Interviewing Techniques
The Interrogation Interview
Interviewing Techniques, The Interrogation Interview
Introduction
We are going to look at the use of interviewing techniques by those who investigate. As a result of interviews conducted after accidents and criminal offenses, the interviewer must be able to analyze witness statements in order to translate witness observations into facts and create logic from confusion. The interviewer must have an understanding of those factors that affect witness reporting. The gathering of witness information comprises about 50 percent of the investigating technique, the remaining 50 percent hinges on the ability of the interviewer to analyze and apply his or her knowledge to the sometimes seemingly unrelated observations of the witness. We shall see that even the most sincere of witness statements may not be reliable without corroborating evidence.
Listening
Since interviewing is a communication skill, some mention should be made of listening habits of the interviewer and some pitfalls one may face. Lets look at some poor listening habits and what we can do about them.
Faking attention should never be done. There are many reasons why a listener may fake attention to someone who is speaking. It may be the speaker’s vocabulary, tone of voice, dress, or mannerisms. Faking attention can be overcome by tolerance and patience. By faking attention you may miss a vital detail of the accident or offense and the witness may not relate the information a second time.
Distractions should be avoided or minimized. This problem can be a pitfall for both you and the witness. If the interview is taking place at the scene it should be conducted at a place with the least number of distractions as possible. Distractions may be noise, movement, vehicles, or machinery. Even a squeaky chair or an unbalanced chair can be distracting. When there are many distractions you should restate questions and give feedback to the witness.
One of the biggest pitfalls is listening with your mouth open. As an interviewer you should know when to just listen and keep your mouth shut. It is almost impossible to listen to a witness if you are talking. Let the witness talk if he or she is willing. If it is necessary to clarify a point, it may be better to wait for the witness to finish before talking and then go back over the area needing qualification....
... middle of paper ...
...witnesses separately and away from each other. When contacting them to set an interview if the witness is given an easy out or feels that the interviewer doesn’t really care, there is a good possibility that the witness will decline the interview. Always use courtesy in conducting the interview, if you are rude, brusque, or abusive the witness will sense it immediately and turn off or hold back. If a witness has problems remembering details and the sense that the interviewer is becoming impatient or losing interest, the witness may well terminate the interview or become frustrated. Always take notes but be prepared to cease note taking if the witness becomes distracted and that exaggeration is likely to creep into testimony if the witness has repeated the observation several times.
Interviewing is a communication skill and like any other skill it takes practice to become effective.
References
Hamilton, C. (2001). Communicating for Resultes (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Yhomson Learning.
Rabon, D. (1992). Interviewing and Interrogation. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Zulawski, D. E. (1992). Practical Aspects of Interviewing and Interragation. New York, NY: CRC Press.
Miner, E. M. (1985). The importance of listening in the interview and interrogation process. Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://facultysites.necc.mass.edu/pzipper/files/2009/09/Importance-of-listening.pdf
This paper will consider eye witness testimony and its place in convicting accused criminals. Psychology online (2013) defines “eye witness testimony” as a statement from a person who has witnessed a crime, and is capable of communicating what they have seen, to a court of law under oath. Eye witness testimonies are used to convict accused criminals due to the first hand nature of the eye witnesses’ observations. There are however many faults within this system of identification. Characteristics of the crime is the first issue that will be discussed in this paper, and the flaws that have been identified. The second issue to be discussed will be the stress impact and the inability to correctly identify the accused in a violent or weapon focused crime. The third issue to be discussed is inter racial identification and the problems faced when this becomes a prominent issue. The fourth issue will be time lapse, meaning, the time between the crime and the eye witness making a statement and how the memory can be misconstrued in this time frame. To follow this will be the issue of how much trust jurors-who have no legal training-put on to the eye witness testimony, which may be faltered. This paper references the works of primarily Wells and Olsen (2003) and Rodin (1987) and Schmechel et al. (2006) it will be argued that eye witness testimony is not always accurate, due to many features; inter racial identification, characteristics of the crime, response latency, and line up procedures therefore this paper will confirm that eyewitness testimonies should not be utilised in the criminal ju...
