false memories/inferences b/c they weren’t actually in that
perspective
• Hypnosis & Recall – relaxes the individual before recalling information
o Memories recalled contain more accurate details than those not under hypnosis.
More true events are recalled but a bunch of errors (untrue details) are also
recalled
▪ More inaccurate than accurate. Hypnosis reduces overall accuracy
▪ Can’t tell which facts are true/untrue b/c they will have higher confidence
in their memories
o Cannot bring information obtained through hypnosis to court
• The Reid Model – used in interrogations to effectively get confessions from criminals
(John E. Reid)
o Assumptions:
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Document Summary
Accusatory (believes individual has guilt by the individual) knowledge or are guilty) Conducted early in investigation (usually right after event happens) Conducted in variety of environments (wherever the event occurred) Free-flowing & relatively unstructured (no scripted questions) Purpose is to learn the truth (getting a confession) Conducted only when investigator is almost certain of suspect"s guilt. Conducted in controlled environment (set up by interrogator to make individual open up) Involves active persuasion to admit guilt (rather than free-flowing reception of information) Interviewer should convey understanding & acceptance (no judgement, evaluating behaviours, passively receiving info) Ask them what they would"ve seen if they were in a different perspective/location. Issue: elicits false memories/inferences b/c they weren"t actually in that perspective: hypnosis & recall relaxes the individual before recalling information, memories recalled contain more accurate details than those not under hypnosis. More true events are recalled but a bunch of errors (untrue details) are also recalled: more inaccurate than accurate.
