strategies for police interviews

Peace model

P- prep and planning

E- engage and explain

A- account and challenge

C- closure

E- evaluation

P

plan interview, e.g. timeline, objectives, list of facts that need to be verified

E

engage with witness, form rapport and explain purpose of interview to them

A

allow interviewee to give 1st account of event with no interruptions, using open questions

C

close down the interview properly and give all the necessary contact details

E

evaluate the interview, this is the most important part of the process

Forensic hypnosis

Hypnosis = artificially induced trance, like sleep, where you have heightened susceptibility to suggestions, it can help to quit smoking, managing pain or psychotherapy

Research has proved hypnosis puts witnesses in a suggestible state where they can be easily misled by interviewer

Dwyer found that police hypnotised a boy who's mother disappeared, the boy said he saw his father murder her and his dad was sentenced to life imprisonment, but months later the mother showed up unharmed

Memon and Higham's review of the cognitive interview (1999)

4 key themes to review

1- effectiveness of various components of CI

2- relationship between CI and other methods

3- different measures of memory performance on findings

4- interviewer variables and effects of training quality

Effectiveness of CI interview components

Which component is the most effective? 1 way to know is isolating each component and testing them individually

Milne found no difference across the effectiveness of each component but the whole procedure resulted in higher recall than any of the components alone

Relationship between CI and other methods

The standard interview is not a standardised set of procedures, so it is impossible to compare it with the CI as they differ too much.

Trained interviewers may be more motivated than others, or less trained than others

Different measures of memory performance and effect on findings

The majority of studies of memory performance in terms of a % of correct statements or number of correct and incorrect statements

Measures of memory need to consider that the CI may change an interviewee's understanding of what the interviewer wants from them

Interviewer variables and effects of training quality on interviewer performance

The amount of training that interviewers are given vary from study to study

Cognitive interviewers said doing a CI = demanding and exhausting, more so than an SI, and it may produce more errors

Individual differences and prior experience need to be taken into account

Conclusions

We still need to research the CI further, establishing the appropriate comparison groups and suitable memory measures

Individual differences still are a significant challenge for researchers

Evaluation

High ecological validity but using fake events in interviews causes ethical issues

The cognitive interview

The standard interview

Police receive little training in interviewing techniques and they traditionally ask whatever they feel is relevant, and usually inturupt and ask short answer questions and follow inappropriate sequences of questions
Pedzek found that pushing a witness to answer questions leads to false information being provided


Cognitive interview

1- Context reinstatement = recall the context, like environmental factors, how they were thinking and feeling at the time, maybe even closing their eyes

2- In depth reporting = ask witnesses to tell the story of what happened in detail with no inturuptions

3- Narrative re-ording = asking the witness to tell the story from a different perspective or from a different starting point, or backwards

4- Reporting from different perspectives = telling the story again from other witness' point of views

Fisher found that 47% more information is recorded when using the cognitive interview

Reducing bias in collection of evidence

Analysts are only human and they are subject to biases, emotions and motivational influences that affect decision making, but the consequences of errors can have grave effects on others

Independent analysis of latent marks and comparison prints

Fingerprint examiners differed in terms of inter and intra observer consistency 

The latent mark should be done separate from the comparison print because if the experts had seen a comparison print before, they would've indentified fewer elements of the print

Identity parades

Identity parades, or line ups, are used when police have a suspect and a victim/witness to confirm the identity of the suspect

Usually a line up consists of 6 individuals, including the suspect and "foils", on the other side of a 1 way glass screen

1 weakness of line ups is that witnesses may feel under pressure to choose someone because they assume the suspect is in the line up

This can be reduced by telling them that the suspect is not necessarily in the lineup

The lineup could be double blind, whether the officer is not aware of the suspect, so they cannot unconsciously pass on clues to the witness

Identikits

Images are originally produced by police artists who create a hand likeness of the suspect

This moved onto a photofit, which builds a picture of a face by selecting eyes, noses, mouths, etc. from a bank of photographic images

More recently, 'facial compositions' have been introduced

Hall and Player's emotional context in latent prints (2008)

Context/background

analysis of fingerprints relies on ability of an individual to recognise, analyse and interpret friction ridges.

Emotional context impacts decision making during the examination

Usually, the latent marks are incomplete, smudged, distorted, rotated or obscured, so to secure quality, the process is conducted independently

Aim

To investigate whether fingerprint experts are emotionally affected by case details and to see if emotional context has a bias effect on the judgements of experts

Method

lab experiment, artificially generated task, p's were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 conditions

Iv= low context group (were told the crime was forgery) or high context group (were told the crime was murder)

Dv= whether the specialist read crime reports first, whether they thought the fingerprints were a match, or not, or insufficient, or sufficient to establish identity but not enough to compare, or whether they'd present the evidence in court

Procedure

All the p's were respondents to a request for volunteers to take part in an experiment (details not given)

70 fingerprint experts working for the Met Police with 3 months-30 years experience

Materials

To validate decisions, a finger impression was used from a known source

The finger was inked and put on a piece of paper

It was scanned to a computer and super imposed onto an image of a £50 note

It was positioned so the background of the note obscured the majority of the ridge details

The mark was then manipulated to control contrast and obstruct the discernible detail of the latent mark

14 copies of this park were printed for use in the experiment

All copies were compared to ensure consistency

All 10 printed fingers were given to p's who gave their opinions as to whether there was a match

Each expert had a magnifying glass and a Russel comparator (magnifying unit for comparing 2 images)

Procedure

P's randomly assigned into groups, and asked to treat the experiment as a job

They could come and go and speak together but not about the fingerprints

There was no time limit for the case

They were assigned into 1 of 2 groups, low emotional context or high emotional context

They were given an envelope containing 1 of the test marks, the relevant 10 print forms, the crime report and a sheet advising them of the contents

They were asked to decide if the mark was 

1- a match

2- not a match

3- insufficient

4- sufficient in identity but not enough to compare

They were then given a feedback sheet and asked whether or not they had referred to the crime report prior to their assessment of the marks, and to say what information they remembered reading

Results

57/70 read the crime report examining the prints

52% of the 30 who had high emotional context felt affected by that information

only 6% felt affected in the low context group

This shows that the relationship between type of context and effects on experts

70% were confident enough to present their marks in low context, but 17% in high emotional context

Conclusion

Emotional context does affect experts feelings, but it doesn't influence final outcome/decisions

Individualisation = being able to isolate a suspect by determining that a print could've only come from them

Evaluation

High ecological validity

Artificial because they knew it was a study, so more controlled but less valid

Willing to participate, harm was minimal and confidentiality was secure

collection + processing of forensic evidence

Motivating factors in collection of evidence

Rewards (payment satisfaction)

Hope and satisfaction of solving the crime

Case importance

Feelings tied to the case

Need for closure of the case

Fear of making a mistake

2 fingerprint experts complete the identification processes to identify and verify the judgements made and reduce the liklihood of misindentification

Problems with fingerprint analysis

Dror found that lack of consistency in fingerprint analysis because of inter-observer inconsistency and intra-oberver inconsistency

As fingerprints (latent prints) decrease in clarity, interpretation becomes harder and more subjective, so it's more open to bias

Decision making is sometimes affected by emotional context

Raine's brain abnormalities in murderers study (1997)

Context/background

Damage to the pre-frontal cortex results in impulsivity, immaturity, altered emotions, loss of self control and more general aggression

The amygdala controls neurones in the medial temporal lobe and processes emotions

Ngri = not guilty by reason of insanity

PET scans = to see if there are brain abnormalities in murderers who plead NGRI and to see if significant differences could be found between patterns of glucose metabolism in brains of individuals and murderers. This may show that the murderers pleading NGRI may be more prone to violence naturally

Aim

To study brain activity in non murderers and murderers using PET scans to see if there are any differences in the areas associated with violence

Pet scan = positron emission tomigrahy, a brain scanning technique where a participant is injected with a radioactive tracer used in brain respiration

The molecules of the tracer travel through the bloodstream and break down is detected by the scanner, which indicates levels of brain activity

Method

Sample

Murderers = 39 M and 2 F, on average 34 years, each pleaded NGRI but had been convicted

Control group = matched p's, 6 were schizophrenic

No one took drugs 2 weeks before the study

P's were scanned before in a continuous performance task (cpt) to increase brain activity 

30 seconds before being injected, they began CPT, so that the novelty of starting the task wouldn't show up as an 'event' on the scan

The CPT was 32 minutes long, then 10 "slices" of the brain were taken (images of the brain) at 10 mm intervals

Cortical peel technique = used for lateral brain areas (sides/surfaces)

Box technique = used for medial area (inside)

Results

All the tests were 2-tailed

Means and standard deviations for calculated for the 2 IV levels

Murderers showed less brain activity in lateral, medial and prefrontal cortex, they also had abnormal asymmetric activation in their limbic systems and lower activity in their hippocampus and thalamus

Conclusion

Areas that had abnormal activity were associated with aggressive behaviour, lack of fear, impulse control and expression of emotions

These all lead to extreme violence, so the brain activity could be 1 factor of criminal behaviour

Evaluation

Brain scanning is valid and reliable

Precision of location of the scans in p's are hard to maintain, so lower internal reliability 

The sample is generalisable

Because the p's were prisoners, it's hard to know how much informed consent they wanted to give and how much they felt they had to give

Biological strategy for preventing criminal behaviour

Lewinson found that 450 facial reconstruction operation patients in a prison who's behaviour was observed after both in prison and prison release over the next 10 years increased in cooperation with authority and increased participation in prison activities

They also experienced higher self esteem and it gave them a "new start"