Deception
Whether conducted by the patrol officer, the victim’s advocate, the prosecutor or the investigator assigned to a special unit in the criminal investigation division, the interview of a victim, witness, suspect or informant is a critical element of any investigation. Precious resources in the form of man power, money, time and equipment can be wasted because of the failure of the interviewer to conduct a complete interview and accurately evaluate the credibility of the information gained from the subject interviewed.
As a part of the three pillars of the criminal investigative process, a thorough and complete interview provides greater insight into the psychological elements of the suspect or even victim’s behaviors during the commission of the crime. The interview can also provide understanding of and give a clear definition to the evidence isolated by the forensic investigation of the case. In spite of its importance however, the value of the interview alone can be nil without the psychological and forensic pillars. By the same token a poorly executed interview along with a flawed effort to assess credibility can degrade if not destroy the efforts in the forensic and psychological portions of the investigation and any subsequent prosecution.
A complete and successful interview will almost always be characterized by four basic elements: orientation, narration, cross-examination and resolution. In its own way, each of these four elements is unique and accomplishes specific goals. Without all four elements no interview will be complete.
Orientation is accomplished on both an overt and covert level. Overtly the function of the orientation period is to establish some form of dialogue with the subject being interviewed. This can be achieved through personal introductions and possibly some form of brief light conversation if conditions and time permit. It is also the period during which the interviewer advises the subject as to the purpose of the interview, its importance, and the necessity to be totally forthcoming, honest and cooperative. Granted in many cases this is not going to be a socially comfortable situation nor will it always intended to be so. Covertly the objective of the investigative interviewer to establish some form of understanding of the person b...
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...alysis of the subject’s narrative nor will they be effective at unlocking the truth during the cross-examination phase.
The final element of a successful interview will be the “resolution” phase. It is during this portion of the interview that the subject after effective cross-examination acknowledges their responsibility in the commission of the act or in the least that they had a motive to at least deliberately lead or outright lie to the interviewer. For these acts they must accept the consequences and provide truthful information to the interviewer.
It is through a “narrative based” interview that the investigative interviewer will be able to obtain the largest quantity of information as well as the highest quality. Without dedication by the investigator to attain these goals their efforts in the psychological assessment and the forensic identification, collection, preservation and analysis may suffer severely and ultimately the satisfactory conclusion of their case. Invariably there will also be only one real good opportunity to achieve these goals. It is imperative that the interviewer gets it right the first time.
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...
There are nine steps to the interrogation process, but before the steps are implemented, there’s an initial interview to determine guilt or innocence. During this time, the interrogator attempts to create a rapport with the suspect by using casual conversation to establish a non-threating atmosphere. Often time, people are more comfortable when they feel they can relate to the person they are talking to, so the interrogator may claim to share some common beliefs or interest. If the suspect starts talking to the interrogator about harmless things, it becomes harder to stop talking or start lying later, after when the discussion turns to crime (dying words). In the initial investigation, the investigator will observe the suspects verbal and non-verbal reactions, this information will help establish a baseline reaction before the stress commences; later on in the investigation, the baseline will help the interrogator determine if the suspect is telling the truth or lying. Now the investigation can proceed with the nine-step process. First step, direct positive confrontation, involves directly confronting the suspect with a statement that it is known that he or she committed the crime. Often, the police lie and describe nonexistent evidence that points to the suspect as the offender. The second step, theme development, is the step in which the police present a hypothesis about the
Interviewing requires a lot of careful planning and decision making to improve the likelihood of desirable results. There are many factors that significantly influence the direction of an interview. People conducting interviews must be cognoscente of their actions as to not contaminate the interview. “An Overview of Investigative Interviewing” (1998) is a film that depicts British Police officers conducting an interview with a victim of crime. Immediately at the start of the film, the audience can see several decisions to improve the interview. The interview appears to be taking place in a quiet and secluded office. The interviewee and the officer are seated close and parallel to each other. This setting is beneficial as it removes
Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.
A system variable is something that can be controlled by the justice system and the methods such as line-ups, base rates and questioning. One of the most talked about system variables amongst researchers is the methods that are used in eyewitness questioning by police. Some of the techniques that have been used in the past are that of closed ended questioning, interrupting regularly whilst the witness is trying to recollect the events and the interviewer talking more and over the top of the interviewee. A study of interviews were conducted showing that law enforcement interviewing eyewitnesses were seen to be asking closed questions every 42 seconds in comparison to open ended question which were asked at an estimated 6 minutes and the number of repeated questions were only averaging 1% per minute. Constant interruptions, whether they be from the interviewers or were noises from things moving around in the room, were a major distraction to the eyewitness breaking their concentration in giving specific information in regards to the crime. Data also showed that investigators were not letting the witness give the evidence or testimony at their own pace and in doing so ended up speaking over top of the witness and cutting them off which in turn showed that the eyewitness from then on in the interview only gave short answers and not as much information as they would’ve if they were left to give the interview at their own pace (Wright & Alison, 2004).
In the Criminal Justice system, the main goal is justice or in other words, a fair consequence to match a criminal action. An obvious, yet unmentioned underlying goal is to prevent injustice. Many times, justice prevails, and this is why our system prevails today. However, when justice fails, it is key to look at the information offered in order to better the system and to repay those that have been failed by it. One area that has shown itself as flawed is the area of interrogations though many other areas will be presented throughout this paper as well. By examining five cases involving questionable interrogation and showing other system flaws, I will enlighten others as to how our justice system handles its flaws, and hopefully I will provide motivation for further improvement.
Forensic (criminal) psychology is a job field that deals with both psychology and law. The field has experienced dramatic growth in recent years due to the role of popular movies, television programs and books popularizing the field. Often these individuals are depicted as vivid components in solving vicious crimes or timing out a criminal’s next home. While these depictions of certainly entertaining, yet these portrayals are not necessarily precise. Forensic psychologists play an instrumental role in the criminal justice system while applying psychological principles to the legal system. The crossover of the two spheres is best decided in the Encyclopedia of Psychology,
Most interviews require strategic planning and relevant questions to be able to gather enough information. There were many things that the detective did great for example, in the first scene when the victim and the detective walked in, he immediately asked her to sit in a comfortable chair, got her a cup of coffee and asked her if she needed anything else. He quickly proceeded to explain what the interview is going to be about, removing any doubt or apprehension that she may experience during the interview. The detective began the interview with," Don't try to remember things you can't…if you need to stop anytime, just tell me." (Victim Interview,1998). Which essentially created a rapport between the detective and the victim. The detective began the interview with an open-ended question, asking the victim to tell him what happened from the start. While the victim was talking, he did not interrupt, but was rather patient with her, nodding and making eye contact continuously. During a one point of the video, the woman began crying, unable to hide her distress, to which the investigator reacted quickly responding "No pressure, I know you are upset... Are you alright to carry on?" (Victim Interview, 1998). In my opinion, this is a great technique to use when one is dealing with an elderly victim in distress. As the investigator carefully listened, he then recapped all the information back to the victim making sure it is correct. We see this throughout the whole film, where the detective continuously seeks victim's validation. Another thing that I found interesting is the way that the investigator used the cognitive approach on the victim, to stimulate her memory. He politely asked her to draw a sketch of the area that the crime happened at, then he proceeded to make her retell everything from the beginning but in the present tense. As she was struggling, he patiently guided her, by saying "Show me", "Describe to
Forensic psychology is such a complex sub-discipline of psychology, and this complexity makes it difficult to define. The simplest way to define forensic psychology would have to be: sub-di...
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.
Forensic psychology is an area of psychology that has been rapidly gaining popularity in recent years. Entertainment media’s fascination with the intersection of crime and psychology has fueled the growing interest in the field. According to Jane Tyler Ward, PhD, forensic psychology can be defined as psychology that “emphasizes the application of research and experimentation in other areas of psychology to the legal arena.” Although forensic psychology is popular right now, it was not until 1962 that a court case set the precedent that properly trained psychologists could provide expert testimony (Page 20). Additionally, forensic psychology was not APA (American Psychological Association) certified until 2001 (Page 16). The field of forensic
There are several phases of the motivational interviewing known as: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. Each step builds upon one another and are viewed in a stair step sort of representation. The steps are completed in this manner in order to build a strong foundation (Miller & Rollnick, 2013).
Greenfield, D. (2007). Introduction to forensic psychology. issues and controversies in crime and justice. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 35(2), 201-201-204,105-106.
Conducting an interview is not as straightforward as it may seem. On paper the idea is that an interview is “‘a meeting of two persons to exchange information and ideas through questions and responses, resulting in communication and joint construction of meaning about a particular topic’” (Esterberg 2001:83). In the social sciences, being able to interview individuals allows the research to observe individual experiences, while also speaking to the broader sociological dynamics of a society. In Qualitative Methods in Social Research, Esterberg describes interviewing as a “relationship between two individuals…two individuals come together to try to create meaning about a particular topic. While participating in this relationship, they also draw
Forensic investigations require skills of specially trained scientists, police, engineers, doctors and others. “These investigators observe all types of evidence, from weapons to bloodstains and from computers to bugs” (Erzinclioglu 5). The greater the evidence against a person, the greater the chance of conviction.