Memory Enhancing Techniques For Investigative Interviewing

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. More than half of police departments have no formal training whatsoever for newly appointed investigators. Most texts in police science either completely omit the issue of effective interviewing techniques or provide only superficial coverage. This manual provides guiding principles to effective interviewing, with specific techniques to be used and others to be avoided. There are principles of memory retrieval so that the reader will understand why to employ specific techniques -- for example, when to use open-ended versus direct short-answer questions, effective use of pauses, asking follow-up questions, cues to name and number recall, etc. There is the strategy of interview sequential structure -- that is, what to probe for at the beginning, middle, and end of the interview. Also included are practical exercises and real-world experiences. The book will also be helpful for attorneys in conducting investigative interviews.

For as long as we have been researching human memory, psychologists have been investigating how people remember and forget. This research is regularly drawn upon in our legal systems. Historically, we have relied upon eyewitness memory to help judge responsibility and adjudicate truth, but memory is malleable, prone to error, and susceptible to bias. Even confident eyewitnesses make mistakes, and even accurate witnesses sometimes find their testimony subjected to harsh scrutiny. Emerging from this environment, the Cognitive Interview (CI) became a means of assisting cooperative witnesses with recalling more information without sacrificing accuracy. First used by police interviewing adult witnesses, it is now used with many populations in many contexts, including public health, accident reconstruction, and the interrogation of terror suspects. Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewing reviews the application of cognitive research to investigative interviewing, revealing how principles of cognition, memory, and social dynamics may increase the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. It provides evidence-based applications for investigators beyond the forensic domain in areas such as eyewitness identification, detecting deception, and interviewing children. Drawing together the work of thirty-three authors across both the academic and practice communities, this comprehensive collection is essential reading for researchers in psychology, forensics, and disciplines such as epidemiology and gerontology.

Investigative interviewing, and the information obtained from witnesses and victims, plays a vital role in criminal investigations. This comprehensive handbook explores current developments taking place in this rapidly developing field. An authoritative handbook created by prestigious editors and an international team of recognised authors International in its focus - the book assesses current developments taking place in several countries Takes a holistic approach to the process by including sections on eyewitness indentification and evaluating truthfulness

Sixty-three proceedings papers from researchers in Europe, North America, and Australasia, assess the psychological implications of legal systems and prisons. The presentations review factors involving eyewitness testimony credibility and misinformation, techniques in suspect and victim interviewing

The design and evaluation of questionnaires—and of other written and oral materials—is a challenging endeavor, fraught with potential pitfalls. Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design describes a means of systematically developing survey questions through investigations that intensively probe the thought processes of individuals who are presented with those inquiries. The work provides general guidance about questionnaire design, development, and pre-testing sequence, with an emphasis on the cognitive interview. In particular, the book gives detailed instructions about the use of verbal probing techniques, and how one can elicit additional information from subjects about their thinking and about the manner in which they react to tested questions. These tools help researchers discover how well their questions are working, where they are failing, and determine what they can do to rectify the wide variety of problems that may surface while working with questionnaires.

Contingent on funding being available, a Festschrift will be held in honor of Dr. John Yuille’s career as a Forensic Psychologist. He has become one of the most visible and respected Canadian psychologists worldwide. In light of his upcoming retirement in December 2006, the Festschrift will recognize Dr. Yuille’s achievements in the areas of eyewitness memory research (i.e., pioneering a new research paradigm that grants better validity), investigative interviewing (i.e., the development and use of the Step Wise Interview Protocol), and credibility assessment (i.e., introducing Statement Validity Analysis to North America). New directions for future work will be explored at the workshop. The focus of this Festschrift will be three-fold: 1. International. Dr. Yuille’s work has influenced law enforcement practices and stimulated research in and outside of Canada. The international and multicultural aspects of the work that Dr. Yuille has inspired will be reflected and promoted by this workshop. 2. Interdisciplinary. Dr. Yuille is internationally known as an expert, consultant and trainer to law enforcement. As such, Dr. Yuille’s work has also influenced other disciplines, e.g., the law, social work, oral history. The participants of this Festschrift will gain insight into other professionals’ perspectives and foster potential collaborations on future projects. 3. Emphasis on applied research. A hallmark of Dr. Yuille’s research has been the application of field and archival methods, which made his work directly applicable to forensically relevant contexts. The potential future directions of applied forensic research will be discussed at this Festschrift. The importance of the subject at this time: - A lack of integrative models in the literatures of eyewitness memory and the assessment of truthfulness and deception. Presenters of the Festschrift have recently developed such models and will discuss them at the Festschrift. Publishing these models and their discussions will spark further research to validate or modify them. - New, pioneering field research based on such integrative models has recently been conducted. This book would be one of the first publications of the results.

This edited volume reviews the latest research on investigative interviewing in order to provide insights on the psychological processes of the person being interviewed as well as to offer guidelines for conducting credible and useful interviews. Critical and controversial areas are highlighted (eg. false confessions, child interviewing) in order to bring clarity to how these interrogations are to be conducted. Chapters focus on these areas to provide comprehensive views of theoretical, evidence-based background, as well as practical considerations of interrogation settings and procedures. The contributors are internationally respected scholars in the field of psychology and law with particular expertise in the interviews that are critical to legal proceedings. And attention is given to the criminal justice system in international perspective.

Techniques in the investigative interviewing and interrogation of victims, witnesses and suspects of crime vary around the world, according to a country’s individual legal system, religion and culture. Whereas some countries have developed certain interview protocols for witnesses (such as the ABE Guidelines and the NICHD protocol when interviewing children) and the PEACE model of interviewing suspects, other countries continue to use physical coercion and other questionable tactics to elicit information. Until now, there has been very little empirical information about the overall interview and interrogation practices in non-western countries, especially the Middle and Far East. This book addresses this gap, bringing together international experts from over 25 countries and providing in-depth coverage of the various interview and interrogation techniques used across the globe. Volume 1 focuses on the interviewing of victims and witnesses, aiming to provide the necessary information for an understanding of how law enforcement agencies around the world gain valuable information from victims and witnesses in criminal cases. Together, the chapters that make up this volume and the accompanying volume on interviewing suspects, draw on specific national case studies and practices, examine contemporary challenges and identify best practice to enable readers to develop an international, as well as a comparative, perspective of developments worldwide in this important area of criminal investigation. This book will be an essential resource for academics and students engaged in the study of policing, criminal investigation, forensic psychology and criminal law. It will also be of great interest to practitioners, legal professionals and policymakers around the world.