McClish, Mark. “Susan Smith” http://www.statementanalysis.com/susan-smith/ Advanced Interviewing Concepts. May 6, 2002. Web, Feb. 7, 2012
I wanted to look at the investigative and criminal procedures following the arrest of an alleged criminal and the powerful effects via testimonies and evidence (or lack thereof) it can have on a case.There is an importance of the courts in regards to crime that can’t be over looked. The primary function of the criminal justice system is to uphold the established laws, which define what we understand as deviant in this society.
Colleges and universities in the past were limited to one type of student, upper class males, but now colleges and universities are centers of education for people of all backgrounds. People from different backgrounds and opinions congregating at these centers of education, forced many colleges to evolve. By giving colleges and universities a large variety in their students, it forces them to ditch a standard on education. Due to this fact, all colleges and universities must deliver an assortment of options in the effort of giving everyone the best education possible. Evolution for colleges and universities did not end there; due to the birth of the world wide web most colleges and universities now give the option to enroll in online classes. This rise in online education spawned a new form of university, fully online universities. Author Graeme Wood presents in his essay, “Is College Doomed?” a wonderful example of what a college or university should not be. Graeme Wood describes Minerva, an online university with the goal of stripping education to only the essentials. Minerva wants to take away campuses, sports, lectures, and most amenities leaving only their version of education. Minerva’s goal to take away options for students reduces their reach, leaving only a select few with the desire to join Minerva. Limiting students only leads to a worse education, especially since the students are the ones paying for the version of education they desire. College’s most valuable asset is their plethora of options in living, community forming, studying abroad, and variety of classes, this aspect of college in particular is what creates a perfect education for any student.
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
When children are giving eyewitness testimony’s, the investigators techniques are a little different in terms of the repetition of questions. This is sometimes to get them to remember more information from when they asked it in the first instance. Whilst law enforcement are questioning ch...
The term “public/community health” often brings to mind sparkling clear clean water and fresh clean air. The reason for that mental image is that both are required in order for one to have good public/community health. In actuality, the term “Public Health” has been defined as “the protection and improvement of the health of the public through community action, primarily by governmental agencies” (Public Health, 2016). However, public health includes any and all actions taken to maintain and improve the general health of a community. Government health programs provide most of the public health services. In addition, many voluntary health agencies receive contributions to battle specific diseases, such as HIV and cancer. These agencies not only provide medical services, they campaign for health legislation, and make important contributions to health education. In the United States, the Public Health Service administers the government’s public health programs. State and local health departments also provide a wide range of
his/her own witness as well as a presentation of defense by his/her attorney in order to conflict
The ruling by the government has changed over the years. President Obama reintroduced a bill to amend the Public Health S...
...s quite an interesting statement for me, because I never considered myself a bad listener. This interview process provided me quite a lot of insight into the field of Human Resources and has given me one more item to add to my bucket list…become a better listener.
Role of the state attorney general: chief legal officer of the state, elected official in 43 states, broad power to protect and promote the public’s health.
The reality that must be faced is that teenagers will continue to be sexually active notwithstanding any risk or consequences. Whether it is because they’re uninformed, “in love,” hormonal, bored, or looking for approval
First of all, to identify the importance of context in cross culture communication is to follow it in stages. Context is the background information that one will use to create a realistic
Interviewing helps investigators gather relevant information regarding specific crimes and is an important aspect of police work. It is a combination of art and science to perform a good interview and the goal is to gather the best information possible (Maze, 2017). I reviewed an interview from EBS Trust (1998) titled Investigative Interviewing. In this video, an investigator was taking a statement from the victim of a robbery. An elderly lady was being interviewed about how, when she went to the dry cleaners she noticed a man paying special attention to her car, when she confronted him he pushed her, took her purse, and ran away (EBS Trust, 1998). This paper evaluates how the investigator performed in this interview. There