Spaced cognitive interviewing: Facilitating therapeutic and forensic narration of traumatic memories

Abstract

The evolution of the cognitive interview (CI) is reviewed from the original package of memory-enhancing techniques through to the revised (or enhanced) CI, and the cognitive approach now taught to police officers in UK. Many officers are reluctant to apply CI, particularly to traumatised victims. The traumatising effects of crime are examined in terms of immediate response and the potential for an acute stress response and post-traumatic stress disorder, with subsequent re-experiencing of dissociated traumatic memories in the form of intrusive, unwanted imagery. Traumatic memories are described, particularly their accuracy, detail and persistence. The therapeutic potential of prolonged experience of distress while narrating the content of traumatic imagery is explained. An approach to maximising the disclosure of dissociated detail - spaced cognitive interviewing (SCI) - is described and case material presented illustrating its forensic and therapeutic application. The practice and practical implications of SCI are summarised.     

Reviews

Les relations de pouvoir façonnent le cours de l'existence du secteur pétrolier depuis la découverte et la commercialisation de l'or noir remontant au 19e siècle. Progressivement, quoique bien rapidement, cette substance devint le moteur de l'évolution économique mondiale toujours en vigueur. Étrangement, plusieurs études actuelles, que l'on rassemble sous la thèse de la malédiction des ressources (resource curse [RC]), semblent pourtant esquiver leur centralité à la compréhension de la paupérisation et des violences vécues chez les populations de certaines régions riches en ressources pétrolières. À travers la problématisation de la littérature analytique portant sur la RC appliquée à la situation chaotique de la région du delta du Niger au Nigéria et sa mise en relation avec les débats appréciatifs des pratiques de RSE (responsabilité sociale des entreprises), cet article démontre l'importance de prendre en compte l'ensemble des dimensions politiques du vécu de la RSE dans une réalité locale, nationale et internationale aux diverses ramifications "s'inter-constituant."     

Subsidiary,supporter or challenger? Local‐national relations in Japan

The impact of governance attributes on frequently overlooked attitudes of local councillors towards local governance reform agendas is assessed, based on the MAELG survey of approximately 11,000 councillors in 15 European countries and Israel. Eighteen policy statements are grouped into six reform agendas, followed by analyses of their explanatory factors. Europe's north–south divide is found meaningful for the understanding of variations in attitudes towards reform, being most profound in notions of democracy, participation and devolution. Southern Europe, including post-communist Europe, shows clear support for new democratic mechanisms, whereas northern European councillors reveal more reserved, perhaps weary, attitudes towards reforms. Councillors may provide the ‘correct’ statements in the south, because less has been reformed there so far, knowing that change would anyway be difficult. Substantial variations between different northern sub-groups could be linked to the memory of non-democratic regimes in Germany and Austria and to the influence of existing systems, deeply embedded in local political cultures. Nevertheless, the impact of present institutional practices is far from universal. Councillors in liberal regimes are not pro-privatisation, and cautious attitudes towards reform are shared by northern decentralised and centralised countries.     

MAHARAJA: THE SPLENDOUR OF INDIA'S ROYAL COURTS

A curtain-raiser for the current “Maharaja” Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum, which explains the evolution of Indian concepts of kingship from the early18th to the mid-twentieth centuries. The article describes how pageantry and symbolism formed part of the essentials of kingship, together with martial prowess and patronage of the arts. The British Raj thus took over a valid existing pattern of behaviour, which however became increasingly difficult to sustain and justify as independence loomed.     

Russia's changing security role in Central Asia

The paper explores Russia's role in security in Central Asia, which analysts interpreted as projection of hegemony. It argues that this role is changing and is shaped by a variety of factors, sometimes acting in contradiction to one another. Domestic agenda is influenced by the danger discourse on drugs and anti-migrant sentiment and urges to detach from Central Asia. Moscow maintains a military presence in the region but is uncertain if it has serious enough stakes to justify a robust approach to security. Refusal to intervene in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 serves as a potent case. Regional organisations echo the non-intervention stance. As a ‘cost-benefit’ approach to security gains momentum, the paper asks if a policy of selective engagement is emerging when only the issues threatening Russia directly will be addressed. The implication can be a security vacuum in the region, affected by ethnic conflict, inter-state disputes and the consequences of withdrawal from Afghanistan.     

Power, Borders, Security, Wealth: Lessons of Violence and Desire from September 11

America's "war on terror" and Al Qaeda's "jihad" reflect mirror strategies of imperial politics. Each camp transnationalizes violence and insecurity in the name of national or communal security. Neoliberal globalization underpins this militarization of daily life. Its desire industries motivate and legitimate elite arguments (whether from "infidels" or "terrorists") that society must sacrifice for its hypermasculine leaders. Such violence and desire draw on colonial identities of Self vs. Other, patriotism vs. treason, hunter vs. prey, and masculinity vs. femininity that are played out on the bodies of ordinary men and women. We conclude with suggestions of a human security to displace the elite privilege that currently besets world politics